Eng426 20th century english literature

Module 1- Introduction to Modernism

Unit 1: Britain, the Age of Change and the Old/New Literature Unit 2: Modernist Thematic Concerns, Styles and Techniques.
Unit 3: Modernism, Post Modernism, and the Twentieth English Literature Unit 4: Post-Modernist Themes and Techniques

UNIT 1: Britain, the Age of Change and the Old/New Literature

Content
1.0 Introduction

2.0 Objectives

0. 
   Main Content
   
1. 
   Nineteenth Century English Literature
   
2. 
   The First World War and Post War Disillusionment
   
3. 
   Traditional English Literature
   
4. 
   The Theory of Evolution
   
5. 
   Psychoanalysis and Twentieth Century English Literature
   
6. 
   Traditional English Literature and its Features
   

3.7. English Literature in the Twentieth Century

8. 
   The Post Victorian Literature
   
9. 
   Modernism and its Literary Propositions
   
10. 
    The Modernist Literature
    
11. 
    The Characteristic Differences between the Victorian (Old) and the Twentieth Century (New) Literature
    
12. 
    Fusion of Romance and Gross Realism
    
13. 
    Moral Representation/ Idealism/The Narrator
    

4.0 Conclusion
5.0 Summary
6.0 Tutor-marked Assignment
7.0 References/ Further Reading

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Twentieth century English literature covers literary works, prose, drama and poetry produced in the 1900s. Generally speaking, the twentieth century marked a significant shift in the history of Great Britain and also in the imaginative writing of the period. Looking back to the literature of the previous century (also referred to as Victorian literature: late 1930s to 1901), it is obvious that both in style and content, twentieth century English literature is different. The difference is not unconnected to certain events
which shattered human experiences and questioned age-long beliefs and practices, including how literature should be written.

The First and Second World Wars, the development and use of sophisticated chemical weapons, the emergence of new theories such as Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and Sigmund Freud’s Theory of Psychoanalysis were among the major reasons for this change. People’s world view, attitudes, and disposition to life changed as they could not rationally explain the kind of chaos and destruction their normal and peaceful world had witnessed as a result of the wars. Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory interrogates and negates the biblical account of creation while Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis opens up discussions on the inner workings of the human mind.

Moreover, the war and the consequent displacement of persons from their previous physical and psychic groundings seemed to devalue humans and the world was seen as becoming a more absurd place as years went by. There was a break in tradition and reactions against established institutions. With Karl Marx’s analysis of class structure and the oppressive nature of the capitalist system, the Church and Christianity became associated with capitalism and the modern mind believed that there was no absolute truth and that truth was relative.

Generally, it was an era of change and the writings of the period also reflected this change. The experience and feelings of alienation, loss and despair were evident in the works of writers of this period, some of whom were labelled “modernists”. Writers like Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Graham Greene, Samuel Beckett, John Osborne, Robert Brooke, W.H. Auden, W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot, are among many writers identified with modernism.

Therefore, this course shall concentrate on the works of some of these writers and show their depiction of the twentieth century period. However, in order to lay a foundation for the study of twentieth century literature, in this unit, we shall briefly discuss nineteenth century literature and explain reasons for the change in twentieth century English literature.

In Unit 1, we will also discuss the change that Britain went through as a result of the First World War and you will be given a brief synopsis of the traditional English Literature. You will also be exposed to the Twentieth Century English Literature in general, and the different ways in which modernist writers sought to do away with the Victorian or traditional literary styles and themes in order to show what they considered the realities of the 20^th Century English society

0.