Twentieth-Century Novel

Dr. Kübra KANGÜLEÇ COŞKUN

 Main Movements in the Novel
Writing*
*characterized by diversity, many subgenres
 Modernism: dominant literary movement during people, attempt for decolonization and re-discovery
the first part of the 20th century (V. Woolf, J. Joyce, of indigenous identities (C. Achebe, S. Rushdie, F.
W. Faulkner, etc.) Fanon, E. M. Forster, D. Walcott)
 Dystopia writing: popular during the post-war  Magical realism: rejects the notion of the real,
period as totalitarianism rises, trust in technology postmodernist in its stance, cherishes multiple
decreases and despair dominates individuals(George realities, inclusion of the fantastic and the magical
Orwell, William Golding, Anthony Burgess, M. into mundane reality, emerges in Latin America (G.
Atwood, etc.) G. Marquez, T. Morrison, I. Allende, A. Carter, J.
 Winterson, etc)
Sci-fiction: popular towards the end of the 20th
century, technological and scientific developments  Fantasy novel: rejection of realism, stories with
inspire the genre (Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space fantasy elements set in fantastic places and times,
Odyssey; Ursula K. Le Guin) dream-like atmosphere (J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis,
 (L. Frank Baum, H. P. Lovecraft,etc.)
Postmodernism: becomes common in novel writing
during the second part of the 20th century (J.  Crime& Mystery& Detective fiction: based on a
Fowles, P. Auster, D. Lessing,etc) crime and follows the process of investigation led by
 an amateur or a professional detective (A. Christie,
Post-colonialism: literature of once-colonized
D. L. Sayers, Graham Greene, Julian Symons, etc.)
Modern novel

 flourishes in the midst of the social and political turbulence (1890-

1950)
 rejects realism of the previous centuries
 foregrounds subjective reality of the individual character including
her/his prejudices, biases, distorted version of reality
 psychological development of the characters under the influence of
Freud theories – use of the unconscious
 use of stream-of-consciousness
 rejection of linear time concept; fragmentation, repetition
 pessimisim, nihilism, isolation, alienation, human suffering
Famous Modernist Novelists

 Virginia Woolf
 James Joyce
 Dorothy Miller Richardson
 Joseph Conrad
 E. M. Forster
 Samuel Beckett
 D. H. Lawrence
 William Faulkner
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

 born to an aristocratic family, received formal education at the Ladies’

Department of King’s College London
 acquainted with the women’s rights movement during her college years
 became one of the founders of the Bloomsbury Group (a group of
writers, artists, intellectuals favoring gender equality, rejecting
Victorian morals)
 married Leonard Woolf and founded the Hogarth Press
 suffered from bipolar disorder, died by drowning herself
 famous for her feminist themes, use of stream-of-consciousness and
poetic language
 best-known works: Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927),
Orlando (1928), A Room of One’s Own (1929)
 To the Lighthouse (1927)
 Setting: years before and after the WWI, the Hebrides (island group
off the Scottish mainland)
 Composed of three sections «The Window», «Time Passes», «The
Lighthouse»
 Storyline: Mr and Mrs Ramsay, together with their eight children, visit
their summer house in the Hebrides, James Ramsay(the youngest of
the children) wants to go to the lighthouse, her mother promises but
he is rejected by his father. Later, the couple hosts some visitors
including Lily Briscoe, a young painter. She starts to make a portrait of
Mrs Ramsay. In the chapter «Time Passes», the world war breaks out.
Mrs Ramsay dies suddenly, her eldest son dies in battle as well. The
family is in fragments and stops visiting the summerhouse. Years later,
the family returns to the summerhouse and Mr Ramsay takes James
and Cam to the lighthouse. Lily sits to complete the painting of Mrs
Ramsay and finishes it. During the boat trip, even James feels a
moment of connection with his father Mr Ramsay.
Characters

 Mr Ramsay: a famous metaphysical philosopher, a strict and selfish father

figure but easily offended, suffers from his personal anxieties, his obssession
about creating academic works to be remembered by future generations,
Mrs Ramsay: a loving wife and mother, accepts all traditional gender roles,
in constant need for support, tries to find a suitable husband to Lily
 Lily Briscoe: a young, liberal painter, has no desire to get marry, sometimes
suffers from feeling of worthlessness because of male attacks claiming
women can’t paint, undergoes a transformation and in the end, finishes her
painting
 James Ramsay: sensitive, loves his mother and hates his father, grows into a
young man much like his father, dominated by his feeling of insecurity,
loneliness, resentment
Themes & Technique

 Themes: individual struggle to bring meaning and order to life, art as

an attempt for immortality and unity vs. transience of life, loneliness
and alienation, gender roles, impossibility of human communication

 Technique: stream of consciousness, composed of the inner thoughts of

the characters, third-person narrator in a constant shift from one
character’s mind to another’s, use of strong images and symbols, use
of silences

 Extra – see the movie «The Hours» on Woolf’s life and works.
Subjective perceptions

 «William Bankes shows interest in the purple triangular shape in Lily

Briscoe's painting. Lily says it is Mrs. Ramsay reading to James and
explains the process of shading. Harboring romantic feelings for Mrs.
Ramsay and scientific-minded, Mr. Bankes is intrigued and questions
her representation, but Lily cannot articulate or visualize her intention
"without a brush in her hand." Taken at face value, her words pertain to
the painting technique; however, beyond their literal meaning, she may
be referring both to multiple perspectives and to balance (what eludes
her in the composition), indicating that something dark is countered by
contrasting lightness, or more broadly a negative by a positive, or
opposing condition.» (from Chapter 9, To the Lighthouse)
James Joyce (1882-1941)

 Irish modernist writer famous for his avant-garde style

 born to a Catholic middle-class family, studied from University
College in Dublin
 criticized narrow-minded Irish nationalism, self-exile in Italy
 overriding themes in his works: criticism of Irish masculinity and
nationalism, Catholicism, claustrophobic atmosphere of Ireland,
gender roles in traditional Irish society
 famous for his modernist style dominated by stream-of-
consciousness, interior monologues, neologisms and wordplay,
experiments with syntax, literary allusions
 best-known works: Dubliners (1914), A Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), Finnegans Wake (1939)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man (1916)

 A novel about artist’s growth and maturity process (künstlerroman), Modernist

in style
 Setting: 19th century Dublin
 Storyline: Stephen Dedalus, a boy living in Ireland, realizes the heavy
influence of Irish nationalism and Catholicism on him while attending a strict
religious school and decides to get rid of all his social and religious constraints
to create his identity as an artist. His first sexual experience and his guilty
conscience urge him to question many aspects in his life. In the end, he
repents. While highly interested in artistic creation, Stephen also urges himself
to attend Masses and to become a model Christian. One day he sees a young
girl on the beach and is struck by her beauty. This becomes the moment of
epiphany in his life as he realizes tht beauty cannot be a source of shame. His
sexual awakening starts his intellectual awakening as well and Stephen decides
to free his soul. During his university years, he develops his own artistic
theories as well as his own identity.
Characters

 Stephen Dedalus: a sensitive young man who wants to become an artist,

modeled on Joyce himself, undergoes many transformations during the novel
to liberate himself from all constraints in the end; Allusion to the myth of
Dedalus, a famous craftsman who designed two pairs of wings to fly
 Simon Dedalus: Stephen’s father and an Irish patriot. Nostalgic about this
past, has a restricting influence on Stephen
 Mary Dedalus: Stephen’s mother. A loving and religious mother, argues with
Stephen over religion all the time. Another restricting character for Stephen
 Emma Clery: the girl whom Stephen falls in love with. A shadowy figure,
Stephen idealizes her and sees her as the embodiment of perfect femininity.
A pure, distant and unreachable figure for Stephen who is writing poetry for
her.
Themes & Technique

 Themes: development of individual identity, alienation of the

intellectual, the role of the artist in society, restricting influence of
narrow-minded religion and nationalism
 Technique: stream of consciousness, the third person narration (but
limited in perspective) & the first person narration (through Stephen’s
diary entries towards the end), philosophical passages, fragmented
narration during the sermons, experiments with language (simple
words and syntax during Stephen’s childhood, complex and logically
ordered passages during his adult years)
Opening Chapter

Once upon a time and a very good time it When you wet the bed, first it is warm then it
was there was a moocow coming down along gets cold. His mother put on the oilsheet.
the road and this moocow that was coming That had the queer smell.
down along the road met a nicens little boy
His mother had a nicer smell than his father.
named baby tuckoo....
She played on the piano the sailor’s
His father told him that story: his father hornpipe for him to dance. He danced:
looked at him through a glass: he had a
Tralala lala,
hairy face. He was baby tuckoo. The moocow
came down the road where Betty Byrne Tralala tralaladdy,
lived: she sold lemon platt. Tralala lala,
O, the wild rose blossoms Tralala lala.
On the little green place. Uncle Charles and Dante clapped. They were
He sang that song. That was his song. older than his father and mother but uncle
Charles was older than Dante. (Chapter I, A
O, the green wothe botheth. Portrait)
 Stephen’s Final Revolt

 “I will tell you what I will do and what I

will not do. I will not serve that in which I
no longer believe, whether it calls itself
my home, my fatherland, or my church:
and I will try to express myself in some
mode of life or art as freely as I can and
as wholly as I can, using for my defense
the only arms I allow myself to use --
silence, exile, and cunning.” (Chapter V, A
Portrait)
Postmodern Novel

 Rejects values of the modern period (starting with the Age of

Enlightenment): objective knowledge, science, stable self, Reason,
center – all are human constructs!
 Accepts multiple truths, individual realities, deconstructed and
fragmented self, scepticism towards the center
 Questions all the value system of the past generations, challenges
binary oppositions
 Rejects metanarratives (totalizing narratives which aren’t questioned)
 Language creates humanbeings (the concept of discourse)!
 Enjoys fragmentation, chaos, challenge against the traditional, anarchy
John Fowles (1926-2005)

 famous for his postmodern novels influenced

by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus (some
of his works considered modernist)
 born to a middle-class merchant family,
studied at Oxford
 famous works: The Magus (1966), The
Collector (1963), The French Lieutenant’s
Woman (1969), The Ebony Tower (1974),
Mantissa (1981), A Maggot (1985)
The French Lieutenat’s Woman
(1969)

 Historiographic metafiction: a postmodern writing technique that emphasises text’s

fictional nature and reminds the audience that it is a constructed work, plays with
traditional writing styles, problematises the concept of history writing, deconstructs and
reconstructs Victorian novel writing
 has a Victorian setting with characters from Victorian times, the narrator appears as a
minor character
 Storyline: Sarah Woodruff, aka «French Lieutenant’s Whore», lives as a fallen woman
abandoned by a French officer. She spends most of her time on the shore, watching the
sea and working as a maid. Charles Smithson, a gentleman, realizes her and gets
curious about her story. In time, he falls in love with Sarah although he is already
engaged to Ernestina. In this point, the narrator intervenes the story and turns into a
character in it. The narrator comes up with three possible ends for this Victorian love
story, the first two endings mimic typical Victorian love stories while the last ending
including the narrator-character as well.
Themes & Technique

 themes: Victorian gender roles, science and religion conflict,

criticism of Victorian society
 postmodern: metafictional writing; use of paratexts and
intertexuality (parodying the works of George Eliot, Charles
Dickens, William Thackeray), multiple endings; abrupt
passages about philosophical debates in reference to Karl
Marx, Matthew Arnold, etc.; questions the role of the author
(not an omniscient, God-like narrator), time shifts forward
and back (two worlds: the Victorian and the present)
The End.