General characteristics of twentieth century literature

1. General characteristics of
twentieth century literature
Roll no. 365
Subject: History of English literature
TYBA Sem VI
Guidance by: Dr. Yagnesh Dhoriya
Made By: Jaydeep Padhiyar

2. General characteristics of twentieth century
literature
 The twentieth century was like no time period before it. Einstein, Darwin,
Freud and Marx were just some of the thinkers who profoundly changed
Western culture. These changes took distinct shape in the literature of the
20th century. Modernism, a movement that was a radical break from 19th
century Victorianism, led to postmodernism, which emphasized self-
consciousness and pop art. While 20th century literature is a diverse field
covering a variety of genres, there are common characteristics that
changed literature forever.

3.  Fragmented Structure
 Prior to the twentieth century, literature tended to be structured in linear,
chronological order. Twentieth century writers experimented with other
kinds of structures. Virginia Woolf, for instance, wrote novels whose main
plot was often "interrupted" by individual characters' memories, resulting
in a disorienting experience for the reader. Ford Madox Ford's classic "The
Good Soldier" plays with chronology, jumping back and forth between
time periods. Many of these writers aimed to imitate the feeling of how
time is truly experienced subjectively.

4.  Fragmented Perspective
 If there's one thing readers could count on before the twentieth century, it
was the reliability of an objective narrator in fiction. Modernist and
postmodern writers, however, believed that this did a disservice to the
reliability of stories in general. The twentieth century saw the birth of the
ironic narrator, who could not be trusted with the facts of narrative. Nick
Carraway, narrator of Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," for example, tells the
story with a bias toward the novel's titular character. In an extreme case of
fragmented perspective, Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" switches narrators
between each chapter.

5.  The Novel of the City
 The twentieth century is distinguished as the century of urbanism. As more
people moved to cities in Europe and America, novelists used urban
environments as backdrops for the stories they told. Perhaps the best
known of these is James Joyce's "Dubliners," a series of short stories that
all take place in various locales in Dublin. Other twentieth century writers
are also closely associated with various urban centers: Woolf and London,
Theodore Dreiser and Chicago, Paul Auster and New York, Michael
Ondaatje and Toronto.

6.  Writing from the Margins
 The twentieth century gave voice to marginalized people who previously
got little recognition for their literary contributions. The Harlem
Renaissance, for example, brought together African-Americans living in
New York to form a powerful literary movement. Writers such as
Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen and Zora Neale Hurston wrote fiction and
poetry that celebrated black identity. Similarly, female writers gained
recognition through novels that chronicled their own experience. Finally,
the post-colonial literary movement was born, with writers such as
Chinua Achebe writing stories on behalf of subjugated peoples who had
experienced colonization by Western powers.

7.  Individualism
 In this literature, the individual is more interesting than society.
Specifically, modernist writers were fascinated with how the individual
adapted to the changing world. In some cases, the individual triumphed
over obstacles. For the most part, Modernist literature featured characters
who just kept their heads above water. Writers presented the world or
society as a challenge to the integrity of their characters. Ernest
Hemingway is especially remembered for vivid characters who accepted
their circumstances at face value and persevered.

8.  Experimentation
 Writers broke free of old forms and techniques. Poets abandoned
traditional rhyme schemes and wrote in free verse. Novelists defied all
expectations. Writers mixed images from the past with modern languages
and themes, creating a collage of styles. The inner workings of
consciousness were a common subject for modernists. This preoccupation
led to a form of narration called stream of consciousness, where the point
of view of the novel meanders in a pattern resembling human thought.
Authors James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, along with poets T.S. Eliot and
Ezra Pound, are well known for their experimental Modernist works.

9.  Absurdity
 The carnage of two World Wars profoundly affected writers of the period.
Several great English poets died or were wounded in WWI. At the same
time, global capitalism was reorganizing society at every level. For many
writers, the world was becoming a more absurd place every day. The
mysteriousness of life was being lost in the rush of daily life. The senseless
violence of WWII was yet more evidence that humanity had lost its way.
Modernist authors depicted this absurdity in their works. Franz Kafka's
"The Metamorphosis," in which a traveling salesman is transformed into an
insect-like creature, is an example of modern absurdism.

10.  Symbolism
 The Modernist writers infused objects, people, places and events with
significant meanings. They imagined a reality with multiple layers, many of
them hidden or in a sort of code. The idea of a poem as a riddle to be
cracked had its beginnings in the Modernist period. Symbolism was not a
new concept in literature, but the Modernists' particular use of symbols
was an innovation. They left much more to the reader's imagination than
earlier writers, leading to open-ended narratives with multiple
interpretations. For example, James Joyce's "Ulysses" incorporates
distinctive, open-ended symbols in each chapter.

11.  Formalism
 Writers of the Modernist period saw literature more as a craft than a
flowering of creativity. They believed that poems and novels were
constructed from smaller parts instead of the organic, internal process that
earlier generations had described. The idea of literature as craft fed the
Modernists' desire for creativity and originality. Modernist poetry often
includes foreign languages, dense vocabulary and invented words. The
poet e.e. cummings abandoned all structure and spread his words all
across the page.

12.  Some popular works of twentieth century
literature
 1. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955).
 2. The Great Gats by by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925).
 3. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust (1913–27).
 4. Ulysses by James Joyce (1922).
 5. Dubliners by James Joyce (1916).
 6. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (1967).
 7. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner (1929).
 8. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (1927).
 9. The Stories of Flannery O’Connor (1925–64).
 10. Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (1936).
This Is It