Delving into British Literature from the early 1900’s is another world. From the diction to the subject matter, it differs remarkably from my commonplace reads. As much as I have my missed my go to genre, horror, these books have expanded my thought, my vocabulary, and my knowledge of literature. These authors were very intelligent, as is obvious to why they are so commonly taught and read; as a student beginning a creative writing class now, I consistently took note of clever and timeless words and phrases used by these authors that I could use to help better my writing now. Diction like that of Evelyn Waugh’s was especially inspirational personally; I marked down a whole list of words that could be carried in to present day writing and improve my skills: ‘odiously,’ ‘imperturbable,’ ‘desultory.’ There was also a multitude of different writing styles examined throughout the course, including Virginia Woolf’s exceptionally well-known style of stream of consciousness in “Mrs. Dalloway.” Many distinct themes and stories are represented by the different authors too. Comedic British literature like “A Handful of Dust” and provocative British literature like “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and the historical British literature like “A Passage to India” brought great diversity to what was read this ‘semester.’ All of these books had similarities though too. The two main reoccurring themes that come to mind are religion and the differences between social classes. There is of course also the struggle between good and evil, though that is found in almost any novel in all time periods and geographical locations. Many times religion or religious characters were criticized as well as more upper class characters. These both don’t apply to every book but they are solid themes for these writers. And these authors all being from similar places, Britain, Ireland, etc., as well as publishing these works between 1900 and 1940, they were around many of the same things, from smaller social mannerisms to important occurrences of the time. WWI happened between 1914 and 1918; Ireland fought for and won their independence in the 1920’s; the world was advancing towards WWII and began in 1939. All of these events undoubtedly affected these authors in different ways, but they were all influenced by these experiences in some way. We only read from eight authors in this class, but they were eight very important authors, that helped shape thier time and inspire us to this day. All of them were unique and had something different to offer, especially to the new, amateur writer.
REFERENCES
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_War_of_Independence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/30000/velka/british-flag.jpg
http://www.1900s.org.uk/1914-18-ww1-edm-military-hosp.htm (for the picture at the top)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_War_of_Independence
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II
http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/pictures/30000/velka/british-flag.jpg
http://www.1900s.org.uk/1914-18-ww1-edm-military-hosp.htm (for the picture at the top)