• Novel: Charles Dickens (1812-1870), Thackeray (1811-1863),
Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), Emily Bronte (1818-1848), George Eliot (1819-1880), Thomas Hardy (1840-1928). Modern Age 1890-1980 • 1890: Naughty Nineties revolted against their ancestors. Oscar Wilde, Hardy, Yeats, Kipling etc. • 1901: Death of Queen Victoria.
• Poetry: W.B. Yeats (1885-1939); Georgian Period (1910 to 1935),
Imagist Movement formed in 1912 in London: Poets like Ezra Pound and T. Hulme as the exponents; War Poetry: Poets like Rupent Brooke, Sassoon, Graves, Wilfred Owen; T.S. Eliot (1888- 1965), Stephen Spender (1909 born), Dylan Thomas (1914-1953), The Movement Poets (1950's): Thom Gunn, Ted Hughes, Larkin etc., Later Poets: R.S. Thomas (born 1913), Keith Douglas (1920- 1944), Ted Hughes (born 1930), Thom Gunn (born 1929), Seamus Heaney (Born (1930). Modern literature • The modern Age in English literature starts from the beginning of twentieth century and it follows the Victorian Age • Literature in the last decade of the 19th century was transitional. • the period combined the traditional and the experimental. • As a result, modern Age became the Age of complexity and confusion. Common features of modern literature
the authors of the modern Age revolted against
the trends of the Victorian Age. The young writers of the early years of the 20th century regarded the Victorian Age as hypocritical. everything was questioned. What the Victorians had considered as honourable and beautiful, the modern authors considered it as mean and ugly. • Bernard Shaw "Question" "Examine" and "Test" Another feature of the modern Age is disintegration of values • there was disintegration of values in the 20th century. • As a result literacy became a normal thing. • enormous output of books • The effect on literature too was profound. • increase in the number of readers, authors and publishers. • literature offered better financial prospects. literature of social purpose
• The literature of the early period of the modern
Age can be called the literature of social purpose. • The future reformers had faith in the printed word. • The theatre was used for social propaganda. The dominance of the Novel can be given as the next feature of the modern Age.
• For the first time in its history, the novel
became the dominant literary form in English. • novel is more accessible to the masses than drama • novel is suited as a vehicle for the sociological studies . the revival and rapid growth of drama. • After a long period of insignificance, drama appeared as an important literary form. • Drama was concerned with social life. • the revival of poetic drama in the hands of authors like T.S. Eliot The modern age is often described as the age of technical experiments
• The authors desired for new forms and
methods of presentation. Lack of common ground is a typical feature of the modern Age
• There is no common ground for the meeting of
the writers and the readers. • Modern Age which contains disillusionment, discomfort and doubt. • As a result, modern authors have different attitudes such as of lament, nostalgia and thoughts • they create new values to replace the old ones The next feature of the modern literature is its uniqueness
• It is difficult to divide the literature of the Age
into schools. • It is full of adventures and experiments the literature of the modern age, is governed more by realism than by romance • Modern authors have concentrated their attention on the problems of modern life • However, authors like Butler and Huxley have attacked the modern craze for materialism and machinery The next feature found in modern literature is pessimism • It is mainly produced by industrial growth of our age. it reflected the sadness of the Age.
• Pessimism is also found in the poetry of the
war poets. Poets like Dylan Thomas and Hardy are highly pessimistic in their works. Love and Nature are the features of the modern Age which are continued from the past.
• Love no longer remains romantic and magical.
• Nature is not treated in the way Wordsworth
did but it was taken as force Finally , literature of modern Age also is influenced by foreign artists in the field of drama, poetry and fiction.
• Shaw modelled his plays of ideas on the plays of
Ibsen. • the novels of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf have been greatly influenced by the philosophical theories of Bergson and Freud. 20th century poetry • the poetry of twentieth century also is both traditional and experimental.
• It is traditional in the sense that romantic and
neo-classical modes of writing are followed. Traditional poetry can be sub - divided into Edwardian, Georgian and the Great War -poetry.
But, experimental poetry is more characteristic of
the Age The characteristic features of the poetry of 20th century 1- One of the main features of modern poetry is the abundance of its output
• this abundance has naturally resulted in the
lowering of quality. 2-modern poetry has variety of themes
• Modern poets have not fixed their area of
interest. • They finds inspiration from railway trains, tramcars, telephones ..etc • The themes of modern poetry are related to religion, mysticism, science and fairyland. • This has given birth to a wide variety of poems. 3-Realism • It is mainly caused by the impact of science
• Romanticism and pastoral aspects have become
things of the past.
• Realistic factors like wars, slums, ugliness, terror
and poverty have formed the themes of modern poetry. 4-pessimism and disillusionment • The modern Age has been rightly described as "the age of anxiety". full of tensions and anxieties. • Disappearance of faith in religion has added to the gloominess of the age.
• This note can be found in the poetry of many great
poets like Hardy, Huxley and Eliot.
• Pessimism is more intellectual and more
impersonal. 5-Religion and mysticism • Scepticism and faith are dealt with and some poets satirise modern people for becoming sceptic.
• D.H. Lawrence and W.B. Yeats too, are great
mystical poets. • Dylan Thomas has written poems like "Churchgoing" in which he has laughed at the loss of faith of modern people. 6-Symbolism and Imagism
• modern poets chose symbolism over direct
'description. • Symbols and metaphors made modern Poetry impressive 7-love forms the subject of many modern lyrics
• Robert Bridges ,W.B. Yeats , John Masefield
• Both physical and spiritual kinds of love are
mentioned in modern poetry 8- Love for nature
The poets loved nature. But they did not
spiritualize Nature like Wordsworth. they present Nature realistically and precisely. 9- humanitarian spirit
• Modern poets love not only Nature but also the
creatures who live in her lap. 10-Modern poetry also bears the metaphysical note
• Many modern poets have reflected
intellectual qualities of the metaphysical poets.
• Eliot -> has done much to revive
metaphysical elements. 11- Complexity and psychological element • The leading qualities of modern poetry
• The revolt against the plain writing of earlier period
was under- taken by Eliot and Ezra Pound. • Allusions, symbols, images, abrupt contrasts, elimination of conjunctive phrases etc. have made modern poetry complex. • Psychological factors (Interior monologue) used as a medium of expression. • inspired by Psychologists like Freud and Jung. 12- different style and diction
• Poets were experimenting with new verse -
forms and poetic techniques • The language of poetry resembles common speech. End of the slides