Unheard Voices Emerge in American

Literature After World War II

By Encyclopaedia Britannica, adapted by Newsela staff on 05.25.17
Word Count 887
Level 1040L

Ralph Ellison, the New York author of "Invisible Man," testifies on August 30, 1966, at a Senate subcommittee hearing on
racial problems in big cities, Washington, D.C. AP Photo

Before the Industrial Revolution, art was not accessible to everyone. If you wanted to hear a
symphony or see a painting, you had to travel to a museum or concert hall.

Then, books began to be printed in large quantities. With novels, you could share in the inner
world of an author and appreciate artistic beauty without leaving your home.

When people around the world were reading the same book, they were now sharing in a
collective artistic experience — a major shift. Soon, people began thinking about art having a
larger audience. This change began reflecting itself in all forms of art, including painting,
writing, dance and theater. The concept of popular culture emerged.

However, in the United States after World War II, many writers became opposed to what they
perceived as the flattening out of cultural life. They felt that pop culture was becoming boring
and too similar. American artists began to focus on all the things that set Americans apart from

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one another. For many Americans, ethnic and even religious differences had become
increasingly less important. As the century moved on, many writers seized on these
differences.

Tales of uncertainty

Beginning in the 1940s and 1950s, three "outsider" groups in particular, brought a new special
vision to fiction: Southerners, Jews and African-Americans.

Much of American pop culture and ideas at this time had a tone of optimism. In contrast, these
outsider groups asked questions. Their work had a sense of uncertainty, mixed emotions and
crushed aspirations.

The Southerners — William Faulkner, Eudora Welty and Flannery O’Connor most particularly
— talked of Southern life since the Civil War. They saw a tradition of defeat and failure.

Jewish writers — most prominently Philip Roth and Chicago novelist Saul Bellow — spoke of
the experience of Jewish immigrants to America. In American Jews, they saw a contradiction:
people who seemed wealthy and stable, but who were still uneasy and confused about their
place in the world. It seemed to be a common problem for many Americans.

Many other immigrant writers have explored the intersection of their old and new cultures at
the end of the 20th century. Among the most popular: Cuban-American writer Oscar Hijuelos,
Antigua-born Jamaica Kincaid, Bosnian immigrant Aleksandar Hemon, Indian-born novelist
Bharati Mukherjee, and Asian-American writers Maxine Hong Kingston and Ha Jin.

Invisible to the American dream

“What happens to a dream deferred?” the African-American poet Langston Hughes asked.
Many African-American writers attempted to answer that question in different ways. For them,
the promise of American life had in many ways never been kept. One of the masterpieces of
late 1900s American fiction writing was by African-American Ralph Ellison, who wrote
"Invisible Man" (1952). Later, two African-American women, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker,
published some of the most important post-World War II American fiction.

Soon, feminism became a stronger political movement, giving many women a sense that their
experience was dynamic and important. Since at least the 1960s, there has been an explosion
of women’s fiction, including the admired works of Joyce Carol Oates, Ann Beattie and Alison
Lurie.

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Publishing different perspectives

Many novelists wrote about experiences that were outside of the mainstream viewpoint of
American life. But now, a new question emerged: Is there such thing as a mainstream view
anymore in America? There were so many different perspectives in America. The novel
seemed to have become above all, a form of private expression, but maybe it could not
capture the thoughts of the everyday American.

Many writers soon were trying something different. They started crafting journalistic stories
about true events, but written in the poetic style of novels. James Agee’s "Let Us Now Praise
Famous Men" (1941) was about poor black farmers in the South. It combined real facts and
fiery, poetic language.

As the century continued, some writers examined massive public events but wrote about them
in a personal, playful way. Tom Wolfe's book "The Right Stuff" was published in 1979 and
spoke of the early days of the American space program.

Stories of private lives, unique experiences

During the 1990s autobiography became the focus for a number of novelists, including Frank
McCourt and Anne Roiphe. At the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st, there
were massive, ambitious novels published by David Foster Wallace with his 1996 work,
"Infinite Jest," and Jonathan Franzen who published his novel, "Freedom," in 2010.

As the nonfiction novel often pursued far-reaching subjects, the American short story slowly,
unexpectedly became more prominent in American writing. The short story became the voice
of private lives and unique moments. Two of of the most remarkable collections of short
stories: J.D. Salinger’s "Nine Stories," published in 1953 and Raymond Carver’s "What We
Talk About When We Talk About Love," published in 1981. Salinger talked about the search
for meaning in life with joy and charm, while Carver's work was dark, with buried emotions.

Literature brings the voice oppressed, left-behind people to the center of culture. This can be
seen in feminist and minority writers, whose work first appeared in the 1970s and 1980s,
including the Chinese-American Amy Tan. Short-story writers and novelists, including
Edmund White and David Leavitt, made art out of previously unspoken areas of love between
LGBT people.

Literature is above all about telling stories. American literature has only been enriched by new
stories and points of view.

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