Literature

The postbellum era through the WWII era marked a move away from the romanticism and idealism of the past to a much more pessimistic, but realistic view of the world in American literature. The Civil War prompted the first wave of realism and naturalism during the latter half of the nineteenth century. As time went on and the country experienced first a world war, then the Great Depression, the move towards realism was completed. America’s innocence was lost, and it showed in the literature of the time.

Turn of the Century

Big Ideas and Movements

Willa Cather	Theodore Dreiser

• Realism and naturalism

  • Literature aimed at showing life as it is, in a non-romantic way. Naturalism grew from realism, but often included Darwinian thinking and ideas from psychology and sociology, as well as the belief that the laws of nature lie beyond the control of human beings.

• Muckraking

  • Often followed many of the ideas behind naturalism, but with the purpose of finding and publicizing society’s ills. Muckraking novels often included depictions of harsh working or living conditions. Muckraking also often appeared in magazines and newspapers.

• Important Authors and Works of Naturalism, Realism, and Muckraking

  • Stephen Crane

    • Maggie: A Girl of the Streets – a story about a girl growing up in the harsh slums of a city

    • The Red Badge of Courage – a Civil War novel told from the perspective of a young soldier

    • War Is Kind – a collection of poems

  • Theodore Dreiser

    • Sister Carrie – a story of a girl who rises from poverty to wealth and a man who does just the opposite, all through random chance, not through hard work or determination

  • Upton Sinclair

    • The Jungle – a shocking depiction of the meat packing industry, so grotesque that it prompted the Pure Food and Drug Act

  • Helen Hunt Jackson

    • A Century of Dishonor – a book which revealed to the public the mistreatment of Native Americans

  • Frank Norris – The Octopus
    

  • Edward Bellamy – Looking Backward
    

  • Ida Tarbell – History of the Standard Oil Company

• Yellow journalism

  • Sensational news reporting, often exaggerated to the point of no longer covering facts. This style of journalism increased newspapers’ readership at the expense of the truth. The predecessor of today’s tabloid newspapers.

• Important Names in Yellow Journalism

  • Joseph Pulitzer, namesake of the Pulitzer prize and publisher of “New York World”
    

  • William Randolph Hearst, publisher of “New York Journal American”

• Other Important Authors and Works
  

  • Willa Cather – Portrayed the beauty of the West in books such as O Pioneers! and My Antonia.

  • Edith Wharton

    • The House of Mirth

    • The Age of Innocence

    • Ethan Frome
      

  • Henry James

    • The Portrait of a Lady

    • The American

    • Wings of the Dove

  • Both of these authors contrasted naïve Americans with more cultured Europeans and often included many psychological ideas in their novels.

Early Twentieth Century Through the Great Depression

Big Ideas and Movements

Carl Sandburg	Zora Neale Hurston	Langston Hughes	F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Chicago School of Poetry or Chicago Renaissance

  • An innovative poetry movement led by Edgar Lee Masters and Carl Sandburg, characterized by experimentation and free verse.

• The Harlem Renaissance

  • A group of black poets and writers in Harlem, part of New York City, in the 1920s which flourished during the heyday of jazz music. Writings from the Harlem Renaissance often focused on the experience of blacks in the city.

• Social awareness

  • Like the muckrakers before them, writers of these novels focused on the troubles in society and often wrote about the common man.

• Important Authors and Works
  

• Edgar Lee Masters and Carl Sandburg

  • poets of the Chicago Renaissance

• Harlem Renaissance

  • These writers are most well known for their poetry, although many also composed short stories or even novels as well.
    

    • Langston Hughes
      

    • Countee Cullen
      

    • Zora Neale Hurston
      

    • WEB Dubois
      

    • J.W. Johnson
      

    • Claude McKay
      

    • Richard Wright
      
  • Sinclair Lewis
    • Novels such as Babbitt and Main Street satirized the monotony, hypocrisy, and conformity of everyday middle-class life.
      
  • John Steinbeck
    • Famous works such as Of Mice and Men, Grapes of Wrath, and Cannery Row were generally set in his homeland of California and portrayed the vulnerability of people, especially farmers, during the Great Depression.
  • Both Steinbeck and Lewis later won the Nobel Prize for Literature
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald
    • Most famous for his novel The Great Gatsby, a story of the American dream and the cost of success.
  • Ernest Hemingway
    • Originally a reporter who covered the Spanish Civil War and World War II, he became famous for the novel The Sun Also Rises. The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and he received the Nobel Prize for Literature the next year.
  • T.S. Eliot
    • Very innovative, experimental writer whose works include “The Wasteland” and “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”.
  • Robert Frost
    • Famous for “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”, he renewed America’s interest in poetry when he read a poem at Kennedy’s inauguration.

  • Playwrights
    

  • Eugene O’Neill

    • Plays featured emotional depth and psychological themes new to American theatre. He was the first American playwright to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

    • Works include “The Strange Interlude” and “The Great God Brown”.

  • Thornton Wilder

    • Nostalgic plays portray classic American values, families, and towns.

    • Most famous work is “Our Town”.

All images from loc.gov.