MOCK EPIC (OR MOCK HEROIC)
Wilde, in The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), produced a parody of the WELLMADEPLAYand the sentimental comedy popular in his time and mocked, as well, his fellow playwrights for their failure to acknowledge the hypocrisy and self-deception of their
age. There is an element of mock drama in many of the plays of Harold Pinter, Tom
Stoppard, and David Mamet.
Mock Epic (or Mock Heroic)
Terms for a literary form that burlesques the epic by
treating a trivial subject in the "grand style" or uses the epic formulas to make a trivial
subject ridiculous by ludricrously overstating it. Usually, the characteristics
of the classical epic are employed, particularly the INVOCATIONto a deity; the formal statement of
theme; the division into books and cantos; the grandiose speeches (challenges, defiances, boastings) of the heroes; descriptions
of warriors (especially their dress and
equipment), battles, and games; the use of the HOMERICSIMILE;and the involvement of
supernatural machinery (gods directing or participating in the action). When the mock
poem is much shorter than a true epic, some prefer to call it mock heroic, a term also
applied to poems that mock romances rather than epics. In ordinary usage, however,
the terms are interchangeable.
Chaucer's Nun 's Priest Tale is partly mock heroic in
character, as is Spenser's finely wrought Muiopotmos, "The Fate of the Butterfly,"
which imitates the opening of the Aeneid and employs elevated style for trivial subject
matter. Swift's Battle of the Books is an example of a satirical mock epic in prose.
Pope's The Rape of the Lock is perhaps the finest mock heroic poem in English, satirizing in polished verse the trivialities of polite society. The cutting of a lady's lock by a
gallant is the central act of heroic behavior, a card game is described in military terms,
and such airy spirits as the sylphs hover over the scene to aid their favorite heroine. A
brilliantly executed mock epic has a manifold effect: to ridicule trivial or silly conduct;
to mock the pretensions and absurdities of epic proper; to bestow an affectionate measure of elevation on low or foolish characters; and to bestow a humanizing, deflating,
or debunking measure of lowering on elevated characters.
s
Mockumentary
A mock documentary, in which a work of fiction borrows the techniques of DOCUMENTARY.
The best known writer of such projects has been Christopher
Guest, who sometimes also directs and appears in the picture. His projects include This
Is Spinal Tap (1984), Best in Show (2000), and A Mighty Wind (2003).
Mode
A term for broad categories of treatment of material, such as romance, comedy, tragedy, or satire. In this usage mode is broader than GENRE.Northrop Frye sees
ROMANCE,COMEDY,TRAGEDY,and IRONYas modes of increasing complexity.
Model
A earlier work that serves as a verbal SOURCEwithout necessarily providing
any deeper thematic resonances. According to Grover Smith, for example, the second
part of Eliot's The Waste Land ("The Chair she sat in, like a burnished throne ... ") owes
a double debt to Shakespeare: to Antony and Cleopatra, which is the verbal model and,
more significantly, to many passages in the second act of Cymbeline, which is a SOURCE.
[Reference: Grover Smith, The Waste Land (1983).]·
Modern
For much of its history, "modern" has meant something bad. In a general
sense it means having to do with recent times and the present day, but we shall deal with
it here in a narrow sense more or less synonymous with that of "modernist." It is not so
much a chronological designation as one suggestive of a loosely defined congeries of
350
characteristics. Much litera
as much that is contemporar
all of them appear in any onIn a broad sense modem is
with tradition. It employs a <1J.~::c:l'"
frame of reference within itse.:
the modem mind: It believes
plies a historical discontimnn- _
tory but also the society of \,: _
and assumptions, and it rejects '-"'-"':""
municated. It elevates the indiv
prefers the unconscious to the -been seminal in the modem mo; _
REALISMand NATURALISM
and
means can all modern writers be
created a schema within which
tudes and assumptions. The mod
posed to the practical and syste
.
of the writer it has been richly ex _
literature of this century has come
[References: Carlos Baker T,-
in
Phenomena of Transference
p.
Poetics (1984); Peter Faulkner. _
Modern in Literature and the A
Modernism in Twentieth-Century
A..~"
Modernist Period in English Lit
considered to begin with the Fir [
ness of that experience and by the :the boom of the twenties and that fe
sion in the thirties. The catastrop
Engl.and an embattled fortress, pro+
and It was followed by a period of un;
to all purposes marked an end to the
to anger and protest.
In the early years of the Modernis;
tinued as major figures, with Galswo
ing the scene, joined before the 'tee
Maugham. A new fiction, centered in
was coming into being in the works of s
Woolf. It reached its peak in the publi
perhaps as influential as any prose
highly differing ways D. H. Lawrence.
against the nature of modem society:
Waugh wrote it in the twenties and thirtre
probably as truly representative
of the E
the NOVELexploring the private selfthrou
and forties, Joyce Cary and Graham G-,
great effectiveness.
Throughout
the pe
MODERNIST
PERIOD
IN ENGLISH
LITERATURE
characteristics. Much literature of the present day is not "modern" in the common sense,
as much that is contemporary is not. Modern refers to a group of characteristics, and not
all of them appear in anyone writer who merits the designation modern.
In a broad sense modern is applied to writing marked by a strong and conscious break
with tradition. It employs a distinctive kind of imagination that insists on having its general
frame of reference within itself. It thus practices the solipsism of which Allen Tate accused
the modern mind: It believes that we create the world in the act of perceiving it. Modern implies a historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, loss, and despair. It rejects not only history but also the society of whose fabrication history is a record. It rejects traditional values
and assumptions, and it rejects equally the rhetoric by which they were sanctioned and communicated. It elevates the individual and the inward over the social and the outward, and it
prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious. The psychologies of Freud and Jung have
been seminal in the modern movement in literature. In many respects it is a reaction against
REALISM
and NATURALISM
and the scientific postulates on which they rest. Although by no
means can all modern writers be termed philosophical existentialists, EXISTENTIALISM
has
reated a schema within which much of the modern temper can see a reflection of its attitudes and assumptions. The modern revels in a dense and often unordered actuality as opposed to the practical and systematic, and in exploring that actuality as it exists in the mind
of the writer it has been richly experimental. What has been distinctively worthwhile in the
literature of this century has come, in considerable part, from this modern temper.
[References: Carlos Baker, The Echoing Green: Romanticism, Modernism, and the
Phenomena of Transference in Poetry (1984); Carol T. Christ, Victorian and Modern
Poetics (1984); Peter Faulkner, Modernism (1977); Irving Howe, ed., The Idea of the
~fodern in Literature and the Arts (1967); Monroe K. Spears, Dionysus and the City:
~fodernism in Twentieth-Century Poetry (1970).]
. Iodernist Period in English Literature
The Modernist Period in England may be
considered to begin with the First World War in 1914, to be marked by the strenuousness of that experience and by the flowering of talent and experiment that came during
zhe boom of the twenties and that fell away during the ordeal of the economic depression in the thirties. The catastrophic years of the Second World War, which made
England an embattled fortress, profoundly and negatively marked everything British,
and it was followed by a period of uncertainty, a sadly diminished age. By 1965, which
'0 all purposes marked an end to the Modernist Period, the uncertainty was giving way
·0 anger and protest.
In the early years of the Modernist Period, the novelists of the EDWARDIAN
AGEcon:mued as major figures, with Galsworthy, Wells, Bennett, Forster, and Conrad dominatg the scene, joined before the 'teens were over by Ford Madox Ford and Somerset
faugham. A new fiction, centered in the experimental examination of the inner self,
as coming into being in the works of such wri ters as Dorothy Richardson and Virginia
'oolf It reached its peak in the publication in 1922 of James Joyce's Ulysses, a book
rhaps as influential as any prose work by a British writer in the past century. In
aighly differing ways D. H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, and Evelyn Waugh protested
against the nature of modern society; and the maliciously witty novel, as Huxley and
'augh wrote it in the twenties and thirties, was typical of the attitude of the age and is
~robably as truly representative of the English novel in the contemporary period as is
. e NOVEL
exploring the private self through the STREAM
OFCONSCIOUSNESS.
In the thirties
d forties, Joyce Cary and Graham Greene produced a more traditional FICTIONof
= eat effectiveness. Throughout the period English writers have practiced the short
351
MODULATION
story with distinction; notable examples being Katherine Mansfield and Somerset
Maugham, working in the tradition of Chekhov.
The theater saw the social plays of Galsworthy, Jones, and Pinero, the play of ideas
of Shaw, and the COMEDYOF MAN ERS of Maugham-all
well-established in the
EDWARDIAN
AGE-continue and be joined by Noel Coward's comedy, the proletarian
drama of Sean O'Casey, the serious verse plays ofT. S. Eliot and Christopher Fry, and
the high artistry of Terence Rattigan.
Perhaps the greatest changes in literature, however, came in poetry and criticism. In
1914 Bridges was POETLAUREATE;
he was succeeded in 1930 by John Masefield, who
died in 1967. Wilfred Owen was a powerful poetic voice, but his career ended with
an untimely death in the First World War. Through the period Yeats continued poetic creation, steadily modifying his style and subjects to his late form. At the time of his death
in 1939 he probably shared with T. S. Eliot the distinction of being the most influential
poet in the British Isles. Yet Eliot's The Waste Land, although its author was American,
was the most important single poetic publication in England in the period. (One striking
feature of The Waste Land is its specificity as to geography in the "City" part of London,
along with its global scope, which includes even Australia and the South Pole while omitting-as if deliberately-virtually
any reference to the United States.) In the work of
Yeats and Eliot, of W. H. Auden, Edith Sitwell, and Gerard Manley Hopkins (whose
poems were posthumously published in 1918) a new poetry emphatically emerged. The
death at thirty-nine of Dylan Thomas in 1953 silenced a powerful lyric voice that had already produced fine poetry and gave promise of doing even finer work. T. S. Eliot and
I. A. Richards, along with T. E. Hulme, Wyndham Lewis, Herbert Read, R. G. Collingwood, F. R. Leavis, Cyril Connolly, William Empson, and others created an informed, essentially anti-Romantic ANALYTICAL
CRJTICISM,
concentrating on the work of art itself.
Between 1914 and 1965, modernism gained a powerful ascendancy, and, disparate as
many ofthe writers and movements of the period were, they seem, in hindsight, to have
shared most of the fundamental assumptions embraced in the term MODERN.
But, however much the literary movement in the Modernist Period seems to enjoy unified history, Great Britain was in the process of national and cultural diminution, for England
in the twentieth century has watched her political and military supremacy gradually
dissipate, and since the Second World War she has found herself somewhat reduced in
the international scene and torn by internal economic and political troubles. Her writers during these turbulent and unhappy years turned inward for their subject matter and
expressed bitter and often despairing cynicism. Her major literary figures in the
Modernist Period, as they were in the Edwardian Age, were often non-English. Her
chief poets were Irish, American, and Welsh; her most influential novelists, Polish and
Irish; her principal dramatists, Irish and American. See Outline of Literary History.
been succeeded by dozens of 0'
Mondo idea of showing a worl
otic or pathetic. The titles inclu ~
Monism A system that redu s
pie. Opposed to DUALISMand
Brooks; or, The Bankruptcy of rCleanth Brooks," arguing that B~
~,,-'.-,
Monodrama
The term mall
meaning of a dramatic situation
monodrama is a DRAMATIC
MO,'
dramatic monologues in vario standard example is Tennyson' __
also applied to theatrical presen
Monody A DIRGEor LAMETin
Arnold's Thyrsis, A Monody. See
Monoglot
Using only one Ian",
Monograph A rather indefinite
relatively limited topic. Manawa
as part of a series, but their size n' -full-length book.
••.•••
Monolingual
Same as MOlOGL Monolingualism of the Other; 01: Monologism Mikhail Bakhtin than Dostoevski's, for example) to
no interruption or dialogic play.
Monologue
A composition givi _
monologue represents what someo although they do not speak; the
SOLILOQUY,
which represents whar ::
DRAMATIC
MONOLOGUE,
INTERIOR
\1
Monometer
Modulation In music a change in key in or between passages. In poetry a variation in
the metrical pattern by the substitution of a foot that differs from the basic rhythm of
the poem or by the addition or deletion of unstressed syllables. Hardy's "The Voice"
may be said to modulate from a largely dactylic rhythm in its first three stanzas to a
largely trochaic rhythm in the fourth. Gerard Manley Hopkins's "Inversnaid" modulates from SPONDEES
to ANAPESTS.
Monopo\y\ogue
A performance \ '
acters in many voices. Thomas Hood'
(1845) includes the pun "Go where
polly-Iogue ... "
Mondo In 1961 an Italian travel DOCUMENTARY
called Mondo Cane ("world for a
dog") caused a worldwide sensation with its handling of bizarre and exotic customs, including the eating of insects and the cargo cults of the Pacific Islands. The original film has
Monorhyme A poem that uses onl '
Browning's "Home-Thoughts, from ', •
Accounting" five. Longer examples are
352