Strolling through the American Literature Garden [Part 3]

During the 60s and 70s of the last century, when social changes caused upheaval in American culture and literature, there were writers who still preserved basic values, still maintained classic plots and pure writing styles.

Since the 1960s, the line between journalism and works of fiction has blurred. Stories and novels - reportage labeled "non-fiction" (non-fiction novels) tell about real events using fictional writing techniques such as dialogue, description, drama, and slang... Truman Capote (1924-1984), a Southern neo-romantic writer, recounted the brutal assassination of a farming family in In Cold Blood (1966), Norman Kingsley Mailer (1923-2007) wrote about the path that leads a person who does not adapt to society to crime and death in The Executioner's Song (1979).

In the post-World War II theater scene, Arthur Miller was associated with the progressive theater of the 1930s. In Death of Salesman (1949), he portrayed the catastrophic failure of an ordinary American full of illusions; he wrote about pathological psychology, about America of brutality, lust, and hysteria in A Streetcar named Desire (1947). Edward Albee (1928-2016) represented a theatrical trend that portrayed the “absurdity” of life; he portrayed a fiery marital relationship in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1962).

The women's movement of the 1960s and 1970s spurred many female writers. The poetry of Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) and Anne Sexton (1928-1974) spoke of women's sadness. The novels of Joan Didion (1934-2021) and Erica Jong (born 1942) criticized society from a female perspective.

As women’s roles were asserted, women wrote less about protest and more about self-affirmation. Susan Lee Sontag (1933 – 2004) wrote philosophical essays, novels, and made films. She visited Vietnam and condemned the American war of aggression. Mary Therese McCarthy (1912-1989) worked as a journalist, wrote novels, and wrote satires about American intellectuals; she also visited Vietnam and condemned the American war ( Report from Vietnam, 1967).

Black literature took shape in the late 19th century with Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) writing lyric poetry using black folklore and dialect. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868-1963), who became a Ghanaian citizen late in life, fought tirelessly for black equality; he wrote The Soul of Black Folk (1903), The World and Africa (1947) and began work on the Encyclopedia of Africa.

In the 1920s and 1930s, poets Countee Cullen (1903-1946) and Langston Hughes (1901-1967) opposed racial discrimination. Novelist Richard Wright (1908-1960) initially joined the progressive forces, especially in his short story Uncle Tom's Children (1938). Ralph Ellison (1913-1994) was famous for his book Invisible Man (1952), about black people being degraded in white society. James Baldwin (1924-1987) wrote existentialist novels, famous right away for his first work Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), about the fate of black people stripped of their individuality. Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000) wrote poems about the suffocating life in black neighborhoods in Chicago.

Black literature became politicized in the 1960s, when the struggle for equality turned into a movement for “black power.” The anger was expressed in the poetry and plays of Amiri Baraka (1934-2014). Black political leaders also wrote books: The Autobiography of Malcolm (1965) with the collaboration of Alex Haley (1921-1992). Haley also wrote a great work on the African origins of black people: Roots (1976). Female writer Toni Morrison (1931-2019) analyzed the psychology of black women in depth; in 1988 she won the Pulitzer Prize and in 1993 she won the Nobel Prize.

American Jews began to write. Saul Bellow (1915-2005) won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976; Bernard Malamud (1914-1986), Philip Roth (1933-2018) dealt with social characters and issues, and also introduced a kind of humor into the novel. Isaac Bashevis Singer (1902-1991) - a Polish Jew won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1978.

Latino poets of Spanish descent also participated in literary activities, such as: Tino Villanueva (born 1941), Carlos Cortéz (1923-2005), Victor Hernandez Cruz (born 1949). Native American Navarrese Scott Momaday (born 1934) wrote about ancestors in The Names (1976). Chinese American Maxime Hong Kingston (born 1940) also wrote about ancestors in China Men (China Men).

In the 1960s and 1970s, when social upheavals caused upheavals in American culture and literature, there were writers who maintained basic values, kept classic plots, and kept a clear style. John Updike (1932-2009) wrote articles, poems, and stories, often describing middle-class people; his writing style was refined and poetic. His iconic novel The Centaur (1963) depicted the boring life of a small-town teacher. Evan Shelby Connell (1924-2013) painted a picture of a middle-class family in a pair of novels: Mrs. Bridge (1959) and Mr. Bridge (1969). William Kennedy (born 1928) wrote a trilogy about Albany in the 1920s and 1930s with a look that was both affectionate and sharp. John Irving (born 1942) and Paul Theroux (born 1941) portray eccentric American families in humorous and surreal scenes. Anne Tyler (born 1941) portrays with a witty brush the misfits on the fringes of the middle class. Bobbie Ann Mason (born 1940) depicts life in rural southern Kentucky.

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