American literature at the beginning of XX century

American literature at the beginning of XX century

PLAN:

• Upton Sinclair and Sinclair Lewis
• Theodore Dreiser
• Critical realism in American literature
• John Reed

20th century literature

The 1920s brought sharp changes to American literature. Many writers had direct experience of the First World War, and they used it to frame their writings.

Modernism, a movement that was a radical break from 19th century Victorianism, led to postmodernism, which emphasized self-consciousness and pop art

The main features of 20th century novel are:

• The main features of 20th century novel are:
• Concentration on urban middle class
• Propensity to introspection
• Introduction of the stream of consciousness
• Focus on the life of educated characters

The Novel of city

The 20th century is distinguished as the century of urbanism. As more people moved to cities in Europe and America, novelists used urban environments as backdrops for the stories they told. Perhaps the best known of these is James Joyce's "Dubliners," a series of short stories that all take place in various locales in Dublin. Other 20th century writers are also closely associated with various urban centers: Woolf and London, Theodore Dreiser and Chicago, Paul Auster and New York, Michael Ondaatje and Toronto

Upton Sinclair

• Upton Sinclair (1878-1968), was American writer and social and economic reformer. Upton Beall Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and educated at the College of the City of New York and Columbia University.
• Although he was unsuccessful as a Socialist Party candidate for political office; his vigorous criticism of abuses in American economic and social life helped lay the groundwork for a number of reforms. In the 1920s he helped found the American Civil Liberties Union.

Upton Sinclair

• The author of 90 books, Sinclair became well known after the publication of his novel The Jungle (1906), which exposed the unsanitary and miserable working conditions in the stockyards of Chicago, Illinois, and led to an investigation by the federal government and the subsequent passage of pure food laws.

Sinclair Lewis

• Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951), American novelist, whose naturalistic style and choice of subject matter was much imitated by later writers. He replaced the traditionally romantic and complacent conception of American life with one that was realistic and even bitter.
• Lewis was born in Sauk Centre, Minnesota, on February 7, 1885, and was educated at Yale University. From 1907 to 1916 he was a newspaper reporter and a literary editor

Lewis’s work

• In Main Street (1920) Lewis first developed the theme that was to run through his most important work: the monotony, emotional frustration, and lack of spiritual and intellectual values in American middle-class life.
• His novel Babbitt (1922) mercilessly characterizes the small-town American businessman who conforms blindly to the materialistic social and ethical standards of his environment; the word “Babbitt,” designating a man of this type, has become part of the language.
• In Arrowsmith (1925) Lewis exposed the lack of scientific idealism sometimes found in the medical profession; Elmer Gantry (1927) portrays a type of hypocritical and mercenary religious leader.

Theodore Dreiser

• Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) was born in a poor family, in Indiana. He grew in poverty. For lack of money he did not graduate from Indiana University.
• He had various jobs in Chicago: washing dishes, shoveling coal, working in a factory and collecting bills-experiences which he later used in his writing. He taught himself to be a newspaper reporter and supported himself as a journalist and editor for many years while he was struggling to become recognized as a novelist.

Theodore Dreiser

• Among the American writers of the twenties century Dreiser is distinguished by his sharp social criticize, profound analysis and precise proof.
• Dreiser is considered one of the great American realists or naturalists. His novels deal with everyday life, often with its sordid side. The characters that people his novels, unable to assert their will against natural and economic forces are mixtures of good and bad, but he seldom passes judgment on them. He describes them and their actions in massive detail.

Theodore Dreiser’s work

• The first novel “Sister Carrie” was suppressed immediately after publication.
• In a ten year interval appeared his other book: “Jennie Gerhardt” (1911), “The Financier” (1912), “The Titan” (1914), “The Genius” (1915) and “An American Tragedy” (1925).
• His novel “The Financier”, “The Titan” and “The Stoic” (left unfinished) comprise the parts of the “Trilogy of Dreiser”.