The dominating group of that time

Left – wing poets

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Auden Group

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Mac|sp|aun|day

Louis MacNeice Stephen Spender W.H.Auden C.Day – Lewis

• Relief in man, sympathy, etc.

• Charity, harmony in poetry, more leader – friendly

• Children of T.S. Eliot, 2nd generation – they carry on with the solutions form T.S Eliot introduced)

• Poem: succession of image, concepts, not strict form

• Balance, hormony

• W.H. Auden – the most famous, poet without experiences, poet of happy & important

• Wonderful love poems

• Sonet free verse

Another Group: New Romanticism

• Not connected with an situation, set of motifs, themes

• Comming back to Romanticism

• W.B. Yeats is also classified as a New Romantic

Dylan Thomas

• Died > 40 years old

• Poetry of high emotions, extremes, without any same, reservations

• Irrational vital, biologically motivated

• He was Welsh, heavy drunkard passionato man

• Bpdy, senses feeling, emotion

• Seems to be a poetry of chaos, disorder but his chaos is carefully organized; the order is deeper

• Sources of inspiration:

1. welshness (nature, people, landscapes – even described negatively)

2. Visio of sexuality, sexual driver

3. birth, death, rebirth (eternal cycle of life)

4. the Bible, religion – not only religious poetry, often criticism on religion

• his language: a linguistic poet, playing with words, Bendig the language

PROSE

• a sort of a shift from modernist concept of writing

• the subject matter: analysis of realizing; come back to realism rejected by modernism - as a technique of writing (rather easy, not „disturbing” anybody

• the form of the novel was simple, no striking form, stream of consciousness was much reduced

• novels directed At a different kind of readers than those modernist ones

• can be read by most of the public, for an average leader, not intellectual elite

• satire – (a didactic genre + humor cockery) in some period it flourished then was not important, than again flourished (like in 1930’s) it tender to appear or disappear in periods of crisis discussion

• most novels at that time were satires

• 1st. Group – writers continuing the part of modernist writers

• 2nd. Group – debuting in 1930

• 3rd. Group – complete outsiders, e.g. Aghata Christie

1gr. ALDOUS HUXLEY

• A transitional figure between modernism (Point Counterpoint) and the lit. Of 1930’s (Brave New Word – novel of ideas, anti utopia, warning against totalitarism)

• „Point Counterpoint” the transitional novel

• Very clear modernist side; innovation, experimentation

• Written like a musical composition

• Clear metafiction – metafictional novel – novel abort writing a novel

• A diary of a writer

• A social satire (1930’s) on particular characters

Wyndham Lewis

• underrated, believed to be obsolete

• rather the writer for the elites

• painter

• grotesque, black humor, satire

Evelyn Waugh

• a short story – man lost in american jungle, enslaved and forced to read Dickens by a crazy man

Graham Greene

• convention of det. Story, romance (simple but not simplistic form)

• plus smuggling complicated issues

WYKŁAD ??

Novels – Early Post War Years

II WW doesn't change much about literature, as a subject war is not much imporant, more important Welfare State etc.

changes in literature---> in mid 50s

in 1940s most important ATTITUDE TO MODERNISM, a great deal of continuation of V.Woolf's & J.Joyce's works

interior monologue+stream of consciousness → still followed, CONSISTENCE OF MODERNIST PATTERNS + INTEREST IN HUMAN MIND, SENSIVITY, but SIMPLIFIED-> much more available to reading public, you do not introduce anything new

Good writers on a minor scale:

Leslie Poles Hartley – writer in the shadow of J.Joyce

„The Go-Between” - „Posłaniec”; story about romance across class discrepancy story told from the point of view of protagonist; from

hints we realize the story was quite different

nice illustration as modernist experiences are put on minor scale, interior monologue etc.-----> on minor scale, very approachable, more available, more digestible version

„Facial Justice” utopia, grim vision of the future, the literal understanding of t he premise treated very literal way, some people who are beautiful undergo plastic surgery to fit the rest ,everyone is ugly in this world These versions are minor novels, not revolutionary novels, but well-written

In early post war years: The point of Reference: MODERNISM

Charles Percy Snow – perform a role of intellectual, the class of academics as he came from this class, traditional understanding of academy as humanity came to the end, wrote a series of novels with „a new man”, this series is called „Strangers & Brothers” 19 novels, published 1940-1970 → the last publish, skeleton of stories: common protagonist.

Snow captures change in England, TIME is a great structuralist, image of life is completely different, it recordes changes which took place over 30 years

Anthony Powell (publication1951-1975?) – series consisted of 12 novels with the same protganist,

the title „A Dance to the Music of Time” not only records of events but also interpretative ambitions, how TIME changes events, how it constructs our understanding&meaning, music is also important, written like a musical composition,

a sort of documentation of English society, artistically more important

These days are not probably read, but they are good minor writers

Neo Modernists- the group of writers -continue patterns of Modernism, experimental, showing slowly moving away from MODERNISM

Lawrence Durrel „Alexandria Quartet” published 1957-1960 perfect example of Modernism technique, consists of 4 books, setting is in Alexandria, an influence of Music, experiment told from 4 different points of view, a sort of romance, a wonderful example of modernist technique (ten fragment mam oddzielony od reszty wykłądu, wydaje mi się że dr dopowiadała nam o dziele który powinnyśmy znać z liteatruoznastwa a którego nie przerabliśmy)

Samuel Beckett more prose novels than dramas, started writing before the war, the titles are

1. „Murphy”

2. „Molloy”

3. „Molone”

4. „The Unnamable”

Most of features visible in this play, general PITY around the protagonist, use of silence, impossibility &lack of knowledge, seeking for some kind of answer, answer is never known, PITY of human mind, philosophy of ABSURD

„The Unnamable” very different to others, referring to themselves, AUTOTHEMATIC, the attempt to create the illusion of REALITY, what are you reading is a true story, not showing fiction as a construction, a slow shift in this book

moving away from MODERNISM:

Malcolm Lowry- „Under the Volcano” represent one protagonist, his life, novels which pose question WHAT IS HUMAN LIFE, for Joyce life= constant wandering, for Beckett life= absurd, for Lowry= fight for happiness, sometimes won, sometimes lost,

Flan O'Brien- „At Swim-Two-Birds” parody of modernist writing and J.Joyce, collage of all kinds of writings: shopping list letters, guidebook to imitate JJ, book does not make sense, free beginnings, what is shown: how u write novel, how u construct it, satire of any kind of prolongation of modernism

Writers who opposed modernism:

ANGRY YOUNG MAN (movement, in fiction interested in psychology, bringing new protagonists, characters, interested more in psychology rather than artistic forms, move backwards: BACK TO VICTORIANISM, for sth new England has to wait very long time,

• Kinglsey Amis „Lucky Jim”published 1954, critique of university system, introduction of a specific type of protagonist which is referred as ANTI HERO,

• Allan Sillitoe „Samotność długodystansowca” he came from the working class, the opens the perspective of the world

WYKŁAD ??

PROSE OF 1970S AND 1980S

beginning 1970s---> decade of complainers, general climate of complaining, conclusion after 1960s---> very pessimistic

in 1970s Bergonzi published „The State of the Novel” -

last days of British novel ,nthg new, writers repeating patterns, bitter diagnosis,

he compares Britsh novel to French which at that time was much better, even American literature was better, but Bergonzi's conclusion was wrong, wrong vision for future,

in late 1960s, 1970s, 1980s: REGENERATION OF BRITISH NOVEL

SIGNALS OF CHANGE, signals which change the British novel:

1. ALLEGORICAL FICTION (T he Spire)

IRIS MURDOCH- he wrote allegorical fiction novels, his novels depart from reality, society, stories about human beings, presentation of universal phenomenon plus fabulation

FABULATION- fiction which does not try to present reality, the pleasure lies in story telling

allegory- associated with Middle Times, not innovative, but! It does mark change, way of changing reality, read as universal story, very decisive good bye to reality,

2. SATIRICAL FICTION to tell about some crisis, refers to particular reality, DIDACTIVE PURPUSE,to include the change, in 60s didn't appear any crisis, not corrective function, this satire doesn't refer to any particular reality, chief writer Muriel Spark „Memento Mori” about people who are 80s and receive strange phonecalls, the more you read, the more grotesque it becomes, difficult kind of satire, not political, not social, SATIRE OF OUR VISION OF LIFE&DEATH, another writer ANTHONY BURGESS „The Clockwork Orange” how we treat people, what are the limits of human freedom, not a traditional kind of writing

3. EXPERIMENTAL FICITION

B.S.Johnoson believed that writing realistic novels is taken by cinema, to present reality → cinema, photography,ficiton is not to represnt reality, B.S.Johnson „Albert Angelo”, self-conscious writing, typografical devices, experimental devices, experimental novels, reading stories is not to find life in them, FICTION IS FICTION, not reality, „The Unfortunates” published in 20 sections which came out in one box, story is just creation, interpretion of novels change

Julio Cortazar „Hopscotch” (Gra w klasy) ntg natural in the construction of nvel, reader is to decide what the structure is, ntg necessary about fiction writing, fiction- a certain structure with rules which can be arranged any way you want to, not a transcript from reality.

4. METAFICITON „The French...” ficiton does not refer only to reality, to fiction in itself, proces of novel writing, very natural of fiction, fiction is art rather than reality, you are in fiction not in reality, an example „The Counterfeiters” by Andre Gide novel about writing novel, to write about fiction, easier than about reality.

3 characteristic features of novels in 1970s/1980s

a) type of history

Graham Swift „Waterland” what is history, how it affects our life, how can we construct history,? From the point of view of losers? Lets tell our point of story, how it looks like from our point of view

b) post-colonial influence

Salman Rushdie (magical realism)

Ben Okri

litearute in english, english literature is coloured by natives

c) inluence of feminism

Angela Carter

Jeanette Winterson

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Joanna Buras, Mateusz Krzywanowski czerwiec 2010