The Twentieth Century

1. The Twentieth Century

2. The End of the Victorian Period • Political and social events during the early 20th century altered Britain’s eminent position as a world power • Major colonies gained their independence from Britain • Britain experienced vast social reforms • Rise in literacy, influence of the Labour party, interest in socialist ideology

3. Darwin: Undermining Victorian Ideas • Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species (1859) • Theory of evolution based on natural selection; tension with Biblical ideas • Extended to Social Darwinism – the notion that in society, only the fittest should survive and flourish • Used to justify unrestricted competition, rigid class distinctions, indifference to social problems, even doctrines of racial superiority

4. Marx: Undermining Victorian Ideas • Karl Marx – German philosopher and political economist, wrote Das Kapital (1867) • Advocated the abolition of private property • Traced economic injustice to the capitalist system of ownership and argued that workers should own the means of production • Revolutionized political thought and eventually led to sweeping changes in many governments and economic systems

5. Freud: Undermining Victorian Ideas • Sigmund Freud – Interpretation of Dreams (1900) and many later works • Finds motives for human behavior not in rational, conscious minds (Victorian focus), but in irrational and sexually driven realm of the unconscious • Conservative Victorians outraged; artists and writers fascinated • Works of these thinkers undermined political, religious, and psychological assumptions that had served as the foundation for British society for generations.

6. The Great War: “A War to End All Wars” • 1914 – Britain, France, and Russia (bound by treaty) locked in opposition to Germany and Austria-Hungary • All of Europe plunged into war – over the assassination of one man • British Patriotism – young men crowded to enlist • 60,000 killed or wounded on the first day of the Battle of the Somme alone; 300,000 killed, wounded, or frozen to death at Ypres • Over 4 years, an entire generation of England’s best and brightest fed the furnace of war • Armistice in 1918 – but new cynicism arose • Old values of national honor and glory had endorsed a war that weakened the economy, injured the empire, and killed as many as a plague would • Out of this disillusionment came pessimism about the state and the individual’s relationship to society.

7. Experimentation in the Arts: Shocking in Form and Content • Transformation in Arts – from Europe • Henri Matisse – bold new use of line and color • Pablo Picasso – cubism • John Millington Synge – play where hero claimed to have murdered his father (caused a riot at première) • Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring – strong, primitive (sexual) rhythms and dissonant harmonies (also caused a riot at première) • James Joyce – Dubliners • All challenged traditional values of beauty and order and opened new avenues of expression

8. Experimentation in the Arts: Shocking in Form and Content • Move from a concern with society to a focus on introspection • Experimentation with novelistic structure, chronology, and point of view (examine shifts of mood and impressions) • D.H. Lawrence – • Resentment against British class system, industrialism, militarism, prudery • Shocked British with glorification of the senses and heated descriptions of relations between the sexes

9. The Rise of Dictatorships: Origins of World War II • Fallout from World War I • Worldwide economic depression, fostered rise of dictators in Germany (Hitler), Italy (Mussolini), and Russia (Lenin, then Stalin) • Italy and Germany fascist, Russia communist • Adolf Hitler and Nazi party convinced Germans that problems were caused by Jews, Communists, and immigrants • Stalin ruled with iron fist, 15 million sent to gulag, system of forced-labor and detention camps.

10. The Rise of Dictatorships: Origins of World War II • By 1939, Nazis sweeping through Europe – Holocaust • After defeating France, moved towards Britain • British fought, with aid of Soviet Union and United States – Germany’s defeat inevitable • Atomic bomb on Hiroshima ends the war – horror • Much of the literature following the Second World War was dark and pessimistic.

11. Britain After World War II: The Sun Sets on the Empire • After the war, the Labour party defeated the Conservative party, and Britain was transformed into a welfare state, with the government providing medical care and other basic benefits • Most of Britain’s colonies gained independence, so sun set on the empire. • Britain’s role in world affairs decreased.

12. British Writing Today: A Remarkable Diversity • Angry Young Men – new group after WW II • Criticized pretentions of intellectuals and bland lives of the newly prosperous middle class • Since the 1960s, much diversity (though British still excel at satire) • Growing eminence of writers from former British Empire, shows dominance of English language • Caribbean, Africa, India, etc.

13. World Literature: Writing from Afar Near at Hand • Technological innovations have made communication and ideas more portable than ever • Translations of international works • New subject matter to consider - • World-scale political concerns • Problems of personal identity and effects of cultural domination • Struggles for existence • British literature joins world literature in our new translational world.