Ruzylo 2

Part II: Literary Era Features of Post-Modernism

As a result of the devastation and misfortune that World War II brought, literature displayed a drastic change in content and tone. Hitler’s reign brought Britain to “ruins” and the country itself was “torn apart by years of bombardment” (Modern/Post Modern Period of Literature, np). Writers in this era, such a Graham Greene conveyed the country’s “broken lives and spirits” through their pessimistic voices (np). Also, anti-imperalistic views were portrayed through focusing on the “war-blitzed West African colony” (np). Not only Greene, but many writers expressed the “[haunting]” of the “wounded world” that was produced in the European colonies in Africa (np). The war had a very desolate effect on the writing of this period, as the whole country was flustered with great grief and hardship. The war plastered the country into “a landscape that provided a metaphor for the broken lives and spirits” (np). Although war was one of the most crucial impacts on postmodernism, technology also played a key role on literature during this era. Advancements in technology brought on a whole new meaning of literature; “People no longer believed in literary works bearing one unique meaning, they derived their own meanings from pieces of literature” (Oak np). Computers and televisions gave media a broader span in the nature of the literary world also, by highlighting what the country’s citizens should focus their attention on (np). Literature lost its innocence and value after technology got ahold of it. Literary works lost their originality; “[they] began to be copied and preserved by the means of digital media” (np).