THE OUTLINE OF THE BRITISH LITERATURE AND SOME REPRESENTATIVES

(FROM 19TH CENTURY UP TO NOW)

Pavla Krtilová C4B

ROMANTICISM (1780-1832)

a time of great technical inventions and Industrial revolution, workers as well as children are subject to inhuman explotation

return to nature, mainly about freedom, love, nature, brave men, history, mystery, exotic countries

writers wanted to express feelings and emotions heroes are usually social outcasts (murderers,

prostitutes …) and the story takes place on a lonely mysterious places like cemeteries or castles

origin of gothic novel – horror and romance together (Mary Shelley -Frankenstein)

POETS OF ROMANTICISMLake Poets William Wordsworth ,Samuel T. Coleridge “Lyrical Ballads” inspired by lake District authors who admired British nature and wrote

lyrical poemsPoets of the period Lord George Gordon Byron Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats

PROSE WRITERS OF ROMANTICISM

Sir Walter Scott from Scotland romantic prose writer “the father of historical novel” Ivanhoe – set in the medieval age of knights under

the rule of Richard the Lion HeartJane Austen romantic prose writer born in poor family, 6 brothers and 1 sister, never

married, died young the domestic novel – dealing with family life Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Jane Eyre…

VICTORIAN LITERATURE – REALISM (19TH CENTURY)

“ Victorian realism” description and critics of British

society social novel – the major type of works

Obr.1.: (12.3.2014),Dostupné z http://qvj.chadwyck.com/marketing.do

Charles Dickens a representative of critical realism he depicted the life of the poor in 19th century

(orphans..) used his own experiences from his childhood and life Oliver Twist- about a young orphan, without a family,

who band together with robbers, it was one of the first social novels in 19th century

David Copperfield

William Makepeace Thackeray Vanity Fair

Robert Louis Stevenson adventurous novels (Treasure Island, The

Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde)Lewis Carroll Alice's Adventures in WonderlandOscar Wilde famous dramatist of Victorian Era born in Dublin, homosexual, alcoholic, prisoner novel The picture of Dorian Gray ironic conversational drama The Importance of

Being Earnest

20TH CENTURY

influenced by two world wars, various allies, revolutions, economic achievements...

PROSEGeorge Orwell born in India, educated in England inspirited by the poorest parts of London Animal Farm (mean to satirize the politics os the Soviet

Union), 1984 (anti-utopian novel)Agatha Christie “Queen of Detective fiction” about 100 detective stories, novels and plays she gave life to Ms Jane Marple, Hercule Poirot… The death on Nile, Murder in the Orient ExpressFrancis Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes

J.R.R. Tolkien fantasy writer inspirited in old German and Celtic myths Hobbit, The Lord of the RingsC.S.Lewis Chronicles of NarniaRudyard Kipling Jungle BookJohn Galsworthy Saga of Forsyte – trilogy about wealthy familyJ.K. Rowling Harry Potter

James Joyce an Irish novelist and poet of modernism short-story collection Dubliners,

novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 

Virginia Wolf an English writer of modernism novels Mrs Dalloway, To the

Lighthouse, Orlando

DRAMAGeorge Bernard Shaw a writer and a philosopher Pygmalion – about two different social

classes

Obr.2.:(12.3.2014), Dostupné z: http://www.chemainustheatrefestival.ca/season_lady_history.html