07、现代主义时期文学（1914-1945）(修改版).docVIP

七、现代主义时期文学（1914-1945） Chapter Seven The Modernistic Period (1914 - 1945) Ⅰ. Social Background The Victorian Age came to an end with the death of the title queen in 1901. Under the new social background, Britain entered a transition period. As a full participant in World WarⅠ, England was severely weakened economically as well as in many other aspects. The country began to face new problems: unemployment, the sharp contrast between the working class and the diddle class, the widespread strikes. The situation hardly improved, and even worse, England was immersed in the Great Depression by 1931. Ill-prepared for another war, Britain suffered heavy losses in World War Ⅱ. Ⅱ. Literary Characteristics During the first half of 20th century, British literature was closely influenced by the social changes. The novels: The English fiction took on a character of its own from the end of 1910s to the 1920s. The war and its historical and psychological impact were one of the chief stories the novelists were forced to tell. In technique, nourished by the realistic tradition, but also influenced by the avant-garde modernist movements all over Europe, the British fiction took two directions: one was taken by the more realistic modern writers including Ford Madox Ford(福特·马多克斯·福特), W.S. Maugham(毛姆), and E.M. Forster(福斯特). The other was taken by the modernist writers including James Joyce(乔伊斯) and Virginia Woolf(沃尔夫). The 1930s was more practically-oriented. The satirists were Evelyn Waugh(伊芙琳·沃), Aldous Huxley(阿尔道斯·赫胥黎乔治·奥威尔让·里斯The most important writer in this period was Graham Greene(格雷厄姆·格林). The poetry: The 1920s was the period of High Modernism. W.B. Yeats(叶芝), Thomas Hardy(哈代) and T.S. Eliot(艾略特) were the major poets. The 1930s saw intellectual poems with industrial and urban imagery and political consciousness. Headed by W.H. Auden(奥登), a group of poets founded “the pylon poets” (牛津诗派). The 1940s was the period of Neo-Romanticism. Dylan Thomas(迪伦·托马斯) was the m