20th Century lit is packed full of diversity and struggles that are universally recognized and felt. The 20th century was a time of change in a lot of people’s lives, be it struggling to find your identity between an ancient culture in the modern world like Silko, or coming to terms with your supposed newfound freedom in a world that hates you like Baldwin.

But how does the term global relate to literature? Well, good literature has a way of speaking to us, tapping into our humanity across language barriers, across cultural divisions. It doesn’t matter if you lived in 1920’s Asia or 1990’s America, you will be able to recognize that money leads corruption or that love can conquer all. These are universal, global themes that belong to no specific place on this earth, but rather in humanity itself. It doesn’t matter what your race, gender, social class or religious beliefs are, good literature has the ability to connect to you over all that.

Shifts in borders and boundaries nationwide physically were still happening in the 20th century. But so were shifts culturally and emotionally. For example, the Native Americans had to deal with the American government taking their land from them and moving them from place to place, colonizing them and trying to change not only where they lived physically, but who they were. These blurred lines of who and where they were resulted in countless stories being written to explain this shift. 

Take Yellow Woman for example, she is struggling with where she calls home and which parts of her past she can claim as her own as well. Does she ride a horse or get in a pick up truck? Does she keep ancient traditions and stories, or does she give into the modern American world and say that those stories are just that, stories?

Consider the writings of James Baldwin or Zora, sure, slavery had been abolished, but that didn’t mean that racism had ended. In terms of physical boundaries, the further north or west you went, the better it was for to be black. But the further south, the worse it got. And with those physical boundaries came social boundaries. Would you be allowed to eat in this restaurant? Would you be allowed to be out at a certain time of night, wear a certain outfit? Even towards the end of the 20th century these were the boundaries and questions that African Americans had to tiptoe around in order to stay safe, to stay alive. All of these struggles evident in the literature. 

Overall, the 20th century is full of literature that tells the struggles of people in war not only with themselves, but with the world, with their past. It was a time of struggling to see where you fit in and how to find peace. But it was also a time of celebration, in finding yourself and building relationships with your family, your culture, and yourself.