THE TWENTIES

World War I is the defining event that set the

“Roaring Twenties” or “The Jazz Age” into

motion.

ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

ELECTRICITY

CONSUMER SPENDING

CITIES TOOK THEIR MODERN SHAPE

THE RADIO

ENTERTAINMENT

THE MOVIES

http://www.neajazzintheschools.org/listen/listenpop.php?tk=cd1_t25

THE SYMBOL OF THE NEW FREEDOM = THE FLAPPER

LOUISE BROOKS

THE FLAPPER "They're all desperadoes, these kids, all

of them with any life in their veins; the girls as well as the boys; maybe more than the boys." Warner Fabian

Lovely, expensive, and about nineteen." F. Scott Fitzgerald's description of

the ideal flapper

THE FLAPPER by Dorothy Parker

The Playful flapper here we see, The fairest of the fair. She's not what Grandma used to be, -- You might say, au contraire.

Her girlish ways may make a stir, Her manners cause a scene, But there is no more harm in her Than in a submarine.

She nightly knocks for many a goal The usual dancing men. Her speed is great, but her control Is something else again.All spotlights focus on her pranks. All tongues her prowess herald. For which she well may render thanks To God and Scott Fitzgerald.

Her golden rule is plain enough - Just get them young and treat them rough.

BUT UNDERNEATH THE “ROAR”

THE TWENTIES DARK SIDE

PROHIBITION CAUSED

ORGANIZED CRIME

WHICH SPAWNED… Speak-easies Rum-Runners Bootleggers Moonshine

Rotgut Corrupt Law Enforcement

Organized Crime “Massacres” “Fixed” betting

THE “DARK SIDE” OF DISCRIMINATION

Anti-immigrationImmigration Acts of 1920 and 1924Deportations of “anarchists”Trials of undesirables

Sacco and Vanzetti

Racial discriminationThe Ku Klux KlanDefeat of anti-lynching laws

ALL OF WHICH CAME TO A “CRASHING” HALT

The Stock Market crash in 1929 brought about a sudden, long lasting reversal in the materially driven, “live for today” mentality that had overtaken America’s middle and upper classes in the 1920s.

SOMETIMES LITERATURE REFLECTS SOCIETY;

SOMETIMES IT REJECTS SOCIETY

What happened to American Literature do in the 1920s?

THE ROARING TWENTIES

Realism evolves into modernism

1910 - 1930

MODERNISM A broad range of artists and

movements, led by “The Lost Generation”

A break with the style, form and content of the 19th century

Impacted by psychology Stream of consciousness: follows the

random thoughts of man Abstract, fragmentary Reflects the bewilderment of the age in

sometimes intentionally puzzling thoughts

THE LOST GENERATION Term used to describe the

generation of writers active immediately after World War I.

Refers specifically to American expatriate writers associated with 1920s Paris, especially Hemingway and Fitzgerald. and including T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.

WHO WERE THEY?

Characteristics of "Lost Generation" authors~ sought the meaning of life ~drank a lot ~frequent love affairs ~many of the finest literary masterpieces were written during this period ~rejected modern American materialism ~lived in Paris

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD In This Side of Paradise, Fitzgerald

writes about: A generation that found all Gods dead, all

wars fought, all faith in man shaken.

The phrase signifies a disillusioned postwar generation characterized by lost values, lost belief in the idea of human progress, and a mood of futility and despair leading to hedonism.

WELCOME TO THE GREAT GATSBY