20 th Century Background Notes

1. 20th Century Background Notes 3rd Tri. Senior English

2. Early 20th Century – Progress! • Rejection of traditional Victorian views and values • More rights and democratic freedoms • Expansion of British power over the rest of the world • Science, technology, and medicine helped improve daily lives for millions • Rise in living conditions and average wages • Rise in literacy and education • Symbol of British and world progress and idealism: The Titanic • “Roaring 20’s” – wealth, parties, optimism

3. 1912 – Sinking of the Titanic

4. WWI • England went in with sense of patriotism and sense of duty/honor - anticipated glory of past conflicts • 60,000 young Brits killed on first day of Battle of the Somme • 300,000 young Brits killed, wounded, or frozen to death at the Battle of Ypres? • An entire generation of young Englishmen devastated, nearly wiped out

5. WWI – Trench warfare • Technological developments are good, right? • Machine gun (majority of Brits killed at Somme died by machine gun) • Poison gas (at least 100,000 died during WWI due to chemical weapons) • Traditional method of large forces marching against other large forces no longer worked trench war

6. Trench Poets • Soldiers, medics, photographers all came back from WWI with a new understanding of what war REALLY is • Dismissed the past ideas about the “glory” of war • Used verse and powerful imagery and figurative language to bring realism of experiences to readers • More cynical about warfare • Two most well-known British trench poets: • Wilfred Owen • Siegfried Sassoon

7. WWII • Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Communist Russia/Soviet Union all represented two modern philosophies taken to their most-feared extremes • Charles Darwin’s “Darwinism” from Origin of Species – “survival of the fittest” • Karl Marx’s Das Kapital - communism and socialism / anti-capitalism, anti-democracy

8. WWII • During WWII, Britain lost over 300,000 soldiers and over 60,000 civilians • Britain fought in France, Europe, and the Middle East – but the Nazis also bombed London • Massive damages inflicted to military empire and at home • Britain and Allied Powers find out at end of war the extent of Hitler’s Holocaust of the Jews

9. Cynicism of 20th Century • Just as humanity reached the 20th century and looked poised to create a world based around peace, technology, democracy, and seek to eliminate social ills like hunger, is the exact same era where we kill more human beings in two wars than the rest of human history combined, while the legacy of colonialism/imperialism by Europe leaves Africa and parts of Asia and the Middle East in shambles... • In midst of all this science/technology march forward for sake of peace, by creating most destructive weapon --- then using it to end war by killing 10,000s of Japanese civilians  Cold War • 20th Century – new era of doubt, cynicism, and fear

10. Decline of England as a world power • During the late 1800s, England lost control of colonies in Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand • After World War II, Britain was recovering from the war and was in massive debt • Loss of India • Loss of colonies in the Middle East and Africa

11. 20th Century British Literature • WWI Trench Poets – describe realities of war and dismissive of “glory” of war • More cynicism/pessimism – some would say “realism” • More satire and dark humor • More criticisms of the traditional elite and powerful – more political writing • More open writing about sexual and gender issues • More global/international diversity from authors who traveled abroad and were from former British colonies

12. 20th Century British Literature • Dystopian literature – novels and stories about the worst future imaginable, where everything that could be wrong about society is wrong (“dystopia” is the opposite of a “utopia” – “utopia” = a perfect society) • 1984 by George Orwell • Term “Orwellian” - an adjective to describe a government or conditions which feature excessive government control and invasion and loss of personal privacy and individual rights • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley