The 20th Century Background Notes

3rd Tri. Senior EnglishLit Book pg. 908

Early 20th Century = Progress!• Rejection of traditional Victorian views and values

• More rights and democratic freedoms• Expansion of British power over the rest of the world• Science, technology, and medicine helped improve daily lives for

millions• Rise in living conditions and

average wages• Rise in literacy and education• Symbol of British and world

progress and idealism: The Titanic

• “Roaring 20’s” – wealth, parties, optimism

It’s 1912 and we’re doing awesome!

April 14/15, 1912: Sinking of the Titanic

WWI: “The War to End All Wars”• England went in with sense of

patriotism and sense of duty/honor - anticipated glory of past conflicts

• 60,000 young Brits killed on first day of Battle of the Somme (July 1, 1916)

• 300,000 young Brits killed, wounded, or frozen to death at the Battle of Ypres (July-Nov, 1917)

• An entire generation of young Englishmen devastated, nearly wiped out

WWI: Trench Warfare

• Technological developments are good, right?– Machine gun (majority of Brits killed at

Somme died by machine gun)– Poison gas (at least 100,000 died during

WWI due to chemical weapons)– Traditional method of large forces marching

against other large forces no longer worked trench war

– WWI also saw the development of the airplane, tank, submarine, and flamethrower as weapons of war

Trench Poets• Soldiers, medics, photographers all came back from WWI

with a new understanding of what war really is:– Dismissed the past ideas about the “glory” of war– Used verse and powerful imagery and figurative language to

bring realism of experiences to readers– More cynical about warfare

• Two most well-known British trench poets:– Wilfred Owen (pg.928)– Siegfried Sassoon (pg. 925)

WWII• Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Communist

Russia/Soviet Union all represented two modern philosophies taken to their most-feared extremes:

• Charles Darwin’s “Darwinism” from Origin of Species – “survival of the fittest”

• Karl Marx’s Das Kapital - communism and socialism / anti-capitalism, anti-DemocracyDarwin

Marx

WWII • During WWII, Britain lost over

300,000 soldiers and over 60,000 civilians

• Britain fought in France, Europe, and the Middle East – but the Nazis also bombed London

• Massive damages inflicted to military empire and at home

• At the end of the war, Britain and Allied Powers find out the extent of Hitler’s Holocaust of the Jews

You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.

WinstonChurchill

London during The Blitz

Cynicism of 20th Century• Just as humanity reached the 20th century and looked

poised to create a world based around peace, technology, democracy, and seek to eliminate social ills like hunger…

• …is the exact same era where we kill more human beings in two wars than the rest of human history combined, while the legacy of colonialism/imperialism by Europe leaves Africa and parts of Asia and the Middle East in shambles.

• In midst of all this science/technology march forward for sake of peace, by creating most destructive weapon ever --- then using it to end war by killing over 100,000 Japanese civilians leading to the Cold War

• 20th Century – new era of doubt, cynicism, and fear

Decline of England as a World Power• During the late 1800s, England

lost control of colonies in Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand

• After World War II, Britain was recovering from the war and was in massive debt– Loss of India– Loss of colonies in the Middle East

and Africa

Rise & Fall of the British Empire

20th Century British Literature• WWI Trench Poets – describe realities of war and

dismissive of “glory” of war• More cynicism/pessimism – some would say “realism”• More satire and dark humor• More criticisms of the traditional elite and powerful;

more political writing• More open writing about sexual and gender issues• More global/international diversity from authors who

traveled abroad and were from former British colonies

20th Century British Literature

• Dystopian literature – novels and stories about the worst future imaginable, where everything that could be wrong about society is wrong. “Dystopia” the opposite of “utopia” (a perfect society).– 1984 by George Orwell• Term “Orwellian” - an adjective to describe a

government or conditions which feature excessive government control and invasion and loss of personal privacy and individual rights

– Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Influential 20th Century British Authors

JamesJoyce

Virginia Woolf

Aldous Huxley Agatha

Christie

J.R.R. Tolkien

Ian Fleming

Neil Gaiman

J.K. Rowling