British Literature 1950- 2010

Timeline created by facebooker_1341939899 in Art and Culture

Timeline Text view

Event Date:	Event Title:	Event Description:
03/03/1950	"The Chronicles of Narnia"- C.S. Lewis, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	The Chronicles of Narnia present the adventures of children who play central roles in the unfolding history of the fictional realm of Narnia, a place where animals talk, magic is common, and good battles evil. Each of the books (with the exception of The Horse and His Boy) features as its protagonists children from our world who are magically transported to Narnia, where they are called upon to help the Lion Aslan handle a crisis in the world of Narnia
01/05/1953	"Waiting for Godot"- Samuel Beckett	Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait for someone named Godot. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's premiere. The play is often considered one of the most prominent works in the Theatre of the Absurd movement.
06/04/1953	James Bond- Casino Royale	From 1953 to the present day (2008), dozens of novels and a number of short stories have been published chronicling the adventures of a British secret agent James Bond, often referred to by his code name, 007. The character was created by Ian Fleming, first appearing in his novel Casino Royale (1953)
08/02/1953	"Lord of the Flies"- Sir William Golding	Lord of the Flies is an allegorical novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding. It discusses how culture created by man fails, using as an example a group of British schoolboys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, but with disastrous results.
03/01/1954	The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien	Tolkien(3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973), is also dentified as the "father" of modern fantasy literatureTolkien's writings have inspired many other works of fantasy and have had a lasting effect on the entire field.
03/02/1954	''The Lord of the Rings'' - J. R. R. Tolkien	The Lord of the Rings is an epic high fantasy novel written by philologist and Oxford University professor J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkien's earlier, less complex children's fantasy novel The Hobbit (1937), but eventually developed into a much larger work. It was written in stages between 1937 and 1949, much of it during World War II.
07/02/1954	''Lucky Jim'' Kingsley Amis	An academic satire, Amis's first published novel, and won the Somerset Maugham Award for fiction. The novel uses a precise and seemingly plain-spoken narrative voice.
03/02/1956	"Look back in anger"- John Osborne	Look Back in Anger (1956) is a John Osborne play and 1958 movie about a love triangle involving an intelligent but disaffected young man (Jimmy Porter), his upper-middle-class, impassive wife (Alison), and her haughty best friend (Helena Charles). Cliff, an amiable Welsh lodger, attempts to keep the peace. The play was a success on the London stage, and spawned the term "angry young men" to describe Osborne and those of his generation who employed harshness and realism in the theater.
03/02/1957	"The Guns of Navarone"- Alistair MacLean	The Guns of Navarone is a 1957 novel about World War II by Scottish thriller writer Alistair MacLean that was made into a critically acclaimed film in 1961. The Greek island of Navarone does not exist and the plot is fictitious; however, the story takes place within the real historical context of Dodecanese Campaign - the Allies' campaign to capture the German-held Greek islands in the Aegean in 1943.
03/02/1958	"The Bell"- Dame Iris Jean Murdoch	The Bell is a novel written by Iris Murdoch in 1958. It was her fourth to be published, and is set in Imber Court, a lay religious community situated next to an enclosed order of Benedictine nuns in Gloucestershire.
01/01/1961	A House For Mr. Biswas - V.S. Naipaul	In this grand novel set in the Caribbean, V. S. Naipaul challenges the reader to conceptualize a reversed world order in which the peripheral is in fact central. By questioning the moral validity of empires and investigating the consequences of foreign rule on native communities, A House for Mr. Biswas marks a new trend in English literature, the postcolonial novel. Naipaul was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001.
01/01/1962	´´The Golden Notebook´´ by Doris Lessing	The book explores mental and societal breakdown and contains a powerful anti-war and anti-Stalinist message, an extended analysis of communism and the Communist Party in England from the 1930s to the 1950s, and a famed examination of the budding sexual and women's liberation movements.
03/01/1962	A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess	A dystopian novel written from the perspective of a seemingly biased and unapologetic protagonist, the novel also contains an experiment in language: Burgess creates a new speech that is the teenage slang of the not-too-distant future.
01/01/1964	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) is a children's book by British author Roald Dahl. The story features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric candymaker Willy Wonka.
06/02/1967	The Liverpool Scene	The Liverpool Scene was a poetry band, which included Adrian Henri, Andy Roberts, Mike Evans, Mike Hart, Percy Jones and Brian Dodson.
01/01/1968	Booker Prize	The Man Booker Prize for Fiction, also known in short as the Booker Prize, is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of either the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and success and, for this reason, the prize is of great significance for the book trade.
01/01/1968	2001: A Space Odyssey	2001: A Space Odyssey is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It was developed concurrently with Stanley Kubrick's film version and published after the release of the film.
03/08/1970	´´Fantastic Mr Fox´´ Roald Dahl	A children's novel about Mr Fox and how he outwits his farmer neighbours to steal their food from right under their noses.
06/07/1971	´´The Day of the Jackal´´ Frederick Forsyth	It is a thriller novel about a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS French terrorist group of the early 1960s, to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France. The novel is praised for its convincing portrayal of France in 1963, and its carefully thought-out plot. It received admiring reviews and a 1972 Best Novel Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers.
11/01/1972	Watership Down - Richard Adams	Watership Down is a heroic fantasy novel about a small group of rabbits, written by British author Richard Adams. Although the animals in the story live in their natural environment, they are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language (Lapine), proverbs, poetry, and mythology. Evoking epic themes, the novel recounts the rabbits' odyssey as they escape the destruction of their warren to seek a place in which to establish a new home, encountering perils and temptations along the way
11/08/1972	´´Watership Down´´ Richard Adams	A heroic fantasy novel about a small group of rabbits who live in their natural environment but are anthropomorphised, possessing their own culture, language (Lapine), proverbs, poetry, and mythology.
03/08/1978	´´The Sea, the Sea´´ Iris Murdoch	The 19th novel by Iris Murdoch, a tale of the strange obsessions that haunt a self-satisfied playwright and director as he begins to write his memoirs. It won the Booker Prize in 1978.
01/01/1980	Rites of Passage - William Golding	This was the first book of the trilogy "To the Ends of the Earth" and went on to win the 1980 Man Booker Prize.
04/01/1981	Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie	Salman Rushdie's novel about Indian history and independence was an immediate success for both its political content and its innovative use of literary techniques such as magic realism.
03/01/1982	Monsignor Quixote - Graham Greene	A novel by Graham Greene. A comedy that offers reflection on matters such as life after a dictatorship, Communism, and the Catholic faith.
03/08/1982	´´V for Vendetta´´ Alan Moore	It is a ten-issue comic-book series set in a dystopian future United Kingdom imagined from the 1980s about the 1990s. A mysterious revolutionary who calls himself "V" works to destroy the totalitarian government, profoundly affecting the people he encounters.
01/01/1983	The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett	The Colour of Magic is a 1983 comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, and is the first book of the Discworld series.
01/01/1988	The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie	The Satanic Verses is Salman Rushdie's fourth novel, first published in 1988 and inspired in part by the life of Muhammad. The title refers to what are known as the satanic verses, a group of alleged Qur'anic verses that allowed for prayers of intercession to be made to three Pagan Meccan goddesses. In the Muslim community, however, the novel caused great controversy for what many Muslims believed were blasphemous references.
05/01/1990	´´Good Omens´´ Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman	´´Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch´´ is a World Fantasy Award nominated novel written in collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The book is a comedy and a quasi-parody of the 1976 film The Omen concerning the birth of the son of Satan, the coming of the End Times.
01/01/1993	Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh	Trainspotting is the first novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh. It is written in the form of short chapters narrated in the first person by various residents of Leith, Edinburgh who either use heroin, are friends of the core group of heroin users, or engage in destructive activities that are implicitly portrayed as addictions that serve the same function as heroin addiction. The novel is set in the mid to late 1980s.
01/01/1995	High Fidelity	By Nick Hornby. It was adapted into a 2000 film directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack.
03/02/1995	"The Horse Whisperer"-	A talented trainer with a remarkable gift for understanding horses is hired to help an injured teenager (and her horse back to health following a tragic accident.
03/08/1995	´´Northern Lights´´ Philip Pullmann	``Northern Lights´´ is the first novel in English novelist Philip Pullman's ´´His Dark Materials´´ trilogy. The fantasy novel is set in a universe parallel to our own.
01/01/1996	Bridget Jones's Diary	Bridget Jones's Diary is a 1996 novel by Helen Fielding. Written in the form of a personal diary, the novel chronicles a year in the life of Bridget Jones, a thirty-something single working woman living in London. She writes (often humorously) about her career, self-image, vices, family, friends, and romantic relationships.
03/02/1997	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling	Since the 1997 release of the first novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone the books have gained immense popularity, critical acclaim and commercial success worldwide. As of June 2008, the book series has sold more than 400 million copies and has been translated into 67 languages, and the last four books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history.
03/08/1998	´´Birthday Letters´´ Ted Hughes	´´Birthday Letters´´ is a collection of poetry released only months before Hughes's death. This collection of eighty-eight poems won multiple literary awards and is widely considered to be Hughes' most explicit response to the suicide of his estranged wife Sylvia Plath in 1963, and to their widely discussed, politicized and "explosive" marriage.
01/27/2000	´´White Teeth´´ Zadie Smith	The novel focuses on the later lives of two wartime friends - the Bangladeshi Samad Iqbal and the Englishman Archie Jones, and their families in London. The book won multiple honors, including the 2000 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction, the 2000 Whitbread Book Award in category best first novel, the Guardian First Book Award, the Commonwealth Writers First Book Prize, and the Betty Trask Award.
06/22/2002	´´The Coast of Utopia´´ Tom Stoppard	´´The Coast of Utopia´´ is a 2002 trilogy of plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage, written by Tom Stoppard with focus on the philosophical debates in pre-revolution Russia between 1833 and 1866.
01/01/2007	Doris Lessing won the Noble Prize in Literature	Doris Lessing is a Iranian-born British writer, author of works such as the novels The Grass is Singing and The Golden Notebook. In 2008, The Times ranked her fifth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
Timespan Dates:	Timespan Title:	Timespan Description:
09/15/1890 to 01/12/1976	Agatha Christie	Agatha Christie was an English crime writer of novels, short stories and plays. She is best remembered for her 80 detective novels and her successful West End theatre plays. Her works have given her the title the 'Queen of Crime' and made her one of the most important and innovative writers in the development of the genre.
01/03/1892 to 09/02/1973	J.R.R.Tolkien	John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
11/28/1898 to 11/22/1963	C.S.Lewis	Clive Staples Lewis was an Irish-born British novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist. He is also known for his fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Space Trilogy. Lewis was a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, and both authors were leading figures in the English faculty at Oxford University and in the informal Oxford literary group known as the "Inklings".
10/02/1904 to 04/03/1991	Graham Greene	Graham Greene was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene was notable for his ability to combine serious literary acclaim with widespread popularity.
05/28/1908 to 08/12/1964	Ian Fleming	Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author and journalist who is best remembered for creating the character of James Bond and chronicling Bond's adventures in twelve novels and nine short stories.
09/19/1911 to 06/19/1993	William Golding	Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate best known for his novel Lord of the Flies. He was also awarded the Booker Prize for literature in 1980 for his novel Rites of Passage, the first book of the trilogy To the Ends of the Earth.
09/13/1916 to 11/23/1990	Road Dahl	Roald Dahl was a British novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter. Some of his better-known works include James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, Matilda, The Witches, and The BFG.
07/15/1919 to 02/08/1999	Iris Murdoch	An Irish-born British author and philosopher, best known for her novels about sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her first published novel, Under the Net, was selected in 2001 by the editorial board of the American Modern Library as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2008, The Times named Murdoch among their list of ´´The 50 greatest British writers since 1945.´´
08/17/1930 to 10/28/1998	Ted Hughes	Edward James Hughes was an English poet and children's writer, known as Ted Hughes. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation. Hughes was British Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death.
03/01/1950 to 03/01/1959	Angry Young Men	Angry Young Men were a group of mostly working and middle class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950sthe label was applied to describe young British writers who were characterized by a disillusionment with traditional English society. Prime example is John Osbourne's ''Look Back In Anger''.
03/01/1956 to 03/01/1963	Kitchen Sink Realism	A British cultural movement which developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in theatre, art , novels, film and television plays. It used a style of social realism which often depicted the domestic situations of working class Britons to explore political and social issues.
01/01/1960 to 01/01/1970	Martian Poetry	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. This drive to make the familiar strange was carried into fiction by Martin Amis.