Lesson 9: Issues and Challenges in Emerging

Literature

Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:
a. Examine the characteristics of new emerging genres
of new literature; and;
b. Discuss 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 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 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 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 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.