International Interdisciplinary Conference on Science Technology Engineering Management

Pharmacy and Humanities Held on 22nd – 23rd April 2017, in Singapore ISBN: 9780998900001

EMERGING TRENDS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE OF

20TH AND 21ST CENTURY

Principal Dr. Rekha Kalia Bhardwaj

Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya
Mahatma Hans Raj Marg, Jalandhar-144 008 (Punjab)

Before discussing the emerging trends in English showing divine element in nature; S.T. Coleridge
literature, it is a must to understand the meaning of pen-portraying supernaturalism; Lord Byron
literature. Literature is the mirror of society. In C.S. ferociousness; Keats presenting sensuous beauty and
Lewis‟ words “Literature adds to reality, it does not Shelley abstract ideas.
simply describe it. It enriches the necessary Victorian Age (1837-1901) is an era of transition. In
competencies that daily life requires and provides; the later part of the nineteenth century and in the
and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our beginning of the twentieth century, the growth of
lives have already become.” In a simpler way, industrialization, urbanization and the advent of the
literature is what we see, feel, observe, and then First World War brought the loss of faith in the
penned down through different genres like poetry, traditional values and morals, and caused the colossal
novel, short story, essay or drama. J. Long beautifully wastage of human lives. A time period marked by
states “Behind every book is a man; behind the man peace, progress, sensibility on one hand and massacre
is the race; and behind the race are the natural and of spiritual and religious feelings on the other.
social environments whose influence is consciously Materialism and scientific attitude brutally murdered
reflected.” human faith in God. Charles Dickens and Thomas
Each age has its own characteristics revealing that Hardy focus on cruel aspects of life; Alfred Lord
particular period and its literature. The Renaissance Tennyson highlighting shakened and shattered beliefs
Age (1500-1660) is known for the origin of of human world. But poets like Robert Browning
intellectual liberty, of growing intelligence and holding the horses of optimism and positivity. It is a
comfort among all classes; in Long‟s words, The stage of mixed sentiments in literature.
Eighteenth century literature, known as Neo-Classic It is difficult to define one typical characteristic of
Age (1660-1798) also, demanded that poetry should 20th and 21st century. This age is full of
follow exact rules; and proposed to have discovered experimentation and it is discussed in different
its rules in the classics of Horace and Virgil and genres. The literary canon of 20th and 21st century
Ovid. foregrounds an aesthetic shift which is more
The Age of Romanticism (1785-1830) verbalized transitional; experimental, more anxious, more liberal
love for Nature in different ways like Wordsworth and self-interrogating too. The lines from Sunita

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 International Interdisciplinary Conference on Science Technology Engineering Management
Pharmacy and Humanities Held on 22nd – 23rd April 2017, in Singapore ISBN: 9780998900001

Sinha‟s book mark the spirit of both the centuries: while others did translation of classics and regional
“The two world wars, the social and political literature. Ted Hughes translated Ovid‟s Aeschylus
upheavals, the consolidation and expansion of and Euripides‟ works. Christopher Fry‟s translated
multinational capitalism, the emergence of the works enhanced their already considerable
informational age, the struggle of post-colonial reputation. Works of Munsi Prem Chand, Rabindra
voices after the end of the British Empire and the Nath Tagore, Mahasweta Devi have been translated
changing configuration of a new multicultural into English and other languages too.
population have led to a restructuring in the sphere of Another trend in 20th and 21st century is Modernism
literary studies.” Presence of a great range of styles, which has its origin in the early 20th century.
and approaches led the writers to redefine the specific Modernists explored and experimented with literary
boundaries of literature. form and expression. They adhered to Ezra Pound‟s
In pre-world war era, mostly writers remained loyal maxim “to make it new.” It was the outcome of
to the trends of Victorian age. Darwin‟s Origin of drastic efforts to change traditional representation
Species (1859) led the world towards mourning over styles into new ways of expressing sensibilities of the
the loss of God. But a change could be noticed with time. Some prominent writers and poets of this
H.G.Well‟s Utopian Study of A Modern Utopia that movement are Ezra Pound, Marcel Proust and
captured optimistic mood and gave an expression that Virginia Woolf. Pound‟s poems “Cathay”, “Umbra”,
science and technology would transform the world. “Lustra” and “Canto”; Woolf‟s novels Mrs.
Meanwhile, Aesthetic Movement gained popularity Dalloway, To The Lighthouse and The Waves are
due to its being in favour of Catholicism and examples of modernist experiment.
mysticism. Aesthetes believed in the idea that the art Modernism has arisen from two movements:
is useless if it is in commitment with the ideas of „symbolism‟ and „Imagism‟ which highly affected
morality and standard of conduct. For them “art for the poetic creation of the time. Symbolism is a
art‟s sake” has been the motto of the movement. reaction against naturalism and realism. Imagism
Oscar Wilde is considered to be the mentor of the finds its roots in the aesthetic philosophy of T.E.
movement and he believed that the motive of art is to Hulme. The poets believed in utilizing common
provide sensual pleasure only. His plays The speech; in creating new rhythms and moods; infinite
Importance of Being Earnest, A Woman of No choice of subject matter; excessive use of symbols
Importance, and An Ideal Husband are some and images; yet providing clarity in style. Charles
applauded examples of aestheticism. W.B. Yeats‟ Baudelaire‟s poetry volume Les Fleurs Du Mal
prose “The Secret Rose” (1897), “The Tables of the marks the beginning of symbolism. Amy Lowell is
Law”; poems “The Rose”, “Crossways” are some of an American Imagist who promoted the works of
the finest examples. imagists in England. Ezra Pound is renowned name
As a result of all this, Post-world war literature faced in Imagism and he published an anthology under the
constant changes in literary trends. No particular title Des Imagaistes to promote the works of the
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school of thought or movement ruled 20 and 21 imagists. All of the modernists worked very hard to
century. Some literary artisans believed in imitation

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 International Interdisciplinary Conference on Science Technology Engineering Management
Pharmacy and Humanities Held on 22nd – 23rd April 2017, in Singapore ISBN: 9780998900001

free themselves from the shackles of traditional nature and directs his life. Concept of existentialism
monopoly of writing form and content. is fully employed by Fyodor Dostoevsky in his novel
Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx are the two who Crime and Punishment and by Franz Kafka in his
questioned human rationality leading to a change in novel The Trial.
dealing of characters. Instead of dealing with When philosophers talk about the value of individual,
characters as action figures, modernist writers started then Feminist writers restate gender in association
handling them as someone with thought and soul. with other categories such as race and class. These
This gave birth to another trend of Psycho-analysis. writers use literature as a strong medium to fight for
It gave a real life to the characters in novel and the rights of women and especially of women writers.
drama. James Joyce is the first writer to fully Toril Moi through her book Sexual/Textual Politics
understand the importance of a character‟s insight. In and What is a Woman? fought for equal rights and
his novels Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a understanding for women. Helene Cixous‟ text The
Young Man, he introduced his characters with Laugh of the Medusa warns readers, especially
monologues. Virginia Woolf coined “Stream-of- women, either to read it fully or remain trapped in the
Consciousness” to let the readers have a look in the language barriers created by men. Julia Kristeva and
psyche of her characters. This term denotes an Simon de Beauvoir also raised their voices to fight
endless flow of consciousness and it means that for women and their rights through the podium of
consciousness includes the entire area of mind from literature.
illogical, pre-conscious and pre-speech level to Post-colonial Literature outshined the International
rational and conscious speech level, including arena of fight for the rights of „Third-World‟.
thoughts, memories, associations and reflections. Emergence of the writers or poets or playwrights
There are many other terms linked with the stream of from „Black or Dark continent‟ or „Orients‟ stunned
consciousness novel like “interior monologues”, the English literary world. Aboriginals from
“stream of thoughts”, all denoting that the subject different colonies throughout the world came up with
matter of this kind of novel is the inner psyche of themes and plots unveiling the brutal deeds
man. „Stream-of-consciousness‟ technique in a committed under the mask of “Christian Burden”.
novel is better known as expressionistic technique in Not only local artists like Chinua Achebe in his novel
drama; Arthur Miller employs this technique with Things Fall Apart or Wole Soyinka in his play Lion
perfection in plays like Death of a Salesman(1949). and the Jewel but also white writers like Joseph
Jean Paul Sartre also focused on the value of a Conrad in his novella Heart of Darkness reflected
character as an individual and made Existentialism a their strong unhappiness towards Imperial
famous movement of the time. They fought for the government‟s hypocrisy. Many British writers
existence of human being as an individual; as a free believed that it is the responsibility of ruling
person in literary work. The one who is responsible government to look after the people being ruled.
for his own actions. They believed that an individual With emergence of artists from once-colonized
is responsible for his life as he acts and reacts countries, a new trend emerged too, i.e. use of
according to his own free will and this determines his vernacular and colloquial language in English

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 International Interdisciplinary Conference on Science Technology Engineering Management
Pharmacy and Humanities Held on 22nd – 23rd April 2017, in Singapore ISBN: 9780998900001

literature. Writers like Mulk Raj Anand in his novels dimension in her novels like Robinson, The
Untouchable and Gauri; Chinua Achebe in the novel Bachelors etc. Samuel Clemens better known as
Things Fall Apart; Bapsi Sidhwa in her novel Ice „Mark Twain‟ also was equipped with realism in his
Candy Man; Kamala Markandya in her novels Nectar works as in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice have devised G.B. Shaw, Arthur Miller, Sean O‟Casey, E.M.
regional languages like Hindi, Punjabi, Parsi etc. with Forster etc. gave accounts of their time‟s social,
standardized English. The major reason has been the political and economic issues. G.B. Shaw in his
dire need of introducing the First Nations with the plays Saint Joan, The Apple Cart underlined the
Idea that the nations once being ruled, are not at all satire on the political reality of Britain from time to
without literature and culture. Also, to show them time. Arthur Miller through his dramas All My Sons
how they mistreat people with different skin colour and Death of a Salesman pointed out economic and
and race in their countries. V.S. Naipaul‟s A House social failures in the times of American economic
for Mr. Biswas and Saul Bellow‟s The Victim are the depression. Sean O‟ Casey‟s play Juno and the
novels that portrayed the struggle of migrants in Paycock also presents the failure of society in Ireland
foreign lands: how alienated and isolated they feel, to provide social security to a family during war.
how they long for the feeling of belongingness and Marxist movement began in early 20th century with
how indifferently they are treated. Karl Marx‟s idea of utopian world; a classless
This indifference is a part of all the countries. People society. Many writers after Industrialization felt the
not only misbehave with outsiders but with insiders requirement of a society without class-struggle and
as well. Dalit literature is the outcome of such ill- clashes. John Galsworthy in his work Strife dealt
treatment. The so called „twice-borns‟ always with the conflict between proletariate and capitalists.
misbehaved with dalits or harijans or untouchables. W.H. Auden was also a beliver of communism in his
Unfortunately, India has been a fertile ground for early days and he projected this through plays like
such discrimination since ages. Mulk Raj Anand‟s The Dog Beneath the Skin and On the Frontier.
Untouchable gives a detailed account of it. A boy Stephen Spender also participated in communist flow
with calibre of becoming an officer remains a but for a very short span of time.
sweeper because of his low birth. Omprakash Science fiction is a trend which is the outcome of
Valmiki‟s Joothan, Narendra Jadhav‟s Untouchables totally opposite realms i.e. facts and imagination.
and Baby Kamble‟s The Prisons We Broke have H.G. Wells is one of the renowned fiction writers.
emerged as popular texts depicting issues of racial He remained fascinated by the prospects that science
segregation and injustice. offered to man. His fantasies The Time Machine and
In Realist Movement, authors attempted to represent The Invisible Man show his interest in technology
familiar things as they were. They chose to reflect which attracted him to write the science fiction.
everyday and banal activities and experiences instead Kitchen Sink Drama is a product of 20th century
of using a romantic story line with exaggeration. theatre. It‟s a way of writing where the protagonist is
Muriel Spark combined satirical realism with projected as an „angry young man‟. John Osborne‟s
implications of an extra-realist and spiritual play Look Back in Anger is considered to be the first

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Pharmacy and Humanities Held on 22nd – 23rd April 2017, in Singapore ISBN: 9780998900001

play to present the angry young man of contemporary Pop or popular fiction is plot-driven work written
drama. Shelagh Delaney‟s play A Taste of Honey is with the intention of fitting into currently famous
another great example of such theatre. literary sub-genre. It is created in order to attract
Comedy of Menace is a unique trend in which majority of audiences or readers already familiar with
playwrights focused on providing fun out of painful the genre. It is also known as Genre fiction. Famous
and tense situation. Harold Pinter‟s play The novelist Chetan Bhagat is a pop-fiction writer. His
Birthday Party is a fine example where humour has works are 2 States: The story of Marriage, Half
been created out of terror. David Campton, Nigel Girlfriend etc. The focus remains on becoming best
Dennis and N.F. Simpson are some authors seller and for that the story could be taken to any
producing comedy from horror. level.
Another style of play writing is „Theatre of the Digital or Cyber literature is the latest trend in which
Absurd‟ where the action and reaction in the plot fails works of creation are exclusively on and for digital
to deliver any proper meaning. Samuel Beckett‟s devices. In this trend of literature, the writer relies on
play Waiting for Godot projects this theatre as no one cyber medium like website, blogs or social media
knows anything about Godot: who he is, why others pages. Pry is a novella from collaboration of Danny
have been waiting for him, why he has failed to Cannizzaro and Samantha Gorman also known as
come, etc. Tender Claws. Jason Nelson is another digital poet
Moral Degradation, sexuality and homosexuality are and net-artist. Michael Joyce‟s 12 Blue and Jim
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openly discussed by authors in 20 and 21 century. Andrew‟s Stir Fry Texts are some more examples of
They have boldness in dealing with these topics. digital literature.
D.H. Lawrence skilfully deals with mother-son Multiple trends have emerged and are emerging in
relationship or Oedipus complex in his novel Sons 21st century. Some are like adaptations of traditional
and Lovers. T.S. Eliot‟s The Wasteland is a sermon movements and techniques while others are the
on degrading system of moral and spiritual values. outcome of science and technology. Hence, these
Tennessee Williams‟ play A street Car Named Desire ages depict modern literature through
focuses on sexual urges. William Golding‟s novel social/political/religious milieus with different genres
Lord of the Flies deals with moral corruption of the of poetry, novel and drama.
society portrayed through kids. Literary artists have References
become quite bold and liberal in dealing with hetro as 1. Andrew Sanders, The Short Oxford History of
well as homosexuality. English Literature, Oxford University Press
st
After medievalism, in 21 century magic and 2. David Daiches, A Critical History of English
mythology are again trending. J.K. Rowling‟s series Literature, Volume I and II, Supernove Publishers,
Harry Potter novels, C.S. Lewis‟ The Chronicles of 2nd ed.
Narnia, Dan Brown‟s Novels The Da Vinci Code, 3. Dr. T.Singh, A History of English Literature from
Inferno, Angles and Demons are a few examples of Chaucer to the Present Day, Bareilly, Student Store.
use of mythology in modern literature. 4. Ian Mackean, The Essentials of Literature in
English, Post-1914, Hodder Education

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Pharmacy and Humanities Held on 22nd – 23rd April 2017, in Singapore ISBN: 9780998900001

5. John Macquarrie, Existentialism, Great Britain:

Penguin
6. Legouis and Cazamian‟s, History of English
Literature, Macmillan
7. Norman Lowe, Mastering Modern World History,
Palgrove Macmillan, 2nd Revised Edition
8. Sunita Sinha, 20th Century Literature: Emerging
Trends
9. The New Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol.12, London:
William Benton Publishers
10. Virginia Woolf, Collected Essays, ed. Leonard
Woolf, Vol.I & II, London: The Hugarth Press
11. William J. Long, English Literature: Its History and
its significance for the Life of the English – Speaking
World, Boston: Ginn and Company.
Yuti Borev, Aestheticism, Progress Publishers

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