Talking about
modernism and experimentation, there is a lot to say about this period that was
developed between the two world wars. We find here Americans soldiers coming
back from wars to their roots after experiencing the world, and as the name of
the period emphasizes “Modernism” was the new life that every American wanted.
Automobiles, machines to work, business trades, all this was part of the new
experimentation that people were living in those years, and besides all these
comforts to have an easier life, literature also found new ways to express
itself. New techniques to write and analyze writings were developed such as
“epiphany” which is a term in literary criticism
for a sudden realization, a flash of recognition in which someone or something
is seen in a new light (VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. 2001. Outline of
American Literature. US Department of State, page 62.) So, in this sense,
talking about new things in literature, I would like to mention some points
that got my attention the most.
Firstly, I
did not know about the existence of the “Harlem Renaissance” which was a black
community situated uptown in New York City. This black community was very
creativity and developed American jazz. However, not only music was involved in
this renaissance, writings, poems, and a full concept of the complexity of the
lives of black Americans was spread by the authors of this movement. Many were the writers that made good
contributions to this association, for example: the poet Countee Cullen
(1903-1946) a native of Harlem who believed that a poet should not allow race
to dictate the subject matter and style of a poem. Richard Wright (1908-1960)
was another black writer who was the first African-American novelist to reach a
white audience, and so many more authors who struggled for a position in a bigoted
period.
Now I know
that T.S ELIOT was a writer of the modern period that was born in ST- Louis
Missouri, on September 1888. In contrast with most of the writers we have
studied throughout this course, he was not poor; actually, he comes from a good
and rich family who gave to Elliot the best education of all the writers of his
era. Eliot has not written so many writings as other authors of his time but he
is best known as a critic, and for his formulation of the “objective
correlative” which he describes as a “mean of expressing emotions through a set
of objects, a situation, a chain of events, that would be the formula of that
particular formula” (VanSpanckeren,
Kathryn. 2001. Outline of American Literature. US Department of State, page 67.)
Finally I
would like to know whether this modern period was more concerned about
techniques to write a good piece of writing or techniques on how to analyze
other’s writings??
Hi, Gisselt, reading what you have written, I agree with you when you say that the Modern period had a big impact on American people, not only in literature but also on the invention of new materials. There were many things that were inventend to facilitate American's lives. Like for example the automobiles were one of the most significant inventions on the modern period because it came to make life more simple and less complicated. Also, I want to make reference to the literature, we know that there were many writers and poets that emerged during that period and they were very critical and were able to analize every single situation like T. S Eliot did. He was a very gifted poet, he was able to inspire others to do an outstanding job, he helped them analize what they wrote. I guess, all these writers were very accurate on what they wrote their poems were inspiration of real situations, consequently they had a great impact on people´s lives. I do believe that the current poets take thse writers as examples due to there are many things to learn from the Modern poets that were basically sharing with others what they thought about their society.
ResponderEliminarHi Gisselt!! I agree with you that the modern period was not only a period in which new technological things such as: automobiles, machines, business trades, etc. were created in order to make an easier life but also this period found new and intersting ways to express literature due to many techniques for it were developed. Also, as you I did not know about that black community "Harlem Renaissance”; however, through out this readings I could realize that this was a cultural movement in which were involved different kind of cultural things that were helpful to the literature development because it included not only music and art but also poetry. This movement was important for the US history because it helped to decrease racism that was a big trouble at that time, but with it, African-American people discrimination was less because they, as white Americans, showed that they were also able to created amazing things that contributed to the development of their country, as it is the case of Richard Wright who was the first African-American novelist to reach a white audience in that period, and as he, there were others.
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