The twentieth century has witnessed a significant development in the literature of America and the impact of the two World Wars on the literature and its growth has been most significant. They both post-war kinds of literature of America represent the revolutionary transformation in the world view of the literary figure and the employment of the most modern tools of interpreting the war-affected world. In fiction as well as poetry, a notable shift in the themes, tools, and methods of literature is visible. These changes are reflected in the various spheres of American literature. “Between the beginning of World War I and the end of World War II (1914–1945), the United States became a “modern” nation… Art to some writers, such as Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams, offered an alternative way of understanding the world, eventually giving rise to the idea of “two cultures”—science vs. letters…
During the Harlem Renaissance, black Americans such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston became prominent and applied modernist techniques to speak of the realities of black cultural and political life. Women writers also contributed in vital ways to the heterogeneity of the literature during the interwar period…” (American Literature Between the Wars, 1914 – 1945: Overview). Therefore, it is remarkable that the two world wars have been so influential as to shape a new kind of American literature in both poetry and fiction. It is also important to note that both the World Wars had different types of roles in the shaping of American literature. Thus, in this paper, a comparative analysis of the influence of poets as well as prose writers belonging to both post-world war periods is carried out which ultimately reflects the shaping of modern American literature altogether.
Critics and historians of literature have ever recognized the pervading role of the two world wars on the shaping of American prose and poetry. “The literary historian Malcolm Cowley described the years between the two world wars as a “second flowering” of American writing. Certainly, American literature attained a new maturity and a rich diversity in the 1920s and ’30s, and significant works by several major figures from those decades were published after 1945. (American literature After World War II). A reflection of the world views and literary outputs of poets such as Ezra Pound, TS Eliot, Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost, William Carole Williams, et al suggests the development of modernism, with experiments in the form of poetry during the post World War I. Similarly, an analysis of the main prose writers of American prose writers of the same period such as Faulkner, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, O’Neill, and Katherine Anne Porter illustrates the influence of the war on fiction pointing to the development of American realism.
“Although American prose between the wars experimented with viewpoint and form, Americans wrote more realistically, on the whole, than did Europeans. Novelist Ernest Hemingway wrote of war, hunting, and other masculine pursuits in a stripped, plain style; William Faulkner set his powerful southern novels spanning generations and cultures firmly in Mississippi heat and dust, and Sinclair Lewis delineated bourgeois lives with ironic clarity. The importance of facing reality became a dominant theme in the 1920s and 1930s: Writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and the playwright Eugene O’Neill repeatedly portrayed the tragedy awaiting those who live in flimsy dreams.” (Modernism and Experimentation: 1914-1945: Prose Writing, 1914-1945: American Realism).
Conspicuously, a similar influence of World War II is visible in the literature of the period in both prose and poetry. “Events after World War II produced for many writers a sense of history as discontinuous: Each act, emotion, and moment was seen as unique. Style and form now seemed provisional, makeshift, reflexive of the process of composition and the writer’s self-awareness. Familiar categories of expression were suspect; originality was becoming a new tradition.” (American Poetry, 1945-1990: The Anti-Tradition). There was an evident shift in the way the writers developed their world view which is reflected in their works. Therefore, all the critics are in agreement with the observation that the post-war American literature reflects the considerable impact of the world war.
The reality that was experienced in the life situation was given free outflow in the literary creations. “World War II had an enormous impact on American writing… The literature that emerges from the experience of World War II…shows a nation that was united and confident in its powers to endure and to lead – though it isn’t without its sense of the bleak side of war and war’s effects… The 50s saw amazing growth in American literature of all sorts: Eudora Welty from Mississippi; Saul Bellow from Chicago; Norman Mailer, Arthur Miller, and Bernard Malamud from Brooklyn; James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison from Harlem; Flannery O’Connor from Georgia; and many others. One of the chief characteristics of these emerging novelists was their engagement with the world around them.” (American Literature after World War II).
To analyze the creations of writers belonging to both the post-world war I and II, let us note that one of the most influential poets of the time Robert Lowell (1917-1977), “began traditionally but was influenced by experimental currents.” His shift from traditionalism to modernism was influential to the later poets as well. The development of the poet in Lowell illustrates the influence of the period on a poet of post-war literature. (American Poetry, 1945-1990: The Anti-Tradition). The worldview of this great confessional poet suggests the impact of the World War on the literature of America. Thus, it is remarkable to consider the fact that “Lowell’s work grew from his own unhappiness and the social, political, and ideological movements in the U.S. during the Post World War II decades.” (Robert Lowell (1917-1977)). He was a clear objector of the war and his convictions led him to be actively involved in the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s. He protested to the demand of the government for military service during the time of war and was arrested for being an objector of the war. The life experience he gathered from the war world has been very well reflected in his poems as well. Therefore the worldview of Lowell as reflected in his poems, as well as his brave actions, helps us recognize the influence of the world wars on the shaping of American literature.
The impact of the post War society is present in the realist legacy of the fiction of the period. Thus, the period witnessed the growth of a new group of writers such as the poet-novelist-essayist Robert Penn Warren, dramatists Arthur Miller, Lillian Hellman, and Tennessee Williams, who “explored the fate of the individual within the family or community and focused on the balance between personal growth and responsibility to the group.” (American Prose, 1945-1990: Realism and Experimentation). The plays of Arthur Miller, a great artist of genius, can be cited as an example of the influence of the post-war world on the literature of America. “In the period immediately following the end of World War II, American theater was transformed by the work of playwright Arthur Miller.
Profoundly influenced by the Depression and the war that immediately followed it, Miller tapped into a sense of dissatisfaction and unrest within the greater American psyche. His probing dramas proved to be both the conscience and redemption of the times, allowing people an honest view of the direction the country had taken.” (Arthur Miller). The world view of the great literary genius illustrates how the post-war world experience contributed to the development of American literature. Some examples of the influence of war on his writings can be gathered from the post-war paranoia and intolerance as reflected in the play The Crucible and the impact of the post-war economic boom on the life of Willy Loman, the protagonist of The Death of a Salesman. Thus, an analysis of World War II American literature proves that it has been a significant milestone in the growth of American literature.
However, the influence of the post-war world had been evident in the literature of the America of post-World War I. Therefore, the influence of the post-war world is seen in the worldview of the writers of post-World War I. This worldview has resulted in the modernism and experimentalism of American literature post World War I. Thus, “Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) developed an analog to modern art… Henry James, William Faulkner, and many other American writers experimented with fictional points of view.” (Modernism and Experimentation: 1914-1945). It is most relevant to notice that the works of one of the prominent novelists of American literature, William Faulkner, reflect the significant influence of the post-war world. The world view of the novelist forms a major background of many of his novels. His novels such as The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Absalom! Absalom!, A Fable, and many others represent the world view of the novelist in the background of World War. All these writings clearly specify the significance of the post-war worldview of the novelist and thus illustrate the influence of the world war on the development of American literature.
A similar influence of the post-war world is visible in the poems of the writers such as Ezra Pound, TS Eliot, Wallace Stevens et al. the poems of TS Eliot (1888-1965), the American born poet, illustrates the influence of the post War experience of the entire world. The worldview of the poet has been influential in the creation of the most remarkable poems such as The Waste Land, and the various critical essays. The experience of the modern man and women of the post-war world has reflected in the critically acclaimed poem The Waste Land. The disintegration of the world is beautifully reflected in the poem by Eliot. Therefore, the influence of the post-war world can be seen in the poem where people have great difficulty in finding meaning to life as well world as such.
Therefore, in an ultimate conclusion, it will be seen that the two World Wars have been influential in the shaping of American literature. The literature of America has been on the growth for quite a long period and the post War experience of the world has contributed heavily to the development of the literature and most remarkably the American literature in the present age enjoys a prominent position among the literature of the world.
Works Cited
American Literature Between the Wars, 1914 – 1945: Overview. W W Nortans & Company. 2003. Web.
American literature After World War II. University of Phoenix. Britanica Online. 2008. Web.
Modernism and Experimentation: 1914-1945: Prose Writing, 1914-1945: American Realism. Outline of American Literature. USINFO.STATE.GOV. US Department of States. 2006. Web.
American Poetry, 1945-1990: The Anti-Tradition. Outline of American Literature. USINFO.STATE.GOV. US Department of States. 2006. Web.
American Literature after World War II. 2001. Web.
American Poetry, 1945-1990: The Anti-Tradition. Outline of American Literature. USINFO.STATE.GOV. US Department of States. 2006. Web.
American Prose, 1945-1990: Realism and Experimentation. Outline of American Literature. USINFO.STATE.GOV. US Department of States. 2006. Web.
Modernism and Experimentation: 1914-1945. Outline of American Literature. USINFO.STATE.GOV. US Department of States. 2006. Web.
Robert Lowell (1917-1977). Books and Writers. 2003. Web.
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