English Literature: Old and Middle English

• Literature in English includes literary works written in the English language
• It spans diverse genres, styles, and historical periods
• Originating in England, it has expanded globally with the spread of English

Old English (c. 450-1066)

• Also known as Anglo-Saxon literature
• Poetry dominated, characterized by alliteration and strong rhythm
• Beowulf stands as the most famous work, an epic poem of a Geatish hero's adventures
• Other notable works include The Wanderer, The Seafarer, and religious texts by Cædmon and Cynewulf
• Prose was less common, but King Alfred the Great promoted translations and historical records like the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Middle English (c. 1066-1485)

• Began after the Norman Conquest, which significantly impacted English language and literature
• French vocabulary and literary styles influenced English writing
• Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a landmark, a collection of stories told by pilgrims
• Other important works include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a chivalric romance, and William Langland's Piers Plowman, a social commentary
• Religious literature remained significant, including works by Julian of Norwich and Richard Rolle
• The emergence of the printing press in the late 15th century, by William Caxton, revolutionized literature dissemination

Renaissance (c. 1485-1660)

• Marked by renewed interest in classical learning and a flourishing of arts and sciences
• William Shakespeare is a towering figure, known for plays (tragedies, comedies, histories) and sonnets
• Notable playwrights include Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and John Webster
• Renaissance poetry saw the development of the sonnet and exploration of love, beauty, and mortality; Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, and John Donne were prominent poets
• Prose evolved, with writers like Francis Bacon exploring empirical philosophy and essays
• The King James Bible (1611) profoundly influenced English language and literature

Neoclassical Period (c. 1660-1798)

• Emphasized reason, order, and classical forms
• Also known as the Age of Reason or the Enlightenment
• Divided into the Restoration Age (1660-1700), the Augustan Age (1700-1750), and the Age of Sensibility (1750-1798)
• John Dryden was a major Restoration figure, known for poetry, plays, and critical essays
• Alexander Pope, a leading poet of the Augustan Age, was known for satirical and heroic verse
• Jonathan Swift wrote satirical prose, including Gulliver's Travels
• Samuel Johnson was a prominent literary critic and lexicographer; his Dictionary of the English Language was a landmark
• The novel emerged as a dominant genre, with writers like Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) and Samuel Richardson (Pamela)

Romantic Period (c. 1798-1837)

• Characterized by focus on emotion, imagination, and individualism
• A reaction against the rationalism of the Neoclassical era
• William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge launched Romanticism with Lyrical Ballads (1798)
• Other major Romantic poets include Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats
• Romantic novelists include Sir Walter Scott and Mary Shelley (Frankenstein)
• Emphasis on the sublime, nature, and the supernatural

Victorian Period (c. 1837-1901)

• Named after Queen Victoria, marked by industrialization, social change, and empire
• The novel became the dominant literary form
• Charles Dickens is a central figure, known for his social novels
• Other important novelists include the Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily, and Anne), George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy
• Victorian poetry includes the works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Matthew Arnold and John Ruskin were influential literary and social critics
• Exploration of social issues, morality, and the impact of industrialization

Modern Period (c. 1901-1945)

• Characterized by experimentation, fragmentation, and a sense of disillusionment
• Influenced by World War I and its aftermath
• Modernist poets include T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and W.B. Yeats
• Modernist novelists include James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, and William Faulkner
• Stream of consciousness and other innovative narrative techniques were employed
• Exploration of psychological themes, alienation, and the breakdown of traditional values

Postmodern Period (c. 1945-present)

• Characterized by rejection of grand narratives, focus on subjectivity, and playful language
• Influenced by post-structuralism and other theoretical perspectives
• Postmodern novelists include Kurt Vonnegut, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo
• Contemporary writers include Margaret Atwood, Toni Morrison, and Salman Rushdie
• Blurring of genres, metafiction, and intertextuality are common features
• Exploration of identity, power, and the nature of reality

American Literature

• A significant branch of English literature, with its own distinct history and traditions
• Early American literature was influenced by Puritanism and focused on religious/moral themes
• Major figures of the American Renaissance include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman
• 20th and 21st-century American literature has been diverse and experimental, with writers like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Toni Morrison

Postcolonial Literature

• Literature written by authors from formerly colonized countries
• Explores themes of identity, displacement, and the legacy of colonialism
• Important postcolonial writers include Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, and V.S. Naipaul
• A diverse and globally significant field

Key Literary Genres

• Poetry: Emphasizes rhythm, sound, and imagery; includes forms like sonnets, ballads, and free verse
• Drama: Literature intended for performance; includes tragedies, comedies, and histories
• Novel: A long fictional narrative; explores characters, plot, and themes
• Short Story: A brief fictional narrative, typically focused on a single incident or character
• Essay: A non-fictional prose composition on a particular subject
• Biography/Autobiography: An account of a person's life, written by someone else or themselves

Literary Movements and Styles

• Classicism: Emphasizes reason, order, and classical forms
• Romanticism: Emphasizes emotion, imagination, and individualism
• Realism: Depicts life as it is, without idealization
• Naturalism: A more pessimistic form of realism, emphasizing determinism
• Modernism: Characterized by experimentation, fragmentation, and disillusionment
• Postmodernism: Rejects grand narratives, focuses on subjectivity, and plays with language
• Symbolism: The use of symbols to represent ideas or qualities
• Surrealism: Emphasizes the irrational and dreamlike

Literary Devices

• Metaphor: A comparison between two unlike things without using "like" or "as"
• Simile: A comparison between two unlike things using "like" or "as"
• Personification: Giving human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract concepts
• Irony: A contrast between what is said and what is meant, or between expectation and reality
• Allusion: A reference to another work of literature, history, or culture
• Imagery: The use of descriptive language to create vivid mental images
• Alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words
• Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds within words
• Onomatopoeia: Words that imitate sounds
• Hyperbole: Exaggeration for effect
• Understatement: Downplaying something for effect

Literary Theory

• New Criticism: Focuses on close reading of the text itself, without regard to author or context
• Structuralism: Analyzes literature in terms of underlying structures and relationships
• Post-structuralism: Challenges the idea of fixed meanings and stable structures
• Psychoanalytic Criticism: Applies Sigmund Freud's theories to the interpretation of literature
• Marxist Criticism: Examines literature in terms of class struggle and economic power
• Feminist Criticism: Examines literature in terms of gender and power relations
• Postcolonial Criticism: Examines literature in terms of the legacy of colonialism
• Reader-Response Criticism: Focuses on the reader's experience and the creation of meaning

An overview of English Literature, starting with the Old English period (c. 450-1066), dominated by poetry like Beowulf. It continues through the Middle English period (c. 1066-1485), influenced by the Norman Conquest and exemplified by Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.