Comparisons of Major Issues
Styles of the Eras: Modernism vs. Postmodernism
One of the major differences between the literature of the 1900's and the 2000's is the writing style of the popular literature.
Realism:
This style was popular in the 1800's and the beginning of the 1900's. Realism is the style of recounting everyday, ordinary lives in detail instead of romanticizing the lives. Author Mark Twain was an example of a realist, in addition to George Eliot and Leo Tolstoy. Naturalism: Naturalism was an outgrowth of realism that put forth the belief that certain factors such as social and environmental conditions were predetermined and unchangeable foundations for one's life. Edith Wharton and Jack London were exemplary writers of naturalist novels. Naturalism exposed the harshness of reality including racism, poverty, disease, corruption, and violence. Although there were more literary movements in the 1900's, it is clear to see that these movements were the products of changing times and trying events such as World War I and II and the Great Depression. Different writing styles are the responses of authors to their environment.
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Postmodernism:
This style of writing gained popularity after the close of World War II and has stayed strong in the present. Postmodern literature relies heavily on fragmentation, using paradox, irony, word play, and questionable narrators. Themes are serious and dark with some lighter aspects. Examples of postmodernist writers are Jack Kerouac and Don DeLillo. It should be noted that there are so many novels in the 2000's of all different genres and styles, but they have not had quite enough time necessary to become classics, where books that define a generation are allowed to influence the next generation. |
Banning Books
In 1873, Anthony Comstock organized the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, the beginning of a period of book censorship in America. The society focused on ridding America of books that contained obscene material, especially that of crime and sexual content that would pollute the minds of youths. Comstock successfully banned the selling of dime novels in Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington. Since then the practice of banning books has been a controversial topic in the United States.
20th Century
In the early 1900's, censorship was practiced. The Arabian Nights was banned from the United States until a less erotic version was translated. The works of American authors Jack London and Ernest Hemingway were banned from certain parts of the world, and Hemingway was banned in some parts of America as well. Texans for America actually wanted to rid all Texas libraries of Hemingway novels. After World War II, Senator Joseph McCarthy launched a campaign to purge America of pro-communist books and encouraged schools to destroy and burn any books with controversial topics. “Every burned book enlightens the world.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson |
21st Century
In the 1982 Board of Education, Island Trees v. Pico case, the Supreme Court ruled that public schools cannot remove books from the library based on disliking the ides presented in the novel. Instead of banning a book altogether as they did in the 20th century, the challenging party now tries to rid the local school library of the book. Although it is unlawful to remove a book from a library, over 6000 challenges to ban books have been made in the last twenty years, for reasons ranging from sexual content to witchcraft promotion to offensive language. Main challengers are concerned parents and religious groups. |
In both eras, banning books has been practiced because the novels are seen as offensive and dangerous to malleable minds, but forbidding them has only made them more popular, and, in many cases, classics. Today, more people are being made aware about book censorship and speaking out against banning books. This issue will not go away any time soon, and it has not changed overly much from the past, but there will always be people fighting the censorship of literature to gain back the true freedom of speech.
Technology in Literature
In the 1900's people could only read the physical, printed copies of the books. There were inexpensive paperback books called dime novels, but the popular books, the true literature, were printed as hardcover books.
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With a rise in technology since the turn of the 21st century, America now has tablets, Kindles, and Nooks to read on electronically. 21 % of Americans have read an e-book in the past year, and on average, people who read e-books reported they read more books than the average non-e-book reader (24 compared to 15). One can read anywhere from their cell phone, and they can even pre-order books from bookstores or to have delivered at home. Bookstores are often going out of business because people are buying books online from the comfort of their own home. The way people are reading books today is rapidly changing from printed material to electronic, digital material.
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