TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH LIT

TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH LIT Writers and Terms

Themes of the 20th Century • Adversity • Diversity • Industrialism • Experimentation • Pluralism • Anti-realistic • Shunned tradition • Disillusionment from war

Influences on the 20th Century • Sigmund Freud • Psychoanalysis and the power of the subconscious • Charles Darwin • Social Darwinism, evolution, competition, survival of the fittest • Karl Marx • Socialist theories; communism; influenced events of Russia

Modernism: 1900-1940 Post-Modernism: After WWI Only constant has been change…. Changes… Votes and employment for women Social welfare programs Advances in science and technology Rise of mass communication Decline in national fortunes Decline in industry Loss of colonies The need to import a lot more products Commonwealth of nations, now European Union

Literature Trends Prior to WWI, literary style had been more Georgian, very romantic *More focus on lower and middle class life Political and social themes Use of impressionism More examination of the inner self Avoided realism and sentimentality Anti-materialistic Mistrust of religion and philosophy Feeling of crisis Psychological turmoil

Important Writers James Joyce DH Lawrence George Orwell William Butler Yeats Virginia Woolf Samuel Becket T.S. Eliot Salman Rushdie April is the cruellest month, breedingLilacs out of the dead land, mixingMemory and desire, stirringDull roots with spring rain.

DH Lawrence 1885-1930 • Brilliant, imaginative, and emotional • Suffered from censorship and public condemnation • Portrays characters as victims of a restrictive society • Portrays nature as symbolic of what is vital in life • Wrote Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, and Women in Love: all dealt with relationships • Felt the source of all knowledge in life was in man and woman • Felt there was a conflict between instinct, which he saw as good, and education, which he saw as bad

His collected works represent an extended reflection upon the dehumanizing effects of modernity and industrialization. In them, Lawrence confronts issues relating to emotional health and vitality, spontaneity, and instinct. Lawrence is now valued by many as a visionary thinker and significant representative of modernism in English literature. “Money poisons you when you've got it, and starves you when you haven't.”

The Rocking Horse Winner • Deals with conflict between instincts and education • Paul rides his horse to find a winner • Whispering increases after his mother gets money • Bassett is his first partner • He loses on his first bet • Wins on Malabar, his final pick • His mother’s heart is a little stone • She thinks about her son; her instincts start to kick in • Conflict between materialism and nature

Traveled with his German wife FriedaLived in New Mexico, England, Italy, and AustraliaDied of tuberculosis Influenced by Freudian psychology

“Snake” • Set in Italy • Speaker goes to water trough and meets a snake • He becomes intrigued by it and watches it • The voices of his education tell him to kill it • His instinct tells him to admire it • He listens to his education and throws something at it • He says he has something to expiate…a pettiness. • Conflict: Instinct vs. Education; Nature vs. Society

WWI Trench Poets Siegfried Sassoon Wilifred Owen

Trench Poets Believed in Became Disillusioned by • The glory and honor of war and serving one’s country • Enlisted with pride • Very romanticized view of war • Sassoon had a breakdown; almost went AWOL • The two met in a hospital The carnage The suffering The lack of progress The lack of support The hopelessness Owen was killed a few days before the war ended; died young

Chinua Achebe 1930- From Nigeria Social Novelist • Wrote Things Fall Apart, the most widely read African novel • Wanted to educate everyone about the noble qualities of Africa • Reacted against Joseph’s Conrad’s version of the black man as a foolish loyal servant in Heart of Darkness

Nnaemeka- The son of Okeke. A man who is engaged to Nene. He is an Ibo.2. Nene- She is engaged to Nnaemeka. Grew up in the big city of Lagos, she follows modern ways; she is a good Christian, and a teacher in a girls' school in Lagos.3. Okeke- The father of Nnaemeka. An Ibo.4. Madubogwu- A highly practical man.5. Ugoye Nweke- An Ibo woman. The woman that Okeke wants to marry his son.6. The Children- The sons of Nnaemeka and Nene. Is marriage a private affair? The clash between traditional and modern culture is the conflict in the story. In the end Okeke learns that in order to survive, he must adapt to change.

South African Apartheid 1976 Riot in Soweto Sharpsville Massacre • Police fired into backs of crowd of people who were protesting law that made all blacks carry a pass book to travel in and out of the city; employers could write negative things to prevent them from entering. • Laws stated black could not hold a post higher than the lowest white • Soweto protested policy that required classes to be taught in Afrikaans, the language spoken by white SA’s • More than 600 blacks were killed. • This spurred Gordimer’s interest in apartheid

From Johannesburg, South Africa Parents were immigrants from Lithuania & England Grew up in conventional society Wrote about effects of apartheid, legal until 1991 She understood the black man’s burden in her country; treats SA from a literary perspective Activist for AIDS Believed short story was literary form of our time Very sensitive to discrimination of any kind Nadine Gordimer 1923-1991 Nobel Prize Winner

An English novelist and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to totalitarianism ,a passion for clarity in language and a belief in democratic socialism. Orwell's influence on popular and political culture endures, and several of his neologisms along with the term Orwellian— a byword for totalitarian or manipulative social practices — have entered the vernacular George Orwell (Eric Blair) 1903-1950 Born in India; from England

Orwell, the narrator writes of his experience as a police officer in Burma. He shoots an elephant, even though he knows he should not, in order to avoid being laughed at. He regrets his action. The essay is also a condemnation of imperialism: “When the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.“ A narrative essay: his first famous piece. First published in the literary magazine New Writing in the autumn of 1936 and broadcast by the BBC Home Service on 12 October 1948.

William Butler Yeats 1865-1939 Irish poet and playwright; revived Irish theatre The Lake Isle of Innisfree • Represents an escape from the stress of reality. Portrays the countryside as an idyllic refuge. • Uses assonance and alliteration. • Based on his grandparents’ farm in Ireland

William Butler Yeats’ Reading • http://youtu.be/cy4gFQwDfic • I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade. And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight's all a-glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet's wings. • I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray, I hear it in the deep heart's core. • 1892

Katherine Mansfield 1888-1923 From New Zealand • Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp Murry (14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923) was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction who was born and brought up in colonial New Zealand and wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield. Mansfield left for Great Britain in 1908 where she encountered Modernist writers such as D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf with whom she became close friends. Her stories often focus on moments of disruption and frequently open rather abruptly. Among her most well-known stories are "The Garden Party,” "The Daughters of the Late Colonel," and "The Fly." During the First War Mansfield contracted extra pulmonary tuberculosis, which rendered any return or visit to New Zealand impossible and led to her death at the age of 34.

The light is central symbol Conflicts: 1)Class vs Humanity 2)Rich vs Poor 3) Power “I seen [sic] the little lamp.”

James Joyce 1882-1941 Famous novelist and short story writer Dublin, Ireland Works: Dubliners Ulysses A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Finnegan’s Wake Known for his stream-of-consciousness style. Considered to be one of the most influential Writers of the twentieth century “Araby” is a carnival or bazaar that the narrator wants to attend in order to purchase a gift for Mangan’s sister whom he barely knows. He has an epiphany at the end: realizes the futility of his mission.

“Araby” Everyone needs to escape The Quest • The priest: his books • Mangan’s sister: her religious retreats • His uncle: alcohol • The boy: his fantasies • Coping with the dreariness of reality is a theme. • The boy goes on a quest. • His views himself as a gallant knight on a noble quest. • Mangan’s sister is described with images of light and white.

Frank O’Connor 1903-1966 Born Michael O’Donovan Famous Short Story Writer O’Connor knew education was way our of his horrific family life. His dad was an alcoholic and cruel; called him a sissy because he liked to read. • Proud of being Irish • Member of Irish Republican Army • Prolific short story writer • Over 70 dealt with Irish family life

My Oedipus Complex Larry: unreliable narrator Story relies on dramatic irony Larry wants to get rid of his dad because he competes with him for his mother’s attention Humorous Tone Uses British idiom: “in a wax” In resolution Larry and his father unite against Sonny, the new baby

1) More concerned with nuances of character than with construction of plot • 2)More apt to imply facts and psychological truths than to state them directly • 3)More apt to move toward a revelation of truth than toward an effect The Modern Short Story Very different from 19th century stories Often use dramatic irony Climax may be an epiphany the character has at the end

Dylan Thomas 1914-1953 From Wales but mostly lived in London. Wrote first volume of poetry at 20. Gave lectures and did readings in the U.S. Died in NYC at 39 of alcoholism. Flamboyant and popular figure. Famous relationship with his wife Caitlin

Idioms An expression that does not literally mean what the words say British idiom is different from American idiom “Round the neighborhood” “In a wax” “Honor Bright”

Do Not go Gentle into That Good Night http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2cgcx-GJTQ&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNvujNd1gLw&feature=related A villanelle (a 19-line lyric poem) Written for his father who was on his Deathbed. Thomas wanted him to resist death. Builds an argument to persuade him

Fern Hill Poem uses half rhyme, internal rhyme, and end rhyme Lyric poem Comments on the cruelty of time Irony is that we are always moving closer to death even while wonderfully alive. Uses puns and words in a playful manner “Though I sang in my chains by the sea.” Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,

Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1906-1989 An avant-garde playwright, novelist, poet, and director 1969 Nobel Prize Irish but lived in Paris Work is bleak and offers a tragi-comic outlook on human nature Associated with black comedy or gallows humor

Waiting for Godot • Beckett is considered by many to be most important post-modern work • Modernist writer • Work is minimalist • Associated with Theatre of the Absurd: uses dark elements to create humor • Very little scenery • Characters wait for Godot: that long-expected something that people wait for but which never comes

Virginia Woolf 1882-1941 (English) • A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” ― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” ― Virginia Woolf Early feminist; founded Hogarth Press and The Bloomsbury Groups

Woolf used stream of consciousness style; she was a mentor to other writers and suffered from manic depression. She wrote To the Lighthouse; A Room of One’s Own, and Mrs. Dalloway. She was from a distinguished family, grew up wealthy, was abused y her stepbrothers, had a wonderful marriage, and dealt with depression most of her life. Committed suicide by filling her pockets with stones and walking Into the river. Felt she was a burden on her husband. Considered a literary giant, she expanded the genre of nonfiction and was like James Joyce with her use of psychoanalysis and stream of consciousness

TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH LIT