20th Century Literature

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 5

20th Century Literature

Conflict & Resolution

Modernism?

Decline in society

• The world is changing. Many conflicts all around the world.
•  Humanity struggles. --> Caused anti-industrialist sentiments.
• World War 1 --> Young generation drawn into war of the older generation. --> Sense of dislocation  / Alienation

Modernist Response

• Society had to change
• Break with tradition: Form, content.
• New focus on individualism/subjectivity
• What is the role of art?

Postmodernism

Which global event caused the world to go through its most dramatic change since World War I?

Society & Culture

- World War II

- Post-war economy: Globalism , Consumer Culture

- Mass media: TV & Computer Culture

Absurdism

- Life is without purpose --> Albert Camus

- Cynical

- Paradoxes

- Cliches, repetition, puns

- Samuel Beckett, Tom Stoppard

00:31

Which Absurdist element did we see here?

01:30

Which Absurdist element did you just see?

02:37

Which Absurdist Element did you just witness?

Beat generation?

The Beat Generation

- American movement 1950s-1960s

- Counterculture

- Escapism through drugs, alcohol, sex

- Rejection of materialism

- Road Trips --> Escape from authority

- Search for spirituality

- New literature, shock value

Naked Lunch

“He is a boy sleeping against the mosque wall, ejaculates wet dreaming into a thousand cunts pink and smooth as sea shells...”

“You were not there for the beginning. You will not be there for the end. Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative” 

Which two textual elements did you see in the quote you just saw?

1. Escapism & Absurdism
2. Shock Value & Road Trips
3. Shock Value and Temporal Distortion
4. Escapism & Metafiction

Allen Ginsberg

Non-conformist

Experimentation

Slam Poetry

Howl

- Obscenity Trial

- Rant against society, materialism and conformism

Consists of 3 parts (plus a footnote)

- Criticism --> Intellectuals 

- Moloch

- Rockland