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 poetry–Repetition 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. (Heaven’s 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 Table—skillful in battle and in courtly love • ex: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Morte d’Arthur 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: Gulliver’s 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 D’Ubervilles • 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 50’s and 60’s 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 O’Connor, 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