Modern Age

Modern Period starts with the beginning of the First World War in 1914 and ends in 1939 when the Second World War began. The First World War caused massive destruction not only to the socio-political structure of Europe, but also to the Western culture, belief, tradition, and values. After the war, the capacity of Christianity and traditional values were questioned as they utterly failed to uphold peace. Consequently, a break with traditional modes of life took place.

In literature, new tendencies replaced the old and established rules. A visible change in the selection of subject, form, and style became evident. Literary experiments and movements marked the age. Symbolism, imagism, existentialism, expressionism, surrealism, stream of consciousness theory, and psycho-analysis are some of the new trends that characterized the literature of this period. 

Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, W. B. Yeats, Dylan Thomas, and W. H. Auden are the poets of this age.

James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf are some of the famous novelists of this period.

G. B. Shaw, Samuel Beckett, and Bertold Brecht are the leading dramatists of the modern age.