Eng426 20th century english literature

The Theory of Evolution

Until the late nineteenth century, people, including scientists agreed that all species were created at the same time. This implied that there was a creator – Supreme Being. To explain the fact that some species had gone into extinction, most scientists believed that
the biblical story in which God wiped out creatures with flood must have been the reason. Charles Darwin rebuffed these claims in nineteenth century. In The Origin of Species, Darwin explains that human evolved from an earlier kind of animal. He explains that different species had experienced significant changes which eventually led to what he called transmutation. That is evolvement of new forms. By implication, Darwin held that there was no Supreme Being, no creator, no God. This notion became popular among literary writers after the First World War as explained above.

0. Psychoanalysis and Twentieth Century English Literature

In 1910, Sigmund Freud promoted a “strange” and sensational theory he had propounded a few years before. It is known as Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis emphasises the relationship between what goes on in the sub-conscious aspect of a human mind and the actions and behaviour of that person. To Freud, certain feelings of people are repressed in their sub-consciousness and manifest sometimes as resistance or in dreams. Though Freud applied this theory in the clinic, it affected the literature of the post war period when writers focused on the sub-conscious of a character and explored the deep feelings and experiences stored in the sub-conscious. The reader is given access to this through the stream of consciousness technique and is made to believe that the things that matter are not seen or touched but are buried in the innermost mind of the person. As you will discover in subsequent units, Twentieth Century English literature writers found this technique useful in their depiction of the chaos and disillusionment of their time. Though Freud’s concept was based on clinical case studies, psychoanalysis has since been applied to disciplines such as Literature, Psychology, Philosophy, Cultural Studies and Feminist Studies among others.

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