Беликова Е.К., Саратовская Л.Б. - The United Kingdom and United States of America in Past and Present (1268141), страница 46
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Baldwinemigrated and lived abroad until 1977. The life of Harlem inspired thepoems of one of the best known black American poets of the 20PthPcentury Langston Hughes (1902-67). To Hughes it seemed that thepeople of Harlem’s hopes of better attitude had been delayed – “deferred”for too long:“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in thesun? Or fester like a sore-and then run? Maybe it just sags like a heavyload. Or does it explode?”Maya Angelou is a contemporary black American author and poet. Herfirst book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” (1970) has anautobiographical character.
In 1993 at President Clinton’s firstinauguration ceremony, she read her poem “On the Pulse of Morning “onTV to the entire country. Alex Hailey’s epic story of the black experience179“Roots” (1976) with the subsequent television special caused whiteAmerica to stop and investigate its “past sins». In 1983 Alice Walkerwon a Pulitzer Prize for her novel ‘The Color Purple”, devoted to herstruggle for equality.In the 1950s there appeared a group of unconventional writers andartists “The Beat Generation”. The writers of this generation, calledbeatniks, wanted to create a new kind of writing grown from poetryreadings in the form of jazz.
The poetry of Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)was considered unconventional because it did not follow the structure oftraditional verse. Jack Kerouac’s (1922-1969) writing had a newspontaneous style. His best-known novel “On the Road” describesbeatniks wandering through America seeking an idealistic dream ofcommunal life and beauty. In the 1960s a young writer and singer BobDylon used protest lyrics to support the anti-war movement of the time.For many young people he became the voice of the conscience of hisgeneration. His lyrics set to old tunes, were ironic comments on what hesaw as the deceit and hypocrisy of those in power.In the 1960s and 1970s a new ethnic literatureemerged.
Dee Brown’s history of the American West“Bury My Heart and Wounded Knee” (1971) led theway for a serious of books on the American Indian.Bythe late 1970s and the 1980s science fiction had movedto a generally accepted form of literature. Popularwriters here included Isaac Asimov and ArthurClarke. The 1980s also saw the rise of popular horrorfiction with Dean Koontz, V.C. Andrews, Peter Straub, Clive Barkerand Stephen King as the most prolific writers.Recent literature included John Updike’s four novels (“Rabbit atRest”, “Self-Consciousness” and others) and Tom Clancy. His books,such as “The Hunt for Red October”, “Red Storm Rising” and “PatriotGames” top both the hardback and overall bestseller books.The Theater.
The greatest flowering of American drama came between1920 and 1970. In those years, startling, powerful, and illuminatingworks, both tragic and comic, flowed from the pens of Eugene O’Neill,Thornton Wilder, Maxwell Anderson, Robert Sherwood, Kaufmanand Hart, Lillian Hellmann, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, andWilliam Inge.
These playwrights reflected the events of their time,beginning with World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, and180the Cold War. In his plays “Desire Under the Elms”(1924), “MourningBecomes Electra”(1931),”Long Day’s journey into Night”, “The IcemanCometh”(1946) the first important American playwright of serious dramaEugene O’Neil ( 1988-1953) made deep and sensitive analyses of humanrelationships. The plays of notable playwright Arthur Miller(1915) “AllMy Sons”(1947), “Death of a Salesman”(1949),”The Crucible”(1953) ,“A View from the Bridge”(1955) and others were staged in manycountries of the world and brought him a world prominence.The playwrights who came after them were inspired by many events oftheir time: assassination of John F. Kennedy, the student rebellions of the1960s, the war in Vietnam, etc.
Each playwright, with an individual styleand a message, has been mining the American society. Several of themA.R. Gurney, John Guare, David Rabe, Sam Shepard received bothnational and international popularity. There were also a number ofwomen playwrights Tina Howe, Marsha Norman, and WendyWasserstein.One notable development in recent years is the “theater of absurd”(Edward Albee). There are also experiments with electronic music andlighting, body movements instead of spoken words, and spontaneousaudience participation in some performances.Black theater presents plays about black people, written by blackplaywrights, and performed by black casts.
Originally such plays used tocarry messages of protest against racial prejudice. Today black theater isincreasingly concerned with blacks as individual human beings and theirlife problems. Black theatrical performances usually use black music:spirituals, gospel singing and jazz.Most important new plays are produced in the theaters located on ornear Broadway in the midtown area of New York City. There are over15000 professional actors in New York alone and another 20000 or so inthe state of California. Over 16000 professional musicians and composerslive in New York, and almost 23000 more in California.
Every yearoutstanding Broadway playwrights, actors, musicians, directors,choreographers and technicians are nominated for Tony Awards. AugustWilson, an Afro-American playwright, received both a Tony and aPulitzer Prize for his play “Fences”, devoted to the fate of a baseballplayer who struggled with the difficulties of everyday life. WendyAssertion, a female playwright won a Tony for her “The HeidiChronicles”.181Off-Broadway theaters are shown around Manhattan in small theatersand off-off Broadway companies often play in former garages, officesand stores.
Sometimes there is no raised stage and the actors perform inthe center of the hall, surrounded by the audience so-called “theater-inthe-round”. In almost every major city there are professional companies,which follow repertory (rep) schedules. There are also traveling actingcompanies that tour throughout the country. Very many theater groupssuffer from the lack of financing and must charge high prices for ticketsin order to pay production costs and make profit.The moviesOriginally American cinema was born in the East, when in 1903 acameraman Edwin S.
Porter turned out a short film. The first “PatentCinema Company” was formed in 1908 in Chicago. The first crewincluded 8 cinema-making firms. Those who did not go into it went toLos-Angeles, California. Soon the number of film companies, producers,actors, technical staff grew up there and the first film studio was foundedin 1911 in Hollywood. There were several reasons why Hollywood, theformer provincial small town was to become the main center of Americancinema industry.
Besides the favorable natural conditions, bright sun allthe year round and splendid landscape, the land was very cheap there.Besides there was enough manpower around for building and servicing offilm studious. By 1915 60% of all American film production wasaccumulated in Hollywood. After the beginning of World War I filmindustry in many European countries was in crises. Hollywood filled thegap to create the supremacy at the world cinema market.
Americanmovies poured over the cinema screens of the world. By the middle of the20s Hollywood had modern financial and technical basis of filmproduction and the professional stuff. There were 5 large studios at thattime: “Metro Golden Myer”, “Paramount”, “Fox”, “Universal” and“Warner”, headed by the producers Luise Mayor, Sam Goldwine, AdolfZuker, William Fox, Karl Lemale and Warner Brothers. One of the mostpopular and prolific producers of silent movies of that time was DavidYork Griffith. He made 61 melodramas, comedies, historical films,thrillers, westerns, screen versions of the Bible and literature.In the 20th the system of film stars appeared. Film stars were the mosthighly paid actors and actresses, whose names attracted crowds offilmgoers to movie-houses.
The stars were necessary for the cash successof the film All over the world, from Berlin and London to Tokyo and182Buenos Aires millions of people lined up every day to see their favoriteHollywood stars Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pikford, Douglas Ferbenks, GretaGarbo, Roman Navarro and others. For most people the world of themovies remained a dream world, separate from real life. It helped tocreate the “American Dream” and to convince cinemagoers that theAmerican way of life was the ideal one. At the same time the moviesmade people think of their own lives, which could be changed andimproved.One of the greatest American actors, directors and scriptwriters wasCharlie Chaplin (1889-1977).
All Charlie Chaplin’s biographers agreethat his miserable childhood in London slumsmade the decisive influence on his developmentas an artist. In his early “silent” comediesand satires Chaplin was never afraid to fightagainst tyranny and injustice. He released aparody on war “Shoulder Arms” (1918) onlysome time before the American troops camehome from the trenches of the World War I. Inthe “Pilgrim” (1923) Chaplin attacked nonconformist religion.
In “CityLights” he was mocking capitalism. In “Modern Times” (1936) Chaplinparodied the inhuman destruction of the machine age. His comedies“Gold Rush”(1925), “City Lights”(1931), “Modern Times»(1935),Limelight”(1952), “A King in New York”(1957) are filled with deephuman feelings and dramatic undertones. In 1940 he created his first“talking” film “The Great Dictator “- a satire on Hitler and his policyand during World War II called for the opening of the second front andsupport of the Russian people.The theme of human dignity is very strong in Chaplin’s art. Hisconstant image - the figure of a small, lonely man in a creased black suit,a derby hat, big clumsy shoes, black moustaches and a walking stickattracted millions of filmgoers not only due to his funny appearance butalso to his openhearted character.
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