The novel of the 30s-40s

The century is characterized by great diversity of artistic values & methods. This age had a great impact on the literary process. Variety of social, ethic & aesthetic attitudes. New achievements in science have their impact on literature. Literature absorbs & transforms the material of their influences: ‘The First World War’, ‘Russian Revolution’, ‘Freuds psychoanalysis’, ‘Bergsons philosophy of subjective idealism’, ‘Einsteins theory of relativity’, ‘Existentialists thought’, ‘Economic crises 1919-1921 & consequent upheaval of social movement’, ‘Marxist ideology’, ‘Strike 1926’. All these factors lead to literature of social problematics. There existed three trends: critical realism, beginning of social realism, modernism. The writers revolutionized, changed literary form, as well as continued the traditional forms. Representatives: W. Somerset Maugham, George Orwell. They were representatives of critical realism in the first half of the 20^th century. Criticism took different forms. Some of them modernist, others spiritual exploiters. Artists duty was to reflect truly thoughts of people. Some novelists found their subject matter in modern political ideologies, and one of the most important of these -was George Orwell (1903-1950) was an English author and journalist. His work is marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language and a belief in democratic socialism. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (‘1984’) and the allegorical novella Animal Farm (The utopia and its offshoot, the dystopia, are genres of literature that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction is the creation of an ideal world, or utopia, as the setting for a novel. Dystopian fiction is the opposite: creation of a nightmare world, or dystopia.) ‘ 1984’ (published in 1949) is possibly the definitive dystopian novel, set in a world beyond our imagining. A world where totalitarianism really is total, all power split into three roughly equal groups--Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania. 1984 is set in Oceania, which includes the United Kingdom, where the story is set, known as Airstrip One. Winston Smith is a middle-aged, unhealthy character, based loosely on Orwell's own frail body, an underling of the ruling oligarchy, The Party. The Party has taken early 20th century totalitarianism to new depths, with each person subjected to 24 hour surveillance, where people's very thoughts are controlled to ensure purity of the oligarchical system in place. Figurehead of the system is the omnipresent and omnipotent Big Brother. But Winston believes there is another way. 1984 joins Winston as he sets about another day, where his job is to change history by changing old newspaper records to match with the new truth as decided by the Party. ‘Роман-антиутопия; страна, где все плохо, тоталитарный режим, человек не имеет свобод, нет выхода: пессимистичные романы. Тема: уничтожение личности, общество разделено на партии и пролетариатов, лозунги «war is peace», общество сломало главных героев, в конце они-чужие люди. “Big brothers are watching you”-за людьми наблюдает, контролирует партия, вплоть до их личной жизни. ‘Big brothers’-правительство, которое никто не видел. © Малиновская Animal Farm (published in 1945) is an allegorical novella by George Orwell. The novel addresses not only the corruption of the revolution by its leaders but also how wickedness, indifference, ignorance, greed and myopia destroy any possibility of a Utopia. While this novel portrays corrupt leadership as the flaw in revolution (and not the act of revolution itself), it also shows how potential ignorance and indifference to problems within a revolution could allow horrors to happen if a smooth transition to a people's government is not achieved. ‘Критика сталинских строёв и всей системы’. The final farm-slogan All animals are equal but some are more equal then other-has become one of the bitter catch-phrases of our cynical age.’ © Малиновская ( На ферме живут различные фивотные и фермер. На собрании животные решают убрать фермера и остаются одни. Главный среди них-боров (свинья) – символизирует Ленина, создает теорию анимализма(социализм: равенство), т. е. все животные должны одинаково есть, спать на подушках и т. д. Принципы действуют до поры до времени. Достаточно главными являются 3 другие свиньи: Наполеон-символизирует Сталина, Сноу- Троцкого. Народ показан в виде лошади (работает). Но старый боров умирает, и его место занимает Наполеон. Принципы сохраняются, но когда к власти приходит «Троцкий», верхушка получает больше привилегии. Естественно, что ни к чему хорошему это не приводит. Появляется новый фермер, который наводит порядок чреди животных. Лошадь, символизирующая народ, умирает.)

22 The novel of the 50s. ‘The angry young men’

After the war most English writers chose to focus on aesthetic or social rather than political problems; C. P. Snow was perhaps the notable exception. The novelists Henry Green, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Joyce Cary, and Lawrence Durrell, and the poets Robert Graves, Edwin Muir, Louis MacNeice, and Edith Sitwell tended to cultivate their own distinctive voices. Other novelists and playwrights of the 1950s, often called the angry young men, expressed a deep dissatisfaction with British society, combined with despair that anything could be done about it. The literature of the 1950s was as varied as at any time, but much of it was made notable by the appearance of a new breed of writers called the ANGRY YOUNG MEN. This phrase was originally taken from the title of Leslie Allen Paul's autobiography, Angry Young Man (1951). The word angry is probably inappropriate; dissentient or disgruntled perhaps is more accurate. The group not only expressed discontent with the staid, hypocritical institutions of English society-the so-called Establishment-but betrayed disillusionment with itself and with its own achievements. Most of these were of lower middle-class or working class backgrounds. Although not all personally known to one another they had in common an outspoken irreverence for the British class system and the pretensions of the aristocracy. They strongly disapproved of the elitist universities, the Church of England, and the drabness of working-class life. ‘ANGRY YOUNG MEN’, term applied to a group of English writers of the 1950s whose heroes share certain rebellious and critical attitudes toward society. This phrase, which was originally taken from the title of Leslie Allen Paul's autobiography, Angry Young Man (1951), became current with the production of John Osborne's play Look Back in Anger (1956). The word angry is probably inappropriate; dissentient or disgruntled perhaps is more accurate. The group not only expressed discontent with the staid, hypocritical institutions of English society—the so-called Establishment—but betrayed disillusionment with itself and with its own achievements. Included among the angry young men were the playwrights John Osborne and Arnold Wesker and the novelists Kingsley Amis, John Braine, John Wain, and Alan Sillitoe. In the 1960s these writers turned to more individualized themes and were no longer considered a group. Writers: English writers of the 1950s whose heroes share certain rebellious and critical attitudes toward society. In the 1960s these writers turned to more individualized themes and were no longer considered a group: John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (1956): Trend of the period was crystallized.(the main character is antihero. Потому что не совершил ничего героического) Kingsley Amis (1922-1995): Best writer of 50s, realist, humanist attempting to put the writer’s talent in the service of society. Lucky Jim (1953): Social discontent, crystallized trend. Anthony Burgess (1917-1993): Fictional explorer of modern dilemmas combining wit, moral, earnestness and touches of bizarre. A Clockwork Orange (1962): Comic and violent. The English playwright John Osborne (1929-1994) was the first of Britain's " Angry Young Men" - a group of social critics and writers. He scathingly attacked many of the establishment's hallowed values in his numerous plays of the 1960s. Osborne's plays usually focus on an individual character and the sheer force of his language rather than on action. His first commercial success was Look Back in Anger (1956), concerning a restless and vociferous young man of the working class who is at war with himself and society; it became the seminal work for the so-called angry young men. His other plays depict the frustration of living without hope in a world filled with false values. Kingsley Amis is considered by many to be the best of the writers to emerge from the 1950s. The social discontent he expressed made Lucky Jim a household name in England. His first and best-known novel, Lucky Jim (1954), a brilliant comic satire on academic life, classified him as one of England’s angry young man. It is the story of Jim Dixon, who rises from a lower-class background only to find all the positions at the top of the social ladder filled. the central character is the antihero Jim Dixon, a junior faculty member at a small university, who faces one disaster after another with his girlfriend and professor. Dixon's job is in constant danger, often for good reason. He despises the pretensions of academic life, but his ambitious plans to improve his situation are fruitless, because the class distinctions are unbreakable. Герой-марионетка, зависим от удачи. В конце- работа, богатая жена, хотя сам из себя ничего не представляет, однако как пришло, так и уйдет!: D Главные темы: 1) удача и неудача, 2) деление на социальные классы. Автор шутя показывает, что не всем так везет, как Джиму, так что нужно полагаться на себя, а не на удачу! © Малиновская Anthony Burgess — was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. Burgess, a self-avowed anarchist, visited Leningrad in 1961 and was terrified at the degree to which the communist state controls people’s life. He based the character of Alex and his band of thugs (убийц) on Russian and British gangs of the 1950 and 1960s. “ Inspiration” for the violent scene in the novel stems from an incident in 1943 when a group of American soldiers attacked and raped Burgess’s wife in London, killing their unborn child. Published in 1962, Anthony Burgess’s “A clockwork orange” is set in the future, where the world is a dangerous place and, at night, gangs come out to rob and rape people. The story is narrated by one of these people, 15-year old Alex in Nadsat- a language invented by Burgess and comprised of bits of Russian, English and American slang, rhyming words, and “gipsy talk”.. Главный герой – продукт общества. Должен делать всё как все. Ненавидит школу, отношение родителей. Свою ярость изливает на других. Попадает в тюрьму и встает выбор: сидеть или подвергнуться эксперименту. Alex, the humble narrator, is a violent, wild youth who cares nothing for the harm he causes other people. To him is nothing more than a game. His group of friends betray him to the police and he is sent to be reformed. Finally he enters a strange treatment program that will turn him into a fully functional citizen or so everyone think “A clockwork orange” is a story about choice. And Alex is robbed of choice, he cannot choose to be good or bad, he is forced to be good. Burgess was afraid that the government would oppress the citizens.