Revolution as an “Experiment” and Literary Experimentation in the Thirties

Europe and Mexico in the United States

Abstract

This essay concerns the thematic and formal relationships between the so-called Red Decade and the artistic and literary experimentalism of the twentieth century. It deals with two revolutions, Russian and Mexican, devoting more attention to the lesser known influence of Mexico and to the Mexican muralists, most specifically to Diego Rivera. Among the U.S. writers cited are John Reed, Lincoln Steffens, Theodore Dreiser, and John Dos Passos.