Characteristics of Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century British Literature
While the Romantic Period covered roughly 1780 to 1830, andthe Victorian Era lasted from then until about 1901, the literature producedduring the twentieth and twenty-first centuries usually is grouped into twomajor categories. The bulk of the earlypart of the twentieth century often is referred to as the Modernist Period, andthe remaining part is the Postmodernist Period or Contemporary Period. Harmon and Holman’s A Handbook toLiterature (9th ed.) offers the following rough categories, thefirst of which overlaps with Victorianism:
1870-1914 Realistic Period (further reaction against the Romantics)
1870-1901 Late Victorian Age (decadence and aestheticism)
1901-1914Edwardian Age (named after Edward VII; initial reactions against Victorianconventionality and trust in authority)
1914-1965Modernist Period (experimental writing; stream ofconsciousness; alienation)
1914-1940 Georgian Age (named afterGeorge V; vitality in literature)
1940-1965Diminishing Age (shrinking of the
1965- Postmodernistor Contemporary Period (increased sense of malaise; greater hybridity,transnationalism, and inclusiveness)
The two world wars (1914-1918 and 1939-1945) influenced theliterature profoundly. Traditionalgenres of drama (from writers like Samuel Beckett or Tom Stoppard), poetry(from writers like William Yeats or Philip Larkin), and novel (from writerslike James Joyce or V. S. Naipaul) remained popular, but writers were morewilling than ever before to experiment with genre, sometimes combining orredefining them. Some of the main featuresof twentieth- and twenty-first-century British literature include thefollowing:
A sense of authorial alienation from society and readers (Eliot,Pound).
A reaction against “prudish” Victorianism (D. H. Lawrence).
Loss of optimism about the future.
Increasing skepticism about established religion and relegation oftraditional religions to relatively unimportant status (Nietzsche and the deathof God).
Stoic determination to endure the troubles of existence.
Interest in the workings of the subconscious mind (Freud).
Increasing sense of dislocation and lack of moral certitude(expanding cities, new kind and scale of war, new technologies like film andradio and aircraft).
Intense interest in experimentation with traditional literaryforms.
Hybridization of traditional forms with postcolonial ideas,dialects, etc.
Increasing importance of regional literature (preservation ofmarginalized cultures).
Greaterimportance of women (voting rights, Margaret Thatcher as first female PrimeMinister for twelve years starting in 1979).
Interest in surrealism, imagism, absurdism.
Unreliable narrators and stream of consciousness.
Openendings and plotlessness rather than following thetraditional linear plot structure.
More frankexploration of sexuality (in terms of gender and of hom*osexuality).
Self-consciousness of literature (literature about literature).
