American Literature in Transition, 1910–1920

A proactive, in-depth investigation of essential themes, formats, and institutions in 1910s American literature and culture, counterpointing continuity and innovation.

Mark W. Van Wienen (Edited by)

9781107143302, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 December 2017

438 pages, 19 b/w illus.
23.6 x 15.8 x 2.6 cm, 0.84 kg

American Literature in Transition, 1910–1920 offers provocative new readings of authors whose innovations are recognized as inaugurating Modernism in US letters, including Robert Frost, Willa Cather, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, H. D., and Marianne Moore. Gathering the voices of both new and established scholars, the volume also reflects the diversity and contradictions of US literature of the 1910s. 'Literature' itself is construed variously, leading to explorations of jazz, the movies, and political writing as well as little magazines, lantern slides, and sports reportage. One section of thematic essays cuts across genre boundaries. Another section oriented to formats drills deeply into the workings of specific media, genres, or forms. Essays on institutions conclude the collection, although a critical mass of contributors throughout explore long-term literary and cultural trends - where political repression, race prejudice, war, and counterrevolution are no less prominent than experimentation, progress, and egalitarianism.

Chronology: 1910–1920
Introduction: revolution, progress, and reaction in the first decade of American modernism Mark W. Van Wienen
Part I. Themes: 1. The city: modern poetics and metropolitan life John Timberman Newcomb
2. The country: myth and reality, affirmation and reform Janet Galligani Casey
3. Indian country: between native claims and modernist desires Beth H. Piatote
4. Labor: the Lawrence strike in poetry and public opinion John Marsh
5. The color line: racial inequality in the literary field Michael Nowlin
6. The new woman: narrating the histor(ies) of the feminist movement Francesca Sawaya
7. Eugenics: bad blood and better babies Beth Widmaier Capo
8. Bohemians: Greenwich Village and 'the masses' Joanna Levin
9. Americanism: assimilation and the 'immigrant question' Cathy J. Schlund-Vials
10. Masculinity: regenerative primitivism as cultural compensation Jonathan Vincent
11. Revolution: imagining a counternarrative Laura Hapke
Part II. Formats: 12. Modernist poetry: or, the growing taste for the lower kinds of poetry Robin G. Schulze
13. Modernist fiction: women's writing and cultural emergence Guy Reynolds
14. Realist drama: from the little theatre to Broadway Brenda Murphy
15. Realist fiction: a resilient mode Robin Peel
16. Roots and popular music: literary encounters with jazz and blues Tim A. Ryan
17. Popular verse: poetry in motion Mike Chasar
18. Sports writing: a foundational decade Scott D. Emmert
19. Manifestos: anti-foundationalism in avant-garde, feminist, and African-American modernisms Laura Ann Winkiel
Part III. Institutions: 20. Little magazines: aesthetics and dissent Jayne E. Marek
21. The movies: the transitional era Charlie Keil
22. The academy: potential and constraint Cary Nelson
23. The presidency: Woodrow Wilson and the reinvention of executive power Sean McCann
24. The war: event and institution Mark W. Van Wienen
Works cited
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary reference works [DSR], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]