The most prominent British writers of the contemporary period.

Speaking about the contemporary literature the experts usually cover the period since 1945. In the Western countries this period embraces two main cultural trends: modernism (till 1965) and postmodernism (since 1965). The modern literary process of Great Britain is characterized by the variety of tendencies, but the most influential are the following:

1) realistic;

2) modernist (in the 1940-60s – existentialist);

3) postmodernist.

These tendencies, as a rule, are interwoven and synthesized in the works by many writers who combine the traditions of the classical literature with experimentation.

Prose.

Among the post-war writers who followed the traditions of the critical realism we should name John Boynton Priestley, Archibald Joseph Cronin, James Aldridge, Jack Lindsay, Charles Percy Snow (epic Strangers and Brothers), some representatives of the Angry Young Men writers (John Wain, John Braine), etc. Graham Greene (The Heart of the Matter, The Quiet American, The Comedians, Our Man in Havana) and Evelyn Waugh (Men at Arms, Officers and Gentlemen, Unconditional Surrender) combined realism with modernism.

The English writers whose works tend to be philosophical and existentialist are Iris Murdoch (Under the Net, The Flight from the Enchanter, The Sandcastle, The Bell, The Black Prince) and William Golding (The Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors, Pincher Martin). The intellectual novels by these two authors are the link between modernism and postmodernism.

John Fowles is considered as a forefather of postmodernist novel (The Collector, The Magus, The French Lieutenant’s Woman). The pure postmodernist works are written by Anthony Powell (epic A Dance to the Music of Time) and Malcolm Bradbury.

The British detective fiction is known all over the world due to such prominent figures as Agatha Christie, James Hadley Chase, Ian Fleming, John Le Carré. The blossoming forth of detective genre is connected with modernism.

Great Britain is also a home of fantasy, which also emerged in the modernist period, but then had its own way. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), Clive Staples Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia), Michael Moorcock, Joanne Rowling (Harry Potter books) and Terry Pratchett contributed to the development of this genre.

It is difficult to distinguish between dystopian literature and science fiction. It can be said that they both belong to the speculative fiction (modelling of the possible future society). Almost each dystopian book can be called science fiction, but not every piece of science fiction is dystopian. George Orwell’s 1984 and Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange are traditionally considered as the famous dystopian novels. John Wyndham, Arthur Clarke, Brian Aldiss, J. G. Ballard, etc. are the outstanding science fiction authors.

The diversity of the contemporary mainstream (popular literature of rather high quality) is presented in the works by Catherine Cookson, Muriel Spark, Margaret Drabble, Peter Ackroyd, Maeve Binchy, Jeffrey Archer, Anita Brookner.

Poetry.

The same synthesis of realism, modernism and postmodernism can be observed in British poetry. Some poets (John Betjeman, Philip Larkin) were against modernism, Ted Hughes was close to modernism and Seamus Heaney – to postmodernism.

Drama.

In drama the cultural tendencies are very vivid: among the masterpieces we have a realistic play Look Back in Anger by John Osborne, and the postmodernist dramas by Harold Pinter (The Birthday Party, The Caretaker) and Tom Stoppard (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead).

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