4. Literature in 1920s reflected the uncertainty of the the time period perfectly. World War I left a questionable impact, leaving some people questioning the future of previous beliefs and traditions and also challenged people to make new discoveries. World War I caused writers and philosophers to question the new ways and accept the new ideas about reason and progress. Some people feared the ideas and what they would do to their past beliefs and some writers expressed their fears by writing deep, disturbing predictions about the present and future. In 1922, an American poet named T.S. Eliot, wrote about how Western society had lost their spiritual beliefs. Because of this the postwar society had turned into a "wasteland" lacking hope and
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Many novels showed inspiration from Freud's theories on the human mind and unconscious. Irish author, James Joyce gained attention in the world of literature because of his stream of consciousness novel Ulysses . This novel follows a day in the lives of four men in Dublin, Ireland. Joyce broke away from normal sentence structure and vocabulary in attempts to mirror the working of a human mind. Like I stated earlier, the war left people with much uncertainty and many were in the search for reason. Some thinkers turned towards the philosophy known as existentialism, lead by Jean Paul Satre. This theory believed that there is no universal meaning of life, each person creates his/her own meaning of life through their actions and choices. The followers of this theory were influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, who wrote about the Western ideas of democracy, reason, and progress how they stifled people's creativity and actions. He encouraged people to resort to ancient heroic values such as pride, assertiveness, and strength. His ideas attracted much attention in the early 20th century and grew to have a greater impact in politics in the 1920s and 30s. Literature reflected the uncertainty and fear of the postwar era, but also enabled opportunities to spread out of their comfort zone and make new
Many novels showed inspiration from Freud's theories on the human mind and unconscious. Irish author, James Joyce gained attention in the world of literature because of his stream of consciousness novel Ulysses . This novel follows a day in the lives of four men in Dublin, Ireland. Joyce broke away from normal sentence structure and vocabulary in attempts to mirror the working of a human mind. Like I stated earlier, the war left people with much uncertainty and many were in the search for reason. Some thinkers turned towards the philosophy known as existentialism, lead by Jean Paul Satre. This theory believed that there is no universal meaning of life, each person creates his/her own meaning of life through their actions and choices. The followers of this theory were influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, who wrote about the Western ideas of democracy, reason, and progress how they stifled people's creativity and actions. He encouraged people to resort to ancient heroic values such as pride, assertiveness, and strength. His ideas attracted much attention in the early 20th century and grew to have a greater impact in politics in the 1920s and 30s. Literature reflected the uncertainty and fear of the postwar era, but also enabled opportunities to spread out of their comfort zone and make new