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English Literature

English Literature. A study of the literature of the British Isles from ancient to modern times. Map of the British Isles. Unit 1: The Anglo-Saxon Period A.D. 449-A.D. 1066. Unit 1: The Anglo-Saxon Period A.D. 449-A.D. 1066. History

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English Literature

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  1. English Literature A study of the literature of the British Isles from ancient to modern times

  2. Map of the British Isles

  3. Unit 1: The Anglo-Saxon PeriodA.D. 449-A.D. 1066

  4. Unit 1: The Anglo-Saxon PeriodA.D. 449-A.D. 1066 • History • The native Britons or Celts controlled the isles until A.D. 43. The legendary King Arthur was most likely a tribal Celtic chieftain. • From A.D. 43 till 410 the Romans occupied the isles bringing certain advancements from the “civilized world.” Their roadways, walls, and religion still exist in England today. • As the Roman Empire crumbled, the Roman officials and soldiers left the isles to the native Celts and Britons. • A.D.449-1066: The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, fierce, barbaric tribes from Scandinavia, then invaded the isles pushing most of the native Celts and Britons further north and west into modern-day Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. • In A.D. 1066, William the Conqueror from Normandy brought an end to the dominance of the Anglo-Saxons at the Battle of Hastings.

  5. The Conquering Angles, Saxons, and Jutes

  6. Unit 1: The Anglo-Saxon Period • Though Christianity had reached Britannia through the Roman occupation, Pope Gregory the Great officially sent Roman Catholic missionary Augustine to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons in A.D. 587. • During this period, the Anglo-Saxons ruled England with two brief periods of Viking rule. • Alfred the Great, who bravely pushed back the Vikings to the Danelaw, promoted education and literacy by translating numerous works into the speech of the common man and starting the first English “newspaper” the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He is known today as the founder of English prose.

  7. Unit 1: The Anglo-Saxon Period • Literature • The dominant form of Anglo-Saxon literature was poetry because most works were not written but passed from generation to generation orally. • Although the Anglo-Saxons were a bellicose people, their literature still reflects the same fears, love, devotion, desire, and emotion that we still strive with today. • Anglo-Saxon literature had five striking characteristics • Love of freedom • Responsiveness to nature • Strong religious convictions, and a belief in Wyrd • Reverence for womanhood • Devotion to glory

  8. Unit 1: The Anglo-Saxon Period • There were two types of Anglo-Saxon poets: • Scop: entertainer who composed and recited his own poetry • Gleeman: multifaceted entertainer who performed poetry rather than composed it • Characteristics • Most of the poems employed techniques such as accent, alliteration, caesura, parallelism, and kennings*. • The poetry usually followed a set form: • Each line had four accented syllables • Usually two or three of these accented syllables were alliterated • The lines are unrhymed *Kennings: compound words and phrases used metaphorically to refer to persons, places, or things

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