An Overview of British Literature

An Overview of British LiteratureLiterature is the question minus the answer. ~Roland BarthesAnglo-Saxon Literaturestrong belief in fate religious and pagan subjectsheroic warriors who prevail in battle literature- expresses religious faith - gives moral instructionoral tradition - poetry

Beowulf(7th-10th century)

Middle English Literaturemorality plays - instructed the illiterate masses in morals and entertainedmystery plays representations of Bible storiesmiracle plays - re-enacted miraculous interventions by the saints into the lives of ordinary peopleromances - stories about the adventures of knights goes on quests - the chivalric code of honor courtly love

King Arthur and The Round Table

Geoffrey Chaucer

Canterbury Tales - 1483When 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 pilgrimage

And 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.

Elizabethan Age

Elizabethan Age Elizabeth I (1558- 1603) the last Tudor monarchthe golden age prosperity, stability and peaceexpeditions settlement of Americathe printing press The Globe

English Renaissanceworld 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 SidneyMetaphysical poetry: John Donne Drama: Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare

William ShakespeareComedies

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

Tragedies

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

The Restorationafterthe Civil War (1642-1649) Commonwealth (1649-1653) Protectorate Oliver Cromwell(1653-1658)

Charles II (1660) restored to the throne1707 the Act of Union

Neoclassical Periodemphasis on reason and logic - harmony, stability, wisdomreaction to censorhip emphasis on the individualapproach to life: the world as it should beJohn Locke the social contract between the government and the people

Enlightenment The Age of ReasonSatire: irony and exaggeration to correct human behavior Poetry: Alexander Pope, William BlakeEssays: John Locke, Steele & Addison Letters, diaries, biographies: Samuel Pepys drama- the comedy of mannersNovels: John Bunyan The Pilgrims Progress

1st novel in British literatureSamuel Richardson Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded 1740-epistolary novel-serialised Oh, please, Mr Richardson, dont let her die!

Novels

17191726Romanticismhuman knowledge consists of impressions and ideas formed in the individuals mindnature - comfort and peace gothic elements and terror/horror stories and novels

Romantic PoetryWilliam BlakeLyrical BalladsWilliam Wordsworth (1798) Samuel Coleridge Lord George Gordon ByronPercy ShelleyJohn KeatsRomantic NovelistsJane AustenMary Shelley

18131818VICTORIAN AGE (1832-1901)

Victorian TimesGolden age- colonial expansionimproved quality of life

the Industrial Revolutionrise of the lower classes - highlighted in literature to insist on reform

1893- Labour Party is created

Cosumerism of novelsFactors:Growth of middle classesImproved educational systemImproved printing techniquesMore freedom for women

SERIALISATION cliff-hangersVictorian Literature

Charles DickensBronte sisters

Oliver Twist 1837-39Later Victorianism

Crisis of faith Pessimism

REBELLION against conventions Th. Hardy, R.L. Stevenson

Oscar WildePre-Raphaelite poets1859MODERNISM

20th century (1900-1950)

World War I, II1921- Eire- a free state1926- The British Commonwealth of Nations1918-1928 the suffragette movement the flapper1930s the Great DepressionTrade Unions the Welfare State

Radical Changes

INNOVATIONEXPERIMENTATIONVARIETY to reflect COMPLEXITYModernist literaturelonely individual fighting to find peace and comfort in a world that has lost its absolute values and traditions no absolute valuesmixing of fantasy with nonfiction; blurs lines of reality for reader- MAGIC REALISMloss of the hero in literatureInner psychology - STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS - no chronological plot - disjointed flashes of thought

Virginia Woolf James Joyce

We all indulge in the strange, pleasant process called thinking, but when it comes to sayingthen how little we are able to conveyThe 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.1882-19411882-1941

189018911899

1872189519321948Looking into the Future

188618871894

19241906-192119541969192020th Century proseModernist Drama

189519131953

1885-19721888-19651865-19391914-1953Modernist Poetry20th century- 1950- 2000The Cold War

20th century- 1950- 2000KoreaVietnam

20th century- 1950- 2000Fall of Communism

20th century- 1950- 2000Post-industrialworld

20th century- 1950- 2000Advertising

20th century- 1950- 2000Consumer Society

20th century- 1950- 2000Entertainment

20th century- 1950- 2000Pop culture

20th century- 1950- 2000Globalisation

20th century- 1950- 2000Information

Contemporary/ post-modern literature

Intertextuality - parodyde-centralisationback to the storytellingNo absolute truth MY truthNo past, no future NOWNo underlying meaning or purpose MY meaning

19561962196219621964

19781969198119841989

19911993200020022005

1930-19981922-1985Poetry

195619641964Post-modernist Drama