Literature of the Middle Ages. The Anglo-Saxon period Beowulf

William Faulkner had in his works both the traces of “the lost generation" & modernism. W.Faulkner was born in the state of Mississippi, he took part in World War 1 (but not for long as he was wounded & came back home). As it was already mentioned his works were influenced by the war experience ("Soldier's Pay") and often dealt wilh the theme of "the lost generalion". Besides he also represented the Southern School of Writers.
The other writers who belonged to this school were:
— Erskine Caldwell(1903 - 1987) his novels "'Tobacco Road” (1932) & “God’s Little Acre” (1933) put the author among the classics of'american literature;
—Margaret Mitchell (1900 - 1949) the novel "Gone with the Wind" (1936) was her only novel;
— thomasclayton Wolfe (1900 - 1938) - his first novel at once brought fame to its author – “Look Homeward, Angel”(1929);
—Robert Penn Warren (1905 - 1989) - "All the King's Men” (1946) is his most famous novel;
— Tennessee Williams (1911 - 1983) - he was a playwright. One of his most popular plays are "The Glass Menagerie” (1944), "A Streat Car Named Desire"(1947), "0rpheus Descending” (1957), etc.
All these writers dealt with the Southern Myth in their work's, with the process of disintegration of the American South up to the Civil War. The Southern Myth meant the idealization of the prewar (the Civil War) past, of the relationships & mentality of the Southerners before the war, the superiority of the South over the pragmatic & commercial North. All that "was gone with the wind theof the Civil War. And all that was replaced. The moral superiority of the Southerners, the elegance & refinement of the southern women - all was gone & replaced by the pragmatism & unscrupulousness after the war. In all such novels we feel the nostalgia for the past. The writers of the Southern School asserted the myth, on the other hand denounced it, showing that the roots of the postwar vices lie in the prewar reality. In all these works we see that it was a crucial thing that destroyed the lives of many characters. None of the Southern families managed to revive morally after the war.
William Faulkner had in his works both the traces of “the lost generation" & modernism. W.Faulkner was born in the state of Mississippi, he took part in World War 1 (but not for long as he was wounded & came back home). As it was already mentioned his works were influenced by the war experience ("Soldier's Pay") and often dealt wilh the theme of "the lost generalion". Besides he also represented the Southern School of Writers.
W. Faulkner said that "once he realized that his small country, the sign of a post stamp presents enough
material to write about". "Sartoris” (1929) was Faulkner's first novel which really brought him fame (though it was already his 3^rd published novel). In this book we find ourselves in the district ot Yoknapatawpha (which very much resembles the stale of Mississippi where Faulkner lived) with the town of Jefferson as its capital. "Yoknapatawpha is an Indian phrase which means “quiet flows the river here" (it is consonant with Sholohov’s Тихий Дон"). And in many of the writer's other novels we come across the characlers from this district, so the theme of Yoknapatawpha & its people is many times repeated in Faulkner's future works. About 14 other novels of Faulkner deal with life of families from there & trace the process of disintegration of these families: "As I Lay Dying" (1930);'Light in August” (1932); ''Absalom, Absalom!”(1936);
—the trilogy: — "The Hamlet” (1940); "The Town"1957); “The Mansion" (1959) this trilogy shows a rise of a bourgeois family.
All these novels are marked with a very deep insight into human psychology, They bring out the innermost thoughts & feelings of the characters. Besides the writer introduces the device of multiple narration, when one & the same story is told by several people (for example, "As I Lay Dying" consists of 59 monologues of the 15 characters). Faulkner thought that the position of the narrator, standing above the characlers is not applicable - many viewpoints should be shown. In the 30s Faulkner wrote under a great influence of Freud's ideas. And his so called "black novels" are full of scenes of madness, schizophrenia, insanity (such a piece modernism is his novel " The Sound and The Fury”(1929). And the trilogy shows his turn to realism. It traces two opposite processes: the downfall of the rich, aristocratic families & the rise of a capitalist family with the American Dream as their target i life "from ags to riches". Faulkner was really a Southern writer with the feeling of defeated mode of life of the Southerners after the Civil War. In his works he often shows the black slaves as primitive people who need the guidance. He also touches upon the blood relationships in the works (for example, the right of the landowner to have any black woman & children from her).
Actaully aamericans are always likely to be quite optimistic but Faulkner was deeply influenced by Dostoyevsky and he was not afraid to show the worst sides of human nature. For his literaturry work he was awarded the Nobel Prize.
And speaking about modernists of the time we can’t mention Henry James whose concept was “the many windowed house” (концепция множественности точек зрения) had a great influence on the development of the novel as a genre. The concept reflected the many-sided character of the perception of the reality by different personages, as they look on the world from different view points (this idea is very consonant with the ideas of Leo Tolstoy).
21. American Drama. E.O'Neill, T. Williams.

AMERICAN DRAMA

The greatest American playwrights ol the 20"' century are Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953), Tennesse Williams (1911 - 1983), Arthur Miller (1915).
American Drama of the l9th c. Was aimed at entertaining - vaudevilles & musicals were very popular. So, everything in drama was done for entertainment or melodrama. But the situation in Europe was similar). But at the end of the 19^th c, & at the beginning of the 20^th c. New tendencies began to appear in theeuropean theatre opposing the previous ideas that plays should he just "well - made". 0. Wilde (1854 - 1900) gave some wit & fantasy to English drama in hiscomedy of manners "The Importance of Being Earnest" (1895), a comedy that is worthy to rank with Sheridan.
But the really great dramatic genius of'the age was not to come from Britain but from Norway, Henric Ibsen's (1828 - 1906) work cannot be considered here but we must note the tremendous impact it made on the English theatre, and in the long run on the American theatre. Ibsen delved deep into the social & domestic problems of his age (problems common to both Scandinavia & England), and his presentation of a tailed marriage in "A Doll's House", and the sins of the fathers being visited on their children in “Ghosts", caused a sensation when William Archer translated these plays into English for production in London.