1、Unit 6 British Literature Literature in the 20th Century and Onwards 20th Century Literature Any summary of the complex 20th century is difficult for wars and revolutions. The 20th century marked the end of the British Empire, which was replaced by the Commonwealth of Nations. 20th century literatur
2、e can be broadly divided into two stylistic period: Modernism, and Postmodernism. These period roughly correspond to literature written before the Second World War(1939-1945) and literature written after it. Both are characterized by a high degree of experimentation Modernism Second World War Postmo
3、dernism (1939-1945) characterized experimentation Modernist writers express the difficulty they see in understanding and communicating how the world works. Their writing seems disorganized, hard to understand.It often portrays the action from the viewpoint of a single confused individual. Postmodern
4、ists think that meaning does not exist outside of the human head, likewise it does not exist inside a book, wanting to be discovered, instead it is made in the process of reading a book, or of making sense of the world. English Modernist writers: 1. Joseph Conrad Works: The Heart of Darkness (novel)
5、 (which has been made into a film by the well-known American director, Francis Ford Coppola, but set in Vietnam in the 1960s, and called Apocalypse Now.) 小说情节以蒸汽船船长马洛（Marlow）的回忆的形式，讲述了他溯刚果河而上，前去黑非洲深处寻见一个名叫柯兹（Kurtz）的做象牙生意的殖民者的经历。柯兹自前往非洲后已多年没有回家，却经常将象牙生意所得寄赠女友，他在殖民地的“成就”似乎在当地也有口皆碑。马洛在前往柯兹的贸易站的一路上，饱览了刚
6、果河两岸非洲腹地的异域景色，还不断听说有关柯兹的各种传闻，说他是一个脱离了文明世界、被土著黑人奉为神明的白人。这些土著人以为马洛的汽船是前来接走他们的柯兹神，便当汽船接近柯兹贸易站的时候发动袭击，试图阻止汽船前进。经过各种冒险之后，马洛的船找到了柯兹的贸易站，并在一番周折之后，终于见到了此前一直只以“声音”形式存在的“殖民英雄”和“土著神明”柯兹。然而，此时的柯兹已经神形枯萎、病入膏肓，很快就死去了，死前呼喊“可怕”、“可怕”。马洛回到国内，向柯兹的女友隐瞒了事情真相，并告诉她柯兹临终前一直念叨着她的名字。当马洛结束叙述的时候，只见“远处的海面被一道黑色的云层遮蔽，阴云覆盖之下，静静地向地球尽
7、头淌去的水流显得那么阴郁-好象这水流直通向无际的黑暗之心 2. Virginia Woolf Works: Mrs.Dalloway(1925), To the Lighthouse(1927), Oranlando(1928), and a great deal of literary criticism and numerous essays including A Room of Ones Own Themes: concerned with the individual consciousness, especially the female consciousness. Influe
8、nce: Her novels have become important to feminists for the way they show womens personalities to be limited by society. Writing features: use what has been called the “stream of consciousness” technique: the apparently unorganized flow of thought onto page.3. D.H. Lawrence Works: Sons and Lovers, ba
9、sed partly on his own life, is one of his finest novels. Main Thought: He felt that society forced too many rules on people and kept them from living a full, natural life. 剧情描述年轻矿工保罗个性文静而敏感，其母葛楚因与时常酗酒的丈夫感情不睦，竟转向儿子寻求爱的寄托，情感超过了正常的母爱。这种情形影响了保罗跟女朋友米莉安的交往，米莉安因家庭严格的宗教观念影响，使她只想追求精神恋爱而排斥肉体的热情。保罗为了摆脱母亲的控制与女友
10、的感情打击，竟一头投入与夫分居的女工克莱拉的怀抱，但旋即发现两人在精神上缺乏沟通。最后，保罗抛弃了这座单调乏味的煤矿小镇，到异乡另闯天下。 4.E.M. Forster Works: A Passage to India, In Howards End (recently made into a very successful film) Theme: His novels concerned themselves with personal relations. In conclusion, D.H. Lawrence and E.M. Forster were less experimen
11、tal, and both of them wrote novels in this period which are critical of the modern world.English Postmodernist writers: 1. George Orwell Works: 1984 (written in 1948) is a powerful satire on the totalitarian tendency in modern states. This depressing story is characteristic of the post-war years, an
12、d begins “postmodernism”.2. John Fowlesworks: the French lieutenants woman (1968) This novel describes a Victorian gentlemens education into his own freedom by the mysterious girl Sarah. The story s main postmodern “trick” is that the reader is offered a choice of endings. 19世纪60年代，英国南部的莱姆小镇上，被称为“法国
13、中尉的女人”的萨拉经常独自一人在海滩栈桥上若有所思地观看大海。据说她因看护一位受伤的法国船长而与其相爱并委身于他，但是法国中尉回国后便杳无音信。来自伦敦的查尔斯陪同未婚妻蒂娜到莱姆镇的姨妈家做客，与萨拉邂逅，被她神秘的诱惑力吸引。他们的关系日益密切，萨拉还把她被法国中尉遗弃的遭遇告诉他。随后，萨拉离开莱姆镇前往艾塞特治病，而查尔斯则乘火车去伦敦处理财产继承事务。这时福斯特为小说安排了三种不同的结局。其一是查尔斯克制住对萨拉的迷恋，在伦敦办完事后连夜赶回莱姆镇，向蒂娜坦白了他与萨拉之间的恋情。两人结婚，一块生活到老，生有7个儿女。其二是查尔斯没有直接回莱姆镇，而是在艾塞特站下了火车，在一家旅店与
14、萨拉幽会。他了解到萨拉并未失身于法国中尉，而是因为不能容忍维多利亚时代的虚伪才“自甘堕落”。查尔斯决定解除与蒂娜的婚约，与萨拉结婚，但萨拉却突然失踪。查尔斯在历经波折后终于与萨拉和他们的女儿团聚。最后一种结局是查尔斯在萨拉失踪后找到了她，但是萨拉为了保持自己的独立和自由而拒绝了查尔斯。 Other writers are also well-known though they cannot squeeze into the definitions Modern or Postmodern. Graham Greene (Smileys People, John Le Carre) Willia
15、m Golding (Lord of the files); Doris Lessing (The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook) Kingsley Amis (Lucky Jim) John Braine (Room at the Top) Maragret Drabble (The Summer Bird-Cage) 午夜男孩是讲述了一个关于雅各布的故事，雅各布是一个被限制生活在隔离区的年轻小伙子，因为他得了一种罕见的皮肤病，而患上这种皮肤病就不能晒到阳光才能生存。他一直生活在一个封闭的世界知道遇到玛丽，玛丽是一个在当地调酒师，他们两个相遇之后
16、坠入了爱河。可是悲剧的是，雅各布的行动开始变得越来越奇怪，即使他在努力解决病情恶化带给他的影响并努力克制。可是雅各布的疾病开始转变为必须靠和人类的血液来维持生命，他必须控制自己日益嚣张的暴力倾向，而且要想方设法让当地的警察不把杀人嫌疑转到他的身上，而为了掩藏这个事实，雅各布又必须做出一系列可怕的行动。 Another aspect of British postmodern world is a mixing of cultures on a grand scale: Salman Rushdie(India) Grace Nichols (Guyana) Kazuo Ishiguro (Japan) V. S. Naipaul (Trinidad) This mixture has always been a part of British writing.
