CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH LITERATURE

The peak of English literature

THE CONTEMPORARY PERIOD (1945-PRESENT)

The US, which emerged from World War 2 confident and economically strong, entered the Cold War in the late 1940s. The Cold War shaped the American Literature during the second half of 20th century. The 1950s and 1960s brought cultural shifts due to civil rights movement and women. Prior to the last decades of 20th, American Literature was largely a story of dead white men who had created art and of living white men doing the same. By the turn of 21st century, it had become a much more complex and inclusive story grounded on a wide ranging body of past writings produced in US.

Literature written by African Americans shaped in many ways by Richard Wright.

(Black Boy,1945).

Ralph's Edison's novel Invisble Man (1952) tells the story of an unnamed black man adrift in, and ignored by America.

James Baldwin wrote essays, novels and plays on race and sexuality throughout his life but his first novel, Go Tell it on the Mountain (1953) was his most accomplished and influential.

Lorraine Hanberry's A Raisin in the Sun, a play about the effects of racism in Chicago, was first performed in 1959.

Gwendolyn Brooks became in 1950, the first African American poet to win a Pulitzer price.

American Novel after WW 11

The forms were realist, metafictional, postmodern, absurdist, autobiographical, short, long, fragmentary, feminist, stream of consciousness. Little holds them together beyond their chronological proximity and engagement with contemporary society. In addition, the famous authors during this time were the following.

Norman Mailer: The Naked and The Dead (1948), The Executioner's Song (1979)

Vladivir Nabokov: Lolita (1955)

Jack Kerouac: On the Road (1957)

The Beat Movement Starts and ends in 1950s- This had lasting influence on American poetry during the contemporary perio. Allen Gensinberg’s Howl (1956) pushed asid the formal, largely traditional poetic conventions that had come to dominate American poetry. Raucous, profane, and deeply moving reset American’s expectation for poetry in the second half of 20th century.

Drama during the early decades of contemporary period

This was dominated by three men:

Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman, 1949)

Tenessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947, and Can on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)

Edward Albee (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, 1962)

By the 1970s, the face of American drama had begun to change, and it continued to diversify into 21st century. David Mamet, Amiri Baraka, Sam Shepard, August Wilson were well known authors during this time.

Joanne "J.K." Rowling

Joanne Rowling, or as most people know her, J.K. Rowling, was born in Yate, England, on July 31, 1965. J.K. Rowling is actually her pen name. Some writers use a pen name instead of their real names. Typically authors use their initials. The main reason for Rowling's was based on a publishing suggestion. Publishers felt that her Harry Potter series would not sell well if readers knew that a woman wrote a wizard's tale. So Rowling chose to use the abbreviation 'J.K.' She had no middle name, so Rowling added the K to pay homage to her grandmother's name, 'Kathleen'. Rowling grew up in Chepstow, Gwent. She knew as early as six years old that she wanted to be a writer, and wrote her first book about a rabbit. She attended Wyedean Comprehensive School and College, though she would eventually leave Wyedean in 1982 in favor of the University of Exeter in England. Here she studied French to please her parents. She had originally wanted to study English literature, but her parents felt that it would take her nowhere. In 1987, she earned a bachelor's in French and the Classics. Shortly after graduating, she began working for Amnesty International as a researcher (and she continues to donate to them to this day). Rowling struck gold with Harry Potter. She went from being jobless and living on state benefits to being a multi-millionaire. She would write six more books in the series, all of which were eventually turned into movies. Both books and movies were hugely successful and hit the number one spots in their respective categories in sales, breaking numerous records. Rowling is also respected by many due to her charitable efforts. In 2007, she became the President of Gingerbread. This charity offers a variety of support to single parents. Rowling also created a charitable trust known as Volant as a means of reducing poverty. Rowling would go on to offer donations to many other charities. She has donated a whopping $160 million to charities. Rowling has won several awards and honors, including Author of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, James Joyce Award, and many others. The seven-book series tells the story of an orphan named Harry Potter whose life turns from ordinary to extraordinary. Harry discovers he is a wizard and begins to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Each book follows the adventures of Harry, other wizards, and those who want to destroy them. The series sold over 400 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 67 languages.

Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber

Full Title: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Full Title: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Author: J.K. Rowling

Type Of Work: Children's novel

Genre: Fantasy, coming-of-age, detective fiction

Language: English

Time And Place: Written 1999, Edinburgh

Date Of First Publication 1999

Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Narrator: Third person, following Harry

Point Of View: Although the narrative is written in third person, we see from Harry's point of view. We have witness his private thoughts, although most of the narration focuses on external occurrences rather than Harry's psychology.

Tone: The tone is matter-of-fact, and the author's fondness for the heroes is clear.

Tense: Past

Setting (Time): Present-day

Setting (Place): England, primarily in the fictional hidden wizard communities and at Hogwarts School

Protagonist: Harry Potter

Major Conflict: Harry, Ron, and Hermione discover and destroy the creature that is coming out of the Chamber of Secrets and petrifying students.

STORY:

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets begins when Harry is spending a miserable summer with his only remaining family, the Dursleys. During a dinner party hosted by his uncle and aunt, Harry is visited by Dobby, a house-elf. Dobby warns Harry not to return to Hogwarts, the magical school for wizards that Harry attended the previous year. Harry politely disregards the warning, and Dobby wreaks havoc in the kitchen, infuriating the Dursleys. The Dursleys angrily imprison Harry in his room for the rest of the summer. Luckily, Harry's friend Ron Weasley steals Harry away in a flying car, and Harry happily spends the rest of the summer at the Weasley home. While shopping for school supplies with the Weasleys, Harry has two unfortunate encounters. He first encounters Lockhart, one of his teachers, who demands to be in a photo shoot with Harry. Harry then encounters Lucius Malfoy, the evil father of one of Harry's enemies, who almost starts a fight with Mr. Weasley. As Harry prepares to return to Hogwarts, he finds that he and Ron are unable to enter the magically invisible train platform, so they fly the Weasley car to Hogwarts. They land messily, and both boys are given detentions. Lockhart, who believes Harry flew the car to get attention, lectures Harry. Quidditch practices begin and Draco Malfoy is the new Slytherin seeker. On the field, he calls Hermione a "mudblood," insulting her Muggle heritage. After taunting Hermione, Draco is the suspect when, on Halloween night, someone petrifies the school caretaker's cat and writes a threatening message. Before the cat is attacked, Harry twice hears an eerie voice. He hears it first during his detention and second during a party, moments before the cat is attacked. Everybody in the school is alarmed. By doing some research, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn that fifty years ago a chamber at Hogwarts was opened and a student was killed. Playing for Gryffindor, Harry wins the Quidditch match against Slytherin. During the game, an enchanted ball hits Harry and causes him to lose the bones in his arm. Dobby, a house elf, has enchanted the ball in an effort to have Harry injured and sent home. That night, Harry sees the body of a first-year who has been petrified arrive at the hospital. Soon after, Lockhart begins a dueling club. During the first meeting, Harry terrifies his fellow students by speaking in Parseltongue to a snake. Harry's ability frightens the others because only the heir of Slytherin, who is responsible for opening the chamber, would have the ability to converse with snakes. Harry comes under further suspicion when he stumbles upon the petrified bodies of Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly- Headless Nick. Determined to catch the culprit, Ron, Harry and Hermione brew a potion called Polyjuice. The potion allows them to assume the bodies of Slytherins and question Malfoy on the Chamber of Secrets. They find out that Malfoy is not the heir of Slytherin. No more attacks occur for a while, and right before Valentine's Day, Harry finds a diary in the broken toilet. The diary belongs to a ghost named Moaning Myrtle who haunts the girls' restroom. Harry writes in the diary, which responds by writing back. Through this dialogue, Harry meets Tom Riddle, a boy who many years before had accused Hagrid of opening the Chamber of Secrets. Hermione and a Ravenclaw girl are mysteriously petrified. Harry and Ron venture out of the castle to question Hagrid. Before they reach Hagrid, the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, and Lucius Malfoy remove Dumbledore and Hagrid from Hogwarts. As Hagrid is led away, he instructs the boys that by following the spiders, they can find out about the Chamber monster. Several nights later, Harry and Ron sneak into the Forbidden Forest to follow the spiders. They discover the monster who killed the girl fifty years before was not a spider, that the girl's body was found in a bathroom, and that Hagrid is innocent. The boys are almost killed by a colony of giant spiders. As they escape, Harry and Ron decide that Moaning Myrtle must have been the girl killed by the monster. A few days later, Ron and Harry discover a piece of paper with a description of a basilisk on it in Hermione's frozen hand. They deduce the Chamber monster is a basilisk. Before the boys can act on their knowledge, the teachers announce that Ginny Weasley has been taken into the chamber. Ron, Harry, and Lockhart slide down a secret passage in Myrtle's bathroom to underground tunnels. When Lockhart accidentally curses himself, Ron helps him and Harry leaves them behind. Harry enters the Chamber of Secrets and encounters Ginny's still body and Tom Riddle. Tom turns out to be a younger version of Voldemort, who has been enchanting Ginny through his journal. Harry calls for help from Dumbledore. A phoenix and a magic hat arrive. Tom summons a basilisk, but the phoenix punctures its eyes. The hat produces a sword, which Harry uses to kill the giant snake. Harry sticks a basilisk fang through the diary, destroying Tom. Ginny wakes up. Harry explains his adventure to Dumbledore. Lucius Malfoy storms into the office with his house-elf, Dobby, and Harry frees Dobby from by tricking Lucius into giving Dobby a sock. All is well in the castle as the students leave for their summer vacations. At 4 Privet Drive, the Dursley family is arguing. Vernon Dursley bellows at his nephew Harry Potter because Harry's pet owl, Hedwig, is noisy. Dudley Dursley, Vernon's spoiled and obese son, clamors for more bacon. When Dudley demands the frying pan, Harry mutters, "You've forgotten the magic word," and the family erupts into chaos. The narrator explains the reason for the hubbub about the magic word. Harry Potter is a wizard, staying with the Dursleys for the summer after his first term at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Dursleys are "Muggles," or non-magical people, and they were forced to adopt Harry when his own parents were killed by the greatest wizard of their time, the evil Lord Voldemort. Harry survived Voldemort's curse but was left with a lightening-bolt shaped scar on his forehead, beneath his unruly dark hair and above his usually broken glasses.

THEMES

Tolerance of People who are Different

The idea of tolerance within a community is highly important in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The plot of the novel explores this idea through Salazar Slytherin's intention to wipe out "mudbloods," or wizards with non- magical ancestors, from Hogwarts. Harry himself is only half-wizard, and Hermione's parents are both "Muggles," non-magical people. However, Harry and Hermione are better wizards than Malfoy, who is from a family of generations of pure wizard blood, showing that dedication and work, rather than genetic heritage, are the important factors in guaranteeing success.

Reliance on a Community

In the novel, almost nothing is achieved by a single person alone. Harry, Hermione, and Ron break the secret of the Chamber, find the entrance, and defeat the beast inside by working together. Each of the three adds a special element to the trio, and all depend on the others for support and assistance. When Harry and Ron are about to be eaten by spiders, Ron's car saves them; when Harry is about to be eaten by the basilisk, Dumbledore's phoenix saves him. . Although the three main characters are courageous, they are also able to seek help when necessary, either from each other or from outside sources. Although Harry is the protagonist and hero, he must rely on others to succeed.

The Importance of Choices

Dumbledore explains the importance of choices when he reassures Harry that Harry is meant to live in the Gryffindor dormitory. Although it is important for wizards to have inborn skill and astute minds, knowing how to use ability and knowledge is ultimately a more important trait. Harry, although famous from the beginning, is impressive because he does not count on his special abilities to protect him. Harry uses each moment as a springboard for the next test of his will and courage, making choices that shape his life, not waiting for his life to shape itself.