Important Long questions of 5th semester ,Bankura University English Hons

1. The Rise of the Psychological Novel

Introduction: In the early 20th century, the focus of the novel shifted from the "outer world" to the "inner world." Writers became more interested in thoughts, feelings, and the human subconscious than in social action. This led to the birth of the Psychological Novel and the Stream of Consciousness technique.

Key Stages of Development:

• The Precursors: Henry James is often called the father of the psychological novel. He focused on the complex minds of his characters.
• Stream of Consciousness: This phrase was coined by William James (a psychologist). It refers to the continuous, chaotic flow of thoughts in a person's mind.
• Dorothy Richardson: She was arguably the first to use this technique fully in her novel sequence Pilgrimage (1915).
• Virginia Woolf: She perfected the style. In novels like Mrs. Dalloway, she recorded the "atoms as they fall upon the mind," ignoring standard plot structures.
• James Joyce: He took the technique to its limit in Ulysses, recording every fleeting thought, sensation, and memory of his characters.

"Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo." – Virginia Woolf

2. Trends in English Poetry (1900-1940)

Introduction: English poetry underwent a massive transformation between 1900 and 1940, moving from Victorian stability to modern fragmentation.

Main Trends:

• The Georgian Poets (1910-1914): Poets like Rupert Brooke and Walter de la Mare wrote simple, rural, and romantic poetry. They ignored the ugly realities of the industrial world.
• The War Poets (1914-1918): WWI changed everything. Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon replaced romanticism with brutal realism. They wrote about trenches, gas, and death.
• Imagism: Led by Ezra Pound, this movement rejected flowery language. They wanted poetry to be clear, hard, and precise, focusing on a single image.
• High Modernism (The 1920s): T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922) defined this era. Poetry became complex, intellectual, and full of allusions, reflecting the spiritual emptiness of post-war Europe.
• The Poets of the 30s: Led by W.H. Auden, this generation turned back to politics. They were concerned with socialism, the rise of fascism, and social issues.

3. The Revival of Poetic Drama

Introduction: By the late 19th century, drama had become almost entirely realistic prose (like Ibsen or Shaw). In the 20th century, W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot led a movement to bring poetry and ritual back to the stage.

Contribution of W.B. Yeats:

• Yeats wanted to create a "Theatre of Beauty." He hated the realistic commercial theatre.
• He was influenced by Japanese "Noh" plays, which used masks, dance, and music.
• His plays, such as The Countess Cathleen and Deirdre, were based on Irish mythology and focused on spiritual truth rather than realistic action.

Contribution of T.S. Eliot:

• Eliot believed that realistic prose drama could not express the deepest human emotions.
• He tried to revive verse drama by mixing it with religious themes and modern settings.
• His masterpiece is Murder in the Cathedral (1935), which uses a chorus like Greek tragedy. Later, he tried to hide the poetry in conversational rhythms in plays like The Cocktail Party.

4. James Joyce’s Narrative Techniques

Introduction: James Joyce is perhaps the most innovative novelist in English history. He completely reshaped how stories are told.

Key Innovations:

• Interior Monologue: Joyce takes the reader directly inside the character's mind. We hear their thoughts without an narrator explaining them.
• Stream of Consciousness: In Ulysses, he records the chaotic flow of the mind—incomplete sentences, sudden memories, and sensory associations.
• Epiphany: Joyce focused on "epiphanies"—sudden moments of spiritual realization in ordinary life, rather than big dramatic plot twists.
• Linguistic Experimentation: He broke the rules of grammar. He invented new words, used puns, and played with sound. In Finnegans Wake, he created a "dream language" that is very hard to decode.
• The Mythical Method: In Ulysses, he paralleled modern Dublin life with the ancient Greek myth of the Odyssey, giving dignity to ordinary modern people.

5. Impact of WWI on Literature

Introduction: World War I (1914-1918) was a traumatic shock to Western civilization. It destroyed the Victorian belief in progress, order, and God. Literature reflected this shattered world.

Key Impacts:

• Loss of Innocence: Pre-war literature was often optimistic. Post-war literature was cynical and disillusioned. The "Old Lie" of glorious war was exposed.
• Fragmentation: Writers felt that a linear story with a beginning, middle, and end could no longer represent reality. This led to fragmented narratives (like The Waste Land).
• Shell Shock and Trauma: Novels began to deal with damaged psyches. In Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, the character Septimus suffers from shell shock, reflecting the mental toll of the war.
• Irony and Satire: Writers like Siegfried Sassoon used bitter irony to attack authority figures and the government.
• The "Lost Generation": American writers in Europe (like Hemingway) wrote about a generation that felt aimless and emotionally barren after the violence.

6. Yeats and the Irish Literary Revival

Introduction: The Irish Literary Revival was a movement to create a distinct national literature for Ireland, separate from England. W.B. Yeats was its undisputed leader.

Yeats's Contribution:

• The Celtic Twilight: Yeats revived ancient Irish folklore, fairy tales, and myths. He wanted to give Ireland a sense of its own heroic past.
• The Abbey Theatre: Along with Lady Gregory, Yeats founded the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. This gave Irish playwrights a place to showcase Irish themes.
• National Identity: Through his poetry, he helped define what it meant to be Irish. He moved from dreamy, romantic folklore to the hard political reality of the Irish struggle for independence (e.g., "Easter, 1916").
• Modern Symbolism: Yeats was not just a nationalist; he was a great Modernist. He developed a complex system of symbols to explore history, art, and the soul, influencing all English poetry that followed.