The 20th century literature

The 20th century is the highest peak in the history of the World Literature. It is the century that changed the history of mankind for good. This period of time is characterized for two world wards, never-to-be-seen development of mass media and transformation of culture into efficient political instrument.

The first twenty years of this century are marked with the First World War and the so-called "Lost Generation". Analyzing its literary pieces, we may feel the emptiness and revery.

Its main representatives are J. Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Anri Bergson, Marcel Proust and France Kafka. Joyce "Ulysses", Hemingway "For whom the bell tolls", Proust "In Search of Lost Time" an Kafka "Process" show the tragic impotence before the fatality of the modern world. It more becomes like a machine that once switched-on will never stop. The war, famine, disasters and modern pace of living, etc... A human being cannot overcome all these obstacles.

Other eminent writers of the time are Anatole France, Romen Rollan, Mark Twain, Jack London and so on.

Anatole France received a Nobel prize for a series of his novels. The main work of Romen Rollan is "Jean Christophe". It describes the downfall of the European civilization by the end of the 19th century. Mark Twain is a well-known American writer that put American literature on the international scene. Jack London is known for a series of his "Nordic" stories. Among them are "The son of the wolf", "The children of frost", "The Love to life", etc.

There are two more writers that we just can't avoid taking into account. They are Antoine de Saint Exupery and Thomas Mann.

The greatest novel of Exupery is "Little prince" in which he formulates the sense and content of human living.

Thomas Mann is remarkable for his untraditional philosophical and religious looks.

Actually, there are many more creators and thinkers in the history of the World Literature, but our strictly-structured articles cannot find enough room for all of them.