English literature

English literature

English literature can be divided into 3 periods corresponding to the development of English language:

1) the first is called: Anglo-Saxon literature = Old English literature
2) the second is called: Middle-English literature
3) the third: Modern English literature

- OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE -

Germanic legend about Beowulf – from the 8th century

– it’s wrote in verse ( the oldest epic poem )
It’s about the strong and courageous pagan hero Beowulf. The kind from the north killed the monsters.

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – it was inspired by King Alfred

– comes from the 9th century
The differentials between chronicle and legend:

– in legend is something true and something fiction.

– in chronicle is everything true, here is wrote what happened

- MIDDLE-ENGLISH LITERATURE -

– this time is from the 11th century to the 15th century
Geoffrey Chaucer

– he is called “the father of English poetry”

– he was the first poet, who wrote in English language and inspirited other writers

– the characters in his stories are real and represent

– his works are full of humour
Canterbury Tales – it’s a portrait of 30 pilgrims who travel to Canterbury and
each tell 4 stories

– it’s a picture of society in the 14th century

- MODERN ENGLISH LITERATURE -

– this is the period from the 16th century up today
William Shakespeare

– he married Anne Hathaway and she was 8 years older than William
– he wrote 37 dramas, sonnets

– his plays were first published in 1623

– he died on the same day as he was born

– he wrote in time of “Golden Age of literature” ( Queen Elisabeth and James I.
gave theatre moral support )

– he wrote comedies: A Midsummer-Night’s Dream
tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear, Othello
history plays: Henry VI., Julius Caesar, Antonius and Cleopatra

- 17th CENTURY – BAROQUE -

John Milton

– the life of John Milton is connected with the Civil War in England at the time

– it was age of Oliver Cromwell who closed the theatre

– he was only knowledge writer

– he was blind
Paradise Lost - he dictated this work his daughters and it contains 12 books
Paradise Regained

- 18th CENTURY -

– in this time was development of society and economy, journalism, novels and drama and England became sea power ( Francis Drake )

– literature became popular among the middle class and the novels were with
adventure about voyages.
Daniel Defoe
Robinson Crusoe - Defoe heard this story in the pup and when he was 60 he
wrote it

– about sea power; ship from Britain has a accident and Robinson stays in a strange island

Jonathan Swift
Gulliver’s Travels – satirical book: he criticized politics in England, armies,
corruption…

– 4 parts: 1) the land of Lilliputians
2) the land of giants
3) the flying island
4) there were intelligent horses and ugly looking peoples
Henry Fielding
Tom Jones, A Foundling - picture of society, each chapter has title

- 19th CENTURY -

– ROMANTICISM

– the romantic period can be divided into two parts:
1) Lake poets - William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge
→ they wrote lyrical ballads: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
2) the second group is represented by poets:
Percy Bysshe Shelley – Prometheus unbound
John Keats - his wife Marry Shelley wrote “Frankenstein”
George Gordon Byron - Child Harold’s Pilgrimage, Manfred ( drama )

– DRAMA

Sir Walter Scott

– he represent historical novel

– his books are very portly

– now he isn’t very popular, he is like Alois Jirásek
Waverly, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, Kenilworth – time of Elisabeth I.

– TRANSITION FROM ROMANTICISM TO REALISM

Brontë Sisters – their writing began when they started to invent the stories in the
evenings
Charlotte – Jane Eyre
Emily – Wuthering Heights – it’s roman about passion and hate
Anne

– REALISM

Charles Dickens

– he often used his own experience from his childhood
– he describes truly the life of poor people in England in 19th cent.

– he combines comic and serious situation
Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield (autobiography)

Thackeray – Vanity Fair

Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde – 1 person represents two people

– Dr. Jekyll is a good side and Mr. Hyde is a bad side
Oscar Wilde
– he died in Paris, he represented English decadence and symbolism

– bisexual, he wrote drama and comedies
The Important of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband
- fairytales: Happy Prince, The Selfish Giant, The Nightingale
– only one roman: The Picture of Dorian Gray

- 20th CENTURY -

– still realism
Rudyard Kipling

– he got a Nobel Price for literature
Jungle books - 2 books; it’s inspirited by the wildlife in India; with hero Mowglí
If – it’s a poem

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
– he was a doctor

– he is the creator of Sherlock Holmes

– he is the greatest detective story writers of all times
The Hound of Baskervilles

Agata Christie
– she wrote theatre plays: Mouse track
Ten little Negers

Herbert George Wells
– he began with sci-fi in English literature

– he had inspiration in books by Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) and J. Swift
The Time Machine, The Island of Doctor Moreau, The Invisible Man
The War of the Worlds

George Bernard Shaw (G.B. Shaw)
– is a world famous dramatist and he wrote social comedies
Pygmalion – it became world known in musical version under the title My Fair
Lady

John Galsworthy
– he got the Nobel Prize
The Forsythe Saga - there he described the decay of the Victorian middle class

– it is the picture of English society at the turn of the century

George Orwell

– his real name is Eric Blair

– he had a lot of jobs
1984 – there is predicted the future
Animal Farm – it is about animals who occupied the farm and they wanted be
coequal. But the pigs took priority over the animals.

William Golding

– he got a Nobel Prize
The Spire, The Rites Passage
The Lord of the Flies - the boys are left alone an island, but don’t create a
harmonious society. Before than they was rescued, they fight and kill
and they forgot at the education, which they had in England.

– W. Golding and George Orwell were warning writers.

- EXPERIMENTAL PROSA -
Ian Fleming
– he is the author of James Bond
The Casino Royal – his first roman, it is the first James Bond novel

– other authors followed it and wrote many continuation Bond novels

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings – it is trilogy

– 3 parts: The Fellowship of the Rings, The Two Towers, The Return of the King
Colder Hobbit

Wirgina Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway – novel

James Joyce
Dubliner – collection of stories
Ulsysses

David Herbert Lawrence
Lady Chatterley’s Lover – roman about relationship between man and woman

Joanne Kathleen Rowling
Harry Potter – H. P. and the Philosopher’s Stone

– H. P. and the Chamber of Secrets

– H. P. and the Prisoner of Azkaban

– H. P. and the Goblet of Fire

– H. P. and the Order of the Phoenix

– H. P. and the Half-Blood Prince
→ Harry is young wizard and Lord Voldemort want kill him. L. V. killed Harry’s
parents and he is very bad. Harry goes at the Hogwarts school and from this
school he has dangerous and gripping adventures.

– DRAMA

Samuel Beckett

– a Nobel Prize winner

– “Absurd Drama” => type of theatre
Waiting for Godot – nobody knows who Godot is

– Estrogen and Vladimir wait and the lord and his slave travel and find Godot

Harold Pinter

– still alive

– he is include in “absurd drama” but he doesn’t think it
Homecoming

John Osborne

– † 1994
Look Back in Anger

James Clavel
King Rat

Kingsley Amin – Lucky Jim
Alan Sillitoe – King Rat
Arthur Heily – The Airport, Wheels
A.C. Clark – A spice Odyssea