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Big Idea Overview and ResourcesBig Idea 1: Making and Remaking Traditions Big Idea 1: Making and Remaking Traditions Overview Britain’s world supremacy was unquestioned during the early 1900s. However, by the middle of the twentieth century, with its empire gone, Britain had lost confidence and needed to pursue a new identity. The loss of the British Empire meant little to most ordinary citizens and was a symbol of the country’s decline. However, economic recovery after World War II was painfully slow. Staples such as fresh fruit, canned goods, meat, and butter had to be rationed, and high unemployment led to bitter labor disputes. The rate of inflation had increased dramatically by the mid-1970s, and the economy continued to fluctuate during the 1980s and 1990s under Margaret Thatcher and John Major, the British prime ministers. Under Tony Blair, who became prime minister in 1997, Britain continued to face daunting economic challenges. Meanwhile, changing social values generated nervousness among British citizens. Objections were raised to the “permissiveness” encouraged in advertising, movies, television, and music. The long-established class system began to break down, and the working man became more empowered. Modernism ended after World War II, and British poets started to reexamine literary tradition. The poetry of Ted Hughes combined beauty and brutality to create a new vision of nature. British novelists including Salman Rushdie (Midnight’s Children), Zadie Smith (White Teeth), and Kazuo Ishiguro (The Remains of the Day) are considered some of the greatest prose writers today. An extraordinary group of playwrights that included Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot) and Harold Pinter (The Caretaker) revolutionized the British theater in the mid-1950s.
Understanding Ted Hughes Contemporary Writers Big Idea 2: Colonialism and Postcolonialism Overview During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Britain colonized many countries in an effort to carve out spheres of influence throughout the world. Although British imperialism created racism and economic exploitation, it also promoted humanitarianism through the building of railroads, schools, and hospitals. Poet Rudyard Kipling described the good and bad elements of imperialism as “the white man’s burden.” The oppression created conflict between colonial peoples and the administrators and missionaries. The novels of Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe describe the negative effects that colonialism and Christianity had on traditional African culture. Independence did not solve all problems for former British colonies. When India, a predominantly Hindu country, and Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim country, were freed from British rule in 1947, violence erupted and more than a million people were killed. Ethnic clashes occurred after British colonies in Africa achieved independence in the 1950s and 1960s. Britain and other European powers drew boundaries for these nations without considering the inhabitants’ ethnic differences. Apartheid, an official system of segregation, complicated the efforts by South African non-whites to gain political independence. Apartheid was finally overturned, and in 1994 Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa. British writer Doris Lessing and South African writer Nadine Gordimer were outspoken critics of apartheid. Using the themes of identity, racism, and cultural dominance, many writers from former British colonies, including Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka (Nigeria), and Derek Walcott and V. S. Naipaul (West Indies), have addressed the political and social strife that continues in these areas today.
Postcolonial Literature Nelson Mandela: Biography Overview The term English literature has an entirely different meaning today than it did in the Middle Ages. During the early days of the British Empire, English literature referred to the works of British colonists in New England and Virginia. However, today’s writers produce masterpieces in English all over the world. How did this happen? The building of the British Empire resulted in the migration of people from Britain to British colonies including India, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Britain, a powerful force in the export of goods, also was responsible for the “export” of the English language, as was Britain’s former colony, the United States of America. Literature written in English has become an international phenomenon, as witnessed by a sampling of writers who have won the Nobel Prize in Literature since World War II. Nobel laureates including Patrick White from Australia; Nadine Gordimer and J. M. Coetzee from South Africa; Wole Soyinka from Nigeria; and V. S. Naipaul from the West Indies have written works in English. Back in the times of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Keats, literature served as both entertainment and a window into other lives and experiences. Even in the twenty-first century, with all its advances in technology, literature still serves the same purposes that it did many centuries ago. People all over the world will continue to appreciate British literature for its ability to maintain traditions while breaking new creative ground.
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