History Of English Literature(Revision of Course Contents)

Lecture 32History of English Literature

ENG-402COMSATS Virtual Campus Islamabad

Revision

• English Literature is one of richest literatures of the world. Being the literature of a great nation which, though inhabiting a small island off the west coast of Europe, has made its mark in the world on account of her spirit of adventure, perseverance and tenacity, it reflects these characteristics of a great people.

Conti.

• It has vitality, rich variety and continuity. As literature is the reflection of society, the various changes which have come about in English society, from the earliest to the modern time, have left their stamp on English literature. Thus in order to appreciate properly the various phases of English literature, knowledge of English Social and Political History is essential.

Conti.

• For example, we cannot form a just estimate of Chaucer without taking into account the characteristics of the period in which he was living, or of Shakespeare without taking proper notice of the great events which were taking place during the reign of Elizabeth. The same is the case with other great figures and important movements in English literature.

Conti.

• When we study the history of English literature from the earliest to modern times, we find that it has passed through certain definite phases, each having marked characteristics. These phases may be termed as ‘Ages’ or ‘Periods’, which are named after the central literary figures or the important rulers of England. Thus we have the ‘Ages’ of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, Pope, Johnson. Wordsworth, Tennyson, Hardy; and, on the other hand, the Elizabethan Age, the Jacobean Period, the Age of Queen Anne, the Victorian Age, the Georgian Period

Conti.• . Some of these phases are named after certain literary

movements, as the Classical Age, the Romantic Age; while others after certain important historial eras, as the Medieval Period, Anglo-Saxon Period, Anglo-Norman Period. These literary phases are also named by some literary historians after the centuries, as the Seventeenth Century Literature, Eighteenth Century Literature, Nineteenth-Century Literature and Twentieth Century Literature. These ‘Ages’ and ‘Periods’ naturally overlap each other, and they are not to be followed strictly, but it is essential to keep them in mind in order to follow the growth of English literature, and its salient and distinctive characteristics during the various periods of its development.

1. Literature in general2. Types of Literature (Applied and Pure)3. Literature Communicates Experience4. Imagination and Literature5. Relation of Literature to Life6. Literature and Society7. Literature and Writer`s Personality8. English Literature : An Introduction9. A brief critical survey of the background and

development of English literature from the earliest times up to the present age.

Introduction to History of English Literature Periods/Ages in the History of English Literature

The Anglo – Saxons Period

A brief history of early BritainWhat is Anglo-Saxon/Old English?Brief History of Anglo-SaxonsAnglo-Saxon PoetryAnglo-Saxon ProseLiterary works during the period

Anglo – Norman Period

• Introduction to Anglo – Norman Period• Anglo – Norman Literature• Languages during this period• Characteristics of Medieval Literature• Conventions of Medieval Romance• Chivalric Code and Introduction to Courtly Love• The Romances in Anglo – Norman Period• The Miracle plays• Prominent Literary Figures---focus on Chaucer

Elizabethan Period

• Elizabethan Period• Situation in England• Renaissance and Humanism• Literature in this period• Poetry• Drama• Prose• Summary

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Seventeenth Century Literature• The Literature of the Seventeenth Century may be

divided into two periods—– The Puritan Age or the Age of Milton (1600-1660), which is

further divided into:• the Jacobean and Caroline periods after the names of the ruled

James I and Charles I, who rules from 1603 to 1625 and 1625 to 1649 respectively;

– The Restoration Period or the Age of Dryden (1660-1700).

The Eighteenth Century Literature• The 18th century literature• Division of Age• Novel in 18th century (Introduction)• Drama in 18th century (Introduction)• The age of Pope

– Poetry– Prose– Eminent figures during this age

The age of Johnson

The age of Johnson

1750-1784 After his death, the Classical spirit in English literature began to give place to the

Romantic spirit Officially the Romantic Age started from the year 1798 when Wordsworth and

Coleridge published the famous Lyrical Ballads.

Romantic MovementRomanticism refers to a movement

in art, literature, and music during the 19th century.

Romanticism is characterized by the 5 “I”sImaginationIntuitionIdealismInspirationIndividuality

Introduction• The most fruitful period • The revolt against the Classical school which had

been started • Most popular English poets like Wordsworth,

Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats belong to this period.

• William Hazlitt

• Thomas De Quincey

• Charles Lamb

The Romantic prose writers

The Victorian AgeImportant Aspects: A Time of Change

• London becomes most important city in Europe• Population of London expands from two million to six

million• Shift from ownership of land to modern urban

economy• Impact of industrialism• Increase in wealth• World’s foremost imperial power• Victorian people suffered from anxiety, a sense of

being displaced persons in an age of technological advances.

Poets in the Victorian Age

• Alfred Lord Tennyson• Robert Browning• Matthew Arnold

Novelists in the Victorian Age

• Charles Dickens• WILLIAM THACKERAY

• Works• Themes

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Victorian Essayists

Thomas CarlyleJohn Henry NewmanJohn Stuart MillJohn Ruskin

Modern Period

• The Modern Age in English Literature started from the beginning of the twentieth century, and it followed the Victorian Age. The most important characteristic of Modern Literature is that it is opposed to the general attitude to life and its problems adopted by the Victorian writers and the public, which may be termed ‘Victorian’. The young people during the fist decade of the present century regarded the Victorian age as hypocritical, and the Victorian ideals as mean, superficial and stupid.

• This rebellious mood affected modern literature, which was directed by mental attitudes moral ideals and spiritual values diametrically opposed to those of the Victorians. Nothing was considered as certain; everything was questioned. In the field of literary technique also some fundamental changes took place. Standards of artistic workmanship and of aesthetic appreciations also underwent radical changes.

• The twentieth century literature which is the product of this tension is, therefore, unique. It is extremely fascinating and, at the same time, very difficult to evaluate, because, to a certain extent, it is a record of uncoordinated efforts. It is not easy to divide it into school and types.

• It is full of adventures and experiments peculiar to the modern age which is an age of transition and discovery. But there is an undercurrent in it which runs parallel to the turbulent current of ideas which flows with great impetuosity. Though it started as a reaction against ‘Victorianism’ in the beginning of the twentieth century, it is closely bound up with the new ideas which are agitating the mind of the modern man.

Modern Period Poets

• T. S. Eliot• W. B. Yeats

T. S Eliot

• Thomas Stearns Eliot is the greatest among the modern English poets, and he has influenced modern poetry more than any other poet of the twentieth century. He combines in himself strange and opposing characteristics. He is a great poet as well a great critic; he is a traditionalist rooted in classicism as well as an innovator of a new style of poetry; he is a stern realist acutely conscious of modern civilisation with its manifold problems as well as a visionary who looks at life beyond the limits of time and space.

Eliot`s Works

• The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock• The Waste Land• Four Quartets• Burnt Norton• East Coker• The Dry Salvages• Little Gidding

W. B. Yeats

• William Butler Yeats was one of the most important of modern poets, who exerted a great influence on his contemporaries as well as successors. He was an Irish, and could never reconcile himself to the English habits and way of thinking. By temperament he was a dreamer, a visionary, who fell under the spell of the folk-lore and the superstitions of the Irish peasantry.

• Like them he believed in fairies, gnomes, and demons, in the truth of dreams, and in personal immortality. Naturally with such a type of temperament, Yeats felt himself a stranger in the world dominated by science, technology and rationalism.

Yeats` Works

• The Wanderings of Oisin• The Wind Among the Reeds• The Shadowy Waters• The Anti-self• The Wild Swan at Coole• The Tower • The Winding Stair • Self and Anti-self.

Dramatists in The modern Period

• Ibsen• Strindberg, • Chekhov• Wilde• Shaw• Synge• Pirandello

Post-modern

• Post-modernism proclaims multi-cultural and multi-ethnic societies. It promotes the politics of difference! Identity is not unitary or essential, it is fluid and shifting, fed by multiple sources and taking multiple forms (there is no such thing as ‘woman’ or ‘black’).’

Post-War Novel/Drama

• Graham Greene• Anthony Powell

• John Osborne• Samuel Beckett

Criticism In English Literature

• What is criticism?• Criticism: Its nature and function• The Changing Role of Critics and Criticism• Types of Criticism• Criticism in different eras in English Literature

Criticism in English LiteratureBRIEF HISTORICAL SURVEY

• 1. Earliest or Hellenic Phase• 2. Hellenistic Phase• 3. Greeco-Roman Phase• 4. The Medieval Phase• 5. Renaissance Criticism• 6. Neo-Classical Phase• 7. The Romantic Phase• 8. Victorian Criticism• 9. Critical Scene To-day

Reference Books

1. A Critical History of English Literature by Dr. B. R. Mullik2. A Dictionary of Literary Terms by Martin Gray3. A Critical History of English Literature by David Daiches

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