Henry, frank norris, jack london. Plan: I. Introduction II. Main part

1.2 Important person concerning American realism
Apart from realism there was another important post - Civil War development: the rise of AfroAmerican Literature.
Former slaves, now freed had suddenly the time and the rigt to explore theri creative talents. Thus a number of great Afro- American writers emerged. One of them was Booker T. Washington, who was not only a writer, but also the most prominent black leader of that time. In his autobiography „Up From Slavery“ (1901) he described his own way towards freedom, a giftthat he wanted to use to improve the lives of other Afro -Americans and to integrate them into the American society. He expressed this wish in his famous Atlanta Exposition Address in 1895.
Although in the beginning and in the course of the 20th century books lost some of their influence due to new forms of mass media like the radio, the television and recently the internet, American literature became more and more influential on an internationale level. By the turn of the century writers of prose as well as poets and playwrights were keen on experimenting with new techniques and topics. The rather idealistic point of view authors had taken in the 19th century was no longer up - to - date and especially after the 1st World War another style of writing got popular. Perhaps it would be the best description to say that realism got even more realistic. Ernest Hemingway e.g. had a very realistic, straightforward style without the romantic ornaments that had been used before. He got first famous with his two anti - war novels „The Sun Also Rises“ and „A Farewell to Arms“ published in 1926 and 1929.
American authors in general began to reject the emotional aspects of literature more and more. Instead they became fascinated with describing and analyzing the psychologic depths of their characters. An example for this development is Ellen Glasgow who described in her novels the transformation of the American South from a rural to an industrial economy and the role of southern women caught in the traditionals southern code of domesticity, piety and dependence.
The 1920s, also known as „The Roaring Twenties“ brought change again. Society and thus also the society of writers, started to reject the Puritan and Victorian values and ideals that had been established. Writers felt that now they had much more freedom in chosing their topics - and also in choosing their way of life. A good example for this is Francis Scott Fitzgerald. On the one hand he was a brilliant author, who draw a satiric portrait of the American upper class ind „This Side of Paradise“ in 1920 and analyzed the American Dream in „The Great Gatsby“ in 1925. On the other hand he was a severe alcoholic and lead a very eccentric and sometimes immoral life.
In 1930 Sinclair Lewis was the first American to get the Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel „Dodsworth“.
But the most important persons of the American literature scene at that time were surely a group of people called the Lostgeneration. Gertrude Stein, a homosexual American writer living in Paris, who wrote the famous poem A/ ROSE IS A/ ROSE IS A/ ROSE IS A/ ROSE, gathered some writers around her, for whom she became both mentor and idol. Members of this group were e.g. Thornton Wilder, a famous novelist and playwright and Scott Fitzgerald as well. They were mainly influenced by the consequences of the 1st World War, which were personal disillusionment and the loss of old values. The most important author of the Lostgeneration who was even called the most important American author of the 20th century was certainly Ernest Hemingway. Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on the 21st July 1899 in Illinois and the biggest part of his life was influenced by tragic events. He took part in the 1st World War, where he was severely wounded and about at that time his father commited suicide. In the first period of his life Hemingway wrote mainly anti- war novels, but other topics followed soon. In the following years Hemingway concentrated on Short Stories - something he got especially famous for. His Short Stories were so tight, compact, condensed and plain in style that up to now many people think nobody could ever come close to Hemingway. The best example for this is „The Killers“, published in his collection of Short Stories „men Without Women“ in 1927. Later, Hemingway decided to take part in the Spanish Civil War as well as in the 2nd Worl War. In 1952 his most famous novel, although critics agree that it’s not his best one, was published - The Old Man and the Sea. In 1954 he was awarded with the Nobel Prize.But after that Hemingway’s creative energy strated to vanish. On the 2nd of July 1961 he, like his father, commited suicide by shooting himself with a gun.
Another very important person especially for the Lostgeneration but also for every other writer was the Irishman James Joyce. With his stream of consciousness- technique, the use of many symbols and his prose style that was rather lyric, he set new standards not only for Europeans, but also for Americans.
The second important literary movement of the early 20th century was the so called Harlem Renaissance. This name describes the literary work of Afro- American novelists, whose creative center was Harlem, N. Y.. These people wanted to evoke a new kind of cultural selfconfidence in their black brothers and sisters spread all over the country and to support the idea of the „New Negro“, a topic which was described by Alain Le Roy, a sociologist, in 1925. An author of the Harlem Renaissance was e.g. Langston Hughes who wrote poems as well as short stories. His most famous invention is the short story character Jesse B. Simple, who is the prototype of an Afro- American living in a big city.
At the beginning of the new decade, the 1930s the Black Friday at the New York Stock Exchange and the following world- wide recession shocked all Americans. Many writers suddenly left their old topics to write in a very realistic way about social problems. One of the authors to do so was John Steinbeck, who expressed all his despair in „Of Mice and Men“ in 1937. In 1939 he published his novel „The Grapes of Wrath“. In this book he decribes the life of poor farmhands in California and their will to live, but he also criticizes American capitalism. In 1940 John Ford made a very successful film out of this story. Steinbeck achieved the Nobel Prize in 1962.
Another very popular subject at that time was the so called Southern Gothic, which means the American South and its problems. William Faulkner e.g. created in his novel „The Hamlet“ in 1940 as well as with other books a very humorous picture of the South for which he was awarded with the Nobel Prize in 1949.
Other authors occupied with this subject were Truman Capote and Robert Penn Warren, not only a novelist but also a critic who was in 1946 drawing the portrait of a politician in the South in his novel „All the King’s Men“
After the 2nd World War an ethnic minority in the U.S. the Jews became more and more creative. In their novels, short stories and poems they decribed their life as Jews in American cities, sometimes humorous, sometimes marked by despair. One of these jewish authors, Saul Bellow even got the Nobel Prize in 1979.
In general prose after the 2nd World War can be divided into two categories. On the one side there was the realisitc and naturalistic way of describing things, on the other side there was literature full of black humor and strange phantasies.
Kurt Vonnegut was one of the many authors to publish anti - war novels because of his own experiences. His most famous book is „Slaughterhouse - Five“ (1969), which is about a group of prisoners in Germany during 2nd World War who are suddenly sent to a fictitious planet, a subject that is very similar to Science- Fiction Literature.
Although ist importance is very controversial, Science - Fiction and Fantasy Literature should not be forgotten when talking about American Literature. The history of Science - Fiction started alread in the 1920s but it reached the peak of ist popularity in the 1950s and 60s. While Science - Fiction is oriented towards the future and a world full of roboters and machines, Fantasy Literature describes a forgotten world, full of fairies, dwarfs and other magical and mystical beings. An example for Science - Fiction is Arthur C. Clarke’s „Odysse in Space“ published in 1968. The most famous American Fantasy author was probably Marion Zimmer Bradley who died only a few years ago. In her trilogy „The Mists of Avalon“, „The Forests of Avalon“ and „The Lady of Avalon“ she combines legends about King Arthur and his court with ancient Celtic legends about godesses, magicians and faeries.
As America had always been a nation of immigrants it was just natural that some of these immigrants were also writers and even very successful ones who achieved a lot of fame in the U.S.. Probably the best example for this is Vladimir Nabokov, a Russian who first emigrated to Germany and later to America. Thus his literary work is divided into three sections: the Russian, the German and the American one. His most famous, but also his most scandalous novel „Lolita“ was published in 1955 and belongs to the American part of his work. Lolita is about a college professor in his late 30s who desperately falls in love with his teenage stepdaughter and who finally manages to start a sexual relationship with her. This topic was so scandalous that American publishing companies refused to print the book so that it had to be published in Paris and was sold in the U.S. only secretly. But critics defended it and praised it highly for ist brilliant prose style so that in 1958 it was published in America as well. „Lolita“ was so successful there that Nabokov could retire and become a full- time author.
Another very important novel of the 1950s is J. D. Salinger’s „The Catcher in the Rye“ published in 1951. This novel is about a boy / young man called Holden Caulfield who is expelled from school. But instead of going home to his parents he goes to New York and spends some days there, thinking about his past life as well as about his future. Although Holden Caulfield is not in love and doesn’t comitt suicide in the end „The Catcher in the Rye“ ist often associated with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s „The sorrows of young Werther“, because both Werther and Holden are lonley, desperate and looking for their real purpose in life.
Not only Salinger’s novel is interesting, but also Salinger himself. He strictly refuses to do all things authors normally have to do. After the success of „The Catcher in the Rye“ he hasn’t published any other novel, he never promoted his book, never gave and still doesn’t give interviews and photos of him virtually don’t exist. Sometimes people even wonder if he is still alive becaus he has not been seen in public for such a long time.