British literature

British literature is literature from the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The largest part of this literature is written in the English language, but there are also separate literatures in the Welsh language, Scottish Gaelic, Scots and other languages. Northern Ireland is the only part of Ireland still part of the United Kingdom and it possesses literature in English, Ulster Scots and Irish. Irish writers have also played an important part in the development of English-language literature.

English language literature since 1900

The major lyric poet of the first decades of the 20th century was Thomas Hardy, who concentrated on poetry after the harsh response to his last novel, Jude the Obscure.

Related Topics:
Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure

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The most widely popular writer of the early years of the 20th century was arguably Rudyard Kipling, a highly versatile writer of novels, short stories and poems, often based on his experiences of British ruled India. Kipling was closely associated with imperialism and this has damaged his reputation in more recent times.

Related Topics:
Rudyard Kipling - India - Imperialism

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From around 1910, the Modernist Movement began to influence English literature. Whereas their Victorian predeccsors had usually been happy to cater to mainstream middle class taste, 20th century writers often felt alienated from it, and responded by writing more intellectually challenging works or by pushing the boundaries of acceptable content.

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The major poets of this period included the American born T. S. Eliot and the Irishman William Butler Yeats. Free verse and other stylistic innovations came to the forefront in this era.

Related Topics:
T. S. Eliot - William Butler Yeats - Free verse

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The experiences of the First World War were reflected in the work of war poets such as Rupert Brooke, Isaac Rosenberg, Edmund Blunden and Siegfried Sassoon. Many writers turned away from patriotic and imperialist themes as a result of the war, notably Kipling.

Related Topics:
First World War - War poet - Rupert Brooke - Isaac Rosenberg - Edmund Blunden - Siegfried Sassoon

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Important novelists between the two World Wars included the Irish writer James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf.

Related Topics:
James Joyce - D.H. Lawrence - Virginia Woolf

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Joyce's increasingly complex works included Ulysses, an interpretation of the Odyssey set in Dublin, and culminated in the famously obscure Finnegan's Wake. Lawrence wrote with understanding about the social life of the lower and middle classes, and the personal life of those who could not adapt to the social norms of his time. He attempted to explore human emotions more deeply than his contemporaries and challenged the boundaries of the acceptable treatment of sexual issues in works such as Lady Chatterley's Lover. Virginia Woolf was an influential feminist, and a major stylistic innovator associated with the stream of consciousness technique. Her novels included To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, and The Waves.

Related Topics:
Ulysses - Odyssey - Dublin - Finnegan's Wake - Lady Chatterley's Lover - Feminist - Stream of consciousness - To the Lighthouse - Mrs Dalloway - The Waves

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Novelists who wrote in a more traditional style, such as John Galsworthy and Arnold Bennett continued to receive great acclaim in the interwar period. At the same time the Georgian poets maintained an more conservative approach to poetry.

Related Topics:
John Galsworthy - Arnold Bennett - Georgian poets

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The leading poets of the middle and later 20th century included the traditionalist John Betjeman, Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes and the Northern Irish Catholic Seamus Heaney, who lived in the Republic of Ireland for much of his later life.

Related Topics:
John Betjeman - Philip Larkin - Ted Hughes - Northern Irish - Seamus Heaney - Republic of Ireland

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Major novelists of the middle and later 20th century included the satirist Evelyn Waugh, William Golding, Anthony Burgess, Grahame Greene and Iris Murdoch.

Related Topics:
Satirist - Evelyn Waugh - William Golding - Anthony Burgess - Grahame Greene - Iris Murdoch

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In drama, the drawing room plays of the post war period were challenged in the 1950s by the Angry Young Men, exemplified by as John Osborne's iconic play Look Back in Anger. Also in the 1950s, the bleak absurdist play Waiting for Godot, by the Southern Irish playwright Samuel Beckett profoundly affected British drama. The theatre of the absurd influenced playwrights of the later decades of the 20th century, including Harold Pinter, whose works are often characterised by menace or claustrophia, and Tom Stoppard. Stoppard's works are however also notable for their high-spirited wit and the great range of intellectual issues which he tackles in different plays.

Related Topics:
Drawing room play - Angry Young Men - John Osborne - Look Back in Anger - Waiting for Godot - Samuel Beckett - Theatre of the absurd - Harold Pinter - Tom Stoppard

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• Georgian poets
• Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry
• British Poetry Revival
• Kitchen sink drama