1. THE MODERN AGE 1890-1930 Cultural, political, economical and historical background. New dramatic novel

2. Historical background Economic depression in the 1870’s and 1880’s had caused serious unemployment By 1890 modernization brought to Europe an atmosphere of tension 1914-1918: World War One Great Britain is not anymore the only economic power, USA, Japan and Russia have developed industrialization 1917 Lenin and the Bolshevik party took control of the Russian state in the name of the Russian working class 1929 : The Wall Street Crash, signaled the beginning of the 10-year Great Depression

3. Economy and policy People lost believes in democracy, capitalism and the Victorian idea of progress. People don’t believe anymore in the “laissez-faire” doctrine. Government introduced trade unions, national insurance for old- age pensions, unemployment pay and medical treatment Marxism offered an optimistic secure view of the future. People have to fight the inflation of the market. Many states create alliances with other countries.

4. Morality and religion There are no more true values, man are completely lost. Fear of living a life without a meaning and without God. People experienced sense of man’s isolation and of his spiritual vulnerability. The only sure point of reference that any individual had was himself

5. Poets and writers Writers left their characters to speak for themselves, to present their own version of reality. T. Hardy and J. Conrad wrote about the difficulty of being alive V. Woolf, D. H. Lawrence and E. M. Forster advocated the need for altruism and compassion between man. Hilaire Belloc, G. K. Chesterton and T. S. Eliot decided to ignore their rational doubts and became Christians. G. B. Show and H. G. Wells found purpose and direction in trying to improve society and dedicated themselves to social reform. Moral criticism and humorous observation are completely absent

6. New scientific and psychological discoveries Euclidean geometry and Newtonian physics - the very basis of traditional science - were shown to rest on false assumptions. 1906 Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity According to Bergson past and future (as memory and anticipation) exist together with the present in people’s mind. Interpretation of dreams: Freud thought that people are motivated by their instincts (Id) and controlled by their social conditioning Carl Jung: man’s life operated on symbolic levels.

7. Writers and Poets The Symbolist poets influenced the writers of the Aesthetic Movement. English poetry was still sentimental, elegiac and often pastoral. Edward Thomas,Walter De La Mare and A. E. Housman expressed instead a regret for a world which would not return. T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound produced a new form of poetry. Hulme condemned the Romantic idea that art was only a matter of self- expression on the part of the artist: he believed it should be impersonal in the way that Neo-Classicism had been.

8. The Imagists wanted poetic language to be dry and hard, with clear and precise images. They tried to produce poetry which reflected the cold, mechanical reality of the modern world Both W. B. Yeats and D. H. Hulme were desperately looking for a new order that they felt Western society so desperately needed.

9. New Dramatic Novel The narrator is always there, but he is invisible. Characters tell and represents the story. The reader has the task to discover the meaning and the judgment is left to him. Aesthetic values have taken the place of moral values in modern novelists. The author turns inside people’s consciences to explore the flux of his mental experience The interior monologue appears where there is no perception for logical connection. The rider identifies himself with the characters.