American literature of the early 20th century. American literature of the first half of the twentieth century

The 20th century in American literature is complex, dramatic, and rich. American literature is younger than other Western literatures - its history is about four centuries, if you count from the time when the first colonists landed in North America, and about two hundred years, if you start counting from the first literary background of the Revolutionary War or from the creation of the United States of America. The main feature of American literature is the influence of socialist ideas on democratic writers, which contributed to the success of the realistic movement.

The United States became the first country in the capitalist world at the beginning of the 20th century. Class contradictions in the country intensified, the working class grew and reclined, forming its Communist Party after the Great October Socialist Revolution, and the struggle on the ideological front became more ruthless. Some bourgeois writers moved on to openly praising American capitalism, glorifying its foreign policy, and distorting the country's history. In the fight against this trend, the advanced democratic American literature of this time grew. Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, Jack London continued in their work the democratic traditions of progressive writers - their predecessors - and at the same time raised American realistic literature to a new level.

But at the same time, the fate of American literature in the 20th century was dramatic. America, the largest power in the capitalist world, created a system subordinate to the dictates of capital; few could resist it. The 20th century saw more than one writer's tragedy. The development of literature was complicated by the strong influence of apologetic bourgeois ideas and conformism.

There was a civil war of 1861-1865. The victory of the North contributed to the rapid development of capitalism in the United States and the identification of its contradictions. Slogans of the struggle against slavery of blacks and romantic protest against bourgeois civilization were replaced by slogans of the struggle against capitalist slavery. In addition, bourgeois-democratic ideas became widespread - false ideas about American exceptionalism, about the opportunity for every American to make their way to wealth, which revealed the opposition of democratic ideas to apologetic-protective ones. [from 3]

The Spanish-American War of 1898 completed the period of transition to imperialism, causing an angry protest from the last Mohicans of bourgeois democracy.

The most democratically minded writers deeply felt the conflicts of bourgeois America, which had now become especially tangible, and tried to reveal them in their work, representing the line of emerging critical realism in US literature.

These realist and democratic writers include Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and Bret Harte.

Some writers played a significant role in the struggle against southern planters, speaking from anti-slavery positions, considering the program of struggle for democracy completed. Such famous writers as James Russell Lowell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes failed to see the vital conflicts that arose in American society. They paint a rosy picture of American democracy, and they are increasingly moving into the sphere of speculative interests, far from the problems of the day.

In addition, a new category of writers has appeared, glorifying bourgeois America, glorifying its supposedly unlimited possibilities and preaching the possibility of easy enrichment for every American. This openly bourgeois fiction spread the same illusory ideas about American bourgeois democracy that were constantly destroyed by real events. It was she who opposed the development of realistic literature in post-war America.

The features of the new stage in the development of American literature, which began after the Spanish-American War, are embodied in the works of Dreiser, London, and Upton Sinclair. Dreiser spoke first.

The American writer Theodore Dreiser was published widely during Soviet times. Critics even wrote that Dreiser, under the influence of the October Revolution in Russia, in his work “approached the art of socialist realism in such works as “Tragic America” and “America Worth Saving.”

Nowadays no one remembers socialist realism in connection with Dreiser - everyone sees in him, first of all, the greatest writer - a realist of the 20th century.

It must be said that the writer went through an amazing journalism school before starting to write novels - he moved from city to city in Chicago, St. Louis, Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, New York... and saw life in all its social fragmentation . Fascinated by philosophy, the writer paid special attention to the works of Herbert Spencer. “Victory in running goes to the fastest, in wrestling - to the strongest.” This philosophy of Spencerian biologism, which excludes society’s guilt for social disorder, held the writer in its field of attraction for a long time. It is also called the philosophy of biological determinism.

Dreiser’s very successful debut was the novel “Sister Carrie”, 1900. Without prejudice and the usual puritanism of that time, Dreiser gave a realistic image of a girl opposing generally accepted moral views. This is the story of a simple American girl, Caroline Mieber, the daughter of poor farmers, who comes from the provinces to Chicago with the dream of becoming a theater star. And she becomes it. But what did it cost her? The writer shows that a huge capitalist city forces a girl to abandon patriarchal morality and elementary human purity. Carrie's life story is very banal; American society knew many similar stories. Arriving to the big city from the provinces with pure intentions, Carrie is faced with the morality of a capitalist society and her dreams turn into reality only with the help of money. She achieves success, but this success is paid for by all the saints, and is paid for by the death of Gerswood. Kerry is already ready to walk over corpses for the sake of success... she has the bird of the American dream in her hands, she has material wealth, but as a person Kerry is collapsing.

Theodore Dreiser in his novels fully exposed the corrupting, pernicious power of imperialism, exposed the hypocritical morality of bourgeois society, its harmful influence on people, depicted the bleak American reality, the difficult path of American youth, gave many vivid and ruthless in its revealing power examples of predators - masters capitalist America. The Great October Revolution revealed the prospects of liberation for the common people to Dreiser; it helped him write a novel of greatest power - “An American Tragedy.” The trip to the USSR shocked Dreiser; he was shocked by what feats of labor the people freed from the shackles of capitalism were capable of. In his homeland, Dreiser saw a force that was able to resist reaction and liberate the American people. This force is the proletariat, led by the Communist Party, uniting everything progressive around advanced ideas. The novel exposing the predatory nature of capitalism continues with “An American Tragedy.”

From his own experience, the writer learned what it means to be poor and outcast in America, and went through a large, difficult school of life. The Dreiser family belonged to the poorest population of the city. Theodore was the ninth child in the family. He learned what hunger and cold were from early childhood. Together with his older brother, the five-year-old child went in winter to collect coal on the railway, since there was nothing to buy fuel with. Very often children went to bed in a cold bed and on an empty stomach. The family did not have money to pay rent and the Dreisers moved from one dilapidated house to another.

As for the work “Sister Carrie,” it should be said that Dreiser created social history from a life drama, thereby incurring the disfavor of apologists of capitalist society.

Bourgeois critics greeted the writer’s first novel with extreme hostility, calling the novel “immoral” and the author a “seducer of youth.” Although there is nothing indecent in “Sister Carrie”, not even too free or indecent. The heroine's first fall from grace comes through the description of the symbolic dream of the heroine's sister. In the dream, Minnie tries in vain to save her sister, who is falling into a hole, but cannot. She screams at her, but to no avail. “The voice of need answered for her.”

In this novel, Dreiser outlines the main themes of all his subsequent works. He outlines the range of his writing interests, while Dreiser’s interests are focused on the fight against the false ideals of the supposedly happy “American myth.” But still, Dreiser sees no way out of this situation. His protest is rather abstract and sad. Dreiser shows that the pursuit of popularity at any cost ruins talent. Kerry had a genuine and extraordinary gift as an actress, but she traded it away by pleasing the public, chasing quick popularity.

“Ah, money, money, money! … She figured out the possibilities in such cases. “Oh,” she said at last, “poor Sister Carrie!” Oh money money! How nice it is to have them! If she had a lot of money, all her worries would disappear like smoke!

If you want to dress well, pay money; if you want to have fun - live a fun life - again, shell out the money.

Going out, the same Broadway taught her a sharper lesson. The scene she had witnessed coming down was now augmented and at its height. Such a crush of finery and folly she had never seen. It clinched her convictions concerning her state. She had not lived, could not lay claim to having lived, until something of this had come into her own life. Women were spending money like water; she could see that in every elegant shop she passed. Flowers, candy, jewelry, Seemed the principal things in which the elegant ladies were interested. And she--she had scarcely enough pin money to indulge in such outings as this a few times a month. Oh, these women who passed by her in hundreds and hundreds - who are they? Where do these rich, elegant clothes come from, these amazingly colored fabrics, silver and gold trinkets? Where do these lovely women live? Among what silk-covered walls, among what patterned furniture and lush carpets do they spend their days? Where are their luxurious homes, filled with everything that money can buy? In what stables do these sleek, nervous horses rest and magnificent carriages stand, where footmen in rich liveries live? Oh, these mansions, this bright light, this delicate aroma, cozy boudoirs, tables bursting under the weight of dishes! New York must be full of such palaces, otherwise these beautiful, self-confident, arrogant creatures would not exist! They are grown somewhere in greenhouses. Kerry was pained by the knowledge that she was not one of them, that her dreams, alas, did not come true. And she was amazed at her loneliness in the last two years, her indifference to the fact that she had never achieved the position for which she had hoped.

Bourgeois criticism, of course, could not tolerate the attack on the “sacred” and did not forgive the writer for “discrediting”. The plot of Dreiser's novel essentially consists of tragic pictures of life. You are talking about American prosperity - there is no such prosperity, there is merciless competition, a brutal struggle for existence. One of the unemployed says, “This is a damned life - even if you stand in the middle of the street, no one will help you!”

The novel “Sister Carrie” was banned; the entire print run remained in the basement of the publishing house.

But Dreiser did not break. He lived a difficult life - he made a living doing odd jobs, took things to a pawn shop, went hungry, but continued to write the truth about the American life that he saw around him.

The novel Sister Carrie was published in London in 1904 and was a great success. After this publication, the book was released to the American reader in the USA in 1907.

The theme of money, which has become obsessive in today's Russia, occupies a central place in Dreiser's novels. It is money that determines the fate of heroes

In the last years of his life, the writer turned to journalism, visited the Soviet Union, took part in actions of the US Communist Party, and actively advocated the opening of a second front and assistance to the USSR in the war against Germany. People's democracy became the leitmotif of his work. “America is worth saving” is the title of one of his journalistic works.

When you read Dreiser's novels, you willy-nilly indulge in reflections on the current situation in Russia - the same era of capitalization of life, the same desire for profit by any means. Some modern Russian writers are trying to talk about this, but so far there is no talent equal to Dreiser.

After 1915, Dreiser wrote novels, philosophical essays, autobiography, and all these works permeates the thought of the impact of oppressive social order on the common man. This topic has been his most popular novel, An American Tragedy (An American Tragedy, 1925). The basis of the novel went to Protocols real trial: a young man, trying to advance in society, commits a crime and sentenced to death. Meanwhile, former admiration Spencer replaced by another world view. In tragic America (Tragic America., 1931) Dreiser encourages Americans to learn from the Russian to save democracy, in the future on many issues, he supported the communists: in 1941, wrote anti-British publicist book is to save America (America Is Worth Saving), 1945. Wishing to support the program of uniting the world under the auspices of the Soviet-American filed an application for admission to the Communist Party.

By the beginning of the 20th century. refers to the literary movement of petty-bourgeois critics of monopoly capitalism - the so-called “muckrakers”. The leader of this movement, Lincoln Steffene, is the author of critical stories. The prominent writer Upton Sinclair, who wrote the revealing novels “The Jungle” during these years, joined this trend.

A controversial and non-standard phenomenon in American literature of the 20s. There was the work of a group of young writers who entered literature immediately after the end of the First World War and reflected in their art the difficult conditions of post-war development. They were especially concerned about the fate of the young man in post-war America. These are the so-called representatives of the “lost generation” - Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, John Dos Passos, Francis Scott Fitzgerald. They, like representatives of the older generation of American writers - critical realists, are characterized by disappointment in American bourgeois democracy, awareness of the tragedy of the fate of the human person in America, and humanistic tendencies. Despite all this, many of their works are pessimistic. The work of these writers was strongly influenced by modernist literary movements. Their literary teachers, at least at the beginning of their creative career or at a certain stage, were T. S. Eliot, G. Stein, and J. Joyce. The term “lost generation” itself acquired citizenship rights after the publication of Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises” in 1926, which was preceded by Stein’s words as an epigraph: “You are all a lost generation.”

A characteristic feature of representatives of American literature of the “Lost Generation” is their appeal to the theme of the meaninglessness of war and to the fate of a young intellectual in post-war America. The theme of disillusionment with capitalist civilization and protest against war are clearly expressed in the novels of Hemingway “A Farewell to Arms!”, Faulkner’s “A Soldier’s Pay,” and Dos Passos’ “Three Soldiers.” The hopelessness of the fate of a young man in the post-war capitalist world emerges before the reader of the novels “The Sun Also Rises” by Hemingway, “Beyond Paradise” by Fitzgerald, “Manhattan” by Dos Passos.

The condemnation of the cruelty and senselessness of the imperialist massacre, the futility of existence and the loss of the purpose of life by young people returning from the theaters of war acquired all the more passion and conviction that the authors of these novels themselves were either direct participants in the First World War, like Hemingway and Dos Passos, or some served in the army in America for a time, like Faulkner and Fitzgerald.

The term “lost generation” itself, of course, is approximate, because the writers who are usually included in this group differ in their political, social and aesthetic views, and in the characteristics of their artistic practice. It is enough to recall the realistic prose of Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Each of these writers is different from the other, and, nevertheless, to some extent, the term “lost generation” can be applied to all of them: awareness of the tragedy of American life had a particularly strong and painful impact on the work of these young people who had lost their faith into the old bourgeois foundations.

And indeed, the consciousness of the loss of old bourgeois ideals, and ignorance about new and other values ​​that could replace them and become a guide in life, made this generation lost. They searched and tried to find new paths. And these searches went in different directions for different representatives of the lost generation. Some looked for them in an in-depth examination of the human psyche, in a formal experiment, others tried to learn more deeply the laws of bourgeois society in order to find an antidote to them, others tried to look for these values ​​outside of America, in Europe, in man’s flight from bourgeois civilization.

The lostness of the “lost generation” is acutely expressed in the works of Francis Scott Fitzgerald, lostness in the sense of the destructiveness of bourgeois America for a person, for a young man in particular. Fitzgerald even gave his own name to the era of the Lost Generation: he called this era the Jazz Age. The very term "jazz age" redefined postwar America. He expressed a feeling of instability, fleetingness in life, at least in the understanding of life by many people who lost faith in it and were in a hurry to live and thereby escape, albeit illusory, from their loss.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald came from a poor but wealthy family, studied at Princeton University, where he acutely felt the difference between himself and the children of wealthy parents, was drafted into the army, but did not get to the front, or even overseas - to Europe.

While still a student at Princeton, Fitzgerald acquired, as he later wrote, “a lasting distrust, a hostility toward the slacker class—not the convictions of a revolutionary, but the secret hatred of a peasant. In the years that followed, I could never stop thinking about where my friends' money came from, could not stop thinking that one day something like the right of seigneur might be used by one of them against my girlfriend.

This acute inner feeling of hatred for the rich gripped Fitzgerald's work from the very beginning. At the same time, seeds of disbelief and disappointment penetrated into the writer’s soul. He published his first stories with difficulty and quickly discovered that serious things were not published by mass magazines that were able to pay large fees, but were accepted only by the so-called small magazines. Along with this, he made a characteristic confession in a letter to an acquaintance: “Is there really no other market for a cynical or pessimistic story other than Smart Set magazine, or does realism close the way for a story in any well-paying magazine, no matter how well written?” This statement is interesting from two points of view: first of all, it shows that Fitzgerald was painfully aware of the hostility of mass magazines to realistic, truthful literature. The conclusion he drew from this turned out to be disastrous for the writer’s talent. Fitzgerald, as is known, ultimately made concessions to magazines and even sometimes renounced his literary convictions, supplying appropriate literary products acceptable for these magazines, for which he earned a lot of money.

Fitzgerald's understanding of realism is interesting. Indeed, the writer stands for realism, but for him a realistic story is both cynical and pessimistic. In his view, realism at this time was inextricably linked with pessimism and even cynicism. However, Fitzgerald showed more cynicism when he wrote stories that did not correspond to his writing credo. As for the cynicism of his best stories, it is, first of all, cynicism in relation to bourgeois norms, and there is much that is healthy in this cynicism.

The artistic structure of the novel, the poetics of the author of “The Great Gatsby” may well create the idea of ​​the author’s indifference to what is happening and even give rise to the idea that Fitzgerald, as Hemingway said, “had an enthusiastic reverence for the rich.” But that's not true. The writer really admires Gatsby’s energy and strength, he sees what unlimited opportunities money provides for satisfying any human needs in the bourgeois world, and he perfectly describes how basely and wasted these opportunities and these human abilities are wasted by rich wasters and people like Gatsby. trying to find happiness through wealth. This saddens him, although the thought may arise that the writer did not see the possibility of achieving happiness in America in any other way, without possessing fabulous wealth, and this makes him a pessimist. Thus, Hemingway's remark may have some meaning.

Fitzgerald does not want the portrayal of strong personalities who disdain the narrow horizon of bourgeois law to be perceived as an apology for evil, so he uses one technique - Gatsby's neighbor Nick Carraway plays a significant role in the novel, on whose behalf the story is told. Nick (the narrator) becomes, according to Cross, “a moral authority that modifies our judgment that he (Fitzgerald - I. 3.) describes him, and his sanity and rationality mediate between the action and the reader. It was a device that allowed Fitzgerald to detach himself from his subject and maintain an even-handed approach to the material without sacrificing the sharpness of his focus." M. Cowley called this technique “double vision”. Essentially this technique develops Balzac's technique. While maintaining a distance from his hero, Fitzgerald, however, does not avoid a certain objectivism and admiration not only for Gatsby’s strong personality, but even for the lifestyle that he and his friends lead. This property of Fitzgerald’s poetry of negative quantities was something Hemingway captured.

Gatsby's tragedy was also close to Fitzgerald himself, who was forced to work long hours to write stories for mass tabloid magazines that could not give him satisfaction, to write for the sake of earning money, in order to have more money. And Fitzgerald deeply understood and realized this tragedy of his. In this sense, Hemingway's concern for his talent was completely justified.

Fitzgerald tried to find new values ​​that he could contrast with the illusory values ​​of bourgeois civilization. He read Marx's Capital and was interested in socialist ideas. But they were not reflected in his work, not only because he did not become a socialist, although, apparently, he sympathized with the progressive movements of his time, but also because of his creative individuality.

The famous American literary historian Willard Thorpe believes that Fitzgerald's modern reputation is largely based on the fact that he was a kind of historian of the actions and motives of the actions of the American rich, but if Fitzgerald was a historian, he was by no means an impartial one. Fitzgerald lost faith in bourgeois ideals, and did not gain new ideals, which determines many of the features of his work and style, but he never lost his artistic vigilance in seeing the meaninglessness of the lives of the American rich, in his hatred of the rich.

The first type can also include Fitzgerald’s novel “The Great Gatsby”

The action of the novel takes place in New York, on Long Island, in the twenties of the 20th century: following chaos. The main artistic device that Fitzgerald uses in “The Great Gatsby” is the technique of a contrast gradually revealed in the course of the action, a peculiar combination of opposites, or, in the words of Malcolm Cowley, the method of “double vision”. Reflecting on his art, the writer himself figuratively defined this method in the following words: “The richness of your emotions, coupled with the strict discipline to which you subject them, creates that special tension in which lies the secret of any attractive force.”

Without the “minor” work of John O'Hara, the palette of American literature of the 20th century would have been clearly incomplete.

For the first time, the Russian reader became acquainted with the work of D.O"Hara by reading his story “Pleasure” (in the Russian translation by Yu. Smirnov “The Whole Cigarette”), published in the magazine “Ogonyok” in July 1937. The theme of the story was quite consistent with the social the direction of American literature of the 30s, called the “red thirties” and reflecting the oppressive atmosphere of the Great Depression, which came after the “era of prosperity” of the twenties (we will give a detailed historical and literary description of the 30s in the corresponding section of this work).

From 1937 to 1970, several more stories by D. O'Hara were published in various magazines, but neither novels nor critical articles about the writer's work appeared in Russian publications. Only in 1970, the year of the writer's death, was published by the Progress publishing house collection "The Thirst to Live", the title of which was the novel with the same title "A rage to live", which, however, was not included in the collection with a foreword by A. M. Zverev. In the novel "The Lockwood Case" the author contrasts George Lockwood, a businessman, with a broken character of a rebellious literature of beatniks and hippies, thereby demonstrating new trends in the approach to its depiction.

Telling the story of the Lockwood family. O'Hara draws a character into whose mouth he puts the idea of ​​wealth as a form of responsibility not only for his business, for personal well-being, but also for the whole country. This concept in great American literature was a fundamentally new approach to highlighting the role of the rich. Until the advent of “The Lockwood Cases,” as we mentioned earlier, the main emphasis in US literature was on exposing the “powers that be.” O'Hara was one of the first in the literature of the 60s to emphasize the positive role of the rich and wealth in stabilizing society and its prosperity. Maurice Homestead, who inherited a "strong position in Pennsylvania" by teaching the founder of the Lockwood dynasty, Abraham, taught him the ethics of legal business. These norms have their own inviolable rules: do not take risks, do not speculate, do not immobilize capital, leave money in your country and constantly strengthen the power and scope of your “business.” O'Hara highlighted another feature of American business - patriotism. The slogan, which was subject to Soviet criticism, was “What is good for General Motors is good for the United States of America”

Thus, we see that, in contrast to the decadent literature of the 50s - 60s of the 20th century, serious American writers came up with works that affirmed the positive values ​​of traditional society: family, marriage, business, dynasty.

He pays special attention to authors who walk the fine line between literary fiction and popular fiction. According to N.A. Anastasyeva, the main criterion of an artist’s talent in America is his popularity, and authors do everything possible to be heard by the public, even to the detriment of their creative principles. He includes F.S. in this category of writers. Fitzgerald and D. O'Hara, noting that literature for O'Hara was not an explosion of inspiration, but an ordinary day job, and the only problem with which he was concerned was the problem of profitability.

It is known that O'Hara often compared himself with Faulkner during his lifetime. They both sought to explore all human problems based on the life of a remote American province. N.A. Anastasyev debunks this illusion, showing that there is an insurmountable line between the work of these writers: that What in Faulkner is bright and expressive, what in O'Hara is primitive and everyday. Faulkner creates his own story, O'Hara just strings together small external details one after another. In Faulkner, every phrase is significant, every word carries incredible emotional tension, in O'Hara the dialogue dominates, where there is no place for reticence and mystery. All this is the basis of the firm conviction of criticism that the writer’s prose is aimed at the average consciousness, it does not require any emotional or intellectual expenditure from the reader.

Indicative in this regard is the opinion of one of the leading American critics, M. Bruccoli, reflected in the monograph “The Case of O’Hara” (1975), in the section with the meaningful title “Master”: “What are the reasons for including John O’Hara among the classics of American literature? First of all, the Americanism of his works: his value as a chronicler of three decades of American life. The unsurpassed accuracy of this chronicle allows us to classify his works as the enduring achievements of our literature." M. Bruccoli objects to those critics who reproached D.O. "Hara for superficiality and reportage. “The most common cliché of American criticism is to accuse the writer of “superficial realism,” “reporter realism.” But “superficial realism” does not mean a lack of depth of thought. It involves writing skills in which significant details are truly imbued with special meaning. John O'Hara surpassed everyone in playing with details: he knew exactly what he was writing about. The main literary advantage of “superficial realism” is (apart from the pleasure of recognition) that it makes the reader believe in the veracity of the entire book due to trust in the details ". This is the point of view of M. Bruccoli, and it is difficult to disagree with it.

It should be said that M. Bruccoli’s monograph “The Case of O’Hara” is one of the most serious works of the 70s, in which the researcher stated the need to appreciate the writer’s place in American literature and remove the label of “frivolous” and “superficial” from him "A prose writer, more of a reporter than a writer. In support of his high assessment of D. O'Hara, the American researcher cites a number of noteworthy arguments. First of all, M. Bruccoli emphasizes the historical and social significance of his works. M. Bruccoli rightfully states that the writer’s voice in American literary literature is quite recognizable: this happens due to the original presentation of the material. “He represents a world that is, without a doubt, only his,” writes the critic.

In the person of M. Bruccoli, the work of John O'Hara acquired an authoritative supporter who did a lot to establish the name of the writer in the academic environment of the United States. In his opinion, D.O'Hara wrote truthfully and accurately about life and people for forty years, despising fashion without stooping to falsehood, creating a creative legacy unrivaled in scope and dedication to American life. M. Bruccoli ranks D. O'Hara among the best American novelists, journalists and short story masters. We share this point of view.

His journalism is also of undoubted interest to researchers of O'Hara's work. O'Hara worked fruitfully in the newspapers World, Herald Tribune, magazines Bulletin-Index, Newsweek, Liberty, and wrote the column “My Turn” (My turn).

Of particular interest, from the point of view of the evolution of O'Hara's worldview, is the article in the “My Turn” section in Newsday magazine. For many readers, the writer appeared in it from the other side: not as a critic of American reality, but as a right-wing conservative who takes protective positions and At the same time, he defends his independent point of view as a journalist.

O'Hara's amendments were associated with deep processes in his worldview, which occurred as a result of the rejection of the critical sentiments of his youth, joining the American establishment, rethinking his role in society, and abandoning the position of a critic of the social foundations of American society.

Russian critic N.A. Anastasyev negatively assessed the experience of D.O"Hara - a journalist, believing that this experience and reporter's style of writing interfered with him as a writer. In the article "Mass Consciousness and the American Writer" (1978), N.A. Anastasyev speaks out about D.O "I have a number of serious comments. He believes that O'Hara's writing style is devoid of subtext. Everything is indicated too precisely and leaves no room for the reader's imagination. According to the critic, the experience of O'Hara the journalist limits the capabilities of O'Hara the writer: the details are noted very correctly, but they are not form a unique human image. However, this reproach was hardly deserved. O'Hara, the writer, is inseparable from O'Hara the journalist. In addition, most of the creative techniques used by O'Hara, the novelist and short story writer, were reflected in his newspaper reports and articles.

While working as a correspondent, O'Hara honed his writing style - short, succinct and precise, which allowed critics to talk about the peculiar "New Yorker" style of the writer's stories, named after the New Yorker magazine, in which O'Hara worked as a correspondent and published 227 of 400 stories.

O'Hara also made his contribution to literary criticism in the United States. Back in 1945, he wrote a preface to a selection of the works of his idol F.S. Fitzgerald, who, after a period of stormy fame, was practically forgotten in post-war America. Revive literary reputation Scott Fitzgerald was decided by D. Parker, who turned to D. O'Hara with a request for a foreword. The writer did not limit himself to reviewing F.S. Fitzgerald, but also expressed his opinion about American literature in general. In his preface, D. O'Hara spoke of Scott Fitzgerald not only as a master of artistic prose, but also as a writer who sang true love in his works and, through his way of life, proved to Americans the possibility of family happiness. Later, D. O'Hara wrote preface and to the pocket edition of Dorothy Parker, published by Viking Press.

Subsequently, D. O'Hara collaborated with a number of American educational institutions in the United States. In lectures given at Rider College and in critical articles, he outlined the basic principles of his poetics, introduced him to his own creative laboratory, and spoke with memories of F. S. Fitzgerald , W. Faulkner and E. Hemingway. D. O'Hara was a bright, versatile personality, he was not just a writer, but also a journalist, screenwriter, lecturer, literary critic, who made a huge contribution to American literature, as well as to American journalism and literary criticism.

As for other representatives of critical realism, Hemingway wrote that Fitzgerald considered the bourgeoisie a special race, shrouded in a haze of mystery, and when he became convinced that they were not like that at all, it bent him more than anything else. He was right in saying that for Fitzgerald the rich were a special race, but we cannot agree when he speaks of Fitzgerald's rapturous awe of them. Of course, Fitzgerald believed that wealth brings many benefits to a person in the bourgeois world, but he did not so much admire the rich as despise them. He viewed wealth as more than just a large amount of money in the hands of one person or another. The rich were indeed a special race for him, but not a biological, but a social caste. Wealth, from Fitzgerald's point of view, is not only an economic phenomenon; for him it had certain moral and ethical sides. The rich are a special race of people to whom everything is allowed in the bourgeois world and therefore they have no humanity. The spiritual deafness of the rich, the dehumanizing power of wealth - this is the main ethical property of this race. And Hemingway, of course, is hardly right when he declares through the lips of his hero that this race of the rich is shrouded in a haze of mystery for Fitzgerald - after all, with his creativity he sought to destroy this haze of mystery, sought to penetrate the world of the rich, alien to him, in order to tell about it differently, as it was done in cheap and ridiculous Hollywood films.

This deep sense of the social aspects of American society and the close connection between the social and moral and ethical aspects of its main conflict, which gives rise to American tragedies, is the main pathos of Fitzgerald's early work.

Hemingway also saw the tragedy of American life, but they understood the reasons for it differently. Hemingway's attitude towards Fitzgerald was influenced by the difference in their creative personalities. Hemingway sought to show a strong, courageous man looking for his place in life and, however, often not finding it. The search for true humanity attracted him to people devoid of passion for profit and prosperity. Fitzgerald's humanity was manifested in his hatred of the rich, in his desire to show the inhumanity of the rich and wealth. Fitzgerald's heroes. Basically, there were people deprived of wealth, these humane heroes appeared in reality as victims of the heartlessness of the rich, and were unable to resist the rich.

Fitzgerald always held Hemingway in high esteem and admired his talent. Hemingway, speaking about his sympathies for Fitzgerald, was very strict with him. Hemingway was frightened by aspects of Fitzgerald's work that forced Fitzgerald himself to talk about his cynicism and pessimism. Hemingway was also pessimistic in many of his works, but cynicism even towards the rich was unacceptable to him.

Hatred of the rich gave Fitzgerald a sense of the grief and disaster that threatened America. “All the stories that came into my head,” he wrote, “had a touch of disaster.” “And this sense of catastrophe,” writes the English critic Cross, “is at the very center of Fitzgerald’s work.” But this definition is not entirely accurate - Fitzgerald's work is permeated by an apocalyptic sense of the catastrophic tragedy of American life, which brings him closer to Dreiser. It is characteristic that of the writers of the lost generation, only Fitzgerald in the 20s. was a connoisseur and admirer of Dreiser's talent. Despite the fact that Fitzgerald’s elegant and light style is far from Dreiser’s ponderous and richly detailed style, they also had something in common not only in relation to bourgeois America - they were brought together by a peculiar poetry of negative quantities, which was clearly manifested in Dreiser’s “Trilogy of Desire” and in Fitzgerald - in many of his works, and above all in the novel “The Great Gatsby” (1925).

Fitzgerald's hatred of wealth and the rich found its highest expression in the novel The Great Gatsby. Wealth also regenerates Gatsby himself - it is characteristic that he even changed his first and last name: John Gats is his real name. In his youth, he drew up a plan for his self-improvement, but soon life, bourgeois American reality, forced him to abandon this plan and devote himself to the pursuit of money. Having become rich, he takes a different surname not only to hide his past - this is a kind of symbol of his rebirth.

The English literary critic Cross writes that “critics have called The Great Gatsby a novel of manners, a romantic novel, a dramatic novel, and a symbolic novel. And yet its greatness cannot be separated from the fact that it is one of the few truly tragic novels of that century." Cross is absolutely right here - this is truly a tragic novel. "The Great Gatsby", published simultaneously with "An American Tragedy", developed the same ideas as "An American Tragedy", although it revealed them in a different artistic manner, also close to Dreiser, but more to Dreiser's "Trilogy of Desire" than "American tragedy."

In “The Great Gatsby,” the life of the powerful emerges and reveals the “meaninglessness of life,” “the meaninglessness of it all,” although Fitzgerald does not reach those depths of realistic insight into the anti-human essence of business that are characteristic of Dreiser. The plot of the novel is quite simple and at first glance may even seem a little trivial. Jay Gatsby, a nouveau riche 1920s man who made his fortune selling liquor during Prohibition, leads a staggeringly wide lifestyle:

“At high tide in the afternoon I watched his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts of foam. »

The luxurious receptions he throws at his villa, inviting hundreds of strangers, bring him enormous fame in society and the ironic title of the “Great” Gatsby.

“On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus, bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the morning and long past midnight, while his station wagon scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.”

He needs all this noisy glitter, all the sensational tinsel in order to return the feelings of his former lover Daisy. “The Great” Gatsby met her during the war, when he was a young officer who had no means of living except his army salary. Soon he was sent to the front in Europe, and Daisy married the “fabulously rich” Thomas Buchanan.

He came down with a hundred people in four private cars, and hired a whole floor of the Seelbach Hotel, and the day before the wedding he gave her a string of pearls valued at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Fitzgerald himself considered this book his true asset and an expression of the main direction of his work. The novel is named after the main character of the work, who participated in the First World War and received the rank of major. He found himself without a livelihood after returning to his homeland. He was picked up by stock speculator and fraudster Wolfsheim and brought into his company. Gatsby seeks to hide under the guise of a prosperous philanthropist, as he appears to the eyes of his neighbors in a luxurious country villa, where he hosts frequent lavish receptions that turn into orgies. But then Gatsby's past is accidentally revealed, and then light is shed on his career.

Why they came East I don"t know. They had spent a year in France for no particular reason, and then drifted here and there restlessly wherever people played polo and were rich together.

The novel was originally called “Among Garbage Heaps and Millionaires” - here the main meaning is revealed to some extent - the contrast between enormous material wealth and the decline in morality of those who possess them. Gatsby is nouveau riche. Wealth for him is not an end in itself, it is a means to have everything that money can give. Gatsby sees money as the key to his happiness. This idea is most clearly revealed in Gatsby’s relation to Daisy Buchanan, the wife of a rich neighbor, with whom Gatsby fell in love in his youth, but was never able to marry her due to poverty. An unfortunate fate befell Daisy's soul: her husband, a rich man, does not love her. It seemed to Gatsby that his happiness was close, but happiness turned out to be unrealistic, and this was prevented not only by Daisy’s husband, but also by Daisy herself. New features appear in her character. Gatsby says about Daisy:

“She"s got an indiscreet voice,” I remarked. “It"s full of ----” I hesitated.

“Her voice is full of money,” he said suddenly.

That was it. I"d never understood before. It was full of money -- that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals" song of it.... high in a white palace the king"s daughter, the golden girl....

And this means not only Daisy’s wealth, but also belonging to the race of the rich, and therefore certain moral traits of her character.

Daisy no longer has any real feelings for Gatsby, and he realizes his moral bankruptcy even before his past is revealed. A meeting with Daisy shows him that not only is his dream impossible, but also that both Daisy and he are killed by their wealth, killed morally.

“I keep it always full of interesting people, night and day. People who do interesting things. Celebrated people.”

It is often said that for Fitzgerald Gatsby is almost a positive hero. This is hardly true. The Great Gatsby actually becomes a person of the same circle as Tom Buchanan, Daisy and the rest of the participants in his orgies. Fitzgerald admires, perhaps, the strength and energy of this man, which markedly distinguish him from Tom Buchanan, but this kind of reverence for Gatsby by the writer does not mean that he is a positive hero for Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald finds the difference between Gatsby and Tom Buchanan in their different attitudes towards their wealth: for Buchanan, they exist from birth and they determine his social and moral image as a rich man hated by Fitzgerald; Gatsby is also a rich man, but his wealth - the result of his own efforts - is only a means of realizing his deepest desires. Gatsby never finds happiness by becoming rich. Money, oddly enough, is not able to give happiness to this capable and talented person - it cannot be bought with money. True, unlike Dreiser, Fitzgerald does not reveal the process of enriching his hero, the nature of his participation in capitalist relations, his place in the world of finance and capital, leaving this side of Gatsby’s activities in the background of the novel or even outside it.

“One thing"s sure and nothing"s sure

The rich get richer and the poor get-- children.

In the meantime,

In between time----” Day and night,

Day and night,

Life is full of fun...

The rich people make bags full of money.

Well, the poor man only makes a bunch of kids,

By the way,

By the way…

Both Dreiser and Fitzgerald admire the strength and energy of their heroes. Fitzgerald follows in Dreiser's tradition. For him, Gatsby is interesting not as an object of “exposure” - such an object is rather Tom Buchanan, but also not as an example of an uncorrupt person - Gatsby does not at all shine with virtues, and he made money from stock market speculation and fraud. Fitzgerald is attracted by his energy and strength and is worried about the waste of Gatsby’s human strength; for Fitzgerald, he carries some kind of hellish power. Gatsby is a tragic figure to a certain extent. This is the tragedy of an extraordinary person who devoted himself to serving a useless cause - accumulating money. Only in wealth did he see the key to human happiness. With his help, Gatsby thought to fulfill his dreams, but he was mistaken.

Speaking about Daisy, who looks with delight at the luxury of Gatsby’s villa, the same cannot be said about Gatsby, despite all his immense wealth, in many ways he is still the same poor officer who buys himself expensive things just to impress Daisy and return the old love, which can be found in the following context:

His bedroom was the simplest room of all -- except where the dresser was garnished with a toilet set of pure dull gold.

It is no coincidence that many American critics talk about Gatsby’s tragedy, that Gatsby feels hopeless in achieving his American dream, and at the same time emphasize the purely American character (Americanness) of Gatsby’s tragedy. Gatsby is an unusual person who inspires admiration for the courage of his actions and the strength of his personality. Gatsby achieves wealth only in order to win the right to the woman he loves, but this turns out to be impossible, and this is his tragedy. The tragedy of Gatsby is an American tragedy of a man ruined by bourgeois America with its motto: money can do anything.

This is the era of colonization, the dominance of Puritan ideals, patriarchal pious morals. Theological interests predominated in literature. The collection “Bay Psalm Book” () was published; poems and poems were written for various occasions, mainly of a patriotic nature (“The tenth muse, lately sprung up in America” by Anne Bradstreet, an elegy on the death of N. Bacon, poems by W. Wood, J. Norton, Urian Oka, national songs “Lovewells. fight”, “The song of Bradoec men”, etc.).

Prose literature of that time was devoted mainly to descriptions of travel and the history of the development of colonial life. The most prominent theological writers were Hooker, Cotton, Roger Williams, Bayles, J. Wise, Jonathan Edwards. At the end of the 18th century, agitation for the liberation of blacks began. The champions of this movement in literature were J. Woolmans, author of “Some considerations on the Keeping of Negroes” (), and Ant. Benezet, author of “A caution to Great Britain and its colonies relative to enslaved negroes” (). The transition to the next era was the works of B. Franklin - “The Path to Plenty” (eng. The Way to Wealth), “The speech of Father Abraham”, etc.; He founded Poor Richard's Almanac. Poor Richards Almanack).

Age of Revolution

The second period of North American literature, from before 1790, embraces the era of revolution and is distinguished by the development of journalism and political literature. Major writers on political issues: Samuel Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, J. Matheson, Alexander Hamilton, J. Stray, Thomas Paine. Historians: Thomas Getchinson, supporter of the British, Jeremiah Belknap, Dove. Ramsay and William Henry Drayton, adherents of the revolution; then J. Marshall, Rob. Proud, Abiel Golmez. Theologians and moralists: Samuel Hopkins, William White, J. Murray.

19th century

The third period covers all of 19th century North American literature. The preparatory era was the first quarter of the century, when the prose style was developed. " Sketch-book"Washington Irving () marked the beginning of semi-philosophical, semi-journalistic literature, sometimes humorous, sometimes instructive-moralistic essays. The national traits of the Americans were especially clearly reflected here - their practicality, utilitarian morality and naive, cheerful humor, very different from the sarcastic, gloomy humor of the British.

Edgar Allan Poe (−) and Walt Whitman (−) stand completely apart from the others.

Edgar Allan Poe is a deep mystic, a poet of refined nervous moods, who loved everything mysterious and enigmatic, and at the same time a great virtuoso of verse. He is not at all American by nature; he does not have American sobriety and efficiency. His work bears a sharply individual imprint.

Walt Whitman is the embodiment of American democracy. His " grass leaves"(English) Leaves of Grass) sing of freedom and strength, joy and fullness of life. His free verse revolutionized modern versification.

In the prose literature of America, novelists, as well as essayists, are in the foreground - then Washington Irving, Oliver Holmes, Ralph Emerson, James Lowell. The novelists portray the energetic, enterprising natures of both the former settlers, who lived amidst danger and hard work, and the modern, more cultured Yankees.

Emigrants played a major role in American literature of the twentieth century: it is difficult to underestimate the scandal that Lolita caused; a very prominent niche is American Jewish literature, often humorous: Singer, Bellow, Roth, Malamud, Allen; one of the most famous black writers was Baldwin; Recently, the Greek Eugenides and the Chinese Amy Tan have gained fame. The five most significant Chinese-American writers include Edith Maude Eaton, Diana Chang, Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan, and Gish Jen. Chinese-American literature is represented by Louis Chu, author of the satirical novel Eat a Bowl of Tea (1961), and playwrights Frank Chin and David Henry Hwang. Saul Bellow won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976. The work of Italian-American authors (Mario Puzo, John Fante, Don DeLillo) enjoys great success. Openness has increased not only in the national-religious field: the famous poet Elizabeth Bishop did not hide her love for women; Other writers include Capote and Cunningham.

J. Salinger's novel "The Catcher in the Rye" occupies a special place in the literature of the 50s. This work, published in 1951, has become (especially among young people) a cult favorite. In American dramaturgy of the 50s, the plays of A. Miller and T. Williams stand out. In the 60s, the plays of E. Albee became famous ("An Incident at the Zoo", "The Death of Bessie Smith", "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", "The Whole Garden"). At the beginning of the second half of the 20th century, a number of novels by Mitchell Wilson were published , related to the topic of science (“Live with Lightning”, “My Brother, My Enemy”). These books became widely known (especially in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 70s).

The diversity of American literature never allows one movement to completely displace others; after the beatniks of the 50-60s (J. Kerouac, L. Ferlinghetti, G. Corso, A. Ginsberg), the most noticeable trend became - and continues to be - postmodernism (for example, Paul Auster, Thomas Pynchon). books by postmodernist writer Don DeLillo (b. 1936). One of the famous researchers of American literature of the 20th century is the translator and literary critic A.M. Zverev (1939-2003).

In the United States, science fiction and horror literature became widespread, and in the second half of the 20th century, fantasy. The first wave of American sci-fi, which included Edgar Rice Burroughs, Murray Leinster, Edmond Hamilton, was primarily entertaining and gave rise to the "space opera" subgenre. By the mid-20th century, more complex fiction began to dominate in the United States. Among the world-famous American science fiction writers are Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, Andre Norton, Clifford Simak. In the USA, a subgenre of science fiction called cyberpunk arose (Philip K. Dick, William Gibson, Bruce Sterling). By the 21st century, America remains one of the main centers of science fiction, thanks to authors such as Dan Simmons, Lois Bujold, David Weber, Scott Westerfeld, and others.

Most of the popular horror authors of the 20th century are American. A classic of horror literature of the first half of the century was Howard Lovecraft, creator of the Cthulhu Mythos. In the second half of the century, Stephen King and Dean Koontz worked in the USA. American fantasy began in the 1930s with Robert E. Howard, author of Conan, and was subsequently developed by authors such as Roger Zelazny, Paul William Anderson, Ursula Le Guin. One of the most popular fantasy authors in the 21st century is the American George R. R. Martin, creator of Game of Thrones.

Literary genres

• American fiction
• American detective
• American novella
• American novel

Literature

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• US Writers: Brief Creative Biographies / Comp. and general ed. Y. Zasursky, G. Zlobin, Y. Kovalev. M.: Raduga, 1990. - 624 p.
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• Contemporary American Poetry: An Anthology / Comp. April Lindner. - M.: OGI, 2007. - 504 p.
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Articles

• Bolotova L. D. American mass magazines of the late XIX - early XX centuries. and the movement of “muckrakers” // “Bulletin of Moscow State University”. Journalism, 1970. No. 1. P.70-83.
• Zverev A. M. American military novel of recent years: Review // Modern fiction abroad. 1970. No. 2. P. 103-111.
• Zverev A. M. Russian classics and the formation of realism in US literature // World significance of Russian literature of the 19th century. M.: Nauka, 1987. pp. 368-392.
• Zverev A. M. The Collapsed Ensemble: Do We Know American Literature? // Foreign literature. 1992. No. 10. P. 243-250.
• Zverev A.M. Glued Vase: American Novel of the 90s: Gone and “Current” // Foreign Literature. 1996. No. 10. P. 250-257.
• Zemlyanova L. Notes on modern poetry in the USA. // Zvezda, 1971. No. 5. P. 199-205.
• Morton M. Children's literature of the USA yesterday and today // Children's literature, 1973, No. 5. P.28-38.
• William Kittredge, Stephen M. Krauser The Great American Detective // ​​“Foreign Literature”, 1992, No. 11, 282-292
• Nesterov Anton. Odysseus and the Sirens: American poetry in Russia in the second half of the twentieth century // “Foreign Literature” 2007, No. 10
• Osovsky O. E., Osovsky O. O. Unity of polyphony: problems of US literature on the pages of the yearbook of Ukrainian Americanists // Questions of Literature. No. 6. 2009
• Popov I. American literature in parodies // Questions of literature. 1969.No. 6. P.231-241.
• Staroverova E.V. The role of Holy Scripture in the formation of the national literary tradition of the USA: poetry and prose of New England of the 17th century // Spiritual culture of Russia: history and modernity / Third regional Pimenov readings. - Saratov, 2007. - pp. 104-110.
• Eyshiskina N. In the face of anxiety and hope. Teenager in modern American literature. // Children's literature. 1969.No. 5. P.35-38.

see also

Links

In the 20th century, the problems of American literature are determined by a fact of enormous significance: the richest, most powerful capitalist country, which, it would seem, can solve all the problems of the world, gives birth to the most gloomy and bitter literature of our time.

Writers acquired a new quality: they became characterized by a sense of tragedy and doom of this strange world.

In the second half of the 20th century. The short story will no longer play such an important role in American literature as in the 19th century; it is being replaced by the realistic novel. But still, novelists continue to pay significant attention to the short story, and a number of outstanding American prose writers devote themselves primarily or exclusively to this genre.

One of them is O. Henry (William Sidney Porter), who made an attempt to chart a different path to the American short story, “bypassing” the already defined critical-realist direction. O. Henry was, if you can call him that, the founder of the American happy ending (which was present in the vast majority of his stories). This would subsequently be used very successfully in American popular fiction.

After World War II, there was a certain decline in the development of literature, but this did not apply to poetry and drama, where the work of poets Robert Lowell and Alan Ginsberg, Gregory Corso and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, playwrights Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee gained worldwide fame.

In the post-war years, the anti-racist theme so characteristic of black literature deepened. This is evidenced by the poetry and prose of Langston Hughes, the novels of John Killens ("Young Blood", "And Then We Heard Thunder"), the fiery journalism of James Baldwin, and the dramaturgy of Lorraine Hansberry. One of the brightest representatives of black creativity was Richard Wright (“Son of America”).

Increasingly, literature is created “to order” from the ruling circles of America. The novels of L. Nyson, L. Stalling and others, which depicted the actions of American troops during World War I and other “good” of America in a heroic aura, are being released onto the book market in huge quantities.

During World War II, the ruling circles of the United States managed to subjugate many writers. And for the first time, on the same scale, US literature was put into the service of government propaganda. As many critics of the time noted, this process marked a disastrous backward movement in the development of US literature, which was clearly confirmed in the post-war history of the country.

The so-called mass fiction, which sets itself the goal of transporting the reader to a pleasant and rosy world, is becoming widespread in the United States. The book market was filled with novels by Kathleen Norris, Temple Bailey, Fenny Gerst and other purveyors of “literature for women” who produced lightweight novels tailored from certain templates, with an indispensable happy ending.

In addition to books on a love theme, popular literature was represented by detective stories. Also popular were pseudo-historical works that combined entertainment with an apology for American statehood (Kenneth Roberts).

In the 60-70s of the USA, taking into account the mass black and anti-war movement in the country, there was an obvious turn of many writers towards significant social issues, an increase in social-critical sentiments in their work, and a return to the traditions of realistic creativity.

The role of John Cheever as the leader of US prose is becoming increasingly significant. Another representative of the literature of that time, Saul Bellow, was awarded the Nobel Prize and won wide recognition both in America and abroad.

Among modernist writers, the leading role belongs to the “black humorists” Barthelme, Barthes, Pynchon, in whose work irony often hides the lack of their own vision of the world and who, most likely, are characterized by a tragic feeling and misunderstanding of life rather than its rejection.

In recent decades, many writers have entered literature directly from universities. And therefore, the main themes of their works became memories of childhood, youth and university years, and if the themes were exhausted, the writers faced difficulties. To a certain extent, this also applies to such wonderful writers as John Updike and Philip Roth. But not all of these writers remained in their perception of America only at the level of university impressions. By the way, F. Roth and J. Updike in their latest works go far beyond the boundaries of their previous works.

Among the middle generation of American writers, the most popular and important are Kurt Vonnegut, Joyce Carol Oates and John Gardner. The future belongs to these writers, although they have already spoken a separate and original word in American literature. Needless to say, as for the concepts, they all express different varieties of modern bourgeois trends in American literary criticism.

But it is clear that modern US literature, already time-tested, will be learned, appreciated and comprehended, perhaps from other positions, only over a certain amount of time - as will most likely be the case from the point of view of the development of American literature as a whole.

Speaking about the present day of American literature, one cannot fail to mention, first of all, the postmodern critical school that turned out to be the most popular in the United States - deconstructionism, the adherents of which, grouped around Yale University, published a collection of their articles.

One of the brightest stars in the firmament of American literature was Harold Bloom.

Bloom is an influential and controversial figure. As a cultural theorist, he conducted excursions into its different time and geographical layers - from Christian to Judaic. An extremely active participant in the literary process, he began and successfully implemented a large number of reprints of American classics with his own prefaces, evaluating and reevaluating based on his own theories.

Bloom's study that became most famous in the 1980s was "The Fear of Influence." His main thesis, simplifying as much as possible, can be formulated as follows: all poetry is born of the desire of a creative person to resist his famous and significant predecessors. Therefore, he considers all poetry outside the specifics of time, space and the specific personalities of the masters as a kind of “family novel”, declaring: “my subject is only the poet in the poet or the original poetic “I”. The vocabulary that Bloom uses is “struggle”, "victory", "defeat" ("The War of American Poets against Influence...", etc.) - that is, the entire "militaristic" arsenal, which is based on binary oppositions, so uncharacteristic of postmodernism. Any "subsequent" poet reveals an inspired desire to “rewrite” his predecessor, pushing away from him under the great fear of his influence, which does not allow him to open up to his own “I”.

Therefore, every reading is “a failure to convey the meaning,” and in principle, “there are no interpretations except misinterpretations, and therefore all criticism is prose poetry.”

Francis Fergusson devotes a large part of his summary work, The Romantic Studios, to a critical analysis of Bloom's theory and comes to the fair conclusion that in his execution "the history of poetry looks like the history of decline."

In the literature, ideas of the struggle for peace, ideas of humanism, and interest in psychoanalysis continue to be heard (J. Salinger, J. Steinbeck, W. Faulkner, G. Green, E. Caldwell, and others). American literature continues to be interested in the problems of the meaning of human existence, the role of the artist in society, and the possibilities of human self-realization in a technocratic and militarized world.

The United States of America can rightfully be proud of the literary heritage left by the best American writers. Beautiful works continue to be created even now, however, most of them are fiction and mass literature that do not carry any food for thought.

The best recognized and unrecognized American writers

Critics still debate whether fiction is beneficial to humans. Some say that it develops imagination and a sense of grammar, and also broadens one’s horizons, and individual works can even change one’s worldview. Some people believe that only scientific literature containing practical or factual information that can be used in everyday life and develop not spiritually or morally, but materially and functionally, is suitable for reading. Therefore, American writers write in a huge number of different directions - the literary “market” of America is as large as its cinema and variety stage are diverse.

Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Master of the True Nightmare

Since the American people are greedy for everything bright and unusual, the literary world of Howard Phillips Lovecraft turned out to be just to their taste. It was Lovecraft who gave the world stories about the mythical deity Cthulhu, who fell asleep at the bottom of the ocean millions of years ago and will wake up only when the time of the apocalypse comes. Lovecraft has amassed a huge fan base around the world, with bands, songs, albums, books and films named in his honor. The incredible world that the Master of Horror created in his works never ceases to frighten even the most avid and experienced horror fans. Stephen King himself was inspired by Lovecraft's talent. Lovecraft created a whole pantheon of gods and frightened the world with terrible prophecies. Reading his works, the reader feels a completely inexplicable, incomprehensible and very powerful fear, although the author almost never directly describes what one should be afraid of. The writer forces the reader’s imagination to work in such a way that he himself imagines the most terrible pictures, and this literally makes the blood run cold. Despite the highest writing skills and recognizable style, many American writers turned out to be unrecognized during their lifetime, and Howard Lovecraft was one of them.

Master of Monstrous Descriptions - Stephen King

Inspired by the worlds created by Lovecraft, Stephen King created a lot of magnificent works, many of which were filmed. Such American writers as Douglas Clegg, Jeffrey Deaver and many others worshiped his skill. Stephen King is still creating, although he has repeatedly admitted that because of his works, unpleasant supernatural things often happened to him. One of his most famous books, with the short but loud title “It,” excited millions. Critics complain that it is almost impossible to convey the full horror of his works in film adaptations, but brave directors are trying to do this to this day. King’s books such as “The Dark Tower”, “Necessary Things”, “Carrie”, “Dreamcatcher” are very popular. Stephen King not only knows how to create a tense, tense atmosphere, but also offers the reader a lot of absolutely disgusting and detailed descriptions of dismembered bodies and other not very pleasant things.

Classic fantasy from Harry Harrison

Harry Harrison is still very popular in fairly wide circles. His style is easy and his language is straightforward and understandable, qualities that make his works suitable for readers of almost any age. Garrison's plots are extremely interesting, and the characters are original and interesting, so everyone can find a book to their liking. One of Harrison's most famous books, The Untamed Planet boasts a twisting plot, relatable characters, good humor and even a beautiful romance. This American science fiction writer made people think about the consequences of too much technological progress, and whether we really need space travel if we still cannot control ourselves and our own planet. Garrison showed how to create science fiction that both children and adults can understand.

Max Barry and his books for the progressive consumer

Many modern American writers place their main emphasis on the consumer nature of man. On the shelves of bookstores today you can find a lot of fiction telling about the adventures of fashionable and stylish heroes in the field of marketing, advertising and other big business. However, even among such books you can find real pearls. Max Barry's work sets the bar so high for modern authors that only truly original writers can leap over it. His novel "Syrup" centers on the story of a young man named Scat, who dreams of making a brilliant career in advertising. The ironic style, apt use of strong words and stunning psychological pictures of the characters made the book a bestseller. “Syrup” got its own film adaptation, which did not become as popular as the book, but was almost as good in quality, since Max Barry himself helped the screenwriters work on the film.

Robert Heinlein: a fierce critic of public relations

There is still debate about which writers can be considered modern. Critics believe that they can also be included in their category, and after all, modern American writers should write in a language that would be understandable to today's people and would be interesting to them. Heinlein coped with this task one hundred percent. His satirical and philosophical novel “Passing through the Valley of the Shadow of Death” shows all the problems of our society using a very original plot device. The main character is an elderly man whose brain was transplanted into the body of his young and very beautiful secretary. A lot of time in the novel is devoted to the themes of free love, homosexuality and lawlessness in the name of money. We can say that the book “Passing through the Valley of the Shadow of Death” is a very tough, but at the same time extremely talented satire that exposes modern American society.

and food for hungry young minds

American classic writers concentrated most of all on philosophical, significant issues and directly on the design of their works, and they were almost not interested in further demand. In modern literature published after 2000, it is difficult to find something truly deep and original, since all the topics have already been brilliantly covered by the classics. This is observed in the books of the Hunger Games series, written by the young writer Suzanne Collins. Many thoughtful readers doubt that these books are worthy of any attention, since they are nothing more than a parody of real literature. First of all, in the “Hunger Games” series, designed for young readers, the theme of a love triangle, shaded by the pre-war state of the country and the general atmosphere of brutal totalitarianism, is attractive. Film adaptations of Suzanne Collins' novels hit the box office, and the actors who played the leading characters in them became famous throughout the world. Skeptics about this book say that it is better for young people to read at least this than not to read at all.

Frank Norris and his for ordinary people

Some famous American writers are practically unknown to any reader far from the classical literary world. This can be said, for example, about the work of Frank Norris, who did not stop him from creating the amazing work “Octopus”. The realities of this work are far from the interests of the Russian people, but Norris’s unique writing style invariably attracts lovers of good literature. When we think of American farmers, we always picture smiling, happy, tanned people with an expression of gratitude and humility on their faces. Frank Norris showed the real life of these people without embellishing it. In the novel "Octopus" there is not even a hint of the spirit of American chauvinism. Americans loved to talk about the lives of ordinary people, and Norris was no exception. It seems that the issue of social injustice and insufficient pay for hard work will concern people of all nationalities in any historical time.

Francis Fitzgerald and his reprimand to unlucky Americans

The great American writer Francis gained a “second popularity” after the release of the recent film adaptation of his magnificent novel “The Great Gatsby.” The film made young people read the classics of American literature, and the leading actor Leonardo DiCaprio was predicted to win an Oscar, but, as always, he did not receive it. "The Great Gatsby" is a very short novel that vividly illustrates the perverted American morality, masterfully showing the cheap human inside. The novel teaches that friends cannot be bought, just as love cannot be bought. The main character of the novel, the narrator Nick Carraway, describes the whole situation from his point of view, which gives the whole plot piquancy and a little ambiguity. All the characters are very original and perfectly illustrate not only American society of that time, but also our present-day realities, since people will never stop hunting for material wealth, despising spiritual depth.

Both poet and prose writer

America's poets and writers have always been distinguished by their amazing versatility. If today authors can create only prose or only poetry, then previously such a preference was considered almost bad taste. For example, the aforementioned Howard Phillitt Lovecraft, in addition to amazingly creepy stories, also wrote poetry. What is especially interesting is that his poems were much lighter and more positive than prose, although they provided no less food for thought. Lovecraft's mastermind, Edgar Allan Poe, also wrote great poems. Unlike Lovecraft, Poe did this much more often and much better, which is why some of his poems are still heard today. Edgar Allan Poe's poems contained not only stunning metaphors and mystical allegories, but also had philosophical overtones. Who knows, perhaps the modern master of the horror genre Stephen King will also sooner or later turn to poetry, tired of complex sentences.

Theodore Dreiser and "An American Tragedy"

The life of ordinary people and the rich was described by many classical authors: Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Bernard Shaw, O'Henry. The American writer Theodore Dreiser also followed this path, placing more emphasis on the psychologism of the characters than directly on the description of everyday problems. His novel "An American Tragedy" perfectly presented the world with a vivid example of one that collapses due to the wrong moral choices and vanity of the protagonist. The reader, oddly enough, is not at all imbued with sympathy for this character, because only a real scoundrel who causes nothing but contempt and hatred can violate all societies so indifferently. In this guy, Theodore Dreiser embodied those people who want to break out of the shackles of a society that is disgusting to them at any cost. However, is this high society really so good that one can kill an innocent person for its sake?

The twentieth anniversary between the two world wars is truly the “golden age” of US literature. At this time, she declared herself as one of the leading literatures in the world. Her achievements are significant in almost all genres, especially prose. These years are the time for creativity to flourish

E. Hemingway, W. Faulkner, J. Steinbeck, T. Wolfe, F.S. Fitzgerald, S. Lewis, I. Tank, S. Anderson, G. Miller and many others. This is also the rise of G.S.'s poetry. Eliot, R. Frost, I. Sandburg; these are the dramatic peaks of the S. O'Nila. Among the named authors are seven Nobel laureates. The American novel has become a worldwide factor.

In the interwar twenty years, two periods clearly stand out, each of which is marked by its own artistic climate: the 1920s and 1930s.

The 1920s are called great decade. This is one of the most fruitful eras in the entire history of American literature. This decade and, more broadly, the entire interwar era are marked by a variety of artistic and aesthetic schools, enrichment of themes, and searches for new forms. During these years, it asserts its positions new prose(at its origins stands Sherwood Anderson), announces itself new drama(the founder of which was Eugene O'Neill) is flourishing new poetry, born of the Poetic Renaissance. The achievements of artistic documentary and journalistic and essay genres are remarkable.

People 1920s: lost generation. At this time, it comes to the fore new generation talented writers who are called people of the 1920s, or representatives lost generation: Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos. The early work of these wonderful, but, of course, very different masters has a lot in common. Having gone through the bitter taste of the First World War, coming into contact with its tragic reality, realizing it as a senseless massacre, they expressed the worldview of an entire generation in their early works. Their heroes, young people, like their peers in Germany and England, went to the front, filled with noble, patriotic feelings, but found themselves deceived by militaristic jingoistic propaganda and experienced severe disappointment. They returned from overseas to their homeland, often not only physically crippled, but, most importantly, morally devastated. Their experience received deep artistic interpretation (in Hemingway, Dos Passos, Faulkner).

Problems and artistic quests of the 1920s. In the literature of the first post-war decade, in general, social-critical motives, negative perception of many aspects of the “dollar civilization,” narrow pragmatism and flat proprietary priorities sharply and definitely deepened. The publication of a collective collection of articles was a landmark "Civilization in the United States"(1922) edited by Harold Stearns. Its authors, writers, journalists, sociologists, relying on documentary and cultural research, confirmed the depressing state of affairs in various spheres of the country’s spiritual life, which was so noticeable against the backdrop of undeniable material and technical achievements. The rejection of the merchant spirit, hostile to artistic creativity, caused the “exodus” from the United States of a significant group of young American writers who became voluntary expatriates, who settled in Paris (.9, Hemingway, F. S. Fitzgerald, J. Dos Paevoe, G. Miller, M. Cowley, E. E. Cummings, E. Pound, G. Stein).

In the early 1920s. the capital of France was a recognized center of artistic life and a generator of fresh aesthetic ideas; the largest US composer of the 20th century. century George Gershwin I even wrote a musical poem "An American in Paris."

The 1920s were the time of the creative rise of writers of the older generation, who began their journey even before the First World War. One of the first signs of the new literary era was the collection Sherwood Anderson « Winesburg, Ohio" (1919).

Creative activity continues unabated E. Sinclair(1878-1968), who in our country during these years was the leader in the circulation of his works. His novel "Jimmy Higgins"(1919) - the first artistic response to revolutionary events in Russia. His novels, rich in documentary sociological material, contained quite straightforward attacks on the evils of the capitalist system. The writer came to the attention of such phenomena as the introduction of provocateurs into the ranks of the labor movement ("100%", 1921); speculation in the extraction of “black gold” ("Oil", 1924); judicial arbitrariness during the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti ("Boston", 1928).

A new generation of writers who appeared immediately after the war is making itself known. Fitzgerald creates his best novel "The Great Gatsby" (1925). Dreiser gains worldwide fame" An American tragedy." Release of the novel " Soldier's Award"(1925) will be the beginning of rapid creative growth W. Faulkner. The star will light up E. Hemingway-, for collections of short stories “In our time”, “Men without women”"and novel "And the sun rises"his masterpiece will follow" A Farewell to Arms"(1929), undoubtedly the best example of literature lost generation. The post-war decade is the most fruitful period in creativity Y. O'Neill,"father of American drama."

Modernist movements. They played an important role in the 1920s, having declared themselves on the eve of the First World War, during the poetic renaissance, in particular, in such an artistic phenomenon as imagism, in creativity

Ezra Pound And T. S. Eliot. In the 1920s he created a key work for modernist poetics and artistic methodology - the poem "The Waste Land"(1922). In it, T. S. Eliot, in his own way, expressed the mood of devastation and decline that gripped part of the creative intelligentsia in the post-war era.

A theorist of modernism, a kind of generator of ideas, in particular in the field of narrative technique, was Gertrude Stein(1874-1946), prose writer, playwright, critic. Coming from a wealthy Jewish family, she received an excellent education, studied with a leading psychologist and philosopher William James(brother of the writer Henry James), practiced medicine. This stimulated her interest in the problem unconscious in artistic creativity, to the relationship between sound and color. From 1903 Stein lived in Paris, where she opened an art salon, which was visited by artists II. Picasso, A. Matisse, J. Braque, writers E. Hemingway, F. S. Fitzgerald, E. Pound etc. It is she who owns the catchphrase: “You are all a lost generation,” which Hemingway used as an epigraph to the novel “The Sun Also Rises.”

Her aesthetic theory was based on philosophical ideas W. James And A. Bergson. Stein argued that the purpose of verbal art is to abandon the chronological principle and reproduce a “fully actual present,” including both past and future. The technique of prose itself turns out to be close to the techniques of cinema. None of the film frames can repeat the other, so the “continuing present” is constantly revealed to the eye. Stein emphasized the repetition of individual words, hence her oft-quoted: “A rose is a rose, there is a rose, there is a rose.” In her experiment, Stein was inclined to transfer principles into literature cubism. Her style is characterized by a slow pace of narration, violation of punctuation, and rejection of the traditional plot. Some of her formal techniques were adopted E. Hemingway And S. Anderson.

The main work of G. Stein is a novel "The Making of Americans"(1925) - an attempt to present the process of the birth of a nation. The text is deliberately complicated as a result of the author's passion for formalistic experimentation. Some of Stein's discoveries in the field of dramatic technique later influenced theater of the absurd.