Overview of English Literature PDF

Lesson 1 – Literature: Middle Ages 1. Battle of Hastings 2. Systems: Anglo-Saxon and Feudal 3. Magna Carta 4. Hundred Years' War 5. Black Death 6. Wars of Roses 7. Literature 8. A ballad 1. Battle of Hastings: 1066 - Edward the Confessor - Battle between Anglo-Saxon king Harold II and William, Duk...

Lesson 1 – Literature: Middle Ages 1. Battle of Hastings 2. Systems: Anglo-Saxon and Feudal 3. Magna Carta 4. Hundred Years' War 5. Black Death 6. Wars of Roses 7. Literature 8. A ballad 1. Battle of Hastings: 1066 - Edward the Confessor - Battle between Anglo-Saxon king Harold II and William, Duke of Normandy (William the - Conqueror), during 1 day - End of Anglo-Saxon kingdom and start of Norman conquest of England → France became - important and had a new way of ruling the country 2. Systems: Anglo-Saxon and Feudal Anglo-Saxon - Cultural group – Inhabited England from 450 – 1066 - Kingdom of England (927) - Christianity established - System based on honor, faith, fraternity and solidarity (German tribal values) - System disappears after 1066 Feudal - Introduced by the Normans (after 1066) - Structuring society around relationships derived from holding land in exchange for service - and labor - System based on economic self-interest and division of classes - Based on money - Christianity wasn’t the base for society anymore, but still important - Three different classes: nobility (lords, barons), clergy and peasantry, slaves - Normans continued speaking French → But also Anglo-Saxon → Both helped establish - English language as it is now 3. Magna Carta - Magna Carta Libertatum = Great Charter of Freedoms - 1215 – King John of England - Purpose → Peace treaty: Nobility would support the king if they were given privileges - It promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from illegal - imprisonment, access to swift justice and limitations on feudal payments to the Crown - Today still important symbol of liberty → "greatest constitutional document of all times – - the foundation of the freedom of the individual against arbitrary authority of the despot" 4. Hundred Years' War - 1337 – 1453 - Conflicts between rulers of England and rulers of France over who should rule the Kingdom - of France Outcome: 1. Rulers of France retain the French throne and English claims to the French throne are 1. abandoned 2. England permanently loses all its possessions in France, apart from Pale de Calais 3. Rise of nationalistic identities 4. English became the main language of all classes – London dialect became the standard 4. form of English 5. Black Death - 1347 – 1350 - Bubonic plague - 40-60% of the population died Outcome 1. Decrease in population → Shortage of labor → Rise in wages 2. Landowners resisted this → Caused resentment among the peasants 3. Peasants sold their services to highest bidders, fought for their rights and moved to cities 4. Depressive period of time → Writers didn’t want to write anything 5. Writers wrote about completely other things 6. Wars of Roses - 1455 – 1485 - Conflicts between the House of Lancaster (Red Rose) and the House of York (White Rose) - over who should be King of England - Shakespeare came up with the name - Lots of relatives were killed Outcome 1. First Yorkist victory (Edward), eventually Lancastrian victory (Henry Tudor/VII) 2. End of Plantagenet dynasty and establishment of Tudor dynasty (1485, Henry VII) 3. End of Middle Ages and dawn of the Renaissance 7. Literature - Population: illiterate + spoke English Literature until 14th century: → Influenced by French culture → Genres: (Arthur) novels and dream visions → First in French dialect, later in English Literature after 14th century: → English poets → Open to other (Italian) influences, adapted French examples or used their own English traditions → Wrote 'oral stories' 7. Literature Geoffrey Chaucer (father of English literature) - 1343 – 1400 (born and died in London) - Father of English Literature - Introduced characters and background Canterbury Tales - 1387 – 1400 - Frame story based on pilgrimage - An ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time and the Church - Structure: General Prologue – Prologue by pilgrim – Story by pilgrim 8. A ballad Ballad - A narrative 'song' passed down orally - Short, simple in style, not detailed, straightforward th - Different from stories in 18 century → needed many words to send a message - Form: Quatrains rhymed ABCB or ABAB 6-8 syllables - Contents: Folk ballads are anonymous and recount tragic, comic or heroic stories (love stories, the supernatural, fatal incidents, treason) - Sir Patrick Spens: an example of a ballad Lesson 2 – Renaissance (1500 – 1688) 1. Renaissance 2. Henry VIII 3. Elizabeth I 4. Life in England - Poor Laws 5. 1603 – 1649 > James and Charles 6. 1649 – 1660 > Republic and Restoration 7. 1660 – 1688 > Glorious Revolution 8. Literature 1. Renaissance - Started in Florence, Italy, late 14th century → After the dark period of The Middle Ages a new era dawned, a rebirth and revival of ideas from Greek and Latin antiquity - 'Rebirth' of Classical values in art, literature and philosophy - Intellectual basis of the Renaissance was the concept of 'Studia Humanitatis' → study of poetry, grammar, history, moral philosophy and rhetoric (Humanism) - Art → Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Michelangelo - The creation of Adam Leonardo Da Vinci – Vitruvian Rafael – The School of Athens - Science → Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Copernicus, mathematics - Navigation / Geography → Discoverers → World maps / Cartographers - Religion → Erasmus, Martin Luther, John Calvin - Inventions → Printing, paper, compass, gunpowder 2. Henry VIII - King from 1509 - 1547 - Married six times Broke with Roman Catholic church in 1534 over his wish to have his marriage with wife 1 annulled → Separation of Church of England from papal authority and he declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of England (starter) 3. Elisabeth I - Queen from 1558 - 1603 - Daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn (2nd wife) - 1559: Elizabeth I finally settled this and Church of England was 'born' - (Anglican Church) - Protestant - 1588: England defeats Spanish Armada - No children (she wanted to be in the spotlight) → No heir → End of Tudor dynasty → - House of Stuart takes over crown (Scottish royalty) - Elizabethan Era: Flourishing of English drama (Shakespeare), golden age of culture and exploration. (Elizabeth I was a big fan of theater) 4. Life in England 1560-1600 - Population grew from 2 million to 4.5 million - Trade and industry grew rapidly - Gap between very rich and very poor widened - Jobs were difficult to find Life of poor people - Simple huts with one or two rooms. Floor: hard earth, Mattress: straw - Diet: bread, cheese, onion – one cooked meal a day: grain, vegetables (meat) - beer/ale - Outbreaks of plague were common - Games: gambling (dice), football, cockfighting and bear-baiting 4. Poor Laws 1530 - 1572, invented by Elizabeth Poor Laws - why: - Fears that the ‘social order’ might be threatened - Crime - Fears that the poor might spread disease - Landowners giving more to the poor Poor Laws - what: - Taxes were collected to help the poor and unemployed ('impotent poor') - 'Able-bodied poor' who did not want to work could be whipped or even put to death - Vagabond Acts (1572) 5. 1603 - 1649 ← James and Charles - 1603, James I: King of Scotland, becomes King of England and King of Ireland too - First monarch to be called 'King of Great Britain' - Target of the Gunpowder Plot (5 November) → Tried to blow up the parliament - Puritans → Mayflower (1620): Helped people get away to America - James successor was his son: Charles I - Reigned from 1625 - 1649 (beheaded) 6. 1649 - 1660 → Republic and Restoration - Charles I was tyrannical monarch and married a Roman Catholic → Civil War (1642 – 1649) - → executed for high treason Oliver Cromwell - General on the parliamentary side in the English Civil War against Charles I - Had become a Member of Parliament in 1640 - As from 1643 military leader - When Charles I was beheaded in 1649, the British Isles were declared a Republic - Cromwell died in 1660 and monarchy was restored => Restoration - King Charles II (son of Charles I who had fled to France) 7. 1660 - 1688 → Glorious Revolution - Charles II - The Merry Monarch (party animal) - Successor was James II, devout Catholic → afraid of a renewal of the Civil War, parliament - asked the Dutch protestant William of Orange (who was married to Mary, daughter of - James II and a protestant too) to replace James II. - He landed in Devon in 1688 - James II had prepared an attack, but it all failed → He fled to France - Glorious or Bloodless Revolution → little violence and bloodshed - William of Orange → King William III of England 8. Literature – Elizabethan Theatre - Combined medieval traditions with classical forms and disciplines - Provided entertainment for all classes, played on national pride and showed versatility of - the English language - Themes → Discussion of moral, religious and political issues in an entertaining way - Theater companies built permanent theaters - The Globe, London 8. Literature – Shakespeare - 1564 - 1616, Stratford-upon-Avon - Wrote comedies, tragedies, historical chronicles and sonnets. Sonnets → Features: - Time is a common theme - English variant of verse form, a two-lined conclusion - Wrote with a lot of words to describe something Romeo and Juliet (1597) - Neither a comedy nor a tragedy, a romantic comedy - Balcony scene, integral part of our global heritage - Basis for numerous later works; e.g. musical West Side Story. - Plot: Romeo Montague & Juliet Capulet fall in love, quarrel between their families, Verona & - love. Lesson 3 – 18th century (1688 – 1800) 1. The 18th century in England 2. Literature in the 18th century - novels 3. Literature in the 18th century - poetry 4. Theatre in the 18th century 1. The 18th century in England - 1688: Glorious Revolution → King William III (of Orange) - Change of power: Parliament has more power than the king/queen - Two parties: Whigs and Tories - Whigs (Liberal): Scottish, disliked james stuart, commercial interest - Tories (Conservative): Irish bandates, rural England Industrial Revolution th - Started in renaissance à England’s economy grew and boomed in 18 century - Prosperity based on trade - Started around 1750 - Steam power → Trains, trade improved, country became rich - Textiles - Mining - Downside? Machines took over jobs, no manpower needed Age of Reason / Age of Enlightenment - Scientific advances and innovations led to a new outlook on the world - Philosophers (Spinoza, Descartes) argued that mankind, with the help of ‘reason’, could understand all aspects of life and make anything possible - Previously people lived in ignorance (‘darkness’) and thought god was what they lived for, but now people understood the forces of nature (‘enlightenment’). - Great confidence in the individual and optimism about human intellect Britain turned into colonial power - Combination of military power and political strategy - It colonized numerous countries (parts of India, Canada, e.g.) - Importation and trading of commodities such as coffee, tea, spices and slaves made England rich - Britain took complete control over international trade - New class, middle classes prospered and gained wealth and power. Rural country not interesting anymore because of machines Middle class moved to city to work, and more common men moved to parlement Lower classes (workers) lived and worked in poor (and dangerous) conditions.  worked 12 hours a day, six days a week – child labour common people moved to cities => slums, diseases spread, one-room houses mother à role in upbringing of children and heaving leading and social rule th position of women changed in 18 century more power 2. Literature in the 18th century - Socio-economic change had a major influence on English literature - Improved printing methods and transport infrastructures for traveling - All classes of society read - Broadsheets / Newspaper being spread to everybody so British journalism had more opportunities - Plays with politics, but newspaper allowed to share own views, first there was a law that newspaper head to be read and approved - Purpose of law prevent fake news from spreading and maintain structure, no chaos therefore restrictions - Broadsheets (newspapers) = First original newspaper - Addison and Steele, The Tatler (1709) and The Spectator (1711) - About current affairs, science, arts, politics, New genre → Novel - Described the everyday lives of ordinary people facing ordinary problems especially middle class being mentioned - Content recognizable - Stories were realistic and presented as true-life accounts, preferably with a moral Most important novelists - Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719) - Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels (1726) - Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740) -> epistolary novel - Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (1749) 3. Literature in the 18th century - poetry Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock (1714) Genre: Mock-epic → Poem in classical, epic style, mocking people and their behavior to express critique(satire, parody, witty style) → Poets wrote these in heroic couplets (rhyming iambic pentameters > two lines that rhyme, each line five feet, each foot one unstressed and one stressed syllable) Thomas Gray, Elegy written in a country churchyard (1751) → Written in heroic quatrain (four-line structure, a-b-a-b rhyme pattern, with each line consisting of ten syllables) Music became more popular from story to song Robert Burns, Auld Lang Syne (1796) 4. Theatre in the 18th century - Focus turns from complete society to upper classes - Women were allowed to play / act as well Forms Tragedies → Based on classical and French drama Comedies → 'comedies of manners’ about how to behave in upper class Political satire → 'The Beggar's Opera' by John Gay(1728) → Because of fear of political upheaval political satire was censured → Licensing Act (1737) but he tried to get around it Weeping / Sentimental Comedies Lesson 4 – 19th century 1. Great Britain: history 2. USA: history 3. Great Britain: literature 4. USA: literature 1. Great Britain: history Queen Victoria - Queen from 1837 - 1901, became queen at 18 years old - 19th century: Victorian Age - 9 children but hated pregnancy and children Victorian Age - Industrial revolution at its height - Age of social reform and economic and technological progress - Motherhood and family and marriage idealized; conservative society, moralistic - Children were not really part of society - Expansion of British Empire - The Great Exhibition (1851) → Industrial and technological power of Great Britain People showed each other the things the revolution had brought them 2. USA: history George Washington - First president, elected in 1789, founding fathers important figures Manifest Destiny - God's mission to move west, into new lands, to bring the young and democratic American civilization to all parts (settlers were destined to expand across the country) - North was wealthy, so better than south - Indians were sent away or murdered - Partly peaceful - Partly with violence and war: Civil War (1861-1865) => Union Confederacy 1861: Union: blue (free), yellow (slave) Confederacy: brown (light shades: territories) Union (north): industrial, manufacturing, big cities and factories, less religion, more educated, abolish slavery because no need for people because machines Confederacy (south): agriculture, farms, known for slaves Slavery got abolished in 1861 3. Great Britain: literature → Poetry The Romantic Period (1798 – 1837) - 1798 → Publication of The Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge - Product of its socio-economic setting => 1. Transformation to an industrial country and urban culture. Nature became more important because people moved to cities for work and nature became more appreciated 2. Effects of French Revolution - 1837: Romantic Period ends with start of Victorian Age Characteristics of the Romantic Period = most important literate period in English history - Focus on the power and grandeur of nature. - Superiority of emotion over intellectual thought. - Superiority of imagination over logic. - Great interest in (mediaeval) history. - Fascination with the exotic and unfamiliar. - Anti-authoritarian, anti-establishment. - Common people are portrayed as possession a form of nobility. - Many words to describe words and feelings - Looking back at middle ages and rewriting it with more words - Middle ages were celebrated à everything was spoiled due to industrialization - Much poetry is about children and innocence Most important poets: - William Wordsworth I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud (1804) - Samuel Taylor Coleridge - John Keats - Percy Bysshe Shelley - Lord Byron 3. Great Britain: literature → Novels Novels - until 1837 Most important novelists: Sir Walter Scott - He wrote about an imaginary past in which heroes had all sorts of adventures. - Recurring theme: life is a challenge and you need courage to live it. Jane Austen - She wrote about provincial middle class, for whom finding a suitable marriage partner was vital. - Pride and Prejudice (1813), Sense and Sensibility (1811), Emma (1816) Reasons for success of novels as a literary genre after 1837: - Heavy books + novels published in serial form => wider audience - Intended for the middle class - Flexible → authors adapted their novels to the rapidly changing circumstances during the Victorian Age - More people could read - Escapism → allowed readers to briefly get away from everyday life - Scenes were similar to real life situations to which people could relate - Novels provided solutions to readers’ own problems Characteristics of Victorian Novels standard middle-class habits and behavior most popular topic: adaptation of the individual to society emphasis on the way the (leading) characters develop => Victorians were keen to learn more about the exciting developments experienced by people like themselves. some authors: critical of society (Dickens) 3. Great Britain: literature => Novels Most important novelists Charles Dickens => Oliver Twist (1838) Emily Brontë => Wuthering Heights (1847) Charlotte Brontë => Jane Eyre (1847) George Eliot => Middlemarch (1872) Thomas Hardy => Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891)  Robert Louis Stevenson => The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) 3. Great Britain: literature => Plays 1843, The Theatres Act First: Melodrama= straightforward not too much about individual in depth Audience: lower middle classes and factory workers Later: Theatre productions + innovations Audience: upper classes of the bourgeoisie, they wanted to be seen and see something of themselves back in theater Romantic events in boring and difficult lives, stereotypes ( heroes and villains) The most important playwrights: Oscar Wilde => The Importance of Being Earnest George Bernard Shaw 4. USA: literature In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the first American novels were published. After 1812 (war with Britain) there was an increasing desire to produce a uniquely American literature and culture. America was different from Britain because of great lakes and stories about settlers moving to western states Most important novelists and authors => Edgar Allan Poe => wrote short stories and father of the detective story => Ralph Waldo Emerson => essayist, lecturer, philosopher, poet => Nathaniel Hawthorne => The Scarlet Letter (1850) => Herman Melville => Moby Dick (1851) => Mark Twain => Adventures of Tom Sawyer / Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) Lesson 5 – 20th century: 1900-1940 Today: 1. Great Britain: history 2. USA: history 3. Great Britain: literature 4. USA: literature 5. Virginia Woolf 6. Ernest Hemingway 1. Great Britain – history (1900 – 1940) Monarchy - Queen Victoria (died 1901) → Edward VII (died 1910) → George V (died 1936) → Edward VIII / George VI - Edward VIII fell in love with Wallis Simpson, but she had divorced twice and was American and the Church of England didn’t allow their marriage if he wanted to be king, so he abdicated and gave away his thrown to George VI - George V → reigned from 1910 – 1936 - George VI => he stuttered but had to give speech in WW2. His daughter was queen Elizabeth II => reigned for 70 years - Rise of socialism, communism, fascism, Irish republicanism, and Indian independence movement. Ghani was a leader and tried to achieve it in a nonviolent way early 1920s: territorial peak of British Empire 1936 => abdication crisis Role of monarch purely symbolical The King's Speech – George VI 1. Great Britain – history (1900 – 1940) Ireland * 1919 republic - 1921 independent * Northern Ireland World War I * trenches * the war had an effect on the way people lived and wrote * Battle of Somme and Ypres * every day at 8 pm 'Last Post' being played at Menin Gate, Ypres 2. USA: history World War 1 1917 – 1918 Roaring Twenties * consumer goods > cars, radios, toaster, record player, etc. * "buy now, pay later" * Prohibition (1919 – 1933) = alcohol was forbidden because it had a bad influence on people * speakeasies (illegal 'bars’) blind pig, blind tiger * Al Capone / Maffia = American gangster, business man, organized crime, and distributed illegal alcohol 2. USA: history The Back Room, New York 2. USA: history Black Americans * slavery abolished in 1865, but... * many former slaves not free – definitely not equal à used them for their plantations * first, only 25 states accepted it and Mississippi was the last state to abolish slavery in 1995 * Ku-Klux-Klan * hopelessness of situation in the rural South * people moved North => ghettoes Wall Street Crash (1929) * 1929 => unemployment => Depression * 1933 => New Deal (Roosevelt) => World War II * due to WW2, people started working in the wapen industry, went to military and so it solved the economic crisis à depression was over 3. Great Britain: literature => Novels Novel editing techniques, rapid changes of scenes and perspectives, lots of locations / settings, psychological analyses of the thoughts and actions of the characters, quick dialogues Stream of Consciousness thoughts and feelings of characters are intertwined a style or technique of writing that tries to capture the natural flow of a character's extended thought process, often by incorporating sensory impressions, incomplete ideas, unusual syntax, and rough grammar. it uses association, repetition, unreliable narrators, nonlinear plot structure, lack of punctuation 3. Great Britain: literature => Novels Most important authors using the Stream of Consciousness technique: James Joyce => Ulysses Virginia Woolf => Mrs Dalloway à answer to Ulysess 3. Great Britain: literature => Novels 1930s: rise of Social Realism  Social realism is a subgenre of realism. Social realist novels look into society and provide commentary on social injustice and concern the lives of the working class. Born van European realism, but with more critique. Also used in fi The social realism movement came to prominence during the 1930s in response to the Great Depression, World War One (1914-1918), and social inequality. Important author: John Steinbeck (USA) => Of Mice and Men (1937), The Grapes of Wrath (1939) 3. UK and USA: literature => Poetry Poetry => two types, existing next to each other 1. Traditional form and contemporary subject-matter war, nature, effect of war and industrialization on the English way of life War Poets (Wilfred Owen), A.E. Housman 2. Literary modernism broke with traditional forms and used concrete and visual images and cinematic techniques symbolism, free verse, absurdity, relativism, individualism, make it new’ think for yourself Reality is subjected and everchanging Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, William Butler Yeats 4. USA: literature => Novels Lost Generation * group of artists and intellectuals who left America for Europe, disillusioned and disappointed with the American Dream - Ernest Hemingway => A farewell to Arms (1929) F. Scott Fitzgerald => The Great Gatsby (1925) slavery intertwined Social realism => John Steinbeck First crime novels => depiction of crime and corruption in cities - Raymond Chandler => The Big Sleep (1939) Ernest Hemingway (USA) * 1899 – 1961 * member of Lost Generation * disillusioned with terms like 'fame, honour, courage' * pessimistic view of life * style: straightforward objective and concrete description of actions, avoidance of adjectives short and concise sentences (using the word 'and’) theory of omission (eliminate every superfluous words)