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An Overview of British Literature

An Overview of British Literature. Literature is the question minus the answer.  ~Roland Barthes. Anglo-Saxon Literature. strong belief in fate religious and pagan subjects heroic warriors who prevail in battle literature   -  expresses religious faith - gives moral instruction

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An Overview of British Literature

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  1. An Overview of British Literature Literature is the question minus the answer.  ~Roland Barthes

  2. Anglo-Saxon Literature • strong belief in fate • religious and pagan subjects • heroic warriors who prevail in battle • literature   -  expresses religious faith - gives moral instruction • oral tradition - poetry

  3. Beowulf(7th-10th century)

  4. Middle English Literature • morality plays - instructed the illiterate masses in morals and entertained • mystery plays – representations of Bible stories • miracle plays - re-enacted miraculous interventions by the saints into the lives of ordinary people • romances - stories about the adventures of knights goes on quests - the chivalric code of honor – ‘courtly love’

  5. King Arthur and The Round Table

  6. Geoffrey Chaucer Canterbury Tales- 1483

  7. When fair April with his showers sweet,Has pierced the drought of March to the root's feetAnd bathed each vein in liquid of such power,Its strength creates the newly springing flower;When the West Wind too, with his sweet breath,Has breathed new life - in every copse and heath -Into each tender shoot, and the young sunFrom Aries moves to Taurus on his run,And those small birds begin their melody,(The ones who 'sleep` all night with open eye,)Then nature stirs them up to such a pitchThat folk all long to go on pilgrimageAnd wandering travellers tread new shores, strange strands,Seek out far shrines, renowned in many lands,And specially from every shire's endOf England to Canterbury they wendThe holy blessed martyr there to seek,Who has brought health to them when they were sick.

  8. Elizabethan Age

  9. Elizabethan Age • Elizabeth I (1558- 1603) – the last Tudor monarch • the golden age – prosperity, stability and peace • expeditions – settlement of America • the printing press • The Globe

  10. English Renaissance • world view shifts from religion and after life to one stressing the  human life on earth – themes: - development of human potential - aspects of love Sonnets : Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney Metaphysical poetry: John Donne        Drama: Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare

  11. William Shakespeare Comedies All's Well That Ends Well As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline Love's Labours Lost Much Ado About Nothing The Taming of the Shrew The Tempest Twelfth Night The Merry Wives of Windsor The Merchant of Venice A Midsummer Night's Dream Two Gentlemen of Verona Winter's Tale Sonnets Historical plays King John Richard II, III Henry IV, V, VI, VIII

  12. Tragedies Antony and Cleopatra Romeo and Juliet Hamlet (1600)Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello

  13. The Restoration after the Civil War (1642-1649) Commonwealth (1649-1653) Protectorate – Oliver Cromwell (1653-1658) Charles II (1660) restored to the throne 1707 – the Act of Union

  14. Neoclassical Period • emphasis on reason and logic - harmony, stability, wisdom • reaction to censorhip • emphasis on the individual • approach to life: “the world as it should be” • JohnLocke – “the social contract” between the government and the people

  15. Enlightenment – The Age of Reason • Satire:  irony and exaggeration to correct human behavior • Poetry: Alexander Pope, William Blake • Essays: John Locke, Steele & Addison • Letters, diaries, biographies: Samuel Pepys • drama- the comedy of manners • Novels: John Bunyan – The Pilgrim’s Progress

  16. 1st novel in British literature • Samuel Richardson Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded – 1740 -epistolary novel -serialised “Oh, please, Mr Richardson, don’t let her die!”

  17. Novels 1719 1726

  18. Romanticism • human knowledge consists of impressions and ideas formed in the  individual’s mind  • nature - comfort and peace • gothic  elements and terror/horror stories and novels

  19. Romantic Poetry • William Blake • Lyrical Ballads • William Wordsworth (1798) • Samuel Coleridge – • Lord George Gordon Byron • Percy Shelley • John Keats

  20. Romantic NovelistsJane Austen Mary Shelley 1818 1813

  21. VICTORIAN AGE (1832-1901)

  22. Victorian Times • Golden age- colonial expansion • improved quality of life • the Industrial Revolution • rise of the lower classes - highlighted in literature to insist on reform   • 1893- Labour Party is created

  23. Cosumerism of novels Factors: • Growth of middle classes • Improved educational system • Improved printing techniques • More freedom for women SERIALISATION – cliff-hangers

  24. Victorian LiteratureCharles Dickens Bronte sisters Oliver Twist – 1837-39

  25. Later Victorianism Crisis of faith Pessimism REBELLION against conventions – Th. Hardy, R.L. Stevenson Oscar Wilde Pre-Raphaelite poets 1859

  26. MODERNISM

  27. 20th century (1900-1950) World War I, II 1921- Eire- a free state 1926- The British Commonwealth of Nations 1918-1928 – the suffragette movement – the flapper 1930s – the Great Depression Trade Unions the Welfare State

  28. Radical Changes INNOVATION EXPERIMENTATION VARIETY – to reflect COMPLEXITY

  29. Modernist literature • lonely individual fighting to find peace and comfort in a world that has lost its absolute values and traditions   • no absolute values • mixing of fantasy with nonfiction; blurs lines of reality for reader - MAGIC REALISM • loss of the hero in literature • Inner psychology - STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS - no chronological plot - disjointed flashes of thought

  30. Virginia Woolf James Joyce 1882-1941 1882-1941 “We all indulge in the strange, pleasant process called thinking, but when it comes to saying…then how little we are able to convey” “The artist, like the God of the creation, remains within or behind or beyond or above his handiwork, invisible, refined out of existence, indifferent, paring his fingernails.”

  31. 1890 1899 1891

  32. Looking into the Future 1895 1948 1872 1932

  33. 1886 1894 1887

  34. 20th Century prose 1924 1954 1920 1969 1906-1921

  35. Modernist Drama 1895 1953 1913

  36. Modernist Poetry 1885-1972 1888-1965 1865-1939 1914-1953

  37. 20th century- 1950- 2000 The Cold War

  38. 20th century- 1950- 2000 Korea Vietnam

  39. 20th century- 1950- 2000 Fall of Communism

  40. 20th century- 1950- 2000 Post-industrial world

  41. 20th century- 1950- 2000 Advertising

  42. 20th century- 1950- 2000 Consumer Society

  43. 20th century- 1950- 2000 Entertain ment

  44. 20th century- 1950- 2000 Pop culture

  45. 20th century- 1950- 2000 Globalisation

  46. 20th century- 1950- 2000 Information

  47. Contemporary/ post-modern literature • Intertextuality - parody • de-centralisation • back to the storytelling • No absolute truth MY truth • No past, no future NOW • No underlying meaning or purpose MY meaning

  48. 1962 1962 1956 1964 1962

  49. 1978 1984 1981 1969 1989

  50. 2000 1991 2002 1993 2005

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