Notes
Modernism
- Modernism (c. 1910-1945) responded to the disillusionment of World War I with fragmentation, stream of consciousness, spare language and experimental form ("Make it new").
- Imagist poems (Pound, Williams) use clear images; Eliot's The Waste Land uses fragments and allusion; Frost mixes plain speech with ironic ambiguity.
- Fitzgerald and Hemingway (the Lost Generation) explored the emptiness behind the American Dream and the power of understatement.
The Harlem Renaissance
- A cultural flowering (c. 1918-1937) rooted in the Great Migration, celebrating Black pride, jazz, blues and folk speech.
- Hughes (blues rhythms, refrains), McKay (defiant sonnet), Cullen (traditional forms), Hurston (folk culture and dialect), and Du Bois's double consciousness shaped the era's themes of identity and justice.
Topics in this unit
Each topic has its own short notes and practice.
Practice
Fragmentation is a hallmark of Modernism.
It relies on one compressed image.
Jazz, blues and pride were central.
Hemingway's understatement lets meaning stay beneath the surface.
It stands for Gatsby's longing for Daisy and the dream.
Refrains are central to blues and song.
Free response
Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.
Free-response question
Read this original passage: "The train left without her. She stood on the platform with a suitcase, a ticket, a name that no longer fit, and the sense that every clock in the station disagreed about the hour."
(a) Identify two Modernist techniques or themes in the passage.
Show the answer and scoring guide
The passage shows alienation and loss of identity ("a name that no longer fit") and uses a list that fragments her sense of self. The disagreement of the clocks suggests a disordered world.
Check off the points you earned:
(b) Explain what the clocks symbolize.
Show the answer and scoring guide
They symbolize confusion and a loss of certainty or shared order, which matches Modernism's doubt about stable structures.
Check off the points you earned:
(c) Describe how a Harlem Renaissance poet might respond to a similar theme of identity. Name one writer and one technique.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Example: Langston Hughes might use a blues-like refrain and the voice of everyday speech to explore pride and identity, turning alienation into a statement of endurance.
Check off the points you earned: