Third Essay Spring 2009 Answer one of the questions below: 1) In the 1920s the United States was divided between two conflicting ideals for American culture – one identified with the past and with small town America , the other identified with a more urban, modern, and sophisticated ideal. To what extent, if any, does each of these writers fit easily into either camp: Dos Passos, Stein, Hemingway and Miller? Are either of these two ideals for American culture present in the writings of these four writers? In your answer be sure to develop a clear and relevant thesis and to support this argument with specific examples from each writer, as well as from other materials in the course. 2) “ Paris was important to American writers in the 1920s primarily because it allowed them to escape the debates about modernity that were tearing American culture apart and to focus on the business of writing, undisturbed by tempests across the Atlantic .” Do you agree or disagree with this characterization of American writers in the 1920s? To what extent does it capture their relationship to American culture? To what extent does it describe the contribution Paris made to their work? How would it apply to each of the writers we have studied in some detail (i.e. Dos Passos, Stein, Hemingway, and Miller)? In your answer be sure to develop a clear and relevant thesis and to support this argument with specific examples from each writer, as well as from other materials in the course.
|
|---|