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UNIT 57

GREAT BRITAIN IN THE INTER-WAR YEARS AND

DURING THE WORLD WAR II. MOST

REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS.

OUTLINE

1.

INTRODUCTION.1.1.

Aims of the unit.1.2.

Notes on bibliography.

2.

A HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR THE INTER-WAR YEARS AND THE WORLD

WAR II.

2.1.

Before the First World War.2.2.

The First World War (1914-1918).2.3.

The inter-War years (1918-1939).2.3.1. The 1920s.2.3.2. The 1930s.

2.4.

The World War II (1939-1945)

3.

A LITERARY BACKGROUND: THE 20TH

-CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE.3.1. Main literary features.3.2. Main literary forms.

3.2.1. Poetry.

3.2.2. Drama.3.2.3. Prose.

3.3. Most representative authors.3.3.1. In poetry.3.3.2. In drama.3.3.3. In prose.

4.

MAIN EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS.

5.

CONCLUSION.

6.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

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1. INTRODUCTION.

1.1.

Aims of the unit.

The present unit, Unit 57 , aims to provide a useful introduction to Great Britain in the inter-

War years and during the World War II so as to examine the life, works and style of the most

representative authors in this period. In general, the literature of the time was both shaped by

and reflected the prevailing ideologies of the day, in which the main social, economic, political,

and cultural conditions were overshadowed by the two World Wars. A new age had come, and

after the First World War, modernism and experimentalism was felt all over the world, and in

particular, in Great Britain where poets, dramatists and novelists constructed a major literary

tradition based on the calmness of spirit and leisure of mind as a reaction against the two World

Wars (Albert, 1990).

Then, we shall further analyse all this information within a historical and literary background so

as to provide an appropriate context for the way they lived and a better understanding of their

literary works. Therefore, we shall divide our presentation in five main chapters.

Chapter 2 namely offers a historical background for the inter-War years and the World War II

in Great Britain regarding social, economic and political changes so as to provide an overall

view of the context in which the most representative authors lived and produced their works. So,

we shall divide our study in four main sections regarding the main events occurred (1) before

the First World War, during (2) the First World War (1914-1918) in terms of (1) home and (2)

international affairs; during (3) the inter-War years (1918-1939), in which we analyse the most

outstanding events of (a) the 1920s and (b) the 1930s; and finally, the period during (4) the

World War II (1941-1945).

In Chapter 3, with this historical overview in mind, we shall provide a literary background ofthe period which ranges from the inter-War years to the end of the World War II with the aim of

going further into the most representative authors and their masterpieces within the three main

literary forms: poetry, drama and prose. Therefore, we shall start by providing first an overview

of the (1) main features of the inter-war years and World War II; and second, (2) the main

literary forms and their most reprentative authors. Therefore, within (a) poetry, we shall

examine the life, works and style of Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973) in England, Dylan

Thomas (1914-1953) in Wales, W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) in Ireland, and also, out of Britain, the

relevant American poets T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) and Ezra Pound (1885-1972). Secondly, within(b) drama we include Sean O’Casey (1884-1964) in Ireland, Sir Noël Coward (1899-1973) and

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J.B. Priestley (1894-1984) in England, and the first American dramatist of international

significance, Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953); and, finally, within (c) prose, we shall review the

following authors: David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930), Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), Aldous

Huxley (1894-1963), Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970), Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966),

George Orwell (1903-1950), and Graham Greene (1904-) in England, and James Joyce (1882-

1941) in Ireland.

In Chapter 4 will be devoted to the main educational implications in language teaching

regarding the introduction of this issue in the classroom setting. Chapter 5 will offer a

conclusion to broadly overview our present study, and Chapter 6 will include all the

bibliographical references used to develop this account of Great Britain literature in the

twentieth century.

1.2.

Notes on bibliography.

An influential introduction to Great Britain in the inter-War years and during the World War II

so as to examine the life, works and style of the most representative authors in this period is

based on Thoorens, Panorama de las literaturas Daimon: Inglaterra y América del Norte. Gran

Bretaña y Estados Unidos de América (1969); and Palmer, Historia Contemporánea (1980).

The literary background includes the works of Rogers, The Oxford Illustrated History of

English Literature (1987); Albert, A History of English Literature (1990); Magnusson &

Goring, Cambridge Biographical Dictionary (1990); Sanders, The Short Oxford History of

English Literature (1996); and Speck, Literature and Society in Eighteenth -Century England:

Ideology Politics and Culture (1998).

The background for educational implications is based on the theory of communicative

competence and communicative approaches to language teaching are provided by the mostcomplete record of current publications within the educational framework is provided by the

guidelines in B.O.E. (2004) for both E.S.O. and Bachillerato; the Council of Europe, Modern

Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European Framework of reference

(1998); and van Ek and Trim, Vantage (2001). Other sources include Enciclopedia Larousse

2000, Editorial Planeta.

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2.

A HISTORICAL BACKGROUND FOR THE INTER-WAR YEARS AND THE WORLD

WAR II IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Chapter 2 namely offers a historical background for the inter-War years and the World War II

in Great Britain regarding social, economic and political changes so as to provide an overall

view of the context in which the most representative authors lived and produced their works. So,

we shall divide our study in four main sections regarding the main events occurred (1) before

the First World War, during (2) the First World War (1914-1918) in terms of (1) home and (2)

international affairs; during (3) the inter-War years (1918-1939), in which we analyse the most

outstanding events of (a) the 1920s and (b) the 1930s; and finally, the period during (4) the


2.1.

Before the First World War.

The years before the First World War coincide with the accession of Victoria’s son, Edward VII

(1841-1910) to the crown, and his reign was known as the Edwardian Age (1901-1910) or the

age of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Edward was the only British monarch who reigned for

nine years at the beginning of the modern age in the early years of the 20th century. He was

replaced on his death by King George V (1865-1936), who replaced the German-sounding title

with that of the English Windsor during the First World War. Actually, the Windsor title

remained in the family under the figure of Edward VIII, Duke of Windsor (1894-1972) and, as

we know, the family name is still present in the current Royal Family.

Broadly speaking, under the rule of Edward VII, known as Edward the Peacemaker for his

diplomacy in Europe, the kingdom of Britain still felt secure after the Boer War despite the

growing forces of discontent and resentment felt by most members of British society due to the

international situation. It must be borne in mind that the balance of power in so many areas wasshifting in a Europe because of the rise of a united Germany, and in a world in which the United

States would soon dominate. Yet, the death of King Edward would mark the dividing line

between the security and stability of the nineteenth century and the uncertainties of the

twentieth, not only in Great Britain but also on the rest of the world.

Following Laurousse (2000), the First World War came about the result of a breakdown in the

European diplomatic system and of the profound economic changes that had been at work

within European society. As stated above, England’s domestic problems had dictated foreign policy decisions, such as not to see Germany defeat France again or to lose her imperialist

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position as the world’s leading power. Eventually, World War I broke out in August 1914, when

Germany declared war on Russia, and trouble in the Balkans precipitated the outbreak of

hostilities, which had been stewing for a long time.

Regarding England’s domestic policies in the pre-War years, the following major changes are to

be mentioned. Economically, the crisis on the question of tariff reform, which divided the

Conservative and Liberal parties; in politics, the rapid rise of men from humble origins to high

positions in the government; the greatest industrial unrest in Britain’s history (1911) where

nationwide strikes of dock workers, railway men and miners brought the country to a standstill;

and finally, in social terms, the passing of the National Insurance Act to ensure the welfare of its

citizensby means of which the worker, the employer and the government would contribute to a

general fund to pay for free medical treatment, sick pay, disability and maternity benefits.

Moreover, this flood of reforms which took place under the label of socialist experiment

brought about important changes in society, such as the introduction of a salary for the Members

of Parliament (M.P.’s), the entry of working class members to Parliament; the Union Trade’s

liability for strike damage, and the freedom to use their funds in politics. Hours and conditions

of labor were also regulated, slum clearances effected, eighty-three labor exchanges set up, and

old-age pensions inaugurated as the first installment of social security. All this cost a great deal

of money and, as we stated above, came from the pockets of the rich (tariff reform).

Actually, these reforms were further incensed by the Home Rule Bill of 1912 and, since Irish

M.P.’s wanted their reward in Home Rule, they helped the Liberals gain power. Yet, the

Conservatives did not agree with the idea of Britain splitting up in the face of increasing

German hostility and defined this situation as ludicrous. Hence they were aided by the

Protestant forces of Ulster (most of Northern Ireland), who were equally alarmed at the prospect

of being ruled from Dublin. As a result, major civil war loomed in Ireland, and in the mutiny at

the Curragh the British Army regulars made it clear that they would not fight against their brothers in Ulster. In 1914, the Home Rule Bill was finally pushed through, but the outbreak of

the Great War pushed everything else aside.

On the other hand, regarding foreign policy, it is worth mentioning that by the turn of the

century, Prime Minister Arthur Balfour (1902-1905) saw that Britain needed to strengthen its

defenses after the humiliations of the Boer War and a Committee of Imperial Defence was

created. Hence the Civil Service was itself enriched by a steady stream of educated, qualified

young men and Britain’s naval defenses were also improved so as to further meet the threatfrom the new German fleet. Moreover, it had become increasingly apparent to many, both in

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and out of government, that the possession of an Empire would not cure Britain's domestic

problems but, on the contrary, could only waste the nation’s resources (the costly adventures in

Afghanistan, the Sudan and South Africa), sorely needed to aid its own people and its own land.

Actually, in the heady day of Empire, Germany’s support of the Boer farmers (arms and guns)

boded ill for future relations between the two countries and also developed a new rivalry over

their respective navies. So, Britain’s foreign policy changed drastically during the first few

years of the new century and, instead of the old cordiality towards Germany and fear of a

combined France and Russia, she now became friendly towards France and Russia and hostile

to Germany. As a result, an Anglo-French agreement in 1904, mainly over their respective

interests in Egypt and Morocco, alarmed the Germans.

The question now arose of what would be Britain’s response on a dispute concerning Morocco.

The answer can be found in the summer maneuvers of the English army that assumed Germany,

not France, would be the enemy. Germany also felt humiliated by the Treaty of Algeciras that

temporarily settled the Morocco question, and felt surrounded by hostile powers, a feeling that

grew alarmingly after the 1906 Anglo-Russian Entente. Its reply was to build up its navy,

including the Dreadnought, a threat to England’s long-held supremacy at sea.

Yet, the troubles began out of the British Isles, in Bosnia, with the assassination of the

Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June, 1914 since, after it, the military chiefs of many nations were

all ready to go to war. Then two main events created a huge dilemma for Britain: first, Austria

declared war on Serbia (with the Kaiser’s support) and, second, Germany declared war on

Russia and on France. This meant that Britain should give full military support to France (and

her allies) and also to stay out of Europe altogether in a policy of complete neutrality. Yet,

Germany violated the neutrality of Belgium in August and eventually Britain went to war on the

side of France.

2.2.

The First World War (1914-1918).

The length of the First World War was completely unpredicted as well as its enormous death

toll and resources. Actually, from beginning to end the years of warfare are regarded as a costly

war of attrition since neither side (the German offensive and the combined French-British

armies) gained any real advantage. In this section we shall try to provide an overall view of the

situation of Great Britain in and out home under the heading of (1) home and (2) internationalaffairs.

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2.2.1. Home affairs.

Regarding domestic affairs, there was a strong feeling of unrest all over Great Britain during the

War in Scotland, Ireland and Wales. In Scotland within the industrial belt the intense labor

conflict gave the name Red Clyde to its shipbuilding region. After it, a series of episodes, pitting

management’s use of semi- or unskilled labor against the militant unions, produced such well-

known activists as James Maxton, John Wheatley, John Maclean and Emmanual Shinwell, and

culminated in the George Square riot in Edinburgh of 1919 that practically ensured the Labour

Party’s national victory in the General Election of 1922.

Also, the matter of Ireland became a serious trouble to the confidence of a seemingly-united

Great Britain. The war had presented the opportunity the Irish nationalists had been waiting for

since the postponement of the Home Rule Act of 1914. When they seized their opportunity to

attack British rule in Ireland, the execution of many of their leaders following the Easter

Monday Rising in Dublin (1916), made reconciliation between the two countries impossible

since the British government failed to separate its important Irish prisoners.

Finally, an internment camp at Frongoch, in North Wales, later known as "Sinn Fein "

University, brought together many who would later become key figures in the fight for

independence, including Michael Collins (later to become Director of Intelligence as well as

chief organizer) and Richard Mulcahy (later to become Chief of Staff). Prisoners were inspired

by hearing the Welsh language all around the camp declare a republic in which Gaelic would be

the national language. In 1918, following the General Election, the successful Sinn Feiners

refused their seats at Westminster and formed the Dail Eireann that proclaimed the Irish

Republic on January 21, 1919.

2.2.2. International affairs.

Regarding international affairs, the war produced one large-scale battle and a few smaller

engagements. At sea, the first British actions (1914) resulted in the German fleet heading for

home, allowing the Royal Navy to continue to dominate the sea routes, to supply new fronts in

the Eastern Mediterranean (with limited successes), and to impose an economic blockade upon

Germany and her allies. Yet, in reply, Germany showed the strengths of a new kind of weapon:

the submarine, which was followed by the sinking of the Lusitania off Kinsale Head, Ireland in

May 1915. This new weapon would have enormous consequences for the later stages of the war

as the entry of the United States in the warfare in 1917.

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In 1915 Lloyd George and Winston Churchill designed the Gallipoli campaign for three main

reasons: to attack weaker spots of the enemy’s front by combining military and naval forces; to

force Turkey to abandon her support of Germany, circumvent Bulgaria's entry into the war, and

bring Greece into the side of the allies. In the campaign, they failed to co-ordinate their

activities, and all the objectives of the bold but totally mismanaged campaign were lost. As a

result, a feeling of hostility was felt in the attitude of Australia and New Zealand (still evident

today in their progress towards republican status, despite lingering affection for the mother

country). On the other hand, the Western front allied losses also caused great concern.

By the end of 1916 (late December), Lloyd George took charge of a coalition ministry so as to

get things done in a time of great crisis, for instance, the conduct of the war, the losses incurred,

and the difficulties in Ireland which needed drastic measures (the brutal suppression of the

Easter Rising almost turned Ireland against Britain though national loyalty to the Crown might

have been kept). In addition, this coalition ministry provided a new test of character of the

British people on accounting for military deadlock, successful U-boat offensive and the onset of

revolution in Russia.

The introduction of an organized convoy system set a barrier in the success rate of the German

submarines in sinking allied supply ships. British efforts were rewarded by the entry of the

United States into the War in April, 1917. It is worth remembering that before this date the great

majority of Americans were firmly neutral and determined to avoid intervention (both in

thought and action) unless American rights and interests were violated (an official proclamation

of neutrality was proclamated in 1915). Yet, in April 6, 1917 the United States was finally

drawn into the war against Germany and its allies due to the unrestricted German submarine

warfare on Atlantic shipping.

The United States contribution was decisive in the outcome because of its military superiority

both in armament and people. Hence it provided Britain with the ships to overcome thesubmarine threat and also, with the American Expeditionary Force on September 1918 to

France. As a result, this military power inclined the balance on the western front and helped to

end the war in November 1918. As a result, the Armistice of 1918 set the first order of the day

in peace terms for the victorious allies (Britain, France, the USA, Italy, Japan and to a lesser

extent Russia) and also for the defeated powers (Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey and

Hungary).

Next year, the United States was also influential in the writing of the Treaty of Versailles, whichformally ended the war in June, 1919. At Versailles, Britain was represented by Lloyd George

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Britain who pressed for severe penalties against the Germans, and came up against the idealism

of President Wilson (USA), anxious to have his plans for a League of Nations implemented; and

France was represented by Clemenceau of France, who wished for even more severe

recriminations against Germany.

2.3.

The inter-War years (1918-1939).

Yet, the period of inter-wars (1918-1939) was, according to Albert (1990:507), “overshadowed

by the two World Wars –the after-effects of the first and the forebodings of the second. After

the Treaty of Versailles [1919] attention in England was still mainly concentrated on foreign

affairs- the growing pains of the new League of Nations, uncertainty in the Middle East, and

troubles in India and Ireland. The Treaties of Locarno (1925) diminished, at least temporarily,

anxieties in Europe, and home affairs began again to dominate English political thought.”

As stated above, the final treaty of Versailles marked the beginning of the inter-War period and

therefore, the reparations in all the nations which took place in the war. Yet, the “war-guilt”

clauses were later seen as a future cause of discontent since they later became an excuse for

Herr Hitler to begin his efforts to countermand them. The United States did not ratify the treaty,

and the disunity that prevailed after its signing did not bode well for the future of Europe.

Eventually, the United States and Russia did not join the League of Nations that met for the first

time in Geneva in November, 1920.

Broadly speaking, the inter-War period is namely characterized by three main factors: economic

weakness, social conflicts and political reorganization. Hence it is regarded as a period of

rehabilitation, grave economic conditions for the British Empire and the introduction of new

economic measures to improve social welfare; social conflicts (social agitation, the introduction

of new social statements), and politically, the reorganization of the Commonwealth and Irish problems.

2.2.1.1.

The 1920s.

In the 1920s the government policy was namely focus on home affairs. Actually, the Anglo-

Irish war began in 1920, lasting until December 1920 when atrocities and counter atrocities by

both sides finally led to the Government of Ireland Act. This Act divided Ireland into NorthernIreland (the largest part of Ulster) and Southern Ireland, giving both parts Home Rule, but

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reserving taxation powers for the Westminster Parliament. It seemed that no one in Ireland was

satisfied and guerrilla warfare intensified. Then the coalition government in London was finally

convinced that a policy of reconciliation was needed and a truce in July, 1921 was followed by

the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December.

The Irish delegation was somehow persuaded by Lloyd George to accept the offer of Dominion

status within the Commonwealth rather than hold out for an independent republic, and the Irish

Free State came into being (6 December,1922). Actually, a basic condition was established by

British: the six counties of Northern Ireland (mainly Protestant) should not be coerced into a

united Ireland (that is, the other 32 counties, mainly Catholic).

However, one of the participants in the Easter Rising who had escaped from Lincoln Gaol

(Eamon De Valera) objected to the oath of allegiance to the Crown and formed a new party, the

Republican Party, which was against the government of Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins.

This meant the beginning of a bitter civil war which ended in April 1923 when De Valera, who

had been elected President of the Irish Free State in 1919, ordered a cease fire. As a result, Eire

was finally declared a republic in April 1948, with Northern Ireland remaining as part of the

United Kingdom.

In the meantime, the British economy had undergone a major downturn due to the not-so-far

World War I and the more recent Anglo-Irish war. The Government did not fulfill its promises

of a better society in which there would be a higher standard of living and security of

employment and as a result, there was a high public and foreign debt together with a serious

problem of unemployment. Yet, one of the main factors was that productivity rate fell rapidly

since many countries, which had been dependent upon British manufactured goods, were now

making their own. In other words, the traditional industries of cotton, coal mining and

shipbuilding found it difficult to compete in world markets and to adapt to more modern

methods. As a result, millions of workers were unemployed.

Moreover, after 1922 the Liberal Party began to lose its standing in the polls despite the fact that

it had allivated conditions of poverty and had improved social conditions. The main reason is to

be drawn from the increasing social security measures that the political program of the Labour

Party advocated (a national minimum wage, the nationalization of basic industries -coal,

railways and electricity-, the imposition of higher taxation to pay for social welfare, and to

reduce the burden of the National Debt). Hence the “dole”, commonly known as the

unemployment benefit , allowed workers to survive while unemployed.

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So, in October 1924 Britain once more turned to the Conservatives under Stanley Baldwin.

Despite the fact that in these days the National Trades Union Congress approved a General

Strike in support of miners caused by the reduction of wages, it proved ineffective to handle the

nation's industrial problems as had Labour. Moreover, in 1925 Chancellor of the Exchequer

Winston Churchill returned Britain to the gold standard, which meant that the pound was

devalued, British goods (coal, steel, machinery, textiles, ships, cargo rates and other goods and

services) became over-priced, and Britain’s share of the world export market declined rapidly.

The resulting unemployment and wage cuts caused serious repercussions in the industrial areas,

where strikes became common. Actually, a general strike took place in 1926 but the government

took no action to bring about the reoganization of the iron, steel, coal, cotton and ship building

industry and in 1927 passed a statute that declared sympathetic strikes illegal. Then, under the

Conservative government of Stanley Baldwin, only a modest program of social reform took

place, mainly to appease working class opinion. The Widows, Orphans and Old Age Health

Contributory Pension schemes extended the Act of 1911 and insured over 20 million people.

In 1928, all women over twenty one were given the vote by the Equal Franchise Act. Also,

under Health Minister Neville Chamberlain, the Local Government Act of 1929 reduced the

number of local government authorities and extended the services they provided. There was still

lacking a coherent policy to deal with the relief of unemployment. A Labour government,

elected in 1929, came to power at the beginning of a world-wide depression triggered by the

Wall Street Crash, but could do little to remedy the situation at home, and eventually, its

government ended in 1931.

2.2.1.2.

The 1930s.

So, in the 1930’s and, particularly, from 1931 to 1945 the Conservative Party had electoralsuccess and things improved a little under a national government comprised of members from

all parties, led by Ramsey MacDonald. So, a series of decisions made this government recover

in some areas, for instance, the abandonment of the gold standard and the decision to let the

pound find its own value against the American dollar made British export prices more

competitive in world markets; agriculture was aided by the adoption of a protective tariff and

import quotas in 1931; also, a building boom followed the increase in population which made

possible new health measures; old industries were replaced by newer ones such as automobiles,

electrical appliances, chemicals, steel, textiles; and finally, there were also changes made in the

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relationship of Britain to her colonies. As a result, unemployment was controlled before 1941,

that is, before the World War II.

Regarding the British colonies, it must be borne in mind that the white-settled colonies of

Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa had been virtually independent of Britain

since the Durham Report of 1839. Yet, the Statute of Westminster (1931) removed much legal

inferiority not addressed in 1839, and Great Britain had to suppress the legislative limitations

over the colonial countries and establish cooperation among the members of the

Commonwealth. So, the independence of the Dominions was now established, and the Crown

remained as a symbol of the free association of the members of the British Commonwealth.

Eventually, in July 1932 the Imperial Economic Conference met in Ottawa (Canada) to hash out

the problems of Dominion economic policies and to settle the matter of their exports to Britain.

At the conference, Britain agreed to abandon free trade and, in turn, the Commonwealth nations

were to provide markets for British exports, including textiles, steel, cars and

telecommunications equipment. Yet, in 1932, King George initiated the Christmas Day radio

broadcasts that served to link the Commonwealth countries to England, but their loyalty was to

be actually proved in World War II during the reign of George VI1. Then, in the late 1930’s

Britain’s foreign policy was overshadowed by problems at home. While domestic policies still

had to find a way out of the unemployment mess, it was vainly hoped that the League of

Nations would keep the peace, and while the aggressive moves by Germany, Italy and Japan

may not have been totally ignored in Westminster, their implications were not fully grasped.

In Germany, Hitler proclaimed the Third Reich in March 1934 by means of which his regime

was given dictatorial powers and the Nazis opened their first concentration camp for Jews,

gypsies and political prisoners. On July 30 he had become Chancellor on a rising tide of

nationalism and economic unrest and in August, he became President of the Reich at the death

of Hindenburg. Also, early in 1935 he announced open conscription in defiance of theconditions laid down at Versailles. Unencumbered by obsolete equipment and even more

obsolete thinking that hindered the British and the French, the German republic was able to

dominate Europe in the following years.

Actually, Germany and Italy, headed by their respective dictators, Hitler and Mussolini signed

the pact known as the Rome-Berlin Axis, through which both leaders supported General

1

Notice that George had come to the throne in 1936 after the abdication of his older brother Edward VIII since hehad to renounce the throne because he wanted to marry the American divorcee Mrs. Simpson.

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Franco’s fascists in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). Britain and France then stood back for

fear of precipitating a general European war and protested, but they embolded Hit ler to such

extent that his troops marched into Austria (1938), then surrounded Bohemia and also

demanded modifications to the Czech frontier (Sudetenland). On trying to avoid a catastrophic

war, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain along with the French Premier agreed in

handing over the Sudetenland to Germany, but soon they realized Hitler’s plans: to dominate

Europe, which was a guarantee of immediate war.

2.4.

The World War II (1939-1945).

Since then a string of successes followed: on September 3, 1939 Britain declared war on

Germany; two days after Hitler’s armies had invaded Poland; France followed Britain by

declaring war on Germany; Stalin also took advantage of the situation to attack Finland; Britain

then prepared for total war 2; British beaches were mined; tank traps and other obstacles to

invading forces appeared everywhere; air raid shelters were dug in back gardens and London

subway stations prepared for their influx of nightly sleepers. Yet, Hitler’s legions occupied

Denmark and then brushed aside a Franco-British force sent to help Norway, and soon German

forces controlled France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway and

Romania, leaving Britain alone in the West to face the Nazi hordes.

Hence in May 1940, Norway faced the German attack and, after a long, bloody war, it

eventually emerged victorious. In Britain, the old and retired (playing the role of plane spotters,

air-raid wardens and night watchmen) and namely single women (the so-called Women’s Land

Army working as radar operators, mechanics, truck drivers and pilots in non-combat roles) had

a major role in armed services. Then, when France signed an armistice (June, 1940), Mussolini

entered the war and supported Germany, believing that Britain was doomed and that he could

pick up rich spoils in Africa. When France fell, the British army was forced to evacuate the

continent at Dunkirk, but trained millions of new soldiers to defend its Empire. In the meantime,

Soviet troops entered the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to incorporate them into

the USSR.

The Royal Navy destroyed the French fleet anchored at Oran in North Africa after France

formed a Vichy government under Marshal Petain. In the Atlantic, German U-boats were

destroying thousands of allied shipping, but Britain waited patiently for the situation to change.

Actually, Hitler expected Britain to come to terms, but Churchill’s rejected it. As a result, Hitler

2

Cities were blacked out, rationing was imposed and rigidly enforced; children from the larger cities were movedinto the countryside, clouds of barrage balloons filled the English skies, housewives turned in their pots and pans for

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planned to destroy the Royal Air Force on an invasion of England since the English coast was

only a few minutes away from conquered France. In fact, the Battle of Britain began in July 10,

1940, with an attack of German bombers on England, and all that stood between the German

armies and the planned invasion of Britain was the Fighter Command of the Royal Air Force.

Hitler attacked London by air, concentrating mainly on airfields and radar installations, but the

German pilots lost their way and missed their intended targets. Then, when British planes

bombed Berlin to retaliate for bombs dropped on London, Hitler was determined to take

revenge but he miscalculated the resilience of the Royal Air Force. So, on ordering the

Luftwaffe to destroy London, he made a grave error. The British Air Force used a secret new

weapon: the Radar, which gave them a decided advantage over incoming German airplanes.

So, the RAF fought on in what was a war of attrition in the air. Eventually, after many losses

Hitler postponed the invasion of Britain on September 17, 1940 and turned his attention to

Russia. In June 1941, Hitler delayed his assault on Russia since he feared a British attack

against his flank from Greece. Next, in September 1940, German boats sank 160,000 tons of

British shipping after a total blockade of the British Isles. Yet, British merchant ships were set

out into the Atlantic to bring supplies from America as if nothing had happened. Then, their

courage in carrying on business as usual relayed to the United States by radio commentators and

had a profound effect upon American opinion, especially upon the President.

This is the reason why President Roosevelt came to the aid of the beleaguered island nation

despite that fact that America was neutral in the war and still at peace with Europe. Then he

ordered his fleet to sink German submarines on sight and in November, British ships destroyed

the Italian fleet at Taranto, which helped the Royal Navy manage to keep control of the

Mediterranean throughout the war. Yet, on December 7, 1941 Japan, which had concluded a

pact with the Axis powers in order to fulfil her designs on the Pacific three months before,

attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and, almost at once, Roosevelt directed

organization of the Nation’s manpower and resources for global war.

Four days later (December 11) Germany’s and Italy’s declarations of war against the United

States brought the nation irrevocably into the war. Japanese forces then captured the British

possessions of Malaya, Burma, Hong Kong and Singapore, the great symbol of the British

Empire, and then advanced practically unopposed to the borders of India in the West and

Australia in the South. Roosevelt then became the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces

and felt that the future peace of the world would depend upon relations between the United

scrap, iron fences, railing and gateposts disappeared into blast furnaces, gas masks were issued to every single person,including babies; total blackout was imposed and rigorously enforced by air Draid wardens

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States and Russia. So, he devoted much thought to the planning of a United Nations, in which,

he hoped, international difficulties could be settled.

He moved to create a great alliance against the Axis powers through “The Declaration of the

United Nations” on January 1, 1942, in which all nations fighting the Axis agreed not to make aseparate peace and pledged themselves to a peacekeeping organization (now the United

Nations) on victory. The United States and its allies invaded North Africa in November 1942

and Sicily and Italy in 1943. The D-Day landings on the Normandy beaches in France on June

6, 1944, were followed by the allied invasion of Germany six months later. By April 1945

victory in Europe was certain and on May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered. The War in Europe

came to an end on May 8, 1945, but the War in the Pacific ended four months later, on August

14, 1945, when Japan surrendered after the American Airforce dropped atomic bombs on

Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

3.

A LITERARY BACKGROUND: THE MOST REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS.

In Chapter 3, with this historical overview in mind, we shall provide a literary background of

the period which ranges from the inter-War years to the end of the World War II with the aim of

going further into the most representative authors and their masterpieces within the three main

literary forms: poetry, drama and prose. The two periods are to be characterized by thedominance of the novel as a vehicle for the sociological studies which attracted most of the

great artists, and the rebirth of drama, which appeared after more than a hundred years of

insignificance since the time of Shakespeare. Like the novelists, most of the important

dramatists were namely concerned with the contemporary social scene, and though, towards the

end of the period, there are signs of a revival of poetic drama, and prose continues as the normal

medium.

Yet, the period of inter-wars (1918-1939) and the World War II (1939-1945) was, according to

Albert (1990:507), “overshadowed by the two World Wars –the after-effects of the first and the

forebodings of the second. After the Treaty of Versailles, attention in England was still mainly

concentrated on foreign affairs- the growing pains of the new League of Nations, uncertainty in

the Middle East, and troubles in India and Ireland. The Treaties of Locarno (1925) diminished,

at least temporarily, anxieties in Europe, and home affairs began again to dominate English

political thought.”

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The thirties was a period of great distress, since there was mounting tension abroad due to the

rise to power of the Nazis in Germany from 1934 until 1939, and also at home, where spiritually

the period saw the immediate post-War mood of desperate gaiety. Also, determined frivolity

gave way to doubt, uncertainty of aim, and a deeper self-questioning on ethical, social, and

political problems, until the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, followed by the critical situation

after the evacuation of Dunkirk, which enabled the nation to achieve a new unanimity of

purpose.

Therefore, we shall start by providing first an overview of the (1) main features of the inter-war

years and World War II; and second, (2) the main literary forms and their most reprentative

authors. Therefore, within (a) poetry, we shall examine the life, works and style of Wystan

Hugh Auden (1907-1973) in England, Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) in Wales, W.B. Yeats (1865-

1939) in Ireland, and also, out of Britain, the relevant American poets T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)

and Ezra Pound (1885-1972).

Secondly, within (b) drama we include Sean O’Casey (1884-1964) in Ireland, Sir Noël Coward

(1899-1973) and J.B. Priestley (1894-1984) in England, and the first American dramatist of

international significance, Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953); and, finally, within (c) prose, we shall

review the following authors: David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930), Virginia Woolf (1882-

1941), Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970), Evelyn Waugh

(1903-1966), George Orwell (1903-1950), and Graham Greene (1904-) in England, and James

Joyce (1882-1941) in Ireland.

3.1.

Main features of the inter-war period and WWII.

The main features of literature in the inter-war period and WWII are summed up in five key

concepts: the breakdown of established values, the resurgence of poetry, the variety of technicalexperiments in most literary genres, the influence of radio and cinema, and the speed of life.

Thus,

(1)

a breakdown of established values because of the perplexity and uncertainty which

sprang from the post-War situation. Many different reactions regarding spiritual values

were equalled by a great variety of literary work.

(2)

Hence the resurgence of poetry whereas the novel and drama were the protagonists in

the previous years. Actually, the pre-War years had seen relative eclipse of poetry, andthe dominance of the novel and drama as literary forms, but a new and living poetical

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tradition was demanded and was met between the Wars in his own work and in that of

the new poets (T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Cecil Day Lewis, Louis MacNeice). Following

Albert (1990:508), “poetry again became a vital literary form closely in touch with life,

and if it did not oust the novel from its primacy it certainly outstripped the drama”.

(3)

Also, there was a desire for new forms and methods of presentation, and in all the major

literary genres the age produced revolutionary developments thanks to two important

inventions of the twentieth century: the radio and the cinema.

(4)

Actually, the radio and the cinema had an enormous impact on the rapid development of

the media and also, had important effects on the literature of the time, which applied

these two media techniques. It must be borne in mind that this novelty reduced the time

devoted to reading (prose) and going to the theatre (drama) since the radio brought

literature at home and the cinema brought a new form of leisure activity. In the form of

broadcast stories, plays, films, or literary discussion, a new field was opened for authors

who applied film techniques to a number of experiments in the novel.

(5)

Finally, since people lived in a new atmosphere of fear and restlessness, the demand

was “for more and faster action, stronger and more violent stimulus, and the general

atmosphere thus created was by its very nature inimical to the cultivation of literary

pursuits, which necessarily demand a degree of calmness of spirit and leisure of mind

(Albert, 1990:509).”

3.2.

Main literary forms.

3.2.1. Poetry.

Broadly speaking, the hopes for a new world quickly disappeared in people’s minds after the

World War I and even less during the WWII, which caused a general feeling of disillusionment

and despair. Writers witnessed how culture disintegrated with no positive values to replace itand soon they felt the need for a new world, for a new outlook on life. Following Albert (1990),

the overall impression of this inter-war years coincide with a new awareness of sociological

factors which affect poetry, for instance, developments in poetic technique, the difficulty of

modern poetry, the combination of psychology and politics, the rise of surrealism and new

traditionalism, and the quest for stability. Thus,

•

developments in poetic technique were soon demanded to show a more realistic way to

face up to those difficult years. So, there was a change from old poetic forms to free

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verse, and also to sprung rhythms, complex verba l patterns, and disregard for normal

syntax.

•

The emphasis on the evolution of new forms gave way to a great difficulty of modern

poetry, thus the dominance of form on content and the use of eccentric themes. Hence

this difficulty caused an increase in the use of ‘vers libre’ and obscurity to appeal the

complex states of mind. This trend was encouraged by the popularity of the

metaphysical conceit, which accompanied the rebirth of symbolism (Yeats, French

Symbolistes) and the imitation of allusiveness (Eliot). Poetry reflected the situation of

those inter-war years: complexity, a refined sensibility, and the use of allusive and

indirect language.

•

Psychology and politics tried to come together under the figures of Sigmund Freud and

Karl Marx, respectively, so as to find a solution to the world problems. Already in the

1920s psychological research made poets turn their attention to the investigation of the

hidden impulses of man, and the development of techniques such as the internal

monologue and the stream of consciousness in characters. On the other hand, political

ideas took up the cause of the masses, whose lives they studied with genuine sympathy

and often with striking realism. The Republican support to the Spanish Civil War

together with a proletarian sympathy was seen by contemporary England in the form of

cheap satire.

•

The rise of surrealism and new traditionalism also contributed to poetry writing, for

instance, the former as an over-simplification of a complex and constantly shifting

situation which meant the escape from the complex problems of contemporary life by

means of experiments; the latter as the expression of the individual emotional

development and their reactions to their environment. Poetry was then characterized by

a detailed observation and lucid phraseology, concise expression, ironic style, stirred by

love and sex, out of the scope of experiments, and also on the line of dramatic

monologue.

•

Finally, the quest for stability increased as there was still no strongly established poetictradition to compare in stability with that of the Victorian age, but a constructive

approach to life. During the inter-War years we find a great proportion of didactic verse,

and the numerous attempts to find a solution to the problems of a perplexed generation

through the use of lyric poetry.

3.2.2. Drama.

As for poetry, the situation of the inter-War years was deeply felt in the English theatre, and

therefore, in Ireland within the Irish Literary Revival Drama. Following Albert (1990), after the

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war the sociological factors which affected this literary form were, broadly speaking, the

conditions in the theatre, the decline of realism, the development of comedy, the popularity of

the history play, the revival of poetic drama and the experiments abroad and at home. Thus,

•

By the 1920s the conditions in the English theatre was defined as poor since there were

no worth productions since Shaw’s Pygmalion (1913). The increasing demand for light

and escapist entertaintment for troops had made spectacle and musical comedy supreme

on the London stage. It must be borne in mind that in the early part of this period the

cause of serious drama in England depended almost entirely on a few enlightened

individuals (Lilian Baylis, Sir Barry Jackson, Sir Nigel Playfair). In addition, the arrival

of the cinema constituted a new threat to the theatre since it quickly became the main

way of entertainment of the masses. The cinema was a powerful competitor as it is

today due to the ability to offer sensation, spectacle on a scale impossible in the theatre,

and the novelty of a new art form.

•

Other hopeful aspects of dramatic activity are found under the growth of the amateur

dramatic movement regarding the British Drama League (1919) and the Scottish

Community Drama Association, both created to stimulate drama. Yet, it must be born in

mind that and this growth of repertory in England and Ireland (1890-1918) was

promoted by the arduous struggle to create an audience for the new drama (troops). This

led to seek additional support in the provinces, and thus came into being the repertory

movement3, whose chief aim was to encourage the writing of realistic problem plays in

the new tradition, and among the dramatists who there came to the fore were St John

Ervine (1883-1971), W. Stanley Houghton (1881-1913) and Allan Monkhouse (1858-

1936).

Repertory companies of distinction were founded in Liverpool (1911) and Birmigham

(1913). But most important of the theatrical developments outside London was the

creation of the Irish National Theatre in Dublin. Of the dramatists who wrote for thistheatre, Yeats and Synge looked on the drama as a thing of the emotions, and, reacting

against realism, sought their themes among the legends, folklore, and peasantry of

Ireland.

•

The decline of realism takes place after the 1920s, that is, after realism and naturalism

had dominated the work of most English dramatists. Yet, the movement from realism is

3 A season of Shaw repertory was given in 1904 at the Court Theatre under the Vedrenne-Barker

management, and in 1907 Miss A.E.F. Horniman (1860-1937) abandoned her active interest in the Abbey

Theatre, Dublin to found “Miss Horniman’s Company,” which, at the Gaiety Theatre, Manchester,developed into the Manchester Repertory Company.

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the keynote of the inter-War period and is namely reflected in the greatest new inter-

War dramatist, O’Casey, though he bases his plays on a truthful picture of Dublin slum

life, and has the ability to transform his works into real poetry, where the new literary

trends are sentimentalism and the concern with the after-life.

•

The development of comedy caught the atmosphere of the later twenties and therefore

was quite popular. Yet, there were not major comedy writers as in the novel.

•

Similarly, the popularity of the history play was only second to that of comely. Yet, the

vogue of this genre in modern times began witht he work of John Drinkwater (1882-

1937), who was one of the founders of the Birmingham Repertory Company, where

numerous history plays took place.

•

The revival of poetic drama is another development of the inter-War period which,

according to Albert (1990:556) “illustrates the dissatisfaction with realism and the

tradition of naturalistic prose dialogue.” Many experiments in verse drama followed,

but their success on the commercial stage was very limited. Thus,, T. S. Eliot’s plays

attracted considerable attention and also those of James Elroy Flecker. Yet, as in the

pre-War period, the real spirit of poetic drama was caught by one whose normal

medium was prose. Even apart from his ‘expressionist’ experiments, we may say that

O’Casey’s works show more of the genuine poetic fire than that of any of the dramatists

here mentioned except T.S. Eliot.

•

Finally, the experiments abroad and at home also affected the literary forms. The

reaction against realism was felt on the Continent before it was felt in England. By 1920

there was experimental drama being written in Russia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Italy,

and France. Expressionism was the most influential experiment since drama was

concerned not only with society but also with man. “It aimed to offer a deep, subjective,

psychological analysis, not so much of an individual as of a type, and it made much of

the subconscious” (Albert, 1999:557). In addition, the expressionists threw the

conventional structure in favour of an unrestricted freedom, full of a mix between verse

and prose, symbolic figures, embodiments of inner, secret impulses so as to make clearthe psychological complexities of character.

The most outstanding expressionist dramatists were the American Eugene O’Neill and

Elmer Rice. In England the influence of expressionism is to be seen in O’Casey,

Priestley, and James Bridie.

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3.2.3. Prose.

There is no doubt that the Victorian era was the age of the English novel, namely realistic,

thickly plotted, crowded with characters, and long. By the end of the period, the novel was

considered not only the premier form of entertainment but also a primary means of analyzing

and offering solutions to social and political problems, only challenged by the revival of drama

towards the last two decades. This king style, the novel, is presented with a political,

philosophical or social overtone since was the ideal form to describe contemporary life and to

entertain the middle class.

Yet, the twentieth century witnesses the development of the novel into new revolutionary

techniques as well as the genres of poetry and drama. Thus, we shall examine the novel in

relation to, for instance, the new approach as an interpreter of life, experiments in the evolution

of a new technique, the influence of pshychology, the lack of popularity of the new novelists,

writers in the established tradition, war books, satire, escapist novels, the autobiographical-

novel-sketch comedies, and the growth of the American novel under the figures of the lost

generation.

•

The novel was regarded as an interpreter of life since it reflected the disillusionment,

cynicism, despair, and bewilderment in face of the crumbling of established moral

values which characterize the post-War world and even the WWII. These features,

combined with its form and content, made the inter-War generation look to the novel

for an interpretation of the contemporary scene. According to Albert (1990:521), we

may distinguish three main groups of novelists: first, those who attempted to replace the

old values for new ones; second, those who portrayed the complexities of inter-War life;

and finally, those who focused attention on the impact of life on the individual

consciousness and on characters rather than action.

•

This practice is closely connected to impressionism which gives way to expressionistictechniques based on experiments, which establish a clear difference between the pre-

War novel (Henry James) and that of the inter-War years (James Joyce). Namely the

novel develops from having a controlled, finished, artistic form to have a more loose,

fluid, and less coherent one; from presenting an outward appearance to inner realities of

life; from a simple chronological development of plot to a complex and discontinuous

one. Apart from James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Aldous Huxley, other who

experimented in this way included Dorothy Miller Richardson and May Sinclair.

•

Yet, the most representative technique of this period is drawn from the influence of

pshychology so as to present the mind of the characters: the stream of consciousness,

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the use of the interior monologue, the detailed tracing of the association of ideas, and an

allusive style. The rapid development of the science of psychology did much to deepen

and enrich the study of human character in the early years, but its full impact came with

the works of Sigmund Freud about the study of personality. This opened the way to the

exploration of the vast fields of the subconscious and the unconscious so as to dwell the

mind of characters, which meant a breakdown of Victorian moral attitudes.

•

The lack of popularity of the new novelists is not surprising, according to Alfred

(1990:524) as their concern with the subtlest shades of motive and inner impulse called

for readers while the preoccupation of some with the morbid mental states provoked

distaste. So, it is not surprising either that writers in the Established tradition were

inevitably more popular since they wrote after the manner of an earlier generation.

Among these writers we find Sir Hugh Walpole (1884-1941), William Somerset

Maugham (1874-1965), John Boynton Priestley (1894-), Sir Compton Mackenzie

(1883-1972), Francis Brett Young (1884-1954), and Robert Graves (1895-), among

others.

•

“Another reflection of the disillusionment of the post-War generation is to be found in

the literature on the War itself, which began to appear once the catastrophe was

sufficiently remote”. Among the War writers we include Edmund Blunden (1896-1974),

Robert Graves (1895-), and C.E. Montague (1867-1928), among others.

•

Satire was also common as a form of fiction. Satirist writers are Rose Macaulay (1881-

1958), Ronald Firbank (1886-1926), and Cyril Connolly (1903-1974).

•

Another genre was escapist novels, characteristic of all periods of great emotional and

moral tension. This type of novel was highly demanded in the 1920s, which was partly

met by imaginative, fantastic, and light writing. Among the most representative writers

we include Norman Douglas, Walter de la Mare, and David Garnett.

•

We also find autobiographical-novel-sketch comedies with tragic implications which

particularly show the after-war situation in the 1930s. Thus, popular writers are

Christopher Isherwood, Richard Hughes, and Leopold Hamilton Myers, among others.

•

Finally, it is worth mentioning the growth of the American novel since it is one of the

most striking features of the period. Following Albert (1990:528), “since the turn of the

century, not only has the U.S.A. given encouragement and shelter to artists whose work

met with opposition in this country, but Americans have been among the boldest so far

as experiments in technique are concerned. The basis of most of their work was realism,

the depiction of the contemporary scene no matter how unlovely, the exposure of

corruption and lack of moral values in organizations and in people , the consideration of

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emotional crises and moral dilemmas at all levels of society, and the portrayal of the

individual and the depths or heights with which he can be faced”.

3.3.

Most representative authors.

3.3.1.

In poetry.

Among the poetry figures of this period (Geoffrey, 1996), we may mention Gerard Manley

Hopkins (1844-1889), Stephen Spender (1909-1977), C. Day Lewis (1904-1972), Louis

MacNeice (1907-1963), and Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964), among others. Yet, we shall

particularly focus on the most representative ones in Great Britain: Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-

1973) in England, Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) in Wales, W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) in Ireland,

and also, out of Britain, the relevant American poets T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) and Ezra Pound

(1885-1972).

3.3.1.1.

Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-1973).

Following Albert (1990:538-540), he was the son of a doctor and “was educated at Gresham’s

School, Holt, and Oxford. On leaving the university he spent some time in Germany. During the

Spanish Civil War he served with the Republican forces in non-combatant capacities, and his

interests in Spanish politics was reflected in one of his finest poems, Spain . He left England for

the U.S.A. in 1939, became a citizen of that country, and lived there until 1972, save for the

period when he was Professor of Poetry at Oxford.”

“Though still a young man, he was accepted as a leading poet, and one whose influece was felt

in much contemporary verse. It has been said that he merely followed the fashion; rather, in hisday he set the fashion. He came under the influence of Hopkins and Eliot, and, like the latter, he

was deeply aware of the hollowness of a disintegrating civilization during ‘A time of crisis and

dismay’, to quote his own words. But, unlike Eliot, Auden found his solution to the world’s

problems in left-wing political ideologies. A spokesman of the masses (whom he contemplated

with warm understanding, compassion, and deep insight), Auden showed clearly in his early

poetry a faith in violent social upheaval as a means to a better order.”

“Yet he was outspokingly anti-Romantic, and, like others in his group of writer-friends, stressedthe importance of ‘clinical’ and ‘objective’ attitudes. At times he over-simplified issues for the

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sake of emphasizing his radical views, often he swept on in generalizations; but he had the

ability to experience and express the spirit of the age, the questionings and hopes and dreads of

a generation about to confront fascism. However, the frequent image of a lone wanderer in an

empty landscape makes one consider whether Auden himself had any sure faith in the creeds

which were supposedly his guides. His later poems revealed a new note of mysticism in his

approach to human problems. The change resulted partly from his living in the U.S.A. away

from the European war and partly from a new stirring towards Christianity; this concern with

religion and the effect it had on his poetry may be compared with T.S. Eliot. The best poetry in

this later style is to be found in Nones (1951).”

“He attempted, with considerable success, to prevent poetry from becoming exclusively

‘highbrow’, and found subjects among the everyday, often sordid, realities of a diseased social

order. Modern influences strongly felt in his work were those of the psychologists, particularly

of Freud; and Auden was profoundly conscious of sex and its importance in human

relationships. His approach to everything around him was that of the intelligent intellectual, and

he followed Eliot in his partiality for the poetry of the Metaphysicals, especia lly in their use of

allegory and of detailed images unified into a pattern.”

“It is therefore not unexpectedly that one finds much of his best work in exquisite and often

movingly tender lyrics, songs and sonnets, where he is least concerned with sociological

theories. Nor should one forget that he was a poet of landscape –sometimes the wild, empty hills

and barren places, sometimes the industrial scene with its crowded figures; this latter, perhaps,

offered him the greater attraction, for it showed Man at his fines as the inventor and the reshaper

of Nature. Technically, Auden was an artist of great virtuosity, a ceaseless experimenter in verse

form, with a fine ear for the rhuthm and music of words.”

“Essentially modern in tone, Auden had a wide variety of styles –often he wrote with a noisy

jazziness and gaiety, often in a cynically satirical vein, and on occasions he could be slangily‘tough’. But usually he showed a delight in elliptical thought and closely packed imagery, and,

if his proletarianism sometimes led him into flaws of taste, it alsoled him to exploit more fully

than any of his predecessors the riches and vigour of everyday idiom and vocabulary.”

“His best poetry is to be found in Poems (1930), The Orators (1932), Look, Stranger (1936),

New Year Letter (1941), The Age of Anxiety (1948), Collected Shorter Poems 1930-1944

(1950). His two anthologies – The Poet’s Tongue (1935) with John Garrett, and The Oxford

Book of Light Verse (1938) – greatly stimulated interest in popular literature which is a sincereexpression of emotion even though it cannot be dignified by the name of poetry.”

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3.3.1.2.

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953).

Dylan Marlais Thomas was born on October 27, 1914 in Swansea, Glamorganshire (Wales). He

was educated at Swansea Grammar School and became well-known for his neurotic personality,

obscure poetry and amusing plays and prose. Since he preferred reading on his own, his

favourite books were those of D.H. Lawrence’s poetry who impressed him due to Lawrence’s

descriptions of a vivid natural world. Fascinated by language, he excelled in English and

reading, but neglected other subjects and dropped out of school at sixteen.

From 1931 to 1932 he worked as a reporter for The South Wales Daily Post, in Swansea, and as

a free-lance writer from 1933. Between May and October 1934, Thomas’ poems first appeared

in the Sunday Referee in a feature column called the “Poets’ Corner,” where he won a prize for

the second of seven poems called “The Force that through the Grass Fuse Drives the Flower.”

Then, when Thomas was only nineteen, he published his first book, a volume of poetry called

Eighteen Poems (1934) as a result of this prize. In the same year he published a prose work,

Notebooks (1934).

This work was followed by Twenty-five Poems (1936), a period of poverty in England and

Wales, and his marriage to Caitlin Macnamara (1937). Then he began to concentrate on prose,

with such works as Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog (1940), The Doctor and the Devils

(1953), Quite Early One Morning (1954), A Child's Christmas in Wales (1954), Under

Milkwood (1954), A Prospect of the Sea (1955), Adventures in the Skin Trade, and OtherStories (1955), Letters to Vernon Watkins (1957), The Beach of Falesá (1964), Collected Prose

(1969), and Early Prose Writings (1971).

He had wanted to serve in World War II, but was rejected. So, during the war, he worked with a

documentary film unit. By this time, he also published many short stories, wrote film scripts,

broadcast stories and talks, did a series of lecture tours in the United States and wrote Under

Milk Wood (1954), the radio play for voices. In 1949, he began frequent visits to the US, touring

colleges to read poetry. In 1950 Thomas first visited America and had reading tours in the

United States, which did much to popularize his poetry. It is worth mentioning that Thomas did

not sympathize with T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden’s thematic concerns with social and intellectual

issues, since his writing has more in common with the Romantic tradition (intense lyricism,

highly charged emotion).

Thomas was the archetypal Romantic poet of the popular American imagination: he was

flamboyantly theatrical, a heavy drinker, engaged in roaring disputes in public, and read his

work aloud with tremendous depth of feeling. So, during his fourth lecture tour of the United

States in 1953, he had a particularly long drinking bout in New York City after his thirty-ninth

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birthday. As a result, he collapsed in his New York hotel and died from alcoholism on

November 9th at St Vincents Hospital, in the same year in which he received the Foyle Prize.

Then his body was sent back to Laugharne, Wales, where his grave is marked by a simple

wooden cross.

He became a legendary figure, both for his work and the boisterousness of his life. Thomas was

a man with a Keatsian style and manner, being both energetic and vivid when it came to his

imagery. He was Welsh and his voice brought many to enjoy poetry through his readings, he

also used words not just for the denotation or connotation meaning, but also for the sound of the

word and the meaning that sound creates. The key to Dylan Thomas is reading him aloud,

slowly, hitting every vowel and consonant, and worrying about what it all means later.

3.3.1.3.

W.B. Yeats (1865-1939).

William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin, Ireland, in a cultured Irish family (his father was a

well-known Irish painter, John Butler Yeats). He spent his childhood in County Sligo and was

educated in London, but he returned to Dublin in 1880 (at the age of fifteen) to continue his

education and study painting. Soon afterwards he discovered he preferred poetry and embarked

on a literary career. In 1891 he became member of the Rhymer’s Club, he began writing plays,

and, as a strong adherent to the Nationalist Movement, he did much to assist in the creation of a

national theatre. Actually, in 1902 the Abbey Theatre (Dublin) came under management of the

Irish National Theatre Company.

Since he was born into the Anglo-Irish landowning class, Yeats became involved with the Celtic

Revival, a movement against the cultural influences of English rule in Ireland during the

Victorian period, which sought to promote the spirit of Ireland’s native heritage. Yeats was

deeply involved in politics in Ireland, and in the twenties, despite Irish independence from

England, his verse reflected a pessimism about the political situation in his country and the rest

of Europe, paralleling the increasing conservativism of his American counterparts in London, T.

S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.

His work after 1910 was strongly influenced by Pound, becoming more modern in its concision

and imagery, but Yeats never abandoned his strict adherence to traditional verse forms. In later

years his interest in the cause of Irish freedom led him first to an active participation in the

disturbances of 1916 and then to a public career which culminated in his election to the Senate

of the Irish Free State (1922-1928). Yet, he is remembered as an important cultural leader, as a

major playwright (he was one of the founders of the famous Abbey Theatre in Dublin), and as

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one of the very greatest poets of the century. In 1923 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for

Literature. Some years later, he died in the South of France (1939) at the age of 73 and his body

was interred in Ireland in 1948.

Following Albert (1990:483-485), his poetry was affected in his early years by the spiritual barrenness of his age and the sordid materialism and later by a new positive deal and the Pre-

Raphaelites. “Yeats sought to escape into the land of ‘faery’, and looked for his themes in Irish

legend and the simple, elemental impulses of man’s primitive nature. The best remedy for the

emptiness of the present seemed to lie in a return to the simplicity of the past. To this period

belong his narrative poem The Wanderings of Oisin (1889), which first established his

reputation, Poems (1895), The Wind among the Reeds (1899), and The Shadowy Waters (1900);

and it was in these early days that he wrote many of the lyrics, whose simplicity of style and

melodic beauty have found them a place in numerous collections of modern verse, out of whichthe best-known is The Lake Isle of Innisfree (written in 1893).

Between 1900 and 1910 Yeat’s poetry “shows a gradual movement away from the escapism of

his early work, and a steadily growing courage in grasping the nettle of contemporary reality.

The increasing realism of this period is clearly seen in The Green Helmet and Other Poems

(1910) and Responsibilities (1914), which strike a more personal note. It was, however, the

impact of the 1914-18 war, and even more of the Irish troubles of 1916, which brought him face

to face with the need to grapple with the realities of life.” It must be borne in mind that he had a

strong interest in mysticism and the occult, which was off-putting to some readers, but he

remained uninhibited in advancing his idiosyncratic philosophy, and his poetry continued to

grow stronger as he grew older.

Hence “his mystical and philosophical studies and his excursions into spiritualism led to the

promulgation of a new philosophical system, and much of the poetry of this period was devoted

to the expounding of his theories, which are most fully stated in his prose work A Vision (1925).

In 1919 he published The Wild Swans at Coole , a collection of poems similar to those in

Responsibilities, but with the added force of a new maturity which is most clearly to be seen in

the poems dealing with his own experiences.”

Yet, “the peak of his achievement is reached in The Tower (1928) and The Winding Stair and

other Poems (1933), in which he handles philosophical themes with a compact precision of style

and a great mastery of rhythm and language. He continued to write with undiminished vigour

until his death, and to his last period belong the Crazy Jane poems, some of which had appeared

in The Tower and The Winding Stair . In them his philosophy, hidden beneath a mask of

childlike simplicity, is put into the mouths of such characters as The Fool. They appeared in New Poems (1938) and Last Poems (1939).”

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The qualities of his poetry are to be found in his philosophy, his use of symbols, and his artistry.

First of all, regarding his philosophy, Yeats’s “preoccupation with the attempt to formulate a

philosophical system which could replace the scientific materialism of his age underlies most of

his later verse” makes him difficult to read. “After his brief period of Pre-Raphaelite escapism

he gradually evolved his own positive faith. His trust was in the imagination and intuition of

man rather than in scientific reasoning, and his attempt was to reach back, through the study of

Irish folklore and legend, to the primitive impulses of human life.” Moreover, we cannot forget

that “Yeats believed in fairies, magic, and other forms of superstition, and his later thought was

much influenced by his study of Indian and other mystical philosophies andthe excursions into

spiritualism, which became more frequent after his marriage in 1916.”

Regarding his symbolism, “Yeats’s philosophy is often expressed through a carefully devised

system of symbols, some purely private, others drawn from his study of philosophy or hisreading in the works of the French symbolistes, or of earlier symbolical poets, particularly Blake

and Shelley. The reader’s difficulties arise mainly from Yeats’s use of the same symbol to

represent a variety of things; thus the Tower may represent, among other things, an intellectual

refuge, or the soul’s yearning for the world of the spirit. Others of his well-known symbols are

the moon, the swan, and Byzantium.”

Finally, his artistry is characterized by his mastery of language and rhythm. “From the Pre-

Raphaelite aestheticism of his early verse, with its quest for beauty, its conscious, often

sentimental, simplicity, and its languid, melodic grace, he developed a more direct and virile

expression. There is the same delicacy of workmanship, and the gorgeous phrase still flashes

among the everyday language and personal direct expression of his maturity. Always he uses

the traditional verse forms, modified sometimes to suit his own needs, but now his rhythms

approach more closely to those of ordinary speech.”

3.3.1.4.

T.S. Eliot (1888-1965).

Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1888, but the became a naturalized

British subject in 1927. As an adult, his influence on poetry was enormous during the 1930s

since he is considered to have given a new impulse to the poetic field. Son of Henry Ware Eliot,

president of the Hydraulic-Press Brick Company, and Charlotte Champe Stearns, a former

teacher, he was brought up in commerce and academic traditions. Following Albert (1990:533-

538), he entered Harvard in 1906, Paris in 1910-1911, and Oxford in 1912. “After a brief

experience of teaching at Highgate School, he entered business (1916), and spent eight years in

Lloyd’s Bank in the City”.

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“At this time he was assistant editor of The Egoist (1917-1919), and in 1923 began his career as

editor of The Criterion. Later he became a director of Faber and Faber, the publishers. Among

the many literary honours bestowed upon him mentioned may be made of: Charles Eliot Norton

Professor of Poetry at Harvard (1932-33), President Classical Association (1944), Nobel Prize

for Literature (1948), and Order of Merit (1948). At various times he received honorary degrees

from twelve universities in Europe and America.”

Since he was a prolific author, he experienced all fields of literature: poetry, drama and prose

(hence we cannot establish a clear cut literary field). So, he produced seven dramas: Sweeney

Agonistes (1926-27), The Rock (1934), Murder in the Cathedral (1935), The Family Reunion

(1939), The Cocktail Party (1949), The Confidential Clerk (1953), The Elder Statesman (1958).

They contain some of the best dramatic poetry since the Elizabethans, and mark definite stages

in Eliot’s emotional growth, yet mostly lack the essential qualities of drama.

Regarding his prose, his first collection of essays, The Sacred Wook (1920)was published in the

1920s whereas the greater part belongs to the 1930s. “His main concern is literary criticism,

though The Idea of a Christian Society (1939) is a significant indication of the direction of his

development. Among the more frequently stated of his fundamental ideas are: the essential

oneness of the Western literary tradition and its influence on the modern writer; the importance

of poetic form and its ability to convey meaning through the feelings as much as through the

mind; the need for the poet to reduce to universal significance his individual experiences. Eliot’s

prose style is remarkable for ist compact lucidity and precision. Among his prose workd

mention may be made of the following: For Lancelot Andrewes (1928), Selected Essays 1917-

1932 (1932), The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism (1933), Elizabethan Essays (1934),

After Strange Gods (1934), Points of View (1941), and What is a Classic? (1945).”

Yet, he is better known as a great poet because of his style, which is characterized by its

difficulty and imagery. First of all, “the nature and cause of this difficulty have changed duringhis career. In his earlier poetry the obscurity seemed to result from a technique deliberately

cultivated. A condensed and often oblique expression, in which necessary links were frequently

omitted, Eliot acquired from the French Symbolistes, and his admiration of Pound and the

Imagist theories strengthened this”. He was extremely allusive and deliberately vague and

ambiguous and in his later poetry, the difficulty of subjects increased (states of mind and

experiences incapable of precise formulation and, therefore, difficult to understand).

Yet, his imagery is essential to understand his work. “Like the Imagists, he is always concrete,and his pictures are clearly realized and based on close and accurate observation. Many images,

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such as those of the sea, appear time and again with different effects, and in Four Quartets the

development of the poem can best be traced in the changing significance of recurrent images.

Eliot show a particular fondness for the metaphysical conceit with its subtle blend of emotion

and intellect” as well as for the striking images.

With this in mind, we can now review his poetry works. “Eliot’s first volume of verse, Prufrock

and Other Observations (1917), portrays in contemptuous, and often wittily ironical, satire, the

boredom, emptiness, and pessimism of its own day. The poet tries to plumb the less savoury

depths of contemporary life in a series of sordid episodes. The irregularities of rhyme scheme

and line length in his verse form, the pressure of his condensed and often vividly contrasted

images, the skilful use of rhythmic variations, and the restrained power of his style distinguished

Eliot as a gifted, original artist.”

“ Poems (1920) is in much the same mood, but, as often happens in Eliot, the verse form is

completely changed, the irregular verse paragraph giving place to a four-line stanza rhyming

abcb. The difficult monologue Gerontion in this volume shows Eliot’s free adaptation of the

blank verse of the later Elizabethan dramatists.” Yet, “his much-discussed poem The Waste

Land (1922) made a tremendous impact on the post-War generation, and is considered one of

the most important documents of its age. The poem is difficult to understand in detail, but its

general aim is clear. Based on the legend of the Fisher King in the Arthurian cycle, it presents

modern London as an arid, waste land.”

“The poem is built round the symbols of drought and flood, representing death and rebirth, and

this fundamental idea is referred to throughout. Other symbols in the poem are, however, not

capable of precise explanation. In a series of diconcertingly vivid impressions, the poem

progresses by rather abrupt transitions through five movements –“The Burial of the Dead,” “The

Game of Chess,” “The Fire Sermon,” “Death by Water,”·and “What the Thunder Said.”

Throughout appears the figure of Tiresias, whose presence helps to give the work unity. Its realunity, however, is one of emotional atmosphere. The boredom of his earlier poetry gives way to

a mood of terror in face of an outworn and disintegrating civilization, a terror deeply felt, even

when hidden beneath the surface irony of some parts of the poem.”

“The style shows a typical compression of clearly visualized, often metaphysical imagery, a

vocabulary essentially modern, and a subtly suggestive use of the rhythms of ordinary speech.

One of its greatest difficulties lies in the numerous allusions to out-of-the-way writers, and the

notes which Eliot himself provided are often inadequate. But, in spite of its complexities and

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apparent ambiguities, the poem is a powerfully moving presentation of sterility and disruption.

Poems 1909-1925 adds only “The Hollow Men” to his earlier work.”

“His next major work, Ash Wednesday (1930), is problably his most difficult. It marks the

beginning of a new hase in the poet’s development, in which he finds hope in the discipline of

the Christian religion, though, as yet, the old outlook persists in his mind and constantly comes

to the fore. Consonant with this new attitude are his use of medieval mysticism and allegory, his

imagery from the Old Testament prophets, and the allusions to the offices of the Church.

Obscure images and symbols and the lack of a clear, logical structure make the poem difficult.

Its six parts are six impressions of a mental and emotional state.” This work is more lyrical in

spirit where it worth noticing the use of repetition, assonance, internal rhyme and musical

suggestiveness.

During the 1930s he namely wrote poetical drama and literary criticism, hence “ Four Quartets

(1944) contains his next and most recent non-dramatic poetry. The four pems in this work

appeared separately: Burnt Norton (1936), East Coker (1940), The Dry Salvages (1941), and

Little Gidding (1942). In them we become aware of the intensity of Eliot’s search for religious

truth, which leads finally to a new hope in the Christian idea of rebirth and renewal. The poems

are again difficult, but this is now owing to subject matter rather than technique. The main

theme of this deeply serious meditation is the consideration of Time and Eternity; other themes

are Eliot’s exploration of the artistic consciousness,and of the potentialities and significance of

words.”

“The mood of the poems is one of restrained but deeply emotional contemplation. Their general

tone is mellower and the underlying experiences more varied. The thought is closely woven, but

the style is less involved. As the title of Four Quartets suggests, each poem is built on a musical

pattern; it has five movements, in which the themes stated in the first are developed through

variations to a resolution in the last, and the inner structure of all four poems is very similar. Theaccentual verse, which he began to use in The Hollow Men, is now seen in its most flexilble

form.”

3.3.1.5.

Ezra Pound (1885-1972).

Ezra Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho, in 1885. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1905.

After teaching at Wabash College for two years, he travelled abroad to Spain, Italy and London,

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where he lived from 1908 to 1920. There he worked as the literary executor of the scholar

Ernest Fenellosa, became interested in Japanese and Chinese poetry, married Dorothy

Shakespear in 1914 and became London editor of the Little Review in 1917. During this period

he wrote A Lume Spento (1908), Personae (1909), Exultations (1909), Provenca (1910),

Canzoni (1911), Lustra and Other Poems (1917), Quia Pauper Amavi (1919), and Umbra:

Collected Poems (1920).

In 1924, he moved to Italy and stayed there until 1945. During this period of voluntary exile,

Pound became involved in Fascist politics, and his admiration of Mussolini resulted in his being

charged with treason at the end the Second World in the USA. “His life in Italy was largely

devoted to writing The Cantos which appeared part by part and were always in the process of

being revised, and eventually, they remained unfinished. Thus, he wrote Cantos I-XVI (1925),

Cantos XVII-XXVII (1928), A Draft of XXX Cantos (1930), A Draft of Cantos XXXI-XLI (1934), Homage to Sextus Propertius (1934), The Fifth Decade of Cantos (1937), and Cantos LII-LXXI

(1940). The Cantos were a vast survey of history from his own point of view and were

extremely erudite, highly allusive and expressive of personal, fragmented experiences which

referred to foreign languages and literatures.

In 1946, he was acquitted, but declared mentally ill and committed to St. Elizabeths Hospital in

Washington, D.C. During his confinement, the jury of the Bollingen-Library of Congress

Award recognized his poetic achievements (despite his political involvement), and awarded him

the prize for the Pisan Cantos (1948), an attractive work due to the sympathy, humanity and

beauty of its words. When in prison awating trial, he was deprived of books, but he was forced

to rely on his own mind and personality for emotional sustenance. Two years later he published

Patria Mia (1950) and after continuous appeals from writers won his release from the hospital

in 1958. Pound returned to Italy and settled in Venice, where he died in 1972. His last poetry

works were Annotated Index (1958) and the last twenty-one The Cantos (1972), regarded as an

encyclopedic epic poem.

Following Albert (1990), “He was always a centre of controversy because of his iconoclastic

views on everything from poetry to economics” and is said to have promoted a modernist

aesthetic in poetry: Imagism. In the early teens of the twentieth century, he opened a seminal

exchange of work and ideas between British and American writers, and was famous for the

generosity with which he advanced the work of such major contemporaries as Marianne Moore,

W.B. Yeats, Robert Frost, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, and especially T.S. Eliot.

“To him poetry was the embodiment of melody, images, and provocative thought –basics of

most good poetry- but they produced an ‘originality’ in Pound’s verse which Eliot considered

lacking in most poetry of the past century.” His own significant contributions to poetry begin

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with his promulgation of Imagism, a movement in poetry which derived its technique from

classical Chinese and Japanese poetry (stressing clarity, precision, and economy of language,

and foregoing traditional rhyme and meter).

Among this prose works we many mention Gaudier Brzeska (1916), Pavannes and Divisions (1918) , Instigations (1920), Indiscretions (1923), Antheil and the Treatise on Harmony (1924),

Imaginary Letters (1930), How To Read (1931), Prolegomena: Volume I (1932), ABC of

Economics (1933), Make It New (1934), The ABC of Reading (1934), Social Credit and Impact

(1935), Jefferson and/or Mussolini (1935), Polite Essays (1936), Digest of the Analects (1937),

Guide to Kulchur (1938), What is Money For? (1939), The Spirit of Romance (1953), Literary

Essays (1954), and the posthumously published Selected Prose: 1909-1965 (1973). In them we

may appreciate Pound’s confused political ideas through a personal and elliptical language.

3.3.2.

In drama.

Among the drama figures in the English theatre and within the Irish Literary Revival Drama, the

most representative figures are, among others: Sean O’Casey (1884-1964) in Ireland, Sir Noël

Coward (1899-1973) and J.B. Priestley (1894-1984) in England, and the first American

dramatist of international significance, Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953). Other less notorious drama

writers which contributed to the growth of repertory in England and Ireland were James Bridie

(1888-1951), William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), St John Ervine (1883-1971), Miss

A.E.F. Horniman (1860-1937), and Allan Monkhouse (1858-1936), among others.

3.2.2.1. Sean O’Casey (1884-1964).

Following Albert (1990:548-550), Sean O’Casey “was born in Dublin, and worked as a

labourer, living in the crowded tenements of Dublin’s slums, which he describes so vividly in

his early plays. After his early stage successes he made literature his career, and in 1926

received the Hawthornden Prize. O’Casey’s first play, The Shadow of a Gunman, was produced

at the Abbey Theatre in 1923. Its setting is the slum tenements of Dublin, in their crowded

squalor, and it is an unflinching study of the Anglo-Irish War of 1920, capturing well all the

bloodiness and violence of the struggle and the dangerous intensity of the lives of the

participants, his characters”.

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“O’Casey, as later, uses the device of a mouthpiece character, who here gives an ironical

commentary on the events. The chief heroic character is a woman, as in Juno and the Paycock

(1924), an infinitely more mature play, and his masterpiece. Again the setting is the Dublin

slums: the time now the civil disturbances of 1922. It is a vivid and intensely powerful play, in

which rich, almost grotesque humour covers yet emphasizes the underlying bitter tragedy”.

“Three of O’Casey’s finest creations figure here –the deeply pitying Juno, her worthless

husband, the ‘Paycock’, and his boon companion, Joxer Daly. The Plough and the Stars (1926),

a tragic chronicle play dealing with the Easter rising of 1916, is equally realistic in its exposure

of the futility and horror of war. There is the same blend of grotesque humour and deep tragedy,

and once again O’Casey makes use of the mouthpiece character”.

“His next play, The Silver Tassie (1929), was refused by the Abbey Theatre and failed on the

boards, though some have described it as the most powerful tragedy o our day. War is still the

theme, now the 1914-1918 War. O’Casey gives an impassioned and bitter picture of the

footballer hero retuning paralysed from the trenches. It is unflinching in its truthfulness, and the

suffering in the play is intense –perhaps there is too much suffering and too little action. It is of

particular interest because here O’Casey experiments with the mingling of the realistic and

expressionistic types of drama”.

“His introduction of a symbolic technique is seen in the blending of prose and rhythmic chanted

verse, which gives tremendous power to the second act in particular. How far his experiments

have, as has been thought, subdued his great gifts it is difficult to say, but his later plays Within

the Gates (1933), The Star Turns Red (1940), Purple Dust (1940), Red Roses for Me (1946),

Oak Leaves and Lavender (1946), and Cockadoodle Dandy (1949), do not have the intense life

of his best three, though the magic of his language remains”.

“ Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars, and The Silver Tassie marked O’Casey out asthe greatest figure in the inter-War theatre. His own experience enabled him to study the life of

the Dublin slums with the warm understanding with which Synge studied the life of the Irish

peasantry, and, like Synge, he coud draw magic from the language of the ordinary folk he

portrayed. His dialogue is vivid, racy, and packed with metaphor, and his prose is rhythmical

and imaginative. He had, too, Synge’s gift of mingling comedy with the tragedy that is his main

theme. In O’Casey the mood changes rapidly. Comedy is seldom long absent, yet one can never

forget the grim, underlying sadness. He draws what he sees with a ruthless objectivity and an

impressionistic vividness of detail.”

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3.2.2.2. Sir Noël Coward (1899-1973).

Noël Coward was born in London and was privately educated at Chapel Road School, in

Clapham. Since he had an active personality, he studied acting at the Conti Academy in

Liverpool in his early years, and later on, he served the British Information Service and

entertained the troops during the Second World War. Hence he is said to be an actor, a night-

club entertainer, a composer, a lyricist, a short story writer, and a prolific writer, among others.

Actually, it was as a dramatist that he achieved his commercial success. He began with light

comedy, for instance, I’ll Leave It to You (1920), The Young Idea (1923), and The Rat Trap

(1924) and continued with a group of plays which made him notorious since they “exposed the

emptiness and triviality of the smart set, and satirized county society, the new rich, and

conventional morality” (Albert, 1990:550), for instance, The Vortex (1924), Fallen Angels

(1925), Hay Fever (1925) and Easy Virtue (1926). These frivolous-cum-sentimental works were

followed by more easily acceptable works, thus Bitter Sweet (1929), Private Lives (1930),

Cavalcade (1931), Design for Living (1933), Conversation Piece (1934), Blithe Spirit (1941),

Present Laughter (1943), and This Happy Breed (1943).

“His popularity rested on the brilliance of a sophisticated but rather shallow wit, blasé and

cynical, which produced a dialogue of scintillating epigrams; the appeal to sentiment popular at

the moment; the effervescent excitement which was the dominant mood of many of his later

plays; and above all his superb theatrical technique. He made the most of all the possibilities of

stage and actors, and the handling of some of his plays by such an expert man of the theatre as

C.B. Cochran increased the popular appeal still further” (Albert, 1990:550).

In fact, Coward did not move towards a revolutionary theatre as Beckett or Shaw did, but

intended to emphasize entertainment and not message. He is regarded as one of the great

masters of the “drawing-room comedy” and the “well-made” play. In his plays he has an oftennostalgic and sentimental style with a naive cynicism that keeps the effect from being cloying.

Hence his works may appear brittle and trivial. Yet, he was a craftsman at combining malice

and cynicism with a touch of sexual spice.

3.2.2.3. J.B. Priestley (1894-1984).

John Boynton Priestley was a British prolific novelist, playwright, and essayist which publishedover one hundred and twenty books, usually light and optimistic in their tone. His prolific

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production continued nearly sixty years, and even between the age of 70 to 84 he produced 21

books. Born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in the north of England, lost his mother when he was

an infant and his father, Jonathan Priestley, was a prosperous schoolmaster. As a child, Priestley

attended Bradford Grammar School, but left his studies at the age of sixteen to work as a junior

clerk in a firm (1910-1914). It was in Bradford that Priestley began to write poetry for his own

pleasure and contribute articles to local and London papers (The Chapman of Rhymes, 1918).

During the First World War Priestley served with the Duke of Wellington’s and Devon

regiments, and survived the front lines in Flanders. From 1919 he studied literature, history and

political science at Bradford and at Cambridge, where he first wrote literary criticism as a

student, producing thereafter such celebrated volumes as The English Novel (1927) and

Literature and Western Man (1960). After his graduation in 1921, he worked as a journalist in

London, starting his career as an essayist and critic at various newspapers and periodicals,

including the New Statesman. By then he had written Balconninny, and Other Essays (1921),

which was followed by his first collection of essays, Brief Diversions (1922) and Papers from

Lilliput (1922).

After the outbreak of World War II Priestley gained fame as the voice of the common people

since he was a patriotic radio broadcaster. At the early stage of the Cold War, he became known

for his support for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and in 1946-47 he was a U.K.

delegate to UNESCO conferences. Priestley married three times between 1919 and 1953, for

instance, for the first time with Emily Tempest; then with Mary Wyndham Lewis; and finally,

with the archaeologist and writer Jacquetta Hawkes. They lived in Warwickshire in Kissing

Tree House, situated near Stratford-upon-Avon until he died on August 14, 1984.

This extraordinarily prolific writer worked in a variety of genres. His many novels include I for

One (1923), Figures in Modern Literature (1924), The English Comic Characters (1925), his

autobiography J.B. Priestley (1926), Thomas Love Peacoc (1927), The English Novel (1927), Adam in Moonshine (1927), Apes and Angels (1928), Too Many People (1928), English

Humour (1929), the novel which made him gain international popularity, The Good

Companions, a tale about the adventures of a troop of traveling players; and Angel Pavement

(1930), which depicted the people of London and what happens when an adventure comes to

them in the person of the mysterious Mr Goldspie.

Other books are English Journey (1934), a seminal work in arousing social conscience in the

1930s; Literature and Western Man (1960), a survey of Western literature over the past 500years, and his memoirs; Margin Released (1962). Priestley’s novel The Magicians (1954)

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showed the influence of the Swiss analytical psychologist Carl Jung; he last of his novels was

Found, Lost, Found (1976), which is an old-fashioned fairy tale and love story in a modern

setting.

As an essayist Priestley wrote for the middle brow audience with a wide range of topics and

themes. In his pamphlet Letter to a Returning Serviceman (1945), Priestley shared the common

sentiment that Britain was obliged to rebuild after the war along socialist lines. Also, in Britain

and the Nuclear Bomb (1957) he argued for the moral superiority that unilateral nuclear

disarmament would bring. In Disturbing (1967) he criticized contemporary playwrights for

creating works that sought to disturb a reading public already disturbed by their own problems,

and in Particular Pleasures (1975) he stated that works of art should meet some need, and not

be evaluated on programmatic grounds. In addition, we include Priestleys highly The Toy Farm

(1929), an enjoyable essay which tried to answer why toys enchant even adults.

As a playwright Priestley started in the 1930s and wrote more than thirty plays since he began

with Dangerous Corner (1932). In style, Priestley is considered a reformer which showed much

of his typical Yorkshire humour in his works. According to Albert (1990:551), “his characters

are soundly drawn, the dialogue is pungent, and his plays are always good theatre. His chief

lack is of poetic insight, which alone can make the greatest drama out of the metaphysical

problems that engaged his mind in his experimental work.” Among his more conventional and

popular comedies, we include a well-made theatrical piece, Laburnun Grove (1933), which is an

unmasking of hypocrisy.

Among other comedies we find Eden End (1934), When We Are Married (1938), and Time and

The Conways (1937), in which Priestley draws his ideas of Time from the works of J.W. Dunne

and Ouspensky, who led him to numerous experiments in construction (expressionist forms and

psychological themes). Other similar works are I Have Been Here Before (1937) and An

Inspector Calls (1946). The last named is possibly his most interesting, for the unexpected time-

shift is used to illustrate his humanitarianism and his disgust at social pretence. Priestley also

founded his own production company, English Plays, Ltd., and in 1938-39 he was director of

the Mask Theatre in London, where he produced “the stimulating but commercially

unsuccessful Johnson Over Jordan, a modern morality play in which he uses the techniques of

expresionism” (Albert, 1990:551).

Other works worth mentioning were written in the 1940s when he became heavily allegorical

and symbolic , with a loss of dramatic interest, for instance, They Came to a City (1943), Desert

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Highway (1943), The Linden Tree (1948). Thoughts in the Wilderness (1957), and The Happy

Dream (1976). His works of history include The Edwardians (1970) and Victoria's Heyday

(1972). His reminiscences, published between 1962 and 1977, cover the full spectrum of British

20th Century culture.

3.2.2.4. Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953).

Eugene Gladstone O’Neill was “the first American dramatist of international significance”

(Albert, 1990:552) who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936, and Pulitzer Prizes for four

of his plays: Beyond the Horizon (1920); Anna Christie (1922); Strange Interlude (1928); and

Long Day’s Journey Into Night (1957). This American playwright was born in a Broadway

hotel room in New York City on October 16, 1888, and was the son of James O’Neill, one of

nineteenth-century America’s most popular actors.

Hence young Eugene spent much of his early years in a great variety of occupations, among

which was going on national tours with his father. In 1906 he entered Princeton University but

was soon expelled. In the next six years he married, had a son, and was divorced. By 1912,

O’Neill had worked as a journalist, gold prospector in Honduras, clerkman, as a merchant

seaman, and had become a regular actor at New York City’s cheap saloons, which gave him the

experience of real life, so valuable in his plays. By 1913 he became ill with tuberculosis, and

was inspired to become a playwright while reading during his recovery. In fact, he wrote his

first play and was produced by the Provincetown Players. In 1920 he was awarded the Pulitzer

Prize.

O’Neill’s career as a playwright is said to consist of three periods: early realism, expressionism

and late realism. First of all, he began in the realist tradition in which his early plays utilize his

own experiences, especially as a seaman. Yet, in the 1920s, after publishing The Emperor Jones

(1920), Beyond the Horizon (1920), The Hairy Ape (1922) and Anna Christie (1922), a strongly

realistic work dealing with the redemption of a prostitute, he rejected realism in an effort to

capture on the stage the forces behind human life.

In his second period, his expressionistic plays were influenced by the ideas of philosopher

Freidrich Nietzsche, psychologists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and Swedish playwright

August Strindberg, who made him experiment unceasingly with new techniques of presentation,

new dramatic forms, and original dialogue. Thus, Strange Interlude (1931) illustrates his use of

aside and soliloquy, be means of which the action of the play is carried on at two levels.

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Similarly, Desire under the Elms (1924), All God’s Chillun got Wings (1924), The Great God

Brown (1926), and Lazarus Laughed (1927).

During his final period O’Neill returned to realism. We may observe that his later works depend

on his life experiences for their story lines and themes. He used the revival of the chorus,stylized speech and confusing masks. Sometimes his originality led to obscurity, but he

achieved scenes of immense force and powerful imagination, obtaining then a real sense of

theatre. Regarded as a serious dramatist, he was concerned with major issues of his time, thus

religion, philosophy, psycho-analysis, and scientific thought and, therefore, the basis of many of

his works. Thus, Dynamo (1929), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), Ah! Wilderness (1933),

and Days Without End (1934), this latter being twice the length of a normal play whereas his

latest play, The Iceman Cometh (1946), contains ten acts.

O’Neill continued to write until 1944 when he was stricken with a debilitating

neurodegenerative disease which prevented further work. Despite his illness, O’Neill lived his

life to the fullest. A revival of his work in 1956 lead to the first production of Long Day’s

Journey Into Night , for which he won his final Pulizer Prize posthumously in 1957.

3.3.3.

In prose.

•

The novel was regarded as an interpreter of life since it reflected the disillusionment,

cynicism, despair, and bewilderment in face of the crumbling of established moral

values which characterize the post-War world and even the WWII. These features,

combined with its form and content, made the inter-War generation look to the novel

for an interpretation of the contemporary scene. According to Albert (1990:521), we

may distinguish three main groups of novelists: first, those who attempted to replace the

old values for new ones; second, those who portrayed the complexities of inter-War life;

and finally, those who focused attention on the impact of life on the individual

consciousness and on characters rather than action.

•

This practice is closely connected to impressionism which gives way to expressionistic

techniques based on experiments, which establish a clear difference between the pre-

War novel (Henry James) and that of the inter-War years (James Joyce). Namely the

novel develops from having a controlled, finished, artistic form to have a more loose,

fluid, and less coherent one; from presenting an outward appearance to inner realities of

life; from a simple chronological development of plot to a complex and discontinuous

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one. Apart from James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and Aldous Huxley, other who

experimented in this way included Dorothy Miller Richardson and May Sinclair.

•

Yet, the most representative technique of this period is drawn from the influence of

pshychology so as to present the mind of the characters: the stream of consciousness,

the use of the interior monologue, the detailed tracing of the association of ideas, and an

allusive style. The rapid development of the science of psychology did much to deepen

and enrich the study of human character in the early years, but its full impact came with

the works of Sigmund Freud about the study of personality. This opened the way to the

exploration of the vast fields of the subconscious and the unconscious so as to dwell the

mind of characters, which meant a breakdown of Victorian moral attitudes.

•

The lack of popularity of the new novelists is not surprising, according to Alfred

(1990:524) as their concern with the subtlest shades of motive and inner impulse called

for readers while the preoccupation of some with the morbid mental states provoked

distaste. So, it is not surprising either that writers in the Established tradition were

inevitably more popular since they wrote after the manner of an earlier generation.

Among these writers we find Sir Hugh Walpole (1884-1941), William Somerset

Maugham (1874-1965), John Boynton Priestley (1894-), Sir Compton Mackenzie

(1883-1972), Francis Brett Young (1884-1954), and Robert Graves (1895-), among

others.

•

“Another reflection of the disillusionment of the post-War generation is to be found in

the literature on the War itself, which began to appear once the catastrophe was

sufficiently remote”. Among the War writers we include Edmund Blunden (1896-1974),

Robert Graves (1895-), and C.E. Montague (1867-1928), among others.

•

Satire was also common as a form of fiction. Satirist writers are Rose Macaulay (1881-

1958), Ronald Firbank (1886-1926), and Cyril Connolly (1903-1974).

•

Another genre was escapist novels, characteristic of all periods of great emotional and

moral tension. This type of novel was highly demanded in the 1920s, which was partly

met by imaginative, fantastic, and light writing. Among the most representative writerswe include Norman Douglas, Walter de la Mare, and David Garnett.

•

We also find autobiographical-novel-sketch comedies with tragic implications which

particularly show the after-war situation in the 1930s. Thus, popular writers are

Christopher Isherwood, Richard Hughes, and Leopold Hamilton Myers, among others.

•

Finally, it is worth mentioning the growth of the American novel since it is one of the

most striking features of the period. Following Albert (1990:528), “since the turn of the

century, not only has the U.S.A. given encouragement and shelter to artists whose work

met with opposition in this country, but Americans have been among the boldest so far

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as experiments in technique are concerned. The basis of most of their work was realism,

the depiction of the contemporary scene no matter how unlovely, the exposure of

corruption and lack of moral values in organizations and in people, the consideration of

emotional crises and moral dilemmas at all levels of society, and the portrayal of the

individual and the depths or heights with which he can be faced”.

Among the most relevant writers we mention Erners Hemingway (1898-1962), William

Faulkner (1897-1962), F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), J. Steinbeck (1902-1968), John

Dos Passos (1896-1970), and Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945), among others.

Therefore, among all the prose figures of this period4, such as the War writers we include

Edmund Blunden (1896-1974), Robert Graves (1895-), and C.E. Montague (1867-1928), among

others. Yet, we shall particularly focus on the most representative ones in Great Britain and

Ireland: David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930), Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), Aldous Huxley

(1894-1963), Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970), Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966), George Orwell

(1903-1950), and Graham Greene (1904-) in England, and James Joyce (1882-1941) in Ireland.

3.3.3.1.

David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930).

Following Albert (1990:509-512), “D. H. Lawrence was the most striking figure in the literary

world between the Wars. He was born at Eastwood, in Nottinghamshire, the son of a miner, and

was educated at Nottingham High School. On leaving school he had a brief experience of

business life, and then became a pupil teacher in his native village. He trained for the teachers’

certificate at University College, Nottingham, and then was for some time a teacher in Croydon,

but, on the publication of The White Peacock (1911), he abandoned teaching for literature.”

“He married Fireda Weekley, a German, and previously wife of a Nottingham Professor.Because of his attitude toward the War and his wife’s nationality, he was cruelly persecuted,

and this, with the suppression of The Rainbow (1915) as obscenen, and the banning of an

exhibition of his paintings by the police, made Lawrence try to leave England. His passport was

withheld, however, and it was 1919 before he got away. From then on his life was a continuous

search, in many parts of the world, for a society more suited to one of his ideals –Italy, Malta,

4 Among other inter-war representative figures we may mention Rebecca West (1892-) with The Judge (1922);

Theodore Francis Powys (1875-1953), with Mr Weston’s Good Wine (1927); his brother John Cowper Powys (1872-

1963), with A Glastonbury Romance (1932); Wyndham Lewis (1884-1957), with Time and Western Man (1927);Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973), with The Death of the Heart (1938); and Ethel F. Robertson (1870-1946), with The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1917-1929), among others.

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Ceylon, Australia, California, and New Mexico were among the places where he lived. In 1929

he returned finally to Europe, and in the following year died of tuberculosis at Vence in

France.”

He was a prolific writer in prose and poetry. As a poet, Lawrence contributed to magazines

(1919) in his early years and later on he continued to write poetry throughout his life. In it his

most striking feature is its fundamental similarity to prose, and even in the themes (what man

has made of man, passionate belief in the primitive and elemental impulses, acute sensitivity to

natural beauty). His collection includes Love Poems and Others (1913), Amores (1916), Look!

We have come through (1917), New Poems (1918), Tortoises (1921), Birds, Beasts and Flowers

(1923), Collected Poems (1928), Pansies (1929), and Last Poems (1933).

Regarding his prose production, “Lawrence is another example of the prolific modern writer. In

the nineteen years between his first published novel and his death he produced over forty

volumes of fiction (novels and short stories), poetry, plays, treatises, and essays, and not a year

passed withouth the publication of something from his pen. It is, however, as a novelist that he

is chiefly remembered. The White Peacock (1911) is a story of unhappy human relationships set

in the area he knew so well, and, if the book lacks the depth and seriousness of his later work, it

already reveals his concern with one of his chief themes, the conflict between man and woman,

and much of his remarkable gift for fine description and lyric emotion.”

“A slighter work, The Trespasser (1912), was followed by the largely autobiographical Sons

and Lovers (1913), an extremely powerful novel of deep sincerity, which studies with great

insight the relationship between son and mother. By many it is considered the best of all his

work. Then came The Rainbow (1915), suppressed as obscene, which treats again the conflict

betweeen man and woman. Not until 1921 was he able to find a publisher for its sequel, Women

in Love, an important novel for the student of Lawrence’s views upon human life.”

“Equally significant is Aaron’s Rod (1922), a more mature work of greater stylistic quality.

From his experiences during the War and his later visit to Australia sprang Kangaroo (1923),

which he called a “thought adventure.” The discussion of the world situation at times

overweights the novel, but, both in this and in The Boy in the Bush (1924), Lawrence depicts the

Australian background with striking vividness. This same faculty for capturing the spirit of a

country is one of the better features of The Plumed Serpent (1926), an over-lengthy work which

deals with Mexican life, and which is typical of Lawrence in its stress on the values of the

primitive as opposed to the civilized. Two years later appeared in Florence Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928), a novel in which sexual experience is handled with a wealth of physical detail and

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uninhibited language which until 1960 caused its supression in this country. It is Lawrence’s

last embittered fling at what he felt to be the prurience of mind which sheltered behind

conventional notions of sex.”

“Lawrence was also a short story writer of considerable power, and he published many

collections, among which are The Prussian Officer (1914); England, my England (1922); The

Ladybird, The Fox, The Captain’s Doll (1923); St Mawr, together with The Princess (1925);

The Woman who Rode Away, and other Stories (1928); The Virgin and the Gipsy (1930); and

The Lovely Lady (1933). Of his essays and travel books mention may be made of Twilight in

Italy (1916); Sea and Sardinia (1921); Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine (1925); and

Mornings in Mexico (1927).”

His novels are namely characterized by its themes, the theme treatment, style and characters.

First of all, regarding his themes, he shows his own interpretation of life, “concerned with the

basic problems of human existence, man’s relationships with his fellows and with the universe

beyond himself. He combined a violent hatred of the values of modern mechanized civilization

with a love of the primitive and natural, and a passionate belief in the importance of the

development of each unique individuality.”

Regarding his treatment of his themes, he “shows little concern with the novel as an art form,

and the reader is less impressed by his technical skills than by the verse and passionate intensity

of his writing.” He mixes extravagances of violent over-earnestness, poetical utterance and

direct statements. His style is said to be vivid and spontaneous, where he achieves a perfect

naturalness of diablogue, which is seen particularly in his masterly handling of the coarse

dialects of Australia. Finally, his characters show “bitterness and darkness of spirit, and like him

they live passionately and fully. They are creatures of strong impulse and primitive emotions,

and they are studied with a remarkable depth of understanding and keeness of insight.”

3.3.3.2.

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941).

Following Albert (1990:515-517), she was the daughter of an eminent Victorian critic and

scholar, Sir Leslie Stephen. Hence Virginia Woolf was born into a circle of friends where

standards of culture, taste, and intelligence were of the highest. “From the reading and

conversations of her formative years she acquired an unusually wide literary background and a

cosmopolitan culture. She began her writing career as a contributor to literary journals, and,

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after her marriage (1912) to Leonard Woolf, she shared in the activities of the Hogarth Press,

which published the work of many rising men and advanced thinkers.”

“Though her first novel appeared in 1915, her reputation was originally made as a critic of

penetration and independent judgment. In fact, it was only with Orlando: a Biography (1928)

that she scored anything like a popular success, and she is likely to remain a nove list for the

few.” Among her most representative works, we shall mention her first novel, The Voyage Out

(1915) which was told “in the conventinal narrative manner, but with a concentration of interest

upon character and delicacy of touch typical of all her work.”

“The same emphasis on character-analysis and the same lack of incident characterize Night and

Day (1919), another study of personal adjustment and development. Then came her first really

mature work, Jackob’s Room (1922), in which her distinctive technique is fully used for the first

time. By a series of disconnected impressions, revealed mainly through the consciousness of

people with whom he came into contact, we are made aware of the personality of Jacob. These

momentary impressions, which shift and dissolve with the bewildering inconsequence of real

mental processes, are revealed by the use of the internal monologue, and from them we are

intended to build up gradually a complete conception of the young man.”

“This same method, handled with greater firmness, is again used in Mrs Dalloway (1925).

Though what little ‘event’ there is occupies only one day, Virginia Woolf is enabled to create

not only the lives of her chief characters, which are studied with a penetrating subtlety, but even

the London background. To the Lighthouse (1927) shows a still firmer mastery of the ‘stream of

consciousness’ technique, and is by many accounted her finest work. Its study of the

relationships of the members of the Romney family achieves a greater artistic unity than is

found in her previous novels, and yet preserves all her usual subtlety of analysis.”

“The ultimate development of her method appears in The Waves (1931), from which plot, in thenormally accepted sense, is almost entirely lacking. It is a symbolic work of great poetic beauty,

in which the consciousness of the six characters is studied in a series of internal monologues.

An ambitious, and clealry an experimental, work, it is remarkable for its sensitive perception of

changing moods, and the skill with which the six characters are distinguished. It has been well

described as a prose-poem. Flush (1933), The Years (1937), in which she again deals with

family relationships, and the unfinished Between the Acts (1941) show her usual delicacy of

touch and brilliant technical mastery, but the first two fall below the level of her major works,

while of the last it is difficult to attempt an assessment.”

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“Standing alone among her novels, and therefore last to be considered here, is the fantasy,

Orlando, a Biography (1928), which may be said to have established her reputation with the

wider reading public. With a verve and spirit utterly different from the movement of her other

novels, it traces from Elizabethan to modern times the life of Orlando, who not ony appears as a

number of different people, but even changes sex in the middle of the story. It is full of vivid

colour and striking evocations of historical peridos and settings. In addition to her novels,

Virginia Woolf wrote a number of essays on cultural subjects, which appear in Mr Bennett and

Mrs Brown (1924); The Common Reader (1925 ); A Room of One’s Own (1929); the Second

Common Reader (1932); Roger Fry (1940); The Death of the Moth (1942); and The Moment

(1947). They reveal her as a critic of penetrating insight and superb stylistic gifts.”

Much has been said about her themes, her technique, her characters and her style. Thus,

regarding her themes, she reacted against the novel of social manners as produced by writers

like Arnold Bennett, and she was none the less concerned with the realities of life, which were

inward and spiritual for her rather than outward and material. These inner realities are the

recurrent themes of her novels; regarding her technique, she used the ‘stream of consciousness’

and the analysis of mental states; moreover, her characters seem to be disconnected and

incoherent in appearnace, but penetrating and subtle inside; finally, her style is that of a cultured

woman, charming and poetic, rhythmic and musical, precise and delicate.

3.3.3.3.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963).

Following Albert (1990: 519-521), he was the “descendant of the famous scientist, T.H. Huxley,

and was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he began his literary career as a

poet. In 1917 he was editor of Oxford Poetry, and he was a contributor to the Sitwell anthology,

Wheels . Under the pseudonym Autolycus, he wrote for The Athenaeum when he left the

University. He was a man of the widest culture, with an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and hetravelled widely. In 1939 he settled in California, where he stayed for the rest of his life.”

“To trace the development of Huxley’s writing from the romantic tone and artistic finish of The

Burning Wheel (1916) and The Defeat of Youth (1918), or the blasé cynicism and sensuality of

Leda (1920) –the three volumes which contain his youthful verse – to the point where he writes

Eyeless in Gaza (1936) is to watch a steadily growing seriousness of manner, and a deeper

concern with the attempt to show the barrenness of contemporary values, and to present a

positive ideal which will serve a disenchanted and hopeless world.”

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“The lighthearted satire on contemporary society found in Crome Yellow (1921) gives way to

the equally lively, but more sensational and more daring, study of post-War disillusionment and

immorality in Antic Hay (1923). In Those Barren Leaves (1925) a more earnest note enters in

the discussions of moral problems. It was followed by his most successful piece of fiction, Point

Counter Point (1928), which is technically of interest as Huxley’s attempt “to musicalize

fiction,” and is even morer striking as a mordant, unflinching picture of a disillusioned,

frustrated society, in which the healthy life of the senses has been paralysed by the bonds of an

inhibiting ethical code.”

“ Brave New World (1932) gives a satirical picture of what he imagines the world would be

under the rule of science –no disease, no pain, but no emotion, and, worse, no spiritual life.

Technically this novel leaves much to be desired, but it provokes much frightening thought. In

Eyeless in Gaza (1936) Huxley’s faith in the life of the spirit, which first became evident in

Those Barren Leaves, again finds expression. Whole portions of the book, particularly toward

the end, consist of little more than dissertations on moral themes. After settling in America, he

produced two satirical novels int he witty, daring manner of his early works, though both have

obvious links with his more philosophical books. These two, After Many a Summer (1939) and

Time must have a Stop (1944), were followed by The Perennial Philosophy (1946), which stated

his views on the importance of spiritual integrity directly and seriously.”

“Huxley’s prime importance is as a reflector of the feelings of his age. As a novelist he has

limitations; he has no deep characterization, and his novels are slight in plot, but, like those of

T.L. Peacock, they provide plenty of opportunity for conversation and discussion. The subjects

discussed reveal him to be a man of great knowledge and wide culture. He is, above all things, a

satirist, whose tone can vary from jovial irony to biting malice, and the striking incisiveness of

his satire springs from an easy, polished style, a great gift for epigram, a ready wit, and an alert

mind.”

3.3.3.4.

Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970).

Again, following Albert (1990:518519), Edward Morgan Forster was born in a cultured family,

and was educated at Tonbridge. He was also an intellectual and Fellow of King’s College,

Cambridge, and he is regarded as the most cosmopolitan men of his day. “His novels are only

five in number. After the early Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905), with its well-drawn

characters, its comedy, and the typical concern with the conflict between two different cultures,

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comes The Longest Journey (1907), a less attractive work, which does, however, show the same

skill in characterization.”

“ A Room with a View (1908), like his first novel, is set in Italy, and contains excellent comedy

very delicately handled. Then come his two masterpieces, Howards End ( 1910), and much later,

A Passage to India (1924), both of which deal with the misunderstandings which arise in

relationships, between individuals in the one case, and between races in the other.” Note that the

latest of his novels is unrivalled in English fiction in its presentation of the complex problems

which were to be found in the relationships between English and native people in India, and in

its portrayal of the Indian scene in all its magic and all its wretchedness.”

“But though his output was small, the quality of his work was such as to place him among the

foremost writers of the period. As well as his novels he published three collections of short

stories, The Celestial Omnibus (1911), The Story of the Siren (1920), and The Eternal Moment

(1928), and two critical works, Aspects of the Novel (1927) and Abinger Harvest (1936). A

collection of miscellaneous essagys, lectures, and talks, some on political and others on artistic

themes, appeared in 1951 under the title, Two Cheers for Democracy.”

“Basically a moralist, concerned with the importance of the individual personality, the

adjustments it must make and the problems it must solve when it comes into contact with a set

of values different from its own, he is the advocate of culture, tolerance, and civilization against

barbarity and provincialism. He studies the complexities of character with a subtlety of insight

and an appreciation of the significance of the unconscious which mark him as a modern. His

characters are rounded and vital. He has great gifts for telling a story, but he disregards

conventional plot construction and frequently introduces startling, unexpected incidents.”

“His craftsmanship is of the highest order. With a cool, often ironic, detachment, he presens the

problems arising from his imagined situation with fairness and breadth of outlook, though he isto some extent lacking in emotional fire and human warmth. He has an excellent faculty for

capturing the very feel and tone of his background – A Passage to India offers a good example

of this. Though his best novels often touch tragedy, his true field is comedy, whimsical, delicate,

and biting, which is never long absent from his work. He combines a stule as easy and cool as

his general attitude toward his problems and characters, with a gift for good dialogue, maaarked

descriptive powers, lightness of touch and precision, and conciseness of presentation.”

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3.3.3.5.

Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966).

Following Albert (1990:567-568), Evelyn Waugh “became the outstanding satirist of the

thirties. Educated at Lancing and Oxford, he was very much a man of intellect who could stand

aside and castigate a world which had no values except the need to make money and have fun;

his main characters were snobs, and one of the cardinal sins was vulgarity. His heroes were

virtuous but naïve young men who suffered embarrassment and hardship because they failed to

understand or defeat the many exponents of vice.”

“Quite impersonally, Waugh treated everything with a lack of seriousness; he did not even show

any indignation at the unfairness which beset his characters. The novels were strings of hilarious

incidents and effervescent dialogue by which he poked fun even at the class to which he

belonged. Examples are Decline and Fall (1928), Vile Bodies (1930), Black Mischief (1932),

Scoop (1938), and Put Out More Flags (1942). A sign of his growing seriousness and

disillusion was The Loved One (1948), a savage satire on American funeral customs and the

two-faced affluent society of that country.”

“Partly as a result of his Army experiences and partly because of his conversion to Roman

Catholicism, Waugh’s later novels, beginning with Brideshead Revisited (1945), had a new

feeling of concern, though still illuminated by wit and sardonic comment; in them was a

nostalgic sympathy with a world that had ended, and which, for all its foolishness, had been

more joyous and less harmful than the present. The characters were drawn with warm

understanding and developed in depth; the structure too showed careful planning and far greater

complexity.”

“The later style was seen at its best in the Sword of Honour trilogy – Men at Arms (1952),

Officers and Gentlemen (1955), and Unconditional Surrender (1961) –which treated of the loss

of ideals as men faced war with its savagery, muddle, cynicism, inefficiency, andincongruosness. He gradually ceased to believe in all that the central figure stood for, as if he no

longer believed in himself or his class in post-War society. The mood became sombre and

resigned, but to the end there was a vein of rich comedy which lit up the enveloping darkness.”

3.3.3.6.

George Orwell (1903-1950).

George Orwell, the pseudonym for Eric Hugh Blair, was a typical product of the inter-War

years. His proletarian sympathies and his contempt for the upper-middle-class society fromwhich he sprang were shown in the sardonic Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936). Yet there was a

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love-hate attitude towards the idea of Empire and the White Man’s Burden in Burmese Days

(1934); and in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937), a picture of squalor and hopelessness during the

Great Depression, he seemed to despise the very type he represented, the left-wing intellectual

striving to identify himself with the victims.”

“It was only after the Second World War that Orwell became a figure of outstanding

importance, and then it was because of Animal Farm (1945), an expression of his own

disillusion. This was a closely knit allegory on the degeneration of communist ideals into

dictatorship, expressed in an incisive, witty, deceptively simple style reminiscent of Voltaire.

Utterly different was Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), a terrifying prognostication of the hatred,

cruelty, fear, loss of individuality, and lack of human love that the future would bring. The

common man whom Orwell admired was reduced to a political and social nonentity; human

dignity and decency were dead because of mass apathy and tolerance of evil.”

3.3.3.7.

Graham Greene (1904-).

Following Albert (1990:565-566), Graham Greene is probably the best-known novelist of the

period under consideration. He also came from the professional classes and after public school

went up to Oxford University. He has written a considerable number of novels which, while

popular, have none the less pleased the critics because of the tautness of their construction and

their imaginative exploration of character. Whatever he writes seems to be topical, not just in

subject-matter and location but in the emotions stimulated, for Greene has the gift of evoking

the atmosphere of a period as well as giving an accurate depiction of the surroundings.”

“The world is brutal and humourless; in it his characters pursue or are pursued. Usually they are

insignificant people with a little authority who are forced to make a choice and to suffer the

pangs of indecision and conscience. Greene’s Roman Catholicism has encouraged him to seeaction as a series of moral dilemmas; he depicts not right and wrong but fundamental good and

fundamental evil; his characters seek after evil sometimes on principle and sometimes from lack

of initiative to do otherwise, and in doing so they acknowledge the reverse of evil. By accepting

the Devil they believe in God. The settings of hisnovels range from West Africa to Cuba,

England to Viet Nam; by selecting significant details he sketches in a background that looks

authentic and then, by symbolic touches, draws one’s attention to matters of special

importance.”

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“The most noteworthy of Greene’s novels are It’s a Battlefield (1934), England Made Me

(1935), Brighton Rock (1938), The Power and the Glory (1940), The Heart of the Matter

(1948), The End of the Affair (1951), The Quiet American (1955 ), A Burnt-Out Case (1961),

The Comedians (1966), and Travels with My Aunt (1969). Graham Greene’s short stories have

become increasingly popular; recent collections are May We Borrow Your Husband? (1967) and

Shades of Greene (1976). He has also written what he calls ‘entertainments.’ These are stories

of crime and retribution, but they too are concerned with moral difficulties bedevilling people in

a confused and violent world. The best of these books are A Gun for Sale (1936), The Ministry

of Fear (1943), The Third Man (1950), and a satire on contemporary spy novels, Our Man in

Havana (1958).”

3.3.3.8.

James Joyce (1882-1941).

Following Albert (1990:513-515), James Joyce was born in Dublin and was the son of middle -

class Irish parents. “He was educated in Jesuit colleges and at the Royal University. He

abandoned the idea of taking orders, however, and shortly after the turn of the century he left

Ireland for France. In Paris he studied medicine and thought of becoming a professional singer.

During the 1914-1918 War he taught languages in Switzerland [since he was medically unfit for

service], and afterward returned to Paris, where he settled down to a literary life, struggling

continually against ill-health and public opposition to his work”.

Regarding his literary contribution, he used a straightforward narrative technique in his first

work, Dubliners (1914) so as to achieve an objective, short story study of the sordid Dublin

slums. The result was a powerful written prose which, though simple, has a distinct individual

flavour. “Set in the same city is A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), an intense

account of a developing writer torn between the standards of an ascetic, religious upbringing

and his desire for sensuousness. Though the work is largely autobiographical (Stephen Dedalusis Joyce), the writer preserves a cool detachment in the precise analysis of his hero’s spiritual

life. His handling of the sexual problems involved is particularly forthright.”

“An earlier version, much more conventional in style, was Stephen Hero, which was not

published until 1944. The artistic dilemma of Stephen-Joyce was re-expressed in his

unsuccessful play Exiles (1918). Stephen Dedalus appears again in Ulysses (1922), a study of

the life and mind of Leopold and Mrs Bloom during a single day. It is modelled on the Odyssey

of Homer, but it is set in the squalor of Dublin’s slums. There are parallel characters in the two

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works, and the structure is in each case the same; these likenesses are deliberately invoked to

stress the sordid meanness of modern life as contrasted with life in the heroic age”.

“The ‘stream of consciousness’ technique and the internal monologue are used with great

power, and Bloom has been described as the most complete character in fiction. The material is

handled objectively and with a frankness that caused the book to be banned as obscene: the style

shows clearly Joyce’s mastery of language, his ingenuity, brilliance, and power. Published in

the same year as The Waste Land [1922], it presents a similar view of the hopeless dilemma of

man in the post-War world. It appeared in The Little Review in America, but was banned after

the fifth instalment, and this ban was not lifted in England until 1933.”

“Joyce’s only other novel was Finnegan’s Wake (1939), parts of which had appeared as early as

1927 and 1928 as Work in Progress and Anna Livia Plurabelle. In it he has developed his

technique to a point where subtlety of the history of the human race from its earliest beginnings,

as seen in the incoherent dreams of a certain Mr Earwicker. The use of an inconsecutive

narrative and of a private vocabulary adds to the confusion, but it cannot conceal the poetic

furor, the power, and brilliant verbal skill of the work”.

Among his novels’ features we shall examine his subjects, his technique and his style. First of

all, regarding his subjects, Joyce is regarded as a “serious novelist, whose concern is chiefly

with human relationships –man in relation to himself, to society, and to the whole race. This is

true also of his latest work, though his interest in linguistic experiments makes it difficult to

understand his meaning. Acutely aware of the pettiness and meanness of modern society, and of

the evils which spring from it, he is unsurpassed in his knowledge of the seamy side of life,

which he presents with startling frankness. He is a keen and subtle analyst of man’s inner

consciousness, and, in common with the psycho-analysis of his day, he is much preoccupied

with sex”.

Regarding his technique, Joyce is said to be a pioneer in the quest of a new technique to present

the contemporary human dilemma. “He was a ceaseless experimenter, ever anxious to explore

the potentialities of a method once it was evolved, and in his use of the ‘stream of

consciousness’ technique, and in his handling of the internal monologue, he went further and

deeper than any other. His sensitiveness, his depth of penetration into the human consciousness,

give to his character-study a subtlety unparalleled in his day, and if, in his attempts to catch

delicate and elusive shades of feeling and fix them in words, he has frequently become

incomprehensible, the fact remains that a character like Leopold Bloom is a unique andfascinating creation”.

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Finally, his style has been defined as a change from an early straightforward and simple writing

to a complex, allusive and original one in his last years. In this latter, Joyce uses a broken

narrative, with abrupt transitions, the omission of logical sentence links and a new vocabulary.

This produces a pure writing which is often private in significance, that is, a writing in which

words are coined by the breaking up of one word and the joining of its parts to parts of other

words similarly split, and roots of words from many languages.

“Joyce’s interest in language and his eager experimentation are unequalled in any period of our

literature. He has a sensitive ear for verbal rhythms and cadences, and uses language in his

books as part of an elaborately conceived artistic pattern, in which much of the unity of his work

lies. With the beauty of language for its own sake only he is usually little concerned, yet his

writing is often of great imaginative power and has a musical quality which enables even his

incomprehensible passages to be read aloud with considerable pleasure.” In short, he preferred

the comic to the tragic view of life, and his humour may be comic, intellectual and even

sardonic in tone.

4.

EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING.

Literature, and therefore, literary language is one of the most salient aspects of educational

activity. In classrooms all kinds of literary language (poetry, drama, prose –novel, short story,

minor fiction-, periodicals) either spoken or written, is going on for most of the time. Yet,

handling literary productions in the past makes relevant the analysis of literature in the twentieth

century, and in particular, British literature for our purposes. Yet, what do students know about

the inter-War and WWII authors? At this point it makes sense to examine the historical

background of Great Britain within the twentieth century so as to provide an appropriate context

for these poets, dramatists and novelists in our students’ background knowledge and check whatthey know about them.

Since literature may be approached in linguistic terms, regarding form and function

(morphology, lexis, structure, form) and also from a cross-curricular perspective (Sociology,

History, English, French, Spanish Language and Literature), Spanish students are expected to

know about the history of Britain and its influence in the world. In addition, one of the

objectives of teaching the English language is to provide good models of almost any kind of

literary productions for future studies.

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Currently, action research groups attempt to bring about change in classroom learning and

teaching through a focus on literary production under two premises. First, because they believe

learning is an integral aspect of any form of activity and second, because education at all levels

must be conceived in terms of literature and history. The basis for these assumptions is to be

found in an attempt, through the use of historical events, to develop understanding of students’

shared but diverse social and physical environment.

Learning involves a process of transformation of participation itself which has far reaching

implications on the role of the teacher in the teaching-learning relationship. This means that

literary productions are an analytic tool and that teachers need to identify the potential

contributions and potential limitations of them before we can make good use of genre

techniques: the stream of consciousness, the kaleidoscopic point of view, and the presentation of

different scenes, among others. We must bear in mind that most students will continue their

studies at university and there, they will have to handle successfully all kind of genres,

especially poetry, drama and fiction ones within our current framework.

Moreover, nowadays new technologies (the Internet, DVD, videocamera) and the media (TV,

radio, cinema) may provide a new direction to language teaching as they set more appropriate

context for students to experience the target culture. Present-day approaches deal with a

communicative competence model in which first, there is an emphasis on significance over

form, and secondly, motivation and involvement are enhanced by means of new technologies

and the media. Hence literary productions and the history of the period may be approched in

terms of films and drama representations in class, among others, and in this case, by means of

books (novels: historical, terror, descriptive) and drama (opera, comedies, plays), among others.

But how do twentieth-century British literature tie in with the new curriculum? Spanish students

are expected to know about the British culture and its influence on Europe since students are

required to know about the world culture and history. The success partly lies in the way literaryworks become real to the users. Some of this motivational force is brought about by intervening

in authentic communicative events. Otherwise, we have to recreate as much as possible the

whole cultural environment in the classroom by means of novels, short stories, documentaries,

history books, or their family’s stories.

Hence it makes sense to examine relevant figures in and out Great Britain so as to understand

how their relevant works are known not only in their countries, but also in Europe and the rest

of the world through the media: TV, films, radio, books, and magazines, among others. Who hasnot read or seen at the cinema Lawrence’s Lady Shatterley’s Lover (1928); Woolf’s Mrs

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Dalloway (1925), Huxley’s Brave New World (1932), Forster’s A Room with a View (1908),

Howards End ( 1910), and much later, A Passage to India (1924); Orwell’s Animal Farm

(1945); Greene’s Brighton Rock (1938), The Third Man (1950), or The Quiet American (1955)?

This is to be achieved within the framework of the European Council (1998) and, in particular,

the Spanish Educational System which establishes a common reference framework for the

teaching of foreign languages where students are intended to carry out several communication

tasks with specific communicative goals, for instance, how to locate a literary work within a

particular historical period. Analytic interpretation of texts in all genres should become part of

every literary student’s basic competence (B.O.E., 2004).

In addition, one of the objectives of teaching the English language is to provide good models of

almost any kind of literary productions for future studies. Following van Ek & Trim (2001), ‘the

learners can perform, within the limits of the resources available to them, those writing (and

oral) tasks which adult citizens in general may wish, or be called upon, to carry out in their

private capacity or as members of the general public’ when dealing with their future regarding

personal and professional life.

In short, the knowledge about British culture (history and literature) should become part of

every literary student’s basic competence (B.O.E., 2004). There are hidden influences at work

beneath the textual surface: these may be sociocultural, inter and intratextual. The literary

student has to discover these, and wherever necessary apply them in further examination. The

main aims that our currently educational system focuses on are mostly sociocultural, to facilitate

the study of cultural themes, as our students must be aware of their current social reality within

the European framework.

5.

CONCLUSION.

On reviewing the issue of Great Britain in the inter-War years and during the World War II, we

have examined the life, works and style of the most representative authors in this period, but

before we have offered a historical background for this period in Great Britain regarding social,

economic and political changes so as to provide an overall view of the context in which the

most representative authors lived and produced their works. So, we have analysed the situationbefore the First World War, during the First World War (1914-1918) in terms of home and

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international affairs; during the inter-War years (1918-1939), and finally, the period during the


In Chapter 3 we have provided a literary background of the period which ranges from the inter-

War years to the end of the World War II with the aim of going further into the most

representative authors and their masterpieces within the three main literary forms: poetry,

drama and prose. First, Therefore, we have approached the main features of the inter-war years

and World War II; and second, the main literary forms and their most reprentative authors.

Then, within poetry, we have presented the life, works and style of Wystan Hugh Auden (1907-

1973) in England, Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) in Wales, W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) in Ireland,

and also, out of Britain, the relevant American poets T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) and Ezra Pound

(1885-1972).

Secondly, within drama we have included Sean O’Casey (1884-1964) in Ireland, Sir Noël

Coward (1899-1973) and J.B. Priestley (1894-1984) in England, and the first American

dramatist of international significance, Eugene O’Neill (1888-1953); and, finally, within prose,

we have reviewed the following authors: David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930), Virginia Woolf

(1882-1941), Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), Edward Morgan Forster (1879-1970), Evelyn

Waugh (1903-1966), George Orwell (1903-1950), and Graham Greene (1904-) in England, and

James Joyce (1882-1941) in Ireland.

In Chapter 4 have analysed the main educational implications in language teaching regarding

the introduction of this issue in the classroom setting. At the moment we are offering a brief

conclusion to broadly overview our present study, and Chapter 6 will present all the

bibliographical references used to develop this account of Great Britain literature in the

twentieth century.

Having lived in the same period, all these authors transmitted their vision of reality. The impactof the war made them change their way of writing and expression, and paved the way for

subsequent generations of writers. Then, on escaping from reality, these authors provided a new

direction to British literature and began to lose their fear to the Victorian puritanical morality.

So, they introduced new techniques in fiction which were drawn from psychological analysis

(stream of consciousness, verse music, satirical language) with more emphasis on the form than

on the story, special use of time in which past, present and future were mixed together as in a

dream. The World War II brought about a new period of anger and disillusionment as the first

one.

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So far, we have attempted to provide the reader in this presentation with a historical, literary and

cultural background on the vast amount of literature productions in the twentieth century

literature in Great Britain. This information is relevant for language learners, even ESO and

Bachillerato students, who do not automatically establish similiarities between British and

Spanish literary works. So, learners need to have these associations brought to their attention in

cross-curricular settings through the media. As we have seen, understanding how literature

reflects the main historical events of a country is important to students, who are expected to be

aware of the richness of English literature in all English-speaking countries.

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6.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Albert, Edward. 1990. A History of English Literature . Walton-on-Thames. Nelson. 5th

edition (Revised

by J.A. Stone).

B.O.E. 2004. Consejería de Educación y Cultura. Decreto N.º 116/2004, de 23 de enero. Currículo de la

Educación Secundaria Obligatoria en la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia.

B.O.E. 2004. Consejería de Educación y Cultura. Decreto N.º 117/2004, de 23 de enero. Currículo de

Bachillerato en la Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia.

Council of Europe (1998) Modern Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. A Common European

Framework of reference.

Magnusson, M., and Goring, R. (eds.). 1990. Cambridge Biographical Dictionary. New York: Cambridge

University Press.

Palmer, R. 1980. Historia Contemporánea, Akal ed., Madrid.

Sanders, A. 1996. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford University Press.

Rogers, P. 1987. The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature. Oxford University Press.

Speck, W.A. 1998. Literature and Society in Eighteenth-Century England: Ideology Politics and Culture

1680-1820. Book Reviews.

Thoorens, Léon. 1969. Panorama de las literaturas Da imon: Inglaterra y América del Norte. Gran

Bretaña y Estados Unidos de América. Ediciones Daimon.

van Ek, J.A., and J.L.M. Trim, 2001. Vantage. Council of Europe. Cambridge University Press.

Other sources:

Enciclopedia Larousse 2000. Editorial Planeta.

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