XX CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE ENGLISH INTELLECTUAL NOVEL

XX CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE

ENGLISH INTELLECTUAL NOVEL

HAVE U READ THE FOLLOWING BOOKS …? !?

“Lord of Flies” by William Golding

“The Bell” by Iris Murdoch

“The Collector” by John Fowles

What is an intellectual novel ? ? ?

The term “intellectual novel” was suggested by Thomas Mann in 1924 , after the publication of his famous book “The Magic Mountain”. He thought that the representatives of the twentieth century destroyed the boundaries between the science and art ; they gave a new life to something that earlier had become dead and meaningless , that had lost its unique features.

An intellectual novel is the genre that aims to interpret the actualities of any aspect of life , its problems and conflicts. It isn’t connected with subjective prejudice , idealism or romantic colour.

The most important features are: - tendency to literal experiments in terms of form and expressive means; - intertextuality; - the existence of new worlds; -

-question – and- answer reading; - the readers should be broadminded and reasonable; - sometimes nonlinear effect; - stylistic redundancy.

Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September, 1911 – 19 June, 1993) was a British novelist, poet and Nobel Prizer for Literature laureate best known for his novel "Lord of the Flies". He was also awarded the Booker Prize for literature in 1980, for his novel "Rites of Passage, " the first book of the trilogy "To the Ends of the Earth".

“The Lord of Flies”

“The Lord of Flies”(1954) appeared as a response to Robert Michael Ballantyne’s novel “Coral Island”(1858). That novel irritated Golding by its vitality and romanticism when he read the book already after the war.

Robert Michael Ballantyne’s novel “Coral Island”

Golding’s war experience installed him in the idea that evil and cruelty are inherent in the man and cannot be explained only by the pressure of social mechanisms. He said that the basis of evil is to be found inside the country and its people. The cruelty of fascism and the war horrors made the writer think over the fate of mankind and nature of man.

2 worlds : Ralph Jack

Jack’s group is called “savages”. They paint their faces, hunt pigs, dance around “The Dance of Death”. They hunted pigs and enjoyed it – “Kill the pig. Cut the throat. Spill her throat !”

Wh o’s tha t?

Piggy and Jack symbolize two opposite extremes of human behavior. Piggy demands adherence to the rules of his auntie while Jack subscribes to the philosophy, "If it’s fun, do it. "

Ralph never changes his philosophy. In this way Ralph portrays the role of government in any modern society. While he wants to satisfy the wishes of the public, he must also realize that certain rules of behavior must be followed in order to prevent anarchy.

WHAT OR WHO IS THE LORD OF THE FLIES ? !

The pig’s head , covered myriads of flies , is materialization of emanation of evil. It’s stated by Ralph when he says , “ I fear ourselves”.

THINK IT OVER !!!

"Ralph looked at him dumbly. For a moment he had a fleeting picture of the strange glamour that had once invested the beaches. But the island was scorched up like dead wood-Simon was dead and Jack had. . The tears began to flow and sobs shook him. He gave himself up to them now for the first time on the island; great, shuddering spasms of grief that seemed to wrench his whole body.

His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy. "

What is the message of this novel !? !

To answer the critics, Golding said that theme was to trace the problems of society back to the sinful nature of man. He wrote the book to show political systems cannot govern society effectively without first taking into consideration the defects of human nature.

The most important features are: - tendency to literal experiments in terms of form and expressive means; - intertextuality; - the existence of new worlds; -question – and- answer reading; - the readers should be broad-minded and reasonable; - sometimes nonlinear effect; - stylistic redundancy.