12. Literature before WWII

What is modernism about?

A movement from the late 19th to much of the 20th century, characterized by a strong and intentional break with tradition.

What is an experimental novel about?

It rejects traditional 19th-century realism (omniscient narrator, chronological linear narrative), focusing instead on different points of view and subjective perception of reality (emphasis on internal rather than external reality).

What is the stream of consciousness about?

A narrative mode that portrays a character's internal thoughts (interior monologue), often using disorganized, unfinished sentences without logical sequence to reflect the chaotic state of the human psyche.

Used by James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

Who wrote Ulysses?

James Joyce.

Who wrote Mrs. Dalloway & To the Lighthouse (which used stream-of-consciousness)?

Virginia Woolf.

What is a non-experimental novel?

When many modernist writers, though sharing thematic interests, did not extensively use experimental techniques.

Who wrote Lady Chatterley’s Lover?

D.H Lawrence.

Who advocated an impersonal theory of poetry?

Thomas Stearns Eliot.

Who wrote The Waste Land (which perfectly expressed the disquiet of the "lost generation"?

T.S Eliot.

Who is an Irish Nobel Prize-winning poet influenced by French symbolism and Irish legends?

William Butler Yeats.

What is realism about?

A significant return to realism occurred after 1930, focusing on inter-war problems (economic crisis, political gloom) through satire, political novels, and journalistic novels.

Who wrote Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, and Brideshead Revisited (which satirizes aristocratic decline but also expresses admiration)?

Evelyn Waugh.

What is dystopian fiction about?

They depict imagined societies that are dehumanizing and frightening, serving as the opposite of a utopia.

Who wrote Brave New World?

Aldous Huxley.

What is the most famous British dystopia, depicting a terrifying totalitarian state?

Nineteen Eighty-Four (George Orwell).

Which poet was the most prominent in the 1930s and 40s, who focused on social and political matters?

Wystan Hugh Auden.

Who contributed significantly to the neo-romantic movement?

Dylan Thomas.