2Graham Greene

Graham Greene was a very prolific writer, novelist, short - story writer, playwright, publicist. He himself divided his novels into two groups:

1) "serious novels" -"The Quiet American"

2)"Entertaining novels"

One of the most important features of Greene's works is the extremely wide geography of his novels.

The idea of moral choice and moral involvement brings Greene close to existentialism.

6. Philosophical novel (Golding, Murdock)

1 It was another phenomenon of the 1950 - 60ss in English literature. It was called so, because the writers of this time dealt with various life situations from a purely philosophical point of view.

2) These writers were influenced by the philosophy of human existence) which was based on subjective idealism

3 Existentialism looks at the world as absurd, uncognizable and chaotic. Human life is purposeless, for its final end is death. Man is a lonely, (alien to all the others), living in fear. The concept of "free choice" is one of the key ones of the existential philosophy.

Symbolism and allegory The characters are rather archetypes than social or psychological types. Archetypes take their roots in mythology.

1W. Golding. His war experience made him think about the nature of man and the future of mankind. He thinks the evil is in man’s nature. “Lord of the Flies”. 2Dame Iris Murdoch was an Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her novels, in their attention and generosity to the inner lives of individuals, follow the tradition of novelists like Dostoevsky, Tolstoy besides showing an abiding love of Shakespeare

7.REALISM IN AMERICAN LITERATURE (Twain, London,Dreiser, Salinger)(1860 - World War I)

The Civil War in the USA cardinally changed the history of the country. Before the war American literature was marked with optimism & idealism . The writers should deal with everyday realities.

The characters of realistic novels were typical people of their time & place. Writers stressed the link between man and society that is influence of society on the formation of human character. « American Dream»: poor boy gets rich-myth.

1Mark Twain. The 1-st period of his literary work (50-60s) was based on folklore-popular stories, fairytales, legends, The 2-ond period-novels of the Old Times ( « The Adventures of Tom Sawyer»; “ The Adventures of Huck Finn»( a picaresque novel). The 3-rd period: satirical attitude towards reality.

2Jack London. Collection of stories “ The Son of the Wolf», different short stories.

His works are combination of realism, romanticism and naturalism.

London`s first works were all based on his dramatic experience of the life in the North.

London`s social works beginning of the 20-th century. «Martin Eden»-it is an autobiographical novel which traces all the life stages and hardship of London.

3Theodore Dreiser All his novels deal with the notion of the American Dream. Dreiser showed the other side of the so called "from rags to riches".He tried to draw the reader's attention to the fact that the very system in the USA makes a person sacrifice his humanity for the sake of achieving this Dream of Success.

4 Salinger « The Catcher in the Rye.» (depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence)