characteristics of 20th century

1. TWENTIETH CENTURY

2.  To understand twentieth century literature, one needs to understand the society
of 20 th century
 This period is known commonly as modern age.
 It falls roughly from year 1901 to 2000.
 However, the later years are also said to fall in postmodern period.
 Postmodern period is a shift within the twentieth century
 Modernism was a break away fromVictorianism which led to postmodernism

3. MODERN AGE
 Twentieth century was a breakup from the past traditions and customs.
 Science became the new norm of the century
 Transportations became fast
 Communications became better
 This age saw change in politcal, cultural, social, and ideological ways.
 There was innovation in every aspect.
 New discoveries were made in every field, e.g. Relativity and quantum physics
 Discovery of insecticide, antibiotics and atom bomb

4. SCIENCE ANDTECHNOLOGY
 Mass production in industries. Especially in vehicle industries led to the production of
cheaper products.
 Availabilty of information through media and accesibiloty of communication through
telephone made world smaller.
 Use of new advanced weapons in wars, more sepcifically in world war 1 led to mass
destruction.

5.  Women were allowed in western countries to vote for the first time in this century
 World war 1 claimed many lives due to the involvment of many countries and also
the use of weapons of mass destruction.
 United States of America rose as a super power.
 Its rise was mainly due to industrialisation
 Two world wars in one century also paved way for change on different platforms.

6.  The world also changed socially.
 It got more urbanized
 People started to migrate to cities, particularly in Europe and America
 The subject matter of novels also changed.
 The writers wrote their stories in urbanized settings

7. TWENTIETH CENTURY LITERATURE
 As the ages was the age of doubt and anxiety.
 The literature also depicted the same.
 Earlier, there was form in everything but the chaos of 20th century brought an
informal structure and outlook in everything.
 For instance, the plot of novels were not linear anymore, they were haphazard,
being called novels based on stream of consciousness technique.
 A scene was always disrupted by the memories of characters.
 James Joyce andVirginia Woolf are called the harbingers of this technique.