ELIZABETHAN AGE

-heroic themes, usually centers on a great personality who is destroyed by his own passion and ambition

- rising popularity of the theatres

- playwriters were able to make a comfortable living by receiving royal patronage - the queen enjoyed viewing plays William Shakespeare - Renaissance - Elizabethan DramaMacbeth

Themes: The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambitions, Relationship between Cruelty and Masculinity,The Difference Between Kingship and Tyranny

Motifs: Hallucinations, Prophecy

Symbols: Blood, The Weather

Hamlet

Themes: The Impossibility of Certainty, The Complexity of action, The Mistery of Death, The Nation as a Diseased Body Motifs: Incest, Misogyny, Ears and Hearing Symbols: Yoricks skullA Midsummer Nights Dream

Themes: Loves difficulty, Magic, Dreams Motifs: Contrast Symbols: The Love Potion, The Craftmens playRomeo&Juliet

Themes&Motifs: Love, Fate& Chance, Duality (Light& Dark), Time

AUGUSTAN AGE

- rise of journalism and its way of evolving into the shaped fiction

Neoclassicism[B]-neoclassical writers modeled their work on classical texts and followed various aesthetic values fisrt establishd in Ancient Greece- ressurection of classical taste and sensibility1. DANIEL DEFOE - Robinson Crusoe Themes: The Ambivalence of Mastery, The Necessity of Repentance, The Importance of Self-Awareness Motifs: Counting and Measuring, Eating, Ordeals at Sea

Symbols: The Footprint, The Cross, Crusoes Bower

2. JONATHAN SWIFT - G's travells Themes: Might vs. Right, The Individual vs. Society, The Limits of Human Understanding

Motifs: Excrement, Foreign Languages, Clothing

Symbols: Lilliputians, Brobdingnagians, Laputans, Houyhnhnms, England3. LAWRENCE STERNE - Tristram Shandy Themes:

Motifs:

SymbolsROMANTIC AGE

- Political revolution on the continent + industrial revolution - breakdown of rigid ideas about the structure and the purpose of society and the known world- emphasis on the individual's experience and its subjective interpretation - a growing suspicion of the Church1. JANE AUSTEN - Pride and Prejudice Themes: Love, Reputation, Class

Motifs: Courtship, Journeys

Symbols: Pemberley,

2.William Blake

Themes:

Motifs:

Symbols: 3. John Keats

Themes: The Inevitability of Death, The Contemplation of Beauty

Motifs: Departures and Reveries, The Five Senses and Art, The Dissapearance of the Poet and the Speaker

Symbols: Music and Musicians, Nature, The Ancient World

4. S.T. Coleridge- The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Themes: The Transformative Power of the Imagination, The Interplay of Philosophy, Piety, and Poetry, Nature and the Development of the Individual Motifs: Conversation Poems, Delight in the Natural World, Prayer

Symbols: The Sun, The Moon, Dreams and Dreaming, The AlbatrossTRANCENDENTALISM

- A religious concept rooted in the ideas of American democracy- privilegded the inherent wisdom in the human soul over Church doctrine and law- promotes the idea of nature as divinea central place in this movement: slavery, Civil war, women's rights, growing individualism and class division1.Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass Transcendentalism, American Romanticism Themes: Democracy as a Way of Life, The Cycle of Growth and Death, The Beauty of the Individual

Motifs: Lists, The Human Body, Rythm and Incantation

Symbols: Plants, The Self

2.Emily Dickinson- Transcendentalism, American Romanticism Themes: The Individuals Struggle with God, The Assertion of the Self, The Power of Words and Poetry, Nature as a Haunted House

Motifs: The Speakers Unique Poetic Voice, The Connection Between Sight and Self Symbols: Feet, Stone, BirdsVICTORIAN AGE

- during the reign of Queen Victoria (obviously)- a strong sense of morality- combines imagination and emotion - development of literature of chidlren, often with a strong moralistic tone- idealized portraits of difficult lives iin which hard work, perseverance, love and luck win out in the endVICTORIAN AGE

1. CHARLES DICKENS - D. Copperfield Themes: The Plight of the Weak, Equality in Marriage, Wealth and Class

Motifs: Mothers and Mother Figure, Accented Speech, Physical Beauty

Symbols: The Sea, Flowers, Mr. Dicks Kite

2. CHARLES DICKENS -Great Expectations Themes: Ambition and Self-Improvement; Social Class; Crime, Guilt and Innocence

Motifs: Doubles, Comparison of Characters to Inanimate Objects

Symbols: Satis House, The Mists on the Marshes, Bentley Drummle

3. LEWIS CAROLL - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Themes: The Tragic and Inevitable Loss of Childhood Innocence, Life as a Meaningless Puzzle, Death as a Constant and Underlying Menace

Motifs: Dream, Subversion, Language, Curious, Nonsense, and Confusing Symbols: The Garden, The Caterpillars Mushroom4.Thomas Hardy Tess of the drbervilles Victorian Age, Naturalism Themes: The Injustice of Existence, Changing Ideas of Social Class in Victorian England, Men Dominating Women

Motifs: Birds, The Book of Genesis, Variant Names

Symbols: Prince, The dUrberville Family Vault, Brazil, ??Stonehenge???AMERICAN FICTION(during the VICTORIAN AGE)

1. Mark Twain- Huck Finn Themes: Racism and Slavery, The Hypocrisy of CivilizedSociety

Motifs: Childhood, Lies and Cons, Superstitions and Folk beliefs, Parodies of Popular Romance Novels

Symbols: The Mississippi River

2. Herman Melville- Moby Dick Themes: The Limits of Knowledge, The Deceptiveness of Fate, The Exploitative Nature of Whaling

Motifs: Whiteness, Surfaces and Depths

Symbols: The Pequod, Moby Dick, Queequegs Coffin

3. Nathaniel Hawthorne- The Scarlett Letter Themes: Sin, knowledge and The Human Condition; The Nature of Evil

Motifs: Civilization vs Wilderness, Night vs. Day, Evocative Names Symbols: The Scarlet Letter, The Meteor, Pearl, The Rosebush Next to the Prison Door

MODERNISM

- after WWII- change in thought, behaviour and cultural production- modern techniques: stream of consciousness narration and allusiveness - in this period: Marx, F v b reud and Darwin have central ideas in the society 1. JOSEPH CONRAD - Heart of Darkness Themes: The Hypocrisy of Imperialism, Madness as a Result of Imperialism, The Absurdity of Evil

Motifs: Observation and Eavesdropping, Interiors and Exteriors, Darkness

Symbols: Fog, The Whited Sepulchre, Women, The River2. JOSEPH CONRAD- Lord Jim Themes: Piecing Together the Story, The Romantic, The Leap, Facts vs. Experience, "He is one of us", Women (and "the Eastern bride" of opportunity), "Man is not a masterpiece", Iron, The Clean Slate, The Patna vs. Patusan Motifs: Symbols: 3.JAMES JOYCE Ulysses Themes: The Quest for Paternity, The Remorse of Conscience, Compassion and Heroic, The Need for Multiple Perspectives

Motifs: Lightness and Darkness, The Home Usurped, The East

Symbols: Plumtrees Potted Meat, The Gold Cup Horserace, Stephens Latin Quarter Hat

4.VIRGINIA WOOLF - Mrs. Dalloway Themes: Communication vs. Privacy, Disillusionment with the British Empire, The Fear of Death, The Threat of Oppression

Motifs: Time, Shakespeare, Trees and Flowers, Waves and Water

Symbols: The Prime Minister, Peter Walshs Pocketknife and Other Weapons, The Old Woman in the Window, The Old Woman Singing an Ancient Song

5. HENRY JAMES - The portrait of a lady

Themes: Loss of Freedom Motifs:

Symbols6. Eugene ONeill- Mourning becomes Electra Modernism Themes: Oedipus; Fate, Repetition and Substitution; The Double/ The Rival; The Law of the Father

Motifs: The Blessed Islands, The Natives

Symbols: The Mannon House

7. T.S. Eliot Waste Land-------------------Modernism

Themes: The Damaged Psyche of Humanity, The Power of Literary History, The Changing Nature of Gender Roles

Motifs: Fragmentation, Mythic and Religious Ritual, Infertility Symbols: Water, The Fisher King, Music and Singing8. G.B.Shaw Caesar&Cleopatra-------------------- Modernist Drama

Themes:

Motifs:

Symbols:

9. G. B. Shaw- Pygmalion-------------Modernist Drama Themes: Class, Gentility and Manners, Marriage and Prostitution, Myths of Creation, Language, Professionalism, Gender Solidarity or Antagonism Motifs:

Symbols:

CONTEMPORARY AGE

- Began in post WWII- major shift in political and economical world- a mixing and blending of cultures- a plurality of intellectual and spiritual worlds- cultures distant in time and place are discoverd and rediscovered1. WILLIAM GOLDING Lord of the Flies.

Themes: Civilization vs. Savagery, Loss of Innocence Motifs: Biblical Parallels Symbols: The Conch Shell, Piggys Glasses, The Signal Fire, The Beast, The Lord of the Flies; Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and RogerNORTH AMERICAN LITERATURE1. FITZGERALD - The great Gatsby

Themes: The Decline of the American Dream in the 1920s, The Hollowness of the Upper Class Motifs: Geography, Weather

Symbols: The Green Light, The Valley of Ashes, The Eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg2. ERNEST HEMINGWAY - short stories Themes: The Aimlessness of the Lost Generation, Male Insecurity, The Destructiveness of Sex, Life as Nothingness, The Struggle to Deal with Despair, The Honor in Struggle, Defeat & Death, Pride as the Source of Greatness & Determination

Motifs: The Failure of Communication, Excessive Drinking, False Friendships, Loneliness, Crucifixion Imagery, Life from Death, The Lions on the Beach Symbols: Bullfighting, The Caf, The Marlin, The Shovel-Nosed Sharks3. WILLIAM FAULKNER - Absalom!Absalom! Themes:

Motifs:

Symbols: