LITERATURE – PROSE

Title Year Setting Key facts Themes Symbols Narrator and Tone Writing
Motifs POV style
Imagery
THE AUGUSTAN AGE
Tristram 1759 -in a village -LS=father of Eng. anti-novel -life is a digression -noses, clocks, Tristram, 1st -academic -9 volumes
Shandy 1767 in England in (+features) -the impossibility of person POV language; -blank
the 18th h - novel raises qs. about the nature of knowing a person -his voice -serious/ pages/blocks of
century, in fiction and of reading -what is a novel? intertwines satirical? black ink
Shandy Hall, -the novel=an autobiography; a series -humour and with the -humorous, -no beginning,
-the other of digressions sentimentalism others’ playful middle or end to
main setting -2 narrative lines: Tristram’s -fate and free-will -humoristic, the storyline
is Toby's conception, birth, cristening and -time playful -SoC, change in
country circumcision (6 vol) and the fortunes of narrator? fonts, diagrams,
house. Uncle Toby (3vol) use of symbols
-inserts
documents in the
narrative
MODERNISM
Women in 1920 England -core features of novel: the complexity -marriage and work omniscient -psychological
Love of human psychology and the -the triangle of desire narrator description
importance of man’s emotional and -decay and rebirth -profound
sensual life -repression and instincts symbolism
-influenced by F. Nietzsche and critical -sacred sexuality -myths, allegories
of Freudian psychoanalysis -nihilism and modernity
-industry & technology
-life and art
-environment and
psychology
Ulysses 1922 June 16, -Irish cultural revival -the quest for paternity - -lightness and darkness -anonymous -18 episodes
1904, in -Irish bid for independence from the remorse of conscience -the home usurped narrators, 3rd -scattererd and
modernist/ Dublin Britain -compassion as heroic -- -the east and 1st pers fragmented form
comic/ques -1904-failure of several home rule bills parallax, or the need for -plumtree’s potted meat POV, interior -S.o.C.
-authorities and institutions: The multiple perspectives -the gold cup gorserace monologue,
t novel
British empire, Irish nationalism, the -S’s latin quarter hat play script
Roman Catholic Church, the Irish -B’s potato talisman
Literary Revival
-realistic novel which works on a
mythical level
LATE MODERNISM
Seize the 1956 New York, · -Wilhelm’s isolation, the feeling of -the predicament of 3rd person -dark and
Day 1950's in many during that time modern man limited constantly in
(US) America, -dissolution and dislocation because of -alienation and loneliness omniscient flux
within the forced immigration -American Dream -fluctuates in -illustrates the
time frame -strong American economy; at “war” -father and son and out of the dark and
novella
of one day. with the Soviet Union that uses tools -success and failure minds of all solemn mood of
Flashbacks of science and technology as weapons -individual vs. society the the modern
occur about -not a regular day, it is a “day of characters, man but finds
times from reckoning” but takes redemption in
1930s to -positive ending primarily the its ultimate
1950s. voice of optimism
Tommy -teasing, lightly
Wilhelm satirical tone
POSTMODERNISM - UK
1984 1949 Oceania -inspired by the rise of dictators such -the psychological, -The glass paperweight ; 3rd person dark,
(London as Hitler and Stalin -> vision of a post- technological, physical, -the red armed prole limited’ frustrated,
negative /England) atomic dictatorship and social dangers of woman Winston pessimistic
utopian/ 1984 -author against any form of totalitarianism and -the picture of St. Smith’s POV
governmental totalitarianism political authority Clement’s Church (the
dystopian
-repression of the human spirit, -the importance of past);
novel absolute governmental control of daily language in shaping -the telescreens and the
life, constant hunger human though posters of Big;
-fear as a tool for manipulating - the phrase “the place
-people life in misery, fear and where there is no
repression darkness”
-disloyal thought is against the law -Urban decay (London is
falling apart under the
Party’s leadership);
-doublethink (ability to
hold two contradictory
ideas in mind at the
same time and believe
them both to be true)
Nice Work fictional =a realistic account of the Thatcherite -budget cuts factory’s chimney 3rd person ironic, foreshadowing,
1988 city of England of the 1980s/ a modern -racism POV humorous, light allusions,
parody of Rummidge version of the industrial novel -education imagery, paradox,
the =a comedy of character and social -a role of woman parallelism,
mores metonymy,
industrial
-1840s and 50s:”Industrial synecdoche,
novel; Novels”/”Condition of England Novels” personification,
campus -affluence and prosperity in the 2nd epigraphs
novel half of 20th c, but also hardship and
dislocation; a trade union movement
fought for a better salaries and against
job losses
-Robyn Penrose, a feminist university
lecturer meets Vic Wilcox, the
manager of an engineering firm
(Industry Year Shadow Scheme)

The 1989 Early 1920- -post imperialist work -dignity and greatness 1st pers, proper and SoC; ellipsis and
Remains of July 1956; -nostalgia for the English way of life -regret Steven’s POV; formal diction; meanders;
the day Darlington before WW2 -loss 2 levels of nostalgic or ironical
Hall; S’s trip -primary a story of human- not narrative wistful for the deceptions of
to Cornwall political-regret voice: S. who past; many memory;
English
-the butler played a small but a is superior to English bantering
aristocratic significant role in the conciliation the story and locutions
novel; policy adopted by Britain towards S. who is part
tragedy; Germany before WW2 of or within
pre-WWII -conflict: S;s struggle with the the story
novel knowledge that he has devoted his life
to serving a man who may no be a
“great gentleman”
-S fails to pursue the one woman (Miss
Kenton) with whom he could have had
a loving relationship
-his prim mask of formality
THE THEATER OF THE ABSURD ( UK)
Waiting for 1953 a country -a meta-narrative made up of
Godot road (a tree disruptions, back-broke sentences and
and a low illogical references
tragi- mound) -setting =a closed space in an
apocalyptic world, devoid of divinity
comedy
and regressing towards the decrepit
-anti-play due to its lack of plot and
logical movement and digressions
--the futility of man's existence when
salvation is expected from an external
entity
- Vladimir and Estragon= all of
humanity (anti-heroes)
-man’s absurd suffering -the motif of waiting -2 acts with a circular structure
and his loneliness in the - playwriting techniques = illogical to the theatre
world world., -the dialogue never drew any sense
-the general condition of -Bleak, Comic
the universe -mixture of austerity with playfulness throughout the
-the quantify of sorrow play
and happiness is constant -stage directions: nearly half of the text
-the absurdity of life
-man is described to
“waste and pine”
continuously)

The 1960 during the -a naturalist or realist play with -isolation -naturalistic language, meticulous crafting; dynamic
Caretaker 1950s is one elements of tragedy and comedy -race and national origin interplay between characters;
room in a -lauded for placement of a man of the -communication layers of meaning;
house in lower social class at center stage -absurdity Realistic dialogue
West -unease of racial tensions in 1950s -social class But terse, elliptical, ambiguous
London London -family
-identity
POSTMODERNISM – US
Lolita 1955 1947–1952 -explored the darker elements of sex -the power of language Butterflies; (Lolita= -1st person H darkly comic puns, multilingual
(US) Initially the and desire -the disappointing Fragility+clinical H’s highly sly expressions,
South of -VN states his aestheticism that art incompatibility of examination of prey subjective intellectual artistic allusions,
France and exists for the sake of its beauty alone American and European -doubles; (Humbert=- POV - alternating word patterns,
unnamed -John Ray, Jr. receives the manuscript cultures Quilty) between references to
tragi-
locations in from Humbert Humbert’s lawyer -the inadequacy of -games=manipulations bemused other works
comedy Europe, then -begins with a foreword written by the psychiatry hide the feelings they weariness and
all over the fictional editor of HH’s -the alienation caused by cannot reveal, to further sweeping
US exile their own ends, and to romanticism
-love, innocence dissuade those who seek -overall effect:
to discover the truth comic, perverse,
- fairy-tale like images tragic and
-highly visual grotesque
H associates Lolita with aspects
America, praising their
shared youth and
vulgarity
Catch 22 1961 Island of =mocking indictment of war; absurdist -the absolute power of Yossarian -3rd person ridiculous -loosely related,
(US) Pianosa, comedies bureaucracy The Soldier in White omniscient behavior and tangential stories
Italy; -shares the traumatic experiences of -loss of religious faith Aerial Photographs anonymous illogical in no particular
Near the WW2 which lead to an “anti-narrative” -the impotence of Chocolate-Covered narrator arguments in a chronological
end of perspective language Cotton -mainly humorous, order
war novel,
World War II -unsentimental vision of war-> comedy -the inevitability of death Number of Missions Yossarian’s satirical light; -plot is unusual;
satire of violence, bureaucracy and Catch-22 POV mocking; description and
paradoxical madness Washington Irving parody anecdotes;
=a signature novel of the 1960s and foreshadowing
70s and memory
-the story of Yossarian is one of hope
-a novel about moral choices
The 1985 The not- -feminist vision of dystopia after the -Women’s bodies as -Cambridge, 1st person -dark, and at simile, symbol,
Handmaid’ too-distant elections of R. Reagan in US and M. political instruments; Massachusetts; Offred’s point times elegiac for humour,
s Tale future-The Thatcher in UK -language as a tool of -Harvard University; of view. in the the lost world alliteration,
(Canada) republic of -the consequences of a reversal of power; -the Handmaids’ red immediate -sense of fear literary allusion,
Gilead women’s rights (contraception, -the causes of habits; present tense and paranoia aphorism, parody,
abortion, right to vote) complacency -a palimpsest; but frequently parallel
anti- -Gilead=return to traditional values, -the Eyes shifts to past construction,
utopian/ gender roles and subjugation of -rape and sexual tense for foreshadowing,
dystopian; women by men violence; flashbacks to biblical allusion,
science -a world undone by pollution and -religious terms used for life before sense impression,
fiction; infertility political purposes; Gilead repetition,
feminist -the novel is a construct euphemism,
political -narrative is concerned with Offred’s philosophy
novel emotional state, not events or action