Post-war

literature
Performer Shaping Ideas
Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella,
Margaret Layton © 2021
 Post-war literature

1. The fiction of post-war years

Post-war fiction No principal school

Dominant trends Individualism and pluralism

Post-war novels Often served as social criticism

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 Post-war literature

2. 1950s fiction
Angry Young Men

owed their nickname to the worked against Modernist

violent protest of their works experimentation

Best-known writer  Kingsley Amis (1922-1995) with

his novel Lucky Jim.

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 Post-war literature

3. Dystopian novels
The dark side of human nature is explored in William
Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies (1954).

Anarchy and brutal

savagery can emerge
without society’s rules, or
man’s values and ideals.

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 Post-war literature

4. Fantasy novels

The 1950s and 1960s  saw

the success of fantasy novels.

The most important novel

 J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord
of the Rings (1954-55). It
comments on reality through
allegories and mythology.

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 Post-war literature

5. American novels

In the 1950s the Beat Generation  valued freedom over rules

and spirituality over formality.

Main representative  Jack Kerouac, whose cult novel On the

Road deals with the theme of the journey.

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 Post-war literature

5. American novels

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 Post-war literature

6. ‘The Movement’
‘The Movement’ dominated the 1950s.

The most representative poets  Philip Larkin and

Thom Gunn.

They:
Philip Larkin.

•rejected Modernism and experimentation, as well

as the romanticism of poets like Dylan Thomas;

•wanted to create poetry about contemporary

everyday life;
Thom Gunn.
•used simple language and traditional forms.
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 Post-war literature

7. ‘The Group’
The poets belonging to ‘the Group’:

• met in London;

• wanted to discuss contemporary issues.

The most promising poet  Ted Hughes.

His themes  mythic and elemental issues to give voice

to violence and anger.

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 Post-war literature

8. American poetry in the 1950s

Beat poets rejected the more formal, traditional

poetic conventions.
Allen Ginsberg  the most important Beat poet.

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 Post-war literature

9. Irish poetry

• In the late 1960s and early 1970s Irish intellectuals

were connected with the complex political situation
in Northern Ireland.

• The most important contemporary

Irish poet  Seamus Heaney, awarded
the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995.

• He viewed nature as the locus of

Ireland’s historical memory, both
political and private.

Seamus Heaney.

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