140
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.
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: