Part Five 20th century.doc

Part Five Twentieth Century Literature The Social Background The natural and social sciences development led to great gains in material wealth. Frequent economic depressions and mass unemployment sharpened the contradictions between the rich and poor. (3) The catastrophic two world wars tremendously weakened the British Empire and brought about great sufferings to its people as well. The appalling shock of the First World severely destroyed peoples faith in the Victorian values; The postwar economic dislocation and spiritual disillusion produced a profound impact upon the British people, who came to see the prevalent wretchedness in capitalism. 　　The Second World War marked the last stage of the disintegration of the British Empire. Britain suffered heavy losses in the war: thousands of people were killed; the economy was ruined; and almost all its former colonies were lost. People were in economic, cultural, and belief crisis. Ideological Background Ideologically, the rise of the irrational philosophy and new science greatly incited modern writers to make new explorations on human natures and human relationships . The theory of Scientific Socialism put forward by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels not only provided a guiding principle for the working people, but also inspired them to make dauntless fights for their own emancipation. (2) The Social Darwinism under the cover of survival of the fittest, vehemently advocated colonialism or jingoism(侵略主义). (3) Freud’s analytical psychology drastically altered our conception of human nature. Realism in the 20th century English literature 　Realism was, to a certain extent, eclipsed by the rapid rise of modernism in the 1920s. But with the strong swing of leftism in the 1930s, novelists began to turn their attention to the urgent social problems. They also enriched the traditional ways of creation by adopting some of the modernist techniques. However, the realistic novels of this period wer