British Literature from the 19th and the 20th century (LETETCENB107)
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Summary British Literature from the 20th Century
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Cours
British Literature from the 19th and the 20th century (LETETCENB107)
Établissement
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU)
Book
The Norton Anthology of English Literature
In dit document staat een samenvatting van de colleges en werkgroepen over Engelse literatuur. De literatuur gaat van de Eerste Wereldoorlog, tot Postmodernisme. Er staan historische context, beschrijvingen van schrijvers en discussies van teksten in.
British Literature from the 19th and the 20th century (LETETCENB107)
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British Literature form the 20th century
Week 1: (P)refiguring the Great War: an introduction to the 20 th
century
Joseph Conrad
Joseph Conrad was a writer born in Poland. English was his third language. He learned English
because he was a sailor. He travelled down the Congo in 1980. This was an experience which had an
effect for the rest of his life, and about it he wrote “Heart of Darkness”. This also appeared as a film
adaptation.
In the first fragment of the novel, you can already see the dark settings of both Congo, but also of
Britain. Conrad suggests that times are changing in the empire and the British self-deception.
Thomas Hardy
Hardy is a writer who also reflected on Fin-de-siècle fears. The poem “A Darkling Rush” is about a
bird. The bird in the poem has, perhaps, some hope for the future, but the speaker does not see that.
This really is a poem dedicated to the end of the year/century.
Historical context
Mid- to late 19th century: There were different things going on:
- Nationbuilding: Think about Italy, the German Empire, and about
colonialism
- Increasing industrialisation
- Stronger concentration of wealth, but also of poverty. The
exploitation of the workers caused the proletariat to come into
being. There also was some kind of unity as they felt the need to
resist the exploitation.
- Paris commune: Socialists took over Paris for two months.
- The mass media facilitate larger debates on social reforms. There were a lot of questions
about how society should be reformed. The Charters, for example, wanted everyone to vote.
This was brought into legislation with the Reform Acts.
Start of the 20th century:
- Rise of Militarism: This was partly caused by colonialism as countries wanted armies over the
globe. Warfare was of a different nature now (with tanks, gas, machine guns, etc.).
- Sense of scientific and moral scepticism: The war proved that there was barbarity at the
heart of humans. Another question after the war was if science really offered solutions. As all
it had done was create a cruel war. The Russian Revolution breaking out is also a sign of this
scepticism.
- Aesthetic innovations: Photography and cinema were developed. The value or use of
paintings and theatre was now put into question. There were a lot of theories and questions
about representation and reception.
- Psychoanalysis: There were other ideas about perception, like Sigmund Freud’s theory.
Internal psychology was the main factor in behaviour rather than the outside world, as the
realist focused on. Modernism presents a lot about the mind.
Fin-de-siècle Britain
There was a contradictory state of the empire at the beginning of the 20 th century.
At one hand, there were the zenith of naval power and the belief that British power was absolute.
There was colonial domination and London was seen as the world capital.
On the other hand, urban degradation also occurred, and there were industrial quarrels, rising
international tensions, and political developments like the suffragette movement.
,Images forming a contrast
On the left you can see Queen Victoria’s
Diamond Jubilee. This shows another
picture than the picture below this
one.
Here you can see the effects of the urbanisation, and the state
people lived in.
The Boer War was part of colonisation, but it
was a darker side of colonisation, a dark side in
the British imperialist effort. People were put in
concentration camps.
Titanic: Something that is believed to be the most powerful
engineering of the world is not unstoppable. The same would become
clear for the empire.
The First World War
,The entente Cordiale (1904) was an Anglo-French alliance.
British and French interests were tied together.
These coalitions massive coalitions were the allied powers
(France, Russia and the United Kingdom) and the central
powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman
Empire). The connections explain the effect of the
assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria in
Sarajevo (June 1914).
When invading Belgium and Luxemburg, Germany triggered a
clause in the Treaty of London (1839) that safeguarded
Belgian neutrality. Germany found out that the British were
very much committed to the this and the Entente Cordiale.
The United Kingdom declared war on Germany in August
1914.
With the Military Service Act (January 1916) conscription is
imposed. Even though men wanted to fight, this act was
needed. Men did not want to fight anymore because of the
high number of casualties.
The First World War is famous for the new kind of warfare
(trench warfare, use of gas, tanks).
In the United Kingdom, women joined the workforce.
The Germans started attacking ships in the Atlantic (also American ones), which was the reason for
America to join. America helped to break the lines which lead to German surrender and Armistice
Day.
Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)
Wilfred Owen fought in the war and had PTSD. He was sent to Edinburgh to recover and then had to
fight in the war once more.
A famous poem is Dulce et Decorum est. This is a very graphic poem about dying for your country
which is not at all glorious.
Legacy of the world war
Cenotaph at Whitehall, where flowers are laid down on the 11 th of November.
Poppies are worn for this remembrance because of the poem “In Flanders Fields”.
Refiguration: Looking back on the war
“The second coming” is a biblical reference to the Second Coming of Christ. The poem shows
fragmentation and how the certainties of the past have been broken. It also refers to the Antichrist at
the end:
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
, Seminar 1: From Edwardian to Modern
Idyllic England
The visual culture of the period shows a different picture than that of warfare. It
presents Britain as very peaceful and innocent.
You’d want to protect this place, this rural
landscape. It refers to idyllic England rather than
the urbanisation that has been going on.
Georgianism is a kind of poetry. The quote on the
handout states that it has a lot of descriptions of
the landscape, it is tender in feeling and it is
essentially unaggressive. There was some criticism
to this kind of poetry as it was also seen to be
boring.
Rupert Brooke
Brooke was handsome and came from a good background. He was kind of a golden boy. He was a
great writer. He wanted to fight in the war, but he died in 1915 from blood poisoning (mosquito)
without ever seeing the frontline.
The soldier is a poem about dying for your country. It has Georgian elements: idyllic. There is a focus
on England and English. England is actually personified and seen as a mother. It calls on a kind of
emotion that you should fight for your mother.
The speaker in the poem also states that if he were to die, then that part of foreign ground would
now become English. It has a sense of expanding England and a sense of conquest. People started
realizing that this was a problematic thought.
This poem is a war poem that does not feature the war. All negatives are concealed by positives. This
poem has a sense which appeared at the beginning of the war, a sense of chivalry, and of
enthusiasm. The poem is very much associated with early war poetry.
Also take a look at the paintings on the slides and the photographs of the war-torn landscape
- Paul Nash, We Are Making a New World (1918)
- Paul Nash, Wire (1918)
- Paul Nash, The Menin Road (1919)
Isaac Rosenberg ‘Break of Day in the Trenches’
Rosenberg grew up in a lower class Jewish family. He made something out of himself. Unfortunately,
he died at the front in 1918.
The poem is about a soldier talking to a rat. The rat can be seen to have cosmopolitan sympathies.
The rat can cross the trenches, it can transcend the identity, the rat has an elevated sense. The rat is
also a symbol for death as it does not discriminate. =
The beginning of the poem is quite bitter and it has some sarcasm. Throughout the poem, it gets
more and more bleaker. There is maybe also a bit of hope.
The poppies are the first flowers to grow. They are the first signs of a new country. This is also a bit
macabre as the red flowers seem to have absorbed the blood from the battlefield.
The description of the landscape is also interesting. “Sleeping green” forms a great contrast to the
battles fought from the trenches. The phrase “bowels of the earth” insinuates that the earth has
been ripped open. The intestines are now seen. “Still heavens” also forms a contrast with the war.
These are all powerful images.
Wilfred Owen – Anthem for Doomed Youth
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