American Modernism
American Modernism started in 1914 and is considered to have ended in 1950. The core period was between World War I and II but Modernism continued till the 21st century in very minimal proportions.
Fragmented plots were common in Modernist literature as well as streams of consciousness and a variety of narrative voices.
Often literature of its time criticised society and people but was still optimistic and hopeful. A major common theme in modern literature was the American Dream. Events such as Great Depression and the Dust Bowl during the American Modernism significantly influenced literature and was a central topic of many works.
Experimentation with language is common as well as literary conventions
John Steinbeck
Steinbeck was born in 1902 in a Salinas, California and many of his books are set in Salinas or the areas surrounding it.
He spent summers working in ranches and with migrant workers which later on grately influenced his literature. His works such as Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath narrate the lives of migrant and tenant farmers.
Steinbeck studied at Stanford, but left before graduation in search of a job as a writer. He moved to New York but failed to get his works published and so returned to California, near the city of Monterey where his novel Tortilla Flat takes place.
Some of his famous works are Tortilla Flat, East of Eden, Of Mice and Men, The Pearl, and The Grapes of Wrath.
Often his books take place during and are influenced by the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl.
Steinbeck wrote about poor working class people and their struggles for a decent and honest life and common themes in his literature were friendship, loyalty, the American dream, greed, pride, and mans inhumanity.
Steinbeck's works have been and still are very popular especially in high schools. The main themes of his works are timeless. His literature is not only well written but is closely linked with the American history and the effects of historical events on American culture.
William Faulkner
Faulkner was born in 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. He grew up and spent most of his life in Oxford, MS. Being the oldest of four brothers of a southern family, heavily influenced his works. All but three of his novels are set in a fictional Yoknapatawpha County that was inspired by his native county, Lafayette.
Even though Faulkner was very bright, he dropped out of high school to pursue a career in writing. Later on he studied two years in the University of Mississippi but once again dropped out of school. He traveled to New York and Paris and was introduced to many figures of Modernism. In 1929 he married his high school sweetheart Estelle Oldham.
The work that got Faulkner noticed wasn’t his poem collection or his debut novel, it was The Sound and the Fury published in 1929, followed by As I Lay Dying (1930) and Sanctuary (1931), which in the end convinced the public and increased sales for The Sound and the Fury.
Most of Faulkner's books use stream-of-consciousness narration and include a lot of long and detailed descriptions, complex and rhythmic sentences and rich work choice.
Faulkner has won two Pulitzer prizes for Fiction and a Nobel Prize in Literature.
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