In the 20^th century British literature changed deeply especially with Modernism and Postmodernism movements. In this period publishers and bookshop chains sponsored many literary prizes, as The Booker Prize (the most important in Britain and in the Commonwealth). These also favoured the discovering of new writers. In the 1960s Poetry became more popular among young generations: poems were also read in pubs or parks. Poetry and other artistic expressions, like theatre or jazz music merged and could be appreciated by a lot of people. As regards theatre there were two changes: introduction of a multiracial cast and use of different languages. New theatre festivals were created, such as: Edinburgh International Festival, Fringe Festival, LIFT (the London International Festival of Theatre) and Barclays New Stages Festival.

During 1945-50 different kinds of novels developed and these were characterized by a more sombre tone. Rose many genres like thriller, spy stories (Graham Greene), historical novels (Rebecca West, Anthony Powell),  and others dealing with political or social problems (George Orwell, Elisabeth Bowen, Evelyn Waugh). In the 1950s genres more witty met reader’s approval. Main novelists were Angus Wilson, Muriel Spark, the group known as the Angry Young Men, Kingsley Amis. Samuel Beckett, Laurence Durrell, Antony Burgess, William Golding, Paul Scott returned to experiment in writing, using, for example, the stream of consciousness technique. This was very important because after James Joyce writers did not pay attention to experimentation. From the 1950s a new form of Modernism was born: it’s called Postmodernism. It completely changed the approach with culture because it doesn’t make distinction between high and low culture anymore. Postmodernism gave a key role to everyday life and not only to “extraordinary” facts or things. Postmodernist writers wrote also fantasy novels or stories, such as the trilogy of J. R. Talkien The Lord of the Rings, characterized by symbolism and allegory or Italo Calvino and Angela Carter’s works with a different, exemplified approach. John Fowless, David Lodge and Jean Rhys, on the contrary, wrote reflexive novels. British novel had a decline in the 70s but in the 80s it returned to be popular, especially with Tom Sharpe, James and Ruth Rendell and Bruce Chatwin.

The relationship with tradition took many ways: Ian McEwan and Martin Amis were attracted by the grotesque; Salman Rushdie and Graham Swift wrote comic-fantasy novel taking inspiration from historical events; Julian Barnes and Jeannette Winterston talked about contemporary complexity using experimental narrative techniques. Revival of tradition is also detectable in many post-modernist works for their use of intertextuality (“Tristam Shandy” by Laurence Sterne was taken as a model by Salman Rushdie; while the post-modernist writer A. S. Byatt displayed a variety of literary styles, from Gothic novel and Victorian poetry to modernist narrative techniques).      

Irish themes and tradition had two major representatives: William Trevor and Roddy Doyle, that were interested in depicting crisis and  provincial life in Ireland and situation of suburban Dublin.

Post-modernism fiction was also marked out by “feminist novel”. The most important exponent of this genre was Doris Lessing that wrote about problem of racialism on her first post-colonial stories and about the position of women in a man’s world on her later works. Angela Carter and Fay Weldon’s novel wanted to deepen those social themes, such as woman’s position in modern world.

Another trend of post-modernist literature was characterized by multi-culture writers. Their “international novels” showed different traditions and forms of experience. Noticeable novelists were Timothy Mo (that wrote about Chinese Empire), Kazuo Ishiguro (that revisited Japan), Ben Okri (who spoke about Nigeria’s identity), Caryl Philips (West Indian), Fred D’Aguiar (Guyanan, who treated slavery’s theme), Hanif Kureishi (Pakistani).

The theme more discussed in post-modernism literature seems to be the investigation on the past times (World War I, World War II Holocaust, post-colonial world, Irish question). Other subjects are feminine problems, battle between generations, child abuse.