ISLE: L16: Anglo-american modernism: Modernism II

Gertrude Stein - Ernest Hemingway - Langston Hughes

What major events shaped American culture (1914–1945)?

World War I(US joined in 1917), the 1929 stock market crash, the Great Depression, and World War II(US joined in 1941 after attack on Pearl Harbor). This all leads to the US becoming a major political and economic power.

What was the impact of the 1929 stock market crash in the US.

It caused the Great Depression in the 1930s

What are expatriate writers?

Writers who live outside their home country like Gertrude Stein. Many moved to the UK and Europe for artistic and intellectual exchange.

American modernism

Urban vs. rural life, where the image of ‘the road’ becomes a big part. Both alienation and excitement about modernity characterize American modernism. Authors became literary celebrities

What is Imagism?

A broader political movement using clear, precise, common language. It often focuses on a moment or a clear sequence in time.

What cultural movement emerged in the 1920s?

The Harlem Renaissance with Africa-American literature

Who was Gertrude stein

• She was born in the US where she attended Harvard and where she was a student under William James

• She moved to France later with her brother and became serious about her writing

• She becomes an art collector in Paris, befriends experimental artists and advises other writers

• Lives with her partner Alice B Toklas

Gertrude Stein’s style

Stream of consciousness combined with cubism, collages from the Dada movement, portraits in collage and modernism

Major works by Gertrude Stein

• The making of americans (1925)

• tender buttons (1914)

• the autobiography of alice b. toklas (1933)

What is Tender Buttons?

A cubist prose poem by Gertrude Stein that focuses on everyday domestic objects. Because it is a prose poem it is more a paragraph, or sentences rather than written in verse or with strict rhyme. It was disliked by critics but artists appreciated it

What is ekphrasis?

Describing objects like a visual artwork. Tender buttons describes objects in detail, like a painting

Why is the description difficult to understand in A carafe, that is a blind glass from tender buttons

Stein focuses on word relationships rather than clear meaning.

Who was Ernest Hemingway?

• A writer born in the US who spend summers in Michigan with his family

• Worked on the ambulance corps during WWI

• Worked as a journalist in Europe where he became part of literary and artistic circles

• Worked as a war correspondent during the Spanish civil war

• He often leaves things implict and has open endings, which is typical for modernist works

What is the Iceberg Theory?

The theory of omission by Ernest Hemingway is a theory that says that only part of an iceberg is visible. The plot, acts and dialogue in a story. What is not visible are thoughts, motives, feelings and certain symbols. The reader has to work to make meaning to a text

What is Indian Camp

One of Ernest Hemingway’s earlier stories from In Our Time. A collection of stories about Nick Adams often set in Michigan. It contains autobiographical elements

What is the central question of Indian Camp

Why does the husband kill himself

Does Indian Camp support or criticize white supremacy

It can be read as a critique or support. It is told from a white viewpoint. Native americans in the story are mostly silent and marginalized. The father represents a “white savior” figure with medical authority.

What big contrast exists in Indian camp?

The woman’s suffering in giving birth vs. Uncle George’s minor bite wound. More attention is paid to Uncle George’s wound, which is also treated more elaborately.

What role does dramatic irony play in Indian Camp

The reader understands more than the characters. It is also ironic that the father’s “successful” operation is followed by a suicide.

What was the Harlem Renaissance?

A cultural movement of Black art, music, and literature in the 1920s–30s. The Great migration helped starting it. Black folks migrated from the South to the North.

Why was Harlem important during the Harlem renaissance?

It became a center of Black culture and creativity. The NYC neighborhood had over 150k residents in the 1920s almost entirely black

What were key themes of the Harlem Renaissance?

• Affirming and redefining a positive African American identity

• Negotiating a place within American society. Political and intellectual debates on art and actions
  for ‘racial uplift’

Who was Langston Hughes

• A Famous poet, writer, essayist, journalist, & political activist.

• He produced significant radical political writings in the 1930s which he was later investigated for

• His writing focused on urban Black life and incorporated vocabulary of everyday Black
  speech

What did Langston Hughes’ poetry celebrate?

His poetry celebrated Black life and culture and implored America to do better for al

Themes in I, too by Langston Hughes

• Segregation

• Affirmation of African-American identity

• Hope for American unity and racial equality in the future