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Post-War Literature

Post-War Literature. Literature of the 40s,50s and 60s Angry Young Men Theatre of the Absurd Postmodern literature. Late 40s and early 50s (writers of the pre- and post-war fiction): George Orwell (1903-1950) (Eric Arthur Blair) Born in Bengal Educated at Eton

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Post-War Literature

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  1. Post-War Literature

  2. Literature of the 40s,50s and 60s • Angry Young Men • Theatre of the Absurd • Postmodern literature

  3. Late 40s and early 50s (writers of the pre- and post-war fiction): • George Orwell (1903-1950) (Eric Arthur Blair) • Born in Bengal • Educated at Eton • Served in Indian Imperial Police in Burma

  4. Burmese Days (1934) • Homage to Catalonia (1938) • Animal Farm (1945) • Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

  5. Democratic socialist, deeply disillusioned with Communism • Animal Farm: Discussion with equality: ”all animals are created equal but some are more equal than others”

  6. 1984 totalitarianism, Big Brother, the Thought Police, newspeak • Society dominated by slogans: War is Peace,Freedom is Slavery

  7. Both 1984 and Animal Farm belong to non-realistic novel

  8. Fantasy: post-war fantasy literature is interested in alternative worlds, magic • John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892-1873) • Trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) • The Two Towers (1954) • The Return of the King (1955)

  9. Working-class novel: • Alan Sillitoe (b. 1928) • Philosophical novel: • Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) Under the Net, The Unicorn (a parody of the 18th century Gothic novel), The Green Knight

  10. William Golding (1911-1993) • Lord of the Flies (1954) • Innate human aggression, evil, and violence appear especially in extreme situations

  11. Doris Lessing (b. 1919) • Born in Persia, brought up in South Rhodesia and in 1949 came to England • 2007 Nobel Prize

  12. Anti-rascist, psychological, femnist, experimental, sci-fi • E.g. A Briefing for a Decsent into Hell (1971) • Love, Again (1996) • The Sweetest Dream (2001)

  13. Laurence Durrell (1912-1990) • Alexandria Quartet (1957-60) the same events narrated from different points of view (the titles of the separate parts indicate it: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea • Love, sex, romance, quite scandalous

  14. Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) • Irish, self-imposed exile to France • Writing in French – discipline • Friend and secretary to Joyce • Nobel Prize 1969

  15. Anti-novels – the new novel – nouveau roman • Against traditional realism • Subjective, authorial point of view • Murphy • Molloy • Malone Dies

  16. Experimental novel – novel of the 60s • Originated with Beckett • Inspired by John Barth (an American critic and writer) • ”Literature of Exhaustion” 1967 – v. important – the beginning of postmodernism

  17. John Fowles (b. 1926) • The Maggot • The Collector • The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969)

  18. Postmodern fiction • Intertextuality – Julia Kristeva • End of omniscient narrator • Play with the reader

  19. Theoretical study of the novel • Victorian archetype • Historiograpfic metafiction – Linda Hutcheon

  20. Campus novel • Malcolm Bradbury (1932-2000) • David Lodge (b. 1935) Small World

  21. Drama

  22. The Angry Young Men • English society as hypocritical • Working class and lower middle class • Domestic realism • Kitchen sink drama

  23. John Osborne (1929-1994) • Look Back in Anger 1956 • Jimmy, a university graduate, sweet stall, wife- upper class – frustration, eruption of frustrations, psychological abuse of his wife • Shelagh Delaney (b. 1939) kitchen sink realism A Taste of Honey 1958

  24. The Theatre of the Absurd • Martin Esslin 1961 • Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot Fr. 1953, Eng. 1955

  25. Stream of consciousness • Circular time • No God/ pessimistic vision of God • Immobility • Metaphysical despair and inertia • Lack of communication • Cogito ergo sum replaced by Dico ergo sum

  26. Deterioration of civilization • Language games • Contemporary human being (devoid of dreams, memory) • Everyman

  27. Theater of menace /comedy of menace • Harold Pinter (1930-2008) • Nobel Prize 2005 • Menace • Unknown danger • Human isolation • Terror • The Dumb Waiter (1957) • The Birthday Party (1958)

  28. In-Yer-Face Theatre • Aggressive, provocative • Sarah Kane (1971-1999) 4.48 Psychosis

  29. Other important contemporary writers: • Angela Carter • Julian Barnes • Graham Swift • Jeanette Winterson • Salman Rushdie • A.S. Byatt

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