Lecture One Objectives: 1- Giving the students an idea about the features of Modern period in English Literature. Assignment: Write in a paragraph form of more than 15 lines, about the features of Modernism in English Literature. Characteristics of Modern Novels Link: http://www.online-literature.com/periods/modernism.php

Characteristics of Modern Novels

Nineteenth century novel was actually romantic in tone, although it was realistic in subject-matter. However, later modern novelists from about 1889 onward, started to treat realistic themes realistically. 3

In other words, modern writers and novelists started to see life's issues as they truly are; with their ugliness and sadness. They started to follow the approach of seeing the ugliness of life steadily and for granted. In his book History of English Literature, N. Jayapalan states that 4

This atmosphere of perplexity, confusion and anxiety has been further accentuated by the long strides forward that the study of psychology has taken since the times of Freud. Freud emphasized the power of unconscious to affect conduct. 5

Intellectual conviction, he pointed out were rationalizations of emotional needs. Human beings are not so rational as they are supposed to be, their conduct is not guided and controlled by the conscious…in this was a new dimension has been added to the assessment of human behavior and more emphasis is being laid on the study of unconscious." (305) 6

Applying this to 20th century novelists, the study of both conscious and unconscious is becoming the prominent approach in Modern Literature. Novelists started to approach new areas and concepts in human life that were considered taboos before. 7

Virginia Woolf's adoption of the stream of consciousness technique enabled her to probe deep into hidden thoughts in human brain, tackling the theme of death from a new perspective that is uncommon even to her modern readers. 8

Again Aldous Huxley started to trod on the un-trodden ways of the process of human creation and formation. His exotic theory of creation and human destiny has led to a sensation that is becoming accepted and welcomed for readers and critics. 9

Literacy has become more common and consequently books and magazines became cheaper and more available, as education has become something essential in modern age. Yet the content of such books and magazines became less in quality. 10

People started to forsake their old culture, which was the only source for ethics and morals; they started, however, to succumb to cinema, T.V., and radio. This helped greatly in spreading a new type of literature that is full of crime, love stories, and also taboos. 11

Modern novel has become now of a new nature; that is a world of fantasy, yet in a real dress. Novelists started to pour their imagination in their novels, however, in a realistic manner so as to appeal to their readers. As a result, modern novel has gained a great popularity, variety and complexity. No theme or subject is impossible to be written or tackled in a modern novel. 12

Moreover, innovators like Virginia Woolf and Aldous Huxley have revolutionized the technique of the novel with their new perspectives; using the stream of consciousness, and dealing with taboos. Thus modern novel is a collection of both sides of human life; the beautiful and the ugly; it is not only a one-sided life. It is the novel of questions with no answers. Interrogation is a theme in itself. 13

Questions of human existence, human creation, human destiny, after-death life, inner feelings of other people, and the existence of God, are becoming common themes for the modern novel. 14

There is a new breach between science and religion There is a new breach between science and religion. Man becomes confused; he is captured in two worlds, the old one of religion and traditions, and the new modern one of capitalism and skepticism. 15

Modern novel presents those doubts of human beings, and also the struggle inside the hearts and minds of common people in a realistic frank manner, without any divine religious restrictions. Hence modern novels are somehow pessimistic in tone and atmosphere. 16

Virginia Woolf, as a modern novelist, deals with human life as a series of separate independent moments, not a continuous flow. That's why she concentrates on particular moments in the minds of her characters and tries to freeze such moments through associating these abstract moments and experiences, with a psychological significance, 17

to a tactile touchable matter, like the lighthouse, for instance to a tactile touchable matter, like the lighthouse, for instance. Probing deep into the human consciousness helps her to move freely backward and forward, choosing the intended experience and impression, to focus on and gratify. 18

Another distinctive feature of modern novel is the absence of a specific living hero. To clarify, Woolf is able through memory, retrospection and stream of consciousness, to enliven her dead heroine Mrs. Ramsay. 19

It is through the psychoanalysis that a hero and a heroine can be immortal in the minds of the surrounding characters and also readers. Aldous Huxley can also build his whole novel, Brave New World, on no specific hero or heroine; he can rather build his scientific theory on unseen unborn embryos. 20

Freud's discovery that a human being has many layers of consciousness, buried under the conscious, enabled modern writers to initiate endless series of stories, feelings, recollections, and thoughts which occur to human beings, as a reflection of their unconscious experiences and situations in a complex modern life. 21