Lesson 9: Issues and Challenges in Emerging Literature

Before discussing the emerging trends in English literature, it is a must to understand

the meaning of literature. Literature is the mirror of society. In C.S. Lewis‟ words
“Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary
competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the
deserts that our lives have already become.” In a simpler way, literature is what we see,
feel, observe, and then penned down through different genres like poetry, novel, short
story, essay or drama. J. Long beautifully states “Behind every book is a man; behind the
man is the race; and behind the race are the natural and social environments whose
influence is consciously reflected.”
Each age has its own characteristics revealing that particular period and its literature:
1. The Renaissance Age (1500-1660) is known for the origin of intellectual liberty,
of growing intelligence and comfort among all classes; in Long’s words.
2. The Eighteenth-century literature, known as Neo-Classic Age (1660-1798)
also, demanded that poetry should follow exact rules; and proposed to have
discovered its rules in the classics of Horace and Virgil and Ovid.
3. The Age of Romanticism (1785-1830) verbalized love for Nature in different
ways like Wordsworth showing divine element in nature; S.T. Coleridge pen-
portraying supernaturalism; Lord Byron ferociousness; Keats presenting sensuous
beauty and Shelley abstract ideas.
4. Victorian Age (1837-1901) is an era of transition. In the later part of the
nineteenth century and in the beginning of the twentieth century, the growth of
industrialization, urbanization and the advent of the First World War brought the
loss of faith in the traditional values and morals, and caused the colossal wastage
of human lives. A time period marked by peace, progress, sensibility on one hand
and massacre of spiritual and religious feelings on the other. Materialism and
scientific attitude brutally murdered human faith in God.
It is difficult to define one typical characteristic of 20th and 21st century. This age is
full of experimentation and it is discussed in different genres. The literary canon of 20th 143
and 21st century foregrounds an aesthetic shift which is more transitional; experimental,
more anxious, more liberal and self-interrogating too.
In pre-world war era, mostly writers remained loyal to the trends of Victorian age.
Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) led the world towards mourning over the loss of God.
But a change could be noticed with H.G. Well’s Utopian Study of A Modern Utopia that
captured optimistic mood and gave an expression that science and technology would
transform the world.
Meanwhile, Aesthetic Movement gained popularity due to its being in favor of
Catholicism and mysticism. Aesthetes believed in the idea that the art is useless if it is in
commitment with the ideas of morality and standard of conduct. For them “art for art’s
sake” has been the motto of the movement. Oscar Wilde is considered to be the mentor
of the movement and he believed that the motive of art is to provide sensual pleasure
only. His plays The Importance of Being Earnest, A Woman of No Importance, and An
Ideal Husband are some applauded examples of aestheticism. W.B. Yeats‟ prose “The
Secret Rose” (1897), “The Tables of the Law”; poems “The Rose”, “Crossways” are some
of the finest examples.
As a result of all this, Post-world war literature faced constant changes in literary
trends. No particular school of thought or movement ruled 20th and 21st century. Some
literary artisans believed in imitation while others did translation of classics and regional
literature. Ted Hughes translated Ovid’s Aeschylus and Euripides‟ works. Christopher
Fry’s translated works enhanced their already considerable reputation. Works of Munsi
Prem Chand, Rabindra Nath Tagore, Mahasweta Devi have been translated into English
and other languages too.
Another trend in 20th and 21st century is Modernism which has its origin in the early
20th century. Modernists explored and experimented with literary form and expression.
They adhered to Ezra Pound’s maxim “to make it new.” It was the outcome of drastic
efforts to change traditional representation styles into new ways of expressing
sensibilities of the time. Some prominent writers and poets of this movement are Ezra
Pound, Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf. Pound’s poems “Cathay”, “Umbra”, “Lustra”
and “Canto”; Woolf’s novels Mrs. Dalloway, To The Lighthouse and The Waves are
examples of modernist experiment.
Modernism has arisen from two movements: “symbolism‟ and “imagism‟ which highly
affected the poetic creation of the time. Symbolism is a reaction against naturalism and
realism. Imagism finds its roots in the aesthetic philosophy of T.E. Hulme. The poets
believed in utilizing common speech; in creating new rhythms and moods; infinite choice
of subject matter; excessive use of symbols and images; yet providing clarity in style.
Charles Baudelaire’s poetry volume Les Fleurs Du Mal marks the beginning of 144
symbolism. Amy Lowell is an American Imagist who promoted the works of imagists in
England. Ezra Pound is renowned name in Imagism and he published an anthology under
the title Des Imagists to promote the works of the imagists. All of the modernists worked
very hard to free themselves from the shackles of traditional monopoly of writing form
and content.
Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx are the two who questioned human rationality leading
to a change in dealing of characters. Instead of dealing with characters as action figures,
modernist writers started handling them as someone with thought and soul. This gave
birth to another trend of Psycho-analysis. It gave a real life to the characters in novel and
drama. James Joyce is the first writer to fully understand the importance of a character’s
insight. In his novels Ulysses and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, he introduced
his characters with monologues. Virginia Woolf coined “Stream-of-Consciousness” to let
the readers have a look in the psyche of her characters. This term denotes an endless
flow of consciousness and it means that consciousness includes the entire area of mind
from illogical, pre-conscious and pre-speech level to rational and conscious speech level,
including thoughts, memories, associations and reflections. There are many other terms
linked with the stream of consciousness novel like “interior monologues”, “stream of
thoughts”, all denoting that the subject matter of this kind of novel is the inner psyche of
man.
“Stream-of-consciousness‟ technique in a novel is better known as expressionistic
technique in drama; Arthur Miller employs this technique with perfection in plays like
Death of a Salesman (1949). Jean Paul Sartre also focused on the value of a character as
an individual and made existentialism a famous movement of the time. They fought for
the existence of human being as an individual; as a free person in literary work. The one
who is responsible for his own actions. They believed that an individual is responsible for
his life as he acts and reacts according to his own free will and this determines his nature
and directs his life. Concept of existentialism is fully employed by Fyodor Dostoevsky in
his novel Crime and Punishment and by Franz Kafka in his novel The Trial.
When philosophers talk about the value of individual, then Feminist writers restate
gender in association with other categories such as race and class. These writers use
literature as a strong medium to fight for the rights of women and especially of women
writers. Toril Moi through her book Sexual/Textual Politics and What is a Woman? fought
for equal rights and understanding for women. Helene Cixous’ text The Laugh of the
Medusa warns readers, especially women, either to read it fully or remain trapped in the
language barriers created by men. Julia Kristeva and Simon de Beauvoir also raised their
voices to fight for women and their rights through the podium of literature.
Post-colonial Literature outshined the International arena of fight for the rights of
“Third-World‟. Emergence of the writers or poets or playwrights from “Black or Dark 145
continent‟ or “Orients‟ stunned the English literary world. Aboriginals from different
colonies throughout the world came up with themes and plots unveiling the brutal deeds
committed under the mask of “Christian Burden”. Not only local artists like Chinua
Achebe in his novel Things Fall Apart or Wole Soyinka in his play Lion and the Jewel but
also white writers like Joseph Conrad in his novella Heart of Darkness reflected their
strong unhappiness towards Imperial government’s hypocrisy. Many British writers
believed that it is the responsibility of ruling government to look after the people being
ruled.
With emergence of artists from once-colonized countries, a new trend emerged too,
i.e. use of vernacular and colloquial language in English literature. Writers like Mulk Raj
Anand in his novels Untouchable and Gauri; Chinua Achebe in the novel Things Fall
Apart; Bapsi Sidhwa in her novel Ice Candy Man; Kamala Markandya in her novels Nectar
in a Sieve and A Handful of Rice have devised regional languages like Hindi, Punjabi,
Parsi etc. with standardized English. The major reason has been the dire need of
introducing the First Nations with the Idea that the nations once being ruled, are not at
all without literature and culture. Also, to show them how they mistreat people with
different skin color and race in their countries. V.S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas and
Saul Bellow’s “The Victim” are the novels that portrayed the struggle of migrants in
foreign lands: how alienated and isolated they feel, how they long for the feeling of
belongingness and how indifferently they are treated.
This indifference is a part of all the countries. People not only misbehave with
outsiders but with insiders as well. Dalit literature is the outcome of such ill-treatment.
The so called “twice-borns‟ always misbehaved with Dalits or harijans or untouchables.
Unfortunately, India has been a fertile ground for such discrimination since ages. Mulk
Raj Anand’s Untouchable gives a detailed account of it. A boy with calibre of becoming
an officer remains a sweeper because of his low birth. Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan,
Narendra Jadhav’s Untouchables and Baby Kemble’s The Prisons We Broke have
emerged as popular texts depicting issues of racial segregation and injustice.
 In Realist Movement, authors attempted to represent familiar things as they were.
They chose to reflect every day and banal activities and experiences instead of using a
romantic story line with exaggeration. Muriel Spark combined satirical realism with
implications of an extra-realist and spiritual dimension in her novels like Robinson, The
Bachelors etc. Samuel Clemens better known as „Mark Twain‟ also was equipped with
realism in his works as in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
G.B. Shaw, Arthur Miller, Sean O’Casey, E.M. Forster etc. gave accounts of their time’s
social, political and economic issues. G.B. Shaw in his plays Saint Joan, The Apple Cart
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underlined the satire on the political reality of Britain from time to time. Arthur Miller
through his dramas All My Sons and Death of a Salesman pointed out economic and
social failures in the times of American economic depression. Sean O‟ Casey’s play Juno
and the Paycock also presents the failure of society in Ireland to provide social security
to a family during war. Marxist movement began in early 20th century with Karl Marx’s
idea of utopian world; a classless society. Many writers after Industrialization felt the
requirement of a society without class-struggle and clashes. John Galsworthy in his work
Strife dealt with the conflict between proletariat and capitalists. W.H. Auden was also a
believer of communism in his early days and he projected this through plays like The
Dog Beneath the Skin and On the Frontier. Stephen Spender also participated in
communist flow but for a very short span of time.
Science fiction is a trend which is the outcome of totally opposite realms i.e. facts and
imagination. H.G. Wells is one of the renowned fiction writers. He remained fascinated by
the prospects that science offered to man. His fantasies The Time Machine and The
Invisible Man show his interest in technology which attracted him to write the science
fiction. Kitchen Sink Drama is a product of 20th century theatre. It’s a way of writing
where the protagonist is projected as an „angry young man‟. John Osborne’s play Look
Back in Anger is considered to be the first play to present the angry young man of
contemporary drama. Shelagh Delaney’s play A Taste of Honey is another great example
of such theatre. Comedy of Menace is a unique trend in which playwrights focused on
providing fun out of painful and tense situation. Harold Pinter’s play The Birthday Party is
a fine example where humor has been created out of terror. David Campton, Nigel
Dennis and N.F. Simpson are some authors producing comedy from horror.
Another style of play writing is “Theatre of the Absurd‟ where the action and reaction
in the plot fails to deliver any proper meaning. Samuel Becketts play Waiting for Godot
projects this theatre as no one knows anything about Godot: who he is, why others have
been waiting for him, why he has failed to come, etc.
Moral Degradation, sexuality and homosexuality are openly discussed by authors in
20th and 21st century. They have boldness in dealing with these topics. D.H. Lawrence
skillfully deals with mother-son relationship or Oedipus complex in his novel Sons and
Lovers. T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland is a sermon on degrading system of moral and
spiritual values. Tennessee Williams‟ play A street Car Named Desire focuses on sexual
urges. William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies deals with moral corruption of the society
portrayed through kids. Literary artists have become quite bold and liberal in dealing
with hetro as well as homosexuality.
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After medievalism, in 21st century magic and mythology are again trending. J.K.
Rowling’s series Harry Potter novels, C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, Dan Brown’s
Novels The Da Vinci Code, Inferno, Angles and Demons are a few examples of use of
mythology in modern literature.
Pop or popular fiction is plot-driven work written with the intention of fitting into
currently famous literary sub-genre. It is created in order to attract majority of audiences
or readers already familiar with the genre. It is also known as Genre fiction. Famous
novelist Chetan Bhagat is a pop-fiction writer. His works are 2 States: The story of
Marriage, Half Girlfriend etc. The focus remains on becoming best seller and for that the
story could be taken to any level.
Digital or Cyber literature is the latest trend in which works of creation are exclusively
on and for digital devices. In this trend of literature, the writer relies on cyber medium
like website, blogs or social media pages. Pry is a novella from collaboration of Danny
Cannizzaro and Samantha Gorman also known as Tender Claws. Jason Nelson is another
digital poet and net-artist. Michael Joyce’s 12 Blue and Jim Andrew’s Stir Fry Texts are
some more examples of digital literature.
Multiple trends have emerged and are emerging in 21st century. Some are like
adaptations of traditional movements and techniques while others are the outcome of
science and technology. Hence, these ages depict modern literature through
social/political/religious milieus with different genres of poetry, novel and drama.