School of Distance Education

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ENGLISH LITERATURE 
IN THE 21
ST
 CENTURY 
(ENG4 C11) 
IV SEMESTER 
MA ENGLISH 
2019 Admission onwards
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT 
 
School of Distance Education
Calicut University- P.O,
Malappuram - 673635, Kerala. 
 
 
 
190013

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School of Distance Education
English Literature in the 21
st
 century
2 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALICUT
School of Distance Education
Study Material 
 IV SEMESTER

MA ENGLISH
 
ENGLISH LITERATURE IN THE 
21
ST
 CENTURY: 
(ENG4 C11) 
Prepared by:
Smt. MEENU S,

Guest Lecturer,
Govt. College, Kottayam.
Scrutinized by: 
DISCLAIMER
 
“The author shall be solely responsible for the 
content and views expressed in this book” 
 
Smt. PINKU BOUSALLY, 
 
 
Asst. Professor of English,
 
Govt. College, Peringome, 
 
Payyann
u
r. 
 

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School of Distance Education
English Literature in the 21
st
 century
3 
 
CONTENTS 
DRAMA 
 
 
: 
23 
FICTION & PROSE 
:
 
33 
POETR
Y

 
: 
5 

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School of Distance Education
English Literature in the 21
st
 century
4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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School of Distance Education
English Literature in the 21
st
 century
5 
 
A Vision 
by Simon Armitage 
Armitage's poems echo the poetic genius of 
modern British poets such as Philip Larkin and W. H 
Auden. They share the same philosophic point of view 
that nothing is certain.Simon Armitage was born in 
Marsden, a village in West Yorkshire, England. From 
2015 to 2019, he served as Professor of Poetry at the 
University of Oxford, and in 2017 he was appointed 
Professor of Poetry at the University of Leeds. He was 
named UK Poet Laureate in 2019. Armitage is the author 
of numerous collections of poetry, including 
Magnetic 
Field: The Marsden Poems
(2020); 
Sandettie Light 
Vessel Automatic
(2019); 
TheUnaccompanied
(2017); 
Paper Aeroplane: Selected Poems 1989–2014
(2014); 
Seeing Stars 
(2010); 
Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus the 
Corduroy Kid 
(2006); 
TheShout: Selected Poems
(2005). 
Armitage has also published fiction, including the novels 
The White Stuff 
(2004) and 
Little Green Man 
(2001), and 
the memoir 
All Points North
(1998).
‘A Vision’ is taken from Armitage’s collection 
called 
Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus Corduroy Kid
. The 
title of the poem is “Vision” but more than a vision it is 
actually a “Remembering” or “Unfulfilled dreams”. The 
poem speaks off the contrast between our idealistic 
hopes and the perfect reality. The miniature display 
model of the projected town which the speaker of ‘A 

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School of Distance Education
English Literature in the 21
st
 century
6 
Vision’ recalls presents a perfect, but unrealistic, picture 
of urban life.
The poem opens in an ambiguous note.” The 
future was a beautiful place”, the presentation of future 
in the past form makes the reader wonder about the 
poet’s ideas about the future. The vision the poet 
presents before us is grim and sleek. ‘Electric cars' 
‘tubular steel' all defines modernity. The vision of the 
future the poet aims to achieve resembles to the model of 
a village that would have been on display in the Civic 
Hall. ‘Smoked glass' evokes an industrial feel. The 
narrative shifts to the people of this utopian future. The 
vision he imagines is utterly idealistic, a civilization 
unparalleled in history.
The language of Armitage’s poem is frequently 
playing on this joint meaning of ‘vision’ as both 
‘imaginary illusion’ and ‘optimistic idea of the future’. 
As 
The Times
pointed out “Armitage speaks with an 
utter lack of sentimentality or pomposity of the 
transcendent mysteries that lie beyond the ordinary 
moment”.