20th-century English literature

Prose, poetry, and drama written in English in the UK in the 1900s. The century was a period of great artistic change, and is dominated by the impact of World War I (1914–18) and World War II (1939–45), as well as by the artistic concerns of modernism (which affected both themes and methods of writing). The range of literature and of its readership, which increased in the 19th‐century English literature period, rose even more rapidly in the 20th century. See also English literature.

Early 20th‐century novel
The 20th century is dominated by the effects of World War I and II. In contrast to writing which is in favour of the expansion of the British Empire, such as the work of English writer Rudyard Kipling (Jungle Book, 1894–95 , Kim, 1901), works which approach World War I are much more uncertain of the concept of ‘Britishness’ or ‘Englishness’ (for example, the work of British novelist Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness, 1902;Nostromo, 1904). This indicates the questioning nature of the 20th century, which began by doubting the principles on which the Victorians had based their social code, leading to uncertainty and complexity.

Influential early 20th‐century writers who mark the changing attitudes include Scottish writer John Buchan (The Thirty‐Nine Steps, 1915), whose work was concerned with the politics of World War I and the Boer War, as well as English novelist John Galsworthy (Forsyte Saga, 1906–22), who was more concerned with social than political change. The Clayhanger trilogy (1910–15), by English writer Arnold Bennett focuses on escape from the Victorian past. English writer H G Wells, who practised science fiction at the end of the 19th century, moved towards anti‐capitalism for his later novel Kipps (1905). A Room with a View (1908) by English writer E M Forster deals with freeing oneself from 19th‐century attitudes to relationships, while Forster's A Passage to India (1924) questions the attitude to the British Empire. English writer Somerset Maugham was a cynical observer of human nature (Of Human Bondage, 1915).

Early 20th‐century drama
Playwrights questioned society and values too. Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw attacked class prejudice in Pygmalion (1913), and John Galsworthy's plays Strife (1901) and Justice (1910), are reputed to have caused the government to end solitary confinement in prisons. Irish dramatist Seán O'Casey dramatized the Irish Easter Rising of 1916 in The Plough and the Stars, 1926), which provoked riots at its first performance. English dramatist Noël Coward returned to social satires, which were popular in the 18th century (Hay Fever, 1925;Private Lives, 1930).

Early 20th‐century poetry
Poetry, too, was at a watershed. The late 19th century had produced contrasting works that shared the common theme of lost illusions, including Irish writer Oscar Wilde's ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’ (1898). ‘The Farmer's Bride’ (1915) by English poet Charlotte Mew also deals with unfulfilled hopes and English writer Thomas Hardy wrote of a sense of gathering gloom in his poem ‘The Darkling Thrush’ (1901). Irish poet and playwright W B Yeats is concerned with the realities of Irish politics (‘Easter 1916’), as well as with Irish mythology and mystic symbolism. Yeats survived the 1916 Irish Easter Rising and World War I but many poets did not, and there is a great deal of poetry that came out of the war. These include the war sonnets (1914) of English poet Rupert Brooke (killed in 1915) and the work of English poet Wilfred Owen. The war poetry has come to sum up the catastrophe, needless waste and destruction of humanity in 20th‐century warfare. Most of Owen's poems were published posthumously, and were collected and edited by English poet Siegfried Sassoon (‘Counter‐Attack’, 1918), who survived the war. Compared to this the work of English poets John Masefield and Walter de la Mare seems less modern, but their lyrical quality has led to their continuing popularity.

Impact of World War I
Although a generalization, it is possible to argue that the well‐ordered, and refined culture of the late 19th century was largely destroyed by World War I, which give birth to some of the pained and distorted visions of the world that impact upon literature and art. The beginnings of modernism are identifiable before the war, but continued and developed afterwards.

Modernism
European literature and philosophy can be seen as influential for English modernism, which was also a movement in US literature. Important modernists include the Anglo‐American T S Eliot, who wrote poetry, criticism, and plays. The novel's break with traditional narrative and structure came through the influence of modernism. Irish writer James Joyce (Dubliners, 1914;A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1916;Ulysses, 1922) experimented with frank content (getting him into conflict with the censor) and with new ways of narrating. Other important modernists are English writer D H Lawrence (Lady Chatterley's Lover, 1928), and the Bloomsbury Group, which included English writer Virginia Woolf (whose work includes Mrs Dalloway, 1925).

Mid 20th century
Several writers in contrasting styles were popular in the years between the two World Wars. These include English novelist P G Wodehouse (The Inimitable Jeeves, 1932, chronicling the fashionable ‘high life’), the darker work of English writer Evelyn Waugh (Vile Bodies, 1930;Brideshead Revisited, 1945;The Loved One, 1948), and the work of English writer Aldous Huxley, which includes a dark vision of a scientifically controlled future in Brave New World (1932). English writer Christopher Isherwood commented upon the rise of the Nazis in Germany in the novel Goodbye to Berlin (1939), and collaborated with the English‐born poet W H Auden to write verse drama. English writer Graham Greene set his novels, including Brighton Rock (1938), The Power and the Glory (1940), and The Third Man (1949), in a world of urban seediness or political corruption. English writer George Orwell wrote books based on politics (including the communist allegory Animal Farm, 1945; and the warning about state control, Nineteen Eighty‐Four, 1949), and on the social deprivation of the period (Down and Out in Paris and London, 1933;The Road to Wigan Pier, 1937). English writer J B Priestley looked at social vice in An Inspector Calls (1947), and at the decline of a family that will not adapt to new social forces in Time and the Conways (1937).

After World War II, Communist ideology had a great impact on literary artists. Christopher Isherwood, English poet Stephen Spender, and Irish poet C Day‐Lewis used as their political focus the Spanish Civil War. W H Auden was also a member of their left‐wing writing circle. He later developed from a Marxist to a Christian writer. Welsh poet Dylan Thomas found his inspiration in visual and musical imagery; he is best remembered for his poetic drama Under Milk Wood (1954), but also wrote lyrical poetry, as well as vivid short stories about his childhood in Wales. While the work of English poet John Betjeman (Collected Poems, 1958;Summoned by Bells, 1960) may be thought ‘old‐fashioned’ in comparison, its use of contemporary dance rhythms, his elegiac portraits of girls and business women, and portraits of the moment of death, are also of merit.

Post‐war prose
In the years following World War II, a diverse literature has emerged, ranging from fantasy fiction (English writer J R R Tolkien;The Lord of the Rings, 1954), to detective fiction (English writer John Le Carré;The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, 1963) to the experimental and philosophical work of Irish playwright and novelist Samuel Beckett. Other influential writers of the period are the English writers Kingsley Amis (Lucky Jim, 1954), Malcolm Bradbury (The History Man, 1975) David Lodge (Changing Places, 1975), and L P Hartley (The Go‐Between, 1953).

Post‐war women's writing
After the success of Virginia Woolf, and after the two world wars, it appeared easier than ever before for women to be published in a traditionally male literary industry. English writers Margaret Drabble (The Millstone, 1965), Elizabeth Jane Howard (The Beautiful Visit, 1950), Iris Murdoch (The Sea, The Sea, 1978; Booker Prize), Doris Lessing (Children of Violence, 1952–69), Fay Weldon (The Life and Loves of a She‐Devil, 1984), and Scottish writer Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, 1961), have written shrewd and observant pictures of contemporary life and women's changing roles within it. English writer Angela Carter was an exponent of magic realism (Nights at the Circus, 1984), and English writer Jeanette Winterson has been influential in writing about female sexuality (Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, 1985).

Post‐war drama
Drama of the period is equally diverse, taking in the work of English dramatists Terence Rattigan (The Winslow Boy, 1946), Christopher Fry (the verse drama The Lady's not for Burning, 1950) and the Theatre of the Absurd school (see Absurd, Theatre of the), including the work of Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot, English version 1955;Endgame, 1957). English dramatist John Arden wrote social and political dramas (Live Like Pigs, 1958;Serjeant Musgrave's Dance, 1959), which were contemporary with the distinct genre of kitchen sink dramas, by writers sometimes called the Angry Young Men, including English dramatists John Osborne (Look Back in Anger, 1956) and Arnold Wesker (Roots trilogy, 1958–60;Chips with Everything, 1962).

They were followed by a group of powerful dramatists, English Trevor Griffiths (The Party, 1973), David Hare (Plenty, 1978), Howard Brenton (The Romans in Britain, 1980), Caryl Churchill (Top Girls, 1982) and David Edgar (Destiny, 1976), whose diverse works nonetheless opposed the philosophy and politics of the UK under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Less concerned with the immediate present, but more with what the past can teach us, English dramatist Robert Bolt wrote A Man for All Seasons (1960) for the stage, and went on to write film scripts about more contemporary and controversial history (Lawrence of Arabia, 1962;Dr Zhivago, 1965;Ryan's Daughter, 1970).

The comedies of English dramatist Alan Ayckbourn ingeniously explored situations from several viewpoints (Absurd Person Singular, 1972;The Norman Conquests, 1974). English dramatist Joe Orton wrote ‘black comedies’, which include violence to comic effect (Entertaining Mr Sloane, 1964;Loot, 1966;What the Butler Saw, 1968). The serious plays of English dramatists Edward Bond (Saved, 1965;Lear, 1972) and Peter Shaffer (Equus, 1973;Amadeus, 1979). The plays of English dramatist Harold Pinter are in the tradition of the Theatre of the Absurd, and are concerned with threatening situations that social isolation and lack of communication can bring (The Birthday Party, 1958;The Caretaker, 1960). The comic plays of British playwright Tom Stoppard are concerned with the manipulation of language and characterization (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, 1967;The Real Inspector Hound, 1968). Television helped drama spread to a wider audience and provided a focus for talent, such as English dramatists Dennis Potter (Pennies from Heaven, 1978;The Singing Detective, 1986) and Alan Bennett (Talking Heads, 1990 and 1998; the film The Madness of King George, 1995).

Post‐war poetry
Influential poets of the period include the English Stevie Smith (Not Waving But Drowning, 1957), and Ted Hughes (Crow, 1970;Birthday Letters, 1997), who was poet laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998. Also influential is Irish poet Seamus Heaney (Opened Ground, 1998), who combines natural imagery with powerful personal viewpoints on the human experience. The work of English poet Philip Larkin (The Less Deceived, 1955;The Whitsun Weddings, 1964;High Windows, 1974) remains popular and often studied in schools. Other popular poets of the post‐war period include Scottish poet George Mackay Brown (The Year of the Whale, 1965), the English Charles Causley (Collected Poems, 1997), and the ‘Liverpool Poets’ Brian Patten, Adrian Henri, and Roger McGough.

Late 20th‐century prose
A new generation of anti‐heroes featured in the realist regional novels of English writers Stan Barstow (A Kind of Loving, 1960), John Braine (Room at the Top, 1957), Alan Sillitoe (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, 1958;The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, 1959), and David Storey (This Sporting Life, 1960). Later novelists have taken darker subject matter, including the English writers Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange, 1962), John Fowles (The Collector, 1963;The French Lieutenant's Woman, 1969), William Golding (Lord of the Flies, 1954), and Martin Amis (Dead Babies, 1975). Influential writers at the end of the 20th century include English novelists Julian Barnes (England, England, 1998) and Ian McEwan (Amsterdam, 1998), Scottish writer Irvine Welsh (Trainspotting, 1993), and Anglo‐Indian writers Salman Rushdie (Midnight's Children, 1981) and Vikram Seth (A Suitable Boy, 1993). Rushdie in particular has been described as a writer of the school of postmodernism; this is a controversial term that refers to the mixing of different cultures and artistic styles in one new work of art. The term was applied to some literature from the 1980s onwards.