The Birth of Modern Literature

 

Q1. Explain the Birth of Modern Literature in detail

Answer:-

The historical background

This period sees the end of reign of Queen Victoria. The stability which the previous age has enjoyed, that also came to an end with wars. The very first was Boer war by Africans against colonizers. There was violent imperialism which diverts the attention to social problems. There were so many social reforms along with political passions. The growth of Labour party was one of the political issues in modern era. There was decline of agriculture and birth of urbanization.

Literary Features of the age

i)                    The spread of education

Education was now available to all. Poorest can also take advantage of education. Literacy became normal rather than unusual thing. There were larger markets for all types of fiction. In Modern Era there was new demand for work in educational field.

ii)                   Enormous output of books

Authors and publishers had started publishing books on wide range. There were pot boilers (books on public demand and popularity) for financial growth in literary field. Hence, art was sacrificed to business.

iii)                 The Literature of social purpose

With the spread of literacy there came new awakening for social life. Writers were dealing with social evils in their work of art. The problem or discussion play and the novel of social purpose were very common in this Era.

iv)                 The Dominance of the novel

First time in history, the novel became dominant form. Semi-educated people understand novel in better way than poetry.

v)                  The Rebirth of Drama

Drama again appears as an important literary form after ages. There was creative and significant drama on social purpose.

vi)                 Experiments in Literary forms

Experiments were made in Poetry, Drama and Novel forms. There was evolvement of new forms on the basis of new demand of the people. There were less experiments in poetry and more in novels.

 

The Novelist: Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy OM (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wordsworth. he gained fame as the author of novels such as Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure (1895). Many of his novels concern tragic characters struggling against their passions and social circumstances, and they are often set in the semi-fictional region of Wessex; initially based on the medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom.

The Dramatist: George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw[1] (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1912) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Poet: William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats[a] (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, prose writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. His earliest volume of verse was published in 1889, and its slow-paced and lyrical poems display debts to Edmund Spenser, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and the poets of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His first significant poem was "The Island of Statues", a fantasy work that took Edmund Spenser and Shelley for its poetic models. The piece was serialized in the Dublin University Review. Yeats wished to include it in his first collection, but it was deemed too long, and in fact, was never republished in his lifetime. Quinx Books published the poem in complete form for the first time in 2014.

The War Poets: Rupert Brooke, Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen

A war poet is a poet who participates in a war and writes about their experiences. Rupert Brooke (3 August 1887 – 23 April 1915) was an English poet known for his idealistic war sonnets written during the First World War, especially "The Soldier".

Siegfried Loraine Sassoon (8 September 1886 – 1 September 1967) was an English war poet, writer, and soldier. Decorated for bravery on the Western Front,[1] he became one of the leading poets of the First World War. His poetry both described the horrors of the trenches and satirised the patriotic pretensions of those who, in Sassoon's view, were responsible for a jingoism-fuelled war.

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC (18 March 1893 – 4 November 1918) was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare was much influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon and stood in contrast to the public perception of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published posthumously – are "Dulce et Decorum est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility", "Spring Offensive" and "Strange Meeting".

Conclusion

In this way the modern Era begins in literature with experiments and creativity. New forms emerged and Novel became the dominant literary form. Numbers of books published and readers got plenty of choice. Art was being written for financial gain, such as Pot boilers. For the first time for many years poetry is the least significant of the important literary forms.