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The turn to the twentieth century did not only see the rise of modernism – or rather a large variety of modernisms – in American arts and letters. It also saw the rise of the so-called American century, an era of an increasingly global reach of American popular culture, of cultural diplomacy, of military might and economic power (later understood as a form of Coca-colonization, since consumer culture played a key role). Writers, thinkers and cultural producers attempted to 'break with the past' and to anticipate a new age, whereas politicians, legal discourse and entrepreneurs sought to maximize the leverage of American goods and American principles. At the same time, there was also a heightened sense of needing to accommodate a range of contradictory and contentious ways of being, belief systems and opinions. In this lecture, we will look at this time of momentous changes through the lens of literature and its ability to compromise, to offer a level playing field in which all parties involved have to step back from their individual battles and give up on some of their core beliefs in order to have a share in a common project of future dreams and ambitions. By way of preparation please read the modernism chapter in the Metzler Amerikanische Literaturgeschichte, edited by Hupf Zapf (2010). |
