Modernist Prose and Fiction

Summary

This 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

00:00

📚 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.

05:02

🎭 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.

10:08

📖 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.

15:14

🌏 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.

20:17

📝 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.

25:22

🌟 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.

Keywords

💡Modernism

Modernism is an artistic and literary movement that emerged in the early 20th century, characterized by a break from traditional forms and techniques. In the context of the video, Modernism is the central theme, as it discusses the evolution of the English language and literature during the Modernist age. The script mentions various Modernist writers and their works, illustrating the movement's impact on prose and fiction.

💡Modernist prose and fiction

Modernist prose and fiction refer to literary works that employ innovative narrative techniques and styles, often reflecting the disillusionment and complexity of the modern world. The script delves into the challenges of classifying and identifying a linear narrative for 20th-century literature due to the experimental nature of Modernist prose and fiction.

💡Stream of consciousness

Stream of consciousness is a narrative technique that attempts to depict the continuous flow of thoughts, feelings, and memories within a character's mind. The script highlights this technique as a significant innovation in Modernist fiction, mentioning authors like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf who employed it to represent the inner lives of their characters.

💡Political allegories

Political allegories are stories that use symbolic characters and events to convey political critiques or commentaries. The script refers to George Orwell's works, 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' and 'Animal Farm,' as examples of political allegories that criticize totalitarian regimes and the flaws of emergent political systems.

💡Freudian influence

Freudian influence refers to the impact of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories on various aspects of culture, including literature. The script notes the supremacy of Freudian influence in dictating plot structures and thematic elements in Modernist fiction, reflecting the growing interest in the psychological dimensions of human experience.

💡Bloomsbury Group

The Bloomsbury Group was a collective of writers, philosophers, and artists in the early 20th century known for their intellectual and artistic innovation. The script mentions Virginia Woolf and EM Forster as members of this group, indicating their contributions to Modernist literature and their engagement with contemporary social and political issues.

💡Science fiction and fantasy

Science fiction and fantasy are genres that explore imaginative and futuristic concepts or supernatural elements, often as a means to comment on contemporary society. The script discusses the growing interest in these genres during the Modernist period, with writers like HG Wells and CS Lewis creating works that blend scientific ideas and fantastical elements.

💡Unreliable narrator

An unreliable narrator is a storytelling device where the narrator's credibility is deliberately compromised, leading to a distorted or uncertain account of events. The script credits Ford Maddox Ford with popularizing the concept of the unreliable narrator, which anticipates post-modernist techniques and contributes to the complexity of Modernist fiction.

💡Literary criticism

Literary criticism involves the analysis and interpretation of literary works, often focusing on themes, styles, and historical contexts. The script notes that the Modernist period was an age of critical writing, with an unprecedented amount of commentary and criticism being generated to keep pace with the new movements in prose and fiction.

💡Feminist rhetoric

Feminist rhetoric refers to the use of language and discourse to advance feminist perspectives and critique gender inequalities. The script mentions Virginia Woolf in the context of feminist rhetoric, highlighting her work 'A Room of One's Own' as an articulation of feminist sentiments and an imaginative retelling of the challenges faced by women writers.

💡Post-modernism

Post-modernism is a cultural and intellectual movement that follows and often reacts against Modernism, characterized by a skepticism towards grand theories and a focus on diverse, often fragmented narratives. While not the main focus of the script, the term is implied in the discussion of the unreliable narrator and the anticipation of post-modernist techniques in Modernist works.

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.