Old English
Caedmon (active 657–680) – a monk and Britain’s first known poet.
Only one work survives, Caedmon’s Hymn.
Beowulf – an epic poem, written around 975–1025, tells
the story of a Swedish king living around 550.
Middle English literature: 12th Century – 1470’s
v
Chancery Standard English (from
London) became standard.
v
3 categories of writing existed:
Religious, Courtly Love, Arthurian
v
William
Langland (1332-1386) – wrote Piers Plowman (earliest allusion to Robin Hood) – concerns a quest for the true Christian
life, from the perspective of mediæval Catholicism. This story includes a
series of visions and three allegorical characters, Dowel ("Do-Well"),
Dobet ("Do-Better"), and Dobest ("Do-Best").
v
Geoffrey
Chaucer (1343-1400)– wrote Canterbury Tales, and Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight.
Canterbury Tales - The tales (mostly written in verse) are
presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they
travel together on a journey, a pilgrimage, from Southwark to the shrine of
Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a
free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight –
in this story, Sir Gawain, a
knight of King Arthur's round table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious
“Green Knight” who challenges any knight to strike him with his axe if he will
take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawain accepts and beheads him with his
blow, at which the Green Knight stands up, picks up his head and reminds Gawain
of the appointed time.
Early Modern period
(Renaissance): (1480-1558)
v
William Caxton introduced the
printing press to England in 1476.
v
English
renaissance began in 1485 when the Tudors
won the Wars of the Roses and
started the Tudor dynasty. It started with Henry VII.
v
Book of Common Prayer 1549, was
written in vernacular English, not Latin.
v
Philospher
& politician, Saint Thomas More
(1478-1535) wrote Utopia.
v
The poet Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) introduced
the Petrarchan sonnet to English
literature.
Elizabethan Literature: (1558-1603) – The height of the English
renaissance, includes
all the literature produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.
v
Plays dominated English literature because it was
more profitable than books. Paper was expensive, but actors were cheap.
v
Plays included: -
comedies like A Midsummer Night’s Dream
-
tragedies like Romeo & Juliette
-
historical plays like Richard III, and Henry VIII
-
romances (combining comedy &
tragedy) like The Tempest
-
revenge plays like Hamlet
v
Famous
playwrights included Thomas Kyd
(1558-1594), Christopher Marlowe
(1563-1594) stabbed at
twenty-nine in a tavern brawl, William Shakespeare (1564-1616), and Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
v
Philosopher Francis Bacon (1561-1626) developed the
scientific method, beginning the Age of Enlightenment.
v
In poetry,
Shakespeare developed the English sonnet: abab cdcd efef gg
Other poets included: Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) wrote
Faerie
Queene.
Sir
Philip Sidney (1554-1586) wrote Arcadia.
Jacobean
Literature: (1603-1625)
– during the reign of King James I.
v
the King James Bible – was printed in 1611. Although many English translations have
been made, some of which are more accurate, many people prefer the King James
version because the meter mimics the original Hebrew version.
v
Metaphysical Poets, led by John Donne (1572-1631) who wrote the
sonnet Death Be Not Proud.
The English Commonwealth: (1649-1660)
v
King Charles I had been so unpopular that
parliament began the English Civil War,
fighting the royalists and killing the king.
v
From
1649-1660 a new government was formed, led by Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658).
v
The new
government was very religious, closing theatres, and banning secular writing
and music. So, there is very little literature from this time.
v
One except
was the poet John Milton (1608-1674), who wrote the epic poem Paradise Lost.
Restoration Literature: (1660-1689) – written after
the English Restoration, when King Charles II was returned to the throne.
v
Royal Society – founded in 1660.
v
Satire became
widely popular, written anonymously for fear of punishment.
v
Philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) wrote Treatises on Government.
v
Writer John Bunyan (1628-1688) wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress.
v
Poet and
playwright John Dryden (1631-1700)
wrote the play All For Love.
Augustan
Literature: (1689-1750) –
written during the reign of King George
I.
v
literature
of the period is political and full of scandal and outrage.
v
Periodicals
gave rise to famous essays and journalism. The most famous essayist was Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) who wrote Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets,
and a Dictionary of the English Language,
used for over 150 years.
v
Sir Richard
Steele (1672-1729) wrote a satirical journal called The Tatler.
v
The Licensing Act of 1737 brought theatre under state
control. Many playwrights turned to writing novels.
v
Writers: Daniel
Defoe (1659-1731) wrote Robinson
Crusoe,
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) wrote Gulliver’s Travels,
Henry Fielding (1707-1754), wrote Tom Jones.
v
Playwrights:
John Gay (1685-1732) wrote The Beggar’s Ballad.
v
Poets: Alexander Pope (1688-1744) wrote Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad,
Age of Enlightenment: (1750-1800)
v
Literature reflected the worldview of the
Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason) in which a rational and scientific
approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues was promoted.
v
This led to a more secular view of the world and a general
sense of progress.
Romanticism
v
Romanticism
started at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Cities expanded, the
countryside depopulated, pastures privatized, and peasants poured into cities
to work in factories.
v
Some words changed
their meanings: industry
(once meant "creativity"), democracy (once meant "mob
rule"), class (once only used with a social connotation), art (once just
meaning "craft"), culture (once only belonging to farming).
v
Poor working conditions, pollution, and new class-conflicts cause a reaction
against industrialization. Poets begin to romanticize the beauty and value of
nature.
v
Mother earth
is seen as a new source of wisdom, the only solution to the ugliness caused by
machines.
v
Writers: Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), wrote Ivanhoe and Rob Roy.
Jane
Austen (1775-1817) wrote Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma.
John William
Polidori (1795-1821) wrote The
Vampyre.
Mary
Shelley (1797-1851) wrote
Frankenstein.
v
The Lake
Poets: William Wordsworth
(1770-1850),
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) wrote Rime of the Ancient Mariner
v
Other
Poets: William Blake (1757-1827)
Lord Byron (1788-1824)
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) wrote Ode to the West
Wind, Ozzymandius
John Keats (1795-1821) wrote Ode on a Grecian
Urn.
6 Victorian
literature – (1837–1901) –
written during the reign of Queen Victoria.
v
The novel
became the leading form of literature, especially social novels that described
the plight of the poor in industrial society.
v
Writers: William Thackeray (1811-1863) wrote Vanity Fair
Charles Dickens (1812-1870) wrote The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Bleak
House
The Bronte Sisters: Charlotte (1816-1855)
wrote Jane Eyre
Emily
(1818-1848) wrote Wuthering Heights
Anne (1820-1849) wrote Agnes Grey
and Wildfell Hall
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) wrote Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Henry James (1843-1916) wrote The Portrait of a Lady
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) wrote Heart
of Darkness
v
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) wrote
Origin of Species creating the theory
of evolution.
v
Many new
genres of pop fiction began at this time, like sci-fi, fantasy, horror,
detective stories, spy novels, ghost stories, lost world stories, and
children’s stories.
v
Fantasy lit.
included: George MacDonald
(1824-1905) The Princess and the Goblin.
Robert
Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Treasure
Island, Kidnapped,
Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.
v
Detective
stories included: William Wilkie Collins
(1824-1889) The Moonstone. (first
detective novel)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) Sherlock Holmes.
v
Spy novels
included: Erskine Childers
(1870-1922) The Riddle of the Sands
v
Sci-Fi stories
included: H.G. Wells (1866-1946) The Time Machine, and The War of the Worlds.
v
Lost World
lit. included: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Lost World.
H. Rider Haggard (1856-1925) King
Solomon’s Mines.
v
Horror included: Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) The House by the Churchyard.
Bram Stoker
(1847-1912) Dracula.
v
Children’s
literature included: Lewis Carroll
(1832-1898) Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland.
Kenneth Grahame
(1859-1932) The Wind in the Willows.
Beatrix Potter
(1866-1943) The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
J.M. Barrie
(1869-1937) Peter Pan
v
Plays
were still popular with many new farces, musical burlesques, extravaganzas and
comic operas
v
Playwrights: Gilbert (1836-1911) & Sullivan (1842-1900) wrote light
operas
B.C. Stephenson
(1839-1906) wrote Dorothy, longest
running of the 19th century.
Oscar
Wilde (1854-1900) wrote Picture of
Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest.
v
Poets: Elizabeth
Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
Robert Browning
(1812-1889),
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)
Modernism & Edwardian Literature: (1901-1939) – written during the reign of King Edward.
v
Modernism in
English literature developed from the disillusionment with Victorian era
attitudes of certainty, conservatism, and belief in objective truth.
v
Modernists
were influenced by Darwin (1809-1882), Ernst Mach (1838-1916), Friedrich
Nietzsche (1844-1900), Karl Marx (1818-1883), and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).
v
Not all writers at
this time were considered Modernist. The following writers and playwrights were active
in this period, but not considered Modernist:
v
Playwrights: Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) wrote Pygmalian
v
Non Modernist
Writers: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
The Jungle Book,
E.M. Forster
(1879-1970) Howard’s End and A Room with a View.
v
American Poets who were influential in
England: Gertrude Stein (1874-1946), William Frost (1874-1963) (first published
in England), William Carlos Williams (1883-1963), Ezra Pound (1885-1972), Hilda
Doolittle (1886-1961), Marianne Moore (1887-1972), T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
(became a British citizen)
v
British & Irish Modernist writers
included:
Dorothy Richardson (1873-1957) Pointed Roof,
a stream of consciousness novel
James Joyce (1882-1941) Ulysses and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) A Room of One’s
Own
D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) The Rainbow and Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) Brave New World
George Orwell (1903-1950) 1984 and Animal Farm,
Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) A Handful of
Dust
Alan Paton (1903-1988) Cry the Beloved
Country
Graham Greene (1904-1991) Brighton Rock
Anthony Powell (1905-2000) A Dance to the
Music of Time
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) Waiting for Godot
Sir William Golding (1911-1993) Lord of the Flies
Anthony Burgess (1917-1993) A Clockwork
Orange
Iris Murdoch (1919-1999) Under the Net
Doris Lessing (1919-present) The Children of
Violence
Kingsley Amis (1922-1995) Lucky Jim
British & Irish
Modernist Poets: William
Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
T.S. Eliot (1888-1965)
Hugh
MacDiarmid (1892-1978),
Robert
Graves (1895-1985),
Dylan
Thomas (1914-1953)
Post-modern literature: (1950-The Present)
Postmodern literature, like postmodernism in general, is difficult to
define and there is little agreement on its exact characteristics, goals, or
importance. It is both a continuation of the modernist experimentation (using
fragmentation, paradox, questionable narrators, etc.) and a reaction against
Enlightenment ideas found in Modernist literature.
Post Modern Writers:
Richard Adams (1920-present) Watership
Down
Salman Rushdie (1947-present) Midnight’s
Children, Satanic Verses
Irvine Welsh (1958-present) Trainspotting
Post Modern Poets:
R. S. Thomas (1913–2000) The Stones of the Field
Popular Fiction
1890-1976 Agatha Christie,
who wrote mysteries
1892-1973 J.R.R. Tolkien,
wrote The Lord of the Rings
1893-1957 Dorothy L. Sayers,
mystery writer
1898-1963 C.S. Lewis, wrote The Chronicles of Narnia
1902-1974 Georgette Heyer,
wrote historical romances
1908-1964 Ian Fleming, spy
novelist who created James Bond
1916-1990 Roald Dahl,
humorist and children’s book author
1917-2008 Arthur C. Clarke,
sci-fi writer, wrote 2001: A Space
Odyssey
1931-Present John le Carré,
spy novelist
1934-Present Alan Garner,
fantasy novelist
1939-Present Michael Moorcock,
sci-fi writer
1939-Present Margaret Atwood,
Canadian writer
1946-Present Philip Pullman,
wrote His Dark Materials
1948-Present Terry Pratchett,
fantasy novelist
1952-2001 Douglas Adams,
sci-fi humorist. Wrote The Hitchiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy
1954-Present Iain Banks,
sci-fi writer
1965-Present J.K. Rowling,
wrote Harry Potter series.
