The literary trends of the Modern Age started changing after 1939 “when the Second World War devastated the social values. After 1939 the new trends in English literature came to light. The writers of the age continued the experimentation of the modernist writers but at the same time reacted against many of the ideas implicit in modernist literature. Moreover, these writers kept on changing their theories of art. Consequently, it has become very difficult to specify the exact characteristics of Post-modern literature. It is believed that the Post-modern age has not yet ended.
Table of Contents
The important facts which influenced the literature of this period are:
- United Nations was formed.
- The principles of the Enlightenment disappeared.
- Westerners’ belief in progress and purity of knowledge ended.
- Michael Graves and Philip Johnson, two postmodern architects, stopped using geometric shapes of Modernist architecture and brought historical styles into buildings.
- Andy Warhol ended the differences between the high-brow and low-brow in Pop Art.
- Most of the colonies became independent.
- Universities became the sources of philosophical and literary theories.
- Jacques, Derrida Michel Foucault, and Richard Rorty established the fact that philosophy should no longer seek truth, rather they should concentrate on discussing the various interpretations of reality.
- Christian faith has lost its hold on life and society.
- Belief in man’s goodness has decreased.
- Globalization and Information Technology have grown rapidly.
- There has been a boom in publishing technologies.
- The cold war and its end left deep impacts on world politics.
- Germany was divided and united.
- Radio and TV have played important roles in shaping life.
Major Writers of the Period and Their Major Works:
Henry Miller (1891-1980):
The Rosy Crucifixion (1949-59), a trilogy
John Steinbeck (1902-68):
The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
East of Eden (1952)
George Orwell (1903-50):
* His real name is Eric Arthur Blair.
Animal Farm (1945)
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
Graham Greene (1904-91):
The Heart of the Matter (1948)
The End of the Affair (1951)
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (1905-1980):
* He was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, and political activist. He was one of the exponents of the philosophy of existentialism and phenomenology.
Nausea (1938)
Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological
Ontology (1943)
No Exit (1944)
The Roads to Freedom (1949)
R. K. Narayan (1906-2001):
His full name is Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami.
The Dark Room (1938)
The Financial Expert (1952)
The Guide (1958)
A Tiger for Malgudi (1983)
(The last three are published in the Post-modem age.)
Samuel Beckett (1906-89), a French dramatist:
Waiting for Godot (1952)
Endgame (1955)
Happy Days (1661)
Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973):
The Age of Anxiety (1948)
William Gerald Golding (1911-93), a novelist:
Lord of the Flies (1954)
The Scorpion God (1971)
Albert Camus (1913-1960):
The Outsider or The Stranger (1942)
“The Myth of Sisyphus” (Le Mythe de Sisyphe, 1942)
The Plague (1947)
Dylan Marlais Thomas (1914-53):
The Map of Love (1939)
Deaths and Entrances (1946)
Under Milk Wood (1954)
Arthur Asher Miller (1915-2005):
Death of a Salesman (1949)
After the Fall (1964)
The Price (1968)
Saul Bellow (1915-2005):
The Adventures of Augie March (1953)
Seize the Day (1956)
Jerome David Salinger (1919-2010):
The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
Franny and Zooey (1961)
Doris May Lessing (1919- 2013):
The Grass Is Singing (1950)
The Golden Notebook (1962)
Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)
The Good Terrorist (1985)
Philip Larkin (1922-1985):
The Less Deceived (1955)
The Whitsun Weddings (1964)
High Windows (1974)
Joseph Heller (1923-1999):
Catch-22 (1961)
John James Osborne (1929-94):
Look Back in Anger (1956)
Epitaph for George Dillon (1957)
The Entertainer (1957)
Ted Hughes (1930-1998):
The Hawk in the Rain (1957)
Crow (1970)
Harold Pinter (1930-2008):
The Birthday Party (1958)
The Care Taker (1960)
The Homecoming (1965)
John Simmons Barth (1930…):
Giles Coat-Boy (1966)
The Sot-Weed Factor (1960)
Sabbatical (1982)
Derek Alton Walcott (1930…):
Dream on Monkey Mountain (1967)
Omeros (1990)
Chinua Achebe (1930-2013):
His full name is Albert Chinualumogu Achebe.
Things Fall Apart (1958)
No Longer at Ease (1960)
Arrow of God (1964)
A Man of the People (1966)
Toni Morrison (1931…):
The Bluest Eye (1970)
Beloved (1987)
Sylvia Plath (1932-63):
The Colossus (1960)
Crossing the Water (1971)
John Hoyer Updike (1932-2009):
Rabbit, Run (1960)
Couples (1968)
Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (1932…):
A House of Mr Biswas (1961)
Wole Soyinka (1934…):
The Lion and the Jewel (1959)
The Interpreters (1965)
Idanre and Other Poems (1967)
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon (1937…):
The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)
Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)
Mason & Dixon (1997)
Seamus Justin Heaney (1939-2013):
Selected Poems 1966-1987 (1990)
Preoccupations (1980)
Ahmed Salman Rushdie (1947 …):
Midnight’s Children (1981)
Shame (1983)
The Satanic Verses (1988)
Main Literary Features of the Age:
- Literary voices from across the globe—Canada, New Zealand, India, the Caribbean, and Africa—appear in English so profusely that “English literature” seems to be “literature in English”.
- ‘Angry young man” has remained a recurrent theme for years.
- Social realism dominates creativity for decades.
- After 1950 some novelists shift their interest from realistic problems to entertaining subjects. Science fiction and thriller became more popular.
- Post-modern dramas deal with the absurdity of human existence and reveal the “nothingness” or “meaninglessness” of human efforts.
- Literary criticism has become theory-based.
- Mass Media have become an inseparable part of literary propaganda.
- Creative writings cross national boundaries in a way they never did before.
- No philosophical theory runs for a long time.
- Forms and techniques frequently change throughout the period.
- Formlessness in art replaces whatever residues of harmony and organic form remained of the previous age.
- Mixed genres, fragments in texts, and collages have come into practice.
- Diaspora writings occupy a large chunk of literary production.
- A huge number of post-colonial texts appear.
- Awareness of cultural exploitation grows.
- Gender issues find a stronger voice.
- Themes of restlessness and “free of forms” characterize poetry.
- Elitists’ language is absent.
- A wide spectrum of social issues finds a place.
- Several contradictions prevail throughout the age.
The Rulers of England/UK:
- The Norman Kings
- William I (1066-87)
- William II (1087-1100)
- Henry I (1100-35)
- Stephen (1135-54)
- Plantagenet Kings
- Henry Il of Anjou (1154-89)
- Richard I (1189-99)
- John (1199-1216)
- Henry III (1216-72)
- Edward I (1272-1307)
- Edward II (1307-27)
- Edward III (1327-77)
- Richard II (1377-99)
- The House of Lancaster
- Henry IV (1399-1313)
- Henry V (1413-22)
- Henry VI (1422-61)
- The House of York
- Edward IV (1461-83)
- Edward V (1483)
- Richard III (1483-5)
- The Tudor Dynasty
- Henry VII (1485-1509)
- Henry VIII (1509-47)
- Edward VI (1547-53)
- Mary (1553-58)
- Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
- The Stuart Dynasty
- James 1 (1603-25)
- Charles I (1625-49)
[Commonwealth and the Protectorate (1649-60)] - Charles II (1660-85)
- James II (1685-1688)
- William III and Mary (1689-1702)
- Anne (1702-14)
- The House of Hanover
- George 1 (1714-27)
- George Il (1727-60)
- George III (1760-1820)
- George IV (1820-30)
- William IV (1831-37)
- Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
- Edward VII (1901-10)
- George V (1910-36)
- Edward VIII (1936)
- George VI (1936-52)
- Elizabeth II (1952…)