Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. World War I had a profound effect on all aspects of cultures in many countries, including literature of the period. Around this time, modernism, as a genre and artistic tradition, first began to emerge. How did WWI affect books, plays, and other writing of the period? What characterizes modernist literature?

Teaching Suggestion: Modernist works of art are characterized by a break from traditional form and function. Thematically, modernist works tend to be infused with the disillusionment that pervaded the period, in the wake of the devastation of WWI. Unlike earlier traditions, modernism focused on the inner lives of its subjects.

• History’s “How World War I Changed Literature” gives an overview of the general shift in mood and tone as a result of the war.
• Britannica’s “The Literature of World War I and the Interwar Period” defines the main works and primary authors of this period.

Differentiation Suggestion: For advanced learners, one differentiation suggestion would be to ask students to compare and contrast the various literary contributions by nationality.