GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF: ‘THE MODERN LITERATURE'.

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GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF: ‘THE MODERN LITERATURE'.

Ø Prepared by     : KAVITABA P. GOHIL

Ø Roll No: 19

Ø Batch: 2017-19

Ø Email: kavitabaprahaladsinhjigohil@gmail.com

Ø Enrollment No: 2069108420180018

Ø M.A (English)   :  SEM -3

Ø Paper – 9        : THE MODERN LITERATURE

Ø Submitted to   :  Smt .S. B Gardi, Department of English,                                                                                               MK Bhavnagar University.

Ø Words count: -

#ABSTRACT:

Each and every age in the history of English literature has some different traits that distinguish it from all other, Modernist or Twentieth century also had some marked features that differentiate it from previous ages. The transition from the Victorian age to Modern age was faster forward and backward. Modernism best described as the literary and artistic period from the first half of the twentieth century.

In the first half of the fifty years of the 20th-century human race moved faster forward and backward than during perhaps fifty generations of in the past. The human race moved faster in industrialization and inventions of technology, with the help of that society lead to progress, and because of material growth and scientific development, there was spiritual regress, human race degraded in the matter of religion and spirituality. (Setting)

This assignment mainly focuses on General characteristics of ‘The Modern age’ or we can say salient features of the age.

# INTRODUCTION:

The modern age in literature was grounded in achievements that are amazing in their potential for both emancipation and destruction: atomic energy, space exploration, genetic, biomedical engineering, and telecommunications. Technological advances in these areas could either save millions of human beings and the planet or destroy them several times over. They can free people from the ‘bondage’ of disease, poverty, and oppression or mire them in worse conditions. The literature of the 20th century has consistently addressed these extreme situations of freedom and oppression, fear and freedom from fear, ruins, and achievements.

The increasing role of, and dependence on, electrical and mechanical devices, from everyday life and housework to gigantic industries, marks the 20th century. The technology of the world and life has also resulted in massive environmental problems, some of which have attracted socio-political and legal attention and activism across the world. Right from the first decades of the 20th century, North American and European continents underwent rapid urbanization, as rural populations fled to cities for jobs. Science became the most significant discipline (perhaps at the cost of the humanities and social sciences). The race to colonize space began. Medical science crossed unbelievable distances and provided treatments for assorted illnesses. It cracked open the secret of life – the discovery of DNA stands on par with the discoveries of the radio waves, the theory of relativity, the steam engine and other such achievements of the industrialized age.( Backgrounds)

#CHARACTERISTICS:

1 – Globalization& Science-technology

An important consequence of the discoveries found in colonization carried out especially by Spain and Portugal first and later also by Great Britain and The Netherlands. In the same way, this era also recognized as the beginning of globalization, one of the main characteristics of the Modern Age.

In turn, I also create a new trade need between continents. For example, spices became indispensable in European diets and cinnamon or pepper became a necessity. The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration has mentioned as one of the possible starting points of the Modern Age.

These voyages and discoveries of new countries, territories, and continents of which there was no knowledge or certainty of their existence, represented an important change in diverse areas as the commerce, the culture, the religion, etc. This gastronomic exchange forced to develop new Conservation techniques Due to long journeys across the world.

The 20th century was marked by bold scientific developments. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution undermined an unquestioned faith in God that was, until that point, nearly universal while the rise of psychoanalysis, a monument led by Sigmund Freud, introduced the idea of unconscious mind. Such innovation in ways of thinking had great influence on the styles and concerns of contemporary artist and writer like those of Bloomsbury Group. Bloomsbury name derived from a district of London in which its members lived, this group of writers, artists and philosophers emphasized on the nonconformity, aesthetic pleasure and intellectual freedom.

2- 

In Modernist literature, the individual is more interesting than society. Specifically, modernist writers were fascinated with how the individual adapted to the changing world. In some cases, the individual triumphed over obstacles. For the most part, Modernist literature featured characters who just kept their heads above water. Writers presented the world or society as a challenge to the integrity of their characters. Ernest Hemingway especially remembered for vivid characters he accepted their circumstances at face value and persevered.

3- Stream of consciousness:

A stream of consciousness was a phrase used by William James in his Principles of Psychology (1890) to describe the unbroken flow of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings in the waking mind. Then it adopted to describe a narrative method in modern fiction.

Willy James' had a little theory called Radical Empiricism (which kind of sounds like a metal band), which sheds doubt on the existence of a unified self. In normal-people speak, this means that the "I" you were five years ago or even five minutes ago is not the same "I" you are now. We are all a series of selves and that the self can’t be disentangled from the world. In other words, we are what we see. Freud's theories about the unconscious definitely changed the way people thought about the mind. However, William James' theories about the nature of consciousness that had a much greater influence on the way Modernist literature were written than most people realize.

He shared with his brother, the novelist Henry James (how much do you want to go to the James family Thanksgiving?), and a preoccupation with consciousness. He described the flow of thought, in a phrase that would launch a thousand works of fiction, as "a stream." Who employed a stream of consciousness writing techniques? ‘Um, everyone who was anyone in Modernism.’ Dorothy Richardson, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce… and that is just the tip of the stream of consciousness iceberg.

Not surprisingly, Henry James was the earliest novelist whose work reflects his bro William James' theories. The books Henry James published after the appearance of his brother's Principles of Psychology (1890) seem to turn upon the issues related to consciousness. In novels like What Maisie Knew (1897) and The Golden Bowl (1904), readers have to ask themselves how the narrators' perspectives account for what they see.

Long passages of introspection, in which the narrator records in detail what passes through a character's awareness, found in novelists from Samuel Richardson, through William James’ brother Henry James, to many novelists of the present era. A stream of consciousness is the name applied specifically to a mode of narration that undertakes to reproduce, without a narrator's intervention, the full spectrum and continuous flow of a character's mental process, in which sense perceptions mingle with conscious and half-conscious thoughts, memories, expectations, feelings, and random associations.

4-Existentialism & Absurdity:

 The carnage of two World Wars profoundly affected writers of the period. Several great English poets died or they wounded in WWI. For many writers, the world was becoming a more absurd place every day. Modernist authors depicted this absurdity in their works.

Existentialism became popular in the year following World War 2, and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy including theology, drama, art, literature, and Psychology. Existentialist recognizes that human knowledge is limited and fallible. Waiting for Godot falls under the category of Theatre of Absurd, a term coined by drama critic Martin Esslin. Vladimir and Estragon caught in hopeless situation forced to do repetitive or meaningless actions, dialogues are full of clichés, wordplay, and nonsense, the plot that is cyclical or absurdly expansive.

Who are we?

Why are we here?

We are waiting for whom?

Existentialist themes displayed in the Beckett's Waiting for Godot, in which two men divert themselves while they wait expectantly for someone named Godot who never arrives. They claim Godot to be an acquaintance, but in fact, hardly know him if they saw him.

Samuel Beckett, once asked who or what Godot is? replied, ' if I knew, I would have said so in the play'.

To occupy themselves, the men eat, sleep, talk, argue, sing, play games, exercise, swap hats and contemplate suicide - anything “to hold the terrible silence at bay. The play "exploits several Archetypal forms and situations, all of which lend themselves to both comedy and pathos".

The play also illustrates an attitude toward human experience on earth: the poignancy, oppression, camaraderie, hope, corruption, & bewilderment of human experience that can be reconciled only in the mind & art of the Absurdist. The play examines questions such as death, the meaning of human existence and the place of God in human existence.

The characters of the play are strange caricatures who have difficulty in communicating the simplest concept to one another as they bide their time awaiting their arrival of Godot. Whereas traditional theatre attempts to create a photographic representation of life as we see it, The Theatre of Absurd aims to create a ritual like mythological, Archetypal, allegorical vision closely related to the world of dreams.

5-Renaissance humanism:

Humanism Was a European intellectual, philosophical and cultural movement initiated in Italy and then expanded throughout Western Europe between the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In this, one was looked for to return to the models of the Classical Antiquity and the Greco-Roman humanism.

This movement arose in response to the doctrine of utilitarianism. Humanists sought to create citizens who were able to express themselves, orally and in writing, with eloquence and clarity, but still committing themselves to the civic life of their communities and persuading others to perform virtuous and prudent actions.

In order to fulfill this ideal, he used the study of "Studia humanitatis", which we know today as the humanities, among them: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry and moral philosophy.

The"Studia humanitatis" excluded logic from their study and made poetry a sequel to grammar and rhetoric; the most important area of study. This emphasis on the study of poetry and the quality of oral and written expression, above logic and practice, represent an illustration of the ideals of change and progress of the Modern Age and the yearning for the Renaissance.

6- Experimentation:

Modernist writers broke free of old forms and techniques. Poets abandoned traditional rhyme schemes and wrote in free verse. Novelists defied all expectations. Writers mixed images from the past with modern languages and themes, creating a collage of styles. The inner workings of consciousness were a common subject for modernists. This preoccupation led to a form of narration called stream of consciousness, where the point of view of the novel meanders in a pattern resembling human thought. Authors James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, along with poets T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound are well known for their experimental Modernist works.

7- Longingness:

          Longingness is at the root of modern literature. Modem poets express longingness of all kind in their poetry. Rupert Brooke’s Old vicarage is a cry of homesickness. John Masefield’s Seekers is the best example of the longing of man for God and the eternal city of light. The longingness is also evident in The Hollow men and The Waste Land of T. S. Eliot.

 

#CONCLUSION:

The modern literature is different from other literature, it has come out of cruelty and bloodsheds, and it questions the existence of Humans and God too. It presents human life as it is. Modern literature is the true criticism of life.

#REFERENCES:

·      "A Handbook to Literature"; William Harmon and Hugh Holman; 2003

·      Nayar, Pramod K. "Backgrounds." A Short History of English Literature. Foundation, 2009. 297-300. Print.

·      Ward, A. C. "THE SETTING." Twentieth Century English Literature. 1. London: The English Language book society and Mathuen, 1965. 1-24.

·      Wikipedia contributors. "Modern history." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Nov. 2018. Web. 4 Nov. 2018.

·      Wikipedia contributors. "Modern history." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Nov. 2018. Web. 4 Nov. 2018.