The birth of the modernist movement in American literature was the result of the post-World War I social breakdown. Writers adopted a disjointed fragmented style of writing that rebelled against traditional literature. One such writer is William Faulkner, whose individual style is characterized by his use of “stream of consciousness” and writing from multiple points of view.
World War I had a more profound effect on society than wars prior. With new deadly weapons, like poison gas, high death tolls, and the first occurrence of total war, shocked the world, tearing people between the modern and the tradition. Traditional society was torn down by the destruction of the war. As with most literary movements, writers reflect the world through their writing. And while America wasn’t quite as affected by war as Europe was, the modernist movement still made its way to American literature through European influences. Modernism made its way to American through American writers living in Europe, they were also known as expatriates. Writers like Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and Ernest Hemingway were considered the “high” modernists. These writers, who lived in Europe because of military service or other reasons, saw the direct aftermath of the war, and used different writing techniques to rebel against traditional society, since society had become all but traditional. They began using techniques like fragmented sentences, symbols and images instead of lengthy metaphors to present bigger ideas. The idea of “black and white” distinctions between ideas like good and evil no longer existed; everything was up to the individual’s reasoning for the answer. The style of these expatriates trickled into America, where modernist writer W...
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...ting. Faulkner also wrote from multiple points of view. As mentioned before, in As I Lay Dying, the novel is told from the point of view of fifteen characters. Hemingway, to use him as a contrast again, wrote from one point of view. This gives the reader an inside look at the psychology of multiple characters, and shows the reader how they all deal with death, like in As I Lay Dying, differently .
Though not an expatriate writer, or even a writer who served overseas, Faulkner is one of the quintessential modernist writers. It’s not his subject matter that makes him a modernist, as he didn’t write about war or the 1920’s (like Hemingway and Fizgerald), but it was his style of writing that makes him a modernist writer. The disjointed fragmented stories that jump through time and space are of the style that makes him stand out as an American modernist author .
The 1920's had many influential writers in literature. While reaching this time period it is almost certain that the names William Faulkner, Earnest Hemingway, and F. Scott Fitzgerald will be found. Each of the writers has their own personal style of writing and each one of the lives has influenced what they write about to even the way they each portray their literature.
Faulkner wrote many beautiful pieces of literature, including Intruder in the Dust, As I Lay Dying, Sanctuary, Pylon, and many other works famous for their originality. One of his most popular novels is A Rose for Emily, which was inspired by his independent mother, one can assume that Emily’s character is based on Maud Faulkner. (“123”). Before Faulkner, writers had a basic structure with hardly any detail and emotion weaved into their writings. Taking after his great-grandfather’s footsteps, William struggled passionately to become a writer in his early years. His first novel published was Soldier’s Play, which was published in 1926. Soldier’s Play is a book about a group of soldiers, beautifully described in the opening scene, overflowing with detail. The novel is simply a dialogue between drunk characters, but Faulkner has a way of painting mental images with his words. “Faulkner has vey skillfully imitated the way the human brain processes images and puts them into words. As readers, we are really placed inside the various character’s heads.” (“Schmoop”). Along with his mother, Faulkner used previously succe...
The South is tradition, in every aspect of the word: family, profession, and lifestyle. The staple to each tradition in the south, and ultimately masculinity, is to be a southern gentleman. William Faulkner, a man with the most southern of blood running through his veins, was everything but a southern gentleman.
On September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, a son was born to Murry Cuthbert and Maud Butler Faulkner. This baby, born into a proud, genteel Southern family, would become a mischievous boy, an indifferent student, and drop out of school; yet “his mother’s faith in him was absolutely unshakable. When so many others easily and confidently pronounced her son a failure, she insisted that he was a genius and that the world would come to recognize that fact” (Zane). And she was right. Her son would become one of the most exalted American writers of the 20th century, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature and two Pulitzers during his lifetime. Her son was William Faulkner.
William Faulkner is the author of Absalom, Absalom!, a Southern novel published in 1936. Faulkner dedicates his writing in Absalom, Absalom! to follow the story of ruthless Thomas Sutpen and his life as he struggles against the suspicion and doubt of the small-town folk that were born and raised in Jefferson, Mississippi. Himself a native-born Mississippian, Faulkner entered the world in September of 1897, and left it in July of 1962 at sixty-four years of age. He was the eldest of four brothers, and the son of parents whose prominent families had been destroyed and leveled to poverty with the advent of the Civil War in America during the 1860s. Faulkner was christened William Cuthbert Falkner after his great-grandfather, Colonel William Faulkner, who achieved relative literary success with his publication of The White Rose of Memphis during the 1880s.
William Faulkner was a prolific writer who became very famous during his lifetime but who shied away from the spotlight as much as possible. He is remembered as both a gentlemanly southern eccentric and an arrogant, snobbish alcoholic. But perhaps the best way to describe Faulkner is to describe his heritage, for, like so many of his literary characters, Faulkner was profoundly affected by his family.
"William Faulkner (1897-1962)." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Vol. 97. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007. 1-3. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. Hempfield High School. 31 March 2010.
Any one who’s ever visited the south has a true appreciation for the writings of William Faulkner. Everything ever written by William Faulkner has a trace of the South that can be felt by just reading his words. Growing up in Mississippi, Faulkner was exposed to the Deep South and everything it had to offer, both good and bad. Through his writings, William tackles some of the most difficult issues of his time period and sheds light to the every day issues going on in the South. William Faulkner set the precedent for future generations, and he will arguably never be contested in his southern style. Without William Faulkner, American literature would be blind to the truth of the South and all its glory.
Both Hemingway and Fitzgerald capture the essence of the modernist period, and both approach different aspects of the same genre. The goal of the modernist writer was to create an enjoyable piece of literature, while confronting issues that had never before been raised in the literary world to date. The Modernist hoped to wipe away the images of perfection in the imaginary realties of the literary past and create a clean slate filled with the reality of the modernist period. The Modernist authors will always be remembered for their exploration of language and form, and for their dedication to keeping us in a well lit place, in an otherwise deceiving reality.
...s strived to create pieces of literature and art that challenged American traditions and tried to reinvent it, used new ways of communication, such as the telephone and cinema, to demonstrate the new modern social norms, and express the pain and suffering of the First World War, during the American modernism period of literature. Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen shed a new light into the African-American social groups and a new age of art, music, and literature was formed. Poets, like Pound and Elliot, shaped American poetry to fit the outlandish ruin in the First World War and the Great Depression. In novels, like The Great Gatsby, the American dream of success and hope was shattered through the stock market collapse and the Great Depression. Through all these attributes, American literature changed significantly into a literary period called modernism today.
...However, this doesn’t deter Faulkner from writing very complex stories that reflect his literary prowess. Most of his characters can hardly speak correct English, and yet, his pieces are filled with words that even I have trouble discerning meaning from. In particular, Rider’s character is very blue collar. Faulkner communicates this to us in many ways, but has no trouble throwing in phrases like “the junctureless backloop of times trepan”. This occurs throughout all of these stories. It is like the characters are very natural, they know the environment, the have the skills to hunt, they work hard, and they love each other. But these ideas are contrasted by his writing style and complexity and really blend nicely to create very good pieces of literature. It was just one thing that caught my eye in reading these pieces and I am very envious of this skill he possesses.
One attribute of Modernist writing is Experimentation. This called for using new techniques and disregarding the old. Previous writing was often even considered "stereotyped and inadequate" (Holcombe and Torres). Modern writers thrived on originality and honesty to themselves and their tenets. They wrote of things that had never been advanced before and their subjects were far from those of the past eras. It could be observed that the Modernist writing completely contradicted its predecessors. The past was rejected with vigor and...
Modernists did not have faith in the external reality put forth by social institutions, such as the government and religion, and they no longer considered these avenues as trustworthy means to discover the meaning of life. For this reason they turned within themselves to discover the answers. Modernist literature is centered on the psychological experience as opposed to the external realities of the world. The experience is moved inwards in an attempt to make modernist works more representative of reality by making the experience more personal. The modernist era of literature is closely associated with the works of T.S. Eliot, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, among others. These three authors stand out because they have made use of unique literary tactics and devices which emphasize the inward turn of modernist literature.
The Modernist period was a time in history when there were many changes. These changes varied from the American Dream to the literary styles and techniques. The American Dream became less complex and was more flexible than ever. It varied from the changing lifestyles to the change in literature. Helping to shape the nation into what we see today. People were focusing more on themselves and wanting to be known, and they also wanted to have money. Living life with an optimistic viewpoint.
...ople think about literary movements as reacting against earlier modes of writing and earlier movements For example, just as modernism is often seen as response to realism”. (Citation; WHAT IS AMERICAN LITERATURE? AN OVERVIEW; http://www.learner.org/amerpass/ampasspg3-30.pdf)