Jessica Bais 5B

AN OVERVIEW:

In the second half of the 20th century, English Literature develops and revitalized itself, influenced by Post Modernism. With the establishment of lots of new literary prizes, like The Booker Prize, new writers came to the foreground, excelling in more than one genre. The novel was still the most popular.
In 1960, also the Poetry increased itself: it became very popular between students and young people because it started to voice the mood of the age and it also combined with other art forms, as improvised theatre, jazz and folk music.
Theatre became a very popular art in England too. With the contribution of post-colonial writers who chose to live in Britain, two important transformations were brought in theatre: first of all, companies have started to use a racially-mixed cast; secondly, a variety of theatrical languages has been introduced on the stage. With the multi-cultural Britain internationalism increased, a real "international novel" was produced and a considerable number of pluri-cultural novelists emerged.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF FICTION:

The Post-War Novel was born as an emotional and psychological reaction to the Second World War. Writers of this period voiced the need to find new meaning in a shattered world and warned against social disruption.
In 50s a number of writers revived traditional fiction. Another phenomenon of the years was Neo-Realism: it was the cultural movement of a particular group of novelists and playwrights, who expressed the disillusionment of young graduates from the working or lower classes to identify with the values of the new social class they had entered. So theirs was a literature of protest which describe their search for identity in the society.
In 1950's Post Modernism began to make its presence felt in Europe, in the United Stated and in the Latin America. While Modernism, during the first three decades of the 20th century, tried to find a centre of meaning, Post-Modernism finds the absence of a centre of meaning and of a fixed system of belief. Another difference is that Modernism privileged "high" art and culture such as literature and classical art and music, while Post-Modernism don't privilege an only one art form: it combines everyday aspects of popular culture with what has been considered "high" art. It is one of the most important features of Post-Modernism.
One post-modern trend in fiction was that of fantasy, in which imaginary worlds were created. Fantasy novels comment on reality through the use of symbolism or allegory. In the 1970s, fantasy developed into a trend called "magic realism", which represents the imaginary, the improbable and the fantastic in a realistic, logical and rational way.
Another expression of post-modern movement was the reflexive novel: it analyzed the nature of fiction and so it displayed its self-conscious preoccupation.
However, the state of the British novel showed signs of revitalization at the beginning of the 80s. Some writers turned more to the grotesque, exploring the perverse and the forbidden; other novelists modified historical events with fantasy in a comic, satirical tone; and other new writers tended to explore the limits of narrative devices in order to convey a sense of contemporary crisis or to reproduce the many contradictory facets of reality.
The final important development in the post-war period was the rise of the "feminist novel". The new feminist writers were not only interested in portraying female sensitivity, but also in questioning women's position and finding new ways of expressing themselves.
The contemporary British fiction principally explores the past. It focuses on World War I and II, the Holocaust, the dissolution of the Empire, the post-colonial world, the crisis of Ireland, the war between the sexes, the battle between generations, feminist self-discovery and the child abuse.