Abstract
The main purpose of this research paper is to show how Expressionism is influential to postwar American literature, especially to the one-act play entitled Trifles (1916) written by Susan Glaspell (1876-1948). America witnessed a new period of special culture and art during the second half of the twentieth century, especially after the second world war. The traditional forms of art have failed to satisfy the wishes and aspirations of the new artists who deliberately look for new forms to express their attitudes towards the new state of life to be lived after grave wars that have caused humanity great losses on many and various levels. Thus, they have felt the need to break away with the existing traditional modes of expression. Hence, there appears new dramatic movements like existentialism, surrealism and Expressionism. The latter movement advocates the expression of the enthusiastic emotional state of the artist reacting to the anxieties of the modern world. The title one-act play Trifles can be regarded as a very well example illustrating the aims of this new movement and anticipating its appearance.
Highlights
The main purpose of this research paper is to show how Expressionism is influential to postwar American literature, especially to the one-act play entitled table and other signs of incompleted work. (Trifle) (1916) written by Susan Glaspell (1876-1948)
The artists who have achieved an original voice through a movement’s new concepts can be called avant-garde, among whom the expressionists advocate that man has to look deep into his inner self in order to revive the dead and broken down pieces of his nature, as it is pointed out by Stephen Polcari (1993: 22), who further believes that Existentialism offers the Expressionist artist a philosophy of action, which basically explains that man is to be defined by his actions for which he is definitely responsible in one way or another (Polcari: 365)
The title of the play Trifles is both suggestive and symbolic; it is suggestive in the sense that the clues leading to the criminal are detected throughout examining the trifles kept in the kitchen of Mrs Wright, which are unknown to the official investigators who are supposed to discover this matter themselves as long as they are considered superior to women in every respect; and the title is symbolic of the males' point of view concerning women whom they consider to be trifles at the time the this play is written
Summary
The main purpose of this research paper is to show how Expressionism is influential to postwar American literature, especially to the one-act play entitled Trifles (1916) written by Susan Glaspell (1876-1948). It may be suggested that that journey is symbolically portrayed in Glaspell's Trifles through Mrs Wright's attempt to restore and maintain her rights as a woman first and as a human being next.
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