american modernism美国文学

1、American modernism-黄佳音 Definition Background of American modernism Characteristics Modernism in American novel Features of modern novel Between 1914 to 1945, influenced by social upheaval, economic and political transformation and European modernism, America also saw the rise of its own modernism. W

2、ith a greater number of great writers producing a voluminous amount of distinguished literary works, this period is also termed the second renaissance in the history of American literature. American Modernism covered a wide variety of topics including race relations, gender roles, and sexuality. It

3、began with the rebellion of naturalists before 1917, thrived along with the rise of the Lost Generation in the 1920, attained the zenith of prosperity in the 1930s, and ended with the second world war.Definition American modernism, like modernism in general, is a trend of thought that affirms the po

4、wer of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation, and is thus in its essence both progressive and optimistic. American modernism is an artistic and cultural movement in the United States starting at

5、the turn of the 20th century with its core period between World War I and World War II and continuing into the 21st century. The background of modernism in America Having undergone the second industrial revolution and world war one, America gradually progressed to modernity and went on the stage of

6、the world as a great power. The Second Industrial Revolution Much of the impetus for this modernization came from Americas so-called second Industrial Revolution, which had begun around the turn of the century. During this era, electricity and more advanced machinery made factories nearly twice as e

7、fficient as they had been under steam power in the 1800s.Henry Ford and the Automobile Perhaps the greatest increase in efficiency came when Henry Ford perfected the assembly-line production method, which enabled factories to churn out large quantities of a variety of new technological wonders, such

8、 as radios, telephones, refrigerators, washing machines, and cars. The increasing availability of such consumer goods pushed modernization forward, and the U.S. economy began to shift away from heavy industry toward the production of these commodities.The Birth of the Suburbs Its effect on the U.S.

9、economy aside, the automobile also changed American life immeasurably. Cars most directly affected the way that Americans moved around, but this change also affected the way that Americans lived and spent their free time. Trucks provided faster modes of transport for crops and perishable foods and t

10、herefore improved the quality and freshness of purchasable food. Perhaps most important, the automobile allowed people to leave the inner city and live elsewhere without changing jobs. During the 1920s, more people purchased houses in new residential communities within an easy drive of the metropoli

11、tan centers. After a decade, these suburbs had grown exponentially, making the car more of a necessity than ever.Modern U.S. Cities American cities changed drastically during the 1920s because of factors above and beyond those related to the automobile. First, the decade saw millions of people flock

12、 to the cities from country farmlands; in particular, African Americans fled the South for northern cities in the postWorld War I black migration. Immigrants, especially eastern Europeans, also flooded the cities. As a result of these changes, the number of American city dwellersthose who lived in t

13、owns with a population greater than 2,500 peoplecame to outnumber those who lived in rural areas for the first time in U.S. history.Womens Suffrage and the Sexual Revolution The booming twenties also brought more rights and freedoms for women. In 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment granted American women

14、 the right to vote. Just as important, more women gained financial independence as the number of women in the workforce skyrocketed. Approximately 15 percent of women were employed by 1930. Although they were generally confined to “traditional” womens jobs such as secretarial work and teaching, the

15、new financial freedom that these jobs afforded opened the doors to increased social mobility for women. As womens rights increased, so too did social freedoms. A new symbol of the Jazz Age emerged: the image of the short-haired, short-skirted, independent-minded, and sexually liberated “flapper” wom

16、an who lived life in the fast lane. Soon, the flapper came to represent everything modern in 1920s America. With this new image of women, a sexual revolution followed as attitudes toward sex changed and birth control became widely accepted and available.Radio and the Jazz Age One influential innovat

17、ion of the time was the radio, which entertained and brought Americans together like nothing else had before. Electricity became more readily available throughout the decade, and by 1930, most American households had radio receivers. The advertising industry blossomed as companies began to deliver t

18、heir sales pitches via the airwaves to thousands of American families who gathered together nightly to listen to popular comedy programs, news, speeches, sporting events, and music. In particular, jazz music became incredibly popular. Originating in black communities in New Orleans around the turn o

19、f the century, jazz slowly moved its way north and became a national phenomenon thanks to the radio. Along with new music came “scandalous” new dances such as the Charleston and the jitterbug. The twenties, also known by some as the Jazz Age“-(1920-1929), were the time for experiments and discoverin

20、g new jazz-styles. In that period of growing industrialization, black people and new-Orleans-musicians moved from the country site south to Chicago. There they helped creating the (white) Chicago-Style. Lots of Chicago musicians finally moved to New York, which was an important centre of jazz, too.

21、Culturally and socially, the Roaring Twenties were a heady time of rapid change, artistic innovation, and high-society antics. Popular culture roared to life as the economy boomed. New technologies, soaring business profits, and higher wages allowed more and more Americans to purchase a wide range o

22、f consumer goods. Prosperity also provided Americans with more leisure time, and as play soon became the national pastime, literature, film, and music caught up to document the times.Key figures Scott Fitzgerald - Writer whose novels and stories depicted the excitement and dislocation of the Jazz Ag

23、e Ernest Hemingway - Novelist whose works typified the disillusioned voice of the postWorld War I (Lost Generation).Characteristics The American modernist movement of the early- to mid-20th century was as complex as it was dynamic. In part a reaction to the European avant-garde, and in part an attem

24、pt to establish a uniquely American aesthetic, modernism in America encompassed a wide array of subjects, styles, and philosophies. In discussing American modernism, one is immediately confronted with the difficulty of defining it. American modernists shared with their European counterparts an inter

25、est in machines, urbanity, and an embrace of new technology. But American modernism, while undoubtedly influenced by the European avant-garde, simultaneously rejected their ideologies. American artists were committed to defining what they saw as a uniquely American form of modernism, separate from t

26、hat of Europe. “Akeley Motion Picture Camera” by Paul Strand, 1923. Modernists simultaneously admire the vitality and inventiveness of technologicalprogress while decrying the dehumanization it appears to bring in its wake. the American modernist movement simultaneously embraced: the machine age thr

27、ough images such as Paul Strands 1923 “Akeley Motion Picture Camera”; isolationist American nostalgia in Regionalist works such as Grant Woods 1930 “American Gothic”; concerns about maintaining individualism in the face of mechanized modernity in Diego Riveras 1933 mural “Detroit Industry”; and cons

28、umer capitalism at the 1939 Worlds Fair. While much of the social upheaval of the modernist era has subsided, the artistic and cultural legacy persists. Modernism also connotes radical experimentation in artistic style, a deliberate cultivation of the perverse and decadent, and the flaunting of outr

29、ageous behavior designed to shock the bourgeoisie Indeed, the mechanized, automobile-dominated, consumerist “World of Tomorrow” promoted at Flushing Meadows more than 70 years ago was, in hindsight, unsettlingly accurateLiterary features Themes: 1.destruction 2.fragmentation 3.loss and exile Content

30、s: social evils Forms: Narrative Authority in poetry and novel Ideas Destruction During the First World War, the world witnessed the chaos and destruction of which modern man was capable. The modernist American literature produced during the time reflects such themes of destruction and chaos. But ch

31、aos and destruction are embraced, as they signal a collapse of Western civilizations classical traditions. Literary modernists celebrated the collapse of conventional forms. Modernist novels destroy conventions by reversing traditional norms, such as gender and racial roles Fragmentation Related to

32、the theme of destruction is the theme of fragmentation. Fragmentation in modernist literature is thematic, as well as formal. Plot, characters, theme, images, and narrative form itself are broken. Modernist literature embraces fragmentation as a literary form, since it reinforces the fragmentation o

33、f reality and contradicts Hegelian notions of totality and wholeness. Loss and Exile Modernist literature is also marked by themes of loss and exile. Modernism rejected conventional truths and figures of authority, and modernists moved away from religion. In modernist literature, man is assured that

34、 his own sense of morality trumps. But individualism results in feelings of isolation and loss. Themes of loss, isolation and exile from society are particularly apparent in Ernest Hemingways novels, the protagonists of which adopt rather nihilistic outlooks of the world because they have become so

35、disenfranchised from the human community. Social Evils Modernist novels did not treat lightly topics about social woes, war and poverty. John Steinbecks Grapes of Wrath frankly depicts families plagued by economic hardship and strife, contradicting idyllic depictions of American life represented els

36、ewhere in literature. Modernist novels also reflect a frank awareness of societal ills and of mans capacity for cruelty. Ernest Hemingways anti-heroic war tales depicted the bloodiness of the battlefields, as he dealt frankly with the horrors of war. Faulkner, particularly in his most famous novel,

37、The Sound and the Fury, also shows how incomprehensibly cruel man can be, especially with regard to racial and class differences. Narrative Authority Another element of modernist literature is the prevalent use of personal pronouns. Authority becomes a matter of perspective. There is no longer an an

38、onymous, omniscient third-person narrator, as there is no universal truth, according to the modernists. In fact, many modernist novels (Faulkners, for instance) feature multiple narrators, as many modernist poems (The Waste Land, for instance) feature multiple speakers. The conflicting perspectives

39、of various narrators and speakers reflect the multiplicities of truth and the diversities of reality that modernism celebrates. Literary characteristics Ideologically Influenced by irrational philosophy and Freudianism, modernism in literature mainly revolves on several ideas. 1) It is believed that

40、 the world is created in the act of perceiving it; that is, the world is what we say it is.2) Modernists feel no connection with history or institutions. Their experience is that of alienation, loss, and despair.3) Since the psychologies of Freud and Jung are influential in modernist literature, Mod

41、ernists more and more concern themselves with the sub-conscious and try to explore the sub-conscious world of human being.4) It doesnt subscribe to absolute truth. All things are relative.5) It believes life is unordered.6) Modernist tried stylistic innovations and experiments with language, form, s

42、ymbol and myth.New trends of literature also emerged: symbolism, expressionism, surrealism, futurism, dadaism, imagism and streams of consciousness.Modernism in American novel Lost Generation literature is an important part of American modernist literature, which had an positive effect on American m

43、odernism and was regarded as the second prosperity in American literature. Having experienced the world war one, American young people returned to their country with physical or mental wounds and a disillusion of heroism. With a rejection against mainstream values of materialism prevailed in America

44、n society, some intellectuals, poets, artists and writers fled to Paris or London where they may enjoy freedom and a diversity of cultures there. The generation was “lost” in the sense that their inherited values were no longer relevant in the postwar world and they are thus spiritually alienated from a country that seemed to be hopelessly provincial, materialistic, and emotionally barren. Although they were unhappy with American culture, the writers were instrumental in changing their countrys style of