Skip to main content

Introduction

  • Chapter
  • 50 Accesses

Part of the book series: Great Writers Student Library ((GWL))

Abstract

The most striking feature of the literatures of the English-speaking world during the 20th century has been their division into a number of clearly defined local streams. A tradition that began as a single strong and noble current has divided and sub-divided in such a way that if we seek a visual image to convey the reality of English-language writing today, that of the delta scored and fed by many channels, large and small, is the most appropriate.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Reading List

Bibliographies, handbooks, etc

  • Bell, I. F., and D. Baird, The English Novel 1578–1956: A Checklist of Twentieth-Century Interpretation, 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thurston, Jarvis, and others, Short Fiction Criticism: A Checklist of Interpretation since 1925 of Stories and Novelettes—American, British, Continental—1900–1958, 1960.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, W. S., Twentieth-Century Short Story Explication: Interpretations, 1900–1960 Inclusive, of Short Fiction since 1800, 1961; revised edition, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burns, J. A. S., A Century of New Zealand Novels: A Bibliography of the Period 1861–1960, 1961.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bufkin, E. C., The Twentieth-Century Novel in English: A Checklist, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerstenberger, Donna, and George Hendrick, The Americal Novel: A Checklist of Criticism of Novels Written since 1789, 2 vols., 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nevius, Blake, The American Novel: Sinclair Lewis to the Present, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vinson, James, editor, Contemporary Novelists, 1972; revised edition, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodress, James, editor, American Fiction 1900–1950: A Guide to Information Sources, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

General histories

  • Baker, E. A., The History of the English Novel, vol. 10: Yesterday, 1939; vol. 1 1: Yesterday and After, by Lionel Stevenson, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roderick, Colin, The Australian Novel, 1945.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kiely, Benedict, Modern Irish Fiction: A Critique, 1950.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoffman, Frederick H., The Modern Novel 1900–1950, 1951.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, Ray B., The Short Story in America 1900–1950, 1952.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kettle, Arnold, An Introduction to the English Novel, vol. 2: Henry James to the Present day, 1953.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geismar, Maxwell, Rebels and Ancestors: The American Novel, 1890–1915, 1953

    Google Scholar 

  • Geismar, Maxwell, The Last of the Provincials, 1915–1925, 1947

    Google Scholar 

  • Geismar, Maxwell, Writers in Crisis: The American Novel Between Two Wars, 1942

    Google Scholar 

  • Geismar, Maxwell, Americ,an Moderns: A Mid-Century View of Contemporary Fiction, 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karl, Frederick R.,The Contemporary English Novel, 1962

    Google Scholar 

  • Karl, Frederick R.,A Reader’s Guide to the Contemporary English Novel, 1963. -

    Google Scholar 

  • West, Paul, The Modern Novel, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, Walter, The Modern Novel in Britain and the United States, 1963

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, Walter, Tradition and Dream: The English and American Novel from the Twenties to Our Time, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peden, William, The American Short Story, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, Joan, The New Zealand Novel 1860–1965, 1966.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burgess, Anthony, The Novel Now: A Student’s Guide to Contemporary Fiction, 1967; revised edition, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Raymond, The English Novel from Dickens to Lawrence, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramchand, Kenneth, The West Indian Novel and Its Background, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mukherjee, Meenakshi, The Twice-Born Fiction (on Indian fiction), 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hemenway, S. I., The Novel of India, 2 vols., 1975.

    Google Scholar 

Themes, topics, short periods, etc

  • Daiches, David, The Novel and the Modern World, 1939; revised edition, 1960, 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beach, Joseph Warren, American Fiction 1920–1940, 1941.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed, Henry, The Novel since 1939, 1946.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Connor, Willian Van, editor, Forms of Modern Fiction, 1948.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, Ray B., and R. W. Stallman, editors, The Art of Modern Fiction, 1949.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newby, P. H., The Novel 1945–50, 1951.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aldridge, James W., editor, Critiques and Essays on Modern Fiction 1920–51, 1952.

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphrey, Robert, Stream of Consciousness in the Modern Novel, 1954.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, Melvin J., Stream of Consciousness: A Study in Literary Method, 1955.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edel, Leon, The Psychological Novel 1900–50, 1955; revised edition, as The Modern Psychological Novel, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Faolain, Sean, The Vanishing Hero: Studies in Novelists in the Twenties, 1956.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rideout, Walter B., The Radical Novel in the United States 1900–1954, 1956.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zabel, Morton Dauwen, Craft and Character: Texts, Method, and Vocation in Modern Fiction, 1957.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormick, John, Catastrophe and Imagination: An Interpretation of the Recent English and American Novel, 1957.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schorer, Mark, The Novelist in the Modern World, 1957.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bone, Robert A., The Negro Novel in America, 1958; revised edition, 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allott, Miriam, editor, Novelists on the Novel, 1959.

    Google Scholar 

  • Karl, Frederick R., and M. Magalaner, A Reader’s Guide to Great Twentieth-Century English Novels, 1959.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, J. E., editor, Myth and Method: Modern Theories of Fiction, 1960.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schorer, Mark, editor, Modern British Fiction, 1961.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hassan, Ihab, Radical Innocence: Studies in the Contemporary American Novel, 1961.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, A. J. M., editor, Masks of Fiction: Canadian Critics on Canadian Prose, 1961.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gindin, James, Postwar British Fiction: New Accents and Attitudes, 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malin, Irving, New American Gothic, 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, James, The Tragic Comedians, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eisinger, Chester, Fiction of the Forties, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, Marcus, After Alienation: American Novels in Mid-Century, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Millgate, Michael, American Social Fiction: James to Cozzens, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holcroft, M. H., Islands of Innocence: The Childhood Theme in New Zealand Fiction, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro, C., editor, Contemporary British Novelists, 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malin, Irving, Jews and Americans, 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, Nathan A., editor, Forms of Extremity in the Modern Novel, 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Unterecker, J. E., editor, Approaches to the Twentieth-Century Novel, 1965.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aldridge, James W., Time to Murder and Create: The Contemporary Novel in Crisis, 1966.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H. J., The Passive Voice: An Approach to Modern Fiction, 1966.

    Google Scholar 

  • Galloway, David, The Absurd Hero in American Fiction, 1966; revised edition, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rabinovitz, R., The Reaction Against Experiment in the English Novel 1950–60, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • French, Warren, The Social Novel at the End of an Era, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kermode, Frank, The Sense of an Ending: Studies in the Theory of Fiction, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cooperman, Stanley, World War I and the American Novel, 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, James, The Lunatic Giant in the Drawing Room: The British and American Novel since 1930, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madden, David, editor, Tough Guy Writers of the Thirties, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madden, David, editor, Proletarian Writers of the Thirties, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laurence, Margaret, Long Drums and Cannons: Nigerian Dramatists and Novelists, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, H. Winston, New Zealand Fiction since 1945, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mooney, H. J., and T. F. Staley, editors, The Shapeless God: Essays on Modern Fiction, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Madden, David, editor, American Dreams, American Nightmares, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gindin, James, Harvest of a Quiet Eye: The Novel of Compassion, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradbury, Malcolm, and David Palmer, editors, The American Novel and the Nineteen Twenties, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Handy, William, Modern Fiction: A Formalist Approach, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beja, Morris, Epiphany in the Modern Novel, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanner, Tony, City of Words: American Fiction 1950–1970, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lodge, David, The Novel at the Crossroads, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Symons, Julian, Bloody Murder: From the Detective Story to the Crime Novel: A History, 1972

    Google Scholar 

  • Symons, Julian, Mortal Consequences, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olderman, Raymond M., Beyond the Waste Land: The American Novel in the Nineteen Sixties, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrex, S. C., The Modern Indian Novel in English, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bedient, Calvin, Architects of the Self 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradbury, Malcolm, Possibilities: Essays on the State of the Novel, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kazin, Alfred, Bright Book of Life: American Novelists and Storytellers from Hemingway to Mailer, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howarth, Patrick, Play Up and Play the Game, 1973.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, Alan, The Protean Self: Dramatic Action in Contemporary Fiction, 1974.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Foster, John Wilson, Forces and Themes in Ulster Fiction, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, Sydney Janet, Feminine Consciousness in the Modern British Novel, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peden, William, The American Short Story 1940–1975, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • New, W. H., editor, Among Worlds: An Introduction to Modern Commonwealth and South African Fiction, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keesing, Nancy, editor, Australian Postwar Novelists: Selected Critical Essays, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burns, D. R., The Direction of Australian Fiction 1920–1974, 1975.

    Google Scholar 

  • Josipovici, Gabriel, editor, The Modern English Novel: The Reader, The Writer, and the Work, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayman, Ronald, The Novel Today 1967–75, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bergonzi, Bernard, Reading the Thirties, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavaliero, Glen, The Rural Tradition in the English Novel 1900–39, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • May, Keith M., Out of the Maelstrom: Psychology and the Novel in the Twentieth Century, 1977.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helterman, Jeffrey, and Richard Layman, editors, American Novelists since World War II, 1978.

    Google Scholar 

Anthologies of primary material

  • O’Brien, Edward J.,and others, editors, The Best American Short Stories, 1915- (annual)

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, Blanche C., and others, editors, O. Henry Memorial Award Prize Stories, 1921- (annual)

    Google Scholar 

  • Davin, Dan, editor, New Zealand Short Stories, 1953; 2nd series edited by C. K. Stead, 1966. Winter’s Tales 1955- (annual)

    Google Scholar 

  • Urquhart, Fred, editor, Scottish Short Stories, 1957.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davin, Dan, editor, English Short Stories of Today, 2nd series, 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jarrell, Randall, editor, The Anchor Book of Stories, 1958.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weaver, R., editor, Canadian Short Stories, 1960;2nd series, 1968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gold, Herbert, editor, Fiction of the Fifties: A Decade of American Writing, 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  • Poirier, Richard, and Jack Ludwig, editors, Stories British and American, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  • James, Brian, editor, Australian Short Stories, 2nd series, 1963.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, LeRoi, editor, The Moderns: New Fiction in America, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Komey, Ellis, and Ezekiel Mphahlele, editors, Modern African Stories, 1964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salkey, Andrew, editor, Stories from the Caribbean, 1965

    Google Scholar 

  • Salkey, Andrew, editor, Island Voices, 1970.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stewart, Douglas, and Beatrice Davis, editors, Short Stories of Australia, 2 vols., 1967.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elkin, Stanley, editor, Stories,from the Sixties, 1971.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oates, Joyce Carol, editor, Scenes from American Life: Contemporary Short Fiction, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  • Natwar-Singh, R., editor, Stories from India, 1972.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richards, Alun, editor, The Penguin Book of Welsh Short Stories, 1976.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Copyright information

© 1983 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Woodcock, G. (1983). Introduction. In: 20th-Century Fiction. Great Writers Student Library. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-17066-1_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics