ENG 4339 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Metanarrative, Gerund, Elitism
Laura López Cózar
UNIT 1. BRITISH LITERATURE IN THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY. WRITING AND THE
EMPIRE. WAR POETS.
CHANGES RESPECT TO THE PREVIOUS PERIOD
•The monarchy → they change their surname to Windsor. After Queen Victoria, Edward VII
(1901 – 1910). George VI and Elizabeth II.
•International affairs → the gradual disintegration of the British Empire. The struggle for
the independence of many colonies (such as India in 1947). The Boer War. The Ireland
troubles (independent in 1922) and World War I (1914 - 1918).
•Ideology → questions about the Empire, the Suffragette movement. The moral self-imposed
obligation of colonization or christianization other contries. Changes in the previous decade.
With colonialism, national pride, but now nostalgia for the past. Questioning of Victorian
values, shaking of traditional beliefs (1859, Charles Darwin. The origin of species) shaking
of christianity values, uncertainties. Pessimism among intellectuals.
•Other:
oSocial → loss of power of the Aristocracy. More attention to middle and lower
classe. Britain as an urban country. Fight for women`s vote the suffragists. There
were more individualism.
oCultural → new disciplines emerge (psychology and psychoanalysis) attention to
the individual and the society (sociology developed, how society works), the theory
of relativity affects the society. New machines, the beginning of cinemma or
photography, the invention of the car or the radio. Extension of literacy (the ability to
read or write), the education became compulsory since 1880, by 1900s the society
was more literary.
oLiterature → perceived as a serious academic discipline which trasmits ideology.
Cration of the English literary canon → the master pieces choosed by the intellectual
ellite (studied at universities).
WRITING AND THE EMPIRE
•Literature produced on the first decade: Edwardian Literature (during Edward VII's reign).
•Main characteristics:
◦Continuity with Victorian literature in form (realism, omniscent narrator) and ideology
(imperialism, national pride, superiority of British culture).
◦Freequent topic: Feeling of nostalgia for a glorious past.
◦Literature mainly conservative, sentimental, patriotic, masculinist (was not a
innovative at all, they wanted to imitate previous styles).
◦Best-known authors (some already famous before):
▪Joseph Conrad.
▪Rudyard Kipling.
▪E. M. Foster (novelist, later a Modernist).
▪George Bernard Shaw (a dramatist, theatre of ideas).
▪Oscar Wilde.
JOSEPH CONRAD.
•Novelist born in Eastern Europe (1857 – 1924). English not his native laguage. He travelled
a lot, he settled in Britain and became a British subject.
•His novella “Heart of Darkness” (1902). Issues of Colonialism in it. A journey of a several
Europeans to Africa on a colonising mission.
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•Plot: A journey of several Europeans to Africa on a colonizing mission. Based in a journey
Joseph done. He knew the area, he wanted to travel to Africa to see the perception of the
dark continent → Africa.
•There is a narrator, who is on the trip and he tells the reader about what hapens on the
expedition. There is another character, an European and is a corrupted colonialist. It is a
discovery of the evil nature of human being. KURTS, he is the center of the narrative. He
oppresses and manipulate in name of colonization. He thinks he has the power over life and
death and he can do whatever he likes over the people there because he knows how to
manipulate them.
•Intertextuality with the 1979 film Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola). Clearly based in
the novel.
◦Focus on texts
▪Extract of Heart of Darkness.
•References to the nationalistic pride:
◦“We could have fancied ourselves the first of men taking possesions of an
accursed inheritance.” → the europeans are men, not the natives.
◦“The prehistoric man was cursing” → the natives are non-evolutioned
people.
◦“we glided past like phantoms, wondering and secretly appalled, as sane men
would be before an enthusiastic outbreak in a mad house”. → the european
were sane people in a country of insane/mad people.
◦“because we were too far” → the european were too far from their country,
so they were far from the empire, from the evolutioned world.
◦“in the night of first ages” → a reference of the involutioned world that is
Africa.
•They discover the evil side of a human being → represented by the “darkness”.
◦“We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness”.
•The lack of understanding →
◦“Whether it meant war, peace, or prayer we could not tell.”
◦“Who could tell? We were cut off from the comprehension of our
sorrundings”.
•African people is treated as insane men, mad people. They are compared to
european people (simile). To prehistoric men. They are not considered as human
beings (they are pieces of a body).
◦“But suddently, as we struggled round a bend, there would be a glimpse of
rush walls, of peacked grass-roofs, a burst of yells, a whirl of black limbs, a
mass of hands clapping, of feet stamping, of bodies swaying, of eyes rolling,
under the droop of heavy and motionless foliage.”
RUDYARD KIPLING
•Son of a colonialist in India. Born in India (1865 – 1936).
•poet and novelist. Already writing the Victorian period.
•India a frequent setting, but racist, imperialistic values (the ethnic superiority of britain).
•Famous works: the jungle books (1895) and Kim (1901).
•one of his poems was voted as the favourite in England. (IF)
◦The poem:
▪It is a couplet in quatrains (4 lines). The ryhme is aa bb cc. The ruthm is done by
repetitions and paralelisms.
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◦Focus on texts
▪The glory of the Garden.
•References to the nationalistic pride:
◦“Our England is a Garden” → the dominant metaphore in all poem. The idea
of collectivity. Are a lot of references to the plural, the plural england. If we
perceiv england as a garden, we expect beuty in the garden. The poet is proud
of england.
◦The garden is a lot of work, to have a glorious garden, they have to work.
◦There have to be people to look after the garden, in the 5th stanza it is
mention.
◦Is masculunist. The gardeners are men.
◦The gardeners are soldiers, the army. Metaphore to speak about who is
fighting for the nations. Colonizers.
◦In the 4th stanza we can see what is the things they can do to be a glorious
britain.
◦In the 5th stanza tells us that to make a garden as glorious, they have to work,
and need action.
◦In the 6th there is a paralel structure to make rhythm.
◦You have to seek your job, you have to be thankfulness, you have to be work
and obey, and you will be proud of your work and your sacrifice.
◦Adam was a gardener → he obey god. Paralel with christianity, the british
subjects have to obey and then you can pray and be proud, the glory of
garden will be prosperous.
WAR POETRY
•On World War I (1914 – 1918), written by soldiers.
◦New weapons were invented. The battles were non-stop for several weeks, this created
horrors, this shocked everyone. Those who survived, had traumas and psychological.
•An enormous amount of poetry (reasons: growth of literacy, emotions provoked by the war,
reading and paising war poems as patriotic). The sacrifice and the fight for your country.
•Two tendencies in poetry:
◦Pro-war (beginning of the war) → patriotic, idealistic, optimistic, celebration of the
nation.
◦Anti-war (1916-) → about of the horrors of the war, realistic, pesimistic. Protest,
disillusionment, poetic renovation (everyday language). Shift from a myth-dominated to
a demythologised world. END OF INNOCENCE.
▪They think the language was necessary to arrive to everybody. More descriptive,
more direct, more visual. Loss of high diction or elevated language. They tried to use
different ryhms. The ideology was erased by the cruelty of the texts.
•Best-known soldier poets (anti-war poetry).
◦Wilfred Owen (1893 -1918)
▪He invent the pararhyme because it was a way to show the imperfection of war. He
wrote a lot of poetry. He suffered from shell shock.
•Dulce et Decorum Est.
◦The poem have an AA-BB ryhm pattern. There are 7 quatrains. Owen uses
alliterations and paralelisms. The syntax is very complex.
◦The 1st stanza is a description of the soldiers. Which are the victims of
something that happened.
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Document Summary
Changes respect to the previous period: the monarchy they change their surname to windsor. After queen victoria, edward vii (1901 1910). International affairs the gradual disintegration of the british empire. The struggle for the independence of many colonies (such as india in 1947). The ireland troubles (independent in 1922) and world war i (1914 - 1918). Ideology questions about the empire, the suffragette movement. The moral self-imposed obligation of colonization or christianization other contries. With colonialism, national pride, but now nostalgia for the past. Questioning of victorian values, shaking of traditional beliefs (1859, charles darwin. The origin of species) shaking of christianity values, uncertainties. Pessimism among intellectuals: other, social loss of power of the aristocracy. There were more individualism: cultural new disciplines emerge (psychology and psychoanalysis) attention to the individual and the society (sociology developed, how society works), the theory of relativity affects the society.
