美国文学12.pptVIP

American Modernism Historical Background Two things made 1910s and 1920s different from other periods: 1. WWI 2. the sense of life being dislocated and fragmented. WWI—the biggest event of the time People went into it with extreme enthusiasm, inspired by the ideal of making the world safe for democracy. There was a tremendous disillusionment because nothing had changed. There was a popular contempt for the law. (Federal Prohibition Law 1920-1933) social revolution sexual revolution ?increased freedom for women ?increased freedom of sexual behavior ? wise-cracking, freewheeling, and independent flappers. Pursuit of pleasure: The issue of Prohibition: forbidding “the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors” ? organized crime , encouraged morally hypocrisy, smuggling, and thousands of illicit drinking places Literary Characteristics “Modernism” is the name of the major artistic movement that attempted to develop a response to the sense of social breakdown occurring in the aftermath of World War I. It was an international movement shared by many art forms. The defining formal characteristic of the modernist work, whether a painting, a sculpture, or a musical composition, is its construction out of fragments. Ezra Pound (1885-1972) gifted at language: French, Italian, Old English, and Latin the leader of the “Imagist” movement emphasize the direct treatment of an object or situation In a Station of the Metro The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough. (人群中这些面庞的闪现； 湿漉的黑树干上的花瓣 ) The Lost Generation Disillusioned by the War and disgusted about the society, many intellectuals and young people fled to Europe, standing aside and writing about what they saw—the failure of communication among Americans and the failure of the American society. They believed that the American bourgeois society was hypocritical, vulgar and crude, concerning only with making money. It was a society where i