The Modernist Short Story

Vocabulary

 

Characteristics of the Modernist Short Story

As you have learned, Modernism emerged as a literary movement in response to the destruction of core beliefs of the American people after World War I and the Great Depression. No longer did Americans trust the government, their religious leaders, or their own cultural identities. This fragmentation and uncertainty is evident in the fictional writing of the time. In this interactivity, click the notes on the bulletin board to examine the elements of the Modernist short story in further detail.

View a printable version of the interactivity.

 

William Faulkner

William Faulkner (1897–1962), the master of the southern Gothic tale, wrote about the decay of traditional values as small communities became swept up in the modern world. Although his complex structures and rambling stream of consciousness dismayed critics at first, Faulkner came to be considered the most innovative writer of his time because of his narrative experimentation with point of view.

Born near Oxford, Mississippi, Faulkner set most of his novels and stories in a world that closely resembled the impoverished farmland of his hometown. At best a mediocre student, Faulkner dropped out of high school but continued to educate himself on his own. Failing to meet the height and weight requirements for the U.S. Army, he enlisted in the Canadian Royal Air Force at the outbreak of World War I. However, the war ended before he completed training. Following the war, Faulkner took a string of short-lived odd jobs in his native Oxford and New Orleans. During this time, Faulkner began writing, and within a few years, he had found his voice. The themes of his novels and stories come from the history and struggles of the American South of which he was so familiar: racism, search for meaning and identity, and the struggle to connect the social and moral burdens of the past to those of the present.

Faulkner spent most of his life writing and creating a vast fictional society with the Sartorises, Compsons, Bundrens, and Snopeses, many of whom make recurrent appearances throughout his literary works. By the time Faulkner received the Nobel Prize in literature in 1950, most of his best writing was behind him; despite this, he continued to write many more stories until his death in 1962.

Eudora Welty

Eudora Welty (1909–2001) is considered one of the leading American writers of the 20th century. Welty is known for using a great amount of detail and compassion to develop deep characters toward which many readers feel sympathetic. Welty grew up and lived most of her life in Jackson, Mississippi. Her writing reflects the attitudes and hardships of the rural people of the Deep South. Although her characters show the suffering of poor Americans, Welty still manages to color her prose with optimism. When Welty was first beginning a career, she worked as a publicist for a government agency. This gave her the opportunity to travel around the countryside of Mississippi, taking photos and interviewing people. This experience provided much inspiration for her stories and directly influenced her first successful short story called "Death of a Traveling Salesman."

 

 

Modernist Short Story Review

Now that you have explored characteristics of Modernism in the short stories of William Faulkner and Eudora Welty, review your knowledge in this non-graded activity. Select the characteristics of Modernism present in each story. Click on the player button to get started.