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American Culture - Modernism

1920s

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Art and Literature

  • Modernism-Challenged traditional ideas
  • Flocked to Manhattan’s Greenwich Village and Chicago’s South Side
  • Bohemian: artistic or unconventional lifestyle

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F Scott Fitzgerald

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Ernest Hemingway

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  • Ernest Hemingway: wrote of war in a direct, simple and concise manner- “Lost Generation”- A Farewell to Arms
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald: glamorous characters who chased meaningless dreams
  • Focused on:
    • Expression of the individual
    • Bold and colorful
    • Superficiality in modern world- Great Gatsby

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Art

  • Diverse range of styles trying to express the individual modern experience
  • Artist Edward Hopper- displayed haunting scenes conveying disenchantment and isolation

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Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks

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Modern Art

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Pop Culture

  • Sports- grew in popularity
    • Babe Ruth- 60 homeruns 1927
  • Music: Jazz- symbol of “new morality”
  • Mass Media: electricity brought into most homes
  • 1920s- Golden Age of Radio

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Movies

  • Hollywood motion pictures (silent) became hugely popular in 1920s
  • The Jazz Singer- 1st Movie with Sound
  • Ushers in “Golden Age of Hollywood” in 1930s

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Great Migration

  • AA’s came for better opportunities, escape segregation, rebuild
  • Created a subculture…Harlem
  • Environment that stimulated art, racial pride, politics and community
  • Birth of AA art=Harlem Renaissance

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Harlem Renaissance

Expression of African American culture

Focus on racial pride

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Literature

  • Proud defiance
  • Contempt for racism
  • Anti-lynching
  • Langston Hughes
  • Zora Neale Thurston

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Music

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  • Jazz- Symbolic of New Morality/Culture
  • Musical style influenced by blues and ragtime with improvosational elements
  • Louis Armstrong
    • Introduced improvisational form of jazz
  • Cotton Club: famous Harlem nightspot, career boost
  • Blues
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Politics

  • Voted Oscar DePriest to Congress
    • First AA in Congress to represent the North
    • Lincoln’s b-day a national holiday
    • Fine and imprison lynchers

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NAACP

  • Lobbied for anti-lynching legislation
  • Rejected
  • Launched campaigns to keep racists out of office

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Marcus Garvey

  • “Negro Nationalism”: glorified black culture and unity
  • Separation from whites
  • Proposed going “back to Africa” for true equality
  • Not successful but did give AA’s a sense of pride

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