Literature. Works of amazing writing with lasting caliber and quality. Throughout history, literature of all kinds has had a big impact on what happened in history. Novels, influence the way we think about the world. Newspapers, inform us on what’s going on all around us. Ads, essays, articles, and more are a big part of our lives, without us ever even noticing them. They show up in places we look for entertainment, or become the entertainment itself. They notify us on what has happened, what is happening, and what’s going to happen. One of the most monumental times for literature, was in the 1960’s.
The personality and mood itself changed, because there was a lot of changes going on all around the world. It’s important for us to understand history, so we can learn from their mistakes, their ideas and thoughts, and if literature was such a big part of history, then we should learn about it too. People are what change the world, people who aren’t scared to take big risks and drive the future forward. A lot of people are recognized for the brave things they did, like saving someone’s life, or stopping a car crash, but authors take the ticket.
Even in the 1960’s, where audacious ideas were the key, authors were the people pushing against the lines with their bold ideas and flamboyant writing. They set a stage for the next generation of writers, made up of sky high achievements and life goals. Among these writers was Sinclair Lewis, who was given the Nobel Prize for his exuberantly descriptive writing and individual characters (An American Nobel Prize in Literature). Not only was he a skilled writer, but he was the first writer ever to get a Nobel Prize from America.
He showed aspiring authors that it was possible, that if you were a talented writer, with skill and the determination to do it, you could go pretty far in life. Behind him came many great authors who deserved the Nobel Prize just as much as he did, but Sinclair Lewis the first who showed that it could be done. Another great author who got a Nobel Prize in Literature was Boris Pasternak. He earned his award for, “his important achievement both in contemporary lyrical poetry and in the field of the great Russian epic tradition” (The Nobel Prize in Literature 1950).
A lot of writing in the 1960’s were jazzy and upbeat, poetry with inspirational meanings, novels with uplifting endings, essays that showed positive themes. Boris Pasternak, however had very sorrowful lilt to his poetry. It was described todiscourning and cause a lot of melancholy. His writing went against the common standards of 1960’s writing, yet he was also very in sync with traditional values. He honoured his Russian heritage in his writing. He showed people that it was possible to introduce new ideas into the world, yet stay in touch with the classical part of it as well.
One last, and very famous author, is Harper Lee. Her one and only published book, “To Kill a Mockingbird” was a book that many Americans fell in love with in the 1960’s, and is still an adored book to this day. It set up the pathway for a screenplay, a condensed version in the newspaper, and many, many reviews from famous critics. It was also the basis and inspiration of a whole genre, mystery. There were many great mystery books before, “To Kill a Mockingbird” but it was this book that got the ball rolling.
Numerous young authors bedazzled by the book’s style set off to write their own, and the mystery genre bloomed into success. Culture had a big impact on what kind of literature was written and published in the 1960’s the same way literature had a big impact on the culture. The 1960’s was all about change. It was about the newest gadgetry, the latest fashions, and daring new ideas to set it all off. Author’s were right at the boundary, feeding them with inspiration and imagination. We still see influences from everything that happened back then in everything that’s happening now.
Small things, like a hairstyle that embodied a certain character, to people protesting for things that they believe in. Culture and literature will always be intertwined with each other, and if something big happens in one, something big happens in the other. As shiny and polished the 1960’s seemed, with it’s bubblegum art and youthful attitude, it had a dark side too, “Once branded as immoral, anarchistic, and revolutionary, the counterculture of the 1960s is now playfully imitated.
Its sounds, styles, and slogans are the subject of high school spirit days and rally skits. “(Culture in the 1960’s). Literature reflected this aspect of the time period too. There may have been a glamorous party going on in one part of town, but it was just as likely that tragic things were happening on the opposite side. Writers, often young ones, felt the need to capture this in their writing, the many sides of the society that they lived in with varying characters and contradictory settings.
A lot of acts, whether they were criminal or honorable, have gone unjustified. What the main community didn’t know was that the cases that it had forgotten and left behind, were the ones that writers would discover. They would pick up the loose threads and try to show the world another side of the wrongly accused, or the ones that were never accused at all. In many ways, the authors of the 1960’s immortalized the bubbling misfortunes and sparkling answers in stone, with their writing.
In this way and many other ways, the part that literature played in 1960’s culture was just as big as any other. There was a big reason the 1960’s stood out in the way that it did in history. It wasn’t just because of the revolutionary innovations or quirky hairstyles, it was because of the events behind all of these changes. The Sixties, embellished with it’s contradictions like rebellion and backlash, flower children and assassins, was a decade that transformed the world (The 1960s: A Decade of Promise and Heartbreak).
With every step that the world took, birth, death, was, peace, writers were right behind, recording everything with a pen and paper. Sure, we have photographs and artifacts that show us plenty of things about what happened in the 190’s, but the most valuable thing we got from it was the literature, a treasure itself, and telling us about other priceless pieces of information that would otherwise be lost in the folds of history, among the countless other secrets that have never seen light. Without literature, we might still be trying to solve the mysteries we now regard as common info.
Conclusion Literature, as shown above, has had a monumental impact on the 1960’s, the same way it’s had a big impact on our lives and deserves to be recognized,. There were, great men and women in the 1960’s who have been recorded for the feats that they have achieved. Great events caused by three people, and a great culture shaped and defined by both of them. Literature in the 1960’s was something that still shows up in our daily lives, and deserve to be acknowledged for that lasting impact.
