Lectures 11-12.

The Angries: prose and drama. The Absurd theatre.

The Angry Young Men were very popular in the 1950s-1960s. Though they are looked upon as a movement, they never agreed to be a group: this was the label that was all right with the critics. The name goes back to the play by John Osborne “Look Back in Anger” (1956). It has lost a lot of its strength now, but at the time it made a huge impression on the British audiences.

The writers, such as John Braine (“Room at the Top”), Kingsley Amis (“Lucky Jim”), Allan Sillitoe (“Saturday Night and Sunday Morning”), David Storey (“This Sporting Life”) are classed with the Angries.

In the 50-s alongside with the Angry theatre there appeared the so-called absurd theatre. The angry theatre was realistic. It presented familiar characters in familiar situations. The absurd theatre starts elsewhere. The dramatist is concerned with the human condition in general. The emphasis is not on time and place, but rather on the eternal. The most famous English dramatist of the absurd is Samuel Beckett (1906-1989). S.Beckett was born and educated in Dublin, but finally made his home in Paris. He wrote in French and then translated himself into English. For some time he worked as a secretary for J.Joyce. S.Beckett made his name with his play “Waiting for Godot” (1952).

It has only five characters and practically no action. Two characters are waiting by the roadside for some person to appear. They conduct some idle conversation. We get some information about them, but it does not make a picture. One seems to have some education, which another seems to lack. One is lazier, the other is more active. It is not clear till the very end, who this mysterious Godot, who never comes, may be. There is a scanty hint, it is a religious figure, someone like a messia. But this may be a social messia, like a trade union or a party leader. The essence is, that the people do not want to help themselves and are senselessly waiting for someone to come and help the. It makes one laugh and makes one sad at one time. The play is a satire of inactivity to do something to improve one’s position.

It is a satirical picture of humanity under all conditions. S.Beckett got a Nobel Prize in 1969. The play is still on in London.

Part 2. Self-control questions.

1. What are the salient features of modernism?

2. Who are the most famous English writers, elaborating new modernist techniques?

3. Why did the modernist writers widely use the “mythical method”?

4. Explain the origin and essence of the “stream of consciousness technique”.

5. What is the mood of the war poetry in England?

6. What is the “Irish Renaissance”?

7. What was the sentiment of the thirties of the last century and how was it reflected in the literary work of the period?

8. What is there in common between the writing of E. Waugh and G Greene?

9. Why did G. Greene forbid publishing his works in the Soviet Union?

10. How did the English writers treat the colonial theme (R. Kipling, E. M. Forster)?

11. What are the most famous books in the genre of antiutopia, written before and after the Second World War?

12. How did the “Angry Young Men” get their name? What does the “angry” quality of their works consist in?

13. How did the absurd theatre start?

14. What are the peculiarities of I. Murdoch’s method and why did he critics label it as “transcendental realism”?

Part 3. Литература:

Михальская Н.П. История английской литературы. М., «Академия», 2006.- 480 с.

Delaney D., Ward C., Florina C.R. Fields of Vision. Literature in the English Language. V.2. - Longman, 2003. 207 p.

Дополнительная литература:

1. Allen, W. The English Novel before 1914: A Short Critical History. London, 1954.

2. Bedient C. Architects of the Self. T.S.Eliot, D.H. Lawrence and E. M.Forster. London, 1972.

3. Burgess, Anthony. English Literature. A Survey for Students. Essex: Longman, 1996.

4. Carter R., Mcrae, J. The Penguin Guide to English Literature: Britain and Ireland. Penguin Books, 1995.

5. Corcoran, Neil. English Poetry since 1940. – N.Y., 1993.

6. Cuddon J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Penguin Books, 1991.

7. Ford B. The Pelican Guide to English Literature. Penguin Books, 1963.

8. Gindin J. Postwar British fiction. New Accents and Attitudes. California, 1962.

9. Gower R. Past into Present. An Anthology of English and American Literature. Longman, 1996. – 470 p.

10. Guide to English and American literature. Учебное пособие по английской и американской литературе. Составитель О.В. Зубанова – М.: «Менеджер», 1997. – 224 с.

11. Gunner, Eugenia M. T.S.Eliot’s Romantic Dilemma: Tradition’s Antitraditional Elements. N.Y., London, 1985.

12. Hall, James. The Lunatic Giant in the Drawing Room. The British and American Novel since 1940. Bloomington, London, 1968.

13. Levenson M.H. A Genealogy of Modernism: A Study of English literary doctrine 1908-1922. Cambridge, 1982.

14. McEwan, Neil. The Survival of the Novel. British Fiction in the Later Twentieth century. London, 1983.

15. Ninety-Nine Novels. The Best in English since 1899. A Personal Choice by A.Burgess. London, 1984.

16. Ousby, Ian. The Wordsworth Companion to Literature in English. - Cambridge Univ. Press, 1992.

17. The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature. Ed. by P.Rogers. - Oxford, N.Y., 1994.

18. Thornley G., Roberts G. An Outline of English Literature. - Longman, 1995.

19. Todd, R. Convention and Innovation in British Fiction 1981-84: The Contemporaneity of Magic Realism// Convention and Innovation in Literature. Amsterdam, Philadelphia, 1989.

20. Аллен У. Традиция и мечта. Критический обзор английской и американской прозы с 20-х годов до сегодняшнего дня. М.: Прогресс, 1970.

21. Бабенко В.Г. Драматургия современной Англии. – М., 1981.

22. Балашов П.С. Писатели-реалисты ХХ века на Западе: Очерки жизни и творчества. – М., 1984.

23. Дворко Ю.В. Основные тенденции британской прозы 80-х годов ХХ века. – АКД, М., 1992.

24. Жантиева Д.Г. Джеймс Джойс. – М., 1967.

25. Ивашева В.В. Литература Великобритании ХХ века. – М., 1984.

26. Ивашева В.В. Что сохраняет время. Литература Великобритании 1945-1977. - М., 1979.

27. Ионкис Г.Э. Английская поэзия ХХ века. - М., 1980.

28. Ионкис Г.Э. Эстетические искания поэтов Англии 1910-1930. – Кишинев, 1979.

29. Каули, М. Дом со многими окнами. – М., Прогресс, 1973.

30. Кеттл, Арнольд. Введение в историю английского романа. М., 1967.

31. Конрад Н.И. Запад и Восток. – М., 1974.

32. Михальская Н.П., Аникин Г.В. Английский роман ХХ века. – М., Высшая Школа, 1984.

33. Скуратовская Н.Э. Проблемы поэтики языка и стиля английского романа 1950-70 гг. – Л., 1988.

34. Урнов Д.М. Джозеф Конрад. – М., 1977.

35. Урнов Д.М. Художественный мир Бернарда Шоу. – М., 1986.

36. Урнов М.В. Вехи традиции в английской литературе. – М., 1986.

37. Цветкова М.В. Основные тенденции в английской поэзии 50-70-х годов ХХ века (Ф.Ларкин, Т.Ганк, Т.Хъюз). – АКД, М., 1990.

38. Шестаков Д.П. Современная английская драма: Осборновцы. – М., 1968.

Part 4. Test yourself in English literature.

Образцы тестовых заданий:

1. Which of the trends in English literature is inspired with the Japanese poetry (with its tiny form, such as “haiku”)?

a) constructivism c) surrealism

b) impressionism d) imagism

2. Stephen Dedalus is the main character of the book

1. “The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”

2. “Ulysses”

3. Both of them

4. None of them

Вопросы к зачету:

1. W.Golding and his allegorical novel.

2. Psychological novel: D.H.Lawrence.

3. Postmodernist novel: J.Fowles.

4. Modernism, its salient features.

5. V.Woolf and the development of the English novel. Symbolism and the stream of consciousness” technique.

6. J.Joyce and his innovation. Myth and symbolism in his books “The Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man” and “Ulysses”.

7. T.S.Eliot and his poem “The Waste Land”. His mythical method.

8. Poetry in Britain at the beginning of the XXth century: T.S.Eliot, E.Pound, W.B.Yeats.

9. The war poetry and the war prose: R.Brooke, S.Sassoon, W.Owen; Ford M.Ford, R.Aldington, D.Jones.

10. J.Conrad: his life and literary work.

11. The colonial theme: R.Kipling and E.M.Forster.

12. English drama in the 20^th century.

13. Topicality in drama :G.B.Shaw.

14. Antiutopia in the British 20^th century literature: A.Huxley and G.Orwell.

15. Writing and Religion: E.Waugh and G.Greene.

16. The prose and the drama of “the Angries”. The absurd theatre.

17. English poetry before and after the 2^nd world War: W.H.Auden and D.Thomas.

18. R. Kipling, singer of the Empire.

19. O.Wilde, aesthete and killer of Victorianism. “The Picture of Dorian Gray”’ “The Importance of Being Earnest”.

20. I.Murdoch’s philosophical novel.