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| Leonardo di Caprio & Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road |
(by guest blogger Lisa Keys) American fiction went through several noticeable phases in the twentieth-century. Naturally, there were those writers who strayed from the trend, but key movements can be identified that appeared from social, political and economic changes.
The century began with explorations of modernity, with the likes of Henry James discussing the foibles of modern society, before writers stepped excitedly into the world of the American Dream. This rapidly gave way to a less hopeful tone, following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, after which literature became awash with depression. From this depression emerged works such as Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (1949), which used the Loman family as a microcosm through which to explore the anti-climax of the American Dream. Finally, writers began to rebel a little and question the importance of this capitalism that they had all been fighting for. Leading this rebellion was Jack Kerouac, and the Beat Generation. Finally, in 1961 came Richard Yates' debut novel: Revolutionary Road. The book was recently made into a film starring Kate Winslet, (who also stars in Sense and Sensibility) and her now two-time on-screen lover, Leonardo Di Caprio.