English literature in the 20th century

The second period(1918-1939)
• a favourable condition for the further development of modernism. • The golden period of modernism. • the landmark of modernist poetry:The Waste Land • 1920s:the best literary works of modernism appeared one after another. • In 1930s, the economic crisis the rise of hitler and the threat of anack to the English literary scene ﹠realism became the dominant current again.
• In the early years of this century, a major technical revolution occurred in English, as well as in American, poetic theory and practice. W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound were the leading characters in this revolution. In different ways, they revolted against the imprecise language and sentimental emotions of the late Victorian poets. The result of this revolt was the literary movement that has come to be called Modernism and has great influence on the poetry as well as the fiction of the century.
There are three periods in English literature development.
The first period(1900-1918): • Critical realism continued to prevail in the writings of the novellists,poets and playwrights. • Also,the tendency of modernism began to show its appearance.
English Literature in the 20th Cetury
By Nian Xiyu and Fan Lihua
Historical Background
• 19th century,pay for the wars→give up the investments abroad→lost dominant position in world politics→20th century nationalfortune and power↓↓↓→women's rights,laboring class gain power. • Mid-19th century,Marxism • Darwin's theory of evolution • Albert Einstein's theory of concepts of time and space • Henri Bergson irrational philosophy→the foundation of modernism
Literary Characteristics
• the important and striking features of the 20th century English literature:realism , modernism. (dominated English literature in its development) • Features of modernism: (1) Complexity (2) Radical and deliberate break with traditional aesthetic principles (3) Back to Aristotle.
• English Poetry in the 20th Century
• In a literary sense, the 20th century can be said to have begun in the 1890’s, in the political sense it was ushered by the First World War (1919-1918) which had a very shocking influence upon Great Britain, which cost it almost a whole generation of most promising young men.
Novel Writing Between the Two Wold War Novel writing since the Second Wold War
• At this time,the Modernism began to show its appearance in novel writing. • The Second World War →spiritual trauma lonely and meaningless in life→existentialism appeared. • Existentialism thought that the exterior wold was absurd. Life was meaningless,all human efforts only brought people more pain,loneless and dispair. • Under such complecated backgroud, “the angry Young Men”bagan to publish their writings.They reflected the social reality and expressed their anger and discontent for social injustice.
English Drama in the 20th Century
1.The Development of Drama in the Century • 1)Realistic Drama:In the early 20th century ,realism is a strong literary cerrent dominanting English literature.Between the two world wars the major tradition in English drama continued to be realism. • 2)Irish National Dramaade a great contribution to the English drama of the early 20th century. • 3)Revival of Poetic Drama:In 1940s,poetic drama revived. • 2.Representative Playwrights • 1)George Bernard Shaw:2)Samuel Beckett:
• Modernism Poetry
• The 20th century has witnessed a great achievement in English poetry. • the mark of the rise of modernist poetry:‖The early poems of Pound and Eliot and Yeats( against the conventional ideas and forms of the Victorian poetry) • The modernist poets fight against the romantic fuzziness and self-indulged emotionalism, advocating new ideas in poetry writing such as to use the common speech, to create new rhythms as the expression of a new mood, to allow absolute freedom in the choice of subjects, and to use hard, clear and precise images in poetic creation.
The third period (since the Second World War):
• the contemporary English literature. • Various literary schools and tendencies coexisted,mingling or influence each other. • Traditional method of realism was combined with modernistic techniques. • In poetry,‖a newgeneration of poets,seaching for what was called ”purity of diction” . • In fiction and drama: appeared a group of vigorous young writer,called ―the Angry Young Men‖(1960-1970) • In late 1960s to1970s,English novlelists were much concerned with the exploration of new techniques and subjects.In 1950s a type of plays known as the Theatre of Absurd began to appear in English