6 Twentieth Century: Major Writers and Works

Dr. Sruti Ramachandran

The twentieth century witnessed a plethora of literary works which were radical as compared to those of the previous century. The chaos which erupted with the World Wars marred the human conscience across the world. Earlier concepts and influences were shaped by a generation shell shocked by the aftermath of the wars. Hence, the attitude and outlook of the writers of the time was rather like a forceful projectile.

The period is generally classified into modern and postmodern period. The era also saw the emergence of new literary techniques. And hence the literature of the twentieth century stands like a towering figure over other literary periods. In A Glossary of Literary Terms M.H. Abrams has listed major writers pertaining to the age. “Among the notable writers are the poets W.B.Yeats, Wilfred Owen, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Josef Conrad, James Joyce, D.H.Lawrence, Dorothy Richardson, Virginia Woolf… the dramatists G.B. Shaw, Sean O’ Casey, Noel Coward, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill…Tom Stoppard” (285) etc. A quick glance on these writers would provide the variant aspects of their literary panorama.

The introduction of the technique of stream of consciousness by Dorothy Richardson in her novel Pilgrimage (a series of 13 books) encouraged Virginia Woolf, James Joyce and the like to purport the same. But the works which marked the onset of modernism were The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot and Ulysses by James Joyce, both published in the year 1922.

The major outcome of the wars was the war poetry which depicted the war stripped of its exaggerated glory. Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves etc. were some of the war poets. Edward Albert cites in his History of English Literature that the sonnet ‘If I should die, think only this of me,’ (497) is the pioneering work of Robert Graves.

Siegfried Sassoon is best remembered for his collection Counter-attack. However Owen is the greatest among the war poets. He famously wrote “I am not concerned with poetry. My subject is war, and the pity of war” (Albert 499). ‘Strange Meeting ’,‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ etc. are some of his renowned poems. These poets are generally regarded as the poets of the First World War.

As mentioned earlier James Joyce (1882-1941) is one of the major figures among the writers of the age. Ulysses which took its thread from the Greek story Odyssey resulted in making Mary Bloom and Leopold Bloom household names in Ireland. Ulysses chronicles the experiences of Leopold Bloom in Dublin in the course of a single day, 16 June 1904. Ulysses is the Latinised name of Odysseus, the hero of Homer’s epic poem Odyssey, and the novel establishes a series of parallels between its characters and events and those of the poem. Joyce divided Ulysses into three parts which contains 18 chapters in all. The innovative style of this massive book made a breakthrough in modern literature.

Apart from this, Dubliners(1914), a collection of short stories caricaturing the people of Dublin and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)added to the renown of Joyce and twentieth century literature. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was originally titled  Stephen Hero based on the protagonist Stephan Dedalus. Joyce presents Stephen as a character in Ulysses as well. Finnegans Wake is the last novel by Joyce. His use of the ‘stream of consciousness’ technique is what that has made his works stand apart.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is Joyce’s first novel. It is a modern bildungsroman novel which traces the religious and intellectual awakening of young Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce. The name Dedalus is derived from Greek mythology. The novel is narrated by the growing protagonist from childhood to adulthood. Joyce describes the epiphany which helps him to decide his vocation. As a parallel he also describes the political scenario of Ireland. Dylan Thomas has written another work titled The Portrait of the Artist as a Dog.

The name Virginia Woolf (1882- 1941) associatively draws attention to A Room of One’s Own (1929). It is based on a series of lectures she delivered at Cambridge University in October 1928. Woolf asserts the need for the necessary requirements for the conditioning of a woman writer. Her work Jacob’s Room was also published in the year 1922 and the it is her narrative technique that makes her the outstanding female writer of the century. Her first novel Voyage Out (1915) followed the conventional pattern. It was originally titled ‘Melymbrosia.’ But the conscious use of interior monologues especially in her later works like Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando, a Biography (1928) etc., marked her way to fame. Woolf along with her husband founded the Hogarth Press and the Bloomsbury group.

Mrs.Dalloway has the titular character as its protagonist. Woolf presents the novel through the interior monologue of the eponymous character Clarissa Dalloway. The novel addresses Clarissa’s preparations for a party that she is to host. It also satirizes the British upper class. The character Clarissa was first introduced by Woolf in her debut novel The Voyage Out.

The Waste Land (1922) is the magnum opus of T.S. Eliot (1888- 1965) who donned many roles in the arena of literature. As a poet, critic, dramatist and editor he added feathers of glory to his cap of authorship. The barrenness induced into human life by the atrocities of the wars made Eliot portray the modern waste land. In his Notes to the poem, he cites J.G.Frazer’s The Golden Bough and Jessie Weston’s From Ritual to Romance as the main sources for his work. The poem which is divided into five sections- ‘The Burial of the Dead’, ‘ The Game of Chess’ , ‘ The Fire Sermon’, ‘ Death by Water’ and ‘What the Thunder said’ is dedicated to Ezra Pound, ‘the better craftsman.’

In fact it was Pound who edited the poem which was originally titled ‘He do the Police in Different Voices’ (Eliot’s working title). The poem was first published in the magazine called The Criterion. However his first volume of poems was Prufrock and Other Observations (1917). It is interesting that the name ‘Prufrock’ was actually taken from that of a furniture company whose truck Eliot had once seen next door. Other poetic collection of wide acclaim is Four Quartets (1944). It contains the four poems ‘Burnt Norton’, ‘East Coker’, ‘The Dry Salvages’ and ‘Little Gidding’. East Coker is the place where he has been laid to rest.

Along with Christopher Fry, Eliot was one of the pioneers of poetic drama in England. Murder in the Cathedral (1935), The Family Reunion (1939) etc. are some of the plays. Murder in the Cathedral describes the assassination of St. Thomas Beckett during the reign of Henry II. Eliot gives a verse rendering to the historical event.

The Sacred Wood (1920) is one of his major critical works and the concepts for which literature is indebted to him include ‘tradition and individual talent’, ‘objective correlative’ etc. Through the essay ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’ Eliot describes tradition as that which is best in literature from the past till the present. The theory of impersonality and the notion of objective correlative made the essay one of the most important works of the century. Eliot used the concept of ‘objective correlative’ in his essay ‘Hamlet and his Problems’ as well to cite Hamlet as an “artistic failure.”

W.B.Yeats (1865-1939) along with Lady Gregory, Sean O’ Casey, J.M. Synge, etc brought out a Celtic Revival in Irish literature. In fact Yeats is the first Irish writer to receive the Nobel Prize for literature. His poem ‘The Second Coming’ is one of the most anthologized works across the world. It states about the decline of the European civilization. It was in his work A Vision that he detailed his observations and ideas about the occult and his concept of gyre. The Tower, The Winding Stair and Other Poems etc. are some of his collections. Chinua Achebe took the title for his novel Things Fall Apart (1958) from the same. Another important fact pertaining to Yeats is that it was he who introduced Rabindranath Tagore to the Western world. Yeats wrote the preface to Gitanjali which was translated into English by Tagore himself.

The most vital aspect of the Irish Literary Revival was the establishment of the Abbey Theatre. The Dublin Trilogy by Sean O’ Casey (1884- 1964) which includes The Shadow of a Gunman, Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars and the plays of Synge like The Playboy of the Western World, The Shadow of a Gunman, Riders to the Sea established a solid position for Irish drama. But Yeats’ poems were those which sprouted roots in English language.

Joseph Conrad (1857- 1924), the Polish writer won accolades as well as ruthless criticism with the publication of the short story ‘Heart of Darkness’ in the collection Typhoon, and other Stories (1903). Though he intended to portray Africa and its people in a genuine light, his attempt had the opposite outcome. His fictional journey to the heart of country portrayed the country to the world in a bad light. Hence, it was vehemently criticized by Chinua Achebe. However, the story is that of the Imperial exploitation which takes place in Africa. .Nostromo- A Tale of the Seaboard (1904), The Secret Agent- A Simple Tale (1907) etc., are some of his best works.

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) placed himself in the lime light with the publication of his work Lady Chatterley’s Lover. It was banned soon after its release because of its direct and open treatment of sex. But later the case was won by its publisher ‘Penguin’ leading to the acceptance of the novel. However The White Peacock (1911) was the first among his novels to be published. Also The Rainbow (1915) was one of his first novels to be banned because of its obscenity. Women in Love is considered as the sequel of the same. Both The Rainbow and Women in Love portray the Brangwen sisters along with Rupert Birkin and Gerard Critch.

Sons and Lovers (1913) a well acclaimed work, is an autobiographical novel in which Lawrence depicted his family and its mining background. The protagonist Paul Morel is regarded as the depiction of the author himself. As a novelist Lawrence attempted to give his own interpretation of life through his works.

E.M. Forster (1879-1970) has only five novels to his credit but he is best remembered for the novels A Passage to India (1924) and Howards End (1910). Other novels include Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), The Longest Journey (1907), A Room with a View (1908). The protagonist of A Passage to India is Dr. Aziz. Forster deals with the theme of friendship between an Indian and a Westerner. He delineates whether it is possible in the context of British rule in India. In fact he wrote part of the book during his visit to India.

Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894- 1963) is popular for his novel Brave New World (1932). He took the title from one of the dialogues of Miranda in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest. His novel Crome Yellow (1921) is equally important for the character Madame Sosostris in The Waste Land is based on Huxley’s character in this novel. However his most successful novel was Point Counter Point (1928).

W.H. Auden (1907-1973) wrote the famous elegy ‘In Memory of W.B. Yeats’ established a name for Yeats as well as for himself. It is however an unconventional elegy.

Auden is also remembered for his group which was known as Auden’s group or ‘Poets of the Thirties’ or ‘Macspaunday’ or the ‘Pink poets’ It included Auden, Stephen Spender, Cecil Day Lewis, Louis MacNeice, etc.

Nineteen Eighty- Four (1949) and Animal Farm (1945) are the most famous works of George Orwell (Eric Hugh Blair; 1903-50). Orwell was born in Bihar, India. 1984 set the stage for dystopian novels and Animal Farm is a powerful political allegory. He was against Rudyard Kipling’s notion of ‘white man’s burden’ and attacked it in his novel Burmese Days (1934).

Nineteen Eighty-Four was a revolutionary novel of its times. The opening lines are equally famous: “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen” (Orwell 1). It brought out the idea of a future society in which the activity of every individual will be under surveillance. The notion of a ‘Big Brother’ watching over everyone’s actions was Orwell’s insight into the technological advancement of the future times.

In Animal Farm through the animal characters, each representing particular historical figures, Orwell attacked the rule of Stalin and his followers in the anti- Stalinist allegory. In his writings, Orwell was very much influenced by the historical events occurring in Russia.

A famous group of poets in the century was the Movement Poets spearheaded by Philip Larkin (1922-1985). Interestingly, Larkin was a librarian by profession. Elizabeth Jennings and Thom Gunn etc. were other prominent members of the group. ‘Church Going’, The Whitsun Wedding etc. by Larkin sounded unconventional and striking as compared to poetry of the previous century. He dealt with mundane experiences presented along the tangent of his interpretation which made them appealing. In ‘Church Going’ he deals with the future of religion, churches. He wonders whether people will go to church in the future. The hold that religion had over people declined during the post war years and hence the significance of the poem. He dealt with the concerns of the post- war England in his poetry and thus became a prominent writer in his time.

Ted Hughes (1930- 1998) and his animal poetry were in stark contrast to those of his contemporaries. Poems like ‘The Thought Fox’, ‘The Jaguar’ as well as his marriage with Sylvia Plath made him a reputed poet of the time. The Hawk in the Rain was his first collection of poetry. ‘Thought Fox’ makes use of excellent animal imagery to describe the writing process. It states how a particular thought takes shape in a poet’s mind and how it is transferred on to the page. More than his vocation as a poet, his role as the husband of Plath has invoked interest in literature students.

Seamus Heaney (1966- 2013), the Irish poet is also known for his modern day translation of the anonymous and extant epic in English literature Beowulf. Death of a Naturalist is one of his most famous collections. ‘Digging’ is one of the most popular poems in the collection. ‘Punishment’ is another poem which criticizes the attitude of the Irish society in particular and human attitude to social evils and those who are framed under the clutches of social rules. He was awarded Nobel Prize in 1995.

The modern age in drama was brought through the writings of Henrik Ibsen (1828- 1926) in Norway and Bernard Shaw in England. In fact Ibsen was the one who introduced the problem plays. He portrayed the affectations and vanity of the Norwegian society through his plays. Unlike conventional plays, his plays had only three to four acts. His fame reached the pedestal with the play A Doll’s House. The central character is Nora who created history by leaving her marital life with a bang. She closed the door as well as her identity as a wife when her womanhood was questioned by her husband. Based on societal insistence, Ibsen did make a second ending to the play but he never accepted it as a genuine closure. The original dramatic end has caused ripples in literary and social history then and now. Though it was looked down in the beginning later it became popular. Its protagonist Nora came to be regarded as proto- feminist.

Ibsen never restricted his themes by the societal limitations. He dealt with taboo topics. In Ghosts he dealt with incest and syphilis. He used his plays to prick the conscience of the society which hid its true colours under its façade. Captain Alving the much respected noble man has been dead for a few years. His widow Mrs. Alving builds an orphanage in his memory. Their son Oswald is an artist who has come from Paris for Christmas. The household duties are looked after by Regina, the maid for whom Mrs.Alving has much regard. Though at the beginning the play presents a normal high profile family, later on by revealing the dark colours of Captain Alving and Mrs. Alving’s efforts to keep up his false good name, the play brings out the affectations and pretentions imposed by society upon the lives of individuals. Other plays of Ibsen include An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, Pillars of the Society etc.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) developed through his social plays the concept of the new woman. Pygmalion (1913) was one of his best plays and it gained more popularity through its film adaptation My Fair Lady. The play presents the interesting turn of events surrounding Professor Higgings and Eliza Doolittle. Most of his plays belong to the nineteenth century but their influence was very much evident in the twentieth century as well. The Apple Cart and Saint Joan were his other plays of the period. Shaw portrayed the society aptly through his social plays. It is equally interesting that he is the only writer to have received the Nobel Prize and the Academy Award. One of his plays of the century is Three Plays for Puritans.

The arena of the post war fiction is dominated by many figures like Graham Greene, William Golding, Doris Lessing, Kingsley Amis etc. Grahame Greene (1904-1991) is known for his Catholic Novels- The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter, Brighton Rock, The End of the Affair. The Quiet American, A Gun for Sale etc. are some of his other novels.

H.G.Wells (1866-1946) was one of the pioneers of science fiction. His most acclaimed novel is The Time Machine (1895). The Invisible Man is yet another popular novel. Kipps (1905) was his renowned novel of the twentieth century. This saw to the start of Wells’ social novels.

William Gerald Golding (1911-1933) is best known for Lord of the Flies (1954). It was his first novel and most popular one as well. It is a dystopian novel which describes the activities of four children Ralph, Simon, Jack, Roger who are stranded on an island along with a group of young children. Other novels include The Inheritors (1955), Pincher Martin (1956), Free Fall (1959) and The Scorpion God (1971).

Doris May Lessing (1919-2013) topped the charts with her work The Golden Notebook (1962). It is about four notebooks written by an aspiring woman writer. Children of Violence (1952-65) is the overall title of four novels whose protagonist is Martha Quest.

Another prominent event in the fiction of the time was the emergence of the ‘Angry Young Man’. This was depicted mainly through the works of writers like Kingsley Amis and John Osborne. Amis’ popular novel was Lucky Jim (1954). However the concept was established by Osborne’s novel Look Back in Anger (1956).

The major turn in the writing of the century was the absurd plays by the dramatists of the ‘Theatre of the Absurd.’ Martin Esslin is the one who coined the term in his book The Myth of Sisyphus. Samuel Beckett, Jean Genett, Eugene Ionesco, Harold Pinter etc. were some of the pioneers of the absurd drama.

Waiting for Godot (1952) by Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) literally threw the unassuming audience into state of confusion. Vladimir, Estragon, Pozzo and Lucky are the only characters. They keep on waiting for the arrival of Godot and do so till the end of the play. The title has been given various interpretations over the years. Some regard it as waiting for God. It could also be seen as the state of modern man. The anticipation for a significant change in human life is a desire common to all. But life continues its routine journey which is in no way enigmatic or new. What one may feel as new in his or her life has happened to others across the world. End Game, Krapp’s Last Tape etc. are some of his other plays.

Harold Pinter (1930-2008) is known for his comedy of menace. Though his plays belong to the absurd genre they are different in a special way. The Birthday Party (1958) is one of his major plays. Other plays include The Dumb Waiter (1960), The Caretaker (1960), The Homecoming (1960), etc. The Birthday Party, Pinter’s first full length play, takes place in boarding house, the protagonist being Stanley. Meg, Petey, Goldberg, McCann and Lulu are the major characters. Stanley is a musician who has left his job since he didn’t want to be curtailed by the oppressive forces of the society. But at the end of the play he is subdued through the acts of Goldberg and McCann. The title refers to the party which is held by Meg to celebrate Stanley’s birthday. However it results in the culmination of Stanley’s individuality. The play strives for the freedom of the artist in the society.

Edward Bond (1934- ) is another playwright of the same genre. The Pope’s Wedding, Lear, The Bundle etc. are some of his plays. Bond re-examined Shakespeare’s play and brought out a new version and modern version of the play.

Arnold Wesker (1932- ) and Shelagh Delaney were some of the important practitioners of the kitchen sink drama. The name was actually derived from a painting depicting a kitchen sink. It suggests that the lives of those belonging to the lower end of the social ladder are as equal as the others on the top. The drama aimed to depict the lives of the British working class who struggled to balance the routine of their existence. This influenced similar type of plays all over the world. It helped to bring to the forefront the life of working class. Arnold’s trilogy is a major contribution to the genre: Chicken Soup with Barley, Roots, I’m Talking About Jerusalem. Delaney’s major play was A Taste of Honey.

It is pertinent to note that there were many writers who belonged to the post-war century. Arnold Bennett was acclaimed for his novels of the five towns. Anna of the Five Towns is one among them. The detective stories of Arthur Conan Doyle especially The Hound of the Baskervilles was well-received. Most of the world renowned works were published during this period. They include Kafka’s Metamorphosis(1915), Somerset Maugham’s Of Human Bondage, Ezra Pound’s Hugh Selwyn Mauberley, Lytton Strachey’s Eminent Victorians, Lugi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga, Cummings’ Tulips and Chimneys, Noel Coward’s Hay Fever, Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms etc.

The twentieth century which was torn into pieces by the wars motivated the writers to arrange the fragments into profound patterns. This led to the rise of the modernist and post-modernist genre which found its strength literally from the dying embers of war. All the major writers and the associated movements in turn, continue to influence the writings of the twenty- first century as well.

Reference

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• Bansal, Anupama and Satish Kumar. A History of English Literature. Agra: Lakshmi Narain Agarwal, 2009. Print.
• Bradbury, Malcolm and James McFarlane. Modernism: A Guide to European Literture,1890- 1930. Harmondsmouth: Penguin, 1991. Print.
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• http://www.theartsdesk.com/visual-arts/listed-poems-inspired-paintings
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