The best American poets of the 20th century. American literature of the 20th century

September 24 is the 120th anniversary of the birth of one of the most famous American writers, Francis Scott Fitzgerald. It is also one of the most difficult to understand, although at first the reader's eyes and mind are blinded by the glamor of the parties described, deep moral and social problems lie behind it. The editors of YUGA.ru, together with the “Read-Gorod” bookstore chain, have selected six more iconic works for this date that will help you look at America and Americans with different eyes.

“The Great Gatsby” is a great novel, but there is no greatness in the life or soul of its protagonist, there are only sparkling illusions “that give the world such color that, having experienced this magic, a person becomes indifferent to the concept of true and false.” . The wealthy millionaire Jay Gatsby had already lost them and, along with them, lost the opportunity to again feel the taste of life and love - and yet all their treasures were at his feet.

The reader is presented with the America of Prohibition, gangsters, playmakers and brilliant parties to the music of Duke Ellington. That very “jazz age,” a magnificent age when it still seemed that all desires would come true, and you could get a star from the sky without even standing on your tiptoes.

The portrait of the protagonist of the Trilogy of Desire series, Frank Cowperwood, is largely based on a real-life person, millionaire Charles Yerkes, and in the last few years, viewers around the world have been following the life of the central figure of the House of Cards series, Frank Underwood. It can be assumed that the president even borrowed the name “great and terrible” from the character created by Dreiser. His whole life revolves around success, he is a shrewd financier and builds his empire, using everything and everyone for his own purposes. That’s exactly what “The Financier” is called, the first novel of the trilogy, where we see how the personality of a prudent businessman was formed, who is ready, without hesitation, to step over the law and moral principles if they become an obstacle in his path.

The most acutely social and accusatory book ever written in the USA and about the USA, “The Grapes of Wrath” affects the reader, perhaps, no less than Solzhenitsyn’s texts. The cult novel was first published in 1939, won the Pulitzer Prize, and the author himself was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. A portrait of a nation during one of the most difficult periods in history, the Great Depression, is painted through the story of a farming family who, after going bankrupt, are forced to uproot and seek food on a grueling journey across the country on that same "Route 66". Like thousands, hundreds of thousands of other people, they go for illusory hope to sunny California, but even greater difficulties, hunger and death await them.

451° Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper ignites. Bradbury's philosophical dystopia paints a picture of a post-industrial society: this is a future world in which all written publications are mercilessly destroyed by a special squad of firefighters, the possession of books is prosecuted by law, interactive television successfully serves to fool everyone, punitive psychiatry decisively deals with rare dissidents, and incorrigible dissidents are hunted down the electric dog comes out. Today, in Russia in 2016, the relevance of the novel published in 1953 (already 63 years ago!) is greater than ever - in different parts of the country, home-grown censors are raising their heads who seek to limit freedom of speech precisely by destroying and banning books.

Jack London's life was as romantic - at least when viewed through some lyrical lens - and eventful as his novels, and Martin Eden is considered the pinnacle of his work. This work is about a man who achieved recognition of his talent by society, but was deeply disappointed in the respectable bourgeois stratum that finally accepted him. In the words of the writer himself, this is “the tragedy of a loner trying to instill the truth in the world.” A truly timeless work and a hero whose feelings are understandable to readers on any continent and in any era.

One of the most difficult to understand, but at the same time incredibly interesting and multifaceted authors, Kurt Vonnegut wrote, mixing genres and always leaving the reader with uncertainty - what exactly did he just read, was it an appeal to himself through the pages of a book and What are we even talking about here? In “Breakfast for Champions,” the author surprisingly subtly and accurately destroys stereotypes of perception, showing us man and life on Earth with a detached look, looking as if from another planet, where they don’t know what an apple or a weapon is. The main character, writer Kilgore Trout, is both the author’s alter ego and his interlocutor; he is about to receive a literary award. At the same time, someone who reads his novel (the character, Dwayne Hoover, was played by Bruce Willis in the 1999 film adaptation) slowly goes crazy, taking everything written in it at face value and losing touch with reality - as he begins to doubt the reader is also in it.

In John Updike's first novel in the Rabbit series, Harry Engstrom - and this is precisely his nickname - is a young man for whom the rose-colored glasses of his youth have already been broken by the inexorable reality. He went from being the star of his high school basketball team to becoming a husband and father, forced to work in a supermarket to provide for his family. He is unable to come to terms with this and goes on the run. Updike and Kerouac seem to be talking about the same people, but in different tones - so those who have read the latter’s work “On the Road” will be interested in moving from beatnik literature to complex psychological prose, and those who have not read it will undoubtedly get a lot pleasure, switching attention and plunging even deeper into the same topic.

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

Allen W. Traditions and dreams. A critical survey of English and American prose from the 1920s to the present day. Per. from English M., “Progress”, 1970. - 424 p.
American poetry in Russian translations. XIX-XX centuries Comp. S. B. Dzhimbinov. In English. language with parallel Russian. text. M.: Raduga. - 1983. - 672 p.
American detective. Collection of stories by US writers. Per. from English Comp. V. L. Gopman. M. Legal. lit. 1989 384 p.
American detective. M. Lad 1992. - 384 p.
Anthology of Beat poetry. Per. from English - M.: Ultra. Culture, 2004, 784 p.
Anthology of Negro poetry. Comp. and lane R. Magidov. M., 1936.
Belov S. B. Slaughterhouse number “X”. Literature from England and the USA about war and military ideology. - M.: Sov. writer, 1991. - 366 p.
Belyaev A. A. Social American novel of the 30s and bourgeois criticism. M., Higher School, 1969. - 96 p.
Venediktova T. D. Poetic art of the USA: Modernity and tradition. - M.: Moscow State University Publishing House, 1988 - 85 p.
Venediktova T. D. Finding your voice. American national poetic tradition. - M., 1994.
Venediktova T. D. “American Conversation”: the discourse of bargaining in the literary tradition of the USA. - M.: New Literary Review, 2003. −328 p. ISBN 5-86793-236-2
Bernatskaya V.I. Four decades of American drama. 1950-1980 - M.: Rudomino, 1993. - 215 p.
Bobrova M. N. Romanticism in American literature of the 19th century. M., Higher School, 1972.-286 p.
Benediktova T.D. Finding your voice. American national poetic tradition. M., 1994.
Brooks V.V. Writer and American life: In 2 vols.: Transl. from English / Afterword M. Mendelssohn. - M.: Progress, 1967-1971
Van Spankeren, K. Essays on American Literature. Per. from English D. M. Course. - M.: Knowledge, 1988 - 64 p.
Vashchenko A.V. America in a dispute with America (Ethnic Literatures of the USA) - M.: Knowledge, 1988 - 64 p.
Geismar M. American contemporaries: Trans. from English - M.: Progress, 1976. - 309 p.
Gilenson, B. A. American literature of the 30s of the XX century. - M.: Higher. school, 1974. -
Gilenson B. A. Socialist tradition in US literature.-M., 1975.
Gilenson B. A. History of US literature: Textbook for universities. M.: Academy, 2003. - 704 p. ISBN 5-7695-0956-2
Duchesne I., Shereshevskaya N. American children's literature. // Foreign children's literature. M., 1974. P.186-248.
Zhuravlev I.K. Essays on the history of Marxist literary criticism in the USA (1900-1956). Saratov, 1963.- 155 p.
Zasursky Ya. N. History of American Literature: In 2 vols. M, 1971.
Zasursky Ya. N. American literature of the 20th century. - M., 1984.
Zverev A. M. Modernism in US literature, M., 1979.-318 p.
Zverev A. American novel of the 20-30s. M., 1982.
Zenkevich M., Kashkin I. Poets of America. XX century M., 1939.
Zlobin G. P. Beyond the Dream: Pages of American Literature of the 20th Century. - M.: Artist. lit., 1985.- 333 p.
Love Story: An American Tale of the 20th Century / Comp. and entry Art. S. B. Belova. - M.: Moscow. worker, 1990, - 672 p.
Origins and formation of American national literature of the 17th-18th centuries. / Ed. Ya.N. Zasursky. – M.: Nauka, 1985. – 385 p.
Levidova I. M. Fiction of the USA in 1961-1964. Bibliography review. M., 1965.-113 p.
Libman V. A. American literature in Russian translations and criticism. Bibliography 1776-1975. M., “Science”, 1977.-452 p.
Lidsky Yu. Ya. Essays on American writers of the 20th century. Kyiv, Nauk. Dumka, 1968.-267 p.
Literature of the USA. Sat. articles. Ed. L. G. Andreeva. M., Moscow State University, 1973. - 269 p.
Literary connections and traditions in the works of writers of Western Europe and America in the 19th-20th centuries: Interuniversity. Sat. - Gorky: [b. i.], 1990. - 96 p.
Mendelson M. O. American satirical prose of the 20th century. M., Nauka, 1972.-355 p.
Mishina L.A. The genre of autobiography in the history of American literature. Cheboksary: Chuvash University Publishing House, 1992. - 128 p.
Morozova T. L. The image of a young American in US literature (beatniks, Salinger, Bellow, Updike). M., "Higher School" 1969.-95 p.
Mulyarchik A. S. The dispute is about man: About US literature of the second half of the 20th century. - M.: Sov. writer, 1985.- 357 p.
Nikolyukin A. N. - Literary connections between Russia and the USA: the formation of literature. contacts. - M.: Nauka, 1981. - 406 pp., 4 l. ill.
Problems of US literature of the 20th century. M., “Science”, 1970. - 527 p.
US writers on literature. Sat. articles. Per. from English M., “Progress”, 1974.-413 p.
US Writers: Brief Creative Biographies / Comp. and general ed. Y. Zasursky, G. Zlobin, Y. Kovalev. M.: Raduga, 1990. - 624 p.
Poetry USA: Collection. Translation from English / Comp., intro. article, comment. A. Zvereva. M.: “Fiction”. 1982.- 831 pp. (US Literature Library).
Oleneva V. Modern American short story. Problems of genre development. Kyiv, Nauk. Dumka, 1973.- 255 p.
Main trends in the development of modern US literature. M.: “Science”, 1973.-398 p.
From Whitman to Lowell: American poets in translations by Vladimir Britanishsky. M.: Agraf, 2005-288 p.
The difference in time: Collection of translations from modern American poetry / Comp. G.G. Ulanova. - Samara, 2010. - 138 p.
Romm A. S. American drama of the first half of the 20th century. L., 1978.
Samokhvalov N.I. American literature of the 19th century: Essay on the development of critical realism. - M.: Higher. school, 1964. - 562 p.
I hear America sing. Poets of the USA. Compiled and translated by I. Kashkin M. Publishing house. Foreign literature. 1960. - 174 p.
Contemporary American Poetry. Anthology. M.: Progress, 1975.- 504 p.
Contemporary American poetry in Russian translations. Compiled by A. Dragomoshchenko, V. Mesyats. Ekaterinburg. Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. 1996. 306 pp.
Contemporary American Poetry: An Anthology / Comp. April Lindner. - M.: OGI, 2007. - 504 p.
Contemporary literary criticism of the USA. Disputes about American literature. M., Nauka, 1969.-352 p.
Sokhryakov Yu. I. - Russian classics in the literary process of the USA of the 20th century. - M.: Higher. school, 1988. - 109, p.
Staroverova E. V. American literature. Saratov, “Lyceum”, 2005. 220 p.
Startsev A.I. From Whitman from Hemingway. - 2nd ed., add. - M.: Sov. writer, 1981. - 373 p.
Stetsenko E. A. The Destiny of America in the Modern Novel of the USA. - M.: Heritage, 1994. - 237 p.
Tlostanova M.V. The problem of multiculturalism and US literature of the late 20th century. - M.: RSHGLI RAS “Heritage”, 2000-400p.
Tolmachev V. M. From romanticism to romanticism. The American novel of the 1920s and the problem of romantic culture. M., 1997.
Tugusheva M. P. Modern American short story (Some features of development). M., Higher School, 1972.-78 p.
Finkelstein S. Existentialism and the problem of alienation in American literature. Per. E. Mednikova. M., Progress, 1967.-319 p.
Aesthetics of American Romanticism / Comp., intro. Art. and comment. A. N. Nikolyukina. - M.: Art, 1977. - 463 p.
Nichol, “The American literature” ();
Knortz, "Gesch. d. Nord-Amerik-Lit." ();
Stedman and Hutchinson, “The Library of Amer. liter." (-);
Mathews, “An introduction to Amer. liter." ().
Habegger A. Gender, fantasy and realism in American literature. N.Y., 1982.
Alan Wald. Exiles from a Future Time: The Forging of the Mid-Twentieth Century Literary Left. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002. xvii + 412 pages.
Blanck, Jacob, comp. Bibliography of American literature. New Haven, 1955-1991. v.l-9. R016.81 B473
Gohdes, Clarence L. F. Bibliographical guide to the study of the literature of the U.S.A. 4th ed., rev. & enl. Durham, N.C., 1976. R016.81 G55912
Adelman, Irving and Dworkin, Rita. The contemporary novel; a checklist of critical literature on the British and American novel since 1945. Metuchen, N.J., 1972. R017.8 Ad33
Gerstenberger, Donna and Hendrick, George. The American novel; a checklist of twentieth-century criticism. Chicago, 1961-70. 2v. R016.81 G3251
Ammons, Elizabeth. Conflicting Stories: American Women Writers at the Turn into the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford Press, 1991
Covici, Pascal, Jr. Humor and Revelation in American Literature: The Puritan Connection. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997.
Parini, Jay, ed. The Columbia History of American Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
Wilson, Edmund. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1984.
New Immigrant Literatures in the United States: A Sourcebook to Our Multicultural Literary Heritage by Alpana Sharma Knippling (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996)
Shan Qiang He: Chinese-American Literature. In Alpana Sharma Knippling (Hrsg.): New Immigrant Literatures in the United States: A Sourcebook to Our Multicultural Literary Heritage. Greenwood Publishing Group 1996, ISBN 978-0-313-28968-2, pp. 43–62
High, P. An Outline of American Literature / P. High. – New York, 1995.

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.

Links

USA in topics

In the 20th century, the problems of American literature are determined by a fact of enormous significance: the richest, most powerful capitalist country, leading the whole world, gives birth to the most gloomy and bitter literature of our time. Writers acquired a new quality: they became characterized by a feeling of tragedy and doom of this world. Dreiser's "American Tragedy" expressed the writers' desire for large generalizations, which distinguishes US literature of that time.

In the 20th century The short story no longer plays such an important role in American literature as in the 19th century; it is being replaced by the realistic novel. But nevertheless, novelists continue to pay considerable attention to it, and a number of outstanding American prose writers devote themselves primarily or exclusively to the short story. One of them is O. Henry (William Sidney Porter), who made an attempt to outline a different path for the American short story, as if “bypassing” the already clearly defined critical-realist direction. O. Henry can also be called the founder of the American happy ending (which was present in most of his stories), which would later be very successfully used in American popular fiction. Despite sometimes not very flattering reviews of his work, it is one of the important and turning points in the development of the American short story of the 20th century.

At the beginning of the 20th century. New movements appeared that made an original contribution to the formation of critical realism. In the 1900s, a movement of “muckrakers” emerged in the United States. “The Muckrakers” are a group of American writers, journalists, publicists, and sociologists who sharply criticized American society, especially active in 1902-17. This name was first used in relation to them by US President T. Roosevelt in 1906, citing J. Bunyan’s book “The Pilgrim’s Progress”: one of its characters is fiddling around in the mud, not noticing the shining sky above his head. The beginning of the literary movement of “muckrakers” is considered to be an article by J. Steffens, directed against bribe-takers and embezzlers (1902). Brought up on the ideals of the Enlightenment, the muckrakers felt the sharp contrast between the principles of democracy and the ugly reality of America, which had entered an imperialist phase; however, they mistakenly believed that minor reforms could eradicate the evil generated by antagonistic social contradictions. At certain stages of their creative path, such major writers as D. London and T. Dreiser became close to the “muckraker” movement.

The performances of the “muckrakers” contributed to the strengthening of social-critical tendencies in US literature and the development of a sociological variety of realism. Thanks to them, the journalistic aspect becomes an essential element of the modern American novel.

The 10s were marked by a realistic takeoff in American poetry, called the “poetic renaissance.” This period is associated with the names of Carl Sandburg, Edgar Lee Master, Robert Frost, W. Lindsay, E. Robinson. These poets addressed the lives of the American people. Relying on the democratic poetry of Whitman and the achievements of realist prose writers, they, breaking outdated romantic canons, laid the foundations of a new realistic poetics, which included an update of the poetic vocabulary and in-depth psychologism. This poetry met the requirements of the time and helped reflect American reality in its diversity through poetic means.
The 900s and 10s of the last century were marked by the long-awaited appearance of a great critical-realistic novel (F. Norris, D. London, Dreiser, E. Sinclair). It is believed that critical realism in modern US literature has developed in the process of interaction of three historically determined factors: these are the real elements of the protest of American romantics, the realism of Mark Twain, which grew on an original folk basis, and the experience of American writers of the realistic direction, who accepted to one degree or another tradition of the European classic novel of the 19th century.

American realism was a literature of social protest. Realist writers refused to accept reality as a natural result of development. Criticism of the emerging imperialist society and the depiction of its negative aspects become the hallmarks of American critical realism. New themes appear, brought to the fore by changing living conditions (the ruin and impoverishment of farming; the capitalist city and the little man in it; denunciation of monopoly capital).

A new generation of writers is associated with a new region: it relies on the democratic spirit of the American West, on the element of oral folklore and addresses its works to the widest mass reader.

It is appropriate to talk about stylistic diversity and genre innovation in American realism. The genres of psychological and social novels, socio-psychological novels, epic novels, and philosophical novels are developing, the genre of social utopia is becoming widespread, and the genre of the scientific novel is being created. At the same time, realist writers often used new aesthetic principles, a special look “from the inside” at the life around them. Reality was depicted as an object of psychological and philosophical understanding of human existence.

A typological feature of American realism was authenticity. Based on the traditions of late romantic literature and literature of the transitional period, realist writers sought to portray only the truth, without embellishment or omissions. Another typological feature of American literature of the 20th century. - her inherent journalisticism. Writers in their works sharply and clearly distinguish between their likes and dislikes.

The 1920s saw the emergence of American national drama, which had not previously received significant development. This process took place in conditions of acute internal struggle. The desire for a realistic reflection of life was complicated by modernist influences among American playwrights. Eugene O'Neill occupies one of the first places in the history of American drama. He laid the foundations of American national drama, created vivid psychological plays; and all his work had a great influence on the subsequent development of American drama.

An eloquent and unique phenomenon in the literature of the 20s 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. All of them were united by disappointment in bourgeois ideals. 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. Of course, the term “lost generation” itself is very approximate, because the writers who are usually included in this group are very different in political, social and aesthetic views, and in the characteristics of their artistic practice. And, nevertheless, to some extent this term can be applied to them: awareness of the tragedy of American life had a particularly strong and sometimes painful effect on the work of these young people who had lost faith in the old bourgeois foundations. F.S. Fitzgerald gave his name to the era of the Lost Generation: he called it the Jazz Age. In this term, he wanted to express the feeling of instability, the fleetingness of life, a feeling characteristic of many people who lost faith and were in a hurry to live and thereby escape, albeit illusory, from their loss.

Around the 1920s, modernist groups began to appear that fought against realism, promoted the cult of “pure art,” and engaged in formalist research. The American school of modernism is most clearly represented by the poetic practice and theoretical views of such masters of modernism as Ezra Pound and Thomas Stearns Eliot. Ezra Pound also became one of the founders of the modernist movement in literature, called Imagism. Imagism (from image) separated literature from life, defended the principle of the existence of “pure art,” and proclaimed the primacy of form over content. This idealistic concept, in turn, underwent minor changes over time and laid the foundation for another variety of modernism, known as Vorticism. Vorticism (from vortex) is close to imagism and futurism. This trend charged poets with the responsibility of figuratively perceiving the phenomena that interested them and depicting them through words, which took into account only their sound. The Vorticists tried to achieve visual perception of sound, tried to find words-sounds that would express movement, dynamics, regardless of their meaning and meaning. Freudian theories, which became widespread at that time, also contributed to the emergence of new directions in modernist literature. They became the basis of the "stream of consciousness" novel and various other schools.

Although American writers who were in Europe did not create original modernist schools. They were actively involved in the activities of various modernist groups - French, English and multinational. Among the “exiles” (as they called themselves), the majority were writers of the younger generation who had lost faith in bourgeois ideals and capitalist civilization, but could not find real support in life. Their confusion was expressed in modernist quests.

In 1929, the first John Reed club arose in the USA, uniting proletarian writers and advocates of revolutionary art and literature, and in the 30s there were already 35 such clubs. Subsequently, on their basis, the League of American Writers was created, which existed from 1935 to 1942. During its existence, four congresses were convened (1935, 1937, 1939, 1941), which marked the beginning of the unification of US writers around democratic social tasks and contributed to ideological growth many of them; this association played an outstanding role in the history of American literature.

"Pink Decade". We can say that in the 1930s, socialist-oriented literature in the United States took shape as a movement. Its development was also facilitated by the vigorous socialist movement in Russia. Among its representatives (Michael Gold, Lincoln Steffens, Albert Maltz, etc.) there is a clearly noticeable desire for the socialist ideal, strengthening ties with socio-political life. Very often in their works there was a call for resistance, for the struggle against oppressors. This feature has become one of the important features of American socialist literature.

During these same years, a kind of “documentary explosion” took place; it was associated with the desire of writers to quickly and directly respond to current socio-political events. Turning to journalism, primarily to the essay, writers (Anderson, Caldwell, Frank, Dos Passos) turn out to be pioneers of new topics that later receive artistic interpretation.

At the end of the 30s, there was a clear rise of the critical-realist movement after a noticeable decline at the beginning of the decade. New names appear: Thomas Wolfe, Richard Wright, Albert Maltz, D. Trumbo, E. Caldwell, D. Farrell, etc. And the development of the epic genre, which was formed in the atmosphere of the people's struggle against monopolies and the fascist threat, became an outstanding achievement of critical realism in USA. Here, first of all, it is necessary to name the names of such authors as Faulkner, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Dos Passos.

During World War II, American writers joined the fight against Hitlerism: they condemned Hitler's aggression and supported the fight against the fascist aggressors. Journalistic articles and reports by war correspondents are published in large quantities. And later, the theme of World War II will be reflected in the books of many writers (Hemingway, Mailer, Saxton, etc.).

After World War II, there was some 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, and 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 the Thunder”), and the fiery journalism of James Baldwin, as well as the dramaturgy of Lorraine Hansberry. One of the brightest representatives of black creativity was Richard Wright (“Son of America”). R. Wright's novel Son of America (1940) shocked readers and radically expanded the "field" of African-American literature. In a brutally naturalistic, sometimes physiologically brutal style, Wright tells the story of Thomas Bigger, a tongue-tied Chicago black man who accidentally kills a white woman and is hunted down and executed. Thomas discovers the source of rebellion and revolutionary pride in the color of his own skin and in his despair; he comes to an intuitive existential comprehension of freedom that goes beyond the boundaries of the natural and death itself in its all-encompassing rage.

R. Ellison's novel The Invisible Man (1952) is a tale of a nameless black youth who strives to succeed in the white world and discovers that he is truly invisible to them because they refuse to see him as a person. J. Baldwin became the main spokesman for the protest and anger of his people in the 1950s and 1960s. In the nonfiction books Notes of an American Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My Name (1961), he describes how America distorts the psychology and intimate lives of its black citizens, but in novels such as Another Country (1962), Say How Long Has the Train Gone (1968) and If Beale Street Could Talk (1974), he argues that racial problems can be solved through mutual understanding rather than revolutionary action. Similar sentiments are expressed in the plays of Lorraine Hansberry and O. Davis, the first black playwrights to gain widespread fame.

Since in the 1960s the provision of constitutionally guaranteed rights to African Americans was either delayed or slowed down, black writers and ideologists increasingly moved in literature and politics to positions of resistance, which was called for by R. Wright - it was he who owned the slogan “Power to Blacks!” One of the leading figures in the movement under this slogan was Malcolm X, who described his path from a Harlem criminal to the leader of the “black revolution” in “Autobiography” (1965). His ideas of militant separatism found extremely sharp expression in the poetry, prose and drama of Imamu Amiri Barak (Leroy Jones); he sought to invent a special style and a new language in which only blacks could write and speak. The often obscure but sometimes magnificent prose of The Devices of Dante's Inferno (1965) and Histories (1967) is one of the most daring literary experiments of the 1960s. Not all writers, however, branded whites as “devils,” as Barack did. W. Demby's novel The Catacombs (1965) combines angry denunciations of racism with a cautious recognition that all people on the same planet are equal. E. Cleaver, in a series of essays written in conclusion, “Soul on Ice” (1967), speaks of the need to rid Americans of the racial hatred that poisons life. A. Haley showed slavery in all its abomination in the novel Roots (1976).

In the post-war years, so-called mass fiction became widespread in the United States, with the goal of transporting the reader to a pleasant and rosy world. The book market was flooded with novels by Kathleen Norris, Temple Bailey, Fenny Hearst and other purveyors of “literature for women” who produced lightweight novels tailored to certain templates, with an indispensable happy ending. In addition to books on a love theme, popular literature was also represented by detective stories. Pseudo-historical works that combine entertainment with an apology for American statehood have also become popular (Kenneth Roberts). However, the most famous work in this genre was the American bestseller - Margaret Mitchell's novel Gone with the Wind (1937), depicting the life of the southern aristocracy during the era of the North-South War and Reconstruction.

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 “goods” of America in a heroic aura, are being released onto the book market in huge quantities. And during World War II, the ruling circles of the United States managed to subjugate many writers. And for the first time on such a scale, US literature was put at the service of government propaganda. As many critics note, this process had a disastrous impact on the development of US literature, which, in their opinion, was clearly confirmed in its post-war history.

Post-war poetry is not nearly as significant as the poetry of the interwar decades, but it also produced several major names. The mastery of poetic speech and the strict metaphysical manner of R. Lowell (1917-1977) are represented by his best collections “Lord Weary's Castle” (1946), “Sketches from Life” (1959), “To the Fallen for the Union” (1964). K. Shapiro became famous for his poems written in the army and included in the collection “Letter on Victory and Other Poems” (1944). He develops mainly traditional forms, but turns to “non-poetic” vocabulary - “Selected Poems” (1968), “Bookstore for Adults” (1976). “Collected Poems, Including New ones” (1988) contains examples of R. Wilber’s strictly polished lyrics. Elizabeth Bishop's (1911-1979) astute moral judgments are articulated through painstaking word painting, as her Complete Poems (1969) and Geography III (1976) demonstrate. J. Dickey's poems are distinguished by great intensity and colorfulness, especially in the collections “Knocking Out Eyes, Blood, Victory, Madness, Horse's Head and Mercy” (1970) and “Zodiac” (1976). Wit, epigrammaticity and sophistication are characteristic of the poetry of G. Nemerov. W.K. Williams (1883-1963), author of the famous wide-ranging poem Paterson (1946-1958), was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1963 for his collection From Bruegel (1962). K. Rexroth (1905-1982), perhaps the most subtle poet of the “beat” generation of the 1950s, is famous for the book “100 Poems Translated from Chinese” (1956).

In the 60-70s in the USA, on the basis of the mass black and anti-war movement in the country, there was an obvious turn of many writers towards significant, social issues, the growth of 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 in America and beyond.

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 are more likely to have a tragic feeling and misunderstanding of life than its rejection.

In recent decades, many writers have come to literature from universities. And so the main topics became: memories of childhood, youth and university years, and when these topics 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 at the level of university impressions in their perception of America. By the way, F. Roth and J. Updike in their latest works go far beyond these problems, although this is not so easy for them.

Experimental literature of recent decades. In parallel with traditional literature, experimental literature has also developed in recent decades, which became a reaction to the spiritual crisis of society and the emergence in connection with this of many theoretical researches, which in their extreme manifestations produced a shocking impression and did not strive to disseminate this kind of literature among a wide readership. wt. In particular, the so-called “new left”, which rejected the novel as a genre, became notorious.

Writer Ronald Sukenik is considered the creator of the “Bossa Nova” style, which assumes the absence of plot, narration, characters, credibility, and chronology. The American prose writer denies the established forms of the novel, arguing that realism and the novel are incompatible, just like truth and literature.

In the novel “From the Outside” (1968), R. Sukenik deliberately destroys character and plot, and creates a fragmentary composition. The hero of the work becomes an abstract human mass. People go somewhere, they must be tense and careful, because they have dynamite in their hands. Then it turns out that there is no dynamite, that the atmosphere of fear and hatred, which is the writer’s reaction to the external environment, exists only in the imagination of the creator.

The hero of the novel “98.6” (1975) is simply He. He is in constant search of the unusual, which for him is love. The novel, consisting of dozens of scenes, is written in a telegraphic style and takes the form of a stream of consciousness for the protagonist.

The direction of “black humor” - the American analogue of absurdism - has become widespread in American literature. Representatives of this not very clearly defined trend were William Burroughs, Thomas Pynchon, and John Barth.

“Black humorists” perceive the world as chaos. Their works state the absolute aimlessness of human existence. A characteristic feature of the work of writers of this direction is that they ridicule not only the object - reality, but also the way of reflecting it - art. The favorite techniques of writers representing this school are burlesque, parody, grotesque, irony, farce, “giggy,” and satire.

“Black humorists” also have connections with previous schools. William Burroughs, for example, was the mentor and spiritual father of the Beats.

One of the most talented representatives of the “black humor” movement, John Barth, calls his work irrealism. Barth calls the “experimenters” of the 20th century his predecessors. - Beckett, Borges, Nabokov. Barthes's "comic novel" is based on burlesque, travesty, grotesque, and parody. It is noteworthy that the writer contrasts this genre with modernist works that deny the role of plot and proclaim the death of the novel as a genre.

But, of course, modern US literature, already time-tested, will be studied, evaluated and comprehended, perhaps from other positions, only after a certain amount of time has passed - which will most likely be more reliable from the point of view of the development of American literature as a whole.

The beginning of the twentieth century was marked by significant artistic achievements in American literature, which received widespread recognition throughout the world. This was largely due to the influx of immigrants from Europe and strong economic development. At the beginning of the century, the conflict between mass literature, bourgeois fiction and pseudo-romantic prose in the style of “refined tradition”, on the one hand, and literature seeking to convey life in its dynamics and contradictions, on the other, became more noticeable. The growth of social movements was important for the development of literature during this period: first, anti-war, then anti-monopoly. Already in the first decades of the twentieth century, three new trends were identified in American literature: critical realism, experimental and socialist literature.

Dreiser's novel "Genius" became an important stage in the literary life of America. This work shows the conflict between true creativity and external circumstances that prevent it from being realized. Dreiser believed that the romance of profit prevails in American society; minds are dominated by the belief that the existing system is the best. In his opinion, Hollywood has captured not only cinematography, but also literature: heroes in American literature have stopped working, poverty has become a myth, and difficulties are resolved through various intrigues.

The growing realistic literature was represented by such authors as Mark Twain, E. Sinclair, J. London and others. Many of them supported the so-called movement. "muckrakers" This group of writers became the founders of the American sociological novel, combining journalistic research with artistic comprehension in their work.

In April 1917, the United States announced its entry into the First World War. America has never fought on its own territory, but its literature was also shaken by the theme of the “lost generation.” Problems related to the war were included not only in the books of those writers who fought on the fronts of Europe, such as E. Hemingway. The war, intertwined with other semantic lines in different works, touches on problems specific to America - big money and the collapse of the American Dream - helps to gain insight and see the true value of things, the lies and selfish far-fetchedness of official slogans. Economic crisis of the 20-30s. pulled all the contradictions into a single knot, exacerbating social conflicts: farms were ruined en masse in the South and West, violent clashes broke out in mines and factories in the North and Northeast. T. Dreiser writes about the disasters of the miners of Garlan, Steinbeck told the whole world about the tragedy of the farmers of California and the Far West. The stormy 30s are their most truthful and profound reflection. found in the works of E. Hemingway, W. Faulkner, J. Steinbeck, A. Miller, S. Fitzgerald.

The beginning of the century was also marked by new trends in the development of ethnic cultures. Interest in the work of Indian writers is growing, and the number of publications of works by black Americans is increasing, among which are William DuBois, P.L. Dunbar, C.W. Chesnut. They capture a wide American audience. The influx of immigrants to the United States has given rise to a unique literature, both in English and in the languages of immigrants from different countries who came to America. This phenomenon gave impetus to a new stage in the development of not only US literature, but also culture as a whole.

A characteristic feature of the American realists was that, while borrowing some formal features of the modernist novel, they preserved the aesthetic principles of critical realism: the ability to create types of enormous social significance, to show the circumstances of provincial and metropolitan life that were deeply typical of American reality; the ability to depict life as a contradictory process, as a constant struggle and action, in contrast to the decadent novel, which replaces the depiction of social contradictions with a retreat into the inner world of the hero.

The masters of American prose of the early twentieth century deliberately created simple plots, depriving them of the entertaining elements characteristic of nineteenth-century novels. In their opinion, this approach to creativity is better able to emphasize the tragedy of the protagonist’s situation. Traditional autobiographicalism continued to fuel the realistic elements of American literature, such as factualism and documentaryism. The authors believed that in the twentieth century the aesthetics of reading should become more intense, so they do not strive, like their predecessors, to convey in the exhibition everything basic about their heroes; Additional effort is required from the reader to assimilate and comprehend the components of the complex composition of the novel.

The beginning of the twentieth century in the United States not only revealed great names to the world community, but also became for the country a difficult transition period from the state of “arrogant youth” to a more mature understanding of things. The “Great Depression” of the 1930s was officially overcome in 1933, but its presence in literature goes far beyond the indicated limits. The experience of these difficult years forever remained in the Americans as an immunity against complacency, carelessness and spiritual indifference. It formed the basis for the further development of the national formula for success and contributed to strengthening the moral foundation of American business, which is reflected in literature.

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?