H. Well’s literary work: the peculiarities of the author’s creative method.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946)- English author, futurist, essayist, historian, socialist, and teacher.

From 1893 Wells devoted himself entirely to writing. Lung problems and a prognosis that he would die, added an extra urgency to a tremendous four-year burst of creativity, during which he produced his famous "scientific romances" As a novelist Wells made his debut with The Time Machine, a parody of English class division.

Herbert George Wells is a literary giant of English literature. No field of writing was foreign to him. He was one of the foremost thinkers of his time, and his works included excursions into history, social science, commentary, futurism and so on. His fiction is held up as examples of English literature at its finest, and many have suggested Wells' The Time Machine is the best short novel ever written, and his " Country of the Blind " is the best short story.

But today, Wells is primarily known for his futuristic fiction. His landmark book is War of the Worlds, an epic tale of technically advanced Martians invading Victorian England and virtually conquering civilization. The Island of Dr. Moreau demonstrates the folly of science taken too far. First Men in the Moon is a cautionary tale of mankind making first contact with another alien race. The Invisible Man shows that science has its limits. When the Sleeper Wakes is a forceful adventure of the future.

Wells is considered the father of modern social science fiction -- that sub-genre dealing with the effects of technology upon mankind and civilization. But his works are more than mere science fiction -- they are outstanding examples of literature.

2 periods:

ü Before World War 1- wrote science fiction novels

*scientific, social development- the main problem is the result (consequences) of those scientific discoveries (they lead to the humanity collapse.

*the ideas of religion, education, nature, darvinism.

* gives a very detailed description of non existing machines.

The Time Machine

The Island of Doctor Moreau

The Invisible Man

The War of the Worlds

The First Men In The Moon

ü After World War 1-non fiction, vision of war, essays on history: The outline of history. Social, satirical and philosophical novels.

 

World Brain

Men Like Gods

The Croquet Player

Mr Blettsworthy on Rampole Island

 

23. R. Aldington’s novel “ Death of a Hero” and the tradition of the ‘ lost-generation’ literature.

The "Lost Generation" was the generation that came of age during World War I. The term was popularized by Ernest Hemingway, who used it as one of two contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun Also Rises

Richard Aldington (1892-1962) is one of the most outstanding English writers of the XXth century. Like many of his contemporaries, Aldington took part in World War I and the bitter experience he gained at the front never left him. He broke away from romanticism and came to appreciate only those books which were written “out of man’s guts” and showed life as it really was.

Death of a Hero is anti war (World War I)novel.It was his first novel, written in 1929, and thought to be partly autobiographical.

“Death of a Hero” is not only an anti-war novel. It is a history of the spiritual growth of those “who spent their childhood and adolescence struggling. The composition and the style of the novel are remarkable. The novel is built, like a musical piece, with a change of the tempo from quick to slow as the plot is developing to its final tragic episode. "Death of a Hero" is lyrical, pathetic, sometimes ironic and satirical. But it is always sincere and highly emotional. Written on the eve of the thirties, it remains one of the greatest novels of the XXth century.

The lost generation (in literature, as a social phenomenon)

“Death of a Hero”, like many literary works of the post-war period, is dedicated to the so-called “lost generation” which hoped sincerely, strove honestly, and suffered deeply. These were the people who suffered all the horrors of the war which carried away millions of lives and inflicted physical and moral wounds upon those who managed to survive.

The post-war generation is commonly called the "lost generation", implying those who came out of the war dazed, weary, depressed, with the taste of death and bitter reality in the mouth. They felt actually lost. They were injured mentally, psycologically and spiritually. The war turned them into moral invalids.

They were lost because they found themselves in a somewhat different wold. All the past life seemed a dream, all the vital interests had become utterly indifferent, all ambitions were dissolved, the old friends seemed incredibly remote and unimportant. Friendship itself aquired a different kind of meaning. They had retained and developed a certain essential humanity and manhood, and that's why they never turned into brutes.

This motive of frontline comradeship is very typical of the “lost generation literature” because it was this “manhood and humanity” that helped people who fought for the ideals to endure the horrors of the war.

It's true that their minds had degenerated in certain ways, they got coarse and rough and a bit animal. They needed rest, tranquility, reassurance, companionship, but got human indifference, hostility, and loneliness. They took refuge in alchohol, gambling. Future had nothing in store for them, and even suicides were common.

The reality which awaited former soldiers upon thir return home was perhaps even more harsh than that they had to face in the war. The atrocities of the war made way to the callousness and cruelty of the post-war. The secure tranquility of peace-time was terrifying for them.

All of them were mentally and physically drained by the war, and therefore unable to rebuild their lives. They were discouraged, disgusted with life, cynical, desparing, and chaotic. The war became their life, with no past and no future. Depression, monotony, and boredom were all around them. Many felt such an apathetic weariness of mind that they would be glad to have died in the war rather than go back home.

Describing the lost generation, the author emphasizes the general idea of the novel – war is an appalling catastrophe, a massacre that turns a man into a cannon soldier.

24. The tradition of English satirical (comic) novel of the 20^th century.

Satire is loosely defined as art that ridicules a specific topic in order to provoke readers into changing their opinion of it. By attacking what they see as human folly, satirists usually imply their own opinions on how the thing being attacked can be improved. Has a long tradition started in the 18^th century.

Characteristics of Satire

1. irony

2. paradox

3. antithesis

4. colloquialism

5. anticlimax

6. obscenity

7. violence

8. vividness

9. exaggeration

The essential attitude in satire is the desire to use precisely clear language to still an audience to protest.

The satirist intends to describe painful or absurd situations or foolish or wicked persons or groups as vividly as possible. He believes that most people are blind, insensitive, and perhaps anesthetized by custom and resignation and dullness. The satirist wishes to make them see the truth - at least that part of the truth which they habitually ignore.

Muriel Spark – one of the best representatives of the satiric (comic) novel. was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 1953 Muriel Spark was baptized in the Church of England but in 1954 she decided to join the Roman Catholic Church, which she considered crucial in her development toward becoming a novelist.

• her novels of the 50-60’s have a good deal of avantgarde writing.
• Social satire of realism
• Main subject matter: the life of the middle class (bourgeois) and the question a mass culture.
• Most of her novels – black moral comedies (sometimes they have even some political point)
• Morals, death, the essence of human existence.

 

Her first novel, The Comforters, featured several references to Catholicism and conversion to Catholicism, although its main theme revolved around a young woman who becomes aware that she is a character in a novel.

Other works (novels):

• Robinson
• Memento Mori

o The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

o The Girls of Slender Means

o The Public Image

• Symposium