Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
and seriousness, commercialism and authenticity. The Woodstock festival exemplified
the scene in 1969, transforming a little patch of upstate New York into a legend.
Punk arrived in the late 1970s, led by the Ramones and the Dead Kennedys, as did the
working-class rock of Bruce Springsteen, the pride of New Jersey. But it wasn't long be-
fore a new sound on the block took over the 'outlaw' mantle: rap. In the east, New York
and Detroit became spawning grounds. Jay Z, Eminem and Chicago's Kanye West are its
current frontmen.
Several famous authors from the eastern USA wrote books that have been banned at
one time or another, including Indianapolis' Kurt Vonnegut (
Slaughterhouse-Five
), New
York's JD Salinger (
The Catcher in the Rye
) and Georgia-born Alice Walker (
The Color
Purple
).
Literature
The 'Great American Novel' has stirred the imagination for more than 150 years. Edgar
Allan Poe told spooky short stories in the 1840s, and is credited with inventing the de-
tective story, horror story and science fiction. Four decades later Samuel Clemens, aka
Mark Twain, also made a literary splash. Twain wrote in the vernacular, loved 'tall tales'
and reveled in absurdity, which endeared him to everyday readers. His novel
Huckle-
berry Finn
(1884) became the quintessential American narrative: compelled by a primal
moment of rebellion against his father, Huck embarks on a search for authenticity
through which he discovers himself. The Mississippi River provides the backdrop.
The 'Lost Generation' brought American literature into its own in the early 20th cen-
tury. These writers lived as expatriates in post-WWI Europe and described a growing
sense of alienation. Plain-speaking Midwesterner Ernest Hemingway exemplified the era
with his spare, stylized realism. Minnesotan F Scott Fitzgerald eviscerated East Coast so-
ciety life with his fiction. Back on home turf, William Faulkner examined the South's so-
cial rifts in dense, caustic prose, and African Americans such as poet Langston Hughes
and novelist Zora Neale Hurston undermined racist stereotypes during New York's Har-
lem Renaissance.
After WWII, American writers began depicting regional and ethnic divides, experi-
mented with style and often bashed middle-class society's values. The 1950s Beat Gener-
ation, with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S Burroughs at the center, was
particularly hardcore.
Today's literature reflects an ever more diverse panoply of voices. Toni Morrison,
Amy Tan, Ana Castillo and Sherman Alexie have all written bestsellers and given voice
