Literature of the 20th century refers to world literature produced during the 20th century (1901 to 2000). The main periods in question are often grouped by scholars as Modernist literature, Postmodern literature, flowering from roughly 1900 to 1940 and 1960 to 1990 respectively, roughly using World War II as a transition point. After 1960, the somewhat malleable term "contemporary literature" widely appears. Although these terms (modern, contemporary and postmodern) are generally applicable to and stem from Western literary history, scholars often use them in reference to Asian, Latin American and African literatures. Non-western writers, in particular in Postcolonial literature, have been at the forefront of literary evolution during the twentieth century. Technological advances facilitated lower production cost for books, coupled with rising populations and literacy rates, which resulted in a significant rise in production of popular literature and trivial literature, comparable to the similar developments in music. The division of "popular literature" and "high literature" in the 20th century is overlapped by genres such as detectives or science fiction, despite being largely ignored by mainstream literary criticism for most of the century. These genres developed their own establishments and critical awards; these include the Nebula Award (since 1965), the British Fantasy Award (since 1971) or the Mythopoeic Awards (since 1971). Towards the end of the 20th century, electronic literature grew in importance in light of the development of hypertext and later the World Wide Web. The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded annually throughout the century (with the exception of 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940–1943), the first laureate (1901) being Sully Prudhomme. The New York Times Best Seller list has been published since 1942. The best-selling literary works of the 20th century are estimated to be The Lord of the Rings (1954/55, 150 million copies), Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince, 1943, 140 million copies), Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997, 120 million copies) and And Then There Were None (1939, 115 million copies). The Lord of the Rings was also voted "book of the century" in various surveys. Perry Rhodan (1961 to present) proclaimed as the best-selling book series, with an estimated total of 1 billion copies sold.

1901–1918

The Fin de siècle movement of the Belle Époque persisted into the 20th century, but was brutally cut short with the outbreak of World War I (an effect depicted e.g. in Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, published 1924). The Dada movement of 1916–1920 was at least in part a protest against the bourgeois nationalist and colonialist interests which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war; the movement heralded the Surrealism movement of the 1920s. 1900 Genre fiction 1901 Genre fiction 1902 Genre fiction Plays 1903 Genre fiction 1904 Genre fiction Plays 1905 1906 Genre fiction Plays 1907 Genre fiction Plays Poetry 1908 Genre fiction Poetry 1909 Poetry Plays 1910 1911 Genre fiction 1912 Genre fiction Plays 1913 Genre fiction Poetry 1914 Poetry 1915 Genre fiction 1916 Genre fiction Poetry 1917 Poetry Non-fiction 1918 Poetry Non-fiction

Interwar period

The 1920s were a period of literary creativity, and works of several notable authors appeared during the period. D. H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was a scandal at the time because of its explicit descriptions of sex. James Joyce's novel, Ulysses, published in 1922 in Paris, was one of the most important achievements of literary modernism. 1919 Genre fiction 1920 Plays 1921 Plays 1922 Poetry 1923 Plays Poetry 1924 Genre fiction Plays 1925 Genre fiction Poetry Non-fiction 1926 Genre fiction Poetry Plays Non-fiction 1927 Poetry Plays 1928 Plays 1929 Non-fiction Genre fiction 1930 Genre fiction Poetry Plays Non-fiction 1931 Genre fiction Plays Non-fiction 1932 Poetry 1933 Genre fiction Non-fiction 1934 Genre fiction Poetry Non-fiction 1935 Genre fiction Poetry Plays 1936 Poetry Genre fiction 1937 Genre fiction Non-fiction 1938 Genre fiction Non-fiction 1939 Genre fiction Poetry Plays

World War II

1940 Genre fiction Plays Non-fiction 1941 Genre fiction Non-fiction 1942 Plays 1943 Genre fiction Poetry Non-fiction 1944 Plays 1945 Genre fiction 1946 Poetry Plays Non-fiction 1947 Plays Non-fiction 1948 Genre fiction Plays Non-fiction 1949 Genre fiction Plays

Postwar period

The intermediate postwar period separating "Modernism" from "Postmodernism" (1950s literature) is the floruit of the beat generation and the classical science fiction of Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and Robert A. Heinlein. This period also saw the publication of Samuel Beckett's trilogy of novels, Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnameable, which enacted the dissolution of the self-identical human subject and inspired later novelists such as Thomas Bernhard, John Banville, and David Markson. The first works of electronic literature were written in the 1950s. 1950 Plays Genre fiction Non-fiction 1951 Plays Non-fiction 1952 Genre fiction Plays 1953 Genre fiction Plays 1954 Genre fiction Plays Non-fiction 1955 Genre fiction Plays Poetry 1956 Genre fiction Plays Poetry Non-fiction 1957 Genre fiction Plays Poetry 1958 Genre fiction Plays Non-fiction 1959 Genre fiction Plays

Cold War period, 1960–1989

1960 Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction 1961 Genre fiction 1962 Genre fiction Non-fiction 1963 Genre fiction Non-fiction 1964 Genre fiction Non-fiction 1965 Genre fiction Plays Poetry Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction 1966 Genre fiction Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction 1967 Non-fiction 1968 Non-fiction and quasi-fiction 1969 Genre fiction Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction 1970 Genre fiction Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction 1971 Genre fiction Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction 1972 Genre fiction Poetry 1973 Genre fiction 1974 Genre fiction Genre fiction Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction Poetry 1975 Genre fiction 1976 Genre fiction Non-fiction and quasi-fiction Poetry Drama 1977 1978 Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction Genre fiction 1979 Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction 1980 1981 Genre fiction Non-fiction 1982 Genre fiction 1983 Genre fiction 1984 Non-fiction 1985 Genre fiction 1986 Non-fiction 1987 Genre fiction 1988 Genre fiction 1989

1990s

1990 Genre fiction 1991 1994 1996 1997 Genre fiction