The Twentieth Century

1
The Twentieth Century
2
The End of the Victorian Period

• Political and social events during the early 20th
  century altered Britains eminent position as a
  world power
• Major colonies gained their independence from
  Britain
• Britain experienced vast social reforms
• Rise in literacy, influence of the Labour party,
  interest in socialist ideology

3
Darwin Undermining Victorian Ideas

• Charles Darwins Origin of the Species (1859)
• Theory of evolution based on natural selection
  tension with Biblical ideas
• Extended to Social Darwinism the notion that in
  society, only the fittest should survive and
  flourish
• Used to justify unrestricted competition, rigid
  class distinctions, indifference to social
  problems, even doctrines of racial superiority

4
Marx Undermining Victorian Ideas

• Karl Marx German philosopher and political
  economist, wrote Das Kapital (1867)
• Advocated the abolition of private property
• Traced economic injustice to the capitalist
  system of ownership and argued that workers
  should own the means of production
• Revolutionized political thought and eventually
  led to sweeping changes in many governments and
  economic systems

5
Freud Undermining Victorian Ideas

• Sigmund Freud Interpretation of Dreams (1900)
  and many later works
• Finds motives for human behavior not in rational,
  conscious minds (Victorian focus), but in
  irrational and sexually driven realm of the
  unconscious
• Conservative Victorians outraged artists and
  writers fascinated
• Works of these thinkers undermined political,
  religious, and psychological assumptions that had
  served as the foundation for British society for
  generations.

6
The Great War A War to End All Wars

• 1914 Britain, France, and Russia (bound by
  treaty) locked in opposition to Germany and
  Austria-Hungary
• All of Europe plunged into war over the
  assassination of one man
• British Patriotism young men crowded to enlist
• 60,000 killed or wounded on the first day of the
  Battle of the Somme alone 300,000 killed,
  wounded, or frozen to death at Ypres
• Over 4 years, an entire generation of Englands
  best and brightest fed the furnace of war
• Armistice in 1918 but new cynicism arose
• Old values of national honor and glory had
  endorsed a war that weakened the economy, injured
  the empire, and killed as many as a plague would
• Out of this disillusionment came pessimism about
  the state and the individuals relationship to
  society.

7
Experimentation in the Arts Shocking in Form
and Content

• Transformation in Arts from Europe
• Henri Matisse bold new use of line and color
• Pablo Picasso cubism
• John Millington Synge play where hero claimed
  to have murdered his father (caused a riot at
  première)
• Igor Stravinskys Rite of Spring strong,
  primitive (sexual) rhythms and dissonant
  harmonies (also caused a riot at première)
• James Joyce Dubliners
• All challenged traditional values of beauty and
  order and opened new avenues of expression

8
Experimentation in the Arts Shocking in Form
and Content

• Move from a concern with society to a focus on
  introspection
• Experimentation with novelistic structure,
  chronology, and point of view (examine shifts of
  mood and impressions)
• D.H. Lawrence
• Resentment against British class system,
  industrialism, militarism, prudery
• Shocked British with glorification of the senses
  and heated descriptions of relations between the
  sexes

9
The Rise of Dictatorships Origins of World War
II

• Fallout from World War I
• Worldwide economic depression, fostered rise of
  dictators in Germany (Hitler), Italy (Mussolini),
  and Russia (Lenin, then Stalin)
• Italy and Germany fascist, Russia communist
• Adolf Hitler and Nazi party convinced Germans
  that problems were caused by Jews, Communists,
  and immigrants
• Stalin ruled with iron fist, 15 million sent to
  gulag, system of forced-labor and detention
  camps.

10
The Rise of Dictatorships Origins of World War
II

• By 1939, Nazis sweeping through Europe
  Holocaust
• After defeating France, moved towards Britain
• British fought, with aid of Soviet Union and
  United States Germanys defeat inevitable
• Atomic bomb on Hiroshima ends the war horror
• Much of the literature following the Second World
  War was dark and pessimistic.

11
Britain After World War II The Sun Sets on the
Empire

• After the war, the Labour party defeated the
  Conservative party, and Britain was transformed
  into a welfare state, with the government
  providing medical care and other basic benefits
• Most of Britains colonies gained independence,
  so sun set on the empire.
• Britains role in world affairs decreased.

12
British Writing Today A Remarkable Diversity

• Angry Young Men new group after WW II
• Criticized pretentions of intellectuals and bland
  lives of the newly prosperous middle class
• Since the 1960s, much diversity (though British
  still excel at satire)
• Growing eminence of writers from former British
  Empire, shows dominance of English language
• Caribbean, Africa, India, etc.

13
World Literature Writing from Afar Near at Hand

• Technological innovations have made communication
  and ideas more portable than ever
• Translations of international works
• New subject matter to consider -
• World-scale political concerns
• Problems of personal identity and effects of
  cultural domination
• Struggles for existence
• British literature joins world literature in our
  new translational world.