ISBN: 9783638113533

A broad view on some of the major works of American literature in the 1920s raises the question:How can one possibly draw any general conclusion about the social and cultural reality of t… More...

A broad view on some of the major works of American literature in the 1920s raises the question:How can one possibly draw any general conclusion about the social and cultural reality of the decade out of these pieces? Take for example the experimental works of American poets, the poems of EzraPound, Hart Crane, E.E. Cummings, William Carlos Williams or the plays of Eugene ONeill. They were primarily concerned with an aesthetic revolution and with the artists place in modern society.There are works of fiction which many critics view today as expressions of the literary spirit of the decade, the works of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos and others. These authors tell stories of alienation from modern life, culture, society and moral standards. Their works appear as expressions of an escape which was not only virtual butphysical, as Europe and Paris in particular became an important centre of American literary life in the 1920s.(1) Yet they remained American writers, writing about the country they had chosen to abandon in favour of artistic freedom even if they observed it from a distance, even if they might have felt as members of a Lost Generation. Naturally literary criticism focuses on the formal achievements of these writers, their share in the creation of what we call today Modernism. My purpose is to presentthe works of some of the writers of the decade in relation to the development of American culture and society. I want to examine a few of the literary themes that might be interpreted as a newapproach to and a significant record of, what Hoffman calls the human condition in the post-war decade.(2) They imply often a notion of disillusionment and confusion rather than an explicit critique ofthe world they describe. Direct critique was provided by an older generation, men like Van Wyck Brooks, Sinclair Lewis, and H.L. Mencken and focused on the rising American middle class.In dealing with literature one is moving away from historical facts and enters the empire of ideas and emotions, of fictional and aesthetic re-shaping of reality. [...]_____1 It is important to note that I am concerned with the branch of literature which found its way into the officialcanon, [...]2 Frederick J. Hoffman, The Twenties: American Writing in the Postwar Decade, New York: Free Press, 1962 (1stpublished in 1949).[...], [PU: Grin-Verlag, München ]<

1920, ISBN: 3638113531

[SR: 2609272], Broschüre, [EAN: 9783638113533], GRIN Verlag, Englisch, GRIN Verlag, Book, GRIN Verlag, GRIN Verlag, 54071011, Subjects, 59670011, Arts & Photography, 56797011, Biographies… More...

[SR: 2609272], Broschüre, [EAN: 9783638113533], GRIN Verlag, Englisch, GRIN Verlag, Book, GRIN Verlag, GRIN Verlag, 54071011, Subjects, 59670011, Arts & Photography, 56797011, Biographies & Memoirs, 58173011, Business & Investing, 61180011, Children's Books, 65981011, Comics & Graphic Novels, 62991011, Computers & Internet, 64085011, Cooking, Food & Wine, 64226011, Entertainment, 65636011, Gay & Lesbian, 64617011, Health, Mind & Body, 65140011, History, 65677011, Home & Garden, 63925011, Law, 66034011, Literature & Fiction, 68333011, Mystery & Thrillers, 69028011, Nonfiction, 65108011, Outdoors & Nature, 54072011, Parenting & Families, 60447011, Professional & Technical, 54127011, Reference, 54682011, Religion & Spirituality, 55555011, Romance, 56047011, Science, 57127011, Science Fiction & Fantasy, 58390011, Sports, 59283011, Teens, 58645011, Travel, 56535011, Medicine, 53965011, Sheet Music & Scores, 52044011, Englische Bücher, 493113031, Englisch, 493112031, Languages, 366250011, Refinements, 52044011, Englische Bücher<

1920, ISBN: 9783638113533

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