Overview
When you think of this our last era in Brit Lit, I would like you to think of these 4 key
concepts:
Change
War
Psychology and Expanding Borders
1.Change the 20th
century sparked massive shifts in what the British
experienced: collapse of the Empire, crumbling colonialism, women and
minorities demanding equal opportunity, rights, and a voice
2.War
—Britain was in the center of both major global conflicts, losing millions of
soldiers in (at that time) the most advanced and destructive warfare the world
had ever known
3.Psychology
—the changes of the times are reflected in a new focus for writers:
the world of the mind. Whereas the tales of old focused on epic battles for
heroes, the new epic takes place in the battlefield and the landscape of the mind.
4.Expanding Borders
—remember where we started, with Beowulf coming to the
rescue of a poor village besieged by a monster? Now the world has expanded
globally. So has the literature.
You will see that many selections in your text from
the 20
th
century and After era are no longer “British” in the classic sense but are 2
influenced by British colonialism (Heart of Darkness
, written by a Polish national)
and post-colonialism: Week 14 will require you to read classified as “British” but
which come out of New Zealand, South Africa, India and the new
transnational/multiracial communities of present-day Britain.
I’ll ask you to review a Power Point in
Content, Module 7 on
Modern British
Literature
(some anthologies label the period from 1902-1980).
Please write a British literature discussion, 300 words. I will upload the requirements.