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q Name:- Lalji. G. Baraiya.
q Course:- M.A.-2 , Sm-3.
q Year:- 2019-’20.
q Roll no.:- 17.
q Enrollment no.:-2069108420190001.
q Paper no.:- 9(Modernist Literature).
q Total words:- 1,583
q Submitted to:- Smt.
S.B.Gardi.Dep.of Engllish Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University.
·
What is Modern literature
? with Characteristics of Modern age.
vIntroduction:-
This period sees the
end of the reign of Queen Victoria and of the stability which the country had
so long enjoyed. The shock administered by the Boer War to the later years 0f
the reign helped to divert attention from the cruder conceptions of imperial
expansion to social problem at home. There ensued a period of sweeping social
reform and unprecedented progress.
vGeneral
characteristics of the age:-
The
modern age has fairly distinctive or unique characters. It transformed the
whole fabric of private and social life and wrought a revolutionary change in
the thought and outlook of the English nation. It is one of the most turbulent
eras in the history of English literature. It marks a sharps and clear
departure from the self-complacency, compromise and stability of the Victorian
period. The change from the old to the new, from blind faith to rational thinking
is very interesting. The following traits distinguish the modern era:
1) Anxiety and Interrogation:-
We
know that modern age has own characteristic and it has known through different
name So here it was called the age of anxiety and interrogation. The scientific
revolution and rational thinking had shaken man’s faith in the authority of
religion and church and the established order. The old restraints and heroes
were rejected and the generation claimed unfettered freedom of thought and
action. Thinkers like Shaw, Samuel Butler and Wells assumed the role of social heretics
and iconoclasts. Men and women showed an extraordinary enthusiasm for
speculation, experiment and reform.
The modern
man does not accept anything unless it is tested on the touchstone man of
reason. The mood of the persistent skepticism and interrogation has increased disproportionately
for want of a new set of values. Moreover, modern industrial and technical
progress has to given birth to the spirit of competition. Everybody wants to
come out successful in the rat race but only a few are crowned with laurels.
This failure coupled with the complexities of modern life has resulted in
frustration, anxiety and cynicism.
2) Art for life’s sake:-
They
evolved the creed of art’s for life’s sake’ or at least, for the sake of the
community. The writers concentrated their attention on the problem of modern
life. So modern literature is full of realism and has an inherent purpose. The
realism of modern age has further been enhanced by scientific discoveries.
W.H. Hudson
writes: “In these circumstances many writers became convinced that literature
was useless if it did not serve a definite social and political purpose, and
those who failed to share this conviction were thought to be sulking in the
ivory tower of mere literary art.”
The poetry
and prose of this period turned to a serious mood and had a definite purpose.
The rapid growth of science and materialism disgusted many poets and writers.
Butler and Huxley are the prominent writers of the modern age, who have
attacked in their works the modern craze for materialism and machinery. The
rise of the problem is a significant development in the realistic literature of
the modern age.
3) Growing interest in the poor and the working Classes:-
The year 1900
marks “the beginnings of the supremacy of the middle classes, and middle- class
standards of thought and writing. The sorry condition of the poor living along
with the affluent sections of society aroused the desire to take collective
action to improve the living conditions of the poor working classes. The poor
were no more helpless creatures. They had grown conscious of their sad predicament.
They posed a great challenge to the social conscience. They became the raw
material of realistic novel and drama with or without purpose. The mid-
Victorian writers, Dickens. Thackeray,
Kingsley, Reade, Mrs. Gaskell etc. were critical of the fundamental bases of
human life and society as were Galsworthy and slaw. They merely anticipated the
spirit of interrogation and rational inquiry.
4) Impact of Socio- economic conditions on Literature :-
The literature of the twentieth century has
been greatly influenced by economic and social changes. The disintrogation of
the village community, which was necessitated by rapid industrialization, and
its profound human implications have been mournfully expressed in the writings
of Hardy, Jefferies, Edward Thomas and others. The new economic theories of
Marshall and Keynes, who raised their voice against poverty, changed the
pattern of economic thinking. Literature became urbane. Marxism was the most
powerful influence on literature. Various manifestations old socialism came
into existence and influenced the authors.
5) Psychology and literature:-
New
psychological researches influenced literature. Freud put great emphasis on the
power of the unconscious to affect conduct. Intellectual convictions appeared
to be rationalizations of emotional needs. The growing interest in psychology
exercised considerable influence on literature. The ordered emphasis on sex
behavior was completely changed and a rational view of sex relationship was
evolved. The modern age may be termed as the age of rationalization in sexual
behavior. The rightness of sexual union
outside the pale of marriage was accepted. Sex was considered to be amoral G.
B. Shaw in Man and Superman and Candida exposed the error in the conventional
assessment of the relative roles of the sexes.
6)
The impact of the two
World Wars:-
The first
half of the present century was completely overshadowed by two wars. The
post-war period was an era of “depression” and of want and unemployment. The two
world wars, especially the second, had a devastating influence on man and human
life. A large number of anti-war books were written during and after the two
wars. C.E.Montagu’s Disenchantment, Fiery Particles and Rough Justice, Richard
Aldington’s Death of A Hero and Edmund Blunden’s The Undertones of war, and the
poems of Wilfred Owen and Sassoon expose the futility and hollowness of war.
7) International Character of Literature:-
The
Literature of the Victorian era was mainly preoccupied with the condition of
England, and was permeated by a spirit of non-violent humanitarianism. But the
literature of the early decades of the twentieth century has an international
character.
8) The influence of Radio, Cinema and Television:-
The development
of radio, cinema and television had an enormous impact on literature. In the
words of Edward Albert:” In so far as the radio brought literature into the home,
in the form of broadcast stories, plays and literary discussions and opened up
an entirely new field for authors, its influence was for the good. At the same
time it must be remembered that film techniques were the basis of a number of
experiments in the novel.”
9) The Spread of
Education:-
The full
effects of the education Act of 1870 strengthened by the Act of 1902 began to
make it felt in the pre- War years. The ladder of educational opportunity, from
elementary school to university, was now available to the poorest boy who had
the ability to take advantage of it and literary became the normal rather than
the unusual thing.
10)Enormous output of Books:-
Authors
and publisher were not slow to supply the public with what it wanted, and books
poured from the presses with astonishing rapidity. Among them were numerous ‘pot-
boilers’ by inferior writer’s intent only on financial gain. Even some great
artists failed to resist the temptation of over-rapid and over-frequent
production and of too many of them it may be said that they wrote too much. The
sacrifice of art to business was not new it had affected adversely some of the
work of Dickens- but in our period the commercialization of literature was
carried to unprecedented limits, and the problem has continued to grow.
11) The Literature of Social purpose:-
The spread
of literacy was accompanied by the awakening of the national conscience to the
evils resulting from the Industrial Revolution. More than ever before would-be
reformers pinned their faith on the printed word and on the serious theatre as
media for propaganda, and the problem or discussion play and the novel of
social purpose may be described as two of the typical literary products of the
period.
12) The rebirth of Drama:-
After a hundred
years of insignificance drama again appears as an important literary form, and
the thirty years under review see men of genius, who are also practical,
experienced men of the theatre, creating a live and significant drama out of
the problems of their age. Like the novelists most of the important dramatists
were chiefly concerned with the contemporary social scene and though toward the
end of the period there are signs of a revival of poetic drama, prose is the
normal medium.
v Conclusion:-
The literature
of the new ane is the literature of challenge and of the reconstruction of new
values. Scott James writes: “The writings, expressive of many temperaments,
reveal the intellectual atmosphere in which G.B. Shaw, H.G. Wells, Arnold
Bennett, John Galsworthy, G.K. Chesterton were to find their essential and
necessary milieu. In one sense men were being made by their time and in another
they were making it. Against this background too, we must set quieter and more
reflective spirits, like Henry James, Joseph Conrad and number of poets. It is
“an exciting age for writers an age which marked a definite break with the past,
a challenges to authority, an assertion in the right to be anarchistic in
thought and inform- romantic, realistic, passionate- a self conscious age when
writers were intensely critical of the individual soul.”
Thank
you…
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