Постмодернизм в литературе

- литературное направление, пришедшее на смену модерну и отличающееся от него не столько оригинальностью, сколько разнообразием элементов, цитатностью, погруженностью в культуру, отражающее сложность, хаотичность, децентрированность современного мира; «дух литературы» конца 20 в; литературу эпохи мировых войн, научно-технической революции и информационного «взрыва».

English novelist and essayist, master of layered story-telling, illusionism, and purposefully ambiguous endings. Among Fowles's best-known novels are THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1969),and THE MAGUS (1965), which has gained a cult status. John Robert Fowles was born March 31, 1926 in Leigh-on-Sea; a small town located about 40 miles from London in the county of Essex, England. He recalls the English suburban culture of the 1930s as oppressively conformist and his family life as intensely conventional. Fowles attended Bedford School, a large boarding school designed to prepare boys for university, from ages 13 to 18. After briefly attending the University of Edinburgh, Fowles began compulsory military service and within two years was promoted to lieutenant. However, World War II ended before he saw combat. Fowles then spent four years at Oxford, where he discovered the writings of the French existentialists. In particular he admired Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre, whose writings corresponded with his own ideas about conformity and the will of the individual. He received a degree in French in 1950 and began to consider a career as a writer.

Several teaching jobs followed: a year lecturing in English literature at the University of Poitiers, France; two years teaching English at Anargyrios College on the Greek island of Spetsai; and finally, between 1954 and 1963, teaching English at St. Godric's College in London, where he ultimately served as the department head. The time spent in Greece was of great importance to Fowles. During his tenure on the island he began to write poetry to overcome a long-time repression about writing. Between 1952 and 1960 he wrote several novels but offered none to a publisher, considering them all incomplete in some way and too lengthy.

In late 1960 Fowles completed the first draft of The Collector in just four weeks. He continued to revise it until the summer of 1962, when he submitted it to a publisher; it appeared in the spring of 1963 and was an immediate best-seller. The critical acclaim and commercial success of the book allowed Fowles to devote all of his time to writing.

The Aristos, a collection of philosophical thoughts and musings on art, human nature and other subjects, appeared the following year. Then in 1965, The Magus - drafts of which Fowles had been working on for over a decade - was published. Among the seven novels that Fowles has written, The Magus has perhaps generated the most enduring interest, becoming something of a cult novel, particularly in the U.S. With parallels to Shakespeare's The Tempest and Homer's The Odyssey, The Magus is a traditional quest story made complex by the incorporation of dilemmas involving freedom, hazard and a variety of existential uncertainties. Fowles compared it to a detective story because of the way it teases the reader.

The most commercially successful of Fowles' novels, The French Lieutenant's Woman, appeared in 1969. It resembles a Victorian novel in structure and detail, while pushing the traditional boundaries of narrative in a very modern manner.

In the 1970s Fowles worked on a variety of literary projects - including a series of essays on nature and in 1973 he published a collection of poetry, Poenis. He also worked on translations from the French, including adaptations of Cinderella and the novella Ourika. His translation of Marie de France's   century story Eliduc served as an inspiration for The Ebony Tower, a novella and four short stories that appeared in 1974.

Daniel Martin, a long and somewhat autobiographical novel spanning over 40 years in the life of a screenwriter, appeared in 1977, along with a revised version of The Magus. These were followed byMantissa (1982), a fable about a novelist's struggle with his muse; and A Maggot (1985), an 18th century mystery which combines science fiction and history.

In addition to The Aristos, Fowles has written a variety of non-fiction pieces including many essays, reviews, and forwards/afterwards to other "writers' novels. He has also written the text for several photographic compilations, including Shipwreck (1975), Islands (1978) and The Tree (1979).

Since 1968, Fowles has lived on the southern coast of England in the small harbor town of Lyme Regis (the setting for The French Lieutenant's Woman). His interest in the town's local history resulted in his appointment as curator of the Lyme Regis Museum in 1979, a position he filled for a decade.

Wormholes, a book of essays, was published in May 1998. J.R. Fowles died in 2005 at the age of 79 years old.

28. “Angry young men”. J. Osborn “Look Back in Anger”.

29. Transitional aesthetic phenomena in English literature of the 20^th century. W. Golding “Lord of the Flies”, I. Murdoch “Under the Net”, “The Sandcastle”).

30. Contemporary novel: D. Lodge, R. Doyle, I. McEwan, E. Bergess.

31. The poetry and drama of the 2^nd half of the 20^th century. D. M. Thomas, S. Heaney, S. Beckett.

32. The popular fiction of the 2^nd half of the 20^th century. The variety of genres - (fantasy, love story, psychological novel, etc.). The analysis of one of the books. (M. Spark, J. R. Tolkien, J. Rowling, B. Cartland).