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==={{Anchor|After modernism: 1940 to 2000}} Post–modernism (1940–2000)===
Though some have seen modernism ending by around 1939,<ref>{{Citation | first = Kevin JH | last = Dettmar | contribution = Modernism | editor-first = David Scott | editor-last = Kastan | title = The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2005 | url = http://www.oxfordreference.com/}}.</ref> with regard to English literature, "When (if) modernism petered out and postmodernism began has been contested almost as hotly as when the transition from Victorianism to modernism occurred".<ref>{{Citation | contribution = modernism | title = The Oxford Companion to English Literature | editor-first = Dinah | editor-last = Birch | series = Oxford Reference Online | publisher = Oxford University Press |  url = http://www.oxfordreference.com | year =  2011}}.</ref> In fact a number of modernists were still living and publishing in the 1950s and 1960, including [[T.S. Eliot]], [[Dorothy Richardson]], and [[Ezra Pound]]. Furthermore, [[Basil Bunting]], born in 1901, published little until ''[[Briggflatts]]'' in 1965 and [[Samuel Beckett]], born in Ireland in 1906, continued to produce significant works until the 1980s, though some view him as a [[post-modernist]].<ref>''The Cambridge Companion to Irish Literature'', ed. John Wilson Foster. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.</ref>

Among British writers in the 1940s and 1950s were poet [[Dylan Thomas]] and novelist [[Graham Greene]] whose works span the 1930s to the 1980s, while [[Evelyn Waugh]], [[W.H. Auden]] continued publishing into the 1960s.

[[Postmodern literature]] is both a continuation of the experimentation championed by writers of the modernist period (relying heavily, for example, on fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc.) and a reaction against Enlightenment ideas implicit in Modernist literature. Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is difficult to define and there is little agreement on the exact characteristics, scope, and importance of postmodern literature. Among postmodern writers are the Americans [[Henry Miller]], [[William S. Burroughs]], [[Joseph Heller]], [[Kurt Vonnegut]], [[Hunter S. Thompson]], [[Truman Capote]] and [[Thomas Pynchon]].

====The novel====
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In 1947 [[Malcolm Lowry]] published ''[[Under the Volcano]]'', while [[George Orwell]]'s satire of totalitarianism, ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', was published in 1949. Other novelists writing in the 1950s and later were: [[Anthony Powell]] whose twelve-volume cycle of novels ''[[A Dance to the Music of Time]]'', is a comic examination of movements and manners, power and passivity in English political, cultural and military life in the mid-20th century; [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]] laureate [[William Golding]]'s [[Allegory|allegorical]] novel ''[[Lord of the Flies]]'' 1954, explores how culture created by man fails, using as an example a group of British schoolboys marooned on a deserted island. Philosopher [[Iris Murdoch]] was a prolific writer of novels throughout the second half of the 20th century, that deal especially with sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious.

Scottish writer [[Muriel Spark]] pushed the boundaries of realism in her novels. [[The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (novel)|''The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'']] (1961), at times takes the reader briefly into the distant future, to see the various fates that befall its characters. [[Anthony Burgess]] is especially remembered for his [[utopian and dystopian fiction|dystopian novel]] ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]'' (1962), set in the not-too-distant future. During the 1960s and 1970s, [[Paul Scott (novelist)|Paul Scott]] wrote his monumental series on the last decade of British rule in [[India]], ''[[The Raj Quartet]]'' (1966–1975). Scotland has in the late 20th century produced several important novelists, including the writer of ''[[How Late it Was, How Late]]'', [[James Kelman]], who like Samuel Beckett can create humour out of the most grim situations and [[Alasdair Gray]] whose ''[[Lanark: A Life in Four Books]]'' (1981) is a [[dystopia]]n fantasy set in a surreal version of [[Glasgow]] called Unthank.<ref>Janice Galloway "Rereading Lanark by Alasdair Gray". ''The Guardian''. Saturday 12 October 2002</ref>

Two significant Irish novelists are [[John Banville]] (born 1945) and [[Colm Tóibín]] (born 1955). [[Martin Amis]] (1949), [[Pat Barker]] (born 1943), [[Ian McEwan]] (born 1948) and [[Julian Barnes]] (born 1946) are other prominent late twentieth-century British novelists.

====Drama====
An important cultural movement in the British theatre which developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s was [[Kitchen sink realism]] (or "kitchen sink drama"), a term coined to describe art, novels, film and [[television play]]s. The term [[angry young men]] was often applied to members of this artistic movement. It used a style of [[social realism]] which depicts the domestic lives of the working class, to explore social issues and political issues. The [[drawing room play]]s of the post war period, typical of dramatists like [[Terence Rattigan]] and [[Noël Coward]] were challenged in the 1950s by these [[Angry Young Men]], in plays like [[John Osborne]]'s  ''[[Look Back in Anger]]'' (1956).

Again in the 1950s, the [[Absurdism|absurdist]] play ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'' (1955), by Irish writer [[Samuel Beckett]] profoundly affected British drama. The [[Theatre of the Absurd]] influenced [[Harold Pinter]] (born 1930), ([[The Birthday Party (play)|The Birthday Party]], 1958), whose works are often characterised by menace or claustrophobia. Beckett also influenced [[Tom Stoppard]] (born 1937) (''[[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead]]'', 1966). Stoppard's works are however also notable for their high-spirited wit and the great range of intellectual issues which he tackles in different plays.

An important new element in the world of British drama, from the beginnings of radio in the 1920s, was the commissioning of plays, or the adaption of existing plays, by [[Radio drama|BBC radio]]. This was especially important in the 1950s and 1960s (and from the 1960s for television). Many major British playwrights in fact, either effectively began their careers with the BBC, or had works adapted for radio, including [[Caryl Churchill]] and [[Tom Stoppard]] whose "first professional production was in the fifteen-minute ''Just Before Midnight'' programme on BBC Radio, which showcased new dramatists".<ref name = "autogenerated1">{{Citation | publisher = IRDP | url = http://www.irdp.co.uk/radiodrama.htm | first = Tim | last = Crook | title = International radio drama | place = [[United Kingdom|UK]]}}.</ref> [[John Mortimer]] made his radio debut as a dramatist in 1955, with his adaptation of his own novel ''Like Men Betrayed'' for the [[BBC]] [[Light Programme]]. Other notable radio dramatists included [[Brendan Behan]], and novelist [[Angela Carter]].

Among the most famous works created for radio, are [[Dylan Thomas]]'s ''[[Under Milk Wood]]'' (1954), [[Samuel Beckett]]'s ''[[All That Fall]]'' (1957), [[Harold Pinter]]'s ''[[A Slight Ache]]'' (1959) and [[Robert Bolt]]'s ''[[A Man for All Seasons]]'' (1954).<ref>[[J. C. Trewin]], "Critic on the Hearth." ''Listener''. London. 5 August 1954: 224.</ref>

====Poetry====
Major poets like T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden and Dylan Thomas were still publishing in this period. Though [[W.H. Auden]]'s (1907–1973) career began in the 1930s and 1940s he published several volumes in the 1950s and 1960s. His stature in modern literature has been contested, but probably the most common critical view from the 1930s onward ranked him as one of the three major twentieth-century British poets, and heir to Yeats and Eliot.<ref>Smith, Stan (2004). "Introduction". In Stan Smith. ''The Cambridge Companion to W.H. Auden''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–14. {{ISBN|0-521-82962-3}}.</ref>

New poets starting their careers in the 1950s and 1960s include [[Philip Larkin]] (1922–1985) (''[[The Whitsun Weddings]]'', 1964), [[Ted Hughes]] (1930–1998) (''[[The Hawk in the Rain]]'', 1957) and Irishman (born Northern Ireland) [[Seamus Heaney]] (1939–2013) (''[[Death of a Naturalist]]'', 1966). Northern Ireland has also produced a number of other significant poets, including [[Derek Mahon]] and [[Paul Muldoon]]. In the 1960s and 1970s [[Martian poetry]] aimed to break the grip of 'the familiar', by describing ordinary things in unfamiliar ways, as though, for example, through the eyes of a [[Martian]]. Poets most closely associated with it are [[Craig Raine]] and [[Christopher Reid]].

Another literary movement in this period was the [[British Poetry Revival]] was a wide-reaching collection of groupings and subgroupings that embraces [[performance poetry|performance]], [[sound poetry|sound]] and [[concrete poetry]]. The [[Liverpool poets|Mersey Beat poets]] were [[Adrian Henri]], [[Brian Patten]] and [[Roger McGough]]. Their work was a self-conscious attempt at creating an English equivalent to the [[Beat generation|American Beats]]. Other noteworthy later twentieth-century poets are Welshman [[R.S. Thomas]], [[Geoffrey Hill]], [[Charles Tomlinson]] and [[Carol Ann Duffy]]. [[Geoffrey Hill]] (born 1932) is considered one of the most distinguished English poets of his generation,<ref name = "Harold Bloom 1986">{{Citation | editor-first = Harold | editor-last = Bloom | title = Geoffrey Hill | series = Modern Critical Views | publisher = Infobase | year = 1986}}.</ref> [[Charles Tomlinson]] (born 1927) is another important English poet of an older generation, though "since his first publication in 1951, has built a career that has seen more notice in the international scene than in his native England.<ref name="carcanet.co.uk">{{Citation | place = UK | url = http://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?owner_id=770 | publisher = Carcanet Press | title = Charles Tomlinson}}.</ref>

====Literature from the Commonwealth of Nations====
See also: [[Postcolonial literature|Postcolonial]], [[Australian literature|Australian]], [[Canadian literature|Canadian]], [[Caribbean literature|Caribbean]], [[Indian English literature|Indian]], [[New Zealand literature|New Zealand]], [[Pakistani English literature|Pakistani]], [[African literature|African]].<ref group = note>And see former [[British colonies]], [[Nigeria]], [[Kenya]], [[South African literature]], etc</ref> and [[Migrant literature]].

[[File:Doris lessing 20060312.jpg|thumb|upright|220px|[[Doris Lessing]], Cologne, 2006.]]
From 1950 on a significant number of major writers came from countries that had over the centuries been settled by the British, other than America which had been producing significant writers from at least the [[Victorian period]]. There had of course been a few important works in English prior to 1950 from the then [[British Empire]]. The [[South African literature|South African writer]] [[Olive Schreiner]]'s famous novel ''[[The Story of an African Farm]]'' was published in 1883 and [[New Zealand literature|New Zealander]] [[Katherine Mansfield]] published her first collection of short stories, ''In a German Pension'', in 1911. The first major novelist, writing in English, from the [[Indian English literature|Indian sub-continent]], [[R. K. Narayan]], began publishing in England in the 1930s, thanks to the encouragement of English novelist [[Graham Greene]].{{Sfn | Drabble | 1996 | p = 697}} [[Caribbean literature|Caribbean writer]] [[Jean Rhys]]'s writing career began as early as 1928, though her most famous work, ''[[Wide Sargasso Sea]]'', was not published until 1966. South Africa's [[Alan Paton]]'s famous ''[[Cry, the Beloved Country]]'' dates from 1948. [[Doris Lessing]] from [[Southern Rhodesia]], now [[Zimbabwe]], was a dominant presence in the English literary scene, frequently publishing from 1950 on throughout the 20th century, and she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.
[[File:Hayfestival-2016-Salman-Rushdie-1-cu.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Sir [[Salman Rushdie]] at the 2016 [[Hay Festival]], the UK's largest annual literary festival]]
[[Salman Rushdie]] is another post Second World War writers from the former British colonies who [[Migrant literature|permanently settled in Britain]]. Rushdie achieved fame with ''[[Midnight's Children]]'' 1981. His most controversial novel ''[[The Satanic Verses]]'' 1989, was inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. [[V. S. Naipaul]] (born 1932), born in [[Trinidad]], was another immigrant, who wrote among other things ''[[A Bend in the River]]'' (1979). Naipaul won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref name="nobelweb">{{cite web | url = http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2001/ | work = Literature | title = 2001 Laureates |publisher= The Nobel Prize}}</ref>

From [[Nigerian literature|Nigeria]] a number of writers have achieved an international reputation for works in English, including novelist [[Chinua Achebe]], as well as playwright [[Wole Soyinka]]. Soyinka won the [[Nobel Prize]] for literature in 1986, as did [[South Africa]]n novelist [[Nadine Gordimer]] in 1995. Other South African writers in English are novelist [[J.M. Coetzee]] (Nobel Prize 2003) and playwright [[Athol Fugard]]. [[Kenyan literature|Kenya]]'s most internationally renowned author is [[Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o]] who has written novels, plays and short stories in English. Poet [[Derek Walcott]], from [[St Lucia]] in the Caribbean, was another Nobel Prize winner in 1992.  An [[Australian literature|Australian]] [[Patrick White]], a major novelist in this period, whose first work was published in 1939, won in (1973). Other noteworthy Australian writers at the end of this period are poet [[Les Murray (poet)|Les Murray]] (1938–2019), and novelist [[Peter Carey (novelist)|Peter Carey]] (born 1943), who is one of only four writers to have won the [[Man Booker Prize|Booker Prize]] twice.<ref>Man Booker official site: J.G. Farrell [http://themanbookerprize.com/search/node/j%20g%20farrell]; Hilary Mantel {{cite web |url=http://themanbookerprize.com/people/hilary-mantel |title=Archived copy |access-date=2016-03-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313224147/http://themanbookerprize.com/people/hilary-mantel |archive-date=13 March 2016}}; J.M. Coetzee: {{cite web |url=http://themanbookerprize.com/people/j-m-coetzee |title=Archived copy |access-date=2016-03-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160317185406/http://themanbookerprize.com/people/j-m-coetzee |archive-date=17 March 2016}}.</ref>

Major Canadian novelists include [[Carol Shields]], [[Lawrence Hill]], [[Margaret Atwood]] and [[Alice Munro]]. [[Carol Shields]] novel ''The Stone Diaries'' won the 1995 [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]], and another novel, ''[[Larry's Party]]'', won the [[Orange Prize for Fiction|Orange Prize]] in 1998. [[Lawrence Hill]]'s ''[[Book of Negroes]]'' won the 2008 [[Commonwealth Writers' Prize]] Overall Best Book Award, while [[Alice Munro]] became the first Canadian to win the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/alice-munro-is-1st-canadian-woman-to-win-nobel-literature-prize-1.1958383 | title=Nobel-winner Alice Munro hailed as 'master' of short stories &#124; CBC News}}</ref> Munro also received the [[Man Booker International Prize]] in 2009. Amongst internationally known poets are [[Leonard Cohen]] and [[Anne Carson]]. Carson in 1996 won the [[Lannan Literary Award]] for poetry. The foundation's awards in 2006 for poetry, fiction and nonfiction each came with $US 150,000.

====American writers====
{{Main |American literature|American poetry|Theater of the United States}}
From 1940 into the 21st century, American playwrights, poets and novelists have continued to be internationally prominent.

Return to English literature.



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