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43
Ancient Britain/Old English
Britain becomes part of Roman Empire. Rome withdraws/Anglo-Saxons invade in 400s. Christianity spreads 597 - Latin & Greek classics taught - trans. into West Saxon Old English. Old English narrative/epic poetry composed/preserved in Exeter Book, Vercelli Book, Nowell Codex, Caedmon Manuscript - kennings, alliteration, repetition used. Key authors:
Caedmon (d. 684, Caedmon's Hymn)
Aelfric (955-1010, Homilies, Latin-Eng grammar)
King Alfred (849-899, est. schools, English education, translations) -
Period: 43 to 1066
Ancient Britain/Old English
Britain becomes part of Roman Empire. Rome withdraws/Anglo-Saxons invade in 400s. Christianity spreads 597 - Latin & Greek classics taught - trans. into West Saxon Old English. Old English narrative/epic poetry composed/preserved in Exeter Book, Vercelli Book, Nowell Codex, Caedmon Manuscript - kennings, alliteration, repetition used. Key authors:
Caedmon (d. 684, Caedmon's Hymn)
Aelfric (955-1010, Homilies, Latin-Eng grammar)
King Alfred (849-899, est. schools, English education, translations) -
Jan 1, 750
Beowulf*
Old English epic poem composed in Northumbria. Intended to be sung, written down in 1000 by an Anglo-Saxon. Set at Hrothgar's court in Scandinavia (Sweden), Beowulf (a Geat) slays Grendel, then Grendel's mother, who also attacks the hall. Beowulf goes home to Geatland and becomes king of the Geats. After 50 years, he is killed in battle with a dragon and a tower is erected in his memory. Preserved in the Nowell codex. Legend based on historical events/locations of the 6th century. -
Jan 10, 1000
Church Drama
1000 - 1300 - Plays of Bible stories were enacted by monks and later actors in churches, using vernacular English. Eventually became too rowdy/irreverent and were banned altogether by 1300. -
Jan 1, 1066
1066/Norman Conquest
Duke William II of Normandy gains the contested English throne by force. English aristocracy is dispossessed of lands/power and replaced by Norman nobles, who speak the Norman French dialect. Common people still speak English, but import 10,000 French words. Church becomes very powerful and growth of trade/industry lead to a middle class of crafts and tradesman with guilds. 1381 Peasants' Revolt caused by the plague and other tensions. -
Jan 10, 1300
Mystery & Miracle Plays
1300-1500: Plays based on Bible stories and lives of the saints, performed by craft guilds on specially constructed pageant wagons. Play cycles performed in 125 British communities: York Cycle, Wakefield Cycle, Chester Cycle. -
Jan 7, 1350
Medieval Poetry
Over 20 significant alliterative poems 1350-1400.
The Pearl Poet:
Pearl - dream allegory lamenting death
Purity/Cleanness - virtue of purity by relaying Biblical stories
Patience - evils of impatience relaying story of Jonah
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - virtues of chivalry/knighthood Piers Plowman - attributed to William Langland - allegorical poem told as a dream vision; vivid scenes depicting the poor, famine, gluttony, unscrupulous landlords, officials, friars, lawyers, merchants. -
Jan 7, 1382
Wycliffe Bible
Bible translated into Middle English at John Wycliffe's direction so that the common people could understand it. He was a leader of the Lollards, who identified with the poor and excoriated the Church's power and landholdings. The Bible translation incorporates more than 1,000 Latin words not previously found in English. -
Jan 7, 1386
Geoffrey Chaucer/The Canterbury Tales*
17,000 lines in prose and verse, primarily in rhymed couplets. "Frame tale:" 24 tales told by a variety of medieval characters on a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury Cathedral: Knight, Miller, Reeve, Cook, Man of Law, Wife of Bath, Friar, Summoner, Clerk, Merchant, Squire, Franklin, Physician, Pardoner, Shipman, Prioress, Sir Thopas, Tale of Melibee, Monk, Nun, Nun's Priest, Canon's Yeoman, Manciple, Parson. Main themes: religion, gender, morality, humor/satire. -
Jan 10, 1425
Morality Plays
Use characters to personify qualities such as Beauty, Gluttony, Virtue, Vice. Usually a human character is seduced by vice and later saved by Mercy, Hope, Perseverance, Correction, etc. Performed by professional actors: Everyman (1470)
The Castle of Perseverance (1425)
Mankind (1475)
Magnyfycence (1516)
Ane Peasant Satre of the Thrie Estaitis (1540) -
Jan 10, 1473
First book published in English
William Caxton publishes the first book in English: The Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye (history of Trojan wars, translated from French). During this period, literacy increased rapidly and Tudor monarchs encouraged drama/arts/schools. -
Jan 10, 1485
Le Morte d'Arthur published
Sir Thomas Malory translated/rewrote French versions of Arthurian legends. Used natural speech rhythms in his writing and did not romanticize knighthood. -
Period: Jan 10, 1485 to
Renaissance England
Renaissance (rebirth of learning) began in Italy 1300s, began affecting England in 1485 with accession of Tudor dynasty.
-Emphasis on classical studies in universities (influence of Greece/Rome)
-Increased literacy
-Growth of critical scholarship, scientific inquiry
-Increasing trade/wealth/prosperity/nationalism/materialism
-Movement from strict religion to humanism -English becomes main spoken/written language, leading to increase in vocab, standardization of spelling/pronunciation -
Period: Jan 13, 1500 to
Elizabethan Prose
Fiction & non-fiction chronicles of travels and historical events - many used as source material by Shakespeare. Major authors:
John Lyly (1578 Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit)
Robert Greene (1588 Pandosto, the Triumph of Time)
Thomas Nashe (1594 The Unfortunate Traveler)
Raphael Holinshed (1578 The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland)
Richard Hakluyt (1598 The Principal Voyages, Traffics, and Discoveries of the English Nation)
Samuel Purchas (1625 Hakluyt's Posthumus/Purchas His Pilgrimes) -
Period: Jan 10, 1503 to
Tudor lyric poetry
Flowering of lyric poetry in reign of Elizabeth. Sonnets brought to England by Wyatt, following Italian Petrarch. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, introduces unrhymed iambic pentameter (blank verse). Major authors:
Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542)
Henry Howard (1517-1547)
Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) - Defence of Poesy, Astrophel and Stella
Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) - The Faerie Queene
Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618)
Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) -
Period: Jan 13, 1564 to
Shakespeare
164 Sonnets
36 Plays*
Comedies & Romances:
T Comedy of Errors
T Two Gentlemen of Verona
Love's Labour's Lost
A Midsummer Night's Dream
T Taming of the Shrew
T Merchant of Venice
T Merry Wives of Windsor
Much Ado About Nothing
As You Like It
Twelfth Night
All's Well That Ends Well
Measure for Measure
Troilus & Cressida
Pericles
Cymbeline
T Winter's Tale
T Tempest
Tragedies:
Titus Andronicus
Romeo & Juliet
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
Othello
K.Lear
Macbeth
Antony & Cleopatra
Timon of Athens
Coriolanus -
Period: Jan 17, 1564 to
Other Renaissance Drama
Christopher Marlowe (1564-93):
Tamburlaine the Great
The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus
The Jew of Malta
The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second Ben Johnson (1572-1637):
Every Man in His Humours
Volpone
The Alchemist Other authors:
George Chapman
John Marston
Thomas Dekker
Thomas Heywood
John Webster -
Period: Jan 13, 1572 to
Metaphysical Poetry
Religious and romantic poetry using imagery and allusions to philosophy, geography, astronomy. Major authors:
John Donne (1572-1631)*
George Herbert (1593-1633)
Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)
Henry Vaughan (1621-1695) -
Jan 13, 1576
First public theater built
First English secular dramas, comedies, tragedies written and performed at court and in public theater. Characteristic Elizabethan plot devices introduced: girls disguised as boys, romantic comedy, low comedy, revenge tragedy, feigned madness, play-within-a-play. Authors:
Henry Medwall
John Heywood
Nicholas Udall
Thomas Sackville
Thomas Norton
George Gascoigne
John Lyly
Robert Greene
Thomas Kyd
John Pickeryng
Thomas Preston -
Period: to
Literary Philosophers
Francis Bacon (1561-1626): Chief advisor to James I, wrote intellectual essays:
1597-1625 Essays on success, wealth
1605 Advancement of Learning
1620 Novum Organum ("new instrument" of inductive reasoning in science) Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679):
1640 The Elements of Law Natural and Public (foundation of modern empirical philosophy)
1651 Leviathan (monarchs do not rule by divine right - but because humans give up rights for security in strong ruler) -
Period: to
John Milton
Early poetry:
L'Allegro
Il Penseroso
Lycidas Prose:
Areopagitica
Of Education Epic Poetry:
Paradise Lost (1667)
Paradise Regained
Samson Agonistes Sonnets:
When I Consider How My Light is Spent
How Soon Hath Time -
The King James Bible
James I summoned 1604 conference and appointed 47 scholars to revise the Bible. Based largely upon the earlier translations of William Tyndale (New Testament) and Miles Coverdale (Old Testament). This translation had a major influence on literature and culture. -
Period: to
John Dryden*
Leading English literary figure of 1600s. Named Poet Laureate in 1668, wrote epic/poems celebrating national events and satyric poems. Also wrote dramas and completed numerous translations, mostly of classical poets. -
Period: to
Restoration Comedy*
Theaters re-open after 24 years. Comedies of manners written in prose and verse, tone generally being witty, bawdy, cynical, amoral w/ standard comic characters. Professional actors, 1st female actors, 1st female playwright, Aphra Behn*. Major authors:
Sir George Etherege: The Man of Mode
William Wycherley: The Country Wife*
William Congreve: The Double Dealer, Love for Love, The Way of the World
Sir John Vanbrugh: The Provoked Wife
George Farquhar: The Recruiting Officer, The Beaux' Stratagem -
Period: to
Restoration*
Charles II restored to throne, ending Puritan rule of England. Theaters re-opened. Work of Isaac Newton and John Locke* advanced respect for order and reason, conventional rules leading to the Neoclassical Period of the 18th century. Literature observes Aristotle's concept of unity of time, place, and action. Popular literature flourishes, particularly the novel. -
Period: to
Prose fiction
Jonathan Swift - satire and poetry:
A Tale of A Tub
The Battle of the Books
Gulliver's Travels*
Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift Daniel Defoe - fictional autobiographies:
Robinson Crusoe*
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders
A Journal of the Plague Year -
Period: to
Early Criticism
Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Literary criticism (An Essay on Criticism, 1711), satirical criticism of literary conventions and writers of the day, philosophical poetry, translation of Homer, editing and publication of Shakespeare's works. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Dictionary of the English Language (1755), published edition of Shakespeare's plays (1765), literary criticism (Lives of the English Poets, 1779), moralistic prose. -
Period: to
Early Novel
First novel: "Pamela," written in 1740 in epistolary (letter) form by Samuel Richardson. Henry Fielding: satirizes moral tone of Richardson and the predilections of high society in "Joseph Andrews," "The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild the Great," and "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling."* Uses picaresque form (a succession of adventures narrated by the hero). Other early novelists: Tobias Smollett, Lawrence Sterne -
Period: to
Romantic Poets - Wordsworth/Coleridge*
William Wordsworth - influenced by revolutions, wanted to put language of common people into poetry describing simple beauties of nature. Believed poetry is "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings...recollected in tranquility." Major works:
Lyrical Ballads
The Prelude Samuel Taylor Coleridge - supernatural and "conversation" poems, literary criticism (Biographia Literaria). Major works:
Kubla Khan
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner -
Period: to
Romantic Poets - Byron/Shelley/Keats*
George Gordon, Lord Byron - aristocrat who began writing in Neoclassical style but became representative of Romantic style, despite attacking other Romantic poets in print. Major works:
Manfred, A Dramatic Poem
Don Juan
She Walks in Beauty Percy Bysshe Shelley - ethereal, lyric poetry on spiritual and natural themes. Major works:
Mont Blanc
Ode to the West Wind
Prometheus Unbound John Keats - Sonnets, long poems, great odes. Major works:
Endymion
Ode to Psyche
Ode on a Grecian Urn
To Autumn -
Period: to
Romantic Period
Authors abandoned neoclassical formalism as the age was affected by American, French, and Industrial revolutions. Poetry features concrete imagery, direct emotional expression, writing about the self and "common" matters. Major authors:
William Wordsworth
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
William Blake
Robert Burns
Lord Byron
Percy Bysshe Shelley
John Keats
Jane Austen
Sir Walter Scott
Mary Shelley -
Period: to
Romantic novelists
4 categories: Gothic Romance, novel of purpose, novel of manners, historical novels. Major authors:
Jane Austen (novel of manners):
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice*
Emma* Sir Walter Scott (historical novels):
The Antiquary
Old Mortality
Rob Roy
The Heart of the Midlothian
Ivanhoe
Kenilworth
Quentin Durward -
Period: to
Victorian Poetry*
Early Victorian poets echoed Romantic poetry, concerned w/ classics and contemporary issues. Later poets, seeking freer expression, rebelled. Major authors:
Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Ulysses, Idylls of the King, Lady of Shalott...
Robert Browning: Men & Women, Dramatis Personae...
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Aurora Leigh...
Matthew Arnold: Memorial Verses, Dover Beach... Pre-Raphaelites:
Dante Gabriel Rosetti
William Morris Algernon Charles Swinburne: controversial verses against Victorianism -
Period: to
Victorian Novel*
*Explore characters of middle class or humble origins, affected by changes in Victorian period and Industrial Revolution
*Presented reality of Victorian era and also an escape for increasingly literate population
*Gave moral instruction - "good" characters rewarded, "bad" ones punished, using character types
*Heroes are people of virtue with human failings
*Satirical novels opposed to "Victorianism" also written Major authors: Dickens, Bronte sisters, Thakeray, Eliot, Butler, Carroll, Hardy -
Period: to
Victorian Period
Time of Queen Victoria's reign and great change as Britain became imperial and industrialized. Steam power, telegraph, cable, photography, scientific/medical advances, universal compulsory education came into use. Social unrest and social consciousness brought on by beginning of industrial age, depressions/poverty. Novels, poetry, criticism, and drama were written. -
Period: to
Victorian Criticism
Matthew Arnold:
Essays in Criticism - Function of criticism (judge literature objectively according to its "high truth" and "high seriousness"), essays on Milton, Romantic poets
Also wrote social, journalistic, religious criticism and his own poetry John Ruskin:
Leading art critic - Modern Painters, 5 volumes
Later became a social critic - Unto This Last, attacking industrial capitalism and political utilitarianism Walter Pater:
Critic of traditional Victorianism, advocate of Epicureanism -
Period: to
Early Modern Poetry*
Thomas Hardy-human condition vs unforgiving God/universe: Hap, An August Midnight, The Darkling Thrush, The Dynasts... Gerard Manley Hopkins-Religious poetry w/ invented "sprung rhythm": The Wreck of the Deutschland, God's Grandeur, The Windhover, To Christ Our Lord... T.S. Eliot-Futility of modern life, revelation of hope: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, The Hollow Men, Ash-Wednesday, Four Quartets Dylan Thomas-surrealistic intensity: Map of Love, Deaths & Entrances... -
Period: to
Victorian Drama
Theatres Act of 1843 allowed 61 theaters to develop and present modern drama in London. Melodramas, comedies, and serious plays took on the interests of Victorian times - morality, social class/caste, gender issues. Main authors: Oscar Wilde: Lady Windemere's Fan, The Importance of Being Earnest
Thomas William Robertson: Caste
Henry Arthur Jones: Saints and Sinners
Sir Arthur Wing Pinero: The Second Mrs. Tanqueray -
Period: to
W.B. Yeats
Irish poet who led a literary "renaissance" in early 1900s. Aesthetic Period-Early poetry focuses on Celtic mythology, mysticism, and symbols: The Wanderings of Oisin, The Wind Among the Reeds, In the Seven Woods Mask Period-written as he became a leader in Irish Nationalist movement: The Green Helmet and Other Poems, The Wild Swans of Coole Prophetic Period-complex but realistic poetry written in later years: The Tower -
Period: to
Early Modern Novel*
H.G. Wells - social criticism & science fiction: The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds
Joseph Conrad - adventure stories with universal themes of character & morality: Heart of Darkness, Nostromo
James Joyce - experimented with form & language to produce controversial works: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Finnegans Wake
Virginia Woolf - disregarded conventional plots & characters to explore inner complexities, also a literary critic: Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando -
Period: to
Drama 1895 - 1950
George Bernard Shaw - plays debating societal ideas: Man and Superman, Pygmalion, Saint Joan Sir James Barrie - fantasy plays including Peter Pan, The Admirable Crichton, Dear Brutus Somerset Maugham - novelist and playwright: Our Betters, East of Suez, The Constant Wife, For Services Rendered, Of Human Bondage -
Period: to
World War I Poetry
Rupert Brooke-Romanticized war: War Sonnets, 1914 and Other Poems... A.E. Housman: The Shropshire Lad, Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries, Loveliest of Trees... Wilfred Owen-Killed in action in France aged 25-wrote more realistic poetry about the horrors of war: Strange Meeting, Mental Cases, Anthem for Doomed Youth, Dulce Et Decorum Est... -
Period: to
Irish Renaissance and Absurdist Drama
John Millington Synge: Riders to the Sea (tragedy), The Playboy of the Western World (controversial comedy) Sean O'Casey - tragicomic writing about state of the Irish poor: Juno and the Paycock, The Plough and the Stars, Within the Gates, The Stars Turn Red Samuel Beckett - born in Ireland but lived abroad, writing absurd and minimalist novels and drama in French and English: Waiting for Godot, Krapp's Last Tape, Happy Days, Breath, Not I -
Period: to
Early Modern Novel cont'd 2
William Golding - depicts the savagery of human nature lurking under veneer of civilization: Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors E.M. Forster - explores relationships, class, racial, and cultural issues in: A Room with a View, Howards End, A Passage to India Graham Greene - explores struggles of the human condition through a Catholic religious lens: Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter, The End of the Affair -
Period: to
Early Modern Novel cont'd
D.H. Lawrence - controversial novels meant to reveal the subconscious feelings of characters: Sons & Lovers, The Rainbow, Lady Chatterley's Lover...
Aldous Huxley - satirical and dystopian novels about modern life: Point Counter Point, Brave New World...
Arthur Evelyn Waugh - biting satires, later religious moral philosophy about modern society: Vile Bodies, Brideshead Revisited...
George Orwell - dystopian novels depicting cruelty of human society/bureaucracy: Animal Farm, 1984 -
Period: to
"New Signatures" and "The Movement" poets
W.H. Auden- varied poetry about religion, politics, cultural criticism, war: "In Memory of W.B. Yeats," "September, 1939," "The Age of Anxiety" Philip Larkin- simply/directly worded poetry about life, death, pointlessness of modern life: "The Less Deceived," "The Whitsun Weddings," "High Windows" Roy Fuller- lawyer & poetry professor who served in WWII - wrote war & other poetry: "The Middle of the War" Donald Davie- abstract, philosophical poetry using traditional English phrases & diction -
Period: to
Contemporary Drama
Harold Pinter - playwright, actor, director: The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, Betrayal... Tom Stoppard - inventive plays featuring witty wordplay, some commenting on modern ethical and social problems: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Jumpers, Travesties, Dirty Linen, Every Good Boy Deserves Favor, The Real Thing Athol Fugard - South African playwright writing in English, opposing Apartheid/oppression: The Blood Knot, Boesman and Lena, A Lesson from Aloes, Master Harold...and the Boys