THE MODERN NOVEL
THE TRANSITIONAL NOVELISTS
The technical revolu/on of the late 1910s and the early 1920s was preceded by the
transi/on novels.
Novelists began to use flashbacks, /me-shiCs, different pov, and new ways of
portraying human psychology.
Conrad: a Polish writer who used English language for wri/ng; his novel, heart of
darkness, was based on his experience in Congo (exo/c seLng and adventure plot):
Marlow is the protagonist and he realizes that the dark side of humans comes out
when they are alone and can’t rely on social ins/tu/ons. The novel is also a a cri/c
to European colonialism in Africa.
D.H. Lawrence: he is the first novelist to have a full impact of psychoanalysis and
psychology. “Sons and Lovers” has the psychological descrip/on of an oedipal
complex.
THE MODERNIST REVOLUTION
James Joyce and V. Woolf are the protagonist of this movement and they are parte
of the 1st genera/on of modernists: they reflected a lack of faith in tradi/onal and
Victorian values and the disillusion in progress, science and technology.
Classical myths were oCen used: in Ulysses, Joyce used the pa`ern of homer’s
odyssey to describe the journey in city life. Leopold bloom, the protagonist, is a high
intelligent Dubliner who doesn’t believe in heroism, ideals, love and modern world.
Time is a con/nuous flux in which the individual finds the important moments.
(àstream of consciousness)
Dubliners: in this novel joyce talks about the condi/on of people living in Dublin and
the central theme is the mental frustra/on that characterizes the city.
V.Wo o l f: in Modern fic/on, she divides the /me in “/me of the clock” and “/me of
the mind”: objec/ve and subjec/ve /me.
THE COLONIAL NOVEL:
E.M. Forster is one of the most important member of the Bloomsbury group
(WOOLF): he’s an an/-imperialism and this is reflected in “ a passage to india” where
he talks about the difficult rela/onship between bri/sh and Indians. However,
Forster doesn’t use the chao/c flow of thoughts.
THE ANTI-UTOPIAN NOVEL:
Nega&ve utopias were congenial to the writers of the 1930s and 1940s, who became
increasingly concerned with the growing influence of mass media and the development of
