Forster's power of characterization, his wit, and irony, and the peculiarity of his style places the author on a level with the greatest writers of his time.
Vocabulary
| civilian [si'viljan] a contribute [kan'tnbju:t] ; peculiarity [pi^ku:lfaenti] n |
reprint ['ri:'print] n review [n'vju:] n
1 thus far
A Passage to India
In 1911 Forster had the opportunity to live in India, and it meant a great deal to him as a novelist. A Passage to India arose from his own experience. It is a novel about the relations of Englishmen living in India as representatives of the British Empire on the one hand and the natives of India on the other hand.
The novel is divided in 3 sections: Mosque frrrosk], Caves and Temple, and each depicts different scenes from Anglo-Indian life. The novel begins with Mrs Moore's and Miss Quested's arrival in India with a view to visit Mrs Moore's son Ronny, a government official in the colonial country.
The general meaning of the first part of the novel is best expressed in the scene between Mrs Moore and Aziz, a young Indian doctor whom she meets in a mosque. In a dialogue they reach a surprisingly friendly relationship and mutual sympathy. From this scene and from similar episodes the reader comes to the conclusion that the communication between Britons and Indians is possible.
Adela Quested feels real sympathy towards the native inhabitants of the country, and wants to get closely acquainted with their way of life. Thus when Aziz proposes a trip to the Marabar Caves, it seems that the expedition will be a triumph of Anglo-Indian friendship.
But Ronny, the official representative of the English government, interprets the episode as a native insolence.
Adela and Ronny quarrel rather bitterly over Aziz's invitation. Seing Ronny's arrogance, Adela suddenly realizes that she has left out love in deciding to marry him. The connection between the caves and the unsatisfactoriness of marriage is made at various points in the narrative of Adela's and Ronny's engagement.
But after the tour to the Marabar Caves had taken place, the caves symbolized the failure of all communication between the two nations: the English and the Indians.
Doctor Aziz is brought to trial for having molested Miss Quested in the Caves. At the trial Adela understands everything, and is sure that Aziz did not assault her.
But their attempt to make some kind of contact between an Englishman and an Indian failed completely.
In the last section of the novel Temple the author describes a meeting between Aziz and Mr Fielding who defended him at the trial. It is a story about an Englishman and an Indian who are trying to understand each other to resume their relationship. But this attempt is a failure.
For a brief time Fielding and Aziz are friends, but their friendship is unstable. In the concluding words of the novel we are told that "The Temples" do not want them to be friends.
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Forster as a social observer describes Anglo-Indian relations, and shows that they split completely, with the exception of Mrs Moore, Miss Quested and Mr Fielding who are always informal and honest with the Indians.
Mrs Moore is one of the central figures of the novel. She expresses Forster's own point of view, his belief that democracy is a kind of medicine for all human diseases; tolerance, sympathy and good will are all that really count.
The attitude of the heroes of the novel shows that they are firmly convinced that personal relationship is more important than the relations of the countries.
But the social wrongs the Indians suffered so long do not allow them to appreciate the few honest Englishmen who have no prejudices against their community.
Although Forster's sympathy is with those who feel the necessity of friendly relations, he fails to see that friendship and human contact among people of different nations is possible without equality in their relationship.
Vocabulary
arrogance ['aeragans] n molest [mau'lest] v
assault [a'so:lt] v mosque [rrmsk] n
attitude ['astitjir.d] n narrative ['nasratrv] n
community ['mjuimti] n prejudice f preqjudis] n
exception [ik'sepfan] n resume [n'zjurm] v
insolence ['insalans] n , similar ['simila]
interpret [m't3:pnt] v split [split] v (split)
temple ['tempi] n unsatisfactoriness [',satis'fektgrmis]
tolerance ['tobrens] n
trial [traisl] n unstable [An'steibl]
Questions and Tasks
1. Relate the story of Forster's life. Name his notable works.
2. What novel is considered to be his best work?
3. What can you say about the plot and the main characters of A Pc to India?
4. What is the main theme of the novel?
5. What character of the book is Forster's sympathy with?
6. What character of the novel expresses Forster's own point of view?
7. What places Forster on a level with the greatest writers of his time?
English Literature of the 20th Century
(the 20s-30s)
The years between 1917 and 1930 form the first period in English 20th century literature. These were years of changes. Basic religious and political beliefs were guestioned by more people. The crisis of the bourgeois world reached its highest point. The writers of this period were greatly influenced by various decadent philosophical theories which led to the creation of works marked by great pessimism.
A symbolic method of writing had already started early in the 20th century. Along with works of Critical Realism produced by Shaw, Wells and Galsworthy there were writers who refused to acknowledge reality as such. They thought reality to be superficial. They were sure that everything that happened, that is, what led to events was the irrational, the unconscious and the mystical in man. These writers called the inner psychological process "the stream of consciousness" and based a new literary technigue on it.
The most important author who used this new literary technigue was James Joyce (1882 1941). Decadence marks his works. He
| influenced many writers. A remoteness from actuality is clearly seen in the works of Virginia Woolf (1882 1941). Mystification on contemporary society are to be traced in the works of Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963). Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965) belongs to the same trend of writers for whom individualism and pessimism became the most chracteristic traits. The second period in the development of English literature was the decade between 1930 and World War II. The thirties are marked by an acute struggle of the writers realists representing different generations against decadent and modernist tendencies in English literature. While the works of some writers are imbued with progressive ideas there are many writers who take a neutral position of noninterference. |
| Questions and Tasks 1. Characterize the years between 1917 and 1930. 2. What were the writers of this period greatly influenced by? 3. When did a symbolic method start? 4. What writers were there along with the writers of Critical Realism? |
Vocabulary
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acknowledge [ak'rralicfc] v
actuality [,sektju'aeliti] n
acute [a'kju:t]
contemporary [ ]
crisis ['kraisis] n
decadence fdekgdons] n ,
decadent ['dekgdsnt] ,
generation [^'1|] n
imbue [im'bju:] ;
inner [']
irrational [i'rajbnl] ,
mystification Lmistifi'keijbn] n
neutral ['nju:tral]
non-interference ['rmn^mta'fiarens] n
philosophical [,fib 'snfiksl]
remoteness [n'msutms] n
superficial [^sjurps'fijbl] ,
symbolic [sim'tmhk]
technique [tek'ni:k] n
theory [']
trace [treis] v
unconscious [An'kmijas]
5. Comment on a new literary technique.
6. What author used this new literary technique?
7. Speak about the writers for whom remoteness from actuality, mystification of society, pessimism became the most characteristic traits.
8. When was the second period in the development of English literature of the 20th century?
9. Comment on the works of the writers of this period.
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James Joyce (1882-1941)
James Joyce was born in Dublin on February 2, 1882. His family was middle class and very large. He was educated at a Catholic School, then at a Jesuit college, and finally at University College, Dublin. His school interests were Languages, Poetry, Latin and Philosophy.
| James Joyce |
James Joyce first published work was a volume of poems called Chamber Music (music played with a small group of instruments) (1907). He wrote in many genres. In 1914 Joice wrote Dub-liners, a collection of fifteen short stories set in Dublin. "It is a chapter of the moral history of my country", Joyce commented. It has become one of the best known books of its time.The short story form, dating back to the middle years of the 19th century, is used by Joyce in this collection of tales to show the lives and experiences of people in Dublin.
Joyce analyses Dublin as a city which cannot change, and whose people are dying. The collection starts with Eveline, a story of adolescence, and finishes with the story The Dead, the title of which signifies the conclusion both of the life and of the book. Each story presents a moment of self realization in the life of one person from Dublin. Joyce took inspiration for his short stories from Anton Chekhov.
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The same theme is found in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, published in 19141915. This is almost an authobiography, although the hero is called Stephen Dedalus ['stirvn 'deddlos].
He wants to become a writer, like Joyce himself, and finally has to leave Ireland to find his true voice as an artist.
He says, near the end of the novel: "I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland or my church, and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use, silence, exile1 and cunning2"
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Ulysses
In 1922, James Joyce's Ulysses FjuJisiz] was published. It was published in Paris, and immediately caused great controversy some people saw it as the most important novel of the country, but for others, including the British authorities, it was obscene, and was banned until 1936.
The novel concerns the experiences of two men during one day, 16th June, 1904, in Dublin, and one of the main characters, is Stephen Dedalus again. Leopold ['liapsuld] Bloom and Molly Bloom are the other main figures in the novel, which follows the two men through a day, and ends with a stream-of-consciousness monologue by Molly: "What shall I wear shall I wear a white rose those cakes in Liptons I love the smell of a rich big shop at 7 V2d a pound or the other ones with cherries in them of course a nice plant for the middle of the table I love flowers I'd love to have the whole place swimming in roses".
Molly's thoughts and feelings here flow in a stream of consciousness. There is no punctuation as thoughts, memories and reflections move into one another.
Joyce also uses a wide range of references as well as using the styles of many works of literature from The Odyssey of Homer1, on which the structure of Ulysses is based, through Chaucer to the moderns. Joyce wanted to write the novel that was the climax of the traditions of English literature.
And after Ulysses he went further. He wrote Finnegan's Wake, which was finally published in 1939. Joyce took the novel and language to new limits. It is a highly experimental novel and very surprising to read. The main theme is Fall and Resurrection, told about Dublin settings. The novel uses dreams, play on words, invented words and jokes to make a unigue text.
Vocabulary
| Jesuit ['(feezjiKt] mode [maud] n mode of life obsence [t)b'si:n] reference ['refrsns] reflection ['] resurrection ^'] signify ['signrfai] v unique [ju:'ni:k] |
adolescence [,sedau'lesns] n
analyse ['senslaiz] v
ban [been] v
climax ['klaimeeks] n
comment fknmant] v ;
controversy ['ktmtrevasi] n ,
genre [:]
inspiration [jnspa'reijbn]
Questions and Tasks
1. When was James Joyce born?
2. Where was he educated?
3. What were his school interests?
4. What was Joyce's first published work?
5. Speak on Joyce's collection of short stories Dubliners.
6. What can you say about the plot and the main character of Joyce's novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'?
7. Give a brief summary of the contents of the novel Ulysses.
8. Comment on Joyce's last novel Finnegan's Wake.
1 exile departure from your own country
2 cunning cleverness
1 The Odyssey frxiisi] of Homer ['] , .
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
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Virginia Woolf [va'dsinja'wulf] was born in London in 1882. She had two brothers, Thoby and Adrian, and one sister, Vanessa. Her mother, Julia, died in 1895, when Virginia was thirteen years old.
Her father, Leslie Stephen flezh 'stirra],
was a noted intellectual of the day, a phi
losopher and a critic. He was connected
with many of the leading artists and writers
of that period. After the death of his wife,
he became depressed and suffered a great Virginia Woolf
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deal.
Virginia's early life was very hard. She witnessed her father's depression and suffered a mental breakdown herself after her mother's death. She was to suffer another breakdown in 1914, when her father died, this time trying to commit suicide.
After the death of their father, Thoby, Adrian, Vanessa and Virginia moved to Bloomsbury, and the two sisters began experimenting, painting and writing. Their house in Bloomsbury became the centre of literary interest among the intellectuals and artists of that time the Bloomsbury Group.
In 1917 Virginia, now married to Leonard [ 'lerad] Woolf, started the publishing company that printed, apart from some of Virginia's own work, Thomas Stearns Eliot1, Edward Morgan Forster and Virginia's best friend, Katherine Mansfield2.
Virginia Woolf s first novel was The Voyage Out (1915). It was followed by Night and Day (1919). Then in 1922, she published Jacob's Room. It was set during the first World War, and
1 Thomas Steams ['st3:nz] Eliot (1888 1965) , .
-,
2 Katherine Mansfield [' mffinsffid] (1888 1923) , .
tells a story very close to the death of the authors's own brother Thoby. It was the first of her novels to use the impressionistic technique which were to make her famous. She wanted to leave realism, and move into a new kind of expression which would allow a more internal exploration of the described events and emotions. She continued this in her next novels, Mrs Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927). In The Waves (1931), which is her most experimental novel, Woolf shows six different characters, all at different points in their lives, and explores how they are each affected by the death of someone well known to all of them.
Orlando (1928) is a very literary fantasy which takes its main character from the Elizabethan age to modern times, and through a change of sex, as he/she meets all sorts of literary and historic figures.
She spoke out for women, particularly in A Room of One's Own (1929). She also published a lot of criticism, such as The Common Reader (two series, 1925 and 1932). Her final works The Years (1937) and Between the Acts (1941) continue her experiments, and prove her to be one of the most important and original novelists of the 20th century.
Virginia Woolf committed suicide in 1941.
Vocabulary
affect [a'fekt] v internal [m't3:nl]
apart [a'pa:t] adv mental ['mentl]
apart from noted ['nsutid] a
breakdown ['breikdaun] n witness ['witnis] v
Questions and Tasks
1. Relate the main facts of Virginia Woolf's life.
2. What was her first novel?
3. Give a brief account of Woolf's literary career.
4. What were the main literary principles of Virginia Woolf?
5. What is the contribution of Woolf to English literature?
Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965)
| Thomas Steams Eliot |
Thomas Steams Eliot ['rom3s'st3:nz 'eljat] was born in America, in St Louis, Missouri in 1888. His family had emigrated from England in the 17th century, to Massachusetts, and had played an active part in the spiritual and intellectual life of the growing nation. Thomas Stearns Eliot was educated first in St Louis and then went to Harward. At Harward Eliot developed his interest in poetry, writing, contributing and editing the literary review The Harward Advocate.
In 1910 Eliot left America and went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. In 1914 he went to Oxford, where he wrote his doctoral thesis.
In England, Eliot quickly made a home. His first volume was published in 1917. This was Prufrock and Other Observations. It con-tains one of Eliot's best-known poems The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock which was first published in 1915. The poem shows Eliot's way of writing he uses images, fragments and memorable phrases to build up a broad picture of the character, his anxieties, and his time. The poem is about time, and wasted time and how the different inner parts of the character of Prufrock grow old and see his life become more and more meaningless:
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons
I grow old... I grow old
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
We understand from the poem that J. Alfred Prufrock, a bit of dandy, worried about his clothes, going bald and growing old, unsuccessfully tries to find the courage and finally feels the enormous futility of his life falling on him.
Should I after tea and cakes and ices
Have the courage to force the moment to its crisis.
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He suffers terrible self-agonies, as memoires fill his consciousness. He is constantly aware of the passing of time, but not the clock time of the modern period; he measures the passing of time with "coffee spoons", with the changing light and the afternoons becoming evenings. He physically feels himself ageing and is unable to act, to be or to do.
In 1922 Thomas Stearns Eliot published The Waste Land and, ever since, it has been considered the most important single poem of the century. It takes the ideas of time, and waste, already found in Prufrock and extends them to all societies, all times, and all cultures. It is a poem full of references to other texts, and is one of the most complex.
The subject of the poem is the collapse of spirituality in modern society, and with it, the cultural and spiritual desolation of the world. The poet expresses his desire to reconstruct civilization.
The poem begins with an echo of Chaucer's Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer writes of the sweet showers of spring, using April as the month which brings the coming of spring, but Eliot changes that positive idea with the words:
April is the cruelest month.
The poem then goes on to describe London, and the image of all the poem is of wastelands, deserts the same kind of futility.
The image of the wasteland has come to be one of the most common images of modern times, and Eliot's poem has been discussed and examined by a great many cities.
Eliot believed that post-First World War Europe had become a "waste land" due to the cultural and spiritual desolation.
By 1930, Eliot had entered into a new phase of poetic production. Ash Wednesday, a deeply spiritual poem, was followed by other "religious" works, including Murder in the Cathedral, a verse drama, The Four Quartets, published between 1936 1942, and the play The Family Reunion (1939).
| futility [fju:'tiliti] n measure ['] v memorable ['] prologue ['prsuhxj] n reference ['refsrsns] n revival [n'vaivsl] shower fjaus] n spiritual ['spiritjsl] spirituality Lspintju'celiti] n thesis ['9i:sis] n wasteland ['weistlaend] n |
In 1947 Thomas Stearns Eliot was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He continued his revival of verse-drama and poetic plays, writing three more plays, The Cocktail Party (1950), The Confidential Clerk (1954) and The Elder Statesman (1959).
Thomas Stearns Eliot died in London in 1965 at the age of 77. His influence on English literature was enormous, not only from the point of view of his creative work, but also for his critical articles and essays. He is considered by many critics to be the most important poet in English in the 20th century.
Vocabulary
age [eidj] v agony ['] n anxiety [serj'zaisti] n collapse [ka'lseps] n , consciousness ['kmijbsms] n constantly ['krmstanth] adv desolation [^desaTeifan] n echo ['] edit ['edit] v enormous [I'rmnas] extend [iks'tend] v fragment ['fraegmgnt] n ;
Questions and Tasks
1. Where was Thomas Stearns Eliot born?
2. Where was he educated?
3. What was his first volume?
4. What Eliot's best-known poem does it contain?
5. What is the main idea of the poem?
6. What Eliot's poem has been considered the most important one of the century?
7. Comment on the subject of the poem The Waste Land.
8. Characterize the late period of Eliot's literary activity.
9. When did he die?
10. Speak on Eliot's place in English literature.
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)
Aldous Leonard Huxley ['o:kfos 'lenad 'h/\ksli] was born on July 26, 1894, into a family that included some of the most distinguished members of the English intellectual elite.
| Aldous Leonard Huxley |
Aldous'father was the son of Thomas Henry Huxley1, a great biologist. His mother was the sister of Mrs Humphrey Ward2, the novelist; the niece of Matthew Arnold3, the poet; and the grand-daughter of Thomas Arnold4, a famous educator and the real-life headmaster of Rugby School.
Undoubtedly Huxley's heritage and upbringing had an effect on his work. But his own experiences made him stand apart from the class into which he was born. Even as a small child he was considered different, showing an alertness, an intelligence, what his brother called a superiority. He was respected and loved for these abilities.
When Huxley was 16 and a student at the prestigious school Eton, an eye illness made him nearly blind. He recovered enough vision to go on to Oxford University and graduate with honors, but not enough to fight in World War I, an important experience for many of his friends, or to do the scientific work he had dreamed of. Scientific ideas remained with him, however, and he used them in many of his books.
1 Thomas Henry Huxley (1825- 1895) , .
2 Humphrey Ward ['riAmfhword] (1851 -1920) , .
3 Matthew Arnold [masGju:' u:nld] (1822 -1988) , .
"ThomasArnold ['ttmws'ainid] (1795 -1842) ,
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| American Academy of Arts and Letters gave him the Award of Merit for the Novel, a prize given every five years; earlier recipients had been Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Mann1, and Theodore Driser. The range of Huxley's interests can be seen from his note that his "preliminary research" for Island included "Greek history, translations from Sanscrit and Chinese of Buddhist texts, scientific papers on pharmacology, psychology and education, together with novels, poems, critical essays, travel books, political commentaries and conversations with all kinds of people, from philosophers to actresses. He used similar, though probably fewer, sources for Brave New World. This list gives you some perspective on the wide range of ideas that Huxley studied. He also wrote an early essay on ecology that helped inspire today's environmental movement. Huxley remained nearly blind all his life. He died November 22, 1963. |
| 1 Thomas Mann ['trjmas ma:n] (18751955) , . |
He entered the literary world while he was at Oxford. Huxley published his first book, a collection of poems, in 1916. He married Maria Nys, a Belgian, in 1919. The family divided their time between London and Europe, mostly Italy, in the 1920s, and travelled around the world in 1925 and 1926, seeing India and making a first visit to the United States Huxley liked the confidence and vitality he found in American life.
Huxley's Crome Yellow (crome = bright) (1921) was his first success, and Antic Hay (wild dance) (1923) continued this.
In 1928 he published his novel Point Counter Point, which was his best-seller. But Huxley is best remembered for his novel Brave New World (1932), with its vision of a society controlled by scientific progress.
In 1937, the Huxleys came to the United States; in 1938 they went to Hollywood, where he became a screenwriter. He remained for most of his life in California, and one of his novels caricatures what he saw as the strange life there: After Many a Summer Dies the Swan. In it Jo Stoyte tries to achieve immortality through scientific experimentation, even if it means giving up humanity and returning to the completely animal state.
