Lesson 18: ANGLO-AMERICAN MODERNISM II Gertrude Stein, Hemingway & Hughes

What major events shaped American culture between 1914 and 1945?

• World War I (1914–1918) – USA joined in 1917.

• Stock Market Crash (1929) – led to the Great Depression, a period of severe economic hardship.

• World War II (1939–1945) – USA joined after the attack on Pearl Harbor (1941).

• After WWII, the USA became a major political and economic world power.

What is meant by expatriate writers?

Expatriate writers are authors who live outside their native country.

Examples:

• Gertrude Stein

• T. S. Eliot

• Henry James

Many American modernists moved to Europe because they found its artistic culture more stimulating.

What are the main characteristics of American Modernism?

• Urban life versus rural life

• Technology and modernity

• Cars and "the road"

• Excitement and alienation

• New literary forms and experimentation

• Fragmented modern experience

What is Imagism?

Imagism was a poetic movement that promoted:

• Clear language

• Precise images

• Everyday vocabulary

• Concise poems

The goal was to avoid unnecessary ornamentation and present a direct image.

What was the Harlem Renaissance?

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement during the 1920s–1930s centred in Harlem, New York.

It celebrated:

• African American culture

• Black identity

• Literature

• Music

• Art

Its writers challenged racism and created positive representations of Black life.

Who was Gertrude Stein?

Gertrude Stein was:

• Born in Pennsylvania (1874)

• Moved to Paris in 1903

• Writer and art collector

• Friend of artists such as Pablo Picasso

• Partner of Alice B. Toklas

She became one of the most influential figures in literary Modernism.

How did Cubism influence Stein's writing?

Cubism is an artistic movement that shows an object from multiple perspectives at once.

In Stein's writing this becomes:

• Fragmented descriptions

• Multiple viewpoints

• Non-linear representation

• Focus on perception rather than reality

Just as Picasso breaks apart a face, Stein breaks apart language.

What is a prose poem?

A prose poem is poetry written in paragraph form rather than traditional verse.

It:

• Looks like prose

• Uses poetic language

• Often lacks rhyme and meter

Tender Buttons is largely composed of prose poems.

What is ekphrasis?

Ekphrasis is the literary description of a visual object or artwork.

In Tender Buttons, Stein often describes everyday household objects as if they were works of art.

Why is Stein considered a Modernist?

Because she rejected:

• Traditional storytelling

• Realism

• Linear plots

Instead she experimented with:

• Language

• Form

• Perception

• Consciousness

TENDER BUTTONS

Summary of Tender Buttons

Tender Buttons does not have a plot.

Instead, Stein describes everyday objects such as:

• glasses

• food

• furniture

using fragmented and unusual language.

The work explores:

• perception

• language

• consciousness

rather than telling a story.

TENDER BUTTONS

What is Tender Buttons?

Tender Buttons (1914) is a collection of experimental prose poems about:

• Objects

• Food

• Rooms

Instead of telling stories, it explores language and perception.

TENDER BUTTONS

What is the central idea of Tender Buttons?

Stein suggests that:

• Language does not simply describe reality.

• Language helps create reality.

• Meaning is unstable and constantly shifting.

TENDER BUTTONS

How does Stein use repetition?

Repetition means repeating words or structures.

In Stein's work it:

• Creates rhythm

• Produces subtle variation

• Mimics thought processes

TENDER BUTTONS

Why is "A Carafe, That Is a Blind Glass" difficult to understand?

Because Stein deliberately breaks normal language patterns.

She wants readers to:

• Focus on words themselves

• Notice associations

• Experience perception differently

There is no single correct interpretation.

TENDER BUTTONS

What is the central idea of Tender Buttons?

Language does not simply describe reality.

Language helps create reality.

TENDER BUTTONS

Why is Tender Buttons considered modernist?

Because it rejects:

• realism

• clear narrative

• traditional meaning

and experiments with:

• language

• perception

• form

Who was Ernest Hemingway?

American modernist writer.

• Born in Illinois (1899)

• Ambulance driver in WWI

• Journalist in Europe

• War correspondent

• Nobel Prize (1954)

What is Hemingway's Iceberg Theory?

Theory of omission.

Only a small part of meaning appears on the surface.

Like an iceberg:

• visible = plot, dialogue

• hidden = emotions, symbolism, motives

The reader must infer deeper meanings.

INDIAN CAMP

Summary of Indian Camp

• Nick Adams accompanies his doctor father to a Native American camp.

• A woman has been in labour for days.

• His father performs an emergency Caesarean section without anaesthetic.

• The baby survives.

• Afterwards they discover that the woman's husband has committed suicide by cutting his throat.

• On the way home Nick asks questions about death and suicide.

• The story ends with Nick believing he will never die.

INDIAN CAMP

Why is Indian Camp a rite-of-passage story?

A rite of passage is an experience marking a transition from one stage of life to another.

Nick moves from:

• childhood innocence

towards

• awareness of pain

• suffering

• death

INDIAN CAMP

What are the major themes of Indian Camp?

• Birth and death

• Racism

• Masculinity

• Powerlessness

• Knowledge and ignorance

• Loss of innocence

INDIAN CAMP

Why might Indian Camp criticize white supremacy?

Because:

• Native Americans remain unnamed

• Their suffering is minimized

• The doctor acts like a heroic "white saviour"

• The woman's pain is ignored

INDIAN CAMP

What is the "white saviour" idea in Indian Camp?

The doctor sees himself as rescuing the Native Americans.

However, Hemingway also exposes the arrogance behind this attitude.

INDIAN CAMP

Why is the husband's suicide important?

It reveals suffering that the doctor completely fails to understand.

The doctor understands physical pain but not emotional pain.

INDIAN CAMP

Why is the line "Her screams are not important" ironic?

Irony occurs when reality contradicts expectations.

The doctor says the screams are unimportant.

Yet:

• they are important to the woman

• they are important to her husband

The husband may even kill himself partly because of this suffering.

INDIAN CAMP

Why is the ending ironic?

Nick believes he will never die.

Readers know this is impossible.

This shows that Nick still has not fully understood mortality.

Who was Langston Hughes?

African American poet, writer, journalist and activist.

• Born in Missouri (1902)

• Major figure of the Harlem Renaissance

• Celebrated Black culture and identity

I, TOO

Summary of I, Too

• A Black speaker describes being excluded and forced to eat in the kitchen when guests arrive.

• Instead of giving up, he becomes stronger and believes that one day he will sit at the table as an equal.

• The poem ends with the declaration:

• "I, too, am America."

I, TOO

What is the central message of I, Too?

African Americans are fully part of America and deserve equality.

I, TOO

What does the kitchen symbolize?

• Exclusion

• Discrimination

• Marginalization

I, TOO

What does the table symbolize?

• Equality

• Inclusion

• Citizenship

• Recognition

I, TOO

What is intertextuality?

A connection between one text and another.

I, Too responds to Walt Whitman's poem I Hear America Singing.

How do Stein, Hemingway, and Hughes represent different forms of American Modernism?

Stein

• Experiments with language itself

• Influenced by Cubism

• Focus on perception

Hemingway

• Minimalist style

• Iceberg Theory

• Hidden meanings and trauma

Hughes

• Accessible language

• African American identity

• Social and political engagement

All three reject traditional Victorian literature but do so in very different ways.