Post-War Literature

Literature of the 40s,50s and 60s Angry Young Men Theatre of the Absurd Postmodern literature

Late 40s and early 50s (writers of the pre- and post-war fiction): George Orwell ( ) (Eric Arthur Blair) Born in Bengal Educated at Eton Served in Indian Imperial Police in Burma

Burmese Days (1934) Homage to Catalonia (1938) Animal Farm (1945) Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)

Democratic socialist, deeply disillusioned with Communism Animal Farm: Discussion with equality: ”all animals are created equal but some are more equal than others”

1984 totalitarianism, Big Brother, the Thought Police, newspeak Society dominated by slogans: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery

Both 1984 and Animal Farm belong to non-realistic novel

Fantasy: post-war fantasy literature is interested in alternative worlds, magic John Ronald Reuel Tolkien ( ) Trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) The Two Towers (1954) The Return of the King (1955)

Working-class novel: Alan Sillitoe (b. 1928) Philosophical novel: Iris Murdoch ( ) Under the Net, The Unicorn (a parody of the 18th century Gothic novel), The Green Knight

William Golding ( ) Lord of the Flies (1954) Innate human aggression, evil, and violence appear especially in extreme situations

Doris Lessing (b. 1919) Born in Persia, brought up in South Rhodesia and in 1949 came to England 2007 Nobel Prize

Anti-rascist, psychological, femnist, experimental, sci-fi E.g. A Briefing for a Decsent into Hell (1971) Love, Again (1996) The Sweetest Dream (2001)

Laurence Durrell ( ) Alexandria Quartet ( ) the same events narrated from different points of view (the titles of the separate parts indicate it: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea Love, sex, romance, quite scandalous

Samuel Beckett ( ) Irish, self-imposed exile to France Writing in French – discipline Friend and secretary to Joyce Nobel Prize 1969

Anti-novels – the new novel – nouveau roman Against traditional realism Subjective, authorial point of view Murphy Molloy Malone Dies

Experimental novel – novel of the 60s Originated with Beckett Inspired by John Barth (an American critic and writer) ”Literature of Exhaustion” 1967 – v. important – the beginning of postmodernism

John Fowles (b. 1926) The Maggot The Collector The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969)

Postmodern fiction Intertextuality – Julia Kristeva End of omniscient narrator Play with the reader

Theoretical study of the novel Victorian archetype Historiograpfic metafiction – Linda Hutcheon

Campus novel Malcolm Bradbury ( ) David Lodge (b. 1935) Small World

Drama

The Angry Young Men English society as hypocritical Working class and lower middle class Domestic realism Kitchen sink drama

John Osborne ( ) Look Back in Anger 1956 Jimmy, a university graduate, sweet stall, wife- upper class – frustration, eruption of frustrations, psychological abuse of his wife Shelagh Delaney (b. 1939) kitchen sink realism A Taste of Honey 1958

The Theatre of the Absurd Martin Esslin 1961 Samuel Beckett Waiting for Godot Fr. 1953, Eng. 1955

Stream of consciousness Circular time No God/ pessimistic vision of God Immobility Metaphysical despair and inertia Lack of communication Cogito ergo sum replaced by Dico ergo sum

Deterioration of civilization Language games Contemporary human being (devoid of dreams, memory) Everyman

Theater of menace /comedy of menace Harold Pinter ( ) Nobel Prize 2005 Menace Unknown danger Human isolation Terror The Dumb Waiter (1957) The Birthday Party (1958)

In-Yer-Face Theatre Aggressive, provocative Sarah Kane ( ) 4.48 Psychosis

Other important contemporary writers: Angela Carter Julian Barnes Graham Swift Jeanette Winterson Salman Rushdie A.S. Byatt