The literature of the 1970’s contains a divergent amount of writers and genres. Poems,novels, and short stories are the main forms of expression, and these were produced by writersfrom around the world. “Many of the books in the 1970’s revolve around a general theme ofman’s alienation from his spiritual roots”(Gillis).One author of the seventies is John Updike. He portrayed his characters “trying to findthe meaning in a society spiritually empty and in a state of moral decay”(Gillis).Interest in the 1970’s focused on writers as disparate in the concerns and styles as V.S.Pritchett and Doris Lessing(“English Literature”). V.S. Pritchett is noted as a literary critic ofremarkable education. She is also considered a master of the short story. Doris Lessing wentfrom writing short stories collected as African novels concerning the role of women incontemporary society.“No playwright dominated this decade of both social and artistic unrest. Among the mostacknowledged were Sam Shepherd, Lanford Wilson, David Mamet, and Neil Simon”(Gillis). Another noted playwright is Edward Franklin Albee. He is an American playwright whose mostsuccessful plays focus on familial relationships. His early plays are characterized by themestypical of the theater of the absurd. The characters suffer from an inability or unwillingness tocommunicate meaningfully or to sympathize or empathize with one another(“English Literature”).Another author of the seventies is Iris Murdoch. A teacher of philosophy as well as awriter, she is esteemed for slyly comic analyses of contemporary lives in her many novels such asThe Black Prince. Murdoch’s effects are made by the contrast between her eccentric charactersand the underlying seriousness of her ideas(“English Literature”).Eudora Welty, an American writer was born in Jackson, Mississippi. Some of her novelsinclu...
