Modernism's Place in America's Literary History

Modernism, to give a rough definition, is a practice of modern ideals, thoughts, and expressions. Modernism mostly exists in the arts. From classical music to jazz, from basic brush strokes and artistic structure in art to more abstract and controversial paintings and drawings, from traditional stylings in literature to challenging topics, and from structure in poetry to free formed structure and hard to swallow content. These are simply some examples of where modernism came from and how and where it is exercised. Music, literature, and art are all vehicles for modernism. Literature, in particular, has had some major issues with modernism.

The main issue with modernism altogether is it not being accepted by the masses. Modernism did not solely introduced new style in the arts, but also opened to door to new artists to be brave in their work. Sex, murder, death, identity, corruption, anything unlike the norm or anything that challenges what is conventional is rarely accepted. Modernism in Literature started to surface in the early parts of the 20^th century. America had a time of prosperity in the 1920's. Literature was free and experimental. Modernism began to reshape American literature as fast as pop culture began to change the face of America. But disaster struck the nation with war and depression in the 1930's. Literature changed yet again revealing the hardships of Americans, home and away from home. Around this time a more conservative attitude toward the arts became common and anything unusual or nonconventional was ostracized. Artists, musicians, and writers moved out of country to take a break from the country that abandoned them. Europe seemed to be the refugee camp for these kinds of people. But some still accept it. There is a place for Modernism in America. The purpose it serves in literature is just as meaningful as any other literary technique, style, or movement.

In The Norton Anthology: American Literature Vol. D it talks about Modernism and the pioneers of the modernism movement. It calls modernism "a catchall term for any kind literary production in the interwar period that deals with the modern world...it refers to work that represents the transformation of traditional society under the pressures of modernity, and that breaks down traditional literary forms in doing so" (1184). American modernism in literature is recognized around the time of WWI and WWII (right before-between-right after). During these times there were pioneers that forwarded the modernism movement in literature. These modernists include T. S. Eliot, Gertrude Stein, H.D., Ezra Pound, Franz Kafka, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Robert Frost just to name a few. All have a certain signature on modernism; Pound and Eliot especially for the many poets they've influenced.

Eliot and Pound were the prominent faces of modernist poetry. Many writers emulated their style and techniques. Donald Pease wrote an article about modernism and the relationship between some of writers during the modernist movement era (namely William Blake, Hart Crane, and Walt Whitman). He writes "While many modern poets have avowed a relationship to Blake, Hart Crane is unique in his attitude; for he returns to Blake not to endorse his own modernity but to release himself from its hold, particularly from T. S. Eliot's dominant version of the modern sensibility." Clearly around this time Eliot was extremely popular in his works; so much so that his style was embellished amongst other writers of the time. If Eliot has made such an impact on other writers like this than the impact that he made on his readers must have been overwhelming. Such an impact could've change the traditional approach to literature altogether. Pease calls Whitman the voice of America while he calls Eliot somewhat of a distortionist. That leaves Eliot to have somewhat a negative connotation. What is Eliot distorting? America? What America stands for or perhaps America's preference in style in literature? Pease actually mean Eliot's style and use of metaphors. He distorts his own writing to give his work a creative edge. But in Pease's article he doesn't give much praise to Eliot. His style was too dynamic. It could've severely damage the dynamics of literature. Instead it cracked open a door to possibilities and opportunities.

These opportunities offered endless possibilities for modernism in literature; possibilities for writers experienced in other ethnic backgrounds and culture. For instance, African American literature wouldn't be as impactful if it wasn't for modernism. In Michael Bérubé's article Masks, Margins, and African American Modernism: Melvin Tolson's Harlem Gallery he makes a similar point. "...I intend to show that the crux of the work lies not in whether [New Negro Poetry] is an artifact of African American modernism but in what it has to say about modernism's relation to African American literature." He distinguishes the fact that modernism had an effect on African American Literature but not necessarily calling it African American Modernism. Modernism may have brought along the Harlem Renaissance. If it hasn't, then it certainly made a dramatic influence on some of the writers of that movement.

Another article author can attest to this fact and Michael Bérubé's article. Jane Kuenz, author of the article Modernism, Mass Culture, and the Harlem Renaissance: The Case of Countee Cullen, she explains the authenticity of African American Literature during the Harlem Renaissance. Her key word is 'authentic' which is interesting because she talks about Countee Cullen. Countee Cullen was an African American poet of the Harlem Renaissance. His form is closed and his style is very traditional. Even though he contributed to the African American Literary Community some may argue that he wasn't true enough to the community, some like Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes argues that his poetry wasn't 'black' enough, it wasn't 'authentic.' To put this into perspective, a similar scenario would be an African American person being shunned by other African Americans because this person didn't feel that black people should vote for an African American person into office because they are black. Cullen feels that his poetry doesn't need to be black just because he is African American. He feels that his poetry shouldn't cater to only the African American community. He feels that African American writers should just be called American writers. Kuenz writes:

Cullen never exempted himself from the category of the modern. Nor was he averse to elitist condescension... Cullen no longer enjoyed the high regard he did as Harlem's poet laureate, it is because he got ensnared in this dynamic and the contradictions it engendered for black poets. Caught between a modernist reaction against traditional poetic conventions and a bourgeois desire to win cultural legitimacy by demonstrating competence in them, Cullen eventually became 'the symbol of a fast disappearing generation of Negro writers'..."

Cullen never considered himself to be a modernist poet, but he was involved in a movement that may have been inspired by modernism. However, his poems did touch on some modernist views and ideals like race and sexuality.

Not only has modernism affected African American literature but also Chinese literature as well. Xiaobing Tang wrote an article called Lu Xun's Diary of a Madman. It was about the story with the same title and author. The story is the first modern story in Chinese literature. Tang believes that this story is the foundation of the New Culture Movement. The story uses first person and talks about how Chinese Confucian culture is "cannibalism." He talks about how he uses cannibalism as an analogy for its strong devouring the weak society. This kind of literature is unlike any traditional Chinese literature of it's time. It isn't exactly the modernism Americans or Europeans are familiar with. Chinese literature was more set in its ways than Western literature, a reflection of Chinese society and culture, surely. A change in literature didn't come till around the same time as modernism in America. In the east this was called the New Culture Movement.

Lu Xun had some influence from some European writers during the Modernist Movement. Modernism made an impact across the pond but to reach even far eastern writers was astounding. Of course far eastern readers may not understand most of the western cultures but the writers are aware of western literature and their authors and techniques. This is similar to how modernism affects African American Literature. There is a place for modernism in America as well as overseas.

But what is modernism's place in America and if there is a place for it in America then was it frowned upon? The authors of The Norton Anthology: American Literature Vol. D also added that critics called that type of literature "High Modernism." They say that it was 'antimodern' because it they say modernity is "an experience of loss" (1184). The story the say is an excellent example of this is T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. They continue to say "At the heart of the 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" (1184). This was based off the very behaviors of American socialites and lesser class Americans. Modernism literature, most of the time, was not literature that made a reader feel happy. It often reflected the situations going on at the time: war, depression, racism, discrimination, injustice, etc. So if the content of modernism reflected Americans and American events and culture then most of the time America wasn't the 'Land of the free, home of the brave' place many thought it to be.

As stated previously many American artists fled to Europe where their works can be more appreciated. It was a good time to flee the country during that era because of the depression. Writers had money to go to Europe and continue to make a living there. But depression and war were not the only reasons artists left America. It was because of the many contradictions America had. Artists felt that America contradicted itself. In The Norton Anthology: American Literature Vol. D it continued about some of the writers who left America. "These writers left the United States because they found the country lacking in a tradition of high culture and indifferent, if not downright hostile, to artistic achievement. They also believed that a national culture could never be more than parochial" (1187). It was as if the writers were betrayed by their country. Lillian S. Robison and Lise Vogel, authors of the article Modernism and History, say "Whether it is invoked evangelically or pejoratively, 'modernism' suggests an overriding emphasis on the autonomy of the work of art and its formal characteristics, on the permanence of modal change, and on the independence of critical judgment." But this is the point of modernism in general: CHANGE.

The place modernism has in America is not physical but more symbolic. Modernism is the proof of times changing. Literature was a medium that was widely shared and accessed so it was unavoidable. In the 1920's, pop culture started to make its impression on America. Not to far from that were the arts. Jazz and dance music became the new sensation among the young hip crowds of that time, especially in major cities like New York and Chicago. Movies started to make a bigger impact by bringing sound to film with the first 'talkie' The Jazz Singer (1927), changing film culture forever. Women started wearing 'sexier' outfits and taking on the latest trends. All of these popular innovations started to imprint themselves on the face of American culture. Literature did the very same. Times were changing. Interests were changing. Preferences were changing. What would be called tradition was changing. Modernism was just reflecting what was happening in America onto literature. In this case modernism could be called modern realism. Many Americans may see these ideals and concerns to be extreme and radical and that is why it was often viewed as a threat to American culture.

With that said, modernism brought new light to literature and inspired writers to be more ambitious and adventurous to, in turn, inspire the readers of their work. If it wasn't for the modernist movement then contemporary literature would probably be the same as it was centuries ago. There would probably be a lot less literature as well because there wouldn't be any new writers to challenge the literature of yesteryear thus leaving readers a lot less than inspired to become writers themselves. Today's literature has much to owe to the modernist movement. Ten years into the 21^st century and literature has changed even more. Print is dying, poetry is overlooked by its more widely received form which is music, the short story is beginning to make a comeback while others are being turned into movies, and the blog has become a powerful medium in literature. Change in literature has become more dramatic than ever before. Literature is becoming digital to be more accessible to the younger readers and the reader on the go and to also save the trees. The content of literature has no more boundaries. Children's books have content for elementary readers who have same sex parents. The content of today's literature has become less conservative but at the same time becoming more politically correct. Literature has radically changed since the time of modernism. But this is what modernism has started: change. Not only change in American literature but change in the American arts, in sciences, in religions, and American society.