· Postmodernism: II half of the 20th century

· Literature and Market: new literary prizes (sponsored by banks, associations...)

Revitalize literature Spread of writing courses and journalism courses

Booker Prize (literary award for fiction): only Britain and old Commonwealth with United States

· Poetry: interest into spoken poetry: in the 60s it was important for students and young people as it started to voice the mood of the age

· Theatre: multi-culturalism Racially-mixed cast (also all-black casts)

Wide range of theatrical languages

The Development of Fiction

· The Post-war novel: emotional response to the psychological and material ruins of the war
- Concern for religious and moral issues; "good" and "evil" (Greene)
- Concern for politics (Orwell): communism and totalitarian regimes
- War impact from an upper-class point of view (Bowen)

· The Novel in the 50s: - Philosophical themes (Murdoch)
- Moral concern eith ironic vein (Spark)
- Neo-Realism (Angry Young Men): disillusion of young graduates from the working or lower middle classes unable to identify with new values. Search for identity in a rapidly changing society

· The Legacy of Postmodernism: - Experimentation with narrative technique/interior monologue (Beckett)
- Shifting points of view/ exploration of profound moral/ metaphysical questions (Golding)
- Stream of consciusness to present events and issues from a multiplicity of points of view

· Differences and Similarities between Modernism and Postmodernism

 - Emphasized fragmentation as a feature of 20th century art and culture
 

- Privileges "high" culture such as literature and classical art and music (Modernism)

-         Accepts fragmentation,  absence of a centre and a singular meaning,  Do not put any art forms in a pedestal and combines popular culture (everyday aspects) with "high"art. Ibridation (Postmodernism)

· Postmodernism Trends:
- Fantasy (Tolkien): imaginary worlds founded on myths, legenda, folk and fairy tales

- Magic Realism (late 1970's): the imaginary, the improbabile and fantastic ina realistic and rational way (Calvino)
- Reflexive Novel: analysis of the nature of fiction. A novel displays self-conscious preoccupation with its own construction (Lodge)

· The Revival of English Fiction (beginning of the 80s):
- Satire
- Crime fiction (James: psychological motivation; Rendell: confronting the shocking and macabre aspects of life)

· Postmodernism and Tradition:
- Returning to grotesque (exploration of the perverse and of the forbidden) (McEwan)
- Modification of historical events with fantasy an a comic, satirical tone
- Exploration of the limits of narrative devices in the attempt to convey a sense of contemporary crisis or to riproduce the many contradictory facets of reality
- Mix of facts and fiction (Winterson)
- Intertextuality (The Hours)

· Feminist Fiction:
- Problem of racialism, position of women in a men's world, social matters, the position of black people under white rule, disruption of Western society (post- war period, Doris Lessing)
- Not only female sensitività, but also questions about women's position and search of new ways to express better themselves
- Fast changing relations between man and woman in modern world (Carter)

· The International Novel: - Different traditions and experiences from people who live in Britain but come from other countries

· Present Trends and Themes:

- Exploration of the past (World Wars, Holocaust)

- War between sexes; battle of generations, feminist self-discovering

- Disintegration of the family, child abuse