1900s

 "None of us can help the things life has done to us. They're done before you realize it, and once they're done they make you do other things until at last everything comes between you and what you'd like to be, and you have lost your true self forever.'
Eugene O'Neill, Long Day's Journey Into Night, 1956
 

Study Questions

  • An important development of this century is the rise of minority writers. Citing several works by these writers, analyze the contributions that they have made to American literature. 
  • Several works published in this century reflect the influence of other arts, especially music. Referring to some of these works, explain how writers use other arts to complement the written or spoken word. 

People

Places

  • Harlem, New York 
  • Oxford, Mississippi 
  • New Orleans, Louisiana 
  • San Francisco, California 

Events

  • World War I (1914-1918) 
  • Great Depression (1929-1930s) 
  • World War II (1939-1945) 
  • Civil Rights Movement (1950s-1960s) 
  • Vietnam War (1950s-1970s) 

Terms

  • Harlem Renaissance 
  • Modernism 
  • drama 
  • play 
  • soliloquy 
  • aside 
  • set 
  • lighting 
  • blocking 
  • gesture 
  • actor 
  • director 
  • Postmodernism 
  • Beat writers