Essay: How did literature change during World War 2?

The impact of World war 2 in literature is multifaceted. It has given rise to diverse form of literary expressions ranging from memoir to non fiction to fictionalized true stories, from historical studies to journalistic works or dealing with aftermath and immediate aftermath of the events in terms of economic and social context. The writers and literary people in the vast universe of writings inspired by WW2 are again a very diverse group of ex-soldiers, historians, victims, perpetrators and others of different countries. To highlight some of the major contributions;

Primo Levi(Holocaust survivor and a witness).His books like- If this is a man, The Drowned and saved, Truce ,The periodic table are now like literary Canon of that period to understand Holocaust.

Chil Rajchman and Filip Muller chronicled their experience in TREBLINKA and AUSCHWITZ.

Tadeusz Borowski wrote one of the Best book of 20th Century, “This way for the gas ladies and gentleman”.This book is heavily influenced and inspired from the time he spent as a political prisoner in AUSCHWITZ.

Imre Kertesz won nobel prize. “Fatelessness” is his major contribution.

Vassily Grossman (one of 20th Centuries greatest and most underrated journalist and author).He was the first Allied journalist to visit TREBLINKA. He lost his mother to Nazi death squads. His magnum opus LIFE AND FATE pushed literary horizons and explored the life and fate ordinary SOVIET soldiers. It was heresy in many aspects as humane and ordinary interpretations of soviet soldiers contradicted with Soviet propaganda . His another major contribution is THE BLACK BOOK OF EUROPEAN JEWRY.The book itself has a long complicated history but a definite read to understand fate of Jewish population in Nazi occupied territories.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a captain in Soviet army but he was arrested in 1945 and sent to GULAG.His long poem PRUSSIAN NIGHTS chronicled the atrocities and war crimes committed by Red soldiers. “One day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch” a fictionalized story of many true stories and the fate of countless Soviet Soldiers who were wrongly implicated for cowardice or treachery ,that they did not commit fetched him nobel prize.

Nobel laurates Herta Muller and Patrick Modiano’s work are heavily influenced by and aftermath of WW2.

John Hersey’s non fiction work “Hiroshima” is a very important journalistic work that gave a humane touch to an overwhelming tragedy.

Books by Churchill or different memoirs of generals exist in forms of testimony of diaries. Manstein in his “lost victories”tried to make sense of the eastern front. Many memoirs some of them dubious of ordinary soldiers exist.

Historians like Anthony Beevor, Martin Gilbert, David Glantz and journalist like William L Shirer have significantly enlightened us with their works.

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The second world war brought about a change in the perception of people, thinkers and literary artists alike. It changed many old ways of thinking and gave us new offings. An increased attachment to religion characterised literature after the second world war.

Thoughtfulness about the form of the novel and relationships between past and present fiction showed itself in the works produced. It inspired authors, poets, writers involved in each and every genre whether it be poetry, prose, fiction, historical novels, novellas, short stories, fantasy, adventure and the like.

We got inspiring tales of bravery, self-belief and optimism in the face of adversities. The intermediate postwar period separated "Modernism" from "Postmodernism" in literature. Literature attained a new maturity and a rich diversity. After the second world war, a new generation arrived, with its different ethnic, regional, and social character. Among the younger writers were children of immigrants, many of them Jews; Africans, only a few generations away from slavery; and, eventually, women, who, with the rise of feminism, were to speak in a new voice. Though the social climate of the postwar years was conservative, even conformist, some of the most hotly discussed writers were homosexuals or bisexuals.

There was also a desire to renew national prestige and esteem and this was visible in the works. Poetry in the post-war period followed a number of interlinked paths, most notably deriving from surrealism, or from philosophical and phenomenological concerns stemming from existentialism, the relationship between poetry and the visual arts, and the notions of the limits of language.

It gave us amazing authors, poets, writers: Anne Frank, Orwell, Pynchon, Hemingway, Truman Capote, Elizabeth Taylor, Barbara Pym, Samuel Beckett, Salinger, Vladimir Nabokov, Jorge Luis Borges and the list is almost endless.

Explanation:

I know that this isn't clearly an essay, but from this information, you can form the essay that is expected from your teacher from all of this information. I hope this helps you in any way.

allusion   is the right answer

by: nita twenty thousand leagues under the sea some time ago, i decided to read twenty thousand leagues under the sea, by jules verne. i figured that because it was so well known it must be an extremely interesting book. in addition, it was science fiction, the one area that i was always interested. my assumption was only partially correct, for i only was to a degree interested in the piece of writing. when jules verne was writing this book, he must have been reading some incredibly dull science book the day before, for that was what the book was written as.  

the style of writing was utterly against my tastes, and though the plot was moderately interesting, the style of writing really ruined it. often, the author will trail off describing some marine animal for pages at a time. two entire chapters were almost entirely this! however, the setting and characters of the story seemed to be well thought out. nevertheless, 20,000 leagues under the sea was an extremely tedious volume. when the story was introduced, jules verne described m. aronnax, the main character, whose love for marine biology was more important than anything else to him did.  

this immediately led to the international crisis about a bizarre aquatic creature, which immediately dragged m. aronnax into the action. due to his expertise on the matter, the public expected pierre to be the one to solve this mystery. m. aronnax, under all this pressure, concluded that the animal was to be called the narwhale. at first, the matter was taken lightly, and only expert scientists were involved. however, when this animal began to become a threat to all ships in the water, the military took the issue into its own hands.  

it promptly fitted a frigate, the abraham lincoln, to destroy the beast, and invited pierre to join them, for his science capabilities. for many months they searched, but could not find this narwhale anywhere. when they found it, it attacked the ship, disabling it, and sending m. aronnax, ned land (a harpooner) and conseil (servant of pierre) overboard. soon, the three were guests in the narwhale, now known to be a ship, the nautilus, commanded by captain nemo. during the stay aboard the nautilus, pierre conseil and ned encounter and discover many wonderful and interesting facts from the sea. often, they would accompany the captain in an under water expedition.  

several of these excursions were to hunt, and others were simply to explore a submarine region. one of the times when the purpose was just to investigate an underwater region, captain nemo and m. aronnax explored the lost city of atlantis. on a separate occasion, pierre found that there was a supply of coal underwater that the nautilus used as a source of fuel. in addition to underwater excursions, the nautilus itself was on a round the world journey, which accounted for the most exiting time of the book. this was when captain nemo was attempting to access the south pole.  

that meant passing the great ice barrier, and surviving with very little air. during this rather long voyage, the submarine gets wedged between two icebergs, and is almost crushed! to add to this, the inhabitants of the nautilus almost die of suffocation from the lack of air. finally, at the end of the book, the three friends narrowly escape that nautilus.  

this all occurs during the maelstrom, which is a deadly storm, which makes the escape so daring. at the end, the three friends end up in a fisherman's shack, not knowing how they arrived, for they were knocked unconscious. that is how the events in the story twenty thousand leagues under the sea took place. the main character in this book was an extremely well recognized marine biologist named m. pierre aronnax. m. aronnax is one who gets the most benefit throughout the course of the book. pierre was always curious, which often got in the way of following his instincts and good judgment.  

also, he sometimes talked to himself! in addition, his faithful servant, conseil, follows his master during all of his adventures. conseil never really said much, and the role he played was one of a calm and humble person. another character of importance was ned land, the most well known harpooner of all his time. this man proved himself to be very useful when the threesome attempt to escape the nautilus. on the other hand, ned land was always quick tempered, and free willed.  

these qualities almost got many people killed many times during the book. the next most important character and perhaps the most outlandish one of all was captain nemo. note that this was not his real name, however, the actual name was never given in the book. captain nemo was forever strict and secretive to everyone. he never showed any emotion on his face, and never showed any bodily expressions in any way except when he was in extreme anguish. the setting that the story took place in was quite interesting.  

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