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For information on how to proceed, first see the FAQ for blocked users and the guideline on block appeals. The guide to appealing blocks may also be helpful. Other useful links: Blocking policy · Help:I have been blocked You can view and copy the source of this page: ==20th century prose== [[File:Ernest Hemingway in Milan 1918 retouched 3.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Ernest Hemingway]] in World War I uniform]] At the beginning of the 20th century, American novelists were expanding fiction to encompass both high and low life and sometimes connected to the [[naturalism (literature)|naturalist]] school of realism. In her stories and novels, [[Edith Wharton]] (1862–1937) scrutinized the upper-class, [[Northeast megalopolis|Eastern-seaboard]] society in which she had grown up. One of her finest books, ''[[The Age of Innocence]]'' (1920), centers on a man who chooses to marry a conventional, socially acceptable woman rather than a fascinating outsider. Social issues and the power of corporations was the central concern of some writers at this time. [[Upton Sinclair]], most famous for his [[muckraking]] novel ''[[The Jungle]]'' (1906), advocated [[socialism]]. Other political writers of the period included [[Edwin Markham]] and [[William Vaughn Moody]]. Journalistic critics, including [[Ida M. Tarbell]] and [[Lincoln Steffens]], were labeled "The Muckrakers". [[Henry Brooks Adams]]'s literate autobiography, ''[[The Education of Henry Adams]]'' (1907) also depicted a stinging description of the education system and modern life. Race was a common issue as well, as seen in the work of [[Pauline Hopkins]], who published five influential works from 1900 to 1903. Similarly, [[Sui Sin Far]] wrote about Chinese-American experiences, and [[Maria Cristina Mena]] wrote about Mexican-American experiences. Prominent among mid-western and western American writers were [[Willa Cather]] and [[Wallace Stegner]], both of whom had a major opus set largely in their regions. ===1920s=== [[File:Francis Scott Fitzgerald 1937 June 4 (1) (photo by Carl van Vechten).jpg|thumb|200px|left|[[F. Scott Fitzgerald]], photographed by [[Carl van Vechten]], 1937]] Experimentation in style and form soon joined the new freedom in subject matter. In 1909, [[Gertrude Stein]] (1874–1946), by then an expatriate in Paris, published ''[[Three Lives (book)|Three Lives]]'', an innovative work of fiction influenced by her familiarity with cubism, jazz, and other movements in contemporary art and music. Stein labeled a group of American literary figures who lived in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s the "[[Lost Generation]]". The 1920s brought sharp changes to American literature. Many writers had direct experience of the First World War, and they used it to frame their writings.Hazel Hutchison, ''The War That Used Up Words: American Writers and the First World War'' (Yale University Press, 2015) Writers like Henry James, Gertrude Stein, and poets [[Ezra Pound]], [[H.D.]] and [[T. S. Eliot]] demonstrate the growth of an international perspective in American literature. American writers had long looked to European models for inspiration, but whereas the literary breakthroughs of the mid-19th century came from finding distinctly American styles and themes, writers from this period were finding ways of contributing to a flourishing international literary scene, not as imitators but as equals. Something similar was happening back in the States, as Jewish writers (such as [[Abraham Cahan]]) used the English language to reach an international Jewish audience. [[File:Carl Van Vechten - William Faulkner (greyscale and cropped).jpg|thumb|200px|[[William Faulkner]] in 1954]] The period of peace and debt-fueled economic expansion that followed WWI was the setting for many of the stories and novels of [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] (1896–1940). Fitzgerald's work captured the restless, pleasure-hungry, defiant mood of the 1920s, a decade he named [[the Jazz Age]]. Fitzgerald's characteristic theme, expressed poignantly in his masterpiece ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', is the tendency of youth's golden dreams to dissolve in failure and disappointment. Fitzgerald also dwells on the collapse of long-held American Ideals, such as liberty, social unity, good governance and peace, features which were severely threatened by the pressures of modern early 20th century society.Jeffrey Meyers, ''Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography'' (HarperCollins, 1994). [[Sinclair Lewis]] and [[Sherwood Anderson]] also wrote novels with critical depictions of American life. [[John Dos Passos]] wrote a famous anti-war novel, ''[[Three Soldiers]]'', describing scenes of blind hatred, stupidity, and criminality; and the suffocating regimentation of army life.{{Cite book|title=Three Soldiers|last=Dos Passos|first=John|publisher=The Modern Library|year=1932|location=United States of America}} He also wrote about the war in the [[U.S.A. trilogy]] which extended into the Depression.Maxwell Geismar, ''American moderns, from rebellion to conformity'' (1958) Experimental in form, the U.S.A. trilogy weaves together various narrative strands, which alternate with contemporary news reports, snatches of the author's autobiography, and capsule biographies of public figures including [[Eugene V. Debs|Eugene Debs]], [[Robert M. La Follette|Robert La Follette]] and [[Isadora Duncan]]. [[Ernest Hemingway]] (1899–1961) saw violence and death first-hand as an ambulance driver in World War I, and the carnage persuaded him that abstract language was mostly empty and misleading. He cut out unnecessary words from his writing, simplified the sentence structure, and concentrated on concrete objects and actions. He adhered to a moral code that emphasized grace under pressure, and his protagonists were strong, silent men who often dealt awkwardly with women. ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'' and ''[[A Farewell to Arms]]'' are generally considered his best novels; in 1954, he won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].Keith Ferrell, ''Ernest Hemingway: The Search for Courage'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014) [[William Faulkner]] (1897–1962) won the Nobel Prize in 1949. Faulkner encompassed a wide range of humanity in [[Yoknapatawpha County]], a [[Mississippi]]an region of his own invention. He recorded his characters' seemingly unedited ramblings in order to represent their inner states, a technique called "[[Stream of consciousness writing|stream of consciousness]]". He also jumbled time sequences to show how the past – especially the slave-holding era of the [[Deep South]] – endures in the present. Among his great works are ''[[Absalom, Absalom!]]'', ''[[As I Lay Dying (novel)|As I Lay Dying]]'', ''[[The Sound and the Fury]]'', and ''[[Light in August]]''.John T. Matthews, ''William Faulkner: seeing through the South'' (Wiley, 2011). ===1930s – Depression-era=== {{see|List of writers of the Lost Generation}} [[Great Depression|Depression]] era literature was blunt and direct in its social criticism. [[John Steinbeck]] (1902–1968) was born in [[Salinas, California]], where he set many of his stories. His style was simple and evocative, winning him the favor of the readers but not of the critics. Steinbeck often wrote about poor, working-class people and their struggle to lead a decent and honest life. ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (1939), considered his masterpiece, is a strong, socially-oriented novel that tells the story of the Joads, a poor family from Oklahoma and their journey to [[California]] in search of a better life. Other popular novels include ''[[Tortilla Flat]]'', ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'', ''[[Cannery Row (novel)|Cannery Row]]'', and ''[[East of Eden (novel)|East of Eden]]''. He was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1962. Steinbeck's contemporary, [[Nathanael West]]'s two most famous short novels, ''[[Miss Lonelyhearts]],'' which plumbs the life of its eponymous [[antihero]], a reluctant (and, to comic effect, male) [[advice columnist]], and the effects the tragic letters exert on it, and ''[[The Day of the Locust]]'', which introduces a cast of Hollywood stereotypes and explores the ironies of the movies, have come to be avowed classics of American literature. In non-fiction, [[James Agee]]'s ''[[Let Us Now Praise Famous Men]]'' observes and depicts the lives of three struggling tenant-farming families in Alabama in 1936. Combining factual reporting with poetic beauty, Agee presented an accurate and detailed report of what he had seen coupled with insight into his feelings about the experience and the difficulties of capturing it for a broad audience. In doing so, he created an enduring portrait of a nearly invisible segment of the American population. [[Henry Miller]] assumed a unique place in American Literature in the 1930s when his semi-autobiographical novels, written and published in Paris, were banned from the US. Although his major works, including ''[[Tropic of Cancer (novel)|Tropic of Cancer]]'' (1934) and ''[[Black Spring (novel)|Black Spring]]'', would not be free of the label of [[obscenity]] until 1962, their themes and stylistic innovations had already exerted a major influence on succeeding generations of American writers, and paved the way for sexually frank 1960s novels by [[John Updike]], [[Philip Roth]], [[Gore Vidal]], [[John Rechy]] and [[William Styron]]. Return to American literature. 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