In my opinion 1920’s literature onwards seems to have a lot more in common with the literature today, than it does the literature that came before it.

I know that contemporary literature is thought to start after WW2, but personally I place it earlier in the post WW1 period.

The First World War saw what was largely the failure of the traditional systems. The upper classes (and by that I mean the actual aristocracy) engaged in a game of brinksmanship that ended in disaster with the principal victims of this being young lower middle class men (who were actually hit worse than the working class, who had jobs that often got turn exempt from war service), the very men who had most believed in the system.

The 1920’s that came after this saw a great sense of disenchantment with greater secularisation and a sense that people had to find their own meaning in life. The traditional orders had been the one’s that led to disaster so they had essentially abdicated their positions.

This is what I feel makes books from the 1920’s like The Great Gatsby and even stuff like The Hardy Boys feel more relatable than what came before it. It shows a cynicism that honestly feels more in common with today than the deference that had existed beforehand.

by RevolvingParameter