Voices of Fragmentation: Identity and Alienation in Modernist Literature

This paper examines the themes of identity and alienation in modernist English literature, focusing primarily on Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Both texts present fractured identities and psychological depth in response to the disorienting effects of modern life. Through narrative techniques such as stream of consciousness and fragmented poetic form, these authors convey the existential dilemmas faced by individuals in the early twentieth century. The study highlights how these works reflect the broader anxieties of the post-war era and challenge traditional literary structures to mirror the complexities of human consciousness. The early twentieth century ushered in unprecedented changes in the socio-political and cultural fabric of the Western world. The trauma of World War I, the breakdown of established religious and moral codes, and the rapid industrial and technological advancements led to a crisis of meaning and identity. This cultural upheaval gave rise to modernism, a literary movement characterized by formal experimentation, thematic preoccupations with alienation, and a profound interest in the inner workings of the human psyche.