Modernist Prose and Fiction
Summary
TLDRThis lecture delves into the complexities of the Modernist age in English literature, highlighting the challenges of classification due to diverse artistic tendencies and a surge in literary production from the early 20th century. It emphasizes the dominance of fiction over other genres and the experimental nature of Modernist prose and fiction, influenced by political theories and Freudian psychology. The lecture also touches on the difficulty in identifying a linear narrative and the rise of critical writing as a response to the individuality of Modernist voices. Notable authors like Orwell, Joyce, Woolf, and Huxley are mentioned for their significant contributions to the era's literature, which saw a blend of high and low art, and a redefinition of traditional narrative techniques.
Takeaways
- 📚 The Modernist age is characterized by its complexity and difficulty in classification, with a vast number of productions emerging from the beginning of the 20th century.
- 🔍 There is a challenge in distinguishing what belongs to English literature and what has been influenced by non-English traditions during the Modernist period.
- 📉 The 20th-century saw fiction rise as the dominant genre, overshadowing poetry and drama, with writers experimenting vividly with form and language.
- 🌐 The influence of political theories and Freudian psychology was profound, impacting the structure and thematic elements of Modernist literature.
- 🏛 The novel, being a relatively young genre, lacked classical models, leading to the development of new narrative models to suit modern sensibilities.
- 🌍 Political consciousness in writing was prevalent, reflecting the social and cultural demands of the time, especially in the context of the British Empire.
- 📉 The decline of the British Empire from the early 20th-century influenced the literature of the period, necessitating an understanding of nationalist forces.
- 🚀 Interest in science fiction and fantasy grew, complemented by the emergence of new media forms like cinema.
- 👥 Modernist writers were individualistic and difficult to categorize under common terms, leading to a significant amount of commentary and criticism.
- 📖 Notable Modernist writers like George Orwell, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and DH Lawrence made significant contributions, often responding to political and social issues of their time.
- 🎭 The Modernist period also saw the rise of literary criticism as a distinct genre, with critics like TS Eliot, FR Leavis, and others shaping the discourse around literature.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the lecture on the History of English Language and Literature?
-The lecture focuses on the Modernist age and Modernist writings, particularly the Modernist prose and fiction from the beginning to the mid-20th century.
Why is classifying the Modernist age difficult?
-Classifying the Modernist age is difficult due to the various shifting tendencies in art, literature, and other forms of writing, and the emergence of a large number of publications since the beginning of the 20th century.
How did the 20th-century fiction differ from previous literary periods?
-20th-century fiction differed as it saw fiction emerging as the most dominant genre, with writers experimenting vividly with form and language, and being influenced by political theories and Freudian psychology.
What was the significance of the novel as a genre during the Modernist period?
-The novel was significant as it was a fairly young genre without a classical model, necessitating the development of new models to suit the modern context, and it became a vehicle for political and socially conscious fiction.
How did the decline of the British Empire impact literature during the early 20th century?
-The decline of the British Empire demanded an understanding of various nationalist forces at work, influencing the kind of literature produced, as Britain was one of the leading colonial empires.
Which writer is known for their political allegories and commentaries, particularly with anti-Communist rhetoric?
-George Orwell is known for his political allegories and commentaries, with works like 'Nineteen Eighty Four' and 'Animal Farm'.
How did James Joyce revolutionize the use of the English language in his works?
-James Joyce revolutionized the use of the English language by moving away from conventions and rigidities, employing stream of consciousness and focusing on mundane events in the protagonist's life.
What technique did Virginia Woolf perfect in her fictional works?
-Virginia Woolf perfected the stream of consciousness technique and used it to fragment narratives in her works.
What is the significance of DH Lawrence's 'Lady Chatterley’s Lover' in the context of 20th-century literature?
-Lady Chatterley’s Lover was significant for its controversial content, which led to it being banned due to alleged obscenity, reflecting the moral and censorship issues of the time.
How did the emergence of new media and the interest in science fiction and fantasy complement the Modernist movement?
-The emergence of new media, including cinema, and the interest in science fiction and fantasy complemented the Modernist movement by providing new techniques in narration and expanding the scope of themes and genres.
What was the role of literary criticism during the Modernist period?
-Literary criticism played a significant role during the Modernist period as it helped to interpret the complex and individualistic voices of the time, with many writers themselves contributing to critical writings and theories.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Modernist Prose and Fiction
The speaker begins by welcoming the audience to a lecture on the history of the English language and literature, focusing on the Modernist age. They acknowledge the complexity of classifying literature from this period due to the vast number of publications and the influence of various art forms. The lecture aims to explore representative writers and writing styles from the early 20th century, emphasizing the dominance of fiction over other genres like poetry and drama. The speaker also mentions the influence of political theories, Freudian psychology, and the challenges in identifying what belongs to English literature. The decline of the British Empire and the rise of nationalism are highlighted as significant factors affecting the literature of the time.
🎭 Major 20th-century Novelists and Their Impact
This paragraph delves into the works of several key novelists of the 20th century, starting with George Orwell, known for his political allegories and socialist views, exemplified in 'Nineteen Eighty Four' and 'Animal Farm'. James Joyce's innovative use of language and narrative techniques, particularly in 'Ulysses' and 'A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man', is discussed. Virginia Woolf's contribution to stream of consciousness and feminist rhetoric through works like 'Mrs Dalloway' and 'To the Lighthouse' is highlighted. Other notable authors mentioned include Rebecca West, Jean Rhys, Rudyard Kipling, EM Foster, and HG Wells, each with their unique contributions to literature, reflecting the period's diversity and the challenges in categorizing their works.
📖 Diverse Themes and Styles in Modernist Literature
The speaker continues by discussing the wide range of themes and styles present in modernist literature. They mention DH Lawrence's realistic mode and his exploration of psychological themes in novels like 'Sons and Lovers' and 'Women in Love'. Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World' is cited as a commentary on the changing world. CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien are recognized for blending fantasy with religious and mythological elements in 'The Chronicles of Narnia' and 'The Lord of the Rings', respectively. The paragraph also touches on the criticism and controversy surrounding certain works, such as 'Lady Chatterley’s Lover' and the significance of the unreliable narrator in modernist fiction.
🌏 Global Perspectives and the Influence of Irish Playwrights
This section broadens the scope to include global perspectives in modernist literature, with a focus on Irish playwrights and their influence on British drama. Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen's impact on drama is discussed, along with the controversy surrounding plays like 'Pygmalion'. The popularity of fiction is contrasted with the continued presence of drama in London, with mentions of playwrights like Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, and TS Eliot. The paragraph underscores the diversity of the literary scene, with both high art and popular fiction coexisting.
📝 Literary Criticism and Theories in the Modernist Era
The focus shifts to literary criticism and the emergence of new critical theories during the modernist period. The speaker notes the importance of manifestoes and prefaces in shaping critical discourse. Influential critics like AC Bradley, LC Knight, Edmund Gosse, and IA Richards are highlighted for their contributions to the study of literature. The rise of New Criticism, with its focus on the text as a self-contained unit, is discussed, along with the theories of TS Eliot on historical consciousness and the objective correlative. The paragraph concludes with a nod to FR Leavis, a foundational figure in modern literary criticism.
🌟 Conclusion and Encouragement to Explore Modernist Literature
In the concluding paragraph, the speaker summarizes the breadth and depth of modernist literature, acknowledging the limitations of the lecture in covering such a vast topic. They encourage the audience to explore further to gain a comprehensive understanding of modernist literature. The speaker expresses hope that the lecture has provided a solid foundation and looks forward to the final session, thanking the audience for their attention.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Modernism
💡Modernist prose and fiction
💡Stream of consciousness
💡Political allegories
💡Freudian influence
💡Bloomsbury Group
💡Science fiction and fantasy
💡Unreliable narrator
💡Literary criticism
💡Feminist rhetoric
💡Post-modernism
Highlights
Introduction to Modernist prose and fiction within the broader context of the Modernist age.
Challenges in classifying the Modernist age due to its diverse and shifting tendencies in art and literature.
Difficulties in distinguishing between English literature and works produced by non-English traditions.
The assertion that a linear narrative for 20th-century prose and fiction is hard to establish.
20th-century fiction's dominance over other genres like poetry and drama.
Writers' experimentation with form, language, and influence from political theories and Freudian psychology.
The development of models for the novel as a young genre without classical precedents.
Politically conscious fiction reflecting the demands of the time and the British Empire's status.
The decline of the British Empire and its impact on literature and nationalist forces.
Growth in interest for science fiction and fantasy due to disciplinary forces and new media.
The transformation of the novel and the rise of commentary and criticism in the Modernist period.
Lack of classification in the Modernist period and the distinction between high art and low art.
Introduction of new narrative techniques like stream of consciousness and fragmentary narration.
Major novelists of the 20th century shaping literature, including George Orwell, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf.
Influence of writers like EM Foster, HG Wells, and DH Lawrence on science fiction, realism, and psychological exploration.
The Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings as significant works blending fantasy with religious and mythological elements.
The role of Irish playwrights and the significance of drama in the 20th century.
The emergence of literary criticism as a distinctive genre with notable critics like TS Eliot and FR Leavis.
Virginia Woolf's challenge to literary canon from a feminist perspective.
Transcripts
Hello everyone, I am happy to welcome you to today’s lecture of the NPTEL,
the History of English Language and Literature. We have now reached the last leg of our discussion
on the Modernist age and the Modernist writings. Accordingly, we begin to look
at the Modernist prose and fiction. When we talk about modernism, we have
already given a very detailed and exhaustive introduction followed by certain discussions
in particular genres. We have also highlighted right at the outset that it is a very difficult
age in the sense of classification and also a number of productions have come out since the
beginning of the 20th century making it all the more difficult to give a comprehensive
list of all the publications which have been come out of the land of England.
We have also noticed that due to the various shifting tendencies in art, literature and
other forms of writing, there is a certain kind of difficulty in even identifying what exactly
belongs to English literature, and what exactly has been produced by non-English traditions.
Given all these difficulties, when we begin our discussion on Modernist prose and fiction,
we continue with our assertion of the limitation that it would be perhaps a difficult task to try
and identify a linear narrative for the prose and fiction of the 20th century.
Accordingly, as and when we begin our discussion, we shall be talking about
only certain representative writers and certain representative modes of writing which is said
to have characterised the early 20th-century fiction. In today’s lecture we shall be covering
a very broad bridge from the beginning of the 20th-century till about mid-20th century. So
in that sense, a discussion of about 4 decades is going to be collapsed into a single session.
20th-century fiction is particularly significant because during this period,
we find fiction emerging as the most dominant genre, even at the expense of poetry and drama.
This was the tendency that we began with messing from the 19th century onwards because there was
a growing shift towards fiction and towards the reception of fiction compared to the other genres
and this was also the time when the writers began to experiment rather vividly and widely.
We do find them experimenting with form and language and there is a profound influence of
various political theories from other disciplines. We find the Freudian influence being quite supreme
in even dictating the plot’s structure and the thematic elements. We also find a gradual
emergence of an understanding of the art of the novel. This also is primarily important
because, a novel being a fairly young genre, there was no ancestor or a classical model in place.
So it became all the more imperative to develop particular models which could suit this young
modern genre. We also find many of the writers resorting to write politically
conscious fiction because that was also the time when they were lot of demands politically,
socially and culturally to respond to the various things that were happening
in and around society. Britain being one of the leading colonial empires,
it was also important to understand how the empire was faring in the beginning of the 20th century,
in order to understand certain kinds of literatures, which were being produced.
We noted earlier that the decline of British Empire had begun from the early 20th-century. This
also had demanded a particular understanding of various other nationalists forces at work in order
to appreciate a certain our kinds of literature which were emerging. This was also the period
because of the experimentation and because of the onslaught of various disciplinary forces,
a lot of interest was getting generated in the elements of science, fiction and fantasy.
We also find the other forms of media adequately complementing and supplementing this new interest
as well. On the whole, we find the writers being forced into a constant need to redefine
themselves and their writings and also we find novel undergoing a lot of transformation moving
away from the conversion understandings that one had about the novel when it began to rise
from the 18th century onwards. In order to keep up with this pace of new moves and movements,
which were happening in the area of prose and fiction, we find an unprecedented amount of
generation of commentary and criticism as well. We find that this becomes all the more important
because each voice in the Modernist period could be identified as being distinctly individual and
there is also an impossibility to club them under common rubric terms. This makes it all
the more difficult to engage with particular text and we will also noted shortly how many
other texts could not even be approached without the help of a critical commentary or without
the help of a particular referencing text. Unlike the previous centuries and unlike the
previous literary periods, where it was fairly easy to classify writers under particular groups,
trends and movements. In the Modernist period, we do not find this sort of a classification
happening at all. In fact, with a newer kind of distinction coming into place between high art
and low art, we also find writers deliberately trying to come out of these compartments which
would rather classify them as one or the other. As a by-product of this new difficult kind of
writing, we also find a lot of critical writings emerging and this age also could be seen as an age
of critical writing. We find the writers employing newer techniques in narration, particularly the
stream of consciousness method and a fragmentary form of narration becomes all the more popular
in the 20th-century modernist fiction. Emergence of other kinds of media including
cinema also complements these newer techniques and newer movements. We also find different kinds of
articulation of humour, glamour, escapist art and about an art of propaganda. Keeping this in mind,
we move on to look at the major novelist of the 20th-century. Here it is again important to state
that we have not arranged these works and the novelists in any particular order and they are
not in the order of their popularity either. We just look at certain representative figures
who have shaped and reshaped the literature of the 20th century in one way or the other.
One of the important writers of this period is George Orwell who primarily responded to
the political emergencies of those times and his works were mostly in the range
of political allegories and commentaries, and he also had a very evident socialist sympathy in his
writings. His important works include Nineteen Eighty Four, a novel and Animal Farm which is
also a novel. In both these works we find an indictment of politics and the social order.
Nineteen Eighty Four and Animal Farm were particularly notable for their
anti-Communist rhetoric, which also sought to expose the various flaws that even a
new emergent political system had. James Joyce was most notable for his
daring use of the English language and he is one person who is said to have entirely
revolutionised not just the narrative techniques in fiction but also the use of English language,
moving away from all kinds of conventions and all forms offset rigidities.
In fact, he himself was quite aware of the difficult nature of his work that he claimed
that his work would keep professors busy for centuries and accordingly we even see
an entire market for the secretary material of James Joyce flourishing across the world. Some
of his important novels include A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man published in 1916 and
Ulysses published in 1922. Both these works including Finnegan’s Wake published in 1939,
used the technique of stream of consciousness and we find that he was trying to narrate the life of
an ordinary person through an ordinary means. We also find him focusing more on the mundane
events, which were happening in the protagonist’s life rather than anything extraordinary that he
wanted to highlight. He said that his writing career was also launched by his
dropout and we already noted how Pound was influential in defining and shaping
the career of many of the modernist writers. It was Pound who introduced James Joyce to
Harriet Shaw Weaver, a publisher in England. In his novels, in Joyce’s novels, we find a
very significant thing particularly when we talk about this character features in 2 of his works,
in Ulysses and in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Stephen Dedalus. He is seen
as a representative of the modernist age who echoes the many fragmentary sentiments and
the many crises that the modernist man was undergoing. He is also said to have
famously made this statement, “history is a nightmare from which I am trying to wake.”
Virginia Woolf whom we notably mentioned in the context of certain feminist rhetoric
and the feminist responses, she was a noted feminist writer and a noted fiction writer of
the 20th century. She was also a member of the Bloomsbury Group as we have noted earlier. She
was the one who in certain ways one could say perfected the stream of consciousness,
a technique and used to fragment narratives in her fictional works throughout. Two of her important
works were Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. In Mrs Dalloway, we also find her employing
similar techniques that Joyce used and we find her talking about one day in the life of a Mrs
Dalloway and focusing on everyday details in the life of this particular character, Mrs Dalloway.
A Room of One’s Own is not a fictional piece of work. It is in fact an articulation of what would
happen to Shakespeare’s sister if she had wanted to become a writer. In that sense, that is an
assertion of certain feminist sentiments and also an imaginative retelling of what the life of a
woman writer was in the 19th century and how lack of one’s own space, one’s own in command, one’s
own different resources had severely hampered the growth of a woman writer across centuries.
Rebecca West was a writer who supported the women’s suffrage movement. Here we also find
many of these writers trying to practice a certain kind of writing, which also went alongside with
their political and social agendas that they had. Jean Rhys is a writer whom we have already taken
a look at when we spoke about Victorian fiction, she was the one who gave a retelling of Jane Eyre
novel and Iris Murdoch is a writer who continues to be popularly consumed even in the contemporary.
Rudyard Kipling is best known as an apologist for the British Empire. He had portrayed the
life of the Anglo Indians in a very detailed manner. Some of his famous books continue
to be bestsellers even today such as the Jungle Book and Kim. In fact, in his works,
we can very clearly see the shifting attitudes towards the views about the empire because
though he began with a very apologetic tone defining the British Empire in multiple ways,
we also see his attitude and his views changing as and when the mode
of the governments also began to change from the early 20th-century onwards.
EM Foster is another writer, who was also a resident of India for quite some time and
he is also in that since quite significant in laying the foundations of early Indian fictional
English as well. His work, A Passage to India is perhaps the best-known of those times and in this,
he engages with multiple elements such as politics, mystical elements and humanism.
In his Howards End, he uses the famous phrase to talk about the east and the west, “only connect.”
He was also associated with the Bloomsbury Group and that sense,
he could also be seen as someone who acted as a bridge between the British writings and also the
writings produced from the Commonwealth nations. HG Wells could be identified as the creator of
the 20th-century science fiction and his famous works, have the Time Machine, The Invisible Man
and The First Men in the Moon, they continue to fascinate readers even in the contemporary.
This is also the time when many of the writers were trying to experiment with art
and science and also to bring in an element of imagination even to matters related to science.
DH Lawrence wrote in a very realist mode and in that sense, he could be seen as a very distinct
form of narrator in the 20th-century. At the same time, the kind of techniques that he employed,
it was very modernist and he was someone who was profoundly influenced by Freud’s theory and
also about the socio-political theories, which were common in the 20th-century.
We find this getting replicated a very directly in his novels such as Sons and Lovers and Women
in Love and we find him exploring various psychological tendencies specially related to
relationships, sexuality and the relationships between men and women. One of his novels,
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, it was quite infamous because it was alleged that it contained a lot
of obscenity which could be threatening the moral fabric of the 20th-century England and
it was also banned for a while and in fact, it had to be published in France because of
this censorship that existed in England. Incidentally, it was only much later in
1960 that Penguin won a case that too in America in order to secure the rights to publish Lady
Chatterley’s Lover. In that sense, this was also, 20th-century was also a period which was that not
lacking in any kind of controversy of this kind. Aldous Huxley was a writer who migrated to the
US but he was denied US citizenship and in that sense, his life was also
quite controversial and interesting. He also composed his best-known work, Brave New World.
This also is considered as a kind of a commentary on the early 20th-century. It also talks about
the various ways in which the world was changing through the various things which were happening
particularly the worst, the political movements and the shifting scenario in terms of culture,
society, the idea of the individual, the forms of relationships, so on and so forth.
CS Lewis was a writer who was admired equally by children and by adults. In fact,
he was one of those rare writers who could bring in the elements of fantasy and religious
vision together in his fictional mode. He was a Milton scholar and a medievalist
and we do find all of these rare combinations coming at play in his fictional works. In fact,
it is also said that he was significantly influenced by GR Tolkien, particularly Tolkien had
influenced his Return to Christianity, which also led to the publication of his supreme masterpiece,
the series known as The Chronicles of Narnia. As we know, it comprises of 7 books entirely
and it also had brought together the elements of Christianity in the form of telling a fantasy.
As we know, The Chronicles of Narnia, it remains as one of the most important and
the most popular series of children’s books and it has also been adapted into various
forms including cinema. Here we also see that the popularity of a particular genre
or a particular kind of writing, does not really talk about the popularity
of one particular movement or a one particular influence. It is rather a holistic phenomena,
and we see this happening in multiple cases with different writers and it is very difficult
to classify all of them under one single umbrella of any particular kind of modernism.
JRR Tolkien who influenced the shifting tendencies of writings about fantasy and
about the newer forms of imagination, he was interested a lot in Greek and Finnish
mythologies. He was also supremely inspired by the Bible and old English writing. Here,
we find that though the modernist period was characterised by the rejection of many of the
things which were happening in the old order, there were also a set of writers like these who
continued to be impressed and fascinated by whatever was a part of the old order.
So in that sense, we also find a certain kind of continuity getting built into the modernist
writings as well. In fact, Tolkien was a writer whom we mentioned right at the beginning of one
of our introductory lectures because he was particularly significant for his lecture on
Beowulf and he was very important in bringing back the significance of this old English text.
His most important and the best remembered work which has also been adapted into a
very cinematic form is The Lord of the Rings. However, some of the writers such as WH Auden,
he was severely critical about the kind of writing that Tolkien was practising. In 1954,
Auden has famously referred to Tolkien’s writings as being “escapist reading”.
William Golding, a significant writer of the 20th-century had to face about 21 rejections
before he could get his best-known work, The Lord of the Flies published. That is also considered as
one of the bestsellers of the 20th century. Graham Green was another writer who had to
engage with this dilemma of being attracted to religion in the modernist times. In fact,
because of the mental anguish that he himself had to undergo through these very contrasting
and diverse interests that he had, we find him very finely portraying flawed characters. One fine
example is the portrayal of his character, Whiskey priest in the novel, The Power and the Glory.
Arthur Conan Doyle as we know is best known as the creator of Sherlock Holmes. He enjoyed
supreme popularity during from the 20th-century onwards, it continues to be popular for the racy
narratives that it had. In fact, this is one instance when we also find plot becoming supreme
over character. If you are familiar with any of Arthur Conan Doyle’s work and also the narratives
about Sherlock Holmes, you would also know that it is more about the movement of the plot than about
the specificities of any particular character. GK Chesterton and Thomas Hardy, they continue
writing from the late Victorian period onwards and some of them classify them
as early modernists as well. Katherine Mansfield was an important writer of the early 20th-century
and she had engaged mostly with short fiction and also spoke about gender relations in her
work. Ford Maddox Ford had collaborations with Joseph Conrad and also had produced a number of
works by way of literary criticism. He also had founded many periodicals in the modernist period.
In fact, he was the one who popularised the notion of the unreliable narrator. In that sense,
we could also see that he was one person who almost anticipated post-modernism.
Radclyffe Hall has been in the news for right and wrong kinds of reasons. In fact,
he was known as the first major homosexual writer. He was put on trial for obscenity thereafter. In
fact, his works were considered as a danger to the nation for a while
and it also talks about the many limiting tendencies and the many limiting politics
within which the writers and the entire establishment was supposed to function.
His known work is The Well of Loneliness. Lawrence Durell is famous for his work,
The Alexandria Quartet. Paul Scott wrote The Raj Quartet, which was a narrative
of the last days of the British Empire in India. Kingsley Amis was more popular for
his Campus Novels. We also find this genre becoming popular as the decades progressed.
The other known writers were Edna O’Brien, Alan Sillitoe and Anthony Burgess.
We shall now be looking at particular writers and particular works because the modernist,
the range and the scope of modernist fiction is quite big on the scope of a single lecture.
This was also the time of popular novels such as the novels produced by Agatha Christie. In fact,
Agatha Christie also holds the distinction of being one of the most translated author
in the world. In fact, her competitors are The Bible, Shakespeare and Enid Blyton. It
was quite a rare feat that Queen of Crime was translated into about 50 languages.
The other popular writers of the 20th-century include Isaac Asimov who also wrote a lot
of science fiction, Stefan King, Georgette Heyer, Jeffrey Archer and Joanna Trollope.
Here we also see a distinction between the kind of modernist writers who focused on a
certain high art and also a certain set of writers who focused mostly on
producing what could be popularly consumed by almost every kind of reader. Though this
was the age of fiction mostly, we do find certain kind of drama also becoming popular.
It was mostly the effort of the Irish playwrights in the British scene. In fact,
we find a lot of Irish plays getting translated and being staged in London.
Bernard Shaw in fact was immensely influenced Henrik Ibsen who was an Irish playwright. We
also find Ibsen’s Ghosts being performed in Britain and also drawing a lot of criticism
because it was even described as an “open sewer”. We also find a certain playwrights
giving an outsider’s view of the British society, as we would see in Bernard Shaw’s
Pygmalion published in 1912. In fact, it was also controversial because he is said
to have used the term, “bloody” which was not found acceptable in any respectable society.
Somerset Maugham who is a writer of a lot of humorous plays and humorous prose,
he had at one point of time particularly in the year 1908, almost four plays running
simultaneously in London. Here we also notice that though the dominant genre was fiction,
we do not find the drama or the play going activity completely going out of fashion in
London. The other important dramatists were Noel Coward who was a very popular playwright
throughout his lifetime, TS Eliot, some of his works we have already taken a look at,
Christopher Fry, JM Synge, Sean O’Casey and Dylan Thomas.
In terms of non-fiction, as we noted in the beginning, this was an age of
literary criticism as well and this was also the period when criticism itself
began to emerge as a distinctive respectable genre. We find various writers such as Elliott
and Pound coming out with their manifestoes and also responding to the various critical
needs of those time. We also find that many of the poems, many of the anthologies had
prefaces and forewords which also served as critical statements and manifestoes.
There were also a lot of polemical and argumentative writings about race, class,
empire and gender, particularly the role of women. We also find a lot of influential writings
being produce from various disciplines such as philosophy, psychoanalysis and anthropology.
This is also the time when Freud supremely emerged amongst all of them as the writer,
who altered the course, content and politics of the 20th-century literature and arts.
In terms of literary criticism, some of the names deserve a special mention such as AC
Bradley who emphasised a character above all else in Shakespeare. In fact, AC Bradley is
considered as the one who gave a lot of critical attention to Shakespeare’s works and also laid the
foundations of all kinds of works to follow on the plays of Shakespeare. LC Knight is particularly
remembered for his essay ‘How Many Children had Lady Macbeth’, published in 1933. This is also
the time when a closer attention was being given to particular kinds of texts and modes of writing.
Edmund Gosse, he revived an interest in John Donne, who was one of the metaphysical poets.
IA Richards wrote the Principles of Literary Criticism. It continues to be considered as
the foundational and a beginner’s text in the practice of criticism. William Empson,
was another critic who began to give more practical advice on how to engage literary
criticism. There was also the emergence of one form of criticism known as New Criticism.
The practitioners, the major practitioners being Cleaneth Brooks, William Wimsatt and
Monroe Boardsley. In fact, the new critics began to consider a text as a self-contained
unit and not dependent on any other factor. During our discussion on the modernist poetry
itself we noted how most of the modernist poets had their own theory of poetry and
their own theories of poetic articulation. TS Eliot is particularly remembered in that
aspect. He had spoken about the idea of historical consciousness in his essay, Tradition and
Individual Talent and in his essay on Hamlet, he also popularised the idea of objective co-relator.
FR Leavis is one of the writers who laid a foundation to modernist literary criticism
and he is also considered as one of the Fathers of Modern Literary Criticism and in that sense,
he continues to be a must taught literary critic as well. Frank Kermode is a critic who continues
to write on various aspects of literature and culture. QD Leavis, he spoke about the reading
habits from the 18th-century and did a pioneering work in cultural studies and audience studies.
In fact, QD Leavis’ work was originally a thesis supervised by IA Richards and now we know that
this sort of studies are more common and is more accepted in the academy as well. Christopher
Caudwell popularised what is now known as Marxist criticism. In that sense, we also find the
political theories of Marx finding its way into literature and its understanding as well. Raymond
Williams had played a very important role in elevating cultural studies as a new disciplines.
We now we also know that there are courses being taught under this new discipline and
it also has given a new form of understanding to the various literary texts that are extent. There
were also a lot of writers themselves who laid the foundation to newer forms of critical thinking,
the most important one being Virginia Woolf who questioned the notions about
literary canon from a feminist perspective. If we go and we could perhaps identify a few
more names and a few more ways in which the modernist writers and the modernist practices
continued but however, we wind up though we did had an understanding that this is not a
comprehensive understanding of the modernist fiction and modernist literature. There could
be much more, which could be clubbed under the newer techniques and newer forms of writing.
But however, given the limited scope and canvas of this particular course,
we wrap up our discussion on modernist literature and modernist fiction with this session. I also
encourage you to read up more about similar movements and similar tendencies to get a
holistic understanding of what exactly modernist literature is. I do hope that
this lecture has done justice to this course and I hope to be able to meet you in the final
session that follows. Thank you for listening and that is all we have for today’s lecture.
تصفح المزيد من مقاطع الفيديو ذات الصلة
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Che cos'è il cronotopo? e perché è impostante saperlo?
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