World Literature – Interwar Period Overview

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering notable interwar authors from American, French, English, German, and Russian literature, including biographical facts, major works, and publication dates.

Ernest Hemingway

American 'Lost Generation' author who served as an ambulance driver in World War I, received the Nobel Prize in 1954, and wrote Sbohem, armádo (1929).

William Faulkner

American author who created the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha, won the Nobel Prize in 1949, and wrote Hluk a vřava (1929).

Yoknapatawpha

The fictional county created by American author William Faulkner in his literary works.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

American author regarded as the chronicler of the 1920s 'Jazz Age' and the author of Velký Gatsby (1925).

Theodore Dreiser

Representative of American naturalism and author of Americká tragédie (1925).

John Steinbeck

American author who depicted poverty during the Great Depression, received the Nobel Prize in 1962, and authored Hrozny hněvu (1939).

Romain Rolland

French pacifist author who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1915 and wrote Jan Kryštof (1904–1912).

Henri Barbusse

French author who won the Prix Goncourt for his war novel Oheň (1916).

André Gide

French writer who won the Nobel Prize in 1947 and authored Penězokazi (1925).

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

French aviator who went missing on a flight during the war and wrote Malý princ (1943).

André Breton

Founder of Surrealism (author of Manifest surrealismu, 1924) who wrote the novel Nadja (1928).

John Galsworthy

English author who won the Nobel Prize in 1932 and wrote the Forsytovská sága (1906–1921).

George Bernard Shaw

Irish playwright who won both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar, and authored Pygmalion (1913).

James Joyce

Irish author who pioneered the stream of consciousness technique and wrote Odysseus (1922).

Virginia Woolf

English author and member of the Bloomsbury Group who wrote Paní Dallowayová (1925).

Bloomsbury Group

The English intellectual and literary circle to which Virginia Woolf belonged.

D. H. Lawrence

English author whose famous novel Milenec lady Chatterleyové (1928) was banned for a long period in Britain.

George Orwell

English author whose real name was Eric Arthur Blair and who wrote Farma zvířat (1945).

J. R. R. Tolkien

Oxford Professor of Anglo-Saxon and author of Hobit (1937).

Bertolt Brecht

German dramatist and creator of epic theatre who wrote Třígrošová opera (1928).

Heinrich Mann

German author, older brother of Thomas Mann, and author of Poddaný (1918).

Thomas Mann

German author who won the Nobel Prize in 1929 and wrote Kouzelný vrch (1924).

Lion Feuchtwanger

German writer who emigrated to the USA to escape the Nazis and authored Žid Süss (1925).

Erich Maria Remarque

German author who fought in WWI, had his books burned by the Nazis, and wrote Na západní frontě klid (1929).

Hermann Hesse

German author and later Swiss citizen who received the Nobel Prize in 1946 and wrote Stepní vlk (1927).

Čingiz Ajtmatov

Kyrgyz writer (born 1928) who wrote in Russian and Kyrgyz, authored Džamila (1958), and whose major works were produced post-war rather than during the interwar period.

Isaak Babel

Russian author arrested under Joseph Stalin and executed in 1940, known for Rudá jízda (1926).

Michail Bulgakov

Russian author and physician by original profession who wrote Mistr a Markétka (written 1928–1940, published in the 1960s).

Maxim Gorkij

Russian author whose real name was Peškov (his pseudonym meaning 'bitter') and author of Matka (1906).

Vladimir Nabokov

Russian emigrant writer and butterfly specialist (lepidopterist) who authored Lolita (1955).

Boris Pasternak

Russian author who was pressured to decline the 1958 Nobel Prize and wrote Doktor Živago (1957).