X GYMNASIUM “MIHAJLO PUPIN“

ESSAY

SUBJECT: HISTORY
TOPIC: LITERATURE BETWEEN THE WARS

Author: Aleksandra Tadić IV/9 Professor: Pavle Pavlović

Belgrade, December 2022.

Contents:
1
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................1
2.Expressionism................................................................................................................2
2.a. Serbian expressionist subgenres.......................................................................3
2.b. Cubism.............................................................................................................4
2.c. Futurism...........................................................................................................5
2.d. Dadaism...........................................................................................................6
2.e. Surrealism........................................................................................................7
3. Interwar period writers.................................................................................................8
3.a. Ernest Hemingway...........................................................................................8
3.b. John Steinbeck................................................................................................9
3.c. Agatha Christie...............................................................................................9
4. Conclusion...................................................................................................................10
5. Bibliography.................................................................................................................11
 1. Introduction

The term “avant garde” in translation from French means, word for word, “predecessor”, and it relates
to the final stages of modernism. By definition, it encompasses several different currents, all that can be
described over two elementary terms - expressionism and social literature. What is definite in this
period is the rupture with traditional art and literature. We could say that the writers of this age had a
breakthrough and something switched in the way people looked at the world. With a lot more
abstraction, boldness and irrationality in their work, a new wave of art started to spread all over the
world. It is not without a bit of chaos, disagreement and details that this happened. Avantgardists really
wanted to make a full circle and go into the extremes of human nature. The somewhat big of a
resemblance with the antiques is in putting the focus on the one who feels. This is called a reverse
impression path - the individual beings that have souls are the center, and the whole world shapes
around those feelings. To explain it more simply, our surroundings and everything that happens within
it depends on our mood. In today's world the simplest situation would look something like this: I am
tired, I have not slept enough, and I hear people chattering. Birds singing. Kids playing in the park.
Rain. On another given day , I would probably be happy to see all these snippets of life. But today I am
in a bad mood and everything is annoying to me. To express my feelings, I go and write a journal entry.
Or write a poem about how life is not always nice. Now, of course, this would probably be very
different in the early 1900s, but the idea is there. I focus on the colors, the sounds, anything I can pick
up on with my senses. The literature of this age heavily correlates to the predominant art style. Also,
one more important thing about avant garde as a programme is the straight-to-the-point, direct writing
style. As it is said in The Avant Garde Novel, “literary avant gardes have above all favored brief,
immediate, and more rapidly produced forms such as the manifesto and the lyric poem, as well as
forms of theater and performance that can be staged or published at little expense, and that directly
affect their audience without further mediation or delay.”1

1 T. Miller, American Fiction A-Z, volume II, “The Avant Garde Novel” (information from the abstract available at
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444337822.wbetcfv2a008)
 2. a. Expressionism

Expressionism is a literary current that first appeared in Germany, in the beginning decades of the 20th
century. It is considered to be the first part of modernist literature. It was composed out of many
contrasting ideas and differently oriented representatives. But what is common to all is the fact that
they all wanted a new “version” of a man. A kind of man that is adapted and capable of remaining in
the society that has changed and continues to change as the war happens. What stood in the way of
forming such a man? well, in the first place - war and all the political situations it brought along. Some
typical motives of expressionism are the following: themes and atmosphere are “coloured” red and
black - bold, strong tones to emphasize the expression of the hero (today we can say that they are also
colors of blood and death), the setting is urbanistic (factories, disease, war); situations are pretty
regularly observed from the point of view of a so called intellectual who feels everything a bit too
much, e.i. all of his feelings are extremely exaggerated. The idea behind this is to get to the reader as
quick as possible, to reach catharsis2 and to be as direct as possible. Because the one that has the
impression also has power to distribute that impression onto others, while still remaining in the focus.

Because of the cathartic moment, a genre of writing that is very popular in this period is drama. What
can be more expressive than acting, right? Other than drama, there are a lot of expressionistic
manifestos, some of which were written by Ivan Grol and Paul Hatvani. 3

Some of the most famous poets of this period are Walt Whitman, Gottfried Benn, Oscar Kokoschka
(who was also a painter), Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire and others.

Example: Rimbaud's poem “Voyelles/Vowels”

In this poem Rimbaud uses Baudelaire's idea of the existence of universal analogy while writing about
the five vowels. We can see that the poem is divided into five parts, in which every vowel has its
assigned scent, color and scene in nature. The main idea is the idea of correspondences, in which a
color can evoke a mood or sensory experience.

2.a. Serbian expressionist subgenres

2 catharsis - the feeling of purification through reading or watching a play, the sudden realization of the many aspects of
life; contributes to the revolutionary character of expressionism
3 Ivan Grol`s Record about expressionism, Paul Hatvani`s About expressionism
The manifesto for Serbian expressionism was written by Stanislav Vinaver in 1920. and this is a part of
it: ”we are all expressionists. we all take reality as a means of our creation.. reality is not in things,
but reality is in the effect of things on us.. Expressionism is revolutionary... the new world must
move, change...” 4

Zenitism
This is one out of three -isms of Serbian literature. The name is given after a magazine called Zenit,
which was initiated and edited by Ljubomir Micić, and existed for five years (1921-1926). This
expressionist subgenre was born and lasted on Serbian grounds. Although formerly starting in Zagreb,
Croatia, its printing was moved to Belgrade. Many European creators collaborated with the magazine,
like Picasso, Kandinsky, Mayakovsky and Blok. This will not be surprising after we find out what the
goal of zenitism is. Their literary expression implied that this subgenre is fully authentical, and they
connected through a mix of art and literature[5. In the literary sense, they claim that poetry is a fruit of
reason and they are ultimately against everything of a romantical character.

Sumatraism

This whole subgenre is based on the works of Miloš Crnjanski, Sumatra and Explanation of
“Sumatra”, published in 1920. As we know, this is a very significant author in our literature, having
written novels like Seobe, Dnevnik o Čarnojeviću and Roman o Londonu. His poetry focuses on the
atmosphere in Belgrade after World War I, where he sympathizes with the soldiers by viewing himself
as one of them. His country is ruined, in shambles and he has no hope. The feelings of a single soldier -
solitude, sadness, finding a meaning in life - are represented through a collective. Crnjanski's works are
important because he points out the absurdity of killing and war in itself. As far as Sumatra goes, this
island is for the writer a symbol of connection, unity of everything that lives and happens. After this,
we can say that sumatraism is based on the belief that everyone and everything in life is one.

Hipnism

4 Č. Đorđević, Dr O. Radulović, M. Grdinić, Književnost i grmatika, priručnik za treći razred gimnazija i srednjih stručnik
škola, Novi Sad 2016.
5 J. Deretić, M. Mitrović, Istorija književnosti za II razred usmerenog obrazovanja, Beograd 1989. , page 218
There is not an exact definition of hipnism, but its founder and most famous representative is Rade
Drainac (Radojko Jovanović). He edited and published several magazines, first of which was Hipnos,
which had only 2 issues. The first one had 24 pages, while the other had only 16. It was published
during 1922 and 1923. Rade hadn't found his writing to be suitable for any of the existing subgenres of
expressionism, so he created his own. He explained his ideas and what hipnism is about in general in
his work The programme of hipnism.6

2.b. Cubism

This term probably sounds the most familiar out of all the ones that are going to be mentioned. It has its
representatives in literature but more so in art. The term itself comes from the French le cube, meaning
also cube, or block, in English. Cubism represents “the art of dismembering and reassembling reality”,
as well as “the art of chaotic enumeration” 7. Its beginning is Picasso's painting “Miss from Avignon”.
The tones are contrasting, but also have a common undertone. The contours are dramatic, sharp, and
the faces are distorted. One of the main goals of cubism is to describe the essence of things, rather than
letting it be analyzed a lot. So, to say it in simple words - cubists want to show the very elementary
particles of things that exist, and rearrange them in a way that is similar, but also different from the
original.

In literature, cubism reflects in erasing the borders with traditional writing in a sense where there are no
signs of interpunction, no rhyme, no solid forms when it comes to poems. What is also important for
cubist writers is that they completely take away the imitation of an object, which was the standard, and
instead express its most distinctive pieces.

Some of the representatives are Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, André Salmon, Guillaume Apollinaire, and
Blaise Cendrars.

In the field of fiction, an example of a cubistic - like novel is William Faulkner's work from 1930, As I
Lay Dying. It is composed of 15 different narrations from 15 characters that together make one
cohesive story.

2.c. Futurism
6 Available at https://www.rastko.rs/rastko/delo/11343
7 Dr B. Suvajdžić, mr N. Stanković-Šošo, msr. M. Đurić, Čitanka za treći razred gimnazija i. srednjih stručnik škola,
Beograd 2015. page 194
This genre of expressionism is geographically related to Italy and Russia. The manifesto for this genre
was written by Tommaso Marinetti, an Italian poet and art editor. 8 The manifesto was published in a
parisian newspaper Figaro in 1909. The idea of futurists is basically the idea of cubists, but even more
strong and determined. Marinetti celebrates the new civilization and searches for ways to express the
society. He glorifies fight, bravery, determination and thinks that war is a way out for humanity. This is
what linked the futuristic moment to the fascism. In 1918 he founded the Futurist Political Party, which
merged with Mussolini's fascist party. He also co-wrote the Fascist Manifesto, the original manifesto of
Italian fascism. However, in 1920, he opposed the glorification of existing institutions and withdrew
from politics for three years.

As far as futurism in Russia goes, the manifesto was collectively written in 1912. in a magazine called
A slap in the face to social taste. This marks the beginning of Russian avant garde, the main
representatives being Vladimir Mayakovsky and Velimir Khlebnikov. This futurism is often referred to
as revolutionary futurism, since it became a foundation to modern lyrical writing.

*Cubo - Futurism*

This merge genre arose in Russia in 1913. It mixes cubistic understanding and usage of form with
futuristic dynamics. In the forefront are the sound of words, typographic dominants of the text and
vulgar language. This way of writing is present in the early works of both Mayakovsky and
Khlebnikov, as well as Kruchenykh.

2.d. Dadaism

8 This manifesto has not yet been translated to Serbian

Coming from the french baby word, dada is a name for a child's wooden play horse. The founder of this
genre of expressionism is Tristan Tzara, a Romanian citizen who just so happened to be in Zürich
during WWI.Surrounded by a group of intellectuals, in 1916 he laid the foundations of this direction.
The absurdity of this direction is reflected in its very goal, and the goal is that the audience, the main
driver of art otherwise, but not in this case, does not understand anything. Dadaism denies art itself. To
contribute to the negation of art, they use collages, photomontages, including everyday objects in the
basics of Dada art. In the same year it was created, it also appeared in New York, and later it was
transferred to Paris, Berlin and to America. One of the paroles, according to Tzara : “everything that is
more meaningless, the better”. In dadaism, art regresses, returns to primitive forms and associations
without meaning, the group of dadaists disbands and stops working in 1920, while part of their ideas
are transferred to surrealism.

2.e. Surrealism

Beyond reality, this direction continues to Dadaism, with the difference that it also has some
constructive aspects of its program. It is based on the elements of Freud's psychoanalysis because the
dream, the subconscious and their effect on the subject are of great importance in the creation of works
of art, so it is necessary to free them in the same way as we free the irrational, hallucinatory and
uncontrolled. It is mostly associated with the French-speaking area with representatives such as Paul
Eliard, Louis Aragon and above all Andre Breton, who is responsible for writing not one, but three
manifestos of this movement. The idea of this movement, which is a rebellion against the social order
and everyday mind, is a spontaneous reality, which, according to Breton and others, is hidden in man's
subconscious. They introduced hallucinations into literature, and spontaneity is carried out by the
writer just writing down everything that comes to his mind, and that's how the so-called automatic
writing. However, in 1925 a group of surrealists moved away from this way of seeing things and
approached Marxism, believing that modernity must be connected with social-revolutionary activity.

3. Interwar period writers

3.a. Ernest Hemingway
 ★ A farewell to arms (1929)

Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms was published in 1929. It tells the story of an
American expatriate who served as an ambulance driver of the Italian army during World War
I. Hemingway's novel is a first person account of a wartime love story. Born in 1899,
Hemingway was an American author considered part of the "lost generation," a group of writers
disillusioned by the brutality of the first world war. Hemingway, like his character in A
Farewell to Arms, was a volunteer ambulance driver for Italy during the war. one should
recognize the brevity of life and take advantage of life's joys while it is still possible.

★ The sun also rises (1926)

A tragic love story involving two people on the cusp of change that never takes place. Jake
Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley are star-crossed lovers traveling and experiencing life post WWI.
As they seek to find themselves in a world that has sustained the ravages of war, as part of the
"Lost Generation", the generation of men and women who came of age during or immediately
following World War I, they learn the value of love and friendship.

The novel is a roman à clef,9 a novel that represents historical events and characters under the
guise of fiction. Hemingway uses fictional names for his actual friends and acquaintances. Told
in three parts, The Sun Also Rises is considered Hemingway's greatest work, although it initially
received mixed reviews.

3.b. John Steinback

9A novel that has the extraliterary interest of portraying well-known real people more or less thinly disguised as fictional
characters.
★ The grapes of wrath (1939)
The story is set during the Great Depression and follows the Joad family as they leave
Oklahoma. The Dust Bowl has destroyed the lands and livelihoods of many in the area, and the
Joads travel to California to try and find a new life for themselves. The novel was controversial
when it was published for various reasons. Some objected to the use of obscene language.
Others felt it promoted communism. Farmers and agricultural groups believed the book
misrepresented their labor practices and would cause worker strikes.The novel follows the large
family as they try to reach California, losing members along the way as they either die or
abandon the group. In California, they don't find things to be much better, and they struggle to
survive even with the work they find. Eventually, the remaining Joads find some semblance of
hope amidst everything and everyone they have lost. In the end, though, that is what The
Grapes of Wrath is about: hope in a seemingly hopeless situation.

★ Of mice and men (1937)

Of Mice and Men was published in 1937 during the Depression. The story follows a pair of
migrant farm workers in California. The novel follows two migrant workers, Lennie and
George, as they seek work during the Depression with the goal they share of buying a place of
their own where they can be in charge of their own lives. Lennie is not intelligent while George
is. They find work on a farm and mix in with the other ranch hands. There is conflict with the
foreman, a violent bully whose flirtatious wife seeks male attention. The wife and Lennie have
an accidental clash that is the catalyst for the destruction of Lennie and George's time on the
ranch. This brings an end to the dream of a farm as well as an end to Lennie. Of Mice and Men
received praise, but some criticized the story, accusing it of racial slurs and stereotyping and
also euthanasia.

3.c. Agatha Christie

 Agatha Christie is the best-selling author in history. Only the Bible and Shakespeare's opus
have outnumbered her works. This is a sentence you can find on the back of all of her books.
She wrote novels and short stories of the mystery genre. Having lived in the interwar period,
she also can be looked at as an interwar writer. Even though her works seem to have nothing to
do with the war, it may be shocking to find out that may not be completely true. In her crime
novels, there is almost always a character that represents, in an indirect way, war. It could be a
front nurse, a war veteran, a descendant of someone who lost their life in the war. And all if
those characters are doubtful in one way or another, when there is a question of motive. For
example, there has been a murder (usually the setting is the UK, since Christie herself is an
Englishwoman) Someone who is not of English origin was found dead by one means or
another. There is a war veteran as a key witness in the case. He is later questioned because
everyone is. As the detective finds out more about the life of the victim, a direct connection is
found between him and the war veteran. He is then accused of murder and he starts explaining
why he did it. Because the victim was a German soldier who did horrible things during the war.
Violence directed towards innocent people, children, something of that sort. These people -
veterans, descendants of the dead, nurses from the front line - they have seen things, terrible
things, things that will stay in their memory forever. And it does not truly matter as much which
war is in question, but in Christie's works we are focused on World War I and its disastrous
consequences. The novels she wrote during the period between the World Wars are some of her
most popular books at the same time. Those are Murder on The Orient Express, published in
1934 and And then there were none ( this one is based on a poem called Ten little soldier
boys), published in 1939, after World War II had already begun. Agatha Christie died in 1976,
surviving both of the World Wars and having sold millions of copies of some of the best crime
novels known to this day.

4. Conclusion
As we could see, war is much more than just about battles. Its action can be seen during the war itself ,
but perhaps much more in the following years. It had been debated heavily whether the interwar years
were peaceful or not. But life kept going, whatever the answer might have been. The feeling of
uncertainty was probably the one that impacted the most on life during those years. People's minds
were so chaotic, with so many different ideas about how the world should look like, what is the savior
for human kind, how art should be interpreted, who matters the most - individual or society? Through
different ideologies, genres and subgenres all of these aspects of life were argued over for the 20 years
that passed between the two biggest conflicts in history.And what was the result? Well, for starters, we
have a lot of stories first - hand from the war front, we have imagined situations in the battlefield that
may not be so unreal, we have a bunch of experiences transfused into stories about the shambles of the
world after the first war etc. Painters from all over the world have tried on many different styles of art,
from abstraction, futuristic- looking pieces, to hyperbolic and distorted faces. It is important to say that
the literature of the interwar period was heavily influenced by the art, as well as different political
happenings in the background. Personally, if I got out of the objectivity bubble for a second, I would
agree with our famous writer, Miloš Crnjanski and go on to say that everything that exists in the world
is one, as well as that killing and war is not necessary. Unfortunately, it seems that we have not learned
as much from the past as we maybe should have. However, objectively and philosophically speaking,
everything in life has a purpose, no matter how big or small.

5. Bibliography:
1. Deretić, M. Mitrović, Istorija književnosti za II razred usmerenog obrazovanja, Beograd
1989.

2.T. Miller, American Fiction A-Z, volume II, “The Avant Garde Novel” (information from the
abstract available at https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444337822.wbetcfv2a008)

3. Dr B. Suvajdžić, mr N. Stanković-Šošo, msr. M. Đurić, Čitanka za treći razred gimnazija i.

srednjih stručnik škola, Beograd 2015.

4. Č. Đorđević, Dr O. Radulović, M. Grdinić, Književnost i grmatika, priručnik za treći razred

gimnazija i srednjih stručnik škola, Novi Sad 2016.