Abstract
The short story ¡s the genre which has come closest to representing the most poetic aspects of post-Second World War English literature, not only for its linguistic and stylistic concentration, but also for its imagistic world, in which the realistic contrasts with the romantic. Nevertheless, there is a transference from the classic literary images to a modern alternative. On the other hand, since 1945 writers have been preoccupied with the quest for self—a search for identity, an effort on the part of the heroes and heroines to understand and define who or what they are. In fact, the term identity plays a central role in virtually every judgment or opinion of the post-war literary scene.
Highlights
On the other hand, since 1945 writers have been preoccupied with the quest for self—a search for identity, an effort on the part of the héroes and heroines to understand and define who or what they are
The general trends and directions of post-Second World War English literature have been distinguished by their "imagistic methods and symbolic potential," as Malcolm Bradbury affirms in his Introduction to The Penguin Book ofModern British Short Stories, since contemporary writers have explored the "long-standing tradition of realistic narrative and the notion of it as an art of language, of experimental form and symbol; a notion that has often led in the direction of the strange, the fantastic, the grotesque, the surreal and the myth." (13)
Since 1945 English literature has created a vast, imagistic world, which can be illustrated with many examples, e.g. Ted Hughes's deep human realities in his visions of animáis; Fay Weldon's alternatives to the classic concept oíEnglishness; the manipulation
Summary
Since 1945 writers have been preoccupied with the quest for self—a search for identity, an effort on the part of the héroes and heroines to understand and define who or what they are.
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