This blog is written as a task assigned by the head of the Department of English (MKBU), Prof. and Dr. Dilip Barad Sir. Here is the link to the professor's blog for background reading: Click here.
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Twentieth-Century English Literature: A Synthesis of Progress and de Regress
Executive Summary
The first half of the twentieth century in Britain is defined by a profound paradox: an era of ever-accelerating scientific and material progress was simultaneously marked by an unprecedented moral, spiritual, and artistic regress. This period saw a comprehensive revolt against the core tenets of Victorianism—its stability, belief in authority, and sense of permanence—which, while invigorating for some, created a spiritual vacuum for the multitude. English literature fractured, moving from a unified mode of communication accessible to the common reader to a sharp schism after 1922, when works like Joyce's Ulysses and Eliot's The Waste Land heralded an era of "dictatorial intellectualism" that retreated into an esoteric fastness.
Intellectual life diverged into sociological movements like the Fabian Society, which treated art as a tool for political change and laid the groundwork for the Welfare State, and aesthetic circles like the Bloomsbury Group, which championed art and intellectualism. The period between the World Wars was characterized by a wave of anti-war literature and a subsequent politicization of art, often at the expense of creative integrity. The post-World War II era, despite achieving the material utopia of the Welfare State with full employment and social security, failed to produce contentment. Instead, it fostered sullen discontent, rampant consumerism fueled by manipulative advertising, and a "revolt of youth" manifested in phenomena like the Beatnik cult. This cultural shift was mirrored by a decline in craftsmanship, a rise of "anti-Art," and the degradation of public discourse, prompting a re-evaluation of the perceived hypocrisies of the Victorian age as, perhaps, a commendable and necessary social restraint.
I. The Dual Legacy of the Scientific Revolution
The defining feature of the twentieth century was the Scientific Revolution, which produced a simultaneous and contradictory legacy of progress and regress. The period witnessed more human upheaval in fifty years than in the previous fifty generations, driven by a growing mastery of the physical world that was paradoxically accompanied by a "moral and spiritual relapse."
* Technological Ambivalence: The perfecting of the internal combustion engine serves as a prime example. It enabled mass slaughter through the aeroplane in two world wars and heralded the nuclear age's threat of universal destruction. Concurrently, in peacetime, it provided millions with unprecedented mobility via the motor car and motorcycle.
* The Revolt of Youth: This mobility was a key factor in another major "revolution within the Scientific Revolution": the revolt of youth. Young people were enabled to travel far from home, thereby escaping "natural parental guidance and control." The text warns that the ease of mass manipulation of youth, as seen in movements like the Hitler Youth, could lead to futile demonstrations or, if productive, mob rule. It asserts that for students, "agitation" is the "chief source of disablement for study."
II. The Comprehensive Revolt from Victorianism
A defining characteristic of the early twentieth century was the complete rejection of the preceding era's values. The generation of 1901-1925 viewed the Victorian age as "dull and hypocritical," with its ideals appearing "mean and superficial and stupid." This shift was a fundamental reorientation of mental attitudes, moral ideals, and spiritual values.
Defining Victorian Values
The text identifies the core tenets of the Victorian mindset that were systematically dismantled:
* Acceptance of Authority: Victorians exhibited a "widespread and willing submission to the rule of the Expert" and the "Voice of Authority" in religion, politics, and family life. This was an "insistent attitude of acceptance," a desire to affirm rather than to question. This faith, however, often seemed to lack a "core of personally realised conviction."
* Belief in Permanence: A key characteristic was the "firm belief in the permanence of nineteenth century institutions." Institutions such as the home, the constitution, the Empire, and the Christian religion were taken as "a final revelation," not subject to change or displacement. The Victorians saw themselves "living in a house built on unshakable foundations."
The Post-Victorian Mindset :
The twentieth century replaced Victorian certainty with a pervasive sense of instability and a commitment to interrogation.
* Universal Mutability: The idea of permanence was displaced by a sense of constant flux. H. G. Wells captured this with his phrases "the flow of things" and the notion of the world as "haunted by the idea that embodies itself in the word 'Meanwhile'." He argued that seeing life plainly meant the world ceased to be a home and became merely "the mere sight of a home."
* The Interrogative Habit: Bernard Shaw was the foremost herald of this change, attacking the "old superstition" of religion and the "new superstition" of science. His watchwords were "Question! Examine! Test!" Shaw believed every dogma is a superstition until it is "personally examined and consciously accepted." His work spread the "interrogative habit of mind" for a generation, encapsulated by the character Andrew Undershaft's declaration in Major Barbara:
* The Consequence of Revolt: For some, this was invigorating. For others, it was profoundly destabilizing. The character Barbara's reaction to Undershaft's creed captures this sense of loss: "I stood on the rock I thought eternal; and without a word it reeled and crumbled under me." The text concludes that the revolt from Victorianism ultimately "created for the multitude only a spiritual vacuum."
III. Divergent Literary and Intellectual Currents (Pre-1922)
In the wake of Victorianism's collapse, English literature and thought split into distinct movements with differing philosophies on the purpose of art.
The Sociological Impulse: The Fabian Group
This group prioritized social and political change, viewing literature as a means to an end. Their creed was "art for life's sake" or for the community's sake.
* Key Figures and Aims: The Fabian Society, founded in 1884, sought the "spread of Socialist opinions." Prominent literary members included Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells.
* Architects of the Welfare State: The society's most lasting impact came through Beatrice and Sidney Webb. Their research and Mrs. Webb's Minority Report on poor-law reform (1909) were "essential manuals for socialists" and laid the architectural groundwork for the Welfare State.
* Critique of Fabianism: While crediting the Webbs with bringing "unprecedented material and physical benefit to millions," the text levies a significant criticism. Their focus on State control and a vast administrative machine was "blind to the leaven in the social lump—the exceptional, the eccentric, the individually independent-minded, the nonconforming." Their system inevitably treated individuals as "punched cards passing through the entrails of a computer."
The Aesthetic Impulse: The Bloomsbury Group
In contrast to the Fabians, this group restored, "though with a difference, the art-for-art's-sake principle."
* Membership and Ethos: A circle of friends including Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, Lytton Strachey, and J.M. Keynes, they were intellectuals who valued art, conversation, and good manners. They felt themselves to be of "superior mentality" and tended to be "contemptuous of lesser minds."
* J.M. Keynes's Influence: While an art lover, Keynes was also a man of affairs. His economic theories revolutionized British thinking. His 1919 book, Economic Consequences of the Peace, a "destructive commentary" on the Versailles Treaty, is singled out for its influence. The text suggests the book's "cruel wit" in demolishing Allied statesmen "went far towards encouraging the Germans in their view that the treaty was intolerably unjust, a humiliation that could only be wiped out by a war of revenge."
IV. The Great Divide of 1922: The Rise of Esoteric Modernism
The year 1922, with the publication of James Joyce's Ulysses and T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, marks a fundamental turning point. After this, literature "left the highroad of communication and retreated into an esoteric fastness."
* A Break from Tradition: Before 1922, leading writers like Hardy, Kipling, Shaw, Wells, and Conrad were enjoyed by the "general body of averagely intelligent readers." The new modernism, however, was written for a "small and fastidious public."
* "Dictatorial Intellectualism": This new literary mode was rooted in a contempt for normal intelligence. The text cites Stuart Gilbert's commentary on Ulysses, which praised Joyce for never betraying "the authority of intellect to the hydra-headed rabble of the mental underworld." T.S. Eliot expressed a similar sentiment, asserting that those who see an "antimony between 'literature'... and life are not only flattering the complacency of the half-educated, but asserting a principle of disorder."
* Critique of Academic Isolation: The new style of criticism based on close textual analysis is sharply criticized for isolating literature from life. The text argues that when literature becomes mere "raw material for university exercises," it can have no future as an "enrichment of life." This process is described as "professional inbreeding, a kind of cerebral incest."
* A Case Study in Critical Error: The dangers of this approach are illustrated by an anecdote involving Professor William Empson's analysis of a T.S. Eliot poem in his influential book Seven Types of Ambiguity. Professor Bowers points out that Empson's entire, finely-drawn theory about the poem's meaning was based on a "printer's common transposition error" in the third edition, which was corrected in later editions. The "syntactic ambiguity that Empson so greatly admired" was introduced not by the poet, but by the faulty printer.
V. Society and Literature Between the Wars
The inter-war period was dominated by the trauma of the First World War, the failure of international institutions, and a growing conviction that art must serve political ends.
* Anti-War Literature: Following the "good-mannered indignation" of C.E. Montague's Disenchantment (1922), an "avalanche of anti-war books" began in 1929. Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front and Richard Aldington's Death of a Hero did for millions what Montague had done for a few, proclaiming that the war had destroyed soldiers "either morally or spiritually, or both."
* The Politicization of Art: As the European political scene darkened in the 1930s, a conviction grew among younger writers that "no art could justify itself except as the handmaid of politics." This led to "dreary polemics" and "proletarian pamphlets" that primarily preached to the converted. E.M. Forster is quoted defending the artist's need for retreat from the community, arguing that solitude can provide something "finer and greater than he gets when we merges in the multitudes.
* Rise of Psychological and Religious Themes: The period also saw a belated English reception of continental writers like Kierkegaard, Rilke, and Kafka. Their influence, combined with a popularization of Freudianism, created a "pre-occupation with states of consciousness" and mental disturbance. This fostered a growing assumption that "most men and women are cases to be diagnosed, that the world is a vast clinic, and that nothing but abnormality is normal."
VI. The Post-War Welfare State and Its Discontents
The establishment of the Welfare State after 1945 was intended to usher in an era of contentment through social security. The reality proved to be far different.
* The Unfulfilled Promise of Affluence: The assumption that removing economic stress would bring happiness "did not justify the expectation." Instead, a "mood of sullen discontent settled upon large numbers," while "crime and prostitution... flourished as never before." The new order bred a generation where those "to whom much was now given desired more."
* The Age of Consumerism: Social habits once condemned as "conspicuous waste" among the rich became common to all classes. This was accelerated by advertisers and the hire-purchase system, creating the age of "status symbols" and "keeping up with the Joneses."
* The Power of Advertising: Advertising methods shifted from highlighting a product's quality to utilizing "depth psychology" for subconscious influence. The National Union of Teachers expressed anxiety about ads that evoke an "automatic emotional response," citing examples that suggest "it is manly and grown-up to smoke and drink" or that a girl's "sole purpose is to attract and keep man."
* The Decline of Craft and Form: The growth of mass production led to the near-total disappearance of "individual skill and craftsman's pride" by mid-century.
This was mirrored in the arts, where novels and plays of the 1950s "either ignored or of set purpose flouted literary craftsmanship," giving way to "anti-Art."
VII. The Phenomena of Youth and Cultural Decline
The post-war "affluent society" saw the emergence of a prominent youth culture and a corresponding degradation of public discourse and social norms.
* The Beatnik Cult: Described as a prominent phenomenon, the Beatnik movement originated in California around 1946 as a reaction of "utter disgust" with American society. Its adherents chose to "contract-out" by abandoning respectable conventions, embracing "promiscuous sexuality and drug addiction," and living as homeless tramps.
* Key Texts: Jack Kerouac's novels On the Road and The Dharma Bums.
* British Manifestation: In Britain, the movement was centered in Chelsea, London. Beatniks were committed to "decrepitude of person and dress," with youths and girls alike wearing shoddy jeans and baggy sweaters that made the sexes "often indistinguishable."
* Erosion of Social Norms: The text notes a widespread reaction against self-control, a rise in the illegitimate birthrate, and a social climate where "chastity became a by-word and to be chaste a matter for scorn and reproach in schools and colleges.
* The Degradation of Satire: While true satire is hailed as a "valuable and potent social and political corrective," most of what was proffered as satire in the 1950s "did not rise above witless innocence." This popular form of ridicule is described as an "irresponsible malignancy" that cheapens and degrades a high literary art.
* The Rise of the Personality Cult: The era saw a preference for "living in public," fueled by television and other media that created a "passion for exhibitionism" among writers, scholars, and politicians. The text concludes that "literature and scholarship are not well served when transacted under the public eye."
VIII. Concluding Perspective: Re-evaluating the Victorian Age
The analysis concludes with a reflection on the legacy of the twentieth century's revolt against its predecessor. As the Victorian Age recedes into the past, it can be seen in a "truer perspective." Its so-called hypocrisies might be more fairly judged as "commendable reticence and modesty." This stands in favorable contrast with the later era's assumption that civilized virtues and restraints are arbitrary impositions, rather than the "outcome of the age-long traditional wisdom and social necessity."
“This video provides a clear explanation of the topic ‘The Setting’ by A. C. Ward, highlighting its key ideas and themes.”
“The video included here provides an brief explanation of this topic in Hindi language for easier understanding :
Mind map of this blog : Click here
Learning outcomes:
1. The Context Is Everything :
I learned that great literature doesn't just appear out of nowhere; it's a direct response to the world collapsing around it. I now understand that the Modernist movement was essentially a literary earthquake caused by two huge cultural shifts:
The Shock of War and Science: The destruction of the World Wars and radical scientific discoveries shattered the comfortable, predictable worldview of the Victorian era. I realized that the art and literature created afterwards had to be fragmented and uncertain because that's how people felt.
The Death of Old Rules: I see how the established moral, social, and literary "rules" of the past became irrelevant to a new generation, creating a vacuum that new forms of expression—like Modernism—rushed in to fill.
2. Questioning Is the Engine of Progress
The most impactful lesson for me is that "revolt" is necessary for cultural transformation. The title, "From Obedience to Revolt," summarizes a vital truth:
Generational Pushback: I understand that young people rejecting the traditions and obedience demanded by their elders are the true agents of change. Their decision to embrace critical thinking over compliance is what drives cultural evolution.
The Role of Uncertainty: I recognize that the shift from a settled worldview (Victorian) to a skeptical one (Modern) is essential. It tells me that asking difficult questions is far more valuable than accepting easy answers.
3. A New Critical Lens :
I took away a stronger critical thinking tool that I can apply to anything I study, not just English literature:
Linking Art to Revolution: Before reading this, I might have seen a Modernist poem as just a complex piece of writing. Now, I see it as a historical artifact—a cry of protest and uncertainty directly linked to the decline of empire and the chaos of the early 20th century.
Identifying the "Setting": I learned the importance of identifying the "setting"—the cultural, political, and social conditions described by A. C. Ward—as the foundational prerequisite for understanding why any major artistic or philosophical movement had to exist.
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