Literary Modernism In The 1920's

The Jazz Age in the 1920s was filled with many different aspects that morphed the United States into a more modern and advanced country. One of the most impressive parts of the Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age was the new style of literature being published. The literary modernism, which developed in the 1910s and 1920s, was built on the foundations of realism and impressionism of authors like William Dean Howells and Sherwood Anderson.1 These more modern authors that emerged in the 1920s, such as Ernest Hemingway and e.e. cummings, were influenced and impacted greatly by World War I, and became known as the Lost Generation.2 Many of these authors, though, did not attempt to completely change their style of writing rather to transform it …show more content…
The Lost Generation often referred to the young people of the twenties as “the flaming youth.” Many young people were leaving home early to go to work and college.13 Women were granted the right to vote in 1920 with the 19th amendment, which gave women all over America more confidence. Women were famous in the twenties for being flappers, young women that would flaunt her freedom in manner and dress.14 Women of the twenties often emphasized on their freedom to do what they want, and in some ways, people believe that this is the reason that some women were very wild in the twenties. Along with the youth and women of the twenties, African Americans played a huge role in the Jazz Age. African Americans became very prideful of the heritage and race in the twenties because of Renaissance happening in Harlem, NY.15 African Americans of Harlem were producing incredible amounts of jazz music, art, and literature. Billie Holiday was one of the great Harlem Musicians of the Jazz Age, and Zora Neale Hurston was one of the great writers of the Harlem Renaissance. The youth, women, and African Americans flourished in the 1920s and had a great impact on