MODERN
PERIOD (1901-1938)
The death of Queen Victoria in January
1901 after reign of 64 years marked the end of an epoch. The Modern Age in
English Literature is perhaps one of the most complex ages that English
Literature has ever seen. Modernism is essentially post-Darwinian as it
explains the place of mankind in the modern world.
Modernism is a radical break with the
past, rejection of conventional Victorian, invented in subject matter, form,
style, plot and character. The poetry of the first decades of the 20th century
indicates a transition from Victorian to Modernism. It did not look to the
country side but to the great city.
Development of scene and technology,
Industrialization, capitalism, Sufragate movement, feminist movement all
combined. Old norms & rules are changed based on Liberty & self
realization. Frederik Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud are intellectual
precursors of the age.
Virginia Woolf (1910) commented it as “not only
human characters, all human relations between masters and servant, husband and
wife parent and son are shifted”.
Modernism has been defined as “being concerned with disenchantment of our culture with
culture itself”- Lionell Trilling
Historical
Events:
Queen
Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887: Twentieth
Century really begins before the end of the 19th century Queen Victoria's
Golden Jubilee in 1887 was felt by many to represent the end of era.
Boer War 1899- 1902 between British and Africa marked the beginning
of rebellion against British imperialism.
Urbanization: In
1911 nearly 70% of country's population 45 millions lived in urban areas. The
sense of local community was being lost.
World War-I (1914-18): death and destruction shattered the man’s
belief in a peaceful world. This changing world order created new forms of
writing.
1928 Universal
suffrage for women
Great Depression 1930’s: worldwide financial crisis, crash of stock
markets in 1929.
Literary
Events:
Emphasis on Mind: Sigmund Freud’s Psychology; Einstein’s Theory
of Relativity; and Henry Bergson’s Concept of inner subjective time influenced
the writings of the Modern Age.
Significance of the year 1922: Three important texts of Modern Age was
published in 1922. They are: T.S Eliot’s The Waste land (1922); James
Joyce’s Ulysses (1922); Virginia Woolf’s Jacob’s Room (1922).
AVANTE-GARDE (Make it new or advance guard): Advance guard is considered to be the hallmark
of modern literature. It is a term used in military (= advance guard) refers to
the position taken by high modernism. Avante- Garde artists rejected tradition
and undertake to “make it new”, a phrase by Ezra Pound.
Focus shifted from "external
reality" to the inner reality of mind. Language becomes Credence (truthfulness),
plot, non- chronological narratives, and personal subjective. Psychological
detailing of inner characters through narrative devices such as "stream of
consciousness", interior monologue is prominent.
A
tension in writing between the popular and the esoteric, and the specialized
the commercial and avant-garde became a feature of 20th century.
·
Novelists - Woolf, Joyce, Lawrence
·
Poets- Hardy, Yeats, Eliot, W. H.
Auden
·
Dramatists- JM Synge, Sean O’Casey,
Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward
·
Psychologists- Sigmund Freud,
·
Anthropology- Sir James Frazer.
Marxism - "Communist Manifesto (1848) - by Karl
Marx – “Workers of the world to Unite"
The
Georgian Poets (1912-22): flourished during
the reign of King George V (named after him), was a reaction against the
decadent romantic poetry. They took inspiration from the countryside and
nature. They published a series of 5
anthologies titled “Georgian Poetry” edited by Edward Marsh. The
group included: Edmund Blunden, Abercrombie, G.K. Chesterton, W.H. Davies,
Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves, D. H. Lawrence, Walter de la Mare, Siegfried
Sassoon and John Drinkwater.
Walter De La
Mare: best known
for Children’s literature. Walter Ramel is his Pseudonym.
William Henry Davies (1871-1940)– Welsh poet and writer. Davies spent a significant part of his
life as a tramp. He belongs to Georgian poetry.
He
wrote 2 famous poems.
1.
Sheep: famous poem- “When
I was in Baltimore…”
2.
Leisure: famous poem- “What
is life, if full of care; we have no time to stand and stare”
3. The autobiography
of a super tramp 1908- bildungsroman, covers his life in USA between 1893 and 1899. Its Preface
was written by G. B. Shaw.
Novels:
1. True Traveler
(1912)
2.
The Adventures of Johnny Walker, Tramp (1926)
John Masefield – Greatest Sea poet. He became Poet Laureate
in 1930 after the death of Robert Bridges.
1. The Salt Water ballads- Sea fever, Cargos are famous poems in it
The War Poets: The First World War and its horror greatly influenced English poetry. Some poets wrote only on the theme of War. They are: Rupert Chawner Brooke: his middle name given as Chaucer; Wilfred Owen; and Siegfried Sassoon. "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity." -Says Wilfred Owen
Dymock poets: a group of poets related to Dymock village aimed to picture countryside. They are: Robert Frost, Drink water, Abercrombie, Rupert Brooke. Their own journal is “New Numbers”
Rupert Brooke’s famous sonnet “If I should die, think only this of me”
Imagism
1912: (Reaction against the Georgians): Imagism is a
literary movement in modern Anglo-American poetry originated in 1912. Image is
a Speaking Picture. It is against the flabby abstract language and careless
thinking of Georgian Romanticism/Victorian sentimentalism. Imagist poems are
short, sharp which contrast with lushnessof Romantic and Victorian. Imagism
replaced the soft voice of Victorian with a harder condensed imagist language-‘nearer to bone’ (it makes you feel
uncomfortable because it is very close to the truth or to the real nature of
something).
It advocated the use
of free verse, Clarity of expression through common speech patterns, and use of
precise vital images. Movement sprang from ideas of TE Hulme (1908), who
proposed a Poets club in London. Ezra Pound, Amy
Lowel, HD (Hilda Doolittle), Richard Aldington, William
J.G Fletcher, Robert Kelley, Ford Mardox Ford etc. are other imagists.
Ezra Pound laid the
central tenets of imagists: as direct treatment of things, to use absolutely no
word that does not contribute to the presentation, to compose in sequence of
the musical phrase, not in sequence of metronome
Their 4 imagist anthologies are: Del Imagists
(1914), Some Imagist Poets (1915, 1916, 1917). Voice of Victorian was very
soft, voice of Imagism was harder, condensed and (nearer the bone).
Their Magazines are: Poetry (From 1912) is a
magazine of verse, and The Egoist (1914) is feminist magazine.
Poetry is inspired by
mathematics- Ezra Pound
Dadaism (1996): Dada - Hobby horse (French) is Anti Art, Anti
Rational, cultural movement. Began in Zurich (Switzerland). Dadaism is a
literary and artistic movement emerged in 1916 as a result of brutality and
barbarism of the World War I. The name, Dada, was selected by Tristan Tzara,
Duchamp Max Earnest, MN Roy to emphasize on the illogical and the
irrational. Its precursor is "Anti
Art" -term created by Duchamp (1913), who created “Ready-mades" (= un
disguised object as Art) such as "urinal" as a fountain
Surrealism (in 1920's)-by Andre Breton- (imagism + Realism = Super
Realism (Surrealism)- known as super realism. Literary and Artistic movement
emerged in Paris in 1920's from Dadaism.
It inherited anti-rational sensibility.
It was influenced by Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud's theory of Sub
consciousness. Emerged from Andre Breton's Manifesto on Surrealism (1924)
where he defined surrealism as "Psychic
Automatism”. They believed the superiority of the irrational, the
unconscious and the unexpected. Revolted against all controls on creativity by
using automatic writing self induced hallucinations and exploitation of
dream/trance states. Their aim is to free people from the clutches of false
rationality. It is based on previously neglected superior reality forms. R.
Howard wrote "History of Surrealism". International surrealist exhibition was held
in 1936. Ex: Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Salvader Dali, Paul Eluard, Pierre
Reverely," Franz Kafka's-" a country doctor"
Metaphoric Vs Metonymic novels: The 19th century novel is
metaphoric. (Ex: Dicken’s Bleakhouse), the 20th century novel is
metonymic. (Ex: Foster’s A Passage to India). According to Lodge, metaphoric corresponds to Modernism and symbolism, while
metonymy corresponds to anti-modernism and realism.
Poetry:
W.B. (William
Butler) Yeats (1865-1937)
Irish Poet and Play
wright born in Dublin. He is the first Irish
man to get Nobel Prize in 1923. He was called
“the last Romantics”.
Deeply influenced by Indian philosophy and
mysticism he came contact with Indian mystic philosopher and poet, Purohit Swamy.
He introduced Tagore in Europe and wrote preface to the English
version of Gitanjali.
Yeats contributed to the formation of the new
Irish sense of national identity. His writings often depict the rural Ireland
of fable and myth. Many of his works are drawn directly upon the legends of
Ireland. He wanted Irish writers to be conscious of the past, native legends,
folklore, and language of the nation. Arthur Symons’ "The
Symbolist Movement in Literature (1899)” influenced Modern poets like
W. B. Yeats, TS Eliot
He was the leader of Celtic Revival or Irish
Literary Renaissance. He is the founder of Irish Literary Theatre
along with Lady Gregory, J.M. Synge and Edward Martin.
It was renamed as Abbey
Theatre which is known as National
Theatre of Ireland.
1. The Lake of
Isle of Innis free: Lake
Isle of Innisfree is an uninhabited island within Lough Gill, in Ireland, near which
Yeats spent his summers as a child.
I will rise and go now, and go
to innisfree,
And a small cabin build there of
clay and wattle made;
Nine bean-rows will I have
there, and a hive for the honey-bee.
It s a 12 line poem in 3 quatrains written in 1888 published in the
National observer in 1890. The Lake Isle of Innis free exemplifies the style of
the Celtic Revival.
2. The Wanderings of Oisin and other Poems 1889
i) The Wanderings of Oisin - epic poem publishes in the book The
Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems- Oisin is Irish hero. Motto of the poem is “Joy
is god and God is Joy”. This
narrative poem takes the form of a dialogue between the aged Irish hero Oisin
and St. Patrick, the man traditionally responsible for converting Ireland to
Christianity, most of the poem is spoken by Oisin, relating his 300 hundred
years sojourn in the Isles of faerie. The fairy princess Nimah fell in love
with Oisin’s poetry and begged him Join her in the immortal islands.
3.
The Tower (1928)- poetry collection, first major collection after receiving Nobel in
1923. It contains famous poems:
i) Sailing to Byzantium: spiritual voyage from the material world to the holy city of Byzantium.
Compares an old man to an old coat. “An aged man is a paltry thing,
a tattered coat upon a stick, unless Soul clap its hands and
sing, and louder sing.”". The poet faces old
age and wishes to forget his decaying. Its first
line: “That is no country for
old men…”
ii) The Tower: 2nd poem in the collection- refers to Ballylee Castle, a Norman tower which Yeats purchased and
restored in 1917. The poem features Yeats wrestling with his old age. He
contemplates the foolish actions of his neighbors and wonders how they
responded to their own aging, then celebrates the Anglo-Irish people and offers
them his "faith and pride" as an inheritance.
iii) Leda and the Swan: from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan,
seduces or rapes Leda. She produced eggs out of which hatched four individuals
- Castor and Pollux the twins and the half-sisters Helen and Clytemnestra. Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman of
Greece, is the indirect cause of the Trojan War.
iv) Among School children: Based on ageing Yeats’ visit to a school in Waterford, Ireland in 1926 and his
dream about Maud Gonne.
4. The Winding Stair and Other Poems: The Winding stair is a volume of poems published in 1933. The title
refers to the staircase in the Thoor Ballylee Castle which Yeats had purchased
and lived in with his family for some time. The phrase "winding stair” is
used in the in the book's third poem “A Dialogue
of self and Soul".
The Tower and The Winding Stair are two collections which are carefully
parallel with opposing points of view.
i) Easter, 1916- poem- About the Easter Rising (struggle for independence) staged in Ireland
against British rule on Easter Monday, April 24, 1916. Written in 1916, but
first published in 1920 in the collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer. Refrain of the poem is: “A terrible beauty is born”
ii)
The second Coming
(1920): It appeared in "The Dial" and "The Nation" in
1920. And was published in his collection Michael Robartes and the Dancer.
It is a 22 lines
poem- influenced by Maud Gonne, a beautiful woman
who rejected his marriage proposal, was compared to Helen of Troy, is responsible
for Irish independence Movement in this poem. Title suggests "New Manifestation of God to Men.” Civilization is
compared to Falcon, which revolved around Christianity, has lost its power. He
imagines sphinx to the desert (Body of a lion, head of man). He imagined a
rough beast is coming to replace Christianity, i.e., Second Coming.
Turning and turning in the
widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre
cannot hold;
Chinua Achebe draws the title of his novel “Things fall apart” from this poem.
6. The Wild Swans at Coole amd other Poems (1917,
1919): a collection of
twenty-nine poems and the play, first published in 1917 and revised in 1919.
i) The Wild Swans at Coole (1917): speaker says 19 years have passed since he first came to the water to
count swans. “Upon the water float-
Nine and Fifty swans”
ii) An Irish Airman foresees His Death : Written in 1918, published in The wild swan at Coole" in 1919.The
poem is a soliloquy given by an aviator in the first World War.
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My
countrymen are Kiltartan’s poor
Translations;
WB
Yeats collaborated with Purohith Swamy in translating The Ten Principal
Upanishads (1938) into English.
Plays by W. B. Yeats:
1. The Countless Catheen;
2. The King’s Threshold,
3. The cat and the Moon,
4. On Baile’s Strand – his most
successful play
Cleanth Brooks says, “W.B. Yeats
is the great myth maker”
(Isabella Augusta) Lady Gregory 1862-1932: Irish playwright, leading figure
in Irish revival., forerunner of The Abbey Theatre. Her idiomatic style is known as
“Kiltertanese”. Collaborated with Yeats,
1.
Cathleen ni
Houlihan 1902 is a one-act play by Lady Gregory and W B Yeats, centres on the 1798
Rebellion.
2.
The Rising of the Moon
1903 – one act play, Irish independence movement. An Irsh Independence
activist escapes from jail, one sergeant and two policemen are pasting placards
to catch the activist. During the night, at te seapost, the activist changes
the mindset of the sergeant in support of the movement and escapes from their
hands. (KU-1st year syllabus).
J. M. Synge (Edmund James Millington
Synge): Irish
playwright, poet and writer. Leading figure in Irish revival., co-founder of
The Abbey Theatre. He travelled to the Aran Islands on the advice
of W.B. Yeats to seek Inspiration from living there.
1.
In the Shadow of
the Glen (1903)- one-act play- based on a story about an
unfaithful wife.
2.
Riders to the Sea
(1904)- One Act Tragedy set at Inishmaan in the Aran Islands -Based on the hopeless struggle of a people against the impersonal but
relentless cruelty of the sea. Maurya, grief-stricken widow and mother of eight children. She lost
her husband and five sons to the sea. This speech of Maurya's is famous: “They're all gone now, and there isn't anything more the sea
can do to me.... Give me the Holy Water, Nora; there's a small sup still
on the dresser.”
3.
The Well of the
Saints (1905) is a three-act play about two blind beggers, Martin and Mary Doul, who
believs that they are beautiful, but in fact they are old and ugly. A saint cures them of their blindness with water from a holy well. When
they lost the sight for the second time, they refused the offer of the saint to
cure their blindness.
4.
The Playboy of the
Western World (1907)- very famous play which caused riots in Dublin during its opening run at the Abbey theatre on
26 January 1907. The play is known for its use of the poetic, evocative language of Hiberno-English, heavily influenced by the Irish language. Set on the west coast of County Mayo. Story of Christy Mahon (a young man) claims that he is on the run because he killed his own
father by driving a loy (spear) into his head. Old Mahon (a squatter). Pegeen (Margaret Flaherty) falls in love with Christy (already engaged
to Shawn Keogh). He also becomes hero and impresses the village women by his victory
in a donkey race, using the slowest beast. Christy's father, Old Mahon, who was
only wounded. When the townsfolk realize that Christy's father is alive, to
regain Pegeen's love and the respect of the town, Christy attacks his father a
second time. This time it seems that Old Mahon really is dead, but instead of
praising Christy, the townspeople bind and prepare to hang him. Christy's life
is saved when his father, beaten and bloodied, crawls back onto the scene. As
Christy and his father leave to wander the world, Pegeen laments losing
Christy: "I've
lost the only playboy of the western world."
Hector Hugh Munro
(1870-1916): master of
short story. He often compared to O Henry, Dorothy Parker. Known as ‘Sakhi’ (pen name).
1.
West Minister
Alice 1902: parody of Lewis
Carol’s- ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 1865’ and ‘Through the Looking Glass
1871’.
2.
When William
came:1913 (Subtitle) A story of London Under the Hohenzollerns (fantasy about a future German invasion and occupation of Britain)
3.
Beasts and Super-Beasts
1914- parody of G. B. Shaw’s-
Man and Superman.
Alfred Noyes
(1850-1954): English poet, wrote
about seafaring.
1.
The Highwayman: Famous ballad- published in Black woods magazine in 1906. Included in Forty Singing Seamen & Other Poems 1907. Story of an unknown highwayman
in love with Bess, a landlord’s daughter.
Bess sacrifices her life to warn highwayman about an attack. Highwayman
dies in an attempt to take revenge. It
is the story about love, sacrifice, murder, betrayal, and heartbreak. In the
final stanza, the ghosts of the lovers meet again on winter nights.
2.
Drake (1908): a 200-page epic in blank verse about the
Elizabethan naval commander Sir Francis Drake, which was published in two
volumes (1906 and 1908)
3.
The Torch Bearers
1902-1930: epic verse in
trilogy comprising (I) Watches of the sky 1922, (II) The Book of the Earth 1925
(III) The last Voyage 1930
W.H.Auden (Wystan Hugh Auden)
1907-1973- Anglo American poet
(Became American Citizen in 1946), won Pulitzer prize, leader of Auden Group/Poets of 30’s/ Oxford Group.
1. The Dog beneath the skin or Where is the
Francis? (1935)– a 3 act play with
Isherwood.
2.
Look, stranger!
(1936) (or) "On this Island": poems dedicated to Erika Mann. Erika Mann is married to W. H. Auden
as a marriage of convenience to escape from Nazi Germany, who is also a
Homosexual.
3. The Ascent of F6(1936)- a 2 act tragedy with Isherwood.
4.
5. The Age of Journey 1947- a baroque eclogue- opens win a New York bar at night and ends at the
dawn. It is dedicated to his friend John Betjeman. The Modern Version of Anglo
Saxon Alliterative Verse, set in War time in New York.- won Pulitzer Prize in 1948.
6. Funeral Blues or Stop all the Clocks 1936 – famous poem- mourning for the political leader, written for
the verse play "The Ascent of
F6"
7. Sep 1st 1939- famous poem- published in the New Republic", on the outbreak of
WWII. Opening line: “I
sit in one of the divesOn Fifty-second Street Uncertain and afraid.” famous line: “We must love one another and
die”
8. Musee des Beaux Arts 1938- Museum of fine arts-famous poem. Initially published as Palais des Beax Arts (Palace of fine
Arts). A free verse poem in 2 parts,
first part describes the scenes of dreadful Martyrdom, sufferings. Second part
describes the paintings’ of Bruegel's, the landscape of fall of Icarus (Greek
Myth)
It uses a poetic
device Ekphrasis (describing of an Art)
9. In Memory of W. B. Yeats 1939- elegy in 5 parts lamenting for the death of W. B. Yeats. Opening line:
“He disappeared in
the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the
airports almost deserted,
And snow disfigured the public
statues;
The mercury sank in the mouth of
the dying day.”.
It introduces the dead as: “You
were silly like us”.
Auden makes his famous statement in it: ‘poetry makes nothing happen’
Auden Group/Auden Generation/Poets of 30’s/Oxford Group/ Leftists:
Group of poets attempted to bring new forms and techniques. They propagated communist ideology (left wing), connected with Oxford. They are modernists and they showed a strong influence of Eliot &Ezra Pound.
Auden joined Oxford at 18, became editor for Oxford Poetry and Professor of poetry. Group Members are: W. H. Auden, Mac Niece, C.D Lewis, Spender and Isherwood.
The whole group was never in the same room (except Mac Spaunday). It's a journalist myth - a convenient labeling of them.
Mac Spaunday: Name invented by Roy Campbell in his Talking Bronco (1946) to designate a composite figure made up of four poets. They are also known as “Four musketeers of the Oxford Group.” They are: Mac-Louis Mac Niece, Sp-Spender, aun- Auden, day- C. D. Lewis
Pylon Poets: Term was populated by the spender’s poem “The Pylons”. Pylon is a metallic current pole. They reflected the political, social, Marxist(leftwing) views. They translated industrial imagery into poetry. Members are: Spender, Lewis, Mac Niece, Auden
Louis Mac Niece (1907-19): Born
in Ireland
He
joined BBC as a writer & producer
1.
His best-known plays are: Christopher
Columbus (19447), The Dark Tower originally written for radio.
2.
Letters
from Iceland (1957): With Auden, a travel book.
3.
The
Roman Smile: a book of literary criticism, verse of the
Hipolytus by Euripides, autobiographical book.
4.
The Burning Perch: his
last collection of Poems.
Stephen Harold Spender (1909-95): Poet,
essayist and Novelist. Associated with ‘Horizon & Encounter’
magazines. Associated with Auden
Generation and Pylon Poets
1.
Vienna
(1934): Poem was written in praise of 1934 uprising
of Viennese socialists.
2.
Trial
of a Judge (1938): an anti Fascist drama.
3.
The God that failed (1969): Six
essays testimonies of famous communists.
4.
World within the world (1951): His
autobiography
5.
The
Temple 1988: first novel was not published until 1988,
because of its homosexuality.
Cecil Day Lewis (1904-72): Anglo
Irish Poet. Poet Laureate of England
(1968-72). He wrote detective stories under the pseudonym ‘Nicholas Blake’.His father took the surname
"Day-Lewis" as a combination of his own birth father's
("Day") and adoptive father's ("Lewis") surnames. He is a
part of Auden Group, MacSpaunday and Pylon Poets
Poetry:
1.
From feathers to Iron (1932)
2.
Pegasus & Other Poems (157)
3.
The Whispering roots & Other Poems
(1970)
4.
Children Novels: Dick Willoughby (1933),
5.
The Otterbury Incident (1946)
6.
The Magnetic Mountain is a poem by
C.D. Lewis.
He was the greatest poet of Modern
Age. Known
as “Arnold of the 20th century”. He shows the influence of the Hindu and the
Buddhist. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, to a prominent Boston Brahmin
family, he moved to England in 1914 at the age of 25 and became a British
subject in 1927 at the age of 39 and renounced his American citizenship. He defined
poetry as “Poetry is mot turning loose emotion
but an escape from emotion’
He met Ezra Pound, whom he called as “il
Miglior Fabbo” (=the better craftsman), since he has edited his poem The
Waste Land and made him to win the Noble Prize
in 1948. Eliot dedicated this poem to Ezra Pound.
1. Prufrock and Other Observations (1917)- poetry
collection
a. Love song of J. Alfred Prufrock 1917: opening line of this poem is: “Let us go then, you and I, When
the evening is spread out against the sky, like a patient etherized upon a
table; initially named it
as Prufrock among women, but change it after the Kipling’s “Love song of
Hardayal”. It is about a lady’s advances towards Prufrock, who is shy. Contains
a famous quote: “I
am not Prince Hamlet”
b. Portrait of a Lady- one of the two main Boston poems written by Eliot, the other being
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock". Story of a failed friendship
in three episodes, occurring over a period of ten months and depicts the upper-class
lady as soulless and empty, reveals himself as the one who is truly callous and
unfeeling.
c. Preludes: opening
lines: “The
winter evening settles down, With smell of steaks in passageways.”
2. Poems (1920)- collection of poems
a. Gerontion 1920- The title is Greek for "little old
man," poem is an interior
monologue relating which describes Europe after World War I through the eyes of
an elederly man. opens with an epigraph (from Shakespeare's play Measure for
Measure) which states: “Thou
hast nor youth nor age But as it were an after dinner sleep Dreaming of both.”
b. Whispers of Immortality: parody of William Wordsworth's title of the poem, Intimations of
Immortality.
3. The Waste Land 1922: first published it in “The Criterion”
and “The Dial”. It is a 434-line
modernist poem about the cultural and spiritual wasteland, where people are
living a kind of death in midst of their everyday lives. He used many allusions
and references to various texts from English, Greek, Latin, German, Sanskrit
etc. and made it too obscure and complex. Eliot originally considered entitling
the poem He do the Police in Different Voices.
The Waste Land is based on 2
anthropological works (i) From Ritual to
Romance by Jessie L Weston and (ii) Golden Bough by Frazer. This poem is in 5 parts:
i) The burial of the dead: Title drawn from Anglican Burial Service. opening line ‘April is the cruelest month’. Speaker’s journey into a desert which threatens him “I will show you fear in a Hand
full of Dust”. Madam
Sosostris, fortune teller,
reads tarot cards and makes predictions. Speaker walks through the London
populated by Ghosts of the dead, where he asks a ghost named Stetson, “The corpse you planted
last year in your garden, has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?” Unreal city is a
section in the last part, which denotes the corruption and materialism of the
society.
ii) A game of Chess: Title from Middleton’s play
Game at Chess. This section is
about the failure of love and sexuality in the modern world. Story of Philomel, a maiden raped by Tereus and cuts her tongue. Two women meet at London bar where they discuss
about taking pills, childless and unhappy married life. Bar keeper shouts at
them “Hurry up please its
time”. Ends with “Good night, ladies, good night,
sweet ladies, good night, good night”- From Ophelia’s song in Hamlet
iii) Fire sermon: Longest of the poem’s 5 sections. Speaker sat on the banks of Thames
River singing “Sweet Thames run softly, till I end my song- From
Spencer’s Prothalamion”. Fisherman’s daughter
sings “Weilalaleila
Waillala Leialala”- nonsense song. Tiresias is a hermaphrodite (one who is male and female) and is blind but can see
into future. Tiresias propositioned Mr. Eugenides (homosexual theme). Tiresias watches a female typist having sex with a
clerk without any emotions. He compares the old sweet pleasant Thames to
ugliness of the present river, and old love in human relations replaced by sex.
iv) Death by water: shortest of the poem’s 5 sections. Describes Phlebas, the merchant who
died by drowning.
v) What the Thunder said: “Hieronimo is mad again”- from Elizabethan drama; Speaker is lamenting for water in desert. The scene shifts to Ganges
River. The thunder speaks in the single syllable “DA” which means “Datta(give),
Dyadhvam(sympathizes) and Dhamyatha(controls)”- from Bruhadaranyaka
Upanishad; The speaker sits on
the bank of Thames and trying to reorder his lands. Poem ends with “London bridge is
falling down”- Nursery rhyme; and “Shantih Shantih
Shantih”-final words.
4. The Hollow man 1925- poem- title from The Hollow Land by William Morris & "The Broken
Men" by Rudyard Kipling.
Final stanza of the
poem is most quoted:
“This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang but a whimper.”
5. Ariel Poems 1927-1931: -series of 38 pamphlets by several authors, T S Eliot contributed 5 poems.
a. "Journey of the Magi 1927" is a 43-line poem. It is significant because, He converted to
Anglo-Catholicism in the same year. It is one of five poems that Eliot
contributed for a series of 38 pamphlets by several authors collectively titled
the Ariel Poems.
b. A Song for Simeon- is a 37-line poem written in free verse.
6. Ash Wednesday 1930- based on Dante’s Purgatario. (part3 in Divine Comedy)
7. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) is a collection of whimsical light poems
8. Four Quartets 1943: connected to four places related to Eliot’s life:
a. Burnt Norton 1936: It is connected to Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral; he worked on the poem
while the play was being produced during 1935.
b. East Coker 1940: It is a place that Eliot visited in 1937 with the St Michael's Church,
where his ashes were later kept
c. The Dry Salvages 1941: The central image of The Dry Salvages is water and the sea.
d. Little Gidding1942- used terza rima rhyme in a manner similar to Dante
Famous quote in it: “Our
beginning is our end, and our end our beginnings”
Criticism:
9. Hamlet and His Problems 1919: critical essay- He says Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and Antony & Cleopatra are artistic success, but Hamlet is an artistic failure.
He popularized the
concept of Objective
Correlative.
10. The Sacred Wood (1920) – critical essays
11. Metaphysical poets- essay (see criticism)
12. Tradition and Individual Talent – Essay (see
criticism)
13. What is a Classic? - Essay (see criticism)
14. The Criterion- British literary magazine published from October 1922 to January 1939. For
most of its run, a quarterly journal, although for a period in 1927–28 it was
published monthly. It was created by T. S. Eliot who served as its editor for
its entire run.
The Revival of Poetic Drama: He firmly established the conventions and
traditions of poetic drama.
1. Murder in the Cathedral 1935: modern miracle play on the martyrdom of St Thomas
Becket in Canterbury in 1170. most striking feature is the use of a chorus in
the Classical Greek manner
2. The Family Reunion 1939
3. The Cocktail Party 1949- based upon the Alcestis of Euripides,
4. The Confidential Clerk 1953
"all
poetry tends towards drama, and all drama towards poetry."- T. S. Eliot
Ezra Pound: He became the pioneer of imagism. It is
well-known fact that he drastically reduced the length of The Waste Land and
brought it to the size which own Eliot the Noble Prize. Called as “ill Miglior Fabbo”
1.
How to read and
why (1929-31)- Essays, coined term ‘logopoeia’ (=dance
of intellect among words). It occurs when different layers and levels of
vocabulary are mized in a text. (lexical mixing)
2.
In a Station of
the Metro 1913: two-line poem that
reads: "The apparition of these faces in
the crowd: / Petals on a wet, black bough."
Drama:
George Bernard Shaw: (1856-1950)- Anti-Romatic,
Critic and playwright. Born in Dublin, Ireland. “I
write plays with the deliberate purpose to convert the nation to my opinion.” Began
his career by writing novels, but all 5 of his novels proved unsuccessful.
He became the first person to have been awarded
both a Nobel Prize (1925) and an Oscar.
Shaw was the only winner of both
awards until 2016, when the Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Bob
Dylan. Dylan had previously won an Oscar in 2001 for Best Original Song -
his song ‘Things have Changed’ featured in the film ‘The Wonder Boys’.
He wrote more than sixty plays. His
plays are known as “Shavian Plays”. It is
a play by G. B. Shaw (or) with characteristics of writings of GB Shaw. It has smart, quick, witty, funny and
sharp dialogues. His plays are of ideas, debate and discussion rather than
dramas of character, action and passion. Drama
of Ideas is a type of discussion play in which clash of ideas, reveals the most
acute problems of social, personal morality.
He generally writes long prologues to
his plays. Shaw’s plays employs surprise endings. His characters are laughable,
provincial, bucolic, and ridiculous, don't have politeness. The situation of
the story is accentuated by references to classics. He uses humour to make
serious arguments about social issues.
"Life force - Concept" women must
choose better mate for better children
He became vegetarian at the age of 25
and claimed “a man of my spiritual intensity
does not eat corpses”. Apart from shunning meat, he didn’t drink
alcohol or smoke, and he drank neither tea nor coffee!
The term “Bardolatry” (=worship of
Shakespeare) derived from Shakespeare's sobriquet (=nickname)
"the Bard of Avon" and the Greek word latria "worship", was
coined by G. B. Shaw in the preface to his collection Three Plays for
Puritans (1901). Shaw disliked Shakespeare as a thinker and philosopher
because Shaw believed that Shakespeare did not engage with social problems as
Shaw did in his own plays.
1. Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant 1898 –collection of 4 pleasant and 3 unpleasant
plays.
The
Pleasant Plays:
a. Arms and the Man 1894- Deals with war,
first commercial success - title comes from
the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid, in Latin: Arma virumque cano ("Of arms and the man I sing") – humorous play deals with war
b. Candida 18978 - about woman’s choice between two men. - feminist rights,
women equality.
c. You Can Never Tell 1897- four-act play, about social relations.
d. The Man of Destiny 1895- short play about Napolean
The Unpleasant Plays:
a.
Widower’s Houses
1892- attack on slum
landlords- New Woman concept
b. Mrs. Warren’s Profession 1893- about Prostitution-(banned), The story centres
on the relationship between Mrs Kitty Warren (former prostitute and current
brothel owner) and her daughter, Vivie (intelligent and pragmatic young woman
who has just graduated from university). The play focuses on how their
relationship changes when Vivie learns what her mother does for a living. It
explains why Mrs. Warren became a prostitute, condemns the hypocrisies relating
to prostitution, and criticises the limited employment opportunities available
for women in Victorian Britain.
c. The Philanderer 1898- concept of New Woman (Julia). The play gives Reference to Ibsen.
2.
Three Plays for
Puritans (1900)- collection of 3 plays- with a long
preface by Shaw in three parts in which he expounds many of his thoughts on
drama.
a. The Devil's Disciple (1897)-
b. Caesar and Cleopatra (1898)- Cleopatra is depicted as a spoiled and vicious 16-year-old child rather
than the 38-year-old temptress of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra
c. Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1900)-
3. The Devil’s Walk
4. Man and Superman 1903- first performed in 1905- concept of Life force. Women must choose better mate for better children. It is a comedy in which Ann is referred to as "the Life Force" and
represents Shaw's view that in every culture, it is the women who force the men
to marry them rather than the men who take the initiative.
5. Major Barbara 1905- The story concerns an idealistic young woman, Barbara Undershaft, who
is engaged in helping the poor as a Major in the Salvation Army in London.
The play script displays typical
Shavian techniques in the omission of apostrophes from contractions and other
punctuation, the inclusion of a didactic introductory essay explaining the
play's themes, and the phonetic spelling of dialect English.
6. The Doctor’s Dilemma 1904- first staged in 1906- satire upon the medical profession. a dilemma faced by a talented
doctor, Sir Colenso Ridgeon, who has developed a revolutionary treatment for tuberculosis but has
limited resources so, he must decide whom to save, leading to ethical and moral
conflicts.
7. Pygmalion (1913)- Based on Greek Myth Pygmalion, King of Cyprus, who fell in love with his
own sculpture Galatea. Story of a cockney
flower girl Eliza Doolittle’s transformation into a duchess by the phonetician Professor Henry Higgins, in order to win a bet with Colonel Pickering, a rich man. In Pygmalion, contrary to our expectation,
love between the flower girl and professor doesn’t happen. He used the change
of language as a means to rise to the upperclass. Higgins treats her as an
object in the process of making Eliza an Upper-class woman, but she rebels
against his dictatorial and thoughtless behaviour.
After the surest of
his experiment Higgins suggests her 2 options: To marry based on her beauty or to run a
flower shop. But she rejects these two
and wanted to marry Freddy, a poor man
8. Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian
Manner on English Themes (1919) -Decline of Britain as power.
9. Back to Methuselah 1922- collection of 5 plays
10. St. Joan- 1923- historical play with 6 acts and an epilogue, set in 1429 - story
of Joan of Arc, a French peasant girl who claimed divine guidance and led the
French army to several victories during the Hundred Years' War. Joan faces
opposition from both the English invaders and the political leaders of her own
country. Despite her heroic actions, Joan is ultimately captured, tried for
heresy, and burned at the stake.
11. The Apple Cart 1928- sub title ‘a political extravaganza’
12. The Quintessence of Ibsenism 1891: famous essay - gave the first great impetus to Ibsen's work
and to the concept of Play of Ideas. Shaw wrote three sets of critical essays on Ibsen: The Quintessence of lbsenism, Our Theatres in
the Nineties, and The Prefaces.
13. The Dark Lady of the Sonnets is a 1910- set in
Fin de siècle -short comedy - in which William Shakespeare, intending to meet the
"Dark Lady", accidentally encounters Queen Elizabeth I and attempts
to persuade her to create a national theatre. The play was written as part of a
campaign to create a "Shakespeare National Theatre" by 1916.
|
Fin de siècle (French term= "end of century”)- It is used to refer the end of 19th century. |
14. Shakes versus Shav (1949): Shaw’s late puppet play-10 min performance- a comic argument between Shaw and Shakespeare, with the two playwrights bickering about who is the better writer. He declared "Nobody will ever write a better tragedy than Lear". However, he also wrote in a letter to Mrs Patrick Campbell, "Oh, what a damned fool Shakespeare was!"
Shavian alphabet: Shaw’s ‘Alphabet trust” has created 40 letter
new-phonetic alphabet as he believed that alphabet was a barrier against
literacy and therefore a barrier to the social mobility of the poor
(Inconsistencies in English spelling). Shaw reproduced ‘Androcles and the Lion’
into the new phonetic alphabet.
15.
Fabian Essays in
Socialism 1889- collection of essays published by Fabian society (founded in 1884),
edited by G B Shaw. Fabian society is aimed to of bring about a socialist society by means of
intellectual debate, the publication of books and pamphlets, and the
"permeation" of socialist ideas into the universities, the press,
government institutions, and political parties.
Problem
plays (Drama): The development of the Problem Plays
is an important factor in modern dramatic literature. It deals with the vital
problems of contemporary life and society.
James Mathew Barrie (1860-1937): He was born in
Kirriemuir. Scottish author,
and dramatist. Sets his novels in “Neverland" – Peter pan says
"Never Never neverland”. Famous for the character of “Peter Pan or the boy who wouldn’t grow up”. He gave copyright of "Peter Pan" to a children's hospital in
London.
1. The Little Minister (1891)–novel and drama about a young minister fall in love with gypsy girl
2. The Little White Bird- Or Adventures in
Kensington Gardens (1902)- "Peter Pan" is
first appeared in it.
3. Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up
(1904) – play, and as novel in 1911.
4. Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906)
5. When Wendy Grew Up: An Afterthought (1908)
6. Peter and Wendy (1911)- novel
|
Kailyard School: derived from a Scottish term Kail yard which means Cabbage patch= Kitchen Garden. (Kale = leaf of cabbage) from Ian McLaren’s 1894's "Beside the Bannie Briar Bush whose title from the Jacobite Song - "There grows a bonnie brier bush in our Kailyard Writers are J. M. Barrie, Ian Maclaren, J.J Bel, George Mc Donald, Gabriel Seltun and S. R. Crockett etc., overly sentimental representation of rural life, deals with the real problems and issues of the people. |
John Galsworthy: Novelist turned to
playwright, concerned with class and social issues. Received Nobel in 1932. His
Pen name is John Sin John for his
initial writings.
He is
unforgettable for sense of humour and comedy. He studied Law, but a chance
meeting with Conrad turned him to writing. He wrote as if firing a machine gun
at reader. He says that,’ take care of character and action, and dialogues will
take care themselves.’
1. The Forsyte Saga (1922)- series of 3 plays and 2 interludes between 1906-1921. main character is Seamus Forsyth, a man of property. It is a new type of fiction" balancing"
virtues & Vices of the hero. Stressed on the development of character
rather than story.
a. The Man of Property (1906)- 1st
novel
b. Indian Summer of a Forsyte"
(1918)- short interlude
c. In Chancery (1920)- 2nd novel
d.
Awakening"
(1920)- short interlude
e. To Let (1921)- 3rd and final novel
Sean O Casay (1880-1964): Irish
playwright born in Dublin, well known for Dublin Trilogy. First
Irish playwright of note to write about the Dublin working class.
1.
Dublin Trilogy:
a.
The shadow of a Gun man 1903: performed in Abbey
theatre. impact of revolutionary politics on Dublin slums, set in Mount joy
Square, where he lived during the 1916 Ester rising.
b.
Juno and Paycock 1924: It’s paly in 3 acts,
a tragicomedy. It presents the
effect of the Irish Civil war on the working-class poor of the city. The character of Captain Boyle, (who hates work) is
drawn from Shakespearee’s Falstaff, and His wife Juno Boyle (who struggles hard
for life) from Greek Myth, wife of Jupiter. Their son Johnny and their daughter
"Mary'.
c.
The Plough and the stars 1926: set in Dublin, on
young couple Jack and Nora Clitheroe.
Noel Coward
(1899-1973): playwright, composer,
actor and director. At the age of 12, made his debut as Prince Mussel in a children's show called” The Goldfish"
1.
Rat
trap (1918) play 4 acts drama is his first
realistic study of character's emotions
2.
The
Vortex (1924): he played a famous role of Nicky
Lancaster a young drug addict
3.
Hay
Fever (1924): eccentric, confusing, self-regarding Bliss
family.
4.
Blithe Spirit (1941)- comedy play,
Title from Shelley’s ‘To a Skylark’- “Hail to thee, blithe Spirit bird thou never wert”
The
Theatre of Absurd: (See
existentialism in Criticism notes)
Term coined by Martin Esslin in his 1960 essay Theatre of Absurd from existentialism philosophy of Albert Camus’s famous essay “The Myth of Sissyphus (1942)” in which he defines human conditions as meaningless. Esslin says that
their plays have a common denominator—the "absurd", a word that
Esslin defines with a quotation from Ionesco: “absurd is that which has not
purpose, or goal, or objective.”
It was developed after WW II in 1950-60's. Major playwrights are:
Becket, Ionesco, Genet, Adamou, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Albee, N F Simpson,
James Saunders.
Popularised by Waiting for Godot
(1952) by Becket - was anticipated as early as 1896 in Alfred Jarry's french play "Ubui Roi? (Ubu the King) and in the fiction of Franz Kafka's The Trial
& Metamorphosis in 1920.
|
Comedy of Menace: arising comedy
from fear. Term coined by Irving Wardle, who borrowed it from Compton’s play
“The Lunatic View: Comedy of Menace (1958)”. Major playwrights
are: David Compton, Nigel Dennis, N.F. Simpson and Harold Pintor. |
Samuel (Barclay) Beckett 1906-1989: playwright, Irish
Novelist. His pen name is “Andrew Belis”, He belongs to “The theatre of
Absurd”. Nobel prize in 1969 (in French Language)
1. More Pricks Than Kicks 1934 -first collection of short prose
2. Murphy 1938: first published novel, about an Irishman’s escape from a girl he is about to marry.
3. 'The Trilogy' or 'the Beckett Trilogy' of
novels:
i) Molloy 1951
ii) Malone Dies 1958
iii) The Unnamable 1960
4. Waiting for Godot 1953: Originally
written in French as En attendant Godot. Its subtitle
(In English) “a tragicomedy in
two acts”. It made him the leader of “The theatre of Absurd”. It is a play in
which “Nothing happens,
Nobody Comes. Nobody goes, it’s awful”.
Act-I: Vladimir (Didi) and Estragon (Gogo), two tramps are waiting for “Godot”
who doesn’t come. They come and stand under a leafless tree, waiting for Godot,
indulge in senseless activities. Two travellers Pozzo (master) and Lucky (a
slave) who is tied at the end of the rope arrives and diverts them. Pozzo says
that he is on the way to the market, to sell Lucky for profit. At the end, a
boy (messenger of Godot) arrives and says that Godot will not be arriving
tonight, but surely tomorrow. Vladimir and Estragon keep on waiting for a whole
day, decide to begin a fresh next morning, announces to leave, but remain on
stage withot moving. They symbolize the human condition as period of waiting.
Act-II is the mere replication of the first act with one or two changes. Vladimir
and Estragon are again waiting near the tree, which has grown a number of
leaves. In act-I, Pozzo is master, Lucky is a slave (in second act it is
reversed). Lucky(dumb) is the master, Pozzo is the
slave (who is blind) now. Pozzo cannot recall ever having met Vladimir and
Estragon too do not recognize the travellers. The boy re-appears, stating that
Godot will not be arriving. The boy states that he has not met Vladimir and
Estragon before and he is not the same boy who talked to Vladimir yesterday. At
the end they want to commit suicide by hanging. As they do not have a rope,
they want to return tomorrow with a rope, but remain on stage withot moving. The climax indicates the eternal
hope that ‘tomorrow everything will be better.’
The two
tramps were influenced by J.M. Synge.
5. Watt (1953) - was Beckett's second published novel in
English.
6. Endgame (1957)- an absurdist, tragicomic one-act play about a blind, paralyzed, elderly
man.
7. Krapp's Last Tape 1958: one-act, one man play-
Krapp, on his 69th
birthday, sits at a cluttered desk and listens to tape recordings he made on 39th
birth day.
8. Happy Days 1961-a play in two acts- Winnie, buried to her waist, follows her daily routine and prattles to
her husband, Willie, who is largely hidden and taciturn. Her frequent refrain
is "Oh this is a happy day." Later, in Act II, she is buried up to her neck, but continues to
talk and remember happier days.
Arthur Adamov
1908-70: Russian Playwright,
leading figure of Theatre of Absurd. His plays are originally written in
French.
1. L'Aveu (The Confession, 1946)
2.
La Parodie 1947 (The Parody 1950):
a handless
clock that looms eerily over characters who are constantly questioning one
another about the time.
3.
Le Ping-Pong (Ping Pong, 1955): Central image is a
pinball machine, in which characters surrender themselves in never ending
aimless game. It shows man's false adherence to false objectives.
Eugène Ionesco 1909-1994: Born in Romania, Romanian-French playwright,
one
of the foremost figures of the "French Avant-garde theatre”, Leading figure of
Theatre of Absurd. His plays are known as antiplays. They combine a dream or nightmare
atmosphere with grotesque, bizarre and whimsical humour and parodies human
condition. Berenger is the Ionesco’s
self-image in his plays.
1. The Bald Soprano or The
Bald Prima Donna (1950): first play- one act
play- contributed to the beginning of ‘Theatre of Absurd.’ (Prima Donna= main
female singer or leading lady). Mr & Mrs Smith discuss about the death of
Bobby Watson. Mr. & Mrs. Martin’s daughter Alice individual daughters with
the same name has white left eye, red right eye.
2. Salutations 1950 - Three men, after
being asked "How are you?" greet each other continuously through
different adverbs and each character would end with "And you?" after
each adverb.
3. The Chairs (1951)
– one act play,
Ionesco described it as absurdist "tragic farce". An elderly couple, known simply as Old Man and
Old Woman invited a renowed orator to deliver great message for mankind to
invisible guests. The room becomes increasingly crowded with continuously
growing chairs. When the orator arrives (a real person), the coule decide to end their lives by
jumping out of the window. The orator tries to speaks but unable to speak, so
he writes few jumbled words on blackboard and exits.
4. Jack, or The
Submission 1955- an absurdist play, subtitled "a naturalistic comedy". One of the two plays
(the second one is The Future is in Eggs) in which Jack and his family
are named after Jack (Father Jack, Mother Jack, etc.). Jack's arranged marriage
to Roberta¸ Jack refused to marry a girl chosen by his parents having only two
noses, she is not ugly enough to marry. So, he selects a girl with three noses.
5. Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It (1954): based on his earlier
short story entitled "Oriflamme". Amedee is a play
wright, and his wife Madeleine, a switchboard operator discusses how to control
the continuously growing corpse. It is causing the mushrooms to sprout all over
the apartment. The corpse grows into monstrous size until a giant foot crash
through the door onto the stage. The couple's attempts to dispose of the corpse
lead to absurd and comical situations.
6. The Killer or The killer
without reason or cause 1958- Berenger’s lover Dany
was murdered
7. Rhinoceros (1959)- A 3 Act play,
Response to the upsurge of forces of Fascism, Nazism, Communism during WW-II. The inhabitants of a small, provincial
French town transforms into a Rhinoceros except Berenger (theme of loss
of individuality). Berenger struggles
to hold onto his own identity and wants to fight them. Berenger is the author's
self-image in many plays. Berenger’s friend, Jean
says, “Humanism is dead, those who follow it are just old sentimentalists”
8. Exit the King
1962- tragicomedy
centered on King Berener-I who learns that he has only a short time
left to live. Throughout the play, Berenger struggles to come to terms with his
mortality and the impending collapse of his rule. His first wife,
Marguerite, is intent on forcing him to face his mortality, while his second
wife, Marie, wants to shield him from the bad news.
9. Macbett 1972- satire on Shakespeare’s
Macbeth
10. The Hermit (French title: Le Solitaire) 1973: is the only novel
Berenger Cycle: The Killer (1958),
Rhinocéros (1959), Exit the King (1962) and A Stroll in the Air (1963).
Harold Pinter
1930-2008: Playwright,
director and screen writer. He was born in London to a Jewish Tailor. Nobel
in 2005. Leading
figure of Theatre of Absurd, His plays are known as "Memory Plays". His plays
also fall under comedy of menace. In addition to his
stage and radio plays,
Pinter has written
screenplays, John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Kafka’s The
Trial (1989), Fitzgerals’s The Last Tycoon, Robin Magham’s The Servant, and Atwood’s
The Handmaid's Tale (1990).
Pinteresque:
It is an eponymous adjective. (= derived from the name of a person). Only few writers raised to the level of adjective. Ex: Shakespearean, Shavian (GB Shaw), Pintaresque (Pinter) Kafkanesque, Stoppardian, Freudian, Lacanian.
Pinteresque describes his distinctive innovations in both form and content. His plays are distinguished from all other by their sense of suspense, mystification and ambiguity. Pinteresque dialogue is comically familiar yet disturbingly unfamiliar, mundane and frightening, contradictory and ambiguous, comic and menacing.
He uses pauses, three dots and silence in his plays.
I. Pinter’s pause is denoted by a gap, which will be filled in. It is not a dead stop.
II. Pinter’ Silence is a dead stop, when psychological level becomes quite extremely heated up
III. Pinter’s 3 dots show hesitation. It is a very tiny hesitation, differs from comma, semicolon
Memory Plays: His plays are known
as Memory Plays in which a lead
character narrates the events of the play, which are drawn from the character's
memory. Harold Pinter's plays Old Times, No Man's Land and Betrayal are memory plays,
where "memory becomes a weapon "The term was coined by playwright Tennessee
Williams, describing
his work The Glass Menagerie.
Comedy of menace: arising
comedy from threatening/fear. Comedy makes people to laugh
Menace
makes people threaten/fear.
The
term was coined by Irving Wardile, who borrowed it from the subtitle - of
Campton's play The Lunatic View: A comedy of menace in Encore magazine in 1958
in reviewing Pinter & Campton’s plays -David Campton, Nigel Dennis, NF.
Simpson, Harold Pinter (playwrights)
1.
The Room (1957)- His first play, one
act, the earliest example of comedy of menace. Rose, Mr. Bret, Riley, a
blind blackman are the characters.
2.
The Birthday Party (1957)- 3 act play, only 6
characters. Stanley Webber, pianist is a lodger in Meg and Petey’s (couple in
60’s) seaside house. When two men Goldbeg and McCaun (known as Simon and Benny
by other names) visits the house, they celebrate Stanley’s birthday. Lulu,
neighbor, a beautiful girl in 20’s joins the party. They play Blindman’s bluff,
lights go out, Lulu faints and it looks as if Stanely assaulted her and the
party turns into a nightmare. The next moning the two strangers take the Petey
with them.
Irving Wardle famously described the
play as ‘a comedy of menace’, while Pinter’s
biographer, Michael Billington, calls the play ‘a cry of protest’.
3.
The Dumb Waiter 1957: -on act play with only
3 characters. Dumb waiter delivers messages to Bes and Gus (received from their
boss), who are waiting in a basement of an old roming house. They are hired
killers who are waiting for their victim. They rehearse the murder they are
about to commit. Gus leaves the room. Answering a call on the
intercom, Ben is ordered to shoot the first person who comes in the room. He
calls for Gus: they have their orders. Ben points his gun at the door, ready to
shoot, as Gus enters the room. The two men stare at each other in terror.
4.
The Care Taker 1959: Aston and Mick are
brothers. Aston brings home. David, a tramp, after saving him from a brawl and
appoints him as caretaker. At the end of the play. Aston & Mick sends
Davies out of their house.
5.
The Dwarfs 1960: His only novel
turned into a play. Set in post-war Britain, story of four young
Londoners: Len, working at the Euston train station but fascinated by abstract
mathematics; Mark, a sometime actor; and Virginia and Pete, a young couple.
6.
The Homecoming 1964: Two act play- Set
in North London, the play has six characters. Five of these are men: Max(70), a retired butcher;
his brother Sam(63), a chauffeur; and
Max's three sons: Teddy(mid 30s), a philosophy
professor in U.S.A; Lenny(early 30s), a pimp; and Joey(mid 20s), a would be boxer.
Teddy after living in US for 6years,
brings home his wife Ruth(30) with their three sons for the first time(The Home Coming). This arises
sexual tension as Ruth teases teddy's brothers and father. They started
fighting for her in the house. Finally, Teddy decided to
leave his wife and she becomes
prostitute.
7.
Betrayal 1978: scenes occur in
reverse chronology from 1977 and 1968. different
permutations of betrayal involve two married couple “Robert & Emma”, his
friend “Jerry & Judith”. Emma is based on a lady who loved Pinter for 7
years and married another.
Jean Genet (1910-1986): French
poet, playwright &, novelist, associated with the theatre of Absurd.
He is
an illegitimate son of a prostitute, became an orphan, wandered through
European countries as a thief and male prostitute.
1. Death watch
(1944): First play a story of three
prisoners locked in a cell.
2.
The Maids (1947): inspired
by a real-life case of two sisters who murdered their employer and her daughter
in 1933. story of two maids, Claire and Solange, engage in fantasies while role
playing, while their Madame is away. As the play progresses, the line between
reality and fantasy becomes blurred. The ultimate goal of their role-playing is to kill their Madame and free
themselves of subjugation.
3.
The Thief's Journal (1949): a semi-auto
biographical on his own life.
Henrik Ibsen: Norwegian
playwright, father of realism.
1. A Doll’s House
(1879)- 3 act play- Nora Helmer, wife of Torvald, mother of three, is the central character
in it.
2. Ghosts- on the theme of Euthanasia.
John (James) Osborne 1929-1994: playwright associated
with angry
young man movement.
1.
Look Back in
Anger (1956)- Protagonist Jimmy porter is the anti-hero. He is is angry and rebellious and became the
model for "The Angry Young Man", a nickname is given
to an entire generation of artists and working-class young men of post WWII
society. This is well known example of Kitchen sink Drama.The cultural
Back drop of this play is ‘Rise and fall of
the British Empire'.
Set in one room in
an apartment in the Midlands of England. Jimmy Porter and his wife Alison Porter and his business partner (running a sweet-stall) and friend cliff Lewis
and Helena Charles., who has a separate bed room across the hall. This play is
also the first well known example of Kitchen sink Drama. The play ends with
Jimmy and Alison once again playing their game of bear and squirrel in which Jimmy impersonates a stuffed bear. Alison impersonates a toy
squirrel.
2. The Entertainer (1957): his next
play
3. Luther (1961) based on
the life of Martin Luther
4. His two volumes of
autobiographies:
a.
A Better Class of Person (1981) and
b.
Almost a Gentleman (1991).
5.
Déjà vu (1992)- His last play, a
sequel to Look Back in Anger.
|
Angry
Youngman movement: a group of middle-class playwrights
after WW-II(1950s), revolted against the hypocrisy of upper class, term taken
from Lesli Allen Paul’s autobiography Angry Youngman (1951).
Became famous with Osborne’s Look Back in
Anger (1952). The
Jimmy Porter's nick name is given to entire generation of Angry Young Men. Group of
writers are: Osborne, Kingsley Amis, Allan Sillitoe, John Braine etc., Originally this term was used as a title of an article by critic
used David Sylvester in 1994 issue of the Journal "Encounter" Novelists of this group are. Stan Barstow, Sid Chaplin, Allan
Sillitoe, David storey, Becket. |
Arnold Wesker 1932-2016:
English dramatist.
He was the author of 50 plays. His plays
have been translated into 20 languages, and performed worldwide.
1. The Kitchen
(1960), a literal representation of life behind the scenes in a restaurant and
an allegory of the struggle, competition, and near-slavery of the social world.
2.
In Roots,
3.
Wesker Trilogy–
first performed at the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry between 1958 and 1960. They
were drew on Wesker's working class Jewish background.
a.
Chicken
Soup with Barley (1958)- 3 act play
with 6 scenes- It spans 20 years of the lives of the Jewish, immigrant Kahn
family living in 1936 in London. The protagonists are: Sarah an adamant socialist;
Harry, her husband, is weak, a liar and lacks conviction; Ada is extremely
passionate about Marxism; and finally, Ronnie is a romantic, youthful idealist.
It is about Wesker's political views as an 'angry young man'.
b.
Roots
(1959)- a kitchen sink drama
about a girl, Beatie Bryant.
c.
I'm
Talking about Jerusalem (1960) – The 'Jerusalem'
in the play's title refers to William Morris's idea of the new Jerusalem (a
socialist haven) and has been taken from a poem by William Blake. The play
relates the story of Ada and her husband, Dave Simmonds.
4. The
Merchant (1976)- play- which he later renamed
Shylock, uses the same three stories used by Shakespeare for his play The
Merchant of Venice.
Novel:
Thomas Hardy 1840-1928: novelist, turned to
poetry. Novelist, son of a mason and building contractor - His mother, greatly
encouraged his early interest in books, father in violin. Wrote around 900
poems. Wessex is frontier in his novels. Hardy's home town of
Dorchester is called
Casterbridge in his books,
notably in The Mayor of Casterbridge. “He began as a late
Victorian Romantic poet, he ended as a 20th century metaphysical
poet, fully abreast of the new generation”
Thomas Hardy
& AE Houseman are two great pessimistic poets of the Edwardian Era
1. The Poor Man and
the Lady was the
first novel written by Thomas Hardy. It was written in 1867 and never
published. After the manuscript had been rejected by at least five publishers
2. Desperate
Remedies 1871 is the
second novel by Thomas Hardy, albeit the first to be published (anonymously). Story of a young
woman, Cytherea Graye, is forced by poverty to accept a post as lady's maid to
the eccentric Miss Aldclyffe, the woman whom her father had loved but had been
unable to marry.
3. Under the
Greenwood Tree: A Rural Painting of the Dutch School (1872)- novel, drawn its
title from Shakespeare’s song in As You Like It. second published
novel, and the first of what was to become his series of Wessex novels. The
novel follows the activities of a group of west gallery musicians, the Mellstock
parish choir, Love story of Dick Dewy (musician) with
Fancy Day (school mistress) and her rejection of
two other suitors. Hardy called this
book as “The Mellstock quire"
4. A Pair of Blue Eyes
(1873): It was Hardy's third published novel. Love
triangle of Blue eyed girl Elfride Swan Court and her two suitors
from very different backgrounds: Stephen Smith, a socially
inferior but ambitious young man who adores her and with whom she shares a
country background and Henry Knight, the respectable,
established, older man who represents London society. Elfride, out of
desperation, marries a third man, Lord Luxellian.
The conclusion finds both suitors travelling together to Elfride,
both intent on claiming her hand, and neither knowing either that she already
is married or that they are accompanying her corpse and coffin as they travel.
5. Far From Madding
Crowd 1874: 4th novel- tragi-comedy set in Thomas
Hardy's Wessex in rural southwest England. originally appeared
anonymously as a monthly serial in Cornhill Magazine. It describes the
life and relationships of Bathsheba Everdene with her lonely neighbour William
Boldwood, the faithful shepherd Gabriel Oak, and the thriftless soldier
Sergeant Troy. Love of Gabriel Oak,
for woman farmer Bathsheba Everdence.
Title from Gray’s "Elegy
Written in a Country Churchyard" (1751).
6. The Hand of
Ethelberta: A Comedy in Chapters 1876. It was written, in
serial form, for The Cornhill Magazine, which was edited by Leslie Stephen, a
friend and mentor of Hardy
7. The Return of the
Native 1878: sixth
published novel- first appeared in the magazine Belgravia, a publication known
for its sensationalism. set on Egdon Heath, a fictional barren moor in
Wessex in southwestern England. The native of the title is Clym Yeobright,
who has returned to the area to become a schoolmaster after a successful but,
in his opinion, shallow career as a jeweler in Paris. He and his cousin
Thomasin exemplify the traditional way of life, while Thomasin’s husband, Damon
Wildeve, and Clym’s wife, Eustacia Vye, long for the excitement of city life.
Disappointed that Clym is content to remain on the heath, Eustacia, willful and
passionate, rekindles her affair with the reckless Damon. After a series of
coincidences, Eustacia comes to believe that she is responsible for the death
of Clym’s mother. Convinced that fate has doomed her to cause others pain,
Eustacia flees and is drowned (by accident or intent). Damon drowns trying to
save her.
It has alternative ending. In a later
edition, to please his readers, Hardy made additions to his novel. Thomasin
marries Diggory Venn, a humble longtime suitor, and Clym becomes an itinerant
preacher.
8. The Trumpet-Major 1880- only historical novel
9. A Laodicean; or,
The Castle of the De Stancys. A Story of To-Day (1881)- a novel, with uncommon plot
devices such as falsified telegrams and faked photographs.
10. Two on a Tower: A
Romance (1882) - a novel, a minor
work. It is one of Hardy's Wessex novels, set in late Victorian Dorset.
11. The Mayor of
Casterbridge 1886: Subtitle: The life and death of a man of Character. One of the Wessex
novels, set in a fictional rural England with Casterbridge standing in for
Dorchester in Dorset where the author spent his youth. Michael Henchard (21-year-old hay-trusser) drunk on rum,
auctions wife Susan off, along with their baby daughter Elizabeth-Jane, to
Richard Newson, a passing sailor, for five guineas. Sober and remorseful the
next day, he is too late to locate his family. He vows not to touch liquor
again for 21 years. Susan lives as
Newson's wife for 18 years. After Newson is lost at sea, Susan, lacking any means
of support, decides to seek out Henchard again. Susan discovers that Henchard
has become a very successful hay and grain merchant and Mayor of Casterbridge, a
man well respected but not well liked. Susan falls ill and
dies shortly after the couple's remarriage, leaving Henchard a letter to be
opened on the day of Elizabeth-Jane's wedding. Henchard reads the letter, and
learns that Elizabeth-Jane is not in fact his daughter, but Newson's – his
Elizabeth-Jane having died as an infant. Henchard's credit collapses and he goes
bankrupt. Farfrae buys Henchard's old business and tries to help Henchard by
employing him as a journeyman. Lucetta Templeman who has an affair with
Henchard. (once she saved him when he was ill); marries Donald Farfrae, who
becomes Mayor of Casterbridge after Henchard. When Joseph Jopp reads the love
letters of Henchard- Lucetta in public, Lucetta collapses, has a miscarriage,
and dies. After 21 years, Henchard starts drinking again. Elizabeth-Jane
marries Farfrae. Henchard leaves a letter his Elizabeth-Jane which reads: his dying wish is
to be forgotten. Abel
Whittle is a character in it.
Final lines of the
novel: “Happiness was
but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain.”
12. The Wood Landers
1887: serialised
in Macmillan's Magazine, life of nature
woodlanders in a woodland country. Set in a small woodland village called Little Hintock, and concerns the
efforts of an honest woodsman, Giles Winterborne, to marry his childhood
sweetheart, Grace Melbury
13. Tess of the d'Urbervilles 1891: subtitle: ‘A Pure Woman
faithfully presented’. It was illustrated in the newspaper the Graphic 1891. The novel begins
with the discovery by Tess's father, John Durbeyfield, that they are
descendants of the ancient d'Urberville family. When Tess
accidentally causes the death of the family horse (named as Prince), she feels guilty
enough to go work for the d'Urbervilles. Tess is sent to work
for the wealthy Mrs. d'Urberville, where she encounters Alec d'Urberville, who
seduces her, which leads to her pregnancy and the birth of a son (named as Sorrow) who dies in
infancy. Tess takes a job as a milkmaid
at Talbothays Dairy, where she meets Angel Clare, a young man. Tess and Angel
fall deeply in love, but Tess hesitates to reveal her past to him. Eventually,
they marry, but on their wedding night, Tess confesses her history to Angel. Angel
says: “she was more sinned against than
sinning" and
abandoned her and moved to Brazil seek his fortune. Heartbroken and alone, Tess
is forced to reunite with Alec, who offers her financial security. When Angel
returns, her loyalty to Angel makes her to stab Alec. At the end, Tess was
arrested and hanged.
Famous Lines:
“God's not in his heaven: all's wrong with
the world!”;
“The president of immortals (god) has ended his play with Tess”( Famous Aschelian phrase at the end of novel )
Note: “God’s in His heaven — All’s right with the world!”- Robert Browning-
Pippa Passes
Tess is more
sinned than against than the sinning.
The quote
refers to the protagonist, Tess, who is portrayed as a victim of the societal
norms and circumstances beyond her control rather than a willful sinner.
Despite her own flaws and mistakes, Tess is often depicted as a passive figure
who is buffeted by the harshness of the world around her. The quote has become
synonymous with the novel and has been widely discussed in literary criticism
as a key theme of the work.
14.
Jude the Obscure 1895: Last novel, this
book was burnt and banished, so he stopped writing novels and turned to poetry.
story of Jude Fawley, a poor country boy
(stone mason who dreams of becoming a scholar) who aspires academic glory
escapes from a village to university.
15. The Well-Beloved: A Sketch of a Temperament
1897- novel
16. The Dynasts
(1904,1906,1908)- closet
drama- verse epic-drama in blank verse in 3 volumes, 19 acts and 130 scenes.
Not counting the fore scene and the after scene, the exact total number of
scenes (131). Hardy described it as epic drama of war with Napoleon. It is "the longest English drama in
existence"
Closet drama is intended
primarily for reading rather than performed
onstage. Examples:
John Milton’s Samson Agonistes (1671) and Thomas Hardy’s The Dynasts
(three parts, 1903–08).
17.
Wessex Poems and other verses (1898), Poems of
the Past and the Present (1901), Collected Poems (1919), and Winter Words in Various Moods and Metres
(1928) are his
major poetry works.
18.
Wessex Tales 1888; A Group of Noble Dames 1891
-collection
of short stories
Joseph Conrad 1857-1924: Born as Josef Teoder Konrad Korzeniowski in Poland, He
spent 20 years on sea. He
is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language; though he
did not speak English fluently until his 20’s. He learnt English
(It is his 3rd Language) at 20. He is known for his "Antihero"
type characters.
1. Almayor’s Folly 1895: Set in Borneo Jungle in 1800’s- Duch trader Kaspar Almayor’s dream of finding gold mine to become rich. He is a white
European married to native Malayan. His
daughter Nina is loved by the Malayan Prince Dain Maroca. Though Almayer doesn't find any gold, finally
becomes rich by his daughter's marriage.
2.
An Outcast of the
Islands 1896 - second novel, inspired by Conrad's experience as mate of a steamer, the Vidar.
Outcast of
the Islands is a 1951 British adventure drama film directed by Carol Reed based on
it.
3. The Nigger of the Narcissus 1897: A Tale of the Forecastle (sometimes subtitled A Tale of the
Sea), first published in the United States as The
Children of the Sea. Set in a ship named Narcissus on the Indian Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. James Wait (the Nigger), West Indian black sailor’s voyage from Bombay to London who is suffering from Tuberculosis.
4. Heart of Darkness 1899- Novella. first published as a three-part serial story in Blackwood's Magazine.
It symbolizes the darkness in all human hearts. Based on Conrad’s trip through
Congo. Story of Marlow (Ivory transporter) and his journey through Congo investigating about Kurtz (an ivory procurement agent and bad official). Kurtz’s last words are “The Horror! The Horror!”
Story is told
by an anonymous narrator who listens to Marlow on the deck
of Nellie on the Thames River. T. S. Eliot
used the quote “Mistah
Kurtz he dead”as an epitaph to “The Hallow men.”
5. Lord Jim 1900: serialized in Blackwood's Magazine. Jim’s position on the SS Patna
(fictional steamer) on Red Sea. Captain Charles Marlow helps Jim.
6. The Inheritors: An Extravagant Story (1901) – quasi sci-fi novel on which Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford. The inheritors are a breed of cold materialists, calling themselves
Fourth Dimensionists, whose task is to occupy the earth
7. Typhoon 1902: Captain MacWhirr sails on the Nan-Shan, a British-built steamer running under the Siamese
flag, Captain
MacWhirr is a man who never walked on land.
8. Romance 1903 -novel written by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford. It was the second of their three collaborations.
9. Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard 1904- set in the fictitious South American republic of "Costaguana".
It was originally published serially in monthly instalments of T.P.'s Weekly.
10. The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale 1907 - Mr. Adolf Verloc undercover agent for 11 years. Verloc is also a
businessman who owns a shop which sells pornographic material, contraceptives
and bric-a-brac(small decorative objects).
11. Under Western Eyes (1911) - novel set in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Geneva, Switzerland, and is
viewed as Conrad's response to the themes explored in Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime
and Punishment.
12. The Nature of a Crime 1909 -Joseph Conrad collaborated with Ford Madox Ford(3rd novel).
13. Chance 1913- Marlow is
a narrator
14. Victory: An Island Tale 1915 is a psychological novel, Axel Heyst, the novel's protagonist, was
raised by his widowed father, a Swedish philosopher, in London, England, and
never knew his mother.
15. The Shadow-Line, A Confession 1917
16. The Arrow of God 1919
17. The Rescue, A Romance of the Shallows (1920): last of the Lingard Trilogy, a group of novels based on Conrad's experience as mate on the steamer
Vidar. Other two: Almayer's Folly (1895) and An Outcast of the Islands (1896)
18. The Rover 1923 is the last complete novel
"An Image of
Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" is a
Lecture given by Nigerian writer, Chinua Achebe at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in February 1975. He
criticized Conrad as “Bloody
(a thoroughgoing) racist” for depicting
Africa as "the other world".
William Somerset Maugham: regarded as the “Grand Old Man of English Literature”,
1. Of Human Bondage 1915: About Philip Carey,
orphan with Club Foot, Semi auto bio,
Account of his life in medical college.
2. Moon and the Six Pence- A novel about stock broker- abandons family and becomes painter
3. Cakes and Ale or Skeleton in the cupboard 1930: Title fromTwelft Night. - William Ashenden is a narrator / main character/ writer - in Cakes and
Ale
4. Ashenden or the British Agent- is a collection
of stories
5. The Razor’s Edge 1944- about the trauma of world war-I
Arthur Conan Doyle: detective novelist,
created “Sherlock Holmes” Character. Sherlock Holmes is
in 4 novels and 56 short stories. His companion is Dr Watson
1.
Sherlock Holmes- a clever detective.
2.
Hound of
Baskervilles- Mortality through
demonic hound (=a type of dog)
|
Lytton Strachey wrote Eminent
Victorians in 1918. It is the
biographies of 4 leading figures of Victorian Era.They are Cardinal Manning, Florence
Nightingale, Thomas Arnold and General Gordan (3men & 1 woman). It marked
an epoch in the art of Biography. Strachey’s
biography “Queen
Victoria 1921” is famous. |
Rudyard Kipling: Novelist, poet. Born in Bombay. George Orwell
called him as “Prophet of British Imperialism”
1.
Barrack room Ballads: series of songs and
poems deals with army.
2.
Jungle Book (1894)- Adventures of
Mowgli (=little frog), a boy, is raised in the jungle by wolves. The stories are
set in Seoni, a forest in Madhya Pradesh.
3.
The Whiteman’s Burden- poem supporting
imperialism of Britain.
4. Love Song of
Hardayal-
Englishman’s love to an Indian girl. Opening line: East is
east, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.; famous line: My
bread is sorrow and my drink is tears. Come back to me, Beloved, or I die!
5.
Kim 1901: Set in Lucknow, a
boy wander with holy man in India. Nirad C Choudari praised Kim novel as “not
only the finest novel in English with an Indian theme but also one of the
greatest of English novels in spite of the theme.” Kipling described it as “nakedely
picaresque and plotless”
6.
His famous poems are: Recessional, Ganga
Din, Fuzzy Wuzzy, Shiv and Grasshopper, Wee-Willie Winkle, If
Aldous Leonard Huxley 1894-1969
1. Crome Yellow- dystopian novel. Set in Crome, a country estate in England. Story
centers on Denis Stone, is a young poet and intellectual who is invited to
Crome by his friend, Henry Wimbush. Denis is hopelessly in love with Anne
Wimbush, Henry's niece.
2.
Brave New World
1932: title from Mirinda’s
Speech (Act-V, Sce-1 in The Tempest).
Set in London in 2540AD (AF 642), i.e.,
after death of Henry Ford/Sigmund Freud). Bokanovsky cloned 96 children without parents.
Categorized humans in 5 ranks (alpha to Epsilon). Hydpnopaedic method of
education to children in sleep
by playing tape records. Sarojini Angels is a
character in it.
D. H. (David
Herbart) Lawrence 1885-1930: Exponent of Realism. His novels are set
in Nottingham Countryside (used Nottinghamshire
dialect). E.M. Foster called him as “The greatest imaginative novelist”. He called Novel as “The Bright book of Life”
1. The White Peacock (1911)- its working title is Laetitia
2. Tresspasser 1912-
3. Sons and Lovers 1913- it is his best novel, largely
autobiographical. Sparked by the death of his mother, and shows the influence
of his mother on his sexual and psychological development. Originally titled as
“Paul Morel”. It is the first Freudian Novel,
because of Oedipus Complex between Paul(son) and Gertrude(mother). It is the
story of Morel family: Gertrude- mother-clever (based on his own mother);
Walter Morel- father- Coalminer, who drinks his money; Paul Morel- Lawrence
himself- budding artist; Mirium-based on Jessy Chambers, his lover.
4. The Rainbow 1915- tells the story of 3 generations of Brangwyn Family
5. Women in Love 1920– it is the sequel to ‘The Rainbow’. Love
story of Brangwyn sisters Gudrun with Gerald Crich and Ursula
with Rupert Birkin
6. Kangaroo 1923– is called a thought adventure, inspired by
his trip to Australia.
7. The Boy in the Bush
8. Lady Chatterley’s Lover 1928 – Controversial novel. Chatterley, whose
husband has been paralyzed due to war, starts sexual relationships with another
man.
9. The Plumed Serpent 1926- set in Mexico,
H. G. Wells (Herbart George Wells)- Father
of Science Fiction.
1. The Time Machine 1895. Time traveler tells his guests at party about the 4th dimension
(time travel), Set in 80270 AD, Where he met Eloi (small child
like adults) and Marlocks (ape like cave men, who live in darkness)
2. The Invisible Man
3. The First Man in the Moon (1901)
4. When the sleeper awakes (1899)- a man wakes up after 200 years of sleep, becomes richest person by his
money in the banks
5. Pono Bungay- about patent Medicine, sci-fi
Remember: The Invisible Man - H G Wells; Invisible Man- Ralph Ellison
Arnold Bennett- Novelist, known for
his novels set in “Five towns” of
pottery district, Strafford shire.
1. Old Wives Tale 1908:
2. Anna of the five town 1902- famous
3. Clay hanger 1910- set in pottery district.
E. M. Foster (Edward Morgan Foster) 1871-1970 Known as “Novelists’ Novelist.”
1.
Where the Angels
Fear to Tread 1905- first novel, set in Tuscany. The title comes
from a line in Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism: "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread”.
(from part-III)
2.
The Longest Journey 1907: 2nd
novel, is a bildungsroman,
3.
A Room with a View 1908: 3rd
novel¸ Set in Italy and
England, about a young woman in the restrained culture of Edwardian era
England.
4.
Howards End 1910- about social
conventions, codes of conduct and relationships in turn-of-the-century England,
centered on three families in England: The Wilcoxes, rich capitalists,
(outer
life, materialism), The Schlegels (innerlife,
spiritual) - family of
intellectual and idealistic sisters, and The Basts, an impoverished
young couple. The epigraph is "Only Connect" emphasises
about social conventions and codes of conduct 'humanism"
5.
A Passage to
India 1924: Title from Walt Whitman's 1870 poem "Passage to
India" in ‘Leaves of Grass’. A Passage to India is a link between Anglo Indians & India. Based on the backdrop of Indian independence movement in1920s, and on
Forster's own experiences in India, where he had acted as secretary to the
Maharaja of Dewas senior. Depicts cultural,
racial problems. Divided in 3 parts:
a.
Mosques- Chandrapore- fictional- cool season
b.
Caves – Marabar-
Bihar- Hot season
c.
Temples – Mau (M.P)- Rainy season
Mr. Aziz, a young Indian physician (narrator) takes Miss. Adela Quest, Mr.
Fielding, Mr. Moore to ficticious Marabar caves, where he was charged for a
rape on Adela, proved unsuccess. Aziz realized it is impossible to have an
English friend. (Until we get freedom).
Edward Said, who referenced A Passage to India in both Culture and
Imperialism and Orientalism.
6.
Aspects of Novel
1927: is a book based on
a series of lectures delivered by E. M. Forster at Trinity College, Cambridge. Talks about 7 aspects of
novel, and Flat and Round Characters. He defined the seven universal aspects of the novel as: story,
characters, plot, fantasy, prophecy, pattern, and rhythm. (Code: SPPPPFR). Foster defines the novel as “any
fictitious prose work over 50,000 words.”
7.
Maurice 1971. Wrote in 1914, but published in
1971 (posthumously) due to its overt homosexual theme. It follows Maurice Hall
from his schooldays through university and beyond, in early 20th-century
England.
Only Connect – is the phrase by E M
Foster
G. K. (Gilbert
Keith) Chesterton: (1874-1936): Known as Prince of Paradox. Coined the
term Victorian Compromise.
1. Father Brown Stories: fictional Roman Catholic priest Detective, uses psychology to solve
cases.
2. The Man who was Thursday: A Nightmare (1908)
The
Stream of Consciousness Novel:
This term was coined by William
James in ‘Principles of Psychology”to
denote the chaotic flow of impressions and sensations through the human
consciousness. This particular novel is also called the ‘Subjective Novel’ or ‘The
Psychological Novel’. Dorothy
Richardson, James Joyce and Virginia
Woolf are the makers of the stream of consciousness novel in England.
Dorothy Richardson- first to use the
term Stream of Consciousness (term coined by Henry James).
1. Pilgrimage- series of 13 novels- Miriam is the protagonist.
James (Augustine Aloysius) Joyce: 1882-1941: Irish Novelist, born
in Dublin. His pen name is “Stephen Dedalus”
1. Dubliners 1914: short story collection
2. A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man 1916: semi autobio novel, Kunstlerroman, Coming of Age novel. Stephen Dedalus is the hero.
|
Künstlerromanmeans "artist's novel" in English. It is a narrative about an artist's growth to
maturity. It could be classified as a sub-category of Bildungsroman. |
3. Ulysses 1922: divided in 18 episodes (each episode is one hour). A day in Dublin from 8
am to 2 am on next day (18 ½ hours). Sequel to A portrait of an Artist as a
young man. It was banned in UK in 1936. Ulysses is the hero of Homer’s epic poem
Odyssey. About the wanderings
of Stephen Dedalus, Leopard Bloom and
Molly Bloom through Dublin City’s
Public Bath, funeral, Newspaper office, library, public houses, school,
brothel, maternity hospital, pub etc.
|
Ulysses |
Odyssey |
|
18 ½ hours journey |
10 days journey |
|
Leopard Bloom
(Advertising Canvasser) |
Odyssus |
|
Stephen Dedalus
(school teacher)-son |
Telemachus- son of
Odysses |
|
Molly Bloom
(singer)-wife |
Penelope- Wife of
Odysses |
|
Milly (Bloom’s
daughter) – 15 years old - studies photography |
|
|
Rudy (Dead son of
Bloom) |
|
- Criticism of James Joyce’s Ulysses
- "An
illiterate, underbred book it seems to me:" Which English critic
is of this view about Joyce's Ulysses?
-said by Virginia Woolf.
- "I
hold this book to be the most important expression which the present age has
found; it is a book to which we are all indebted, and from which none of us can
escape." -said by
T.S. Eliot
4. Finnegan’s Wake 1939: Comic fiction in 4 books. Father HCE (Humphry Chimpden Earwicker)-a
tavern keeper, Mother ALP (Anna Livia Plurabelle)-a river woman, and their 3
children. James Joyce says, “This
book begins in the middle of a sentence and ends in the same”. It is an infinite circle book: “Beginning is the end.” Last word in the book is “The”. It is
the most difficult work in English, now a Gunnies Record”.
In Finnegan’s Wake, there are 100 letters in 9 words and the tenth word has 101 letters. These ten words have come to be known as thunders, thunderclaps, or thunderwords. The total letter count of the above ten words (1001) intentionally corresponds to the One Thousand and One Nights.
Example: bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!
5. Exiles 1918: only play by Joyce. Looks back to ‘The Dead’ (final story in Dubliners)
6. Chamber Music (1907)- first full length poetry collection.
7.
Epiphany (term) - refers to "a sudden spiritual manifestation”.
Ø The term Epiphany
has a more specialized sense as a literary device distinct to modernist
fiction.
Ø An Epiphany is a
term in literary criticism for a sudden realization, a flash of recognition, in
which someone or something is seen in a new light.
Ø “Epiphany-- a sudden spiritual
manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or of gesture or in a
memorable phase of the mind itself” – By Stephen Daedalus
Ø Author James Joyce first borrowed the
religious term "Epiphany" and adopted it into a profane literary
context in Stephen Hero (1904-1906), an early version of A Portrait of the
Artist as a Young Man.
Ø It has its roots in 19th-century lyric poetry, especially the Wordsworth’s
"spots of time."
Ø James Joyce used the
term epiphany to describe the moment when the "soul of the commonest
object . . . seems to us radiant. The object achieves it epiphany."
Novelist Joseph Conrad described epiphany as "one of those rare moments of
awakening" in which "everything [occurs] in a flash."
Ø Epiphanies may be
evoked in works of nonfiction as well as in short stories and novels.
Ø The word epiphany
comes from the Greek for a "manifestation" or "showing forth."
In Christian churches, the feast following the twelve days of Christmas
(January 6) is called Epiphany because it celebrates the appearance of divinity
(the Christ child) to the Wise Men.
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941): Her full name is Adelina Virginia
Stephen Woolf.
1. The Voyage out 1915- first novel- Depicts the Racheal Vinrace’s voyage to South America. Original
title is Melynbrosia. This novel introduced Clarissa Dolloway, central character of Woolf’s
later novel MrsDollway.
2. Night and Day 1919- second novel, set in London, centers on Katherine Hilbery
3. Jacob’s Room 1922- experimental novel, about life and death of Jacob Flanders. (related to
the death of her brother).
4. Mrs. Dalloway 1925: oneday from morning to night in life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class housewife.
5. To the Light House 1927: divided into 3 sections: The Window, Time
passes and The Light house. Story of Mr and Mrs
Ramsay and their 8 children at an island to spend summer.
6. Orlando: A Biography 1928: It is a Roman-a-clef, adventurous story of a poet born in reign of Elizabeth-I, Changes sex
from man to woman and lives for 3 centuries, meeting the key figures of English
literary history. (From Elizabethan to 1928)
7. A Room of one’s own 1929: essay- on
her lectures on woman and fiction. Describes the educational, social and
financial underpinning of woman by using hypothetical fate of Judith Shakespeare (Imaginative sister of
Shakespeare). Says, “Woman must have a room of one’s
own and 500 pounds a year to write fiction”. She used
the concept of Coleridge’s Androgyny
=harmony of male and female.
8. Three Gunieas (1938)- sequel to A Room of One’s Own.
9. Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown- esay, originally
published as 'Character in Fiction' in The Criterion, attacked the realistic writer, express the differences in how writers
develop a character in a story. This essay is about the arrival of modernism,
making the now-famous observation: ‘On or about December 1910 human character
changed’
10. The Modern Fiction- essay- acts as a guide for writers of modern fiction to write what they feel,
not what society or publishers want them to write. She criticizes H.G. Wells, Arnold Bennett, John Galsworthy of writing about unimportant things and called them materialists. She praises Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad, William Henry Hudson, James
Joyce and Anton Chekhov and called them spirutualists.
Virginia and her husband Leonard Woolf started – Hogarth Press in 1917
|
Bloomsbury Group: (known as Ivory Tower
Aesthetics)- 1905-06- groups
of friends, relatives, writers studied at Bloomsbury. They are Woolf, EM
Foster, Vanessa Bell, Toby Stephen, Lytton Strachey, J.M Keys (economist),
Clive bell & Roger Fry (art critics) etc. |
Gerald Manely
Hopkins: Although he belongs to the 19th
century, his posthumous has made him Modern Poet. a lifelong friendship with
Robert Bridges. His concepts: Curtall sonnet, Sprung Rhythm, Inscape
and Instress.
1.
The Windhover- sonnet- 1877, but
not published until 1914. Hopkins dedicated the poem "To Christ our
Lord". The narrator admires the bird ability to hovers in the air,
suggesting that it controls the wind as a man may control a horse. The bird can
be viewed as a metaphor for Christ.
2.
"Pied Beauty" - curtal sonnet
written in 1877, but not published until 1918, when it was included as part of
the collection Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
3.
The Wreck of the
Deutschland- composed in
1875 and 1876, though not published until 1918. The poem depicts the shipwreck
of the SS Deutschland. Among those killed in the shipwreck were five Franciscan
nuns forced to leave Germany
4.
Inscape and instress - concepts about
individuality and uniqueness, from the ideas of the medieval
philosopher Duns Scotus.
5. Curtall sonnet, Sprung Rhythm- see literary terms
Gerard Manley Hopkins is considered to be one of the greatest poets of the Victorian era. His work was not published until 30 years after
his death when his friend Robert Bridges edited the volume Poems.
The line "I caught this morning morning’s minion,
kingdom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-drawn Falcon" is in sprung rhythm.
Sprung rhythm is a poetic meter
developed by the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. It is characterized by a variable
number of stressed syllables per line and an irregular pattern of unstressed
syllables. The stressed syllables are usually separated by one or more
unstressed syllables, which creates a unique rhythmic effect. In the given
line, we can see that there are several stressed syllables ("caught,"
"morning," "minion," "kingdom,"
"daylight's," "dauphin," "dapple-drawn,"
"Falcon") that are separated by one or more unstressed syllables.
This irregular pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables is characteristic
of sprung rhythm.
Max Beer Bohm (1872-1956)- friend of Oscar
Wilde, His pen name is “An American”
1.
Defence of Cosmetics (1894): an essay on
increasing make-up products and criticised the use of artifice by woman.
2.
A Christmas Garland (1912)- best known parody
of literary styles. Collection of 17 parodies. He parodied G B Shaw, Henry James, Hardy,
Conrad, Kiplin, Wells, Meredith, Galsworthy, Chesterton etc. Henry James called
the book the most intelligent that has a produced in England for many a long
day'
Graham Greene- Best known for Roman Catholic
novels. wrote
prefaces for R K Narayan's novels
1.
"Brighton Rock" (1938): novel centered
around a young gangster named Pinkie Brown. Hale, a newspaper journalist, has
been investigating the criminal activities of a young gangster named Pinkie
Brown. To kill Hale, Pinkie uses a Brighton Rock
sugar candy with the words "Kolley Kibber" written on it.
2.
"The Power
and the Glory" (1940): Set in Mexico, the novel follows a whisky
priest who is on the run from authorities, title reflects both his
profession as a Catholic priest and his struggle with alcoholism.
3.
"The Heart of the Matter" (1948): Set in Sierra Leone
during World War II, the novel follows the life of a British colonial police
officer named Scobie. He faces moral dilemmas and struggles with his own sense
of duty and ethics, particularly in relation to his extramarital affair and his
dealings with local war profiteers.
These three novels are known as
“Catholic Triology” and similarly ends with suicide.
George Orwell (1903-1950): Born as Eric Arthur Blair in Bihar, India. He was
a critic of British Imperialism. He is a socialist, wrote against
totalitarianism. He worked as an
Imperial Police Man in Burma.
1.
Down and out in Paris and London: non fictional work
(first), Theme of Poverty he had experienced in these 2 cities.
2.
Burmese Days (1954) first novel, his
experiences in Burma. presents dark side of British Raj.
3.
Animal Farm (1945): He wrote this book
during the war to expose the seriousness of the dangers posed by Stalinism
& totalitarian Govt. Animals in the
Manor form of Mr Jones revolted against their master under the leadership of
Major, an old boar. The old major made all animals to revolt by the song: ‘Beasts of England’ (The first national
anthem of Animal farm) After the old major's death 2 young pigs Napoleon and
Snowball started leading the rebellion. After they take over the farm, they
laid seven commandments such as “four legs good, 2 legs bad", most
importantly "All animals are equal" there maxims
were later changed as "four legs good, 2 legs better" and “all
animals are equal but some animals are more quail than others”. They changed the
name of the farm to "Animal farm” from “Manor farm.” Meantime Mr. Jones
attacked to get back his farm, but in that "Battle of Cowshed" animals have
won the fight. Squealer is the propagandist of Napoleon (It believes in
Napoleon). 7 Commandments were reduced to All animals are equal, but Some
animals are more equal than of others. Boxer's personal
maxims are 1. I will work harder 2. Napoleon is always
right. Snowball an
inventive pig. Napoleon a cruel pig started fighting for leadership. Snowball
announced his plan to build a "windmill, but Napoleon made Snowball run
away from farm with the help of nine cruel dogs. Napoleon blamed Snowball if
something is wrong. Napoleon became dictator, he sent his dogs to eat up any
animal that didn't agree with him. He sent old Boxer to slaughter house (old
Boxer is a horse). In the end they started business with humans (which is
forbidden), and plated walking on hind legs (like humans), the other animals
can't able to discriminate between pigs and animals.
Manor farm → Russia
Mr. Jones → Russian
Czar
Old Major → Karl Marx or Lenin
Snowball
(Intellectual) → Trotsky
Napoleon → Stalin (Main Villain)
Dogs →
his secret police
4. Nineteen Eighty Four
(1949): Orwell's
second most famous novel. A Dystopian Nightmare at in Airstrip One (British
Isles). Opening line: “It was a bright cold day in
April and the clock were striking thirteen ". Divided society in 3
parts Inner party, Outer Party and Protes. Big brother is
modelled on Stalin & Hitler. "Thought Police” controls the thoughts
of anyone who dares to think independently using brainwashing and torture.
Orwell's Nineteen
Eighty-Four gives a
warning against totalitarianism. The novel presents a dystopian future where
the government, known as "the Party," has complete control over the
lives of citizens, including their thoughts and actions. The Party uses
surveillance and propaganda to maintain its power and control, and
individuality and dissent are brutally suppressed. The novel serves as a
warning against the dangers of totalitarianism and the importance of preserving
individual freedom and autonomy.
5.
Why I write (1946): is an essay by
George Orwell detailing his personal Journey to becoming a writer? He concludes
the essay explaining that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose
that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences
without meaning decorative adjectives and humbug generally
It is an
essay by George Orwell, published in 1946 after the publication of his novella
Animal Farm and before he wrote his final novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. It
details his personal journey to become a writer
6.
Politics and the English Language (1946)- in this essay Orwell criticised the
"ugly and inaccurate written English” of his time. he lays out six rules for good writing, which to him is clear, precise
writing that tells the truth. Anyone who has taken a writing course will find
them familiar, as they are foundational rules explained in any book about good
writing.
i. Never use a
metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in
print. Don't use clichés
ii.
Never use a long word where a short one will do.
iii.
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it
out.
iv. Never use the
passive where you can use the active.
v. Never use a
foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an
everyday English equivalent.
vi. Break any of these
rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
Orwell would much
rather see a writer break one of these rules than write something
"barbarous" and keep all of them.
His Popular
Quotes are
Ø 2+2=5
Ø Big
brother is watching You
Ø War
is peace, Freedom is slavery, Ignorancee is strength
John Drinkwater (1882-1937): Poet, playwright
1.
Abraham Lincoln (1918): Best known play,
historical Drama
Dymock Poets: Drink water, Rupert
Brooke, Robert Frost & others., Port of Gloucestershire village of Dymock.
Clifford Bax (1886-1962) play wright, poet,
editor, lyricist, essayist, translator. He founded Phoenix Society to revive:
important Elizabethan and Restoration Dramas
1. Socrates
(1930)- notable play
2. The Rose
without a thorn (1932)- Notable play
Katherine Masefield 1868-1923
1.
Blue Review (a small magazine)
with Murray. They assumed the role of 2 tigers, addressed each other as
"Tig & Tag
2.
The Garden Party & Other stories: famous collection
of short stories.
J.B. Priestly (1894-1938) Novelist, mostly
known as playwright. A popular broad caster on BBC Radio
1.
Angel Pavement (1930) : novel,
successful
2.
Mothers’ day (one-act-play)
Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986): Novelist,
playwright, screen writer and diarist
1.
The Dog beneath the skin (1950) or Where is
Frances?
2.
The Ascent of P6 (1936)
3.
On the frontier (1998)
These 3
plays collaborated with WH Auden
1.
All conspirations (1928): his first novel.
2.
He is better known in India for his translation of Bhagavad-Gita (1945) in collaboration
with Swamy Prabhavananda.
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