Literary Background: European Literature PDF

LITERARY BACKGROUND: EUROPEAN LITERATURE 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World Quarter 2 / 1st Semester / SY2023-2024  PERIODS Renaissance: 1400’s-1600’s Enlightenment: 1650- 1800 Romanticism: 1798 – 1870 Realism/Naturalism: 1850-1914 Victor...

LITERARY BACKGROUND: EUROPEAN LITERATURE 21st Century Literature from the Philippines and the World Quarter 2 / 1st Semester / SY2023-2024  PERIODS Renaissance: 1400’s-1600’s Enlightenment: 1650- 1800 Romanticism: 1798 – 1870 Realism/Naturalism: 1850-1914 Victorian Period: 1832- 1901 Modernism: 1870’s – 1965 Post-Modernism: 1965- Present  RENAISSANCE a period of transition that left behind the medieval ways of the past and launched society towards a modern world Johannes Gutenberg created the printing press in 1440, allowing for mass production of pamphlets and novels Humanism - focused on human traits and abilities Classicism - authors drew on antiquity, were inspired by the works of the philosophers in ancient Greece and Rome. Secularism - dealt with issues of politics and personal concern outside of the realm of religion  ENLIGHTENMENT called the great “Age of Reason” a period of great change in policies and beliefs politically, economically, and socially Key areas of discussion during this period include: Human nature The relationship between government and its people Property Natural laws and rights Organized religion  ROMANTICISM deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature saw the world as organic, like a tree full of life was originally used to describe literature in 17th century Europe that writers saw as unrealistic, filled with emotions, or over the top in its stylistic tendencies  REALISM/NATURALISM gave a look into the dull verities of bourgeois life rejected the idealization that was used previously in the Romantic movement, instead turning to the dark reality of the middle class way of life  VICTORIAN PERIOD often critiqued the cruel reality that middle class members of society had to face has a double-edged connotation; it is remembered for its strict social, political, and sexual conservatism, but at the same time, it saw prolific literary activity and significant social reform  MODERNISM provided critique of morality of the middle class society focused on aesthetics, rather than societal issues mirrored the upheaval seen in society as a result of WWI. Stream of Consciousness. developed by Marcel Proust allowed the author to explore all of the facets of their thought process without any suggested formatting rules  POST-MODERNISM literary and societal response to the elitism of high modernism, as well as the horrifying events of WWII characterized by a strange mix of high and low culture. authors began to use a jumble of various ingredients, known as pastiche, that had not been seen as appropriate for literature before, in order to create a more complex story, filled with allusions to events and style of other literary works that took a certain level of education to recognize or even begin to appreciate  NOTABLE WORKS AND AUTHORS Miche de Montaigne – Father of Essay William Shakespeare – wrote Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet Gustave Flaubert – Realism is realized in his novel “Madame Bovary” Dante Alighieri – wrote the greatest poem in the middle ages titled, “The Divine Comedy” Geoffrey Chaucer – Father of English Literature Victor Hugo – “Les Miserables” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” Petrarch – forerunner of humanism Homer – wrote “The Odyssey” and “The Iliad” Nibelungenlied - greatest German epic Martin Luther – translated the bible in German