- American Literature

1910 - 1930

Era of Modernism•Desire to “break” with the past

•Pivotal event of the era was WWI – before the war the attitude was one of optimism

•Many writers lived in Europe during this time

•Writers who did not go to Europe before the war visited during and after

•WWI was a tragic failure of old values, old politics, and old ideas – essential to cast off ways of the past – filled with despair and confusion

• Expatriates – disenchantment after the war led many writers to become expatriates or exiles – many settled in Paris where they were influenced by Gertrude Stein – she coined the phrase “the lost generation” to describe those disillusioned by the war

•Modernist writers not only wanted to express the waste and futility, but they wanted to make some sense of the experience

Modernist Literature•“Make it new” – cry of Ezra Pound•Modern psychology had great

impact on literature – writers showed how we often think by leaping from association to association in what William James called “stream of consciousness”

•Imagism – poetic movement that ushered in the era- the imagists rebelled against the sentimentality of the 19th century- they demanded hard, clear expression, concrete images, and the language of every day speech – their models came from the Greek and Roman classics, the Chinese and Japanese, and free verse of French poets of their day

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• Poetry discards meter and rhyme – free verse is the tool of most

• Visual appearance of poetry is important• Use of everyday subjects that would be unusual

in 19th

• Often fragmentary reflecting not only the “stream of consciousness” but the Modernist perception of 20th century as a jumble of conflicting ideas

• Modernists often insist that readers participate and draw own conclusions – the modernist shows rather than tells

• Imagist poetry uses an image to capture an emotion

River Merchant’s Wife

• Ezra Pound adapts the poem from the Chinese

• In her letter the young wife reviews their life together - bashfulness at 14, growing love at 15 and a deep love and longing at 16

• Worried about the dangers he faces

• Willingness to go meet him

Janet Waking

• John Crowe Ransom takes a sentimental topic and treats it in an unsentimental way

•Uses irony & pathos• Janet discovers her Chucky has

died = killed by a bee sting•First experience with death

•Pleads with her parents to waken Chucky

•Waking from innocence•The detached tone allows the

events to speak for themselves

old age sticks

•e.e. cummings –uses experimentation to present traditional themes

•Capitalization and word placement are important also irony

•Warnings of the elderly about the dangers of age go unheeded by the carefree young.

•The young tear down the signs, but one day they will be posting the signs themselves

•Elderly recognized with capital letters and parentheses

•Use of irony in last stanza

Mending Wall

•Robert Frost writes much about nature in New England

•Sees a relationship with humanity and nature

•Frost describes the upkeep of stone walls that separate neighbors both literally and figuratively –

•as the speaker he feels that “something there is that doesn’t love a wall” but his neighbor fiercely true to his father’s traditions counters that “good fences make good neighbors.”

•What is the reason for the wall•When do they rebuild

Stopping by the Woods

•Stops to watch the snow•Horse impatient to move on•Mile to go before he sleeps•Actions show he has a sense

of appreciation of nature and responsibility

•Internal conflict –torn between the desire to stay and appreciate nature and an awareness that he has commitments to fulfill

The Road Not Taken

•Written about his friend Edward Thomas

•Both roads equally appealing•Would like to try both•Chooses path less traveled –

independent spirit – doesn’t follow the crowd

•He is committed to take the road•Says he will come back but knows

in life one thing leads to another•Relief or happiness – sorrow or

regret•(interpretation up to the reader)•The road he chose has made all

the difference

•Knows what his life is like from the road he has chosen but does not know what it would have been like if he had taken the other road