American Literary Movements: From Post-War to Digital Age
New Journalism: A Literary Movement
New Journalism emerged during the Liberal Epoch as a literary journalism rooted in authenticity. It featured a straightforward writing style, incorporating techniques from novels, and blurred the lines between fiction and journalism. Deeply influenced by Pop Culture, it was characterized by its stylish and sophisticated approach. A product of the 1960s and 1970s, New Journalism addressed contemporary issues, though its popularity waned by the late 1970s. Writers of this movement filled a void in comprehensive literature, creating a visual journalism, influenced by television, as they felt the writer should not be bored. They invested in capturing readers’ attention, fostering reader immersion. These writers aimed to produce writing rich in factuality and entertainment, striving to be both commercial and catchy. Additionally, they introduced new resources and techniques, demonstrating stylistic innovation. New Journalism writers wanted to be as informative as possible while also providing an introspective vision of the subject. Their works were published primarily in magazines and anthologies rather than as traditional novels.
Stylistic Devices of New Journalism
- Writers focused on the narrative voice and perspective. Most narrated in the third person, but they constantly shifted the third-person point of view.
- They used a scene-by-scene construction with minimal transition, creating a sense of immediacy.
- New Journalism was rich in dialogue, often a deliberate construction by the writer. Writers employed an ironic and satirical style.
- Authors used status-life symbols in their writings. These symbols are small elements with significant resonance and connotations. Examples include clothing, contacts, furniture, and trips.
Tom Wolfe: A Polarizing Figure
Tom Wolfe produced a highly polarized reaction in his readers. Although some called him demagogic and not always true to the facts, he was undeniably a very good writer. His style was very oral, making the story feel as if it were speaking directly to the reader. He was influenced by television. His writings reflected excitement, immediacy, and credibility, characterized by dazzling, rapid-flow, and non-linear prose. Furthermore, his writings were located in ‘stratospheres,’ detailing individuals from various social strata who were emerging in American society. Tom Wolfe wrote against traditional values, believing that technology and media were beneficial for people, helping them transcend their small-town origins. He criticized society in his works, often as a means to entertain readers. Besides, Wolfe was an elusive writer, which led to a proliferation of contradictions in his works. He mocked the styles and traditions of traditional culture, yet celebrated comics, pleasure-seeking, and self-centered modes of ‘happiness explosion.’ Finally, Tom Wolfe was not politically correct; he criticized minorities, demonstrating an uncommitted stance and a ‘balanced rejection.’
The Narrator as ‘Method Actor’
The narrator acts as a witness in the story, serving as a medium to cover the narrative, akin to a method actor. The degrees of narrator participation varied, sometimes maintaining distance, other times being in the midst of the action. According to Tom Wolfe, ‘it is a matter of getting inside the emotions, inside the subjective reality of the people you are writing about, instead of projecting your emotions into the story.’
Language Poetry: An Experimental School
Language Poetry, an important school, started in the late 1960s, with its peak years in the 1970s and 1980s. This school included hundreds of poets, but three emblematic voices were Hejinian, Bernstein, and Silliman. This school lacked a central hub; poets from different parts of the country formed a virtual community, connecting primarily through poetry conventions or readings. Language Poetry was peculiar, often confusing, and sometimes even reviled. The poets were against certain traits of earlier poetry; they rejected tradition, and their poetry did not focus on the individual self, authority, or personal experience. Writers did not believe that writing must communicate directly with the reader; instead, they were interested in paying exclusive attention to language itself. This approach aligned with a Modernist style known as medium specificity. The poets of Language Poetry were fascinated with the variety of styles, idiolects, sociolects, and particular usages. These styles were blurred, modified, de-automatized, and pushed towards obscurity. They were also interested in difficult language, believing that meaning could lead to deeper ideas or moods within the poem. For them, reading had to be a constructive and active decoding process, akin to a game or a puzzle. The texts were a collaborative work where authors and readers met and worked together; poems were seen as a gathering of voices, like a town meeting. Finally, they resisted the immediacy and ‘transparency’ of consumerism, popular media, and ‘public’ discourses. As a result, poetry and poetics were not confined to literature and held significant political importance.
LGBTQ+ Literature: Gay/Lesbian and Queer
Gay/Lesbian Fiction
Gay/Lesbian Fiction featured conventional characters and plots, with characters holding normal jobs and lives. It was politically non-confrontational and centered on love stories. This fiction was no longer solely about isolation, exile, or marginality. It occasionally ventured into popular genres, maintaining a traditional, pleasant, and elegant style. Moreover, it had an elegant and refined diction, and its writers were highly skillful.
Queer Literature
Queer Literature emerged from Queer politics. It was confrontational, reflecting the lifestyles of marginalized people. This literature was shocking and experimental, sometimes challenging to follow. The beginnings and endings of texts were often vague, and the writings depicted tormented, shameful people in distress. After the 1970s, Queer literature shifted its tone; sexual differences were no longer viewed as tragic or shameful, but rather celebrated. A distinction emerged by the mid-1980s, dividing gay/lesbian writing into distinct ‘gay/lesbian’ and ‘queer’ categories.
Digital Writing: Categories and Concepts
Computer-Generated Literature (CGL)
Computer-Generated Literature (CGL) was generated through (or imitating) computer programming. Alison Knowles, a visual artist who wrote poetry, utilized the computer program called House of Dust, which uses fixed sequences of words to produce randomly generated texts. The writers of CGL sometimes wrote collectively, as in the book ‘by Oulipo,’ and sometimes individually. They generated a new kind of poetry, with varying degrees of success. The more recent initiative is the ‘NanoGenMo’ experiments.
Computer-Based Literature (CBL)
Computer-Based Literature (CBL) uses or imitates digital capabilities. It is a hypertext literature that alters how text is presented and connected. CBL is akin to a webpage, it is hyperonym-based and features a story space program, notably used by Michael Joyce.
Literature Describing a Digitalized Environment (LADE)
Literature Describing a Digitalized Environment (LADE) is characterized by machines acting like humans and humans becoming part-machine. LADE is the most traditional type. It is conventional literature depicting environments modified by digital culture, often incorporating elements of science fiction. Besides, LADE has two types: cyberpunk fiction and literature about Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Cyberpunk: Dystopian Futures
Cyberpunk was developed from the 1980s onward. It featured futuristic environments inhabited by unconventional people. Urban settings were decaying, and post-industrial cities were ridden with crime and populated by marginal subcultures. The protagonists are hackers who have fallen into disgrace with criminal associations, often possessing technologically modified bodies. There are no governments or traditional control mechanisms; societies are controlled by economic interests and crime syndicates. Cyberpunk is a combination of fascination with social decay and criticism of counter-policies, often presenting a dystopian or utopian science fiction vision.
Chicano Literature: Identity and Resistance
Chicano Literature aims to expose racism, discrimination, and marginality. It shares similar aesthetics to Afro-American Literature due to shared political and social goals. It mixes tradition and experimentation, often being trans-lingual. The writing aimed to improve the understanding of readers within the community. Settings of the writings included: barrio life, family and community dynamics, and the U.S./Mexican border. Themes often involved a sense of kinship with other minorities and criticism of Anglo USA, highlighting its perceived spiritual void, consumerism, and soullessness. It included touches of fantastic realism, where the fantastic offered an alternative way of knowledge, serving as a counterpoint to the hyper-rationalism and disenchantment of mainstream U.S./Western culture.
The New York School of Poetry
The New York School‘s best-known artists include O’Hara, Ashbery, Schuyler, Koch, and Guest. They were contemporary with the Beats (sharing some similarities like rebelliousness, rejection of convention, and openness about sexuality), and they collaborated extensively. Writers were cohesive both in their writings and socially, forming strong literary and social connections, though sometimes with a sense of playful deception. They were individuals who paved the way for the 1960s, forming a distinct community. Their poetry was ironic (at times humorous) and irreverent toward established culture. It was very personal, intense, and diaristic, often intimate. It occasionally had a narrative or dramatic bent. New York School poets were also influenced by French poetry and fascinated with city life. They liked to be surrounded by the city but not consume it as a tourist. Poems sometimes had plots that made them resemble mini-stories or micro-plays, and they regarded poetry as a game.
Frank O’Hara: Poet and Collaborator
Frank O’Hara, initially a pianist, later became interested in literature. He was interested in spontaneity, showing little interest in traditional measure, assonance, and similar poetic devices. His writings were influenced by Abstract Expressionism, drawing on its principles of improvisation and spontaneous painting. His poetry seemed off-hand, and poems were often arbitrary, diaristic, and centered on people and communication. He collaborated with painters, produced cross-media works, wrote some texts in French, and created pieces that resembled comics and calligrams.
Third Wave Feminism: Intersectionality and Expansion
Third Wave Feminism was a reaction to Second Wave Feminism. It grew out of many ideas from Equal Rights Feminism. Second Wave Equal Rights Feminism was seen as simplistic in its representation of women as a unified, homogeneous group. It was mostly white, middle-class, and heterosexist; thus, it did not fully account for differences in class and race within women’s experiences. The Third Wave Feminism integrated the perspectives of feminists of color. It claimed that sexism and patriarchy intersect with racism and imperialism, asserting that these oppressions cannot be separated. Feminism, they argued, would be worthless without intersectionality and inclusion. Many feminist writings took the form of essays, manifestos, public statements, letters, and historical writing. However, one of feminism’s most important literary legacies is its expansion of the range of ‘literature.’ Much of the best unclassified or multi-generic feminist writing combined the essay, autobiography, narrative, and political analysis.
Allen Ginsberg: Beat Poet and Activist
Allen Ginsberg was gay; he was sent to a psychiatric institution due to his sexuality, and criminality was a recurring theme in his life, including periods of incarceration. Ginsberg’s thematic interests ranged from transcendentalism to scatology. He included politics, religion and transcendence, mental instability and disease, consumerism, sexuality, homosexuality, and vitalism in his writings. In his works, he reflected sadness, heartbreak, and mental health issues. Ginsberg used to write in ‘flashes,’ units of thought, or ‘breath.’ His writings included repetitions, lists, and references to popular culture, religion, myths, and literature. He had a modern style, and his poems were both epic and lyrical, blending these styles effectively. Ginsberg was influenced by William Carlos Williams and Kerouac’s ‘sketching’ technique, and he had a strong interest in the stream of consciousness.
Literature and Media: Interconnected Forms
Literature was determined by media. Literature interacted with telegraphy, newspaper layout and journalism, photography, cinema, sound recording media, radio, television, computers, and digital culture. Media not only communicated content but also shaped structures of perception and ways of understanding reality and writing about it. Literature ran parallel with visual arts, which also influenced literary works. Writers at the time interconnected references to media in their works. A medium is anything that transmits information. The influence of media on each other and on culture is not just about the ‘real’ culture, but about the different ways of perception it offers. Film is a fragmentation medium that imposes certain aspects on perception. Radio imposes a different way of perception, but it also fragments how the population understands sound.
Second Wave Feminism: Post-War Activism
Second Wave Feminism took place after World War II and arose as a response to a setback in women’s progress towards equality and emancipation. In this second wave, the concept of the ‘feminine mystique’ was highly important. It was an ideology of femininity dominant in the post-war years. It dictated that women fulfill themselves as wives and mothers, but not through education or work. Too much education, it was argued, made women unsuitable for their ‘true’ role and place in society. Furthermore, the struggles of Second Wave Feminism were largely ideological. They consisted of an examination of the mindsets, convictions, and prejudices that underpinned patriarchy. Finally, this second wave feminism was usually divided into two branches: Equal Rights Feminism, which was moderate and practical. It was against discrimination in jobs and politics, and it was basically assimilationist. The other branch was Radical Feminism, which was more radical and intellectually exciting but less practical. It connected feminism to other forms of repression and linked it to broader forms of oppression. They did not want to assimilate into the mainstream but to transform it. Finally, the most visible organization of Equal Rights Feminism was N.O.W. (National Organization for Women). For Radical Feminists, women’s oppression was seen as the root of all oppressions (economic, racial, and cultural).
Postmodern Epistemology and Reality
Problematization of Objectivity
‘Reality’ is the stories we tell ourselves about it. Reality is read and narrated just as books are. This marks a shift from attempts to understand the world to inhabiting it, leading to a post-cognitive world.
Reality as an Open System
There are two worlds: the real and the symbolic. Reality is not simply ‘there’; we create reality.
Perspectivism
Demonstrability
Philosophical Relativism
- Time of relative truths.
- Very local: situatedness/localism.
- Mediation (social/historical contexts): texts are always subject to social and historical surroundings.
- Knowledge fully textual: mediated by language.
1960s Surfiction: Experimental Narrative
Experimentalism
This included Surrealism, perspectivism, interior monologue, and idiosyncratic use of language.
Mixture of High and Low Culture
Surfiction produced serious works, but utilized colloquial concepts.
Imitation and Pastiche
This led to the concept of ‘literature of exhaustion,’ marking the end of the referential text, and ventriloquism. They produced texts copying existing styles, leading to the idea that new creation was impossible, so existing styles were re-used. These texts marked the end of referential texts, as they did not directly mirror reality. The writers acted as ‘ventriloquists’ of other writers’ styles.
Metaliterature and Self-Referentiality
This involved literature about literature and texts about texts. Literature comments on literature: what it is, how it works. Writing, composing texts, and finding texts that one must interpret are frequent themes.
Absurdity and Fatalism
Focused on the absurdity of humankind.
Black Humor, Irony, and Parody
They enjoyed jokes and black humor.
Uncertainty and Undecidability
Raised questions like ‘Where are we going?’ and ‘Where is it going as a nation?’
The Beat Generation: Context of the 1950s
America was becoming the wealthiest country, yet 50% of the population lived in poverty, unable to afford basic necessities like light or water. Racial tension persisted, as Americans no longer needed Latinos in factories, leading to unemployment and poverty for this group. Youth culture emerged as a consequence of affluent culture; with it came young people left alone at home due to working parents, leading to delinquency and drug use, perceived by some as ‘driving the country to hell.’ High schools became centers of gang wars. There was also a boom of Black music, which white kids loved, became a controversial issue; the blues and rock and roll sparked debate. The Beat Generation was obsessed with Black people and their culture, considering them more authentic than white people. This was the kind of America that the Beat Generation was most connected with.
Beat Generation: Key Themes
- Experiences with drugs, altered perceptions, and life experiences.
- Drugs were seen as a way to connect with reality and find inspiration. They believed that without drugs, one could not fully understand knowledge, wisdom, truth, and authenticity.
- Embraced a biographical style (literature of experience).
- Liberation and opposition to sexual repression, spirituality, and mysticism.
- Interest in madness and mental illness based on personal experience (e.g., Kerouac’s struggles with schizophrenia). They politicized the issue of madness.
- Capitalism and the 1950s were seen as producers of mental instability.
Beat Generation: Aesthetics and Politics
Their writing was free from conventions (improvised), using a spontaneous style. The writers of the Beat Generation were inspired by bebop jazz rhythms; they aimed to write authentic texts and were against censorship, revision, and the intellectual establishment (rejecting professional writing norms). Furthermore, they did not overtly care about politics, nor did they take a direct political stance. The Beat Generation embraced Individualism and Escapism. They sought to go beyond political revolution, and they were the first postmodern group to mix popular culture with experimentalism. Finally, they aimed to create a counterculture.
The Beat Generation: Core Principles
The Beat Generation had its origins in the early 1940s, with key authors including Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg. They had a new vision of arts and literature. They supported uncensored self-expression as the seed of creativity. Art, for them, was beyond conventional morality; it was an expansion of the artist’s consciousness that characterized this generation of writers. The Beat Generation was linked to crime, drugs, delinquency, and perceived immorality. They rejected the idea that they lacked morals. In fact, they believed they were evolving. Furthermore, they were not as cohesive as other generations of writers; they were not a homogeneous group. For them, coherence was based on mutual sympathy and inspiration. They were creative and highly spiritual, with the exception of Burroughs, who never stated his official religion. Moreover, the Beat Generation was obsessed with themes like drugs, addictions, mental illnesses, and pathologies. The Beat Generation had a very critical vision of their country and society. They were uncomfortable in the 1950s, believing that America was a spiritual wasteland, lacking authenticity and originality. They were against corporate America and middle-class suburbia, but embraced hedonistic self-indulgence and spiritual kinship. They gave importance to a radical lifestyle, liberation, and individual spirits. They were perceived as amoral, psychopathic, impulsive, and addicted, and they were influenced by Romanticism. Their ideals were based on rebellion and subjectivity; they delved into Transcendentalism, and their works were also influenced by Modernism.
Black Literature and Culture: Activism and Art
Black Literature and Culture were influenced by Black militancy (in ideology and practice), leading writers to political and social commitment, addressing topical issues and protests. They wrote about cultural nationalism, Afrocentrism, and more. This literature emphasized accessibility and community appeal. It incorporated Black vernacular (speech) and cultural references. It was in favor of performative forms and were more community-oriented. Fiction was important but sometimes written as if it were recited orally. In art, they tended to create murals and posters. They wanted their works to be in the street, not confined to galleries; hence, works were sold at affordable prices. Sometimes artists engaged in collective works, fostering the creation of Black support networks. They also started editing and collecting past writings, such as anthologies.
Additional Stylistic Devices of New Journalism
Punctuation and Typography
They produced flashy texts, utilizing abundant punctuation. This innovation in typography stemmed from Modernism. Sometimes, it became cartoonish. It was a very sensationalist way of writing, focused on entertaining the audience.
Language and Syntax
Their language was very light, casual, and colloquial. It rarely hints at self-consciousness (unlike Surfiction writers). Sometimes this style of writing often resembled a letter or an email (casual and spontaneous). Their interest in the mind led them to incorporate elements of Modernism. Another goal of this style was to capture orality, resulting in very credible dialogues (fluid and natural).
Original Structure
The style is not linear and chronological. The stories are sometimes messy due to disjointed rambling. Sometimes it will be redundant. The idea that story chronology should always be linear was rejected. They were against linearity. The stories are plagued by afterthought, linking New Journalism with Surfiction experimentalism.
Hunter S. Thompson: Gonzo Journalism
Hunter S. Thompson was a hard-core patriotic, nationalistic, and individualist thinker. He had frequent problems with police, government, and authority (including incidents of vandalism and sexual assault). He was not interested in spiritual or mystical streams. His writings connected to high Modernism (he criticized Capitalism and high Western values), often resembling a collage or pastiche of written materials. His works were loud and full of distortion and drug references. His style was characterized by spontaneous outrage, ‘full of chemicals,’ decentralized, and featured broken-down prose with loose grammar and scattergun (chaotic) syntax. He used ellipses and jumps in perspective or subject matter. His style challenged traditional journalism and fiction, being formally subversive. His works often presented a kind of schizophrenic discourse. He was an experimental writer, not comfortable with any label, yet he was co-opted into New Journalism. He was always at the center of the story.
William S. Burroughs: The Dark Beat
William S. Burroughs was the darkest figure of the Beat Generation, delving deeper into drugs and exhibiting the most ambivalence. Burroughs did not share the idealism and mysticism of the others; he primarily wrote about heroin and the bleakness of life. He was very pessimistic and even criticized the Beat Generation. His writings seemed to predict the end of the Beat Generation. Burroughs shifted from uninflected journalism to science fiction and hallucinations, sometimes within the same chapter. Furthermore, he created the ‘interzone,’ a mix of the USA and other places. His writings were difficult to follow. Besides, he transitioned from popular literature to experimentalism, seen as a continuation of Modernism. Finally, Burroughs was the only experimental Modernist author in the U.S.
The Postmodern of Difference: Marginal Voices
The postmodern in terms of politics and society signifies the emergence of marginal voices both in the U.S. and internationally. This includes the rise of social, cultural, and ethnic difference. The end of decolonization was accompanied by questioning West-European-American hegemony. European civilization, it was argued, was built on the ruthless exploitation of non-Western others. Postmodernism coincides with the rise of new social movements. These were not class-based movements, as class was no longer the main factor in politics. This was due to globalization: the relocation of manufacturing to the world’s peripheries. However, design, control, and management operations remained in Western metropolitan centers. Consequently, the West was deindustrialized, leading to the rise of the ‘rust belt’ (areas formerly devoted to industry but now in decline) in the U.S. Social changes included the dilution of the traditional working class and its replacement by service sector workers. The U.S. became a country with a more diverse, less predominantly white, population. These new social movements addressed issues of lifestyle, bodily emancipation, ecology, occupation and use of space, international cooperation and North-South relations, and ethnic and cultural difference.
Postmodernism: Sociological and Political Dimensions
Genealogy of Postmodern Literature
Its roots lie in experimental Modernism, popular culture, and the mediascape. It was influenced by late Modernists such as Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges, and Samuel Beckett.
Influence on U.S. Literature
This included an interest in enigmatic worlds (fantasized or ‘real’) and a taste for alternative realities, parallel, coexisting universes (e.g., City of Glass). Language mediated the perception of reality (language created reality and identity).
Problematization of Reality
‘Reality’ equals the stories we tell ourselves about it. Reality is ‘read’ and ‘narrated’ just as books are. This marks a shift from attempts to understand reality to cognitive and post-cognitive questions.
From Epistemology to Ontology
It shifts from knowledge and the search for ultimate, objective answers to description and accommodation to the way things are in a given world.
Metaliterature and Self-Referentiality
Literature is not a window to the world but to textuality, to literature and its mechanisms. Literature comments on literature: what it is, how it works. Writing, composing texts, and finding texts that one must interpret are frequent themes.
Critiques of Postmodern Fiction
It was predominantly white and male. It was academic and abstract (too much about itself, not enough about the world). The world and its problems are preeminent in a different kind of postmodernism: the ‘postmodernism of difference.’