See also: 20th century in poetry, 19th century in literature, other events of the 20th century, 21st century in literature, list of years in literature.
Literature of the 20th century refers to world literature produced during the 20th century. The range of years is, for the purpose of this article, literature written from (roughly) 1900 through the 1990s.
In terms of the Euro-American tradition, the main periods are captured in the bipartite division, Modernist literature and Postmodern literature, flowering from roughly 1900 to 1940 and 1960 to 1990[1] respectively, divided, as a rule of thumb, by World War II. The somewhat malleable term of contemporary literature is usually applied with a post-1960 cutoff point.
Although these terms (modern, contemporary and postmodern) are most applicable to Western literary history, the rise of globalization has allowed European literary ideas to spread into non-Western cultures fairly rapidly, so that Asian and African literatures can be included into these divisions with only minor qualifications. And in some ways, such as in Postcolonial literature, writers from non-Western cultures were on the forefront of literary development.
Technological advances during the 20th century allowed cheaper production of books, resulting in a significant rise in production of popular literature and trivial literature, comparable to the development in music. The division of "popular literature" and "high literature" in the 20th century is by no means absolute, and various genres such as detectives or science fiction fluctuate between the two. For the most part of the century mostly ignored by mainstream literary criticism, these genres develop their own establishments and critical awards, such as the Nebula Award (since 1965), the British Fantasy Award (since 1971) or the Mythopoeic Awards (since 1971).
Towards the end of the century, electronic literature develops as a genre due to the development of hypertext and later the world wide web.
The Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded annually throughout the century (with the exception of 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940–1943), the first laureate (1901) being Sully Prudhomme. The New York Times Best Seller list has been published since 1942.
The best-selling works of the 20th century are estimated to be Quotations from Chairman Mao (1966, 900 million copies), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997, 120 million copies), And Then There Were None (1939, 115 million copies) and The Lord of the Rings (1954/55, 100 million copies). The Lord of the Rings was also voted "book of the century" in various surveys.[2][3][4][5] Perry Rhodan (1961 to present) boasts as being the best-selling book series, with an estimated total of 1 billion copies sold.
Contents |
The Fin de siècle movement of the Belle Époque persisted into the 20th century, but was brutally cut short with the outbreak of World War I (an effect depicted e.g. in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, published 1924). The Dada movement of 1916-1920 was at least in part a protest against the bourgeois nationalist and colonialist interests which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war; the movement heralded the Surrealism movement of the 1920s.
1900
Genre fiction
1901
Genre fiction
1902
Genre fiction
Plays
1903
Genre fiction
1904
Genre fiction
Plays
1905
1906
Genre fiction
Plays
1907
Genre fiction
Plays
Poetry
1908
Genre fiction
Poetry
1909
Poetry
Plays
1910
1911
1912
Genre fiction
Plays
1913
Genre fiction
Poetry
1914
Poetry
1915
Genre fiction
1916
Genre fiction
Plays
Poetry
1917
Poetry
1918
Poetry
Non-fiction
The 1920s were a period of literary creativity, and works of several notable authors appeared during the period. D. H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was a scandal at the time because of its explicit descriptions of sex.
1919
Genre fiction
1920
Plays
1921
Plays
1922
Poetry
1923
Plays
Poetry
1924
Genre fiction
Plays
1925
Genre fiction
Poetry
Non-fiction
1926
Genre fiction
Poetry
Plays
Non-fiction
1927
Plays
1928
Plays
Non-fiction
1929
Non-fiction
Genre fiction
1930
Genre fiction
Poetry
Plays
Genre fiction
Non-fiction
1931
Genre fiction
Plays
Non-fiction
1932
Poetry
1933
Genre fiction
Non-fiction
1934
Genre fiction
Poetry
Non-fiction
1935
Genre fiction
Poetry
Plays
1936
Genre fiction
1937
Genre fiction
Non-fiction
1938
Genre fiction
Non-fiction
1939
Genre fiction
Poetry
Plays
1940
Genre fiction
Plays
Non-fiction
1941
Genre fiction
Non-fiction
1942
Plays
1943
Genre fiction
Poetry
Non-fiction
1944
Plays
1945
Genre fiction
1946
Poetry
Plays
Non-fiction
1947
Plays
Non-fiction
1948
Genre fiction
Plays
Non-fiction
1949
Genre fiction
Plays
The intermediate postwar period separating "Modernism" from "Postmodernism" (1950s literature) is the floruit of the beat generation and the classical science fiction of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein.
1950
Genre fiction
Non-fiction
1951
Non-fiction
1952
Genre fiction
Plays
1953
Genre fiction
Plays
1954
Genre fiction
Plays
Non-fiction
1955
Genre fiction
Plays
Poetry
1956
Genre fiction
Plays
Poetry
Non-fiction
1957
Genre fiction
Plays
1958
Genre fiction
Plays
Non-fiction
1959
Genre fiction
Plays
1960
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
1961
Genre fiction
1962
Genre fiction
Non-fiction
1963
Genre fiction
Non-fiction
1964
Genre fiction
Non-fiction
1965
Plays
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
1966
Genre fiction
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
1967
Non-fiction
1968
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
1969
Genre fiction
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
1970
Genre fiction
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
1971
Genre fiction
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
1972
Genre fiction
Poetry
1973
Genre fiction
1974
Genre fiction
Genre fiction
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
1975
Genre fiction
1976
Genre fiction
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
1977
1978
Genre fiction
1979
Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction
1980
1981
Genre fiction
1982
Genre fiction
1983
1984
Non-fiction
1985
Genre fiction
1986
Non-fiction
1987
Genre fiction
1988
Genre fiction
1989
1990
Genre fiction
List of years in literature (Table) |
---|
Related time period or subjects |
Art Archaeology Architecture Literature Music Science more |