When did English modernist poets begin?

At the beginning of the 20th century, Bennett, Wells and John Galsworthy adhered to the Victorian tradition of realism, and recorded the changes of bourgeois society and family in the period of social transformation with realistic methods. But they were soon challenged by modernist literature. According to Virginia Woolf (1882- 194 1), 19 10 is an important year for English novels to change from traditional realism to modernism. The first world war undoubtedly accelerated this change. In the war, a large number of innocent young people served as cannon fodder and died in vain. After the First World War, many British people's faith in humanism's basic ideas about human nature and the future of mankind and even Christian cultural traditions began to waver from the Renaissance. The profound changes in social concepts have promoted the vigorous development of modernist literature, and English novels have taken on a new look. D.H. Lawrence, the son of a coal miner, turned his attention to the relationship between men and women and reflected on the defects of western civilization. Lady Chatterley's Lover was banned in Britain and the United States because of its bold sexual description. His novels, such as Sons and Lovers, Rainbow and Women in Love, skillfully combine social criticism with sexual psychological exploration and severely attack capitalist industrial civilization. As a reaction to realistic literature, modernist literature pursues psychological truth, pays attention to directly observing the psychological activities of characters, directly experiences their inner feelings, and reflects colorful external reality on the mirror of inner world. Born in a scholarly family, Woolf's outstanding achievement is the stream-of-consciousness novel. Her works such as Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse have broken through the traditional concept of time and space, applied the technique of stream of consciousness to the extreme, and also reflected the unique reflection of female writers on the history and present situation of women's existence. James Joyce from Ireland (1882- 194 1) is regarded as the greatest writer in the history of English literature after Shakespeare, and his masterpiece Ulysses has brought a revolution to English traditional novels. Ulysses has a simple plot, which mainly records the daily chores of Didalus, Bloom and Bloom's wife Molly. In fact, the novel only describes one day's events in Dublin, the capital of Ireland. This day is 1904 June 16, when Joyce and his future wife Nora first met. Besides, this is the most ordinary day in Dublin's history. Joyce tries to show the essence of life and explore the spiritual world of human beings in her novels. Therefore, Ulysses is praised by some critics as representing the "history of the whole life and the whole modern society" in the West. The success of Ulysses lies in the seemingly endless description of stream of consciousness, but in fact it is rigorous and meticulous.

The 1920s was another glorious golden age in the history of English literature, with brilliant literary stars and excellent works. In the field of poetry, T.S. Eliot (1888- 1965) published "The Wasteland" in 1922, describing the spiritual loss of the post-war western world with a large number of myths and expressing the hope of human regeneration. His poems represent the outstanding achievements of modernist poetry creation. William Butler Yeats (1865- 1939), an Irish poet, tried to establish his own symbolic system of mysticism and made a profound exploration of the philosophy of life. Ye Zhi's creative path is from tradition to modernity, which reflects the transition and change of English poetry, and represents the process of modern poets getting rid of the influence of the old times and creating modern poetry style.

English modernist literature tries to get rid of the shackles of tradition in both ideological content and artistic form, and it is avant-garde. In essence, modernist literature is elite literature. After the publication of Ulysses, few people care about it on ordinary streets. In the 1930s and 1940s, characterized by crisis and war, severe social reality, acute social contradictions and urgent social problems created conditions for the return of realistic literary tradition, and novels with realistic techniques were once again welcomed by people. English novels in 1930s changed from introversion to extroversion in theme, showing the dominant influence of society on personal destiny, and changed from vanguard to conservative in form, adopting traditional narrative techniques. During this period, there were several trends in British literary circles: First, they paid attention to contemporary political and social issues and created literature with left-wing tendencies. The second is to attack the corruption of the middle and upper bourgeoisie and create social satirical novels. Evelyn waugh (1903- 1966) described the absurdity, evil and depravity in the marriage, family, school, religion and political life of English society in his works such as the humble body and a handful of dust. The third is the popularity of entertainment literature. Priestley (J. B. Priestley, 1894- 1984) tells the life stories of all social strata in the form of comedy, showing the life in the vast areas of Britain. Agatha christie (189 1- 1976), the "queen of detective stories", carefully weaves the ups and downs and confusing storylines in detective novels such as Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile.

Graham greene (1904- 199 1) and robert Graves (1895- 1985) appeared in the 1930s. As a Catholic writer, Green devoted himself to exploring the spiritual crisis of human beings in modern society, recording the sufferings of individual souls between good and evil, and combining exploring people's inner world with reflecting on contemporary political and social issues. Brighton Rock and Power and Glory, published in the late 1930s, established his position as an important British novelist in the 20th century. Graves is a poet and novelist. His trilogy "I, Claudius", "Claudius and his wife Mesalina" and "The Count" are classics of modern historical novels. Realistic expression makes people living in ancient times feel close to each other, but at the same time, they maintain their historicity.