Overview of British Literature

1
Overview of British Literature
2
Anglo-Saxon Period

• 449 to 1066

3
The Anglo-Saxon Period

• Primary Work Beowulf
• Secondary Works The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, The
  Seafarer
• Primary Genre Poetry
• Primary Author anonymous

4
Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon Poetry

• Anglo-Saxon poetry does not rhyme but has a
  definite rhythm.
• It is didactic, meant to teach.
• Each line has four beats per line with a pause
  after the second beat called a caesura.
• Alliteration is present in the poetryRepetition
  of initial consonant sounds in a line of poetry.
  (Example The welter of the waves)
• Onomatopoeia The sound of the word suggests the
  sound. (welter)
• Kenning An elaborate way of describing
  something ordinary. (Heavens high arch
  rainbow or The whale road ocean)
• Epic A narrative poem about the deeds of a
  hero.

5
Anglo-Saxon Era

• Old English (Angle-ish) developed from the
  Germanic (Proto-Indo-European) language
• Prior to Alfred the Great, written literature was
  in Latin
• Religion a pagan belief in fate with the
  worship of many ancient Germanic Gods similar to
  Greek and Roman mythology.
• Two types of Anglo-Saxon verse.
• 1. Heroic poetry recounts the achievements of
  warriors involved in great battles
• 2. Elegiac poetry sorrowful laments that
  mourn the deaths of loved ones and the loss of
  the past

6
The Medieval Period

• 1066 to 1485

7
The Middle Ages

• Primary Work Canterbury Tales
• Secondary Works Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Primary Genre Poetry (folk ballads, epic)
• Primary Author Geoffrey Chaucer,
• Secondary Author Sir Thomas Malory

8
Influences of the Middle Ages

• A. Chivalry and Romance
• chivalry rose during the time of the Crusades
• code of conduct first dealt with valor and
  loyalty on and off of the battlefield
• later, knights pledged service to a lady
• troubadours (French poets) sang romances (songs
  about gallant knights)
• B. The Legend of King Arthur
• a Celtic king, a legend considered a blend of
  fact and fiction
• merged heroic legend with more contemporary ideas
  of romance and chivalry
• Knights of the Round Tableskillful in battle and
  in courtly love
• ex Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Morte
  dArthur by Sir Thomas Malory

9
Renaissance Period

• 1485 to 1625

10
The Renaissance

• Primary Work
• Secondary Works Sir Gawain and the Green
  Knight, various folk ballads
• Primary Genre Drama/Poetry (sonnets)
• Primary Author Shakespeare
• Secondary Authors Christopher Marlowe, Sir
  Thomas Wyatt, Elizabeth, Edmund Spenser, Sir
  Philip Sidney, Sir Walter Raleigh, Francis Bacon

11
Poetry

• blank verse
• favored lyric poetry rather than narrative
• popularized sonnets and sonnet cycles
• Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet
• Shakespearean (English) sonnet
• Spenserian sonnet

12
Reading a Sonnet

• Read 3 times
• 1st, read it silently for content
• 2nd, read it aloud to hear the meter and rhyme
  patterns
• 3rd, read it to discover the puzzle of the poem
  (what the poet is trying to solve or the issue
  the poet explores

13
Drama

• drawn from the classical models of Greece and
  Rome
• blank verse in plays

14
Seventeenth Century

• 1625 to 1660

15
The Seventeenth Century

• Primary Work Paradise Lost
• Secondary Works
• Primary Genre Poetry (metaphysical poetry,
  cavalier poetry, Puritans)
• Metaphysical Poets John Donne, Ben Jonson
• Cavalier Poets Sir John Suckling, Robert
  Herrick, Andrew Marvell, Richard Lovelace
• Puritans John Milton, John Bunyan

16
Conventions of Metaphysical Poets

• Use of argument
• appeals to the intellect as well as the emotions
• serious and complex subjects such as death,
  relationship w/ God, spiritual bonds between a
  husband and wife
• 2. Use of comparison
• Paradox- an apparent self-contradiction that
  reveals a kind of truth.
• Conceit- an extended, fanciful metaphor that
  makes a surprising or unexpected comparison.
• Theme- the central of main idea of a literary
  work.
• 3. Use of language
• Plain style resembling speech.

17
Features of Cavalier Poets

• Intended to entertain, not inform
• Conversational style
• Rhythmic patterns, carefully structured stanzas,
  and simple eloquent language
• Classical influence
• Popular with Charles I, but not w/ his successor
  Cromwell

18
Puritan Influence

• Forbade the celebration of Christmas and Easter
• Prohibited activities such as playing chess and
  dancing
• Closed public theatres
• Censored literature
• Widely published political pamphlets, books of
  religious instruction, and stirring sermons

19
Restoration and Eighteenth Century

• 1660 to 1798

20
The Restoration and Eighteenth Century

• Primary Work Gullivers Travels, The Rape of
  the Lock
• Secondary Works
• Primary Genre Satire (fiction, some poetry)
• Primary Authors Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope.
  John Dryden
• Secondary Authors Lady Mary Wortley Montagu,
  Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele

21
The Restoration and Eighteenth Century

• Neoclassical scientific observations classical
  Greek and Roman literature traditional
  stability harmony
• Satirical
• Political

22
Romantic Period

• 1798 to 1832

23
The Romantic Period

• Primary Work The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,
  Don Juan
• Primary Novels Frankenstein, Emma
• Primary Genre Poetry, novels (Gothic, the novel
  of manners, and the historical romance).
• Pre-Romantics William Blake, Robert Burns
• 1st Generation William Wordsworth, Samuel
  Taylor Coleridge
• 2nd Generation Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy
  Bysshe Shelley,
• Novelists Mary Shelley, Jane Austen, Sir Walter
  Scott

24
The Romantic Period

• Inspired by inner feelings, emotions,
  imagination also, Medieval literature
• Idealistic, mysterious, supernatural, particular,
  spontaneous
• Romanticized the past, desired radical change
  favored democracy concerned with the common
  people and with the individual, felt that nature
  should be untamed

25
Victorian Age

• 1832 to 1901

26
The Victorian Period

• Primary Poetry Ulysses, Sonnets from the
  Portuguese
• Primary Novels A Tale of Two Cities, Tess of the
  DUbervilles
• Influences Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism
• Primary Genres Poetry, Novels,
• Secondary Genres Drama, Fiction, Prose
• Poets Alfred, Lord Tennyson Elizabeth Barrett
  Browning Robert Browning Matthew Arnold Gerard
  Manly Hopkins
• Novelists Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens

27

• Romanticism
• Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood ignored the ugliness
  of industrial life to portray nature such as seen
  in medieval Italian art
• Aesthetic movement art for perfection or beauty
• Realism
• sought to portray human life realistically
• dealt with family relationships, religion and
  morality, social change and social reform
• appealed to the growing middle class
• Naturalism
• Applied the techniques of scientific observation
  to writing about life in the industrial age
• Very detailed
• Often aimed to promote social reform

28

• Poetry
• Applied the techniques of scientific observation
  to writing about life in the industrial age
• Very detailed
• Often aimed to promote social reform
• Drama
• Not very inspired
• Fiction
• Magazines published serial novels
• Romanticism heavily influenced earlier novelists,
  such as the Bronte sisters
• However, realist novelist Charles Dickens was the
  most popular
• Thomas Hardy provides an example of naturalism in
  novel form.
• Action-adventures Robert Louis Stevenson,
  Rudyard Kipling, of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• Prose
• Included a steady stream of histories,
  biographies, essays, and criticism

29
Modern Period

• 1901 to the Present

30
Stage 1 1901-1914

• Writers used realism and naturalism to examine
  the social problems caused by rapid change

EALISM
31
Stage 2 1914-1929

• Writers produced radical and experimental work

32
Stage 3 1929-1945

• Writers caught up in economic hard times, the
  rise of fascism, and the horrors of total war

33
Stage 4 1945-Present

• Writers showed great diversity in subject matter
  and style

34
Irish Literary Revival

• Also called the Irish Literary Renaissance or the
  Celtic Renaissance
• Throughout the 20th Century
• Spurred by nationalism in Ireland
• Sought to revive the dying Gaelic language,
  explore early Celtic history and literature, and
  express the Irish spirit

35
Modernism

• Most important artistic movement of the 20th
  century
• Influenced writers, painters, composers,
  architects, etc
• Experimentation with new forms, to innovate, to
  startle, to shock

36
Characteristics of Modernism

• Use of images as symbols
• Presentation of human experiences in fragments
• Use of previously taboo subjects
• Attention to new psychological insights

37
Poetry

• Early poetry still slightly romantic
• Mid-twentieth century poetry concerned with
  social and political issues
• The Movement of the 50s and 60s rejected
  romanticism for common language
• War Poets Rupert Brooke, Thomas Hardy, Wilfred
  Owen, A. E. Housman
• Poets William Butler Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Dylan
  Thomas

38
Drama

• Use of realism
• Theatre of the Absurd, featuring disconnected
  dialogue and senseless action
• Historical drama
• Dramatist George Bernard Shaw

39
Prose

• Does not fit into clear categories
• Moves from romanticism and realism, between
  fantasy and disillusionment, individualism and
  society in general
• Authors D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Frank
  OConnor, Virginia Woolf, Katherine Mansfield,
  Elizabeth Bowen, Doris Lessing, George Orwell

40
Novels

• George Orwell

41
Nonfiction

• The price of greatness is responsibility. If the
  people of the United States had continued in a
  mediocre station, struggling with the wilderness,
  absorbed in their own affairs, and a factor of no
  consequence in the movement of the world, they
  might have remained forgotten and undisturbed
  beyond their protecting oceans but one cannot
  rise to be in many ways the leading community in
  the civilised world without being involved in its
  problems, without being convulsed by its agonies
  and inspired by its causes. Winston Churchill,
  speech to Harvard graduating class, 1943