7) Critical realism in american literature of the end of 19th century – the beginning of the 20th century. M. Twain, th. Dreiser, j. Steinbeck. (1860 - World War I)

The Civil War in the USA cardinally changed the history of the country. Before the war American literature was marked with optimism & idealism . The writers should deal with everyday realities.

The characters of realistic novels were typical people of their time & place. Writers stressed the link between man and society that is influence of society on the formation of human character. « American Dream»: poor boy gets rich-myth.

1)Mark Twain. The 1-st period of his literary work (50-60s) was based on folklore-popular stories, fairytales, legends, The 2-ond period-novels of the Old Times ( « The Adventures of Tom Sawyer»; “ The Adventures of Huck Finn»( a picaresque novel). The 3-rd period: satirical attitude towards reality.

2)Theodore Dreiser All his novels deal with the notion of the American Dream. Dreiser showed the other side of the so called "from rags to riches".He tried to draw the reader's attention to the fact that the very system in the USA makes a person sacrifice his humanity for the sake of achieving this Dream of Success.

Theodore Dreiser: All his novels deal with the notion of the American Dream. Dreiser showed the other side of the so called "from rags to riches».

He tried to draw the reader's attention to the fact that the very system in the USA makes a person sacrifice his humanity for the sake of achieving this Dream of Success. And this money worship is usually accompanied by moral fall & degradation".

3) J. Steinbeck. After publishing some novels and short stories, Steinbeck first became widely known with Tortilla Flat (1935). His works are Dubious Battle (1936), Of Mice and Men (1937), The Long Valley (1938), The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden (1952), The Winter of Our Discontent (1961), and Travels with Charley (1962).

In the 30s the situation changed drastically because of the Great Depression (not only in America but in the whole world). The living standards dropped very low. There was a rise of proletariat movement in America. One of the best books on the 30s was John Ernest Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath" - a story a family in Oklahoma which is a victim of the natural disasters & the economic crisis. They have to move to California -a sort of "promised land". And the author depicts their sufferings very well. The writers of that day tried to reflect the everyday life of common people, they showed people's search for the "promised land».

8) LITERATURE OF THE “LOST GENERATION”. E. HEMINGWAY. F. S. FITZGERALD.

In the period after World War I there appeared both in Great Britain and in the USA a group of writers who were called "the lost generation" These writers as well as their personages had all passed through the horrors of the war . Having faced the reality of the war, the soldiers -writers lost their pre - war ideals and illusions. Many of the characters in the books of "the lost generation" lost their lives or returned crippled from the trenches (фронт), either physically or morally, spiritually or both. In the 30s the situation changed drastically because of the Great Depression .The living standards dropped very low. There was a rise of proletariat movement in America.

1)Ernest Hemingway , born in Oak Park, started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City. After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. During the twenties, Hemingway became a member of the group of expatriate Americans in Paris, which he described in his first important work, The Sun Also Rises (1926). Equally successful was A Farewell to Arms (1929), the study of an American ambulance officer's disillusionment in the war and his role as a deserter.

1926 – first novel “The Sun also rises”

1929 – “A farewell to arms”, portraying World War I and its consequences

1927 – story collection “Men without women” and 1933 – “Winner takes nothing”

1932 – “Death in the afternoon”, describes the bullfights in Spain

1935 – “The Green hills of Africa”, and “The snow of Kilimanjaro” and “The short happy life of Francis Macomber ”(1936) is about Hemingway’s hunting trip in Africa

1938 – the only play “The fifth column”, about his Spanish war experience

2) Francis Scott Fitzgerald  was an American author of novels and short stories. He finished four novels: This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby (his most famous), and Tender Is the Night. Fitzgerald also wrote many short stories that treat themes of youth and promise along with despair and age.

9) NATURALISM IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. J. LONDON, TH. DREISER.

The term naturalism describes a type of literature that attempts to apply scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings., naturalism implies a philosophical position: for naturalistic writers, since human beings characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings. Themes: determinism, violence, and taboo as key themes. The conflict in naturalistic novels is often "man against nature" or "man against himself" as characters struggle to retain a "veneer of civilization" despite external pressures that threaten to release the "brute within."