Introduzione al 20° secolo nella letteratura inglese

It's difficult to define groups of works or authors for the second part of the century because we are still involved in the atmosphere.

1910s-1920s : tendency of experimantation: Modernism is a break with conventions.

1930s : more conventional language and art.

1940s : arts and literature are influenced by the Second World War massacre.

1950s : there was an attitude like after the First World War.

1910s-1920s

At the end of the last century the society start to disagree with colonialism and other theories. Economically USA and Japan reached and overpass the UK. People didn't believe in the same values. The First World War was a massacre for deaths; this is called the Age of Anxiety, people want to create a new world but it was very difficult. This atmosphere was reflected in all form of arts: Dodecaphony (in music), Cubism (in painting), Dadaism (in painting), Consciousness (in literature). There wasn't only Modernism but also other types of art; Modernism was the Avanguarde.

William James. He was an american psychologist. Our thoughts and emotions are created by our mind as a stream not in disordered ways; some of these get lost, others are create in a second time but all of them reached that stream.

Henri Bergson. Time correspond on 2 concepts: chronological (outside the person); duration (inside our mind) that depends on what is our perception of time.

Sigmund Freud. He was a psychoanalist from Austria. The interpretations of Dreams: our unconscious elements come up and let us feels what we control during the day.

Consciousness technique: time is not important because what it's important it's what it's happens inside a man; any events can be chosen for the story; the thoughts are written during their creation. No more coherence, no more plot.