In the section called “Modernism Abroad and On Native Grounds,” the editors say
In the section called “Modernism Abroad and On Native Grounds,” the editors say that “[m]any writers chose to identify themselves with the American scene and to root their work in specific regions” of the country (D: 17) (1188). Discuss at least three poems or short stories (fiction) by three different authors that chose to focus on a particular part of the United States. In your paper, you should show how these writers combine modernism and regionalism. You may wish to use quotations from this introductory material, but you should also use quotations from the literature (poems or stories) themselves. (Note: Usually the phrase “specific regions” means parts of the U. S. away from urban literary centers–the West, Midwest, South, New England, etc.) This section includes many examples, so you may want to choose three of them (see D: 17).
The section called “American Versions of Modernism” (D: 13-16) will help you choose writers to include.
2. During the 1920’s African American writers began to make significant contributions to American literature, especially during the Harlem Renaissance. Choose at least three poems or fiction from this literary movement to discuss, perhaps applying the ideas in Langston Hughes’ essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain (D: 348-50) or from the discussion in the textbook introduction. Many of the writers of the Harlem Renaissance are also modernists, so you may wish to quote from one or more of the modernist manifestos as well. (Note: “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is an essay, not a short story, so it doesn’t count as fiction, though you may use it to illustrate an idea that does appear in fiction or poetry.)
Useful quotation from the introduction to Volume D:
The Harlem Renaissance sparked arguments between those who wanted to claim membership in the culture at large and those who wanted to stake out a separate artistic domain; between those who wanted to celebrate rural African American lifeways and those committed to urban intellectuality; between those who wanted to join the American mainstream and those who, disgusted by American race prejudice, aligned themselves with worldwide revolutionary movements; between those who celebrated a “primitive” African heritage and those who rejected the idea as a degrading stereotype. (D: 8)
See D: 7-8 for a discussion of changes for African Americans during this time period (the Great Migration out of the South, the gathering of artists, musicians, and writers in Harlem in the 1920s, the publication of two major journals of opinion, The Crisis and Opportunity).
3. Define modernism, using quotations from the introduction to Volume D of The Norton Anthology of American Literature or from one of the Modernist Manifestos (D: 335-350). Then, apply your definition to at least three reading selections (poetry or fiction), using quotations from the reading selections that reveal the work’s (poem or story) modernist attributes. Each reading selection should be by a different writer. Please note that the manifestos do not qualify as poetry or fiction, though it’s fine to use them as part of your discussion of modernism. You must still have three examples that are fiction or poetry (not non-fiction prose).
“Some writers rejoiced while others lamented; some anticipated future utopias while others believed that civilization had collapsed; but the period’s most influential voices believed that old forms would not work for new times, and were inspired by the possibility of creating something entirely new” (D: 6). (Everything following this quotation will help you write your essay.)
This quotation seems important: “At the heart of high modernist aesthetic lay the conviction that the previously sustaining structures of human life, whether social, political, religious, or artistic, had been destroyed or shown up as falsehoods, or, at best, arbitrary and fragile human constructions” (D: 14).
4. Women writers also became more prominent during this time, despite the fact that “to some extent, male modernists tried to define their movement by defining women out of it” (1082, 6th edition). In the 7th edition, the editors assert that “the increasing prominence[of women writers]. . . generated a backlash from some male modernists, who asserted their own artistic seriousness by identifying women writers with the didactic, popular writing against which they [male writers] rebelled” (1189). Discuss at least three poems or short stories by three different women writers, showing how their work fits into the literary trends of the era. You may use Mina Loy’s “Feminist Manifesto” as background material if you wish, but it isn’t a poem or short story, so it doesn’t count as one of the three.
See D: 7 for a discussion of changes for women.
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Literary Modernism is described by a self-conscience break with conventional methods of writing in both prose fiction and poetry. The Modernist literary movement was driven by a conscious craving to topple customary methods of representation and express new sensibilities of their time. The two world wars denoted a period in………………….
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