Beyond any shade of doubt or difference of opinion, it may be safely asserted that no other period in the whole range of English literature is comparable, in complexity, fertility and variedness, to the twenty years, "between the wars". Any attempt to depict the social and literary landscape is therefore bound to be oversimplified. In a word, England in the two decades was a sort of 'Waste Land', inhabited by Hollowmen, as T. S. Eliot saw it. The time was a "welter of contraries of hope and despair, of the will to peace and an uprush of violence of energy and exhaustion; of revived faith and growing scepticism, of high responsibilities recognised and irresponsibility rampant".
The 'war to end war' was ended. It was hoped that a brave new world would emerge out of the ashes of the war. Many of the flowers of nation were cut off by the war. For a year or two there was elation both psychological and economic. It was hoped that somehow or other good would come out of the evil. The hope and vitality of the nation found expression in the idealism of the League of Nations, established to end war. Considerable social advances was made in various fields despite the growing problem of unemployment. England lost her political insularity and was dragged into continental politics. In home politics, too, it was a time for resurgence. All this was merely a passing phase and by 1922 dark clouds had gathered in the horizon. The hope of the brave new world had receded giving place to disilusionment, which finds such powerful expression in Eliot's The Waste Land and The Hollowmen. A sense of insecurity and unrest gathered momentum. Most of the older men kept up their faith though many despaired of the time an fell into black despair.
In the next few years the economic and psychological slump became palpable. The general strike of 1926 was but an expresssion of the 'depression' that had set in. Troubles raised their ugly heads at home and abroad. The League of Nation had become a mere debating society for the great powers utterly impotent and unproductive. There was uncertainty in the Middle East; troubles broke out in India and Ireland, which were now engaged in a war of independence. Italy raped Abyssinia. There was the spanish Civil War. The Nazis rose into power in Germany and proved a great menace to the imperialistic powers. There were tensions at home and abroad. In the general election of 1931, held against this backdrop of crisis the nation voted the Conservatives to power, hurling the Labour Government. But the new government too had no clear vision in the sphere of domestic economics and international politics. Meanwhile the social scene at home became darker and more gloomy.
Those who were quite young in the war period had matured by this time. They felt cheated of their idealism which the war had offered to their youthful magination. Ex-soldiers, who somehow survived, maimed and deformed posed a problem. The war had brought emancipation of women by giving them the voting right. Besides, the rising standard of living, improvement of communication which brought towns and country closer, the social levelling, the influence of the radio and cinema, newly found, were important factors in the social disintegration. The 'general gap' had widened and the old men were condemned as fools and backdated. The young had lost their morals, their faith and hope (as Aldous Huxley has painted in his novels). Idealism of the Left (Marxism) became a living form in the life of the youth. Poets, novelists, scholars at the universities saw in Marxism the only hope of the salvation of the world. Thus grew up the angry poets, who were mostly university men and turned to literature about 1930. W. H. Auden was the leader of this group, which included Cecil Day Lewis, Stephen Spender, Louise MacNeice, etc. In craftsmanship, they followed T. S. Eliot. They believed in Eliot's theory of Waste Land and instead of despairing proposed to cure it. Their poetry was turned into leftwing propaganda. Das Capital became their Bible and Marxism their religion, Eliot saw in Christian mysticism and devotionalism the only cure of the age. Thus religion of one kind or another was preached in those days. In this welter the gathering storm crashed in August, 1939, when the Second World War, more widesweeping and devastating than the first broke out. All this is perfectly reflected in the literature of the period.
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| Social Scene in Between The War |
The 'war to end war' was ended. It was hoped that a brave new world would emerge out of the ashes of the war. Many of the flowers of nation were cut off by the war. For a year or two there was elation both psychological and economic. It was hoped that somehow or other good would come out of the evil. The hope and vitality of the nation found expression in the idealism of the League of Nations, established to end war. Considerable social advances was made in various fields despite the growing problem of unemployment. England lost her political insularity and was dragged into continental politics. In home politics, too, it was a time for resurgence. All this was merely a passing phase and by 1922 dark clouds had gathered in the horizon. The hope of the brave new world had receded giving place to disilusionment, which finds such powerful expression in Eliot's The Waste Land and The Hollowmen. A sense of insecurity and unrest gathered momentum. Most of the older men kept up their faith though many despaired of the time an fell into black despair.
In the next few years the economic and psychological slump became palpable. The general strike of 1926 was but an expresssion of the 'depression' that had set in. Troubles raised their ugly heads at home and abroad. The League of Nation had become a mere debating society for the great powers utterly impotent and unproductive. There was uncertainty in the Middle East; troubles broke out in India and Ireland, which were now engaged in a war of independence. Italy raped Abyssinia. There was the spanish Civil War. The Nazis rose into power in Germany and proved a great menace to the imperialistic powers. There were tensions at home and abroad. In the general election of 1931, held against this backdrop of crisis the nation voted the Conservatives to power, hurling the Labour Government. But the new government too had no clear vision in the sphere of domestic economics and international politics. Meanwhile the social scene at home became darker and more gloomy.
Those who were quite young in the war period had matured by this time. They felt cheated of their idealism which the war had offered to their youthful magination. Ex-soldiers, who somehow survived, maimed and deformed posed a problem. The war had brought emancipation of women by giving them the voting right. Besides, the rising standard of living, improvement of communication which brought towns and country closer, the social levelling, the influence of the radio and cinema, newly found, were important factors in the social disintegration. The 'general gap' had widened and the old men were condemned as fools and backdated. The young had lost their morals, their faith and hope (as Aldous Huxley has painted in his novels). Idealism of the Left (Marxism) became a living form in the life of the youth. Poets, novelists, scholars at the universities saw in Marxism the only hope of the salvation of the world. Thus grew up the angry poets, who were mostly university men and turned to literature about 1930. W. H. Auden was the leader of this group, which included Cecil Day Lewis, Stephen Spender, Louise MacNeice, etc. In craftsmanship, they followed T. S. Eliot. They believed in Eliot's theory of Waste Land and instead of despairing proposed to cure it. Their poetry was turned into leftwing propaganda. Das Capital became their Bible and Marxism their religion, Eliot saw in Christian mysticism and devotionalism the only cure of the age. Thus religion of one kind or another was preached in those days. In this welter the gathering storm crashed in August, 1939, when the Second World War, more widesweeping and devastating than the first broke out. All this is perfectly reflected in the literature of the period.
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