LITERATURE IN THE U.K.

• Old English literature :

Old English = Anglo-Saxon language spoken before the Normans introduced French.

Literature then reflected a code of heroism which prevailed among Germanic tribes. First Old
English literature = oral poetry, inspired by the liturgy of the Church (ballads, laments, elegies…)

Beowulf (anonymous):
Found at the end of the 10th century, probably composed two centuries before.
A long epic poem set among the Danes.
Beowulf prince of the Geats fight with Grendel, a monster which strikes terror in the kingdom.
He epitomizes the perfect ruler, he is wise, honourable, has courage, protects his people…
The poem is a didactic poem, it is an allegory of the fight between good and evil.

* Aliteration
* Each line contains two stressed lines
* Kennings (figurative phrases used as synonyms for simple nouns)
• Middle-English literature (1066-1500):

Latin, French and English (due to the Norman conquest) — English had then undergone
profound changed after the conquest, enriched with thousands of French words (+Latin origins
too, especially in longer, more intellectual words vs. harsher, shorter words originating from Saxon
words).

Literature then reflected a code of chivalry (a code of conduct and honour in the service of God
and the King), romances became fashionable (inspired by Arthur and the Round Table or the
French Chanson de Roland). Arthurian legends = the basis for the oldest prose narrative in
English.

PROSE-VERSE
Le Morte Darthur (by Thomas Malory — 1470)
Glorifies chivalric virtues and relates the events leading to Arthur’s death.

The Canterbury Tales (by Geoffrey Chaucer — 1392)

Succession of stories told by several characters for various social backgrounds during their
pilgrimage to Canterbury. A microcosm of society (a knight, a cook, a nun, a merchant, a miller, a
physician…)
Different genres in the tales: romance, sermon, fantastic tales…
Not necessarily the pilgrims’ own stories but reflect their virtues. The tales explore human nature.
Use of the London dialect = helping to establish it as the precursor of modern standard English.

DRAMA
The Catholic Church game rise to drama in medieval times.
- Mystery plays: religious plays, performed in vernacular,, outdoors, fur church festivals,
dramatist Biblical stories (birth of the Christ for instance).
- Morality plays: didactic plays, showed good and evil fighting for the soul fo a single character
(representing Mankind). Ellegorical characters such as Strenghth, Beauty, Vice or Death were
used.

Everyman (anonymous — 1495)

Everyman represents all mankind, he is summoned by Death during this final judgement, and
discovers that only Good Deeds will accompany him (not his other virtues).
• The Renaissance I: Jacobean and Tudor literature (1509-1625)

Historical context: The Reformation — Henry VIII (Catholic) breaks with Rome and proclaims
himself Head of the English Church (Church of England). The years that followed =
Protestantism imposed by Edward VI, then Catholicism by Mary. Elizabeth I introduced a
compromise between the two = stability restored.
Economic transition = from feudalism to private ownership.
The reign of Henry VIII was culturally rich — learning was encouraged, the court became a
centre of artistic production (painters from abroad were invited to England)

the Bible (in 1611)

Important because with its simple poetic diction and balanced syntax, it became widely used and
its language had a lasting influence upon English literature.

Utopia (by Thomas More — 1551)

Criticism of self-interest, failing justice, and of the system of enclosures in England (division/
consolidation of communal fields).
But the narrator’s name means « knowing is nonsense » = difficult to know if the text is to be taken
entirely seriously especially knowing that some of the practices described would not have been
accepted by More (divorce for instance). Irony.

UTOPIAS DYSTOPIAS

F. Bacon — ‘New Atlantis’ (1629) A. Huxley — ‘Brave New World’ (1932)

J. Swift — the land of the Houyhnhnms in ‘Gulliver’s G. Orwell — ‘1984’

Travels’ (1726)

E. Bellamy — ‘Looking Backward 2000-1887’ (1888) M. Atwood — ‘A Handmaid’s Tale’ (1985)

W. Morris — ‘News From Nowhere’ (1891)

Elizabethan age: rise of nationalism, new established religion (Anglicanism), ongoing war with
Spain, tensions, anxieties (religious). Elizabeth had no heir, new tensions, fear of English throne's
claims, rebellion in England = need for a strong authoritative government, an idea echoed in
Shakespeare’s ‘King Lea’ for instance.
BUT — belief in man’s capacity to improve himself, new discoveries (East and West Indies),
beginning of experimental science, new pride, ambition.
However literature tended to perpetuate the older order of things where the earth was at the
center of the universe (The Great Chain of Being — The Theory of Humours — parallelism
between macrocosm (the universe) and the microcosm (man), and between the universe and
the body politic (bad ruling associated with storms etc, hence the presence of metaphorical
language in both poetry and drama, cf. Shakespeare)) but such beliefs were starting to be
questioned by humanism.

POETRY
Proliferation of lyric forms from the second half of the 16th century, some traditional one (epic,
pastoral, allegorical, satirical poems) and some innovative ones: use of blank verse (no rhyme,
usually ten syllables in one line) and the sonnet (fourteen line poem with a fixed rhyme scheme.
Often use iambic pentameter, initiated first from Petrarch, by Sir Thomas Wyatt — usually stage a
problem, a question and then a resolution).

Astrophel and Stella (by Sir Philip Sidney in 1580)

Sonnet describing the poet’s emotions and his unreturned love.
Shakespeare’s sonnets: more complex, they study the changing of relationship between
characters.
The Fearie Queen (by E. Spencer in 1590-96)
A chivalric romance — set of books, each book relates an exploit by a knight embodying of the
the cardinal virtues. Glorianna, the Fearie Queen, stands for Elizabeth I, whose court is compared
to that of King Arthur. The allegory is political, but also moral and religious (the poem defends
protestantism).
It celebrate British past and the contemporary national power.
Ben Jonson — poet of the time who did not write about love or religion but more about, social
issues (satire). His poetry is full of caricatures, humour,, hypocrisy…

DRAMA
The theatre (previously taking the form of Morality and Mystery plays in medieval England)
increased its popularity during Elizabeth I’s and James I’s reign. WHY ⇣
- Reading was still restricted to a number of educated people.
- Increasing number of need for entertainment and instruction.
- No more mystery plays, secular plays increased.

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (by Marlowe in 1588)

Typical of the Renaissance: the hero sells his soul to the devil, his resistance become heroic, he
then attempts to transgress the divine order and take his destiny into his hands = birth of
tragedy.

William Shakespeare: why so popular? ⇣

- Universal political questions in his plays
- Large variety of characters
- Combine comedy and tragedy — he did not follow the classical division into comedy or
tragedy.
- Show conflicting views (politically) — large range of reactions and interpretations.
- Complex characters, fascinating tormented individuals.
- Understandable. His dense metaphorical language is both concrete and symbolic = enjoyed at
different levels.

* INTERLUDES: paved the way for secular drama, short pays performed indoors in private home,
giving more depth to characters.

* REVENGE TRAGEDIES: revenge, ghosts, melodramatic events. Pessimistic and violent led to
the closure of theaters in 1642.
The Jew of Malta (by Marlowe)
Titus Andronicus + Hamlet (by Shakespeare)

* HISTORY PLAYS: (++ Shakespeare) they glorify the past and examine the virtues and qualities
that make good leaders, the weakness and opportunism that can endanger a kingdom,
 metaphysical issues about a sovereign’s responsibility. Usually tackle the issue of rebellion
against the King/Queen (Shakespeare usually against and gives argumentation in his plays).

* COMEDIES: Usually treat of love in a spirit of merriment and playfulness. Confusion created by
disguise, mistaken identity, mistakes rectified, plays end in marriage. Also contain jesting
(plaisenterie) and rowdiness (chahut, bagarre). Theatrical illusion and self-deception are major
themes: characters usually grow to know themselves.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, or darker comedies like Measure
for Measure or The Marchant of Venice all by Shakespeare.

* TRAGEDIES: Moe sombre mood, anxiety, doubts, questionings, common metaphor of the
world = the stage and men = mere players. The Shakespearian hero is the victim of a « tragic
flaw » resulting in a chain of catastrophes (human and cosmic universe paralleled).
Macbeth (by Shakespeare)
Dark, violent tragedy in which an honorable general gradually becomes a villain. The play is:
- A psychological exploration of guilt and doubt
- A political play play about rebellion against a good king
- A study of evil

* ROMANCES: Some of Shakespeare’s plays (especially his last plays) share a strain of sadness
but are less sombre and end happily (The Winter’s Tale for instance, it is a tragicomedy).
Themes of reconciliation, forgiveness, the righting of wrongs etc… Pastoral and exotic settings,
atmosphere of a fairy tale, miraculous happenings… Love is a central element which mends the
corruption and evil of civilization. Music, the sea (a way to divide AND restore… = romantic
elements).

The Tempest (by Shakespeare)

Both a romantic comedy and tragicomedy, the play focuses on Renaissance themes such as
power, utopia, and colonialism (with the character of Caliban who is both savage and capable of
poetry). The play is also about power-struggles and conspiracies and the fact that a good prince
should not abandon his duties to get lost in his books and magic. Prospero’s abandoning of magic
at the end can both be seen as reasoning and also as the end of the age of magic, as Renaissance
going under the pressure of puritanism.

PROSE
Two contrasting styles at that time:
- Ciceronian style: balanced, ornate, affected, with parallelisms and antithesis. Often excessive.
- Senecan prose: livelier, with shorter, aphoristic (concise) sentences.
Essays (by F. Bacon in 1597)
They cover many interests (politics, ethics, history, science, philosophy…) They reflect a
questioning mind, typical of the Renaissance.
• The Renaissance II (1625-1660)

Conflicts between the King and Parliament.

Anglicanism (Royalists, Cavaliers) vs. Puritanism (Puritans, Roundheads) — Civil War.
Country eager for peace and order.
Main concerns in literature : religion and politics of course.
Birth of the Baroque (architecture, poetry, use of trompe l’oeil…)

POETRY:
Most works contain formal features despite religious and political views: vitality, inventiveness,
daring wit, erotic and divine.

* Cavalier poets:
- Supporters of the King.
- Admirers of Ben Johnson, often called the ‘Sons of Ben’
Robert Herrick, Sir Richard Lovelace, John Suckling.

* Metaphysical poets:
- Not an established, organised school of poets.
- Often concerned with love, man’s place in the universe, his relationship with God.
- Often 1st person narrator.
- Poetry relying on reasoning, persuasion and often a strict logical development.
- Much imagery (cf. Renaissance sources of knowledge)
- Often colloquial language (familiar, ordinary)
- Use of wit, hyperbole and conceit (far fetched comparison between two things)

John Donne — Donne wrote a lot of sermons, impassioned love poems.

George Herbert — ‘Easter Wings’ (versification in the shape of wings) — doubt, faith,
acceptance and rebellion were some of his favorite themes.
Andrew Marvell — pastoral love poems, as well as political poems, elegant and reflective
poetry. (cf. ‘To His Coy Mistress’ carpe diem theme vs. mortality)
cf.. Sermons, visual poetry, emblems…

‘Paradise Lost’ (by John Milton (puritan and humanist), 1667) — (++) famous.
Long epic poem relating Satan’s rebellion, God’s creation of the world. Adam and Eve’s fall,
redemption through Christ. Main aim = justify the ways of God to man. Epic because = chaotic,
cosmic setting, references to Homer, tragic hero (but who? Still debated). Satan’s rebellion against
God = Cromwell’s against Charles I?

DRAMA
↘ of popularity, theaters became smaller, but some notable plays were written, revenge tragedies
became even more violent and Ben Jonson often showed stock characters (accepted by the
audience, need o further development from the writer). In 1642, theaters were closed by an Act of
Parliament.

PROSE
↗ reflective works such as autobiographies, diaries, conversation narratives — due to political
and religious conflict = need for justification of one’s spiritual journey.

The Pilgrim’s Progress (by John Bunyan)

Religious allegory, depicting ordinary people involved in situations which have moral value. First
steps towards the novel.
• The Restoration and the 18th century:
Also called the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment.

Revival of drama, poetry moved to clarity and balance, prose from satire to the novel.
No more civil war — only constitutional issues. (Protestantism vs. Catholicism)
Glorious Revolution (+) 1689 Bill of Rights (King rules with Parliament — Catholics excluded
from the Throne).
Whigs vs. Tories = generated vivid criticism and satire.
Economic prosperity (trade ++), rise of the middle class, consumer revolution.
Culture of politeness emerged.
Printing explosion, emergence of more readers (middle class) = rise of the novel.
But still widespread poverty and criminality.
Growing reaction to Puritan severity.

1st half of this period 2nd half of this period

From the age of reason and public concerns To the age of sensibility and private concerns

Balance, moderation, dignity in prose and verse. Growing interest in the natural world, poetry
exalting emotions ad melancholy.

Main aim of literature; amuse, advise, criticize Originality now prevailed over imitation.
hypocrisy and excesses

Use of satire, wit and irony to appeal to reason and Focus on the artist’s sensibility and inspiration
intellect. (nature and solitude)

Literary criticism emerged as a genre.

The Scriblerus Club (organised by J. Swift) — a club to satirize what authors saw as the
corruption of English society, false taste and literary incompetence. Did not last but reflected
the intellectual and rational tendencies which favored parody and satire (prose and poetry ++).

POETRY:
18th century poetry: considered neo-classical = respect for the Ancient + use of the heroic
couplet. Favorite form for satirists. (cf. mock heroic poems)

Alexander Pope (dominant figure of the age of satire and classicism)

‘The Dunciad’ = critique of mediocrity, pretentious scholars, and poor standards of education.

* Pre-romantic poetry:
Reaction against the excess of rationalism of the age of satire = focus on the poet’s own
experience and response to the beauty of nature. Growing interest in medieval verse, ballads,
and ancient poems. Shift to imagination, melancholy and introspection = the heroic couplet
gave way to blank verse, ballads and odes.

‘The Task’ (by William Cowper)

A spiritual autobiography to recommend rural ease and leisure after a London life.
DRAMA:
Theaters re-opened in 1660. Women could now act, plays were mainly for the upper-class,
theaters themselves had changed (enclosed). Plays had to respect Neo-classical rules: either
comic or tragic.
During the Restoration:
* Heroic tragedies: conflicts between love and honour or victims of fate.
* Restoration tragedies: More realistic and with respect of Neo-classical ideal of the three
unities.
* Comedies of manners: heir of Ben Jonson’s comedies of humours. Pleasure-seeking young
men are staged along with their quest for sex and money. All characters have names that reflect
their dominant traits. Full of trickery disguise, false marriages, all are witty and mock the
hypocrisy and current fashions of society.

SATIRIC PROSE AND FICTION:

‘Gulliver’s Travels’ (by J. Swift)

THE RISE OF THE NOVEL:

Spiritual autobiographies and travel writing paved the war for the appearance of the novel. The
novel also finds its origins in short stories. How can we explain its rise and popularity?
- Increase in literacy.
- More prosperous middle class.
- Nonreligious writing was no longer frowned upon.
- No more allegorical characters but realistic ones = democratization of literature.
- Growing interests in feelings = the novel was best suited to express the latter.
- Combination of entertainment and morality.
- It reflects empiricist search for truth.
- Easier to understand than poetry.

Daniel Defoe — wrote essays and pamphlets before turning to the novel. Wrote about
characters who struggle for survival in hard circumstances and progress through experience +
Puritan faith in hard-work and search for economic security and self-improvement. (cf. ’Moll
Flanders’) — ‘Robinson Crusoe’ is considered the first English novel.

S. Richardson — mainly focused on the epistolary form on the novel, revealing intimate
emotion and conveying verisimilitude. Various points of views possible. Paved the way for
sentimentality.

H. Fielding — favored picaresque novel writing, first aiming at parodying Richardson’s novel
‘Pamela’ which he considered dangerous for young women. Unlike Richardson, he favors
omniscience, authorial comments and interventions. Both serious and humorous tones.

A picaresque novel, is an early form of novel, usually a first-person narrative, relating the
adventures of a rogue or lowborn adventurer, as he drifts from place to place and from one
social milieu to another in his effort to survive.

Sentimental novels emerged, then gave way for the Gothic novel at the end of the century.

‘The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy' (by L. Sterne)

Precursor of the stream of consciousness — main aim is to reveal the richness of what goes on in
one’s mind, its random associations, thoughts constantly moving back and forth etc.
• The Romantic Age (1780-1830):

Reform movements
Innocence vs. Experience ; freedom vs. repression ; individual vs. social responsibility.
The Romantics = deeply affected by French Revolution (first enthusiastic then terrorized) (cf.
Wordsworth, T. Paine’s ‘Rights of Man’)
Time of emancipation and liberation movements (slavery, rights of women, working conditions,
fairer society…)
Deep social (+) economic changes — industrialization + exodus of rural laborers (=new
working class)
Leave the city to go back to nature (helping Man find himself in nature), celebration of
emotions vs. rational scientific reasoning.
Rebellion, escape — figures of rebels and outcasts: children, travelers, exoticism.
The irrational vs.the Supernatural.

POETRY
Scottish poets: Robert Burns — close to the animal world, wrote about agriculture life, defender
of the poor.
Walter Scott: wrote a lot about Border (Scottish Border) ballads, war and love landscapes.

William Blake — supported the French and American revolution (+) wrote a lot about angels
and biblical figures, in favour of imagination, rejected science and rational thinking. Used
children as a symbol of purity and innocence, and was against the subordination of women.
The Cult of Nature: first generation of Romantic poets.
Also called the ‘Lake Poets’ — W. Wordsworth (wrote about common life) and S. Coleridge
(about supernatural and ideal society, offers a darker vision of nature, a mor’ mysterious
approach). ‘The Lyrical Ballads’ by Wordsworth, about simple life in nature, go back to
elementary feelings.
The Rebels: second generation of Romantic poets. (they criticize the first generation)
Firm commitment in social and political reforms. (use of burlesque, satire, use of nature and travel
to denounce society’s vices etc). John Keats, Percy Shelley, George Byron.

DRAMA
The theatre remained popular but very few plays were written during that time. Revivals of
Shakespeare and Elizabethan plays.

PROSE AND NOVELS

The novel = most popular genre during this period.

* The Gothic novel:

Importance of feelings — the sublime causing awe but also terror. Strongest possible emotion
according to Edmund Burke. Such elements are to be found in the gothic genre, extremely
popular in the last two decades of the 18th century. They explore the terror of innocent and
helpless heroes who have been imprisoned by villains for their beauty or money. Setting
propitious for the hero to use imagination and terrors.
‘The Mysteries of Udolpho’ by Ann Radcliffe.
‘Northanger Abbey’ by Jane Austen. A satire of the genre.
The word « gothic » refers to Middle Age and Medieval settings (churches, castles, convents…)
Related to the beauty of terror. Also influences from novel of sensibility. The genre in the 18th
century: terror, horror etc. In the 19th century: more internalized fears with themes like alienation,
insanity, doubles… — ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ by R.L. Stevenson. ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by
Oscar Wilde or again ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stocker.
Why so popular? Either because after the French revolution, emotions needed to be heightened
or such literature provided an escape from social issues. Reaction against the constraints of
puritanism?
‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley — fear of rebellion, danger of progress, responsibility of the
creator.

* Essays:
Addition of topics such as ordinary life issues, about all classes of society, not just the middle
class.

Jane Austen — she studied human nature in her novels. Great insight and irony, satirizes
greed, hypocrisy, complacency and selfishness. Ranks love and goodness above social status.
1st use of the free indirect speech. Her novels were considered not romantic enough for the
time but gained popularity in the 20th century. (‘Pride and Prejudice’ ; ‘Emma’ ; ‘Sense and
Sensibility’)
• The Victorian Age (1830-1901):

Mechanical Age: rural world turned into something similar to our modern society. Time of
progress, new means of communication, optimism, confidence, imperialism (later criticized),
wealth, scientific discoveries, consumerism.
Rapid urbanisation leading to crowded living conditions, severe poverty, long working-hours.
Growing social awareness — workhouses, Poor Laws 1834, Reform Acts, Education Act, of
1870, Trade Unions legalized, growing feminist ideas due to the « Angel in the House » image
of women in society = led to the « New Woman » and the first Suffragette movements in the
last two decades.
Chartism: a working class movement, which emerged in 1836 and was most active between
1838 and 1848. The aim of the Chartists was to gain political rights and influence for the
working classes.
Religion also played a major role in accelerating social reforms — strong Evangelical
movements which campaigned for education, working conditions etc. They were criticized by
High Church figures who wished to go back to Rome and its traditions.
Victorian Age = religious period although religion was starting to be questioned in the second
part of the 19th century (cf. Darwin’s Origin of Species)
Utilitarianism (=an action is right if it results in the happiness of the greatest number of people
in a society or a group) and laissez-faire (=policy of leaving things to take their own course,
without interfering). Utilitarianism then paved the way for the self-help philosophy, implying that
the poor are poor because they refuse to work = they’re responsible.
Philistinism = the 'manners, habits, and character' of a person whose anti-intellectual social
attitude undervalues and despises art and beauty, spirituality and intellect.

Thomas Carlyle — criticized materialism and tried to sensitize his readers to the condition of
England, held the Mechanical Age resizable for gaps between the rich and the poor.

POETRY
Introspection and doubt often at the heart of Victorian poetry. Major Victorian concerns: love,
loss, faith, and doubt. Reflection upon the nature of reality/truth, the place of religion in a
scientific age, social issues, the function of the poet, beauty of the countryside…

‘The Cry of the Children’ — by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (social poem)

‘ Aurora Leigh’ — by same artist (epic poem about the emotional growth of a woman writer)
The Pre-Raphaelites — a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848,
their aim was to return to early Christian art, portraying noble and moral scenes.

DRAMA
The Theaters Act of 1843 made it possible for local authorities to authorize new theaters. Lighting,
machinery, elaborate costumes = realistic effect. Mainly: melodrama, farce, and pantomime. Social
satire, burlesque…

‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ (1895) — by Oscar Wilde.

A play about identity, a critique of all aspects of fashionable Victorian society and institutions
(marriage for instance, more about money than love and happiness), hypocrisy, class
consciousness, social codes. = satire.
The Aesthetic Movement of the 19th century argued that art should exist for art’s sake only. Oscar
Wilde was part of this movement and was an advocate for aestheticism.

NOVEL
Most popular genre.

* Romantic novels:
‘Jane Eyre’ by Charlotte Brontë
Love story (+) reflection on the condition of women, desire to define her eponymous character’s
identity and be independent. Colonial references also.

* ‘Condition of England’ novels:

Also called « industrial novels », they often engage with the social and political issues of the
1840s-1850s, often combining romantic and realistic trends, domestic love stories against the
backdrop of industrial Britain.

‘North and South’ by Elizabeth Gaskell.

‘Dombey And Son’ (+) ‘Hard Times’ by Charles Dickens.

* Social novels:
Charles Dickens: uses both tragedy and comedy to reflect Victorian society. First wrote
picaresque novels but then moved to a darker tone. Topics: cruelty to children, utilitarian system
of education creating monsters, human values, angelic women, devotion…
‘Vanity Fair’ by W. Thackeray
A vast panorama of society, compares the life of two women (one has beauty and wit the other
pureness and selflessness). The novel addresses vanities of contemporary society: selfishness,
hypocrisy, moral/social complacency etc. The omniscient narrator remains detached, amused,
ironical, constantly manipulation the reader and challenging their preconception.

* ‘Fin de siècle’ novels of ideas:

↗ anxiety, septicism, disillusion at, the end of the 19th century = led to sombre naturalism and
determinism, adventure stories, aestheticism and decadence.

Thomas Hardy — his novels are set in rural communities, show how they’re affected by social
change (+) illustrate determinism (his characters being th victim of social prejudices and chance,
struggling against their fate).

* New romances: Detection, Gothicism, adventure, science fiction, nonsense.

New genres, commenting (+) directly on social realities, creating worlds of fantasy/adventure
taking on new scientific discoveries (Freud).
- First detective stories: Victorian taste for melodrama and suspense + fears of lawbreaking and
instability.
‘The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ by Arthur Conan Doyle.
- Renewal of the Gothic trend (Dracula). Exploration of evil.
‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde’ by Robert Louis Stevenson (gothic + science
fiction).
- Adventure stories: a way to escape reality for Robert Louis Stevenson.
- Utopian novels also re-appeared in the last decades.
- Scientific romances: unite the fantastic, the scientific, and their moral implications.
‘The Time Machine’ by H.G. Wells — possible consequences of the evolutionary theory.
‘The War of the Worlds’ by H.G. Wells — critique of imperialism (invasion of martians).
- Nonsense: appeared as a sub-category of children’s literature, began to flourish at the end of
the century.
‘Peter Pan’ by James Barrie.
‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll. — No morality, no logic, language has a
will of its own.
• 20th century until WWII (1901-1940):

The Edwardian The War years The gay The Depression The war Years
Age twenties years again
- Prosperity and - WWI - Jazz age: 1920s, - 1929 crash: ++
glitter ++ in the U.S — old industries
- Women in the America overtook
- Far from early workforce Britain, - Unemployment
19th century economically but
- Irish issue: Home also culturally = - Poverty
- Doubts about Rule suspended new codes, social
imperialism due to the war behavior. - Political
but strong extremism
- Social activism resistance to - Competition in (fascists,
(liberal reforms, British rule industries communists),
suffragettes…) (countries were class conflicts…
- Tense situation in developing).
India too (led to - Colonies rebel:
its - Former creation of the
independence in industries Commonwealth
1947) collapsed (iron, of Nations in
coal, steel…) in 1931.
favour of new
industries in the
South (motor-
cars) = south-
north divided
enhanced.

Industrial and technological growth continued (tv, cinema, motor car…)

Very political period after the economic crisis: many writers committed to the Left.
Literature of commitment.
Modernism. — Rejection of Victorian values of faith in reason and progress. Response to WWI
and its horrors. Rejection of arts as representational and mimetic or a depiction of the artist’s
emotions. New way of conveying a perception of reality and the workings of the unconscious (+
+ stream of consciousness). Freud’s psychology appeared as the opposite of Dickens’ humours.
Modernists use simple language, the use of the past in the present, multiple narrators… One
deep element of modernism has been alienation, either of the individual from self, or from
society, or from the “natural” basis of existence. Modernism reversed the 19th century
relationship of public and private as a reaction to consumer culture, which developed in Europe
and North America in the late 19th century. Many modernists did see themselves as part of a
revolutionary culture - one that included political revolution. However, many rejected
conventional politics as well as artistic conventions, believing that a revolution of consciousness
had greater importance than a change in political structures.
David Lodge reminds us, when referring to Henry James that modernism represents a
venture into individual consciousness. In his book, Lodge insists that in modernism, the traditional
mode of thinking are questioned for example, social organisation, religion, morality, and a
concept of human thought. He also insists that modernism rejects traditional realism with its
chronological plots, continous narratives, omniscient narrators, and closed endings as opposed to
open endings where a time which can be circular but is never synonymous with closure, a
modernist text relies on lose chronology and of course the stream of consciousness is central in
modernism. It is very often relied on a fragmentary narrative and also a narrative that reflects in
the thoughts of the characters. The features of the modernist novel:

- Deconstructs the role of the omniscient narrator.

- They introduce an unreliable narrator, the narrator’s account is neither sure nor coherent. It is
in fact marked by hesitations, doubts, contradictions, and also blanks.
- Typographic elements : they convey a message. They’re signifiers. It has a pessimistic tone
regarding various issues dealt in the writing.
- It portrays reality of life, without any romanticism or much optimism as in the Victorian or
Romantic literature.
- Variety and complexity in novels made modernistic writing difficult to comprehend.
- Numerous themes of modern literature included the search within self, the inner dilemma
human beings face, questions regarding existence of God in the modern world, overwhelming
technological changes and the struggle of man to fit in urban life.
- Many characters and multiple experiences of people in the story. It uses tools like “stream of
consciousness”, self-experience for representing inner mind, thoughts and views about life. The
“Stream of Consciousness” writing technique is like an interior monologue, it gives the
opportunity for characters’ own thought to be seen in the text. It provides a multiple point of
view, so that every character can speak or show his or her feelings in the story.
- No central heroic figure in the story.
- Not sequential and connected events unlike realism literature, with fixed time lines.
- Questions deeply about isolation of an individual in a society fragmented by growth and
development. Characters in modern literature were usually from middle class families.

Realist vs. Modernist writing: In modernism, unknown events make the plot unclear and create
question marks in the readers’ mind, and do not provide a final or clear interpretation about the
subject. However, in realism the plot is clear and understandable, so readers do not have to
interpret about it, because realism itself reflects all realities one by one, and everything is clearly
explained to the reader.

Realism started in the mid-19th century, it is commonly defined as a concern for fact or reality and
rejection of the impractical and visionary. It marks a clear shift from the more poetic conventions
from romanticism => as a result, realist fiction seeks to depict events and characters as they are
without dramatising or romanticising them.

- It generally dealt with everyday lives of the middle-class people.

- The works in realism literature focused on the quality of individual's life, his daily tasks and,
that is why, in realism, a character is always more important than the plot.
- No poetic, romantic language is used in realism. The voice of speech represents average man,
and so it is simple but the tone may be comic or satiric.
- Events and plot in realism will be reasonable and valid, and truthful. It does not discuss
anything that is sentimental or over dramatic.
- The most unique feature of realism is that everything, right from characters, plot and language
is free of ornamentation. It is explained as it is, without any decorative language. It often uses
colloquialisms, slang.
Realism was a very difficult phase in the American history where America was on the verge of a
serious overhaul in different spheres of life. Be it political, social, economic or individual liberty,
realism period witnessed rise of writers who presented the American people as they were.

Some of the popular literary figures who used realism as a literary tool included Henry Adams,
Mark Twain, Henry James, Kate Chopin, Stephen Crane, Walt Whitman, Willa Cather. In Europe,
one can think of George Eliot, Gustave Flaubert, Maupassant.

POETRY
* The Georgians: (reference to King George V), mainly reacted to Kipling’s exoticism depicting
mainly English subjects in rural settings. They became war poets then.
* The War Poets: patriotism and idealism at the beginning of the war but then soon gave way to
horror, bitterness and absurdity. Aim = express the experience of war.

Wilfrid Owen: ++ romantic, Keatsian, but then the war turned him into an imaginative poet
who condemned the horror of the conflict.
Edmund Blunder: ++ consequences of the war on nature and on men.

* Modernists: inspired by American poet Ezra Pound — he was against Romantic, Victorian and
Georgian sentiment and advocated concentration, clear images, expressive rhythm and free
verse. (=Imagist poets)

William B. Yeats: Irish writer, mainly interested in Irish reawakening of their past culture and
literature. Romantic poetry at first, symbolic, elegiac and conventional. Then his poetry became
more modernist, more concise and more direct.

Many modernists used myth as a counterpoint to their narrative or poetry.

Thomas Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’ — about a post-car world, he uses myth, it is a poem of
doubt and negation in which the reader senses a sense of yearning for order and harmony.
Hugh MacDiarmid: can be considered a modernist poet because of the themes he writes
about — like, the destructive effects of modernity on human beings for instance.

* Poets of the 30s: Reacted to the modernists’ impersonality and pessimism. Wanted to bring
people closer to the real world and make them socially (+) politically responsible. Most of them
committed to Marxism. Concerned with social and political issues. Bring people closer to
political and social issues.

DRAMA
* Irish naturalism: Irish literary revival — description of the harsh realities of Irish life (+) dreams
and imagination of its people. Development of National Consciousness in Ireland. Celtic
Renaissance movement.
* Verse drama: reaction again naturalist plays — Eliot, Yeats…
* Political commitment: Some playwrights sought to promote socialist ideals and bring the
theatre closer to working class audiences, with sketches, street theatre, satire and audience
participation.
W.H Auden
* Comedies of manners: Less innovative and experimental, remained the most popular form of
drama between the wars.

THE NOVEL
* Cultural and sexual liberation: D.H. Lawrence for example — he believed that the
industrialization and moral conventions of the modern age had stifled in human beings an
innate vital sexuality that helped them commune with nature. By developing honest
relationships, sympathy, instinct and sexuality, people could become more fully alive. His
working-class characters are often more fulfilled than his middle-class characters.
* Literary experimentation:
‘The Good Soldier’ by Ford Madox Ford — unreliable narrator to show that perception is
deceitful and warped (faussée). Tackles a disintegration relationship between two upper-class
couples leading to death. First truly modernist novel.
James Joyce — for instance uses many forms in his novels (Irish writer) — fragmented novels,
many ellipses, and gaps. Stream of consciousness, contrasts, parallelisms, moments of epiphany
(=a visionary moment when a character has a sudden insight or realization that changes his or
her understanding of themselves or their comprehension of the world)

Stream of consciousness:
Free, chaotic flow of ideas, impressions, sensations, and memories in someone’s mind. New
interests in the subconscious in the 20th century = led writers to try and render thoughts before
they were verbalized and coherent, at a pre-speech level. Mainly used by: Virginia Woolf, James
Joyce, Dorothy Richardson and William Faulkner, but the expression refers to very different
techniques.

Virginia Woolf — A feminist, not interested in social realism but more in the consciousness of
her women characters. Such stream of consciousness is captured through imagery, and rich
patterns (colours, feelings, memories…). Symbols and motifs ++.

* Social realism: In spite of Woolf’s criticism of social realists’ materialism, they portrayed the
society of their time and were rather popular during the first half of the 20th century. Reactions
to the sensibilities and anxieties of the time, from political to religious beliefs, from conventional
realism to more experimental fiction.
John Galsworthy — satirized the Victorian middle-class and their obsession with materialism
and property.
H.G Wells — criticized business and advertising in ‘History of Mr Polly.’

* Moral and political works: In the 1930s, modernist experimentation = not the best way to
express the angst of the time. Novelists chose different ways: from utopia (Huxley, Orwell) to
religious questionings (Greene).
‘Brave New World’ by Aldous Huxley.
‘1984’ by Georges Orwell.
• 20th century: after WWII (1945-2000):

After the war: devastating effects on the population even though Britain felt victorious.
Themes of memory, atonement, and redemption very common in post war works.
Also a sense of national unity, and solidarity.
Post war consensus (Labour) = nationalisation of industries + NHS.
Decrease of British influence + break up with British Empire.
Boom years in the 1960s and then difficulties in the 1970s (economic recession, revolts in
Ireland (The Troubles), sense of nationalism in Wales and Scotland, Thatcher’s policies
satirised…)
New concept of Britishness (cf. Tony Blair’s ‘New Brtiain’) = postmodernism, focus on identity
and re-invention.

Post-modernism: break with modernist will to restore meaning to the world, postmodernists
refused any authoritative meaning, undermining it through the use or parody, pastiche, or
absurdity. Authors no longer control the meaning of their work, history constantly open to
revision (re-writting history), the author’s authority is questioned, breaking the illusion of
reality through metafiction (=fiction in which the author self-consciously alludes to the
artificiality or literariness of a work by parodying or departing from novelistic conventions and
traditional narrative techniques — Metafiction is a form of fiction which emphasizes its own
constructedness in a way that continually reminds readers to be aware that they are reading or
viewing a fictional work) and intertextuality (=the shaping of a text's meaning by another text),
blurring the boundaries between facts and fiction. Often associated with post-colonial
literature as it tends to blur distinctions between languages and cultures. Postmodernist writing
rejects grand narratives and relies on the creation of “mini narratives”, that is to say stories that
explain limited practices, local events, more than global or universal concepts on a large scale.
Thus, such postmodern “mini narratives” are always situational, provisional, contingent and
temporary. They do not claim universality, truth, reason, and stability. Unreliable narrator ;
psychology, chaos, metafiction ; jumping back and forth in time ; plays with space,
psychological space ; irony ++

POETRY
- The neo-romantics: rejected the politically committed poetry of the Auden group and called
for a more emotional and prophetic poetry.
Dylan Thomas: his poetry shows the legacy of Welsh oral traditions and celebrates the beauty
and energy of life and the regret that it will disappear with death.
- « The Movement »: group of poets who refused the committed poetry of the Auden group (+)
the romantic approach of D. Thomas. More terse, urbane ways of depicting society, slightly
ironic.
Philip Larkin.
- Pop poetry (the Liverpool poets): influenced by pop music, pop art and wrote lighter verse
often in colloquial language, dealing with everyday life, popular culture… Often meant to be
read aloud (influence of the Beat poets in America)
Brian Patten, Adrian Henri…
- « The Group »: They reacted against detached, ironic poetry.
- Poets of time and place: several poets started from the landscapes they knew, relating them
to past layers of history. Themes relating past history, linked to the land, human suffering,
injustice, harsh life of Welsh farmers throughout Welsh history (cf. R.S Thomas)

DRAMA
Revival of drama after the war. Peter Brook (++ influential) developed his conception of the
« Theatre of the Invisible-Made-Visible » = away from naturalism, what is invisible (dreams,
consciousness) is made visible through theatrical means.

- Angry Young Men playwrights: social concerns and working class backgrounds, rejected
middle-class morals and conventions.
- The Theatre of the Absurd: influenced by surrealism (= a 20th-century avant-garde movement
in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for
example by the irrational juxtaposition of images), vision of the world as meaningless, little or
no realistic background, very little plot, use of farce to hide anxiety.
- Political plays: more radical than that of the Angry Young Men, especially in the 1970s.
Edward Bond — usually sets his plays in violent societies and reflects his Marxist ideas, refusing
the absurdist view of life, he denounces capitalism and oppression. He aims at shocking his
audience into consciousness and action.
Caryl Churchill — feminist playwright, often uses historical parallels to raise consciousness
about contemporary issues, mainly capitalism and women’s conditions.
- Psychological drama: focuses upon the emotional, mental and psychological development of
characters in a dramatic work.

NOVELS
Novels tend to be based upon ethical values after the war, looking for solutions to contemporary
issues, until the 1970s, as the next regeneration of writers who were born after the war and lived
through the Thatcher years inclined towards post-modernism.

- Social chronicles: nostalgia for a time of innocence, old ways in England…

- ‘Angry Young Men’: (middle/working class backgrounds), challenged the establishment with
their working class protagonists. Reflect their rebellion.
- Fantasy: C.S. Lewis ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ (+) J.R.R Tolkien ‘The Hobbit (+)
‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, a heroic romance reminiscent of ‘Beowulf’ and northern
legends.
- The moralists: after WWII = spiritual doubts and moral confusion led several novelists to reflect
upon good and evil and ethical issues. (Search of moral sense in a world without faith, evil and
the necessity of faith, isolation from society…)
- Memory and history: ++ postmodern. Questioning the veracity of memory, and blur the
differences between the factual and the fictional.
Kazuo Ishiguro — Born in Japan, educated in England, most of his novels are told by lonely,
unreliable narrators, who reflect about their past and little by little unconsciously reveal their
own failings and traumas. The reader is never sure of what is true and what is imagination.
‘Never Let Me Go’ is a dystopian novel by Ishiguro.
- Campus Novels: comic satires on English university life. Themes of money, success, love or
religion. (cf. David Lodge)
- Feminist voices: Doris Lessing and Margaret Drabble for instance. Relationships between
characters and society.
- Post-modernists: ++ use of pastiche (=a literary, artistic, musical, or architectural work that
imitates the style of previous work), intertextuality, artifice, and rejection of omniscient narration
in favour of multiple voices.
John Fowles’ ‘The Magus’ — a young Englishman who teaches in Greece becomes the victim
of the psychological games devised by a Greek magician, until he can no longer tell reality from
fantasy, the novel also deals with entrapment, and the absolute power one can have over
others.
- Magic realism: unites realism with the fantastic — effects: lead the reader to see narratives as
inventions and ti question any single authoritative point of view. It is therefore a metaphor for
the difficulty of getting at the truth or for the manipulation of that truth for political reasons.
Often used by South American writers. Also used in painting: when fantastic scenes are painted
in a realistic manner.
- Dark realism and anticipation: several post-modern authors developed the themes of
degeneration, degradation and violence.
- New social realism: ++ critique of the Thatcher years for instance, ‘The Troubles’ in Ireland (cf.
William Trevor, with a return to naturalism (= similar to literary realism in its rejection of
Romanticism, but distinct in its embrace of determinism, detachment, scientific objectivism,
depiction of nature, and social commentary, type of extreme realism, naturalistic writers write
stories based on the idea that environment determines and governs human character) for
instance).
Zadie Smith — study of multiculturalism in London, critique of Western racial stereotypes… (cf.
Swing Town)
 COLONIAL (+) POST COLONIAL LITERATURE :

• From the Empire to the Commonwealth

Creation of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1931 — made up of colonies and dominions

(mainly white countries such as NZ, AUS, SA, I.F.S…), in other words, sovereign nations with
allegiance to the Crown. Today = mainly cultural, educational, economic association.

From the 16th to 20th century, the far-flung regions of the Empire captivated people’s
imagination. In British literature = at first seen as places of wonder and curiosity where the
inhabitants could be of « monstrous shape » (cf. The Tempest), where « fortunes could be made/
unmade » (cf. Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield), natives seen as beings who needed to be
educated/converted (St. John Rivers in Jane Eyre).

First denunciation attempts of colonialism perceptible in: « A Passage to India » by Forster or

again J. Conrad’s « Heart of Darkness. »

During colonialism = some native writers tried to find a voice in colonial literature but it was still
limited. Only after independence (after WWII) that their writing began to gain momentum and
become one of the richest body of literature today = postcolonial writing.

Postcolonial writing:
- Has to be set within historical and cultural perspectives
- Internal religious and political issues (+) relations with Britain
- Reasserting of the cultural and linguistic traditions of their native countries (hybrid forms)
- Oral traditions, myths, magic realism (as in Rushdie’s novels ++)
- Main issue: whether to write in English or not (language of the coloniser) — if English =
reinvention of the language, different syntax, vocabulary, rhythm…). Sometimes hybrid
language.
- Postcolonial literature tends to « write back » (cf. Rushdie) — to question, rework
representations of their culture (formerly only perceived through British literature).
- Asserts one’s identity by often using the canonical British texts in an ironic way of by rewritting
them (different POV)
- Much colonial writing reflects women’s need to assert their independence as Britain was an
extremely patriarchal society.

• Canada

First colony to be granted the status of dominion in 1867.

In the rays 19th century, some writers had already described their experience in Canada (cf.
Roughing it in the Bush by Susanna Moodie).
But national literature only genuinely appeared in the 20th century.

- 1900-1950: Realism and regionalism:

After WWII especially = turned into a modern nation.
Also social and economic problems which echoed those of the U.S: WW, recessions, alienation
of Native Canadians on reservations.
↪ Literature therefore tended to realistically depict the country (cf. stories of Stephen Leacock).
↪ Also depicted the harshness of the economic depression in the 1930s (cf. As For Me and My
House by Sinclair Ross)
↪ Depicted the ethnical relationships between French and English Canadians.

- 1950-1980: Towards a Canadian identity:

↪ After the war = need to assert Canadian cultural identity and resist the growing U.S influence.

Recurrent themes in Canadian literature:

- Importance of landscape and space, the beauty and grandeur of its huge, open spaces.
- Harshness of the climate and its sometimes hostile environment.
- Sense of place through regional differences.
- Ethnic differences and multiculturalism (French/English/Indian/Inuit Canadians + recent
immigrants).
- Importance of breaking free from British colonialism and American cultural and economic
domination.

Margaret Atwood — writes about feminist issues such as the violence women are victim of in
modern society and the need for them to rebel. Her pioneers and exiles are alienated both in
society and from their true selves, merely trying to survive. In her poem ‘The Journals of
Susanna Moodie’, a long poem, she uses the persona of this early novelist to describe her
development and her response to the land. She often uses the postmodern devices of
unreliable narrators and plots without clear resolution.
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ — Feminist dystopian narrative, a reflection on western society and the
monstrous effects of authoritarian systems.
Alice Munro — Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013, short story writer, often focuses on the
maturation of her characters, who reveal the repression, loneliness, insecurity and difficulty to
relate to members of the community, often hiding dark secrets. The voice is ironic, detached,
passing no moral judgment but constantly challenging the reader.

- 1980-2000: A multiplicity of voices:

After a variety of immigration waves, it became more difficult to refer to a specific Canadian
identity as it has become multi-cultural.

Carol Shields — born in the U.S but raised in Canada, focuses on the cultural differences
between Canada and the U.S, her fiction is realistic, mainly domestic, contains postmodern
elements too (pages in the style of a movie script for example).
Michael Ondaatje — Born in Sri Lanka, raised in England, moved to Canada — multiplicity of
voices, themes of migration and displacement, alienation are common ones in his fiction.

After the Civil Right movements of the 1960s, Native Canadian writers began to make their
voices hears. In 1969, I Am an Indian, an anthology of Native Canadian Literature was published.

• Australia:
1788 (Australia Day): a few years after Cook’s annexation of the eastern coast of Australia, the
new colony was used as a settlement for convicts. This inspired M. Clarke’s ‘His Natural Life’, in
which an innocent man is sent to prison in Australia and suffers the inhumane conditions
imposed on convicts there.
 Figure of Ned Kelly: a bushranger and outlaw who committed armed robberies and accused
the British Empire, still a cult figure.

Things to remember for literary analysis/common themes in AU. literature:

- Geography and space essential for Australian literature when studying a text. (The Bush,
wilderness, harsh, associated with both hostility and romanticism)
- Another theme or issue is the issue of indigenous Australian identity + indigenous culture
(tackled in texts by both indigenous + non-indigenous authors). Only in the 1960s that,
following American activism and civil rights actions, that their situation began to improve and
that Native Australians began to be the writers of their own stories (cf. Sally Morgan’s 'My
Place’)
- Issue of lands rights.
- Environmental issues.
- Issue of multiculturalism: central issue in literature history.
- Theme of diversity and otherness.
- Issue of regionalism vs. the nation.
- Travelling: leaving and returning.
- Margins and centre.

- 1855-1945: Convictism, nationalism and social realism:

Australian writings before 1855 mainly focused on the depiction of a new natural and social
environment. This focused on what people used to call in those days ; the « Great Southern
Land » which was a synonym for Australia in those days of course.

Literary themes: Stories were aimed at British and colonial readers. They In their satires they
weren’t only influenced by the culture of their own countries meaning Britains or other European
countries, they also started to develop what we call a « colonial culture » especially when
describing life in the colonies and their new homes.

A lot of tale-stories presented some pastoral and charming scenes. Stories of settlers and
explorers that insisted on the colonial beauty and of a land that was virgin, virtually untouched. Of
course these satires tended to erase, to negate the reality of the Bush and more specifically of
Australia and indigenous people = European gaze.

Australian writers had, by then, already started to free themselves from the English tradition. The
sense of unity and independence that illustrated the Federation of States (1901) extended to the
appropriation of territory and space. These ideas are explicitly expressed by Edmund Barton,
AU’s first federal Prime Minister when he made his first speech in 1901: « For the first time in
history, we have a continent for a nation and a nation for a continent »

Henry Lawson — realistic descriptions of Bush life in a sparse, laconic style. He shared the view
that the experience of the Bush shaped AU identity. He looked to bush life for the development
of a new Australian character ; a character which would be different from the British. They tried
to develop a kind of character that would differ culturally from the British. His view of the bush
and bush-life was much more critical and pessimistic.

More romanticised perceptions of the Bush then emerged: cf. ‘Coonardoo’ by K.S Prichard.
- 1945-2000: a multiplicity of voices:

↪ Rise of ecological writing: Ecological writing seeks to explore the relationships between
literature and the physical environment. It depicts the inter-dependence of characters with
landscape in such a way that both landscape and characters appear to be part of the same
system, of an integrated system. Also, in a way that one senses a really tight connection between
landscape and subjectivity.

Judith Wright: Her work seeks to connect with and to locate the hidden and silenced voices of
indigenous people. The environmental issue was taken to heart in AU from a very early age in
comparison to Europe. The environment is part of the psyche. She was also an environmentalist
and a social activist. She spoke in favour of aboriginal land rights. She also write against what
she called the « unreal bush hero nationalist »

↪ The Emergence of Indigenous Writing: ☆ Oodgeroo Noonuccal (first publishing under the
name of Kath Walker), along with other Indigenous authors like Jack Davis or Kevin Gilbert ranked
among the creative founders of contemporary Aboriginal literature. In such a literature, the usual
main themes are justice for lands rights, the struggle and dismissal of racial stereotypes, the
subversion (the way you deconstruct and propose something else) of national history, which in fact
tends to present colonisation as a peaceful and progressive process. The late 1960s and the first
part of the 1970s encouraged Indigenous people to speak out against the European settlement of
1788, and to complain for legal recognition, considering that they felt that they were either
looked at as second-class citizens, or even foreigners in their own country. The emergence of
Aboriginal literature in the 1960s and the 1970s took a part in the Aboriginal voices that entered
the political stage. These writings conveyed a political message. (Right to vote in 1967!)

Oodgeroo Noonuccal — In some of her poetry, Oodgeroo Noonuccal calls on to Indigenous

people to act, to pursue their fight for justice. In some poems, she also addresses a non-
Indigenous audience. She addresses both audiences in an angry, accusing and sometimes
pitying tone. Some of her poetry extend to the celebration of the land and they reflect on an
happier time before the arrival of the first fleet. Oodgeroo Noonuccal’s focus on land rights and
Indigenous recognition operates through a fluid and direct style, that stems from the youth of
free verse. Her poems’ lines are uneven, some verses have a clear and political message. They
are indented to be read aloud.
Sally Morgan — In her book ‘My Place’ published in 1987, Sally Morgan explores her
aboriginal inheritance, in the north west of AU (biggest state of AU). The book is an attempt to
demonstrate how the past of Sally Morgan’s family was denied, obliterated, by suburban
civilised pressures and colonisation. The book belongs to the genre of he autobiography, a
common genre in indigenous writing in AU. It’s like telling oral stories, they write about their
own stories. It conforms at the same time to the tradition of indigenous story telling but i’s also
part of the genre of early writing of ethnographers or missionaries who wrote about the lifestyle
of indigenous people (hybrid).

↪ Examples of postmodern Australian fiction:

Peter Carey — postmodern writings bringing together reality and fiction, lies and truth, the
mundane and the exotic, in order to reflect the artificiality of fiction. Often close to magic
 realism with their use of the surreal, the fantastic and elements of science fiction. Australian past
and the way a national identity was shaped is a common topic of his novels.
Richard Flanagan’s Death of a River Guide (1996) —In the novel, the themes of colonization
and migration during the 1st and 2nd World Wars are explored from the perspective of a main
character in the late 20th century, named Aljaz Cosini. The narration depicts the return to the
land of this main character, who is depicted as an outcast and solitary figure through a process
that translates as a homecoming, as « going back home ». In this book, landscape is central to
the novel. Aljaz Cosini’s experiences in memory unfold as flashes while he is in fact drowning in
the river, and as he’s drowning and remembering his personal story, one can sense as a reader
that there is a spiritual connection between his body, with the geographic body, especially the
water.

• New Zealand

More or less serene relationships with Britain — throughout the 19th century, literature in N.Z
imitated that of Britain, with melodramatic romances. Literature came into its own in the 20th
century.

Katherine Mansfield — modernist techniques (+) stream of consciousness and symbolism to

describe the immediacy of the moment. Critique of class distinctions in her short stories.
Frank Sargeson — New generation of writers, 1930s-1940s, influenced by European modernism
and the social consequences of the Great Depression. He used realism in his novels.

• South Africa:

‘Sramble for Africa movement: desire to grab as much of Africa as possible on the part of
European powers, in spite of fierce resistance. In European eyes, Africans were often perceived as
primitive beings who needed to be educated. This led many post-colonial African writers to
overthrow colonial stereotypes.

South African literature tended to be realistic to portray the racial and social tensions of the last
fifty years. Literature dominated by the political situation and focuses on the devastating
consequences of historical forces upon individual lives: difficulty of interracial relationships,
alienation, betrayal, divided loyalties…

⇨ Literature until 1945:

Olive Schreiner — ‘The Story of an African Farm’ = rural life in South Africa (+) criticism of
colonialism and Victorian sexism.
Thekiso Plaatje — (black South African author) wrote about encounters with the whites, land
dispossession.

⇨ The years of Apartheid (1945-1990):

Such political climate is still at the heart of South African writing today.

Peter Abrahams (mixed origins) — wrote about interracial love, Afrikaner social attitudes, using
unreliable narrators to reveal their prejudices.
 Alan Paton — ‘Cry, the Beloved Country’ = best dramatised the situation of Black people
during Apartheid.

Moire black writers started to portray their culture and the dismal effect of segregation upon their
lives.

⇨ post-Apartheid years:
The political as well as social conflict is still addressed in the later years, often using post-
modernism techniques to reflect on topics like power, authority and divided loyalties, but mainly
the will and need for the country to rebuild itself after such conflict, a country which as Nelson
Mandela mentioned needed to « forgive, but never forget. »
Zakes Mda — past vs. present.
Athol Fugard — difficulty of healing the scars left by the past.

• India
++ written in English.

⇨ The growth of Indian literature until 1947:

East India Company — 1600, but British rule much later, when linguists and priests began to
master the local languages and culture.
India placed under the authority of the Crown in 1858 after the Indian Mutiny — Queen
Victoria became « Empress of India » (+) English official language and compulsory.
Indian intellectuals and politicians felt excluded from decision-making
Anti-British feelings grew, demonstrations — Ghandi gave strength to the movement (passive
resistance).
Mulk Raj Anand — social realist novels which expose the injustice of society (situation of
women, poverty and alienation of the untouchables).
R.K. Narayan — famous during the pre-independence years, microcosm of Indian society in
imaginative towns, depiction of the lives of sensitive characters torn between the fight for
freedom and traditional values.

⇨ Post-independence literature:
Creation of Pakistan (muslim)
Still violence even after independence
Slow establishment of democracy = events which marked literature.
Salman Rushdie — tried to portray the politics and culture of his country. Often described as a
magic realist as supernatural elements often intrude into realistic settings. Embedded tales,
numerous points of view, reflection upon the way fiction can represent history. Inspired by both
Western and Eastern styles = crossing cultural boundaries.
‘The God of Small Things’ by Arundhati Roy — The book explores how the small things affect
people's behavior and their lives. The book also reflects its irony against casteism, which is a
major discrimination that prevails in India.
Hari Kunzru — ‘The Impressionist’ traces the life of an Indian woman and a British forestry
expert for the colonial government. His novel explores the search for identity in a colonial or
postcolonial context.
• The Caribbean
- No real ‘Caribbean identity’ because many islands which reacted differently to colonialism.
- Importance of African culture
- The black population as double-victims, of slavery (+) colonialism.
- The way it is reflected in languages, since landowners spoke standard English while slaves later
laborers spoke Creole languages, now very much a part of the tradition of poetry and fiction.
- Hybridity: blending of cultural and literary traditions, since the Caribbean experience is that of
a crucible.
- Great linguistic creativity, fostered by cultural hybridity.
- A sense of diaspora (= the dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland)
since through migration, Caribbean culture has spread abroad.
 AMERICAN LITERATURE :

• The colonial age and the revolution:

In the course of the 18th century: population grew, immigration, religious conformity no longer
required, the ideas of Enlightenment becomes widespread, order and beauty of the universe
became proof of God’s existence, huge wave of patriotism swept over the colonies.
Growth in readership, newspapers, and books.
All through the 18th century literature tended to rely on imported British fiction and poetry.
Last three decades though = theoretical literature emerged, forging America’s future =
rebellion grew (independence wishes).

1. Colonial age:
Puritans = early Colonia literature. Puritanism later inspired authors such as N. Hawthorne or
Arthur Miller.

* Sermons: first literary genre developed in America, also reflected the doctrinal debates of the
time (++ Puritan theology + sometimes reveal interests in nature, led to a movement of revival
and asserted the importance of individual free will).

* Autobiographies and diaries: Introspections and spiritual analysis, a way of helping others in
their struggle to find Grace. Also first anti-slavery pamphlets (Samuel Sewall),

* Historical works: show that their duty in the New World was part of a higher purpose. Relating
the arrival of the Pilgrims in New England (W. Bradford), their roles in carrying out God’s plan.

* Poetry: Most of it was pious, didactic and flat. Religious matter ++.

2. Years of revolution:

* Prose: Literature and policies now indissociable, patriotism (+) debates about an ideal form of
government. (Autobiographies, essays, letters and documents)
B. Franklin — reflects the emerging spirit of America, uniting the Puritan legacy of hard work
with an optimistic belief in natural rights and reason. His Autobiography provides a practical
approach to life, without any soul-searching or emotional climax. He recommends hard work,
temperance.
T. Paine — Common Sense, pleaded for political independence, praised democracy, he went
on to write Rights of Man.
T. Jefferson — Declaration of Independence.
Hector St. John de Crevecoeur — Letters from an American Farmer ; the U.S depicted as a
country of freedom, independence and democracy where men are self-reliant and hard working.

* Verse: More satirical and more committed verse. Attacks on the political and cultural
domination of Britain, slavery.
P. Freneau is also a pre-romantic, he celebrates nature, melancholy or joy. The form however is
mainly imitative (of the British) and does not yet show the emergence of truly American verse.
Neo-federalist poets = patriotic verse. Often comparing the U.S and Europe still imitating
English models through satires, epics, and elegies.
* Fiction: Americans were avid readers of British fiction.
C. B Brown — the « father of the American novel », he drew on Gothic and sentimental novels
as well as on the moral and political concerns of the English Jacobin novel. The dangers of the
wilderness replaced the typical terrors of Gothic castles. His novels with terror, the supernatural,
the irrational, which seem to challenge the optimistic certainties of the times. Most original
aspect of his work is the choice of unreliable 1st person narrators, who bring introspection into
the novel but whose vision is often flawed and mistaken.
• Towards literary emancipation (1800-1865):
Manifest Destiny - Westward expansion, Gold Rush…
Industrial and material progress
More immigration to the U.S due to difficulties in Europe
Taming the wilderness = spirit of confidence, -individualism, self-reliance
Transcendentalism: Transcendentalists advocated the idea of a personal knowledge of God,
believing that no intermediary was needed for spiritual insight. They embraced idealism,
focusing on nature and opposing materialism.
North and South divide.
American literature was slow to emerge (because of lack of copyrights) but after 1830,
Romanticism (+) Transcendentalism allowed American literary emancipation.

* Gothic and grotesque trends: the Gothic traditions of imagination and fear were adapted to
the American continent. Nature became a source of inspiration. Focus on adventures and
imagination (cf. Poe, Melville…) — one of the specificity of the American novel = darkness (+)
fantastic elements.

W. Irving — interest in the past, in the picturesque and in German folktales. Both helped
formulate some American myths (+) nostalgia for a vanishing pastoral ideal. (cf. The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow ; Rip Van Winkle)
Edgar. A. Poe — he was one of the first literary critics. He favored ‘dreamscapes’ rather than
the American landscape, thought the aim of poetry was not truth, but beauty. He despises the
common man. Beauty linked to melancholy and sadness (++ poems written in English romantic
tradition). ++ Terror os the soul (not traditional terror). Considered the father of detective fiction.

* Romanticism: celebration of nature in the splendor of the American landscape. Contrast

between the wilderness and civilization. In America, it dominated the literary scene from
around 1820 to the end of the Civil War and the rise of Realism. And the U.S.'s natural
landscape—very different from Europe's—also influenced the writers of this movement in
special ways. "The frontier," for example, is a big idea in the work of American Romantic
writers. Sharing democratic ideals was also at the heart of American romanticism. (cf. J. F.
Cooper)

William C. Bryant — supporter of liberal causes such as the right to strike, abolition of slavery,
prison reform…

* Transcendentalism: From puritanism to Unitarianism, from a God to be feared to a benevolent

God, to predestination and human depravity to the idea of personal responsibility = paved the
way for Transcendentalism.

Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Margaret Fuller formed the Transcendental Club in 1836 tot
all about religion, philosophy, and literature. Most were believers in democracy, and reform,
advocating an end to slavery and the enfranchisement of women. They woke up the nation and
inspired many to action, urging people to avoid conformity and follow their own instincts.

* Voices of dissent: (the holding or expression of opinions at variance with those commonly or
officially held) Slave narratives, testimonies to the inhumanity of slavery became a proper genre.
 H.B Stowe — Uncle Tom’s Cabin ; as a response to the Fugitive Slave Act.
F. Douglass — Narrative ; a chronicle of the harsh lives of the slaves denied identity, family and
freedom. He explains how he gained enlightenment by following transcendentalist ideals
(individualism and power). He condemned slavery while celebrating America as a land of
freedom and opportunity.
Margaret Fuller — considered that the notion of self-development should apply to women
too. cf. ’Woman in the nineteenth Century’

* The American Renaissance: Expression first coined in 1841 (F.O. Matthiessen) — between 1835
and 1865, literature witness a renaissance, with an emphasis on imagination, intuition and the
interpretation of the signs to be found in the universe, inspired by transcendentalism.

N. Hawthorne (+ Melville): tendency towards the allegorical and symbolic and an interest in
the imaginary and in the mind rather than in the description of society. Hawthorne, due to his
ancestors’ past, was rather pessimistic (unlike most Transcendentalists) and believed in the
unavoidable corruption of human nature. Hawthorne showed the influence of the Gothic in his
Twice-Told Tales, revealing beings confused by guilt, and sin, having consequently cut
themselves off from humanity. Lix of imagination and reality. Fascinated by psychology.
‘Moby-Dick’ or the 'White Whale’ — by Melville.

* The Household poets: Their domestic themes and messages of morality presented in
conventional poetic forms deeply shaped their era until their decline in popularity at the
beginning of the 20th century.

Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell.

• The Age of Realism (1865-1915):
Aftermath of the Civil War: the North is victorious, therefore, industrialism & capitalism in favour
of agrarianism. USA = first industrial power in the world (++ dominant).
More modern nation.
Gilded Age (coined by Mark Twain). Prosperity + materialism.
End of transcendentalism, rise of naturalism (=attempts to apply scientific principles of
objectivity and detachment to its study of human beings).
Discontent with the social and economic situation led to utopianism. (cf. E. Bellamy)
Segregation, Indian risings.

POETRY
Emily Dickinson — humour, puns, harsh satires, causes joy, despair, fear or celebration.
Metaphysical questions about existential meaning, the visible and the invisible. Keen observer
of nature and botany. Emily Dickinson is generally known as a romantic era poetess, yet she
frequently integrated a surprising realism into her romantically styled poetry.

FICTION
* Regional realism: Regional writing brought variety and energy into fiction and developed social
and linguistic realism.

Local colour writing: part of realism but focuses more on the portrayal of a particular region,
its speech, dialect, and mannerisms. Detailed representation, but sometimes including elements
of romance and verges on sentimentality (++ nostalgia). Small towns were often synonymous
with happiness and homeliness. For example: Louisa May Alcott or contrastingly: Hamlin
Garland who reacted against such rosy visions and exposed the bitter lives and drudgery or rural
farmers in small towns.

In the South: In New England: In the West:

- often lamented the loss of the - mainly focused on the rural world - Bret Harte wrote about frontier
antebellum plantation life life, its miners, outlaws, and
gamblers. He unites realism,
- some condemned racism and the sentimentality, and melodramatic
weight of the southern myth stories.

- Willa Carther wrote about the

frontier, celebrating the courage of
the pioneers, often women, who
survived and tried to find
fulfillment in spite of harsh and
lonely lives.

- Mark Twain: he made the American

regionalist novel internationally
famous. — The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn: picaresque journey
of Huck and his black friend Jim.
Novel of initiation as Huck gradually
gains moral maturity. Twain uses
children, the innocent ones of society.
* Psychological realism: the expatriates.
Henry James — he moved to Britain as he thought American society was too materialistic,
vacuous and pragmatic. His short stories often develop this contrast between European reserve,
fitness and decadence and American brashness and virtue. ‘The Turn of The Screw’ = subject of
evil and the supernatural, sin gan unreliable narrator to maintain ambiguity. He wanted to
convey the complexity of consciousness and of interpretation in a world where appearances are
deceptive. James rejected authoritative omniscient narration and used third person narrators as
« centers of consciousness » so that everything that is told is filtered through the main
character’s eyes. He paved the way for the stream of consciousness.

Edith Wharton — Wrote about the manners of society, she had a critical eye upon both the
pretensions of the New York aristocracy and those of the newly rich social climbers. Also
interested in the way social codes and conventions could stifle and frustrate a woman’s life.

* Naturalism: (last decade of the 19th century) an extreme form of realism, it applies principles of
determinism to fiction. Men are mere animals in the jungle of the world. Naturalism focuses on
the causes, the scientific laws which explain actions (cf. Darwin, Marx and Freud). Naturalistic
novels are pessimistic, seeing men as driven by fear, sex or hunger, mere puppets in a cruel
universe. Novelists = like scientists reproducing reality as faithfully as possible.

Stephen Crane — his stories depict lives ruled by chance and determinism, in which religion,
justice, motives or reason play no part and nature is indifferent to human need. The Red Badge
of Courage ; relates to a soldier’s experience in the Civil War. A novel of initiation, a realistic
novel in that it is the first unromanticised account of the Civil War. It is also naturalistic as it
shows Henry Fleming’s actions are shaped by society and psychology. The novel is allegorical as
well, with constant Christian references. Juxtaposition of the narrator’s objective point of view
with the character’s subjectivity.

* The Muckrakers: a derogative name given to writers who, from 1902 to 1911, denounced social
ills (poverty, immigration, overcrowding in large cities) and the corruption in big businesses as
well as in politics, at all levels.
Upton Sinclair — exposes the American Dream as illusory. Exploitation of immigrants, etc; cf.
The Jungle.

* African American voices:

W.E.B Du Bois
B. T. Washington
• The Age of Modernism (1915-1945):
Anxiety in between the two wars period.
Prompt sense of optimism in the aftermath of victory but did not last.
Growing xenophobia (not just towards Communists but also AA, immigrants in general).
Growing chauvinism (= excessive and unreasonable patriotism) and intolerance.
Consumerism ++ as well as emancipation of women and the influence of the Jazz Age
(consumption of pleasure…)
American Dream, widening gaps between the rich and the poor.
Modernist spirit of renewal.
Economic crash (+) series of drought, F.D.R’s New Deal.
Commitment and collective enterprise on the part of American writers.
Social realism re-appeared to question American values.

American modernist literature was a dominant trend in American literature between World War
I and World War II. The modernist era highlighted innovation in the form and language of poetry
and prose, as well as addressing numerous contemporary topics, such as race relations, gender
and the human condition.

POETRY
* The imagists and the modernists:
- Imagism: a poetic movement which flourished in America at the beginning of the 20th century.
Reaction to conventional verses from Victorian poetry, argued for control and discipline. Use of
eat words and clear, sharp-edged images, concentration, clarity and new rhythms. (cf. Ezra
Pound, Hilda Doolittle, Amy Lowell)

Marianne Moore — an avant-garde poet, studies the natural world, in an attempt to

understand its significance and often leads to ethical or philosophical reflections. In the tradition
of the imagist, she favors concision, compression and right imagery and metaphors.
E.E Cummings was less prone to discipline his verse, he particularly attacked anything to do
with materialism and advertising.

* Voice from Harlem: The Harlem Renaissance.

Harlem became the cultural centre of the black American community. It emphasised solidarity,
optimism, and creativity. Insistence on the primitive, the instinctive and the sensual, the
liberation from all convention.

Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes.

DRAMA
After WWI, some of Europe’s realist plays, about every day life and social problems had started to
be produced in America, thanks, in particular, to the Chicago « Little theatre » movement.

Eugene O’Neil — recurrent themes in his plays: fragmentation of family life, the alienation of
sensitive characters crushed under the materialism of society, and their inability to sustain
relationships. He also explored controversial subjects such as interracial marriage, or
prostitution. He aimed at using a more modern sense of Greek fate = remastered many Greek
myths.
THE NOVEL
The anguish of the years that followed WWI was expressed in novels mainly through despair and
satire. America was stifled by moral and cultural conformity while Europe offered freedom of
expression and experimentation = that appealed to many American writers known as The Lost
Generation.

The Lost Generation: coined by Getrude Stein, the term applies to a group of writer,s most of
whom were in Paris in the 1920s. Marked by the horrors of the war, they were left dillusioned
about American « idealism » and self-righteous rhetoric, critical of what they saw as their
country’s « hypocrisy ». They took refuge in the present, in the fashionable and intellectually
stimulating life of the French capital, eager to create new forms, new style to express their
feeling of emptiness and loss. The term refers to the loss of traditional values resulting from the
war and the condition of man in the modern world.
H. Crane, E. Wilson, S. Anderson and M. Cowley.
G. Stein — believed in the importance of capturing the present moment, the « now » of
consciousness = prose marked by syntactic and lexical inventions, repetitions with subtle
changes to express movements of thoughts in there here and now…
E. Hemingway — symbolism, setting, dialogues… (cf. ‘Hills Like White Elephants’)
F. S. Fitzgerald — image of the Roaring Twenties, extravagance, excess, but also disillusion,
tragedy and a constant but hopeless quest for lost innocence and happiness.

* The Village Virus:

While the Lost Generation modernists chose cosmopolitan settings for their study, other writers
who had remained in America, chose to satirize the conformism of society, particularly in this very
small towns, where life, which had been romanticized and described as Edenic, was now marked
by narrow-mindedness and bigotry. Lewis called that « the Village’s Virus » in his novel Main
Street.

Sinclair Lewis — ++ realism and satire. Like Dickens, he developed a talent for caricature and
burlesque.

* Southern writers:
While the North had become an industrial Leviathan, the South had remained mainly agrarian,
poor, morally undermined by bigotry and racism = backwardness of these states in spite of their
refined antebellum past. The tragedies that the South had suffered made it an ideal setting to
dramatize the of the human condition.

The Southern Renaissance:

A literary revival of fiction, poetry and literary criticism in the South during the 1930s and early
1940s. Celebration of the South and it’s pastoral virtues, of its agrarian way of life and community
values. They criticized industrialization and materialism which they associated with the North and
urban life. Recurrent themes:
- Reflection on the past — nostalgia and guilt.
- « Southern Gothic » — irrational, horrific, and transgressive thoughts, desires, and impulses;
grotesque characters; dark humor, and an overall angst-ridden sense of alienation.
- Psychological states, tortured consciousness of the characters.
 Ellen Glasgow — realist novels, critical of the blindness of the South and its incapacity to face
facts. ++ Concerned with women and their capacity for endurance.
William Faulkner — modersnist technique and literary regionalism. All his novels take place in
the fictive town of Jefferson (a transposition of Oxford). They focus on the past, explaining how
glory turned to disappointment, ++ explores the theme of decadence and degeneracy. Long,
complex narrative, reflecting the richness and complexity of experience.

* Commitment in 1930s novels:

Economic hardships paved the way for collective action rather than prior individualism (many
authors turned to Marxist ideas).

John Steinbeck — a regionalist (+) committed writer, his novels constitute a proletarian
defence of the poor and less privileged. Only endurance and companionship help his characters
survive.
Richard Wright — a communist, he argued that social alienation would only be solved through
black struggle.
• The Age of Anxiety (1945-2000):

Hitler is stopped => feeling euphoria and liberation but soon => Cold War.
American Post-war literature: permanent scar of the American psyche.
Age of « anxiety » (cf. W.H. Auden), America transformed into a consumer’s paradise.
Apprehension about the future. cf. prevailing ideas from the Beat Generation.
Civil rights movements (+) sense of rebellion (cf. ‘On the Road’ by Kerouac)
Provocative fiction urging a cultural renewal (cf. Nabokov’s Lolita)
++ recognition of minorities.

POETRY
The Beat Generation:
Term coined by Kerouac = a group of writers who shared several characteristics:
- The search for beatitude
- A feeling of being beaten/defeated
- Marked by the beat of jazz
Critique of the establishment (+) materialism of society and its lack of spiritual values in the 1950s.
They refused authority. The Beat Generation is to be related to the San Fransisco Renaissance = a
group of poets who advocated street poetry meant to be performed rather than appear on paper.
Allen Ginsberg — cf. his poem ‘Howl’ a critique of society.
Jack Kerouac
William Burroughs

DRAMA
* The individual vs. society:
2 major postwar writers: placing the individual as a victim of society.
Arthur Miller — ++ choices made in the past have consequences in the future, cf. Death of a
Salesman ; critique of the American Dream,
Tennessee Williams — the world of his plays is a ‘jungle’, a world of crude appetites and desire,
of secrets and frustrations, materialism and conformity.

* Absurdity, apocalypse, alienation:

‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ By E. Albee — limited characters, people assailing each other
physically or verbally, lost beings, incapable of breaking free, terrible power of words.

FICTION
* Counter culture writers: Jack Kerouac, or Henry Miller => rebels.

* Novel of manners and social concerns: some writers still believed in humanist ideals and moral
values (cf. J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye) — very critical of American society as well.

* Ethnic voices: fiction had increasingly been concerned with the relationship between one’s
cultural heritage and the dominant American culture.
- African American voices: Toni Morrison — Nobel Prize in Literature, ‘Beloved’ = both
naturalism (+) fantastic elements.