The Literature of Rebellion The voice of dissent in contemporary American Literature and Society.
1990s America The 1990s is often considered the true dawn of the Information Age. The World Wide Web was born in 1992. In 1989, 15% of American households had a computer. By 2000, this figure increased to 51%, with 41.5% online. The decade is seen as a time of great prosperity in America under the Presidency of Bill Clinton. The economy experiences its longest period of peace time economic expansion during the decade, beginning in 1991. The 1990s saw the Grunge youth subculture explode out of Seattle, and the anti-capitalist movement defined by the protest of 1999.
Generation X Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, published in 1991, is the first novel by Douglas Coupland. It s written in a framed narrative style, around 3 main characters living in circa 1990 South California. The 3 characters each represent past, present and future. Generation X, became a defining term that young people used to explain their disaffection and alienation from the society they saw around them.
Generations Classified Lost Generation - 1883 and 1900. Greatest Generation - 1901 to 1924. Silent Generation - 1925 to 1945. Baby Boomers - 1946 to 1964. Generation X (The Baby Busters) - 1965 to 1981. Generation Y (The Millennials) - 1981 to 1999. Generation Z (or Generation I) - 1990s to 2012. Generation AO (Always-On) - 2000s and beyond. None of these years are fixed. Academics argue about the years that the different generations span. But they are a guide-line to the generations that grew-up in vastly different periods of history. Each is defined by a historical, sociological or technological shift in society.
American Psycho A satirical novel by Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. The story is told in the first person by Patrick Bateman, a serial killer and yuppie. The book generated a great deal of controversy. A film adaptation starring Christian Bale was released in 2000. In some countries it was thought to be so potentially disturbing that it was sold shrink-wrapped.
Transgressive Fiction Transgressive Fiction was established in the 1990s, although the works of Marquis De Sade from the 17th century are certainly the first of the genre. However in literary history many novels put under obscenity trials have been considered transgressive. The work of the 50s Beat Writers, to the bitter realism of Hubert Selby Jr. and the drug fuelled accounts of Hunter S. Thompson s dying American Dream, have all set the foundations for what became known as the Transgressive Fiction that we know today.
Fight Club 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. It follows the experiences of an unamed man struggling with insomnia. He meets a strange man named Tyler Durden and establishes an underground fighting club. Tyler uses it to spread his anti-consumerist ideas. He gathers devotees and forms Project Mayhem, that plan to destroy modern civilization.
Fight Club s Cultural Impact 1999s Fight Club was one of the most controversial and talkedabout films of the 1990s. It gave rise to real fight clubs being established. The first two rules of Fight Club became ingrained in Western culture as a metaphor for action over words. For directaction over political rhetoric. 1st RULE: You do not talk about FIGHT CLUB. 2nd RULE: You DO NOT talk about FIGHT CLUB.
The Battle of Seattle An anti-capitalist protest against the WTO in 1999. Significant for raising global awareness of the issues of a movement that had before just been thought of as a bunch of left-wing and anarchist trouble-makers. The riots brought people who wanted real change to come together. But it also saw the rise of the robo-cop and a bleak future if capitalism was left unchecked.
Grunge and Nirvana Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit from the 1991 album Nevermind. Nirvana brought the Seattle sound of Grunge to the mainstream, alongside Pearl Jam s album Ten.
Third-wave Feminism Third-wave feminism is said to have started in the 90s, after the perceived failure of the second-wave, which spanned the 1960s until the 1980s. It focused on rights, especially of race, sexuality and reproduction. The movement also attempted to reclaim some derogatory words, like the word bitch. In 1992 the all-woman band Fifth Column released a single, All Women Are Bitches, and in 1999 Elizabeth Wurtzel had her famous book Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women published.
The Vagina Monologues An episodic play written by Eve Ensler first performed in 1996. Each of the monologues deals with an aspect of the feminine experience, touching on matters such as sex, love, rape, menstruation, female genital mutilation, masturbation, birth, and the orgasm. The play gave rise to V-Day, A global event that started on February 14 th 1998, a global activist movement to end violence against women and girls inspired by Eve Ensler's play.
Break Time See you all in 10 minutes.
2000s America The September 11 attacks in 2001 ultimately led to the United States, United Kingdom and other nations invading Afghanistan, as well as implementing various anti-terrorist measures at home and abroad in what was known as the War on Terror. The western world embraced technology and the Internet. Scientists mapped the human genome. We all went online, to play games, access news, and expand our social network. America went to war! A war against an imagined enemy both home and abroad. The 21 st century is defined by America s constant wars.
And the Rebel Went Viral! The World Wide Web has provide us all with a space to express ourselves. Millions across the world use the written word to scream out at the injustices they see in the world. Through blogs, social networks like Facebook and Twitter, on YouTube, and a hundreds of millions of other outlets. The rebel is now an anonymous online presence. It s you or me, the quiet one sat next to you in class. We are all rebels now. We are anonymous We are legion We do not forgive We do not forget Expect us!