Modernism and Faulkner

AGENDA:

EQ: What is American Modernism?

What is Modernism?

The following are characteristics of Modernism:

• Marked by a strong and intentional break with tradition. This break includes a strong reaction against established religious, political, and social views.
• Belief that the world is created in the act of perceiving it; that is, the world is what we say it is.
• There is no such thing as absolute truth. All things are relative.
• No connection with history or institutions. Their experience is that of alienation, loss, and despair.
• Championship of the individual and celebration of inner strength.
• Life is unordered.
• Concerned with the sub-conscious.

American Modernism

Known as "The Lost Generation" American writers of the 1920s Brought Modernism to the United States. For writers like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, World War I destroyed the illusion that acting virtuously brought about good. Like their British contemporaries, American Modernists rejected traditional institutions and forms. American Modernists include:

• Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises chronicles the meaningless lives of the Lost Generation. Farewell to Arms narrates the tale of an ambulance driver searching for meaning in WWI.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby shows through its protagonist, Jay Gatsby, the corruption of the American Dream.
• John Dos Passos, Hart Crane, and Sherwood Anderson are other prominent writers of the period.

Mini Lesson: Make a chart to identify aspects of modernism. In the left column list the characteristics of modernism; in the middle column find specific passages; in the right column write an analysis of the passage.