LITERATURE THIS CENTURY

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22082, 3 May 1937, Page 10

LITERATURE THIS CENTURY

Adventures In Prose And Poetry MR lAN DONNELLY’S ADDRESS Some adventures in literature since the beginning of this century were described by Mr lan Donnelly m an address on “Literature” to the Society for Imperial Culture on Saturday evening. His was the first of a series of “Twentieth Century Viewpoint” lectures, which constitute the society s syllabus for the year. In literature, he said, the twentieth century had so far been notable for the. return of the novel and for some interesting developments in poetry, but there had been nothing remarkable in the drama of the period. So many were the changes in the practice of letters during the last three decades that it was difficult .to detect and follow through all of them, he said. The Edwardian period, with which the century might be said to have begun, saw the complete death of the old Victorianism, which was, in fact, wavering to its downfall in the 'nineties. With the old Victorian spirit dead, some hew driving force had to be found. It came largely from foreign countries. The greatest inspiring force from the Continent came from Russia, from Terganev, Tchekov, Dostoievsky, and others. These men appealed to the twentieth century English writers because they exhibited an all-embrac-ing love of humanity, and a freedom from technical restraint, and painted on a considerably larger canvas than had been usual before. Treading New Ways The writers of those days were really'standing on a threshold, able to see before them a tremendous enlargement of literary material. It was open for them to tread ways not trodden in English letters before. With the enlargement of material there came also an expansion of technique. The first decade of the century, the Edwardian period, was remarkable for the rebirth of the novel, said Mr Donnelly Four novelists were outstanding—Arnold Bennett, Joseph Conrad, H. G. Wells, and John Galsworthy. Admittedly all these men had published to a certain extent at the ena of the nineteenth century, but they could be claimed as the first literary spokesmen of the new century. “I do not feel there was anything vitally important in the outloolc of these men,” said Mr Donnelly. ’Dus is a highly contentious statement, i know, but X don’t think they came with any burning message. Galsworthy. an excessively humanitarian gentleman, pleaded a few cases, but he pleaded them in a manner not as elective as it might have been, because he overloaded the scales of fortune against his poor ‘victims. His criticism of the upper . life was effective, but Galsworthy, like Bennett, soiled his work a litUe with commercialism. The greatest.of them all I think was -onrad, though he is a little out of favour at the greatest inspiration among the individual books was tainly “The Way of All Flesh, by Samuel Butler, published in XSiw. This was most important because the effect it had on the novelists who followed. Butler made use family, his friends, and all immedi atciy about him, for his j^terial. By 1910 there were many of these semi-autobiographic novels. It became the fashion to turn up the family register for copy. Hugh Wai pole, Somerset Maugham, J. D. Beres lord, and others were unquestionably •influenced by Butler. A moaesi counterpart of Butler’s boric was Maugham’s “Of Human Bondage.

Psychology and Sex About 1911 there began the period of exploration of the uneonseious. DH Lawrence, James Joyce, Dorthy Richardson, ford Maddox Ford, Aldous Huxley. Katherine Mansfield, Virginia Wooif, and many others figured in this Pe, i'he'changing viewpoints of tne second two decades of the century could be best shown in the works of three writers, particularly a good clue to what was going on in literature, one of these milestone books was ‘Ulysses, by the Irishman. James Joyce. It was the absolute limit to which the psychological novel could go. It was almost impossible to describe the scope and dimensions of it. Another of the three milestones was “The Waste Land,” a poem by T. S. Eliot, published in 1922. It was significant because it voiced the disillusion and lack of spiritual support which was one of the least pleasing of post-war phenomena. Eliot set himself out to show the monstrous triviality and lack of all that mattered in post-war years. Sex novels were another vogue. As Joyce went to the limit with the psychological novel. so did D. H. Lawrence in “Lady Xlhatterley’s Lover,” go to the limit with the sex novel. It seemed entirely worthless, entirely without merit, but it did represent the final statement of Lawrence’s particular philosophy, that emotion was always right and the intellect wrong. Lawrence was fired with this idea. He did not write sex novels for commercial reasons. as so many hundreds of others certainly had. One of the most remarkable phenomena of the twentieth century, Mr Donnelly said, was the establishment of the women novelists. The critics were all agreed that probably the work with the finest \point in ■ English fiction to-day was being done by women. The marked characteristic of their work was their break-away from the sentimentality of the Victorians. Modern Poetry Poetry went out of business in England with the collapse of the Victorian period, but after the first 10 years of this century it suddenly blossomed forth again. The Georgian school went back to romanticism, then war dealt a blow at poetry. After the-war there was little activity of note until 1932, when another milestone was reached with the publication of “New Signatures,” an anthology of verse done by young men who had since forged ahead. They were headed by three— W. H. Auden, Cecil Day Lewis, and Stephen Spender,

These men were all men of Communist, or at least decidedly “left” leaning. They did what they liked with rhyme and the ordinary rules of verse. There was a great deal said against them and for them, but certainly they had enlarged the material of poetry. They were irritating in that they seemed to think poetry was a private exercise and that poets wrote for a little group who were “in on the secrets.” but their social commentary was often of considerable interest. 'Mr Donnelly, together with . Miss Winifred Stratton, who played Australian music before the address, was accorded a vote of thanks on the motion of Madame Goww Burns, seconded by Mr James Fitzgerald. Dr. J. Hight, president of the society, presided.