Summative Blog

The Twentieth Century gives me real insights into human and social issues that are still current in the 21st century. 

The 20^th century was a turbulent time full of extremes, war and peace, control and liberation, restrictions and freedom of expression. Technology, science, politics, medicine, humanities and the arts all developed and changed dramatically. Interestingly we are now seeing this wide scope of the 20^th century reflected back in the 21^st century with a disturbing similarity. The historical moments and issues of the 20^th century leaving an eerie reminder of the cyclic nature of existence. Race riots of the 60’s and 70’s cheer on the current Black Lives Matter movements. Political divisions of the second and first world wars as well as revolutions seem to have taught us nothing as we continue to drive division and conflict into every corner of the globe. The Covid pandemic descendant of its ancestry plague the Spanish influenza. Everywhere we look we seem to have moved forward and yet its almost as if nothing has changed. With art and literature being the heart of humanity we saw all of these issues discussed and explored in 20^th century works; from the horrors of the first world war experience that I explored in: https://emsliterature.art.blog/2020/08/14/anthem-for-doomed-youth-poetry-reading-and-discussion/ to the long lasting effects of war reflected on in my creative piece: https://emsliterature.art.blog/2020/08/28/a-mothers-soldier/, to the modernist exploration of identity and expression, particularly through the revolutionary stream of conscious narrative, which I relate to as seen through my fictional work: https://emsliterature.art.blog/2020/09/17/duty-calls/ as well as my analytical approach to T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in: https://emsliterature.art.blog/2020/08/28/prufrock-and-parenthood/ . The internal grappling with the English language by both migrants and British colony subjects is one which is still hugely relevant today, in an ever increasing multicultural world. I felt that these barriers of language which we explored could be taken a step further in the 21^st century and built on to help with an understanding of the struggles of reading disabilities such as dyslexia and dyspraxia which I explore in: https://emsliterature.art.blog/2020/10/16/how-do-you-spell-contradiction/. With the incredible and insightful works of the 20^th century offering so much insight into our modern world issues it would seem that we could all benefit from a little more 20^th century literature, and a little more reflection, because without doing so we may be doomed to ever relive these conflicts time and time again.