American Literature: the Second Half of the XXth Century
from "Fields of Vision" by D.Delaney
North American
History: 1950-2000
A New Beginning. As
it left the Second World War behind, the United States set its sights on
forgetting the misery and depression that had taken root for over a decade
following the economic collapse of 1929. While Europe was slowly reconstructed
in the late 1940s and 50s with the help of American investment, the United States
began to take on its role as leader of the Western world. In foreign affairs it
emerged as the main opponent of Soviet and Chinese-inspired communism and at
home it became a laboratory for new social and lifestyle trends that would be
copied all over the Western world and beyond.
Society. In
the 1950s the United States
saw a marked increase in the birth rate and the children born during this baby
boom grew into a generation that profoundly changed the nature of American
society.
The
first winds of change were felt during the 1960s as young people started to
rebel against the values and traditions of previous generations. Both the term
‘teenager’ and ‘generation gap’ were coined in these years to describe the
rebellion of youth which made its voice heard in many fields. Young voices were
raised in protest against the Vietnam war and the excessive materialism and
consumerism of American society. The slogan ‘Make love, not war’ encapsulated
the ideas of a generation that yearned for a world where peace, solidarity and
individual freedom reigned supreme. Freedom meant the right to do as you
pleased with your mind and body even if this meant using hallucinogenic drugs.
Freedom meant dressing as you pleased, living as you pleased and loving as you
pleased.
One
area which was greatly affected by the rebellion of young America was
that of private morality, and in particular, those issues which directly
affected women came under severe scrutiny. As part of the rejection of what
were seen as outmoded and restrictive sexual norms, women won the right to
control birth through the use of artificial contraception and in 1973 abortion
was legalized for the first time. The feminist movement continued to promote
women’s welfare and made great strides in obtaining equal opportunities for
women in all walks of life.
Of
similar if not even greater impact on American life was the Civil
Rights Movement which demanded equal rights for black Americans and
subsequently all non-whites. The movement started in the southern states in the
mid-1950s to defend the right of black children to travel to school on the same
busses as their white counterparts. From these small beginnings a massive
nationwide protest movement grew under the charismatic leadership of Martin
Luther Kin. The passing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 lifted all petty
restrictions that had previously denied the vote to millions of blacks, and was
a giant step towards full equality. Although violent ethnic confrontation
spread to some major cities and despite the assassination of Martin Luther King
in 1968, in
the last thirty years of the twentieth century America continued to break down the
racial barriers that had poisoned American society since the inception of the
state.
Politics and Economics. The
two major political parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, regularly
alternated periods in power without greatly upsetting or changing general
social and economic trends. Meanwhile, the United States consolidated its
positions as the most powerful economy in the world and continues to dominate
world trade.
One
of America’s
major strengths is its status as the leading provider and developer of
information technology. The swift flow of information around the world has
revolutionized everyday life and business life and it is the United States
that has, since the 1980s, been at the forefront in researching and promoting
new technologies.
The
setting up of huge multinational companies, whose turnovers are sometimes
bigger than those of smaller countries, has led to the globalization of the
world economy. Many of the biggest multinationals are American and they exert
an enormous influence on the countries in which they operate.
Of the presidents who have overseen
the inexorable rise of American economic and political power, two, one a
Democrat and the other a Republican have had a lasting impact on the public
imagination. Although John F. Kennedy was only president for a very short time
(1961-1963), his youthful liberalism and inspiring rhetoric carved out for him
a unique position in the hearts of his fellow-countrymen, while the patriotic
conservative nationalism of Ronald Reagan won him many ardent admirers as well
as trenchant detractors during his eight years in office (1981-1989). Foreign
Policy. Ronald Reagan will probably be best
remembered for his role in bringing an end to the Cold War between East and
West.
The
years between the end of the Second World War and 1990 were dominated by the
rivalry between the United States
and the Soviet Union. The ideological battle
between capitalism and communism, which was known as the Cold War, sometimes
erupted into real warfare. In 1950 America sided with South Korean
forces to block the threat of a communist takeover of the country. Korea was then partitioned, but a similar
attempt by American forces to stop communism in Vietnam met with less success. From
the early 1960s onwards American forces were sent to South
Vietnam to help the government in Saigon
contain the threat from the communist Vietcong in the North. More and more
troops were sent as the situation deteriorated and the shocking television
pictures of an increasingly brutal and bloody conflict had a profound effect on
public opinion. Faced with the inevitable reality that the war could not be
won, and having to cope with increasing opposition from a vociferous peace
movement, the USA withdrew
its forces from Vietnam
in 1973.
An
interesting sideline to the Cold War was the race to conquer space. Although
the Russians were first to send a manned spacecraft outside the earth’s
atmosphere, the USA
landed the first man on the moon in 1969.
The
1980s brought about a rapprochement between the two great superpowers and
thanks mainly to the efforts of Ronald Reagan and the Russian leader, Mikhael
Gorbachev, the Cold War came to an end with the demolition of the Berlin Wall
in 1989 and the unification of Germany.
Since
then, the United States has
been the one superpower in the world and has intervened with allies in various
parts of the globe to help resolve international crises, most notably in 1991
during the Gulf War in Kuwait.
Main Events:
North America
1950-2000
1950-1951
The Korean War
1961 J.F. Kennedy elected
President
1963 J.F. Kennedy assassinated
1965 Voting Rights Act
1968 Martin Luther King
assassinated
1969 First man on the moon
1973 Abortion legalized
Vietnam
War ends
1981 Ronald Reagan elected
1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall and
end of Cold War
1990 Gulf War
North American Literature
On a general cultural level America has had and continues to have enormous
influence on Britain.
Through the media of television and film, American popular culture is as at
home in the front rooms and cinemas of Cheltenham as it is in those of Chicago. America has
also led the way in certain artistic fields. Of undoubted significance was the
emergence of Pop Art in the 1960s as
championed by Andy Warhol, who used the styles and themes of popular culture to
create a new form of visual expression.
Fiction
In the world of English letters America also
continued to be a major from different ethic and social backgrounds produced
novels that reflected the complex and varied structure of American society.
The
late 1950s and 1960s witnessed a sociological revolution that had profound
repercussions in literary circles. The philosophy of ‘Make love, not war’, the
acceptance of the use of recreational drugs and a hostile attitude to any form
of authority were the hallmarks of the Beat
Generation.
The
millions of young people who made up this unofficial movement found an
influential spokesman in Jack Kerouac (1922-1969). His novel, On the Road (1957), about a group of friends who enjoy sex, drugs
and rock ‘n’ roll as they travel across the United States, soon achieved cult
status.
The
voice of black America
was also heard as the country was forced by the Civil Rights Movement to
redress the mistakes of the past and move towards the building of a just, multiracial
society. James Baldwin (1924-1987)
courageously described what life was like for a black homosexual in Another Country (1962), while today Tony Morrison (1931) skillfully depicts the past and present of black America.
Beloved (1987) is set in the past and
tells the story of a mother who kills her children rather than see them live in
slavery, while Jazz (1922) moves from
the past to the present and back again as it examines love, life and death in a
big northern city.
Other women writers who have made a
significant impression are Joyce Carol Oates (1938) and Mary McCarthy (1912-1989). Oates is one
of America’s
most prolific writers who often pinpoints the violent nature of American life in novels like Foxfire (1993), which is about a gang of violent girls. McCarthy
wrote about a wide range of topics that went from the Vietnam war to feminism.
One of her most successful novel was Birds
of America (1971) which relays the impressions of a young American who
lives in Europe.
The
Jewish community has produced two outstanding writers. Saul Bellow (1915-2005)
creates memorable middle-aged male characters in Herzog (1964) and Mr Sammler’s Planet (1974), who carefully
observe daily routine and philosophize about life in general. The work of Isaak B.Singer (1904-1991) examines his
Polish-Jewish roots and the spiritual strength that can still be got from a
community that was almost totally annihilated. One of his finest novels is The Magician of Lublin (1960).
The unique variety of American fiction makes it
difficult to single out individuals for special mention, though few would argue
that J.D. Salinger (1919-2010), Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977) and John
Updike (1932-2009) deserve special mention. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951), which tells the story of a few days
in the life of a disturbed teenager, has become a favorite with young people
and adults around the world. Although a Russian immigrant, Nabokov is regarded
as one of the finest stylists in the English language. His best known work, Lolita (1958), was a phenomenal success
and created scandal in some circles, dealing as it did with a relationship
between a middle-aged man and an adolescent girl. Updike’s Rabbit tetralogy about Harry Armstrong, which covers a period of
over thirty years from the 1960s to the 1990s, provides the reader with a
unique insight into American domestic life.
Over the last forty years a school of writers,
that are grouped under the name of ‘minimalists’, has developed a novel and
highly contemporary approach to fiction. While minimalist artists use the
simplest and fewest materials to create maximum effect, writers like Raymond
Carver (1938-1988) and David Leavitt (1961) employ a
super-concise style to express content and concepts with a minimum of
unnecessary decoration.
Poetry
Although poetry has not produced as rich a
harvest as fiction over the last fifty years, a number of American poets have
earned international reputations. Two major currents in particular can be
identified. The Beat Poets, like Kerouac in fiction, became artistic mouthpieces
for the younger generations. Meanwhile, poets like Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) and Robert
Lowell (1917-1977) wrote a very private forms of verse that came to be known as confessional poetry.
The poetic equivalent of Jack Kerouac was Allen Ginsberg, whose poetry has been
inextricably linked with the Beat Generation. His highly influential
collection, Howl and Other Poems
(1956), was a ringing condemnation of American society at the time. Ginsberg
used a very elastic form of free verse and had a preference for long lines
which were also sometimes used by America’s national poet and one of Ginsberg’s
major influences, Walt Whitman.
Sylvia Plath wrote a much more personal form of poetry than
Ginsberg. Her tormented inner life and troubled marriage to leading English
poet Ted Hughes influenced her work which often deals with illness, sadness and
death. Her major collection, Ariel (1965), also contains poems which display
Plath’s wit, sense of humor and ability to delve beneath the surface of
superficial reality.
Like Plath, Robert Lowell shocked his readers with the highly confessional
nature of his collection, Dolphin (1973). He was however, unlike Plath, a very
public figure who during his lifetime was probably the best known poet in America. Other
poets to receive public and critical approval have been Adrienne Rich (1926), whose Diving into the Wreck (1972) focuses on
feminist issues, while Joseph Brodsky
(1940-1996), who only emigrated to the United States in 1972, is
representative of artists and poets from other countries that have added new
vigor to American literary tradition.
Drama
American drama enjoyed a golden era during the
middle years of the twentieth century which was not matched towards the end of
the century. Two of the dramatists who had contributed greatly to the golden
era were still the major figures in the field of American drama in later years.
Tennessee Williams’s The Night of the Iguana (1962) and Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass (1994)
maintained these venerable playwrights’ reputations as the country’s leading
dramatists. Of other dramatists to emerge, perhaps the most noteworthy is Edward Albee (1928). Some of his work
has been associated with the theatre of the absurd and the tragicomedy about
marriage, Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?
(1962), has come in for special praise.
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