Literature during the 1930's were escapist or romantic set in earlier eras in an effort to reject the notion of progress. Two examples of this are Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind(1936) and Hervey Allen's Anthony Adverse(1933). Many Americans did not want to read about the struggles of the Great Depression but instead wanted to escape the notion of politics and economics. Some of the literary giants of the period were John Steinbeck, Henry Miller, Margaret Mitchell, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Gone with the Wind short synopsis: This movie takes place in southern US in the state of Georgia during the American Civil War(1861- 1865) and the Reconstruction Era(1865 - 1877) that followed the war. The novel starts at the point where seven southern states including Georgia have declared the secession from the US. Notice how the book escapes the current era by leading to a different era escaping reality. This romantic book helped people imagine a simpler time.
Other Works :
Some of the most significant literature showed the harshness and emptiness of American life. For example John Dos Passos's U.S.A trilogy attacked what he considered materialistic selfishness of American culture. Others attacked the various aspects of American life.
Works like The Grapes of Wrath were blunt and direct in their social criticism. For example in The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck shows the social horror that affected farmers, how their farms were foreclosed and taken away. He shows this through the main characters in the book.
Magazines focused more on fashion, stunts, scenery, and the arts than on the social conditions of the nation. For example the magazine Life only devoted a small portion to the economy and politics, but was most famous for the stunning photographs of sporting and theater events, natural landscapes, impressive public projects, and even celebrated parties.
I used :
https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/the-new-deal-1933-1940-25/culture-in-the-thirties-197/literature-and-the-depression-1089-191/
http://history.journalism.ku.edu/1930/1930.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind
highered.mheducation.com/sites/dl/free/.../114174/bri79130_ch25.pdf
Nice post, Ankith! I really found it interesting that writers of the Great Depression usually were escapists and how they wrote about when times were more simple to shy away from their tough times during the Great Depression. It seems like literary styles reflect how society is doing at a particular time. During the 1920's writers would write in modernist (advocating for equal gender roles, and other reforms) styles which reflected the social change which took place during that time period. Writers during the Great Depression were escapists because they wanted to theoretically "escape" from the Great Depression. Really interesting how we can identify a time period by its literary themes!
ReplyDeleteWell written post Ankith!! It's so fascinating how they wrote so many escapist novels! It's quite interesting to compare to the books we find so frequently best sellers presently. It seems that we are at the exact opposite point. Books are often about dystopian societies (ex. Hunger Games, Divergent, Maze Runner) rather than escaping to a better time and place, people want to go somewhere worse and more competitively structured,
ReplyDeleteSonja, I think people have started writing about dystopian societies because the world as a whole is becoming more conscious about life outside their own countries, and they can finally see all the injustice and they want to write about what might happen if this kind of thing advances. People don't necessarily *want* to go to somewhere that's worse and more competitively structured, it's just their thoughts about what might happen if we were in a situation like that. Would Suzanne Collins want to live in the world of the Hunger Games? Probably not.
ReplyDelete