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Lecture № 12 
American literature of the XX century. “Lost generation” . Hemingway, Literature of great 
depression 
Plan 
1. Realism in American literature in the 19
th
 century 
2. The results of the Civil War 
3. Jack London 
4. Modernism and Experimentation: 1914-1945. The concept of
Modernism. Theodor Dreiser 
5.
 
Literature of the “Lost Generation”. E. Hemingway, W. Faulkner 
 
Key words: 
modernism, experimentation, poetry, epiphany, new criticism, modernism, 
experimentation, poetry, epiphany, new criticism
 
The Civil War brought the abolition of slavery. After the war various branches of 
industry began to develop by leaps and bounds. The incessant flow of emigrants is typical of that 
time, the extensive building of railroads and abolition of slavery. All these factors combined led 

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to the rapid growth of the USA, American capitalism. At the end of the 18th century the USA 
became a highly developed industrial country. Negroes were granted the right to vote but all the 
same they were under certain oppression and deprived of many rights. The slave-owners 
continued to persecute Negroes in every possible way. In 1866, the organization of Ku-Klux-
Klan was established to terrorize Negro population. But not only Negroes found themselves in a 
hard state. The rapid development of industry, the progress of technique led to a still more 
terrible exploitation of all the workers. At the end of the 19th century the American capitalism 
entered upon a stage of imperialism. Big monopolies and trusts were formed, which played a 
great role in the economy of the country. In the international arena America behaved as a 
militarist country. New territories were annexed and some smaller peoples were subjugated. 
Such policy led to the discontent of the toiling people class struggle. In 1866, on the 1st of May 
in Chicago there was a general strike.
The literature of that period reflects both the class struggle and the sharp ideological 
struggle within American society. That period and ideas of the American democracy found the 
reflection in the poetry of the greatest American poet Walt Whitman. His poetry is imbued with 
profound optimism and belief in better future. At the same time some new trends of literature 
appeared in the country. The purpose of one literary trend was to amuse readers. The writers did 
their best to paint in bright colors the social life. They tried to create an illusion in the minds of 
people that every man in America stood his fair chance. It was so-called “apologetic” literature. 
Its motto was “Every shoeblack may become the President of the USA”.
There was another trend in American literature called “red-blood” literature. It justified 
the militarist expansion. They named the whites the superior race. Another group of writers 
called themselves “tender realists”. They did not reflect the sharp political issues and gave a 
softened picture of reality. Finally, there existed in literature the group of “Muckrackers”. They 
attacked various institutions representing publicist literature, not fiction. Most of them were 
journalists, and they exposed the ulcers of capitalism.
All those trends were opposed by the American critical realists such as Mark Twain, 
Frank Norris, O. Henry, Jack London, and Theodore Dreiser.