20th Century
20TH CENTURY
This is a century of contrasts which have been widely shown by the watchful means of communication and by new forms of artistic expression developed on the basis of the appeal of images to people. A century of human rights and wars (told by soldiers who, differently from the past, could read and write, or even broadcast by television), a century of progress and poverty, the employed and the unemployed, natives and immigrants, optimism and pessimism.
For Britain, it was the end of the British Empire and this made the country look for a different place in the world. Its influence grew weaker in that sense but , from the point of view of Art and Literature many British and Irish 20th century figures have marked the way that others followed.
The film posters you can see at the attached document above are cinematic adaptations of novels or plays written in English by British or Irish writers in the 20th century.
1-
However, one of these films is based on a novel written before the 20th century by an English novelist. Can you guess which one? When was it written?
The authors of the stories told in these films are notable figures in the history of last century´s Literature. Read the information below and find out the names of eight of them and the title of one of their main works.
2-
-He was not born in England, but in the Ukraine, of Polish parents, he became a British subject in 1886.
-Many of his novels are set at the sea
-He studies about Man´s weakness and corruption while his characters go through a voyage of self-discovery.
3-
-He was the first important writer to come from the working class after the Education Act of 1870, which brought education to all.
-Some of his novels were banned in Britain until 1960 and he gained a reputation as a writer on sexual themes.
-He examined all aspects of human relationships, between men and women, parents and children… and also between man and nature.
4-
-He was born in Ireland but he left his country to become an artist, although this was always present in his works.
-One of his main novels caused great controversy when it was published in Paris: some people saw it as the most important novel of the century, for others it was obscene, therefore it was banned until 1936.
-The mentioned novel is about one day in Dublin (16th June, 1904). The author uses the “stream of consciousness” monologue with no
punctuation as thoughts and feelings flow from the characters´ minds.
5-
-She came from a literary family and her home in Bloomsbury became the centre of literary interest among intellectuals and artists of her time.
-She also used “stream of consciousness” techniques as well as impressionistic techniques since she wanted to leave realism and move into a new kind of expression which would allow a more internal exploration of events and emotions.
-She committed suicide in 1941.
6-
-He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.
-His most popular novel also shows the animal in all of us, studying the behaviour of a group of boys on a desert island.
-He was one of the great story-tellers of his time.
7-
-He was a socialist and took part in the Spanish Civil War. He wrote a novel as a homage to the people he met here.
-The characters of his most famous work are animals who represent the failure of humanity to get over dictatorships.
-Another of his famous novels put forth the slogan of "Big Brother is Watching You".
8-
-He was an Irishman, the leading figure in English drama from 1890 to 1950.
-He used the theatre to discuss issues, not only for entertainment.
-One of his successful plays, on which a film and a musical have been based, tells the story of a flower-seller and a professor who, for a bet, tries to change her accent and her manners to make her into a lady.
9-
-He was another Irish playwright, noted for introducing the so called "absurd drama" into the British theatres in the 50s.
-His main play shows how meaningless life is, presenting two characters who spend their time waiting for someone who never appears.
-He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969
http://www.mantex.co.uk/ou/a319/a319-00.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0861608.html
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0860063.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_literature#Modernism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_literature#English_language_literature_since_1900
http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/20century/topic_4/welcome.htm
But some of the strongest literary images of the century could only be expressed in the form of the "silent photograph of language":
poetry.
-W.B. Yeats wrote “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold”
Although he began his poetic career in the 1880s , Yeats gave such a clear image of the twentieth century that he demonstrates that words
are still often the best means of expression. He shows in his poems many of the changes which were happening in the world he lived in.
From love poems to poems of political themes, the range of his work makes this writer one of the great poets of the century.
-T.S. Eliot wrote “April is the cruellest month”
Many critics also consider him and his poem “The Waste Land” the most relevant poet and poem in English in the 20th century.
His technique of moving quickly from one scene to another is sometimes called cinematic and it is a typical feature of modernism. Time, memory and reality are questioned to present a new vision of the world.
10- They are two of the best last century´s poets writing in English. Read the beginning of the two poems mentioned above and translate a
few lines of the one you prefer.
