Unit 5: Disillusion, Defiance, and Discontent
(1914-1946)
“We asked the cyclone to go around our barn but it didn’t hear us.”
-Carl Sandburg from The People, Yes Carl Sandburg was an American writer, best known for his poetry during modernism. The quote means people like to think they are in control and then something like this happens, and they realize that they 're not. The themes of the work is implied not stated
Timeline
The most significant ten year period is from 1920 to 1930 because the biggest cultural changes happened during this period because it was directly after WWI
1920 women get the right to vote
Prohibition leading to Bootlegging, speakeasies, widespread law breaking and gangs
Economy boomed
The Roaring…show more content… Most Americans wanted to remain neutral
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, America could no longer stay neutral
After years the Allies defeated Nazi Germany
Japan surrendered three months later after the US dropped the atomic bomb on two cities
Literature of the Period
The Birth of Modernism
WWI brought an end to optimism
Many people were left with uncertainty and disillusionment
No longer trusting the pre war ideas
In search of new ideas
The major literary movement was known as modernism
Modernism was very diverse but had one common purpose: they sought to capture the essence of modern life in both form and content of their work
In poetry they abandoned traditional form
The themes of their work was usually implied not stated
Modernism help American literature get world recognition
Imagism
Imagism is a modernist poetic movement
Lasted 1909 to 1917
Followers from the united stated and England
Rebelled against sentimentality of nineteenth-century poetry
Clear expression, concrete images, everyday language
Models came from Greek and Roman classics, Chinese and Japanese poetry
Hilda Doolittle and Ezra Pound
The Expatriates
Postwar led a number of Americans to be exiles
Many settled in paris
Influenced by Gertrude
