Synthesis

In the second half of the 20th century post-colonial writers help British literature to expand its scope and themes. The most popular genre is still the novel.

In order to promote literature new literary prices were created. One of the best-know prices was and it still is The Booker Prize which is open to British writers but also to the writers coming from Commonwealth who can in this way have a possibility to emerge.

Poetry became important to students and young people. Furthermore it was influenced by origins of the poets

Theatre was another expression of the multi-cultural society and its internationalism: casts were formed by different races and the number of international festivals increased.

In the 50s some young novelists based their works on traditional fiction. Neo-Realism was a phenomen of protest and search of identity.

With Modernism influece there was a new interest in experimentation with narrative technique, shifting points of view, symbolism, exploration of moral and metaphisical questions and interior monologue.

In the 60s the cultural movement of Postmodernism was born. It is, in same aspects, similiar to Modernism but in other ones very different. For example both use fragmentation. Modernism wanted to find a connection with tradition and a centre; moreover it separated high and low art. Postmodernism, instead, accepts the absence of a centre and of a meaning and also links high art with low art.

Some of the main trends of Postmodernism are fantasy, magic realism and reflexive novel.

Satirical novels, humorous satire and crime fiction helped English fiction to revive.

Some Postmodernist writers explored the perverse, the forbidden, the limits of narrative devices. Their aim was to convay a sense of crisis and reproduce the contradictory facets of reality. English tradition was recovered through intertextuality.

In the second half of XX sec there was the birth of feminist fiction. The movement wanted to portray famale sensitivity, to question women's position and to find new way to express female mind.

Britain's multiculturalism enriched novels with traditions and experiences from all the world, creating in this way an international novel.

The main themes of British fiction were the war between the sexes, the battle between generation, feminist selfdiscovery, the disintegration of family, child abuse. Other themes derived from historical events as World War I and II