English Literature

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English Literature
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Outline

• 1. Anglo- Saxon Literature (Beowulf, Caedmon,
  Cynewulf, Alfred the Great))
• 2. Middle Ages (Wycliffe, Chaucer)
• 3. Elizabethan Age (Shakespeare, Marlowe)
• 4. 17th, 18th century (Defoe, Swift, the Age of
  Reason)
• 5. Romanticism (Byron, Shelley, Keats, Scott,
  Wordsworth, Coleridge)
• 6. Realism (Dickens. Bromte sisters. Thackeray)
• 7. Oscar Wilde
• 8. 20th century

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Anglo-Saxon Literature

• 5th century 1066
• 3 Germanic tribes invaded Britain
• Angles (occupied England), Saxons, Jutes
• Anglo- Saxon language
• A famous king - Alfred the Great (849-901)

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Alfred the Great

• 850 invasion of Danes Alfred the Great
  stopped the Danish advance
• inspired Anglo Saxon Chronicle
• translated a number of Latin
• books into English
• improved education
• of people

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Poetry

• Cynewulf
• Caedmon
• Anglo- Saxon poetry
• heroic narrative poems
• poems on biblical themes
• short riddles, elegies

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Beowulf

• written in Old English
• written sometime before the tenth century
  (7th/8th century)
• describes the adventures of a great Scandinavian
  warrior of the sixth century.
• A masterpiece
• Epic poem
• http//www.lone-star.net/literature/beowulf/

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Plot

• Hrothgar King of the Danes is in trouble
• His castle is visited by a terrible creature
  Grendel (lives in a lake), which kills his men
• Beowulf attacks the creature and kills it
• B. becomes a king
• He also kills its the creatures mother
• He is wounded and dies

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The main themes

• Youth vs. Old age
• Rise Decline
• Success Violence
• Courage

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• Head-rhyme ALLITERATION
• (two or more words beginning with the same sound)
• there is no rhyming
• things are described indirectly and in
  combination of words
• e.g. ship sea goer, sea boat

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Middle English Literature(1066-15th century)

• started by the conquest in 1066 when Normans
  brought French into the country
• everything slowed down
• 3 languages
• French at the court, in commerce, government
• Latin clergy
• Enlish common people

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Genres

• Religious writings,
• Latin writings,
• Ballads,
• Allegories
• John Wycliffe inspired John Huss, criticized
  Roman Catholic Church

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Secular Literature

• Geoffrey Chaucer (1345?-1400)
• The end of middle ages
• A group of Pilgrims (30) travelling from London
  to Canterbury
• The prologue gives vivid picture of 14th century
  society
• All social levels are represented here

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• A merchant, lawyer, sailer, miller, cook, are
  ordinary people, each of them has its own
  character
• 30 pilgrims assembled in an inn, are about to set
  off for the shrine of Thomas Beckett
• each of them is supposed to tell 4 tales (but
  its unfinished)

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• e.g.
• The General Prologue
• The Knight's Tale
• The Miller's Prologue and Tale
• The Cook's Prologue and Tale
• The Man of Law's Prologue and Tale
• The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

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• Chaucers view of life
• very tolerant
• full of humour
• passion
• against mediaval religious ascetism

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Elizabethan Age

• Elizabeth I (1533-1603)
• the daughter of King Henry VIII and his second
  wife, Anne Boleyn
• A great flowering of arts and literature
• Emancipation of secular life
• Scholars returned to philosophy of Plato and
  Aristotle
• one of the best loved monarchs, and one of the
  most admired rulers of all time

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Elizabethan Drama

• Golden age of drama
• Theatres were for everybody
• University Wits a group of intellectuals who
  wrote plays (Ox., Camb. students)
• e.g. Ch. Marlowe, T. Kyd

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William Shakespeare

• (1564-1616)
• dramatist and poet
• the greatest of all playwrights
• b. Strattford-upon- Avon
• the son of a glovemaker
• he married Anne Hatheway
• in 1594 he joined the Lord Chamberlains Men,
  later called the Kings men
• 1599 bought the Globe

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• Wrote 37 plays
• historical plays
• comedies
• tragedies
• Retired to Strattford, died and buried there

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Comedies

• Dva šlechtici veronští (The Two Gentlemen of
  Verona) 1595
• Jak se vám líbí (As You Like it) 1601
• Komedie plná omylu (The Comedy of Errors) 1593
• Konec vše napraví Konec dobrý, všechno dobré
  (All's Well That Ends Well) 1603
• Kupec benátský (The Merchant of Venice) 1597
• Marná lásky snaha 1595 (Love's Labor's Lost)

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• Mnoho povyku pro nic (Much Ado About Nothing)
  1599
• Sen noci svatojánské (A Midsummer Night's Dream)
  1596
• Vecer tríkrálový (Twelth Night) 1602
• Veselé panicky windsorské (The Merry Wives of
  Windsor) 1601
• Zkrocení zlé ženy (The Taming of the Shrew) 1594

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Tragedies

• Antonius a Kleopatra (Antonius and Cleopatra)
  1607
• Hamlet 1604
• Julius Caesar 1599
• Král Lear (King Lear) 1606
• Macbeth 1606
• Othello 1605
• Romeo a Julie (Romeo and Juliet) 1595
• Timon athénský (Timon of Athens) 1608
• Titus Andronicus 1594

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Historical Plays

• Jindrich IV. (Henry IV), 1598 - 1600
• Jindrich V. (Henry V) 1599
• Jindrich VI. (Henry VI), tri díly 1591
• Jindrich VIII. (Henry VIII) 1611
• Král Jan (King John) 1597
• Richard II. 1596
• Richard III. 1593

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17th century

• The Age of Reason
• The Restoration of Monarchy 1660 and the Glorious
  Revolution big changes in political and social
  life
• technical progress, development of culture,
  manners, education
• interest in philosophy
• Silver Age of Drama
• (elaborate staging, light effects, songs, women
  players)

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John Milton

• Paradise Lost
• Paradise Regained

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18th century

• Development of journalism
• Jonathan Swift Gullivers Travels
• Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe
• Henry Fielding Tom Jones, History of a
  Foundling

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Romanticism

• Late 19th century
• Strong use of feeling, exploration of nature and
  supernatural
• Against logic and reason
• Nature is the source of the truth and beauty

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• Lake Poets
• (Wordworth, Coleridge) - 1st period of
  romanticism
• Lyrical Ballads the official beginning of
  romanticism
• Inspiration from the Lake District in England

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Romantic Revolt

• The romantic movement culminated in the works of
• G.B. Byron (Childe Harolds Pilgrimage),
• P.B. Shelley (Prometheus Unbound),
• John Keats
• and Sir Walter Scott (Ivanhoe)

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Victorian Age

• Queen Victoria (1837-1901)
• Britain the strongest
• world power
• Great industrial, financial,
• commercial power
• Social inequalities and
• contrasts

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• Novel was the most influential literary form

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Bronte sisters

• Charlotte (Jane Eyre)
• Emily (Wuthering Heights)
• Anne (Agnes Grey)
• Protest against everything inhuman and cruel
  (moral, psychological problems)
• Jane Austin (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and
  Sensibility)

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Critical Realism

• True description of reality
• Charles Dickens life of poor people in th e
  19th century
• He himself suffered in his childhood and his
  experience can be found in his works
• Combines comic and serious situations

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His major novels

• Little Dorrit
• The Pickwick Papers
• Oliver Twist
• David Copperfield
• Great Expectations
• Nicholas Nickleby

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William Makepeace Thackery

• Novels against
• snobbery,hypocrisy
• Vanity Fair compares
• the lives of two different
• characters
• manipulating Rebecca
• and gentle, sentimental
• Amelia

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Modern literature

• Choose some of the authors you know and talk
  about them
• E.g.
• Oscar Wilde G.B. Shaw
• James Joyce J.R.R. Tolkien
• Virginia Woolf George Orwell
• Rudyard Kipling Agatha Christie
• Samuel Beckett R.L. Stevenson