20世纪英国文学

Angry Young Men
• During the fifties there appeared a group of young writers who were fiercely critical of the established order. They were called “Angry Young Men”, a term taken from John Osborne’s play Look Back in Anger, which first appeared in 1956.
Literary Traits in 20th Century: Modernism P282 L
• Modernism is a rather vague term which is used to the works of a group of poets, novelists, painters, and musicians between 1910 and the early years after the WWII.
The characteristic of modernist writings P283
• Complexity and obscurity • The use of symbols • Allusions • Irony
The Twentieth Century
• Modernism • Angry Young Men • The Theatre of the Absurd
• The term includes various trends or schools, such as imagism, expressionism, dadaism, stream of consciousness, and existentialism.
• It means a departure from the conventional criteria or established values of the Victorian age.
二十世纪文学
The Twentieth Century Literature
Background
• Historical background:
• Two World Wars
• Intellectual background:
• Freud’s psychoanalysis • Darwin’s social evolution
• The absurdity of human conditions is the main theme of the plays of the school of the theatre of the absurd. P329
Literature in This Period
Generally speaking, we call literature in 20th century Modernism as a summary to all kinds of literary genres. However, Modernism itself is a movement both wide and deep and extending into all the forms of literature and art. Because of its very complexity, it is difficult to define precisely, but both the modernist writers themselves and subsequent critical appraisals agree that it involved a radical and deliberate break not only with traditional forms of art but with traditional aesthetLeabharlann Baiduc principles reaching back to Aristotle that had formed the bedrock of western culture.
• The writers belonging to this group are Kingsley Amis, John Wain, etc. Most of them came from working class families and lower middle families.
• They wrote about the ugliness and sordidness of life and exposed the hypocrisy of the genteel class.
The Theatre of the Absurd
• The Theatre of the Absurd is a term applied to a group of dramatists who were active in the 50’s.
• The term “Theatre of the Absurd” was coined by Martin Esslin in his 1962 book by that title. It refers to the work of a loosely associated group of dramatists who first emerged during and after World War II. (Samuel Beckett)
Basic themes of modernism
• Alienation and loneliness are the basic themes of modernism.
• Although modern society is materially rich, it is spiritually barren. It is a land of spiritual and emotional sterility. (WL )