Modern British and American Literature

England and America are two countries separated by a common language. George Bernard Shaw

Historical Context
Dynamic exists between event and human response. World affects artisthe/she feels compelled to create in order to respond art Guernica music literature

EventArt form--Movement

Vietnam War60s music

Hippie Generation

Modern History
Change from the set ways of Victorian/Edwardian Ages everything was based on rules all aspects of life were governed relationships meals dress Created a FACADE

Change
Inventions as life became easier with time-saving devices, people had more time for THINKING which leads to QUESTIONS

On or about December 1910, human character changed. All human relationships shiftedthose between master and servant, husband and wife, parent and children. And when human relations shift, there is at the same time a change in religion, conduct, politics and literature. Virginia Woolf

War!
World War I- most pivotal event of 20th C New innovations in weapons mustard gas machine guns First time that destruction on such a major scale was possible blood- dimmed tide--Yeats

The Great War and Petty Peace---H.G. Wells

U.S. enters the war 1917 Armistice- Nov. 11, 1918 Treaty of Versailles 1919 Foch-This is not a peace. This is an armistice
for twenty years

The Irish Rebellion

Unrest over British rule religious differences Irish Catholics/Protestant Anglicans Easter 1916-Dublin-rebellion squashed by British became martyrs

Irish Nationalism
Surged after Easter uprising guerilla warfare 1921 Britain granted independence to Irish Free Stateall of Ireland except six Protestant counties in the province of Ulster in the North

Make it New-Ezra Pound

After the impact of World War Ibacklash in art world The World no longer followed the rules, so why should Art? Artistic movements respond to trauma with creativity

Change in Art

The World Around

Characteristics of Modern Literature

Experimental
Presents human experience in fragments Reader needs to piece it together Art becomes participatory

Characteristics (cont)
Uses techniques of Naturalism/Realism
Realismdetails of everyday life Naturalismexamines the social and economic problems of the working class

Characteristics
Use of Psychological Insights Psychological Realism Freudsubconscious / sexual motivation Jung race memories/collective subconscious William Jamesstream of consciousnes

Stream of Consciousness
Human mind does not work in chronological order Jumps from the present-past-future Reality to an individual is not linear