The 1900's literature

Fiction writers, dramatists and poets broadened the terms realism, naturalism, symbolism, impressionism and romanticism in the 1900's. Writers increasingly experimented with form and technique in novels, stories, play and poems
During the early 1900's. literature often expressed the optimism and conservative ideals of the Victorian age, the period from the early 1830's to 1900. Then many writers began to react against the conventions and restrains of Victorian society. The studies of the unconscious mind recorded by the Austrian physician Sigmund freund contributed to this shift in attitude. Another reason was the destruction caused by world war I (1914-1918)
Authors of the 1920's wrote about disillusioned and rootless characters. These writers often called the lost generation, included Ernest Hemingway and F.Scott Fizgerald of the United states. The great depression of 1930s led to literature that protested what the authors considered to be unjust social conditions. In the mid 1900"s, works by modern Latin-American and Japanese Authors first gained international acclaim.
Fiction. The works of such novelist as James Joyce, of Ireland and DH Lawrence and Virginia Woolf of England reflect the literary currents of the early 1900's. Joyce's novel Ulysses revolutionized the technique of modern fiction. Hendry Miller of the United States wrote Frankly about sex in Tropic of Cancer and other works. The publication of his novels encouraged later writers to deal with controversial subjects.
The short story suffered a decline during the mid 1900’s because many magazines devoted to publishing stories either went out of business or turned to printing nonfiction. A number of magazines sponsored by individuals or colleges and universities helped to keep the short story alive. Leading short story writers of the second half of the 1900’s include the Polish-born Isaac Bashevis Singer and Jorge Luis Borges of Argentina
Drama. The Irish National Theatre, founded in 1902, produces the works of outstanding playwrights, including Sean O’Casey, John Millington Synge and William Butler Yeats. George Bernard Shaw was the most important figure in English drama during the early 1900’s. Luigi Pirandello was the leading Italian dramatists of the period. Ibsen, Anthon Chekov of Russia, Gerhart Hauptmann of Germany, and Karel Capek of Czechoslovakia all influenced modern drama
In the United States, Eugene O’Neill’s experiments in drama influences such playwrights as Maxwell Anderson, Arthur Miller, and Tannessee William. The French theatre enjoyed great popularity with the plays of Samuel Beckett, Jean Giraudoux and Jean Annouilh. Today, the leading English language playwrights include Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, David storey and Peter Shaffer of England and Edward Albee of the United States.
Poetry. Three poets of the 1800’s had an enormous impact on poetry of this century. They were Gerard Manley Hopkins of Great Britain and Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman of the United States. Hopkins dense and concentrated language influenced many later poets. In deceptively simple lines and stanzas, Dickinson examines the minute details of her isolated domestic existence. Whitman rejected formal verse styles in favor of an exuberant free verse technique.
Whitman in particular influenced a number of modern poets, including William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti of the United States. Other important poets of the 1900’s include T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden of England, St. John Perse of France and Theodore Roethke, Richard Wilbur and Robert Lowell of the United States. Lowell served as a major influence on ‘confessional poets.’ Who wrote in a frank, autobiographical style.