Early 20th Century Literature

Vocabulary flashcards covering major literary movements, authors, plays, and novels from the Edwardian and early 20th-century period based on the lecture notes.

Art Nouveau

A decorative style originating in France that flourished from the 1880s to 1914, serving as a transition between 19th-century historic revivalism and modernism, characterized by asymmetry, sinuous lines, elongated female figures, and stylized floral curves.

Joseph Conrad

Polish-born British novelist (born Jozef Korzeniowski) and forerunner of modernism whose psychologically probing novels explore themes of guilt, heroism, honor, and colonial exploitation.

Almayer's Folly

Joseph Conrad's 1895 debut novel focusing on the life of Dutch trader Kaspar Almayer in the Borneo jungle and his relationship with his half-caste daughter Nina.

The Nigger of Narcissus: A Tale of the Sea

An 1897 novel by Joseph Conrad featuring tuberculosis-afflicted West Indian sailor James Wait on a voyage from Bombay to London; famous for its preface defining art as a single-minded attempt to render justice to the visible universe.

Heart of Darkness

An 1899 novella by Joseph Conrad following Marlow's journey into the Congo to find the ivory trader Kurtz, exploring themes of savagery, civilization, and colonial exploitation.

Lord Jim

An 1899 Conrad novel detailing a ship captain who abandons his ship Patna and spends his remaining adult life in the South Seas seeking moral redemption.

Nostromo

A 1904 political novel by Conrad set in the fictional Latin American country of Costaguana, centered around silver mining, political corruption, and an Italian expatriate named Nostromo.

Rudyard Kipling

Bombay-born author, poet, and winner of the 1907 Nobel Prize in Literature; celebrated for his short stories and novels set in India, though later criticized as a 'Prophet of British imperialism'.

Kim

A 1901 picaresque novel by Rudyard Kipling following the Irish orphan Kimball O'Hara as he becomes the disciple of a Tibetan Lama and an agent in 'The Great Game'.

"The White Man's Burden"

An 1899 poem by Rudyard Kipling subtitled 'The United States and the Philippine Islands' that called on America to engage in colonial expansion following the Spanish-American War.

H.G. Wells

English author and outspoken socialist who wrote 'scientific romances' (futuristic science fiction) as well as satirical and social realism novels.

The Time Machine

An 1895 novel by H.G. Wells following the Time Traveller to AD 802701, where humanity has split into two species: the graceful, childlike Eloi and the subterranean, predatory Morlocks.

The War of the Worlds

An 1898 novel by H.G. Wells depicting a Martian invasion of England that is ultimately thwarted when the Martians succumb to earthly bacteria.

New Woman

A feminist ideal emerging in the late 19th century—popularized by Henry James and depicted in H.G. Wells's Ann Veronica—referring to educated, independent career women aligned with the suffragette movement.

John Galsworthy

English playwright and novelist who won the 1932 Nobel Prize in Literature and critiqued upper-middle-class social conventions and snobbery.

The Forsyte Saga

A 1922 roman-à-fleuve trilogy (with two interludes) by John Galsworthy tracing the rise to wealth and social dynamics of an English upper-middle-class family.

Arnold Bennett

English novelist and playwright whose major realist works (The Old Wives' Tale, Clayhanger Trilogy) were set in the industrial Potteries district of Staffordshire, which he termed the 'Five Towns'.

Ford Madox Ford

Prominent editor and novelist who helped transition English literature toward modernism; best known for The Good Soldier and the Parade's End tetralogy.

E.M. Forster

Secular humanist novelist whose motto 'Only connect' emphasized human empathy and understanding across societal and cultural divides in works like Howards End and A Passage to India.

A Passage to India

A 1924 novel by E.M. Forster set in Chandrapore and the Marabar Caves that explores the complex, tense dynamics and ultimate irreconcilability of friendships between Indians and the British colonial rulers.

Saki

The pen name of H.H. Munro, an Edwardian author known for witty, satirical short stories such as 'The Open Window'.

G.K. Chesterton

Catholic theologian, author, and 'prince of paradox' who created the detective Father Brown and coined the phrase 'Victorian Compromise'.

Georgian Poetry

A series of five poetry anthologies (1912–1922) edited by Edward Marsh that featured rustic, pastoral themes and traditional tones, later criticized by T.S. Eliot for political and stylistic conservatism.

Rupert Brooke

Georgian war poet famous for his idealist and patriotic war sonnets, most notably 'The Soldier', before his death from blood poisoning in 1915.

Wilfred Owen

World War I poet who documented the grim reality and 'pity of War' in poems like 'Dulce et Decorum Est' and 'Strange Meeting', utilizing innovative para-rhyme techniques.

Para-rhyme

A poetic technique involving half-rhyme or double consonance used extensively by Wilfred Owen to evoke a solemn, disturbing, and dissonant mood.

Good-Bye to All That

A 1929 autobiography by Robert Graves documenting his unhappy days at Charterhouse School, his harrowing experiences with trench warfare in World War I, and his friendships with poets like Siegfried Sassoon.

George Bernard Shaw

Irish Fabian socialist, critic, and dramatist who modernized English drama with Ibsenite 'plays of ideas', winning both the 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature and a 1938 Oscar.

Arms and the Man

An 1894 anti-romantic comedy play by George Bernard Shaw set during the Serbo-Bulgarian War, satirizing romance and military heroism through the characters of Raina Petkoff and Captain Bluntschli.

Pygmalion

A 1912 play by George Bernard Shaw in which phonetics expert Professor Higgins bets he can transform cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a refined duchess.

Saint Joan

A 1923 historical play by George Bernard Shaw dramatizing the life, trial, execution, and legacy of Joan of Arc.

J.M. Synge

Irish playwright, poet, and Abbey Theatre co-founder whose works centered on rural Catholic Irish peasant life, best known for Riders to the Sea and The Playboy of the Western World.

Riders to the Sea

A 1904 one-act tragedy by J.M. Synge set in the Aran Islands depicting the grieving mother Maurya, who loses all the male members of her family to the sea.

The Playboy of the Western World

A 1907 three-act play by J.M. Synge set in County Mayo that triggered riots in Dublin due to its unheroic, satirical portrayal of Irish villagers celebrating Christy Mahon's claim of patricide.

Sean O'Casey

Irish working-class dramatist noted for his realistic and expressionistic plays on Irish independence, including the Dublin Trilogy (The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars).