JAMES JOYCE (1882-1841)
An Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century.
He uses stream-of-consciousness technique (= interior monologue; a device that depicts the multitude of thoughts and feelings that pass through one’s mind) and experimental prose – full of puns, parodies and allusions. His novels break the usual rules of description, speech and punctuation.
Main Works: Ulysses , A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Finnegan’s Wake
VIRGINIA WOoLF (1882-1941)
English writer and one of the foremost modernists of the 20th century.
She is arguably the most accomplished lyrical novelist in the English language. Her novels are highly experimental: a narrative, frequently uneventful and commonplace, is refracted in the characters' consciousness
Main Works: Mrs. Dalloway , To the Lighthouse , Orlando , The Waves , A Room of One’s Own
WILLIAM GOLDING (1911-1993)
English novelist, playwright, and poet, winner of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983
best known for his first novel, Lord of the Flies
DORIS LESSING (1919-2013)
British novelist, poet, playwright and short story writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007, at the age of 88
Angela carter (1940-1992)
English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism and picaresque works
DETECTIVE AND SPY NOVELS
Literary forms that became very popular toward the end of 19th century
In these books, each story is a puzzle but the readers are not given enough information to discover for themselves the answer to the mystery
AGATHA CHRISTIE (1890-1976)
The most famous 20th century author of mysteries; she wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections; also called the “Queen of Crime”
The best-selling novelist of all times; her novels sold roughly 2 billion copies;
JOHN LE CARRE (1931-)
British author of espionage novels
His plots reflect the political and international events of the real world
SCIENCE FICTION
Stories based on developments in science and technology; they fall in 3 main areas:
The possibility of destruction of human race due to technological developments
Man may gather the qualities of machines
Exploration of the outer space
H.G. WELLS (1866-1946)
Considered the father of science fiction