Contemporary

American Literature

1950 to Present

WWII Influence• Similar to

Modernism’s WWI influence

• WWII advanced technology, horrific casualties, introduction of nuclear warfare

• Human nature questioned – Holocaust

• LITERARY FOCUS - Writers focused on the meaning of war, the great loss of human life, and feared what the future would hold.

Entrance to Auschwitz: the words translate to “work

makes one free.”

Marine Corps War Memorial

The Cold War• Atomic Anxiety after

bombing of Hiroshima effectively ended the war in 1935

• America a new world power; competitive with communist Soviet Union

• Arms Race to see who could create the most catastrophic weaponry

• LITERARY FOCUS – Boom in science fiction & end-of-the-world literature

Nuclear Warhead

The Berlin Wall

Monk burns himself in protest

American Soldier Coffins

The Vietnam War– Effort to contain the spread of

communism– U.S. Military became deeply

involved in civil affairs of other countries. (Korea and then Vietnam)

– Vietnam War lasted more than 20 years and caused a great deal of conflict stateside. U.S. death toll was more than 58,000, and many Americans saw this as an unnecessary loss.

– LITERARY INFLUENCE: literature reflects the conflicts of the time. People were scared, disillusioned, and wanted to understand the actions of the government.

The Civil Rights Movement

– rooted in protests and legal actions of the 1950s

– Brown vs. Board of Education 1954 case struck down school segregations as unconstitutional

– Protests, marches, voter registration drives, sit-ins became increasingly evident

– Martin Luther King gave his “I Have a Dream Speech.”

– Many protests were met with mob violence and brutality

– Civil Rights Act 1964, outlawed segregation in public places

Civil Rights Continued– LITERARY INFLUENCE: People

needed to change laws and the minds of the general public

– Building upon the work of early abolitionist writings and the later Harlem Renaissance, contemporary writers began to question race relations and civil injustice.

– For the first time, African American writers began receiving awards. (Pulitzer Prize for Gwendolyn Brooks and the National Book Award for Ralph Ellison

– Rise of the autobiography and life stories. (i.e. The Autobiography of Malcolm X)

– The Beat Poetry generation was born – “spontaneous prose”

The American Dream – Modernists of the previous

era became disillusioned with the American Dream (Remember OMAM?)

– The dream became simpler than what it used to be. It became the idea of owning a home or property.

– There was a shift to suburbia

– As the economy boomed, it gave rise to materialism (cars, TVs, etc)

– LITERARY INFLUENCE: writers began to protest the shallowness of America and those that conformed to the norm. This is where the idea of a “beatnik” was born

Modern Drama & Theatre– Post WWII, there

was a great deal of theater writing that would serve to revive its popularity

– Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams served as models of the liberated playwright with provocative themes

The Rise of Culture Driven Literature

• Widespread appreciation of cultural literature

• Native America, Asian, Latin and African American literature increasingly popular

• Authors born outside the U.S. became popular with Americans

• Literary Focus: Where older texts were focused on experiences of discrimination, contemporary authors focus on positive and negative experience, colorful culture and individuality.

Responses to War– “War, with all its moral complexities and attendant brutality,

has had a strong influence on writers throughout the 20th and 21st century .

– Unimaginable casualties, the genocide of the Holocaust, nuclear weapons and anxiety

– Many still wrote with Modernist style: detailed, realistic and somewhat detached—like an outsider giving accounts of the war

– Straight nonfiction became a powerful account of the war– Growth of journalism– Steinbeck works as a war correspondent – Many wrote of their own experiences. (i.e. Elie Wiesel wrote

about the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp he lived in)– LITERARY INFLUENCE: writers questioned authority,

conventional values and the nature of reality. – “Postmodern literature” became popular where there was a

blur between fiction and non-fiction (i.e. Tim O’Brien’s stories about the Vietnam War are both true and fiction)

Wrap Up– Modernist writings – dark view of

war and the reality of achieving the American Dream; they seek a solution to the problems of the world (Modernism carries through contemporary lit)

– Postmodern writing – blend of truth and fiction, different styles and POVs. It differs from modernism, in that modernists questioned the meaning of life, whereas postmodernists sought to outline the absurdities of the world. Rather than seek a resolution, postmodernists recognize that a solution to the chaos is insurmountable.

– Contemporary Literature is post WWII, during the atomic era, through the civil unrest of the 60s and 70s, the rise of materialism and pride in ethnicity of the 80s and 90s, through to the present.

– People began to creatively experiment with style and form. (i.e. Novels in 2nd person, chapters with words all starting with the same letter)

– BOTH Modern and Postmodern represent a break from the ideas of realism.

– Pastiche: the pasting together of different styles and elements across all genres of literature (i.e. Mix of science fiction and a western)

– Intertextuality: the intertwining of a text or novel that is interwoven with the elements of history (i.e. Style with many allusions to the past)