History of English Literature

 History of English Literature

     (Its Classification)

1. Old English Literature

2. Middle English Literature

3. Modern English Literature

4. Post Modern Literature

1. Old English Literature(Anglo-Saxon Period) - (450-1066)

     Old English literature, or Anglo-Saxon literature, encompasses literature written in Old English, in                       Anglo-Saxon England from the 5th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066.

   Literary Trends :  The Works of the period included various geners:

Poetry, Hagiography, Sermons, Bible Translations, Legal Works, Chronicles, Riddles, etc. They were mostly written in verse form.

Some Important Works of this Period:

1.  Beowulf 

(That has achieved national epic status in Britain)

2. Caedmon's Hymn

3. Widsith

4. The Seafarer

Famous Poets of the Age:

i. Caedmon (Paraphrase)

ii. Bede [Father of our English Learning] (Ecclesiastical History of the English People)

iii. Cynewulf (The Christ)

iv. Alfred The Great [translator]

* Orosius's "Universal History and Geography

* Bede's "History"

* Pope Gregory's "Shepherds' book"

* Boethius's "Consolations of Philosophy"

2. Middle English Literature (1066-1550)

The Anglo-Norman Period (1066-1340)

The Age of Chaucer (1340-1400)

The Revival Age (1400-1550)

  I.The Anglo-Norman/Norman-French :(1066-1340)

      The term Anglo-Norman is generally used to describe the period of English history from the Norman Conquest to the the middle of the 14th Century.

  * During this period the old English poetry totally disappeared. English began to discorded on the favor of French and Latin.

   Literary Trends: In contrast with the Anglo-Saxon poetry, the Norman brought to England, Bright Romantic Tales of Love and Adventure.

 * The age to Chivalric rather than Heroic.

 * Chronicles, Religious and Didactic writing, Poetry and Drama were the popular forms of writing.

Some Important Works:

 # The Owl and the Nightingale

 # Cursor Mundi(30,000)

 # Le Jeu d'Adam(The play of Adam)

 # Seinte Resurrection (Resurrection of the saviour)

 Important writers of the Age:

 * Simon of Durham(Chronicle Writer)

 * Anselm(a theologian and Philosopher)

 * Florence of Worcester (Chronicler and monk)

II. The Age Of Chaucer: (1340-1400)

     *Named After - Geoffrey Chaucer, the father of      English poetry, morning star of Renaissance.

*This is the Period of transition and turbulence.

* English came to its own because of the great works done by Chaucer, Langland and Wycliffe.

*Literary Trends: 

Alliterative Revival, Romance, Religion writing.

        

 * Famous Poets of this period:

   • Geoffrey Chaucer: (Canterbury Tales)

   • William Langland: (The Piers Plawman)

   • John Gower: (Confessio Amantis)

   • John Wycliffe [Morning star of Reformation]: (Complete Translation of the Bible from Latin into English)

III. The Revival Age: (1400-1550)

   * The period following the death of Chaucer witnessed a wide range of political changes.

   * Barren period

  * In 1476 the first printing press established in England by William Caxton.

  * With the appearance of the first printed English book in 1476 the phase of middle English as a language assumed its modern form.

 Literary Trends: 

 * Metrical Romance continued to be translated from the French Homilies, and saints' legends, 

* Pastorals

* Allegory

* Ballads

* Satire and Didacticism

* Rhyming Chronicles were still manufactured

* Mystery & Miracle plays

* Morality Plays

 

 According to William J Long

 "The fifteenth century was an age of preparation, of learning the beginnings of science, and philosophy, the suggestive mythology, and the noble poetry of the Greeks and Romans. So the mind was furnished with ideas for a new literature."

* The earliest known Autobiography in English:         " The book of Margery Kempe " [ w - 1436 : p - 1501]

 Famous Writers:

  

English Chaucerians:

   (They used Chaucerian diction and phraseology or poetic forms.)

     * Thomas Hoccleve [ The Regiment of Princess]

     * John Lydgate [ The Troy, The Siege of Thebes, The Fall of Princis.

     * Stephen Hawes [ The Passetyme of Pleasure ]

     * John Skelton [Magnificence] 

     * Alexander Barclay

     * Benedict Burgh

     * George Ashby

     * Henry Bradshaw

     * George Ripley

     * Thomas Norton

     * Osborne Bokenham

Scottish Chaucerians:

They were the group of Sottiish poets. Chaucer's influence on these poets was slight and they also relied on other sources apart from Chaucer.

 * James I of Scotland

 * Robert Henryson

* William Dunbar

* Gavin Dauglas

* Sir David Lindsay

    

3. Modern English Literature

 Early Modern English

   Elizabethan Age (1558-1603)

   Jacobean Age (1603-1625)

   Puritan Age (1625-1660)

      •Carolin Age (1625-1649)

       •Commonwealth of England (1649-53)

Restoration Period (1660-1700)

Augustan Age/Neo-Classical (1700-1798)

           •Age of Sensibility (1750-1798)

Nineteenth Century (1798-1901)

Romantic Age (1798-1837)

Victorian Age (1837-1901)

  [Adwardian Era (1901-1910)]

Late Modern Literature (1911-1939)

Post Modern (1940-till now)

I. Elizabethan Period (1558-1603) & 

  Jacobean Period (1603-1625)

    *Named: Queen Elizabeth I.

.According to WH Hudson:

  * "We call Elizabethan Period all years from the beginning of the Queen's reign in 1558 to the period of James I's death in 1625

     * Golden Period of English Literature.

     * Elizabethan England saw a remarkable flourishing of arts and literature. Renaissance humanism, Protestant zeal geographical and scientific discovery all contributed to this upsurge of creative power.

   * First English/1st blank verse Tragedy

 "Gorboduc"/The Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex" .[Thomas Norton & Thomas Sackville]

   * First English Comedy "Ralph Roister Doister" [ Nicholas Udall] .

* Establishment of 'The Theater' in 1576.

* Besides this The Rose, The Swan, The Globe, in 1599.

Literary Trends: 

     * Lyric Poetry and Sonnets

     * Drama

     * Essay

Main Poets:

  1. Edmund Spenser ( The Faerie Queen)

  2. Philip Sidney ( An Apology for Poetry)

Pre-Shakespearean Dramatists:

  3. University Wits:

The University Wits is a phrase used to name a group of late 16th-century English playwrights and pamphleteers who were educated at the universities (Oxford or Cambridge) and who became popular secular writers. 

Prominent members of this group were:

   * Christopher Marlowe, 

   * Robert Greene, and Thomas Nashe [from Cambridge]

   *John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and George Peele 

[from Oxford]. 

  *Thomas Kyd is also sometimes included in the group, though he is not believed to have studied at university.

 4. Shakespeare (Bard of Avon, Father of English Drama).

 5. Ben Jonson( gave the Theory of Humour)

 6. John Webster

 7. Walter Raleigh

 8. Francis Bacon (Father of English Essay).

III. Puritan Age: (1625-1660)

  * Named: After the rise of the puritan movement in England in the 17th Century.

  * The Puritans emerged as a strong political force during the English Civil War (1642-1651), between Charles I and his supporters called the cavalier on the one hand and the Parliamentarians or the Roundheads on the other hand.

 * Victory came to Parliamentarians.

* So Monarchy was first replaced with the Commonwealth of England (1649-1653) and than with a Protectorate (1653-1660), under Oliver Cromwell's personal rules.

Literature of Puritan Age:

  * The Literature of the Puritan Age was characterised by a spirit of somberness and pensiveness.

  * Religious Verses, Theological Tracts, and Political Treaties replaced Romantic Poetry.

  * According to John Richard Green:

" A great moral change came over the people of England. England became the people of a book and that was the Bible".

* With the outbreak of the Civil War theatres were closed down because the Puritans considered theatre as immoral and depraved.

 Main Poets of Puritan Age:

     1. Spenserian Poets

     2. Cavalier Poets

     3. Metaphysical Poets

   1. Spenserian Poets:

      * They imitate the style and themes of Spenser's poetry.

         I. Phineas Fletcher

         II. Giles Fletcher

         III. George Wither

         IV. William Browne

         V. William Drummond

   2. Cavalier Poets:

* They were the group of English gentleman who gathered at the court of Charles I because of their loyalty and support for him.

* Their poetry aims to entertain rather than provoke the audience.

 According to Dr. Munib Ayoub,

    " Cavalier Poets reflect the lighter side of life and literature in the 17th Century the gay, hopeful, passionate and amorous kind of poetry.

    I. Robert Herrick

    II. Thomas Carew

    III. John Suckling

    IV. Richard Lovelace

Metaphysical Poets:

   "These Poets united by the common characteristics of wit, inventiveness, and a love of elaborate stylistic manoeuvres" [Ian Ousby].

 * Their poetry was rich in intellectual Complexity.

     I. John Donne

     II. George Herbert

     III. Richard Crashaw

     IV. Henry Vaughan

     V. Andrew Marvell

* Other Important Writers :

     * Abraham Cowley

     * John Milton

    * Robert Burton

    * Thomas Hobbes

Restoration Period: (1660-1700)

  * The age is known as the Restoration Age since monarchy was restored in England with King Charles II coming to the throne in 1660.

 * The coming of Charles II led to a Complete repudiation of puritanical ideals. 

 Literature of Restoration Age:

   * The writers of the Age drove out the seriousness of the Puritan Writers and replace it with a spirit of gaiety. 

* We find a change from fancy to wit, and from poetry to Prose.

* Satire, Epistles, and Essays, were came to trend.

* Two great diarists, John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys belong to this Period. 

* Novel, Biography, History, Travel Writing, and Journalism were either invented or reached their maturity during this period.

* Drama was the most popular genre of the period. 

    * Heroic Plays and Restoration Comedy of Manners ruled the drama of this period.

* Dryden was the best Representative writer of this age since he wrote in every popular forms like: 

 * Trgic-Comedy,  Tragedy,  Heroic Plays,  Odes, Transactions of classical works, and most popularly Satires as well as Critical Works.

Some Important Writers of this Period:

     I. John Dryden (An Essay on Dramatic Poesy)

     II. William Congreve (The Way Of The World)

    III. Aphra Behn (First Professional Woman writer)(Oroonoko)

    IV. Samuel Butler (Hudibras)

    V. John Bunyan (The Pilgrim's Progress)

    VI. John Locke (An Essay Conserning Human Understanding)

    VII. John Evelyn & Samuel Pepys (Diarists)

 

Augustan/Neo-Classical Period: (1700-1798)

      Age of Sensibility (1750-1798)

* The 18th century in English literature is known as the Augustan Age/ The Neo-Classical Age/ The age of Sensibility.

* The term Augustan came from the parallel between 18th century and the Classical Augustan Age the age of King Augustus Caesar.

   * The Writers of the 18th century imitated the literary forms and themes of the original Augustan Writers such as Virgil and Horace.

 * The Enlightenment thinkers of the 18th Century such  as Voltaire and Rausseao popularized the idea of the Age of Reason.

   * Bacon, Hobbes, Lock were Important precursor of Enlightenment.

   * Enlightenment movement advocate scientific rationalism and Empirical Knowledge.

     * 18th century is also known as The Neo-Classical Age because its writers looked back to the ideals and art forms of Classical times, emphasizing even than classical ideals order and rational control.

* They replaced the Renaissance emphasis on the imagination, on invention, experimentation, on mysticism with an emphasis on order and Reason, on restraint, on common sense and on religious, political, economic and philosophical conservatism.

* Some times the latter half of 18th Century, the period between 1750 and 1798 is taken as a different period called the " Age of Sensibility".

  * This period focus upon instinct, feeling and imagination.

Literature of Augustan Age:

* Matthew Arnold called the 18th Century as " The age of prose and reason". 

* The works of this period less concerned with emotion and imagination than with facts and reasons.

* Dryden can be seen as a link between restoration and and Augustan age since he wrote comedies in a Restoration vein but also wrote works in Neo - classical spirit. Pope and Johnson on the other hand are seen as the most representative writers of this Age.

* Nature was an important influence on Augustan writers. They examined the enduring truths of human nature. 

By nature the Augustans meant not eternal natural world as expressed in the poetry of the Romantics but man and manners of society.

 * This was the age of new prose forms such as:

  Periodicals, Criminal Biographies, Travelogues, Political Allegories, and Romantic Tales, satire.

* The rise of Novel

( Defoe, Rivchardson, Fielding and Skillet were the main exponents of this form.)

* The Heroic Couplate was the most important verse form of poetry of this age.

* Sentimental Comedy was a new dramatic form.

Literary Trends:

   1. Periodical Essay

   2. Literature of Sensibility

   3. Graveyard Poetry

1. Periodical Essay:

    * Periodical Essay was a new literary form that emerged during the early part of the 18th Century.

It was a nonfictional prose prose form that was published in magazines, newspapers or journals at a regular intervals.

AR Humphrey had aptly observed that:

" If any literary form is the particular creation and the particular mirror of the Augustan Age in England, it is the Periodical Essay."

* The Rise of the genre began with the John Dunton's " Athenian Gazette" on 17th March 1691.

*The Tatler (1709-1711) - Richard Steel

*the Spectator (1711-1712) - Addison & Steel

* The Rambler (1750-1752) - Samuel Johnson

* The Idler (1758-1760) - Samuel Johnson

These were the most successful and influential single essay periodicals of the 18th Century.

2.Literature of Sensibility:

   * Literature of Sensibility refers to a particular type of literature written during 18th Century which focused on feeling and Sensibility.

  * It was a revolt against the philosophy of Hobbes and other 17th Century writers, who viewed human beings as selfish and greedy.

* Defining Sensibility of an important ideals of 18th Century. Charlotte Sussman states that:

" Sensibility posits sympathy as the primary mode through which social beings work together."

* The key text that contributed towards this movement was 

Adam Smith's "The Theory of Moral Sentiments" (1759).

    Important Sentimental Novels:

* Samuel Richard's " Pamela" (1740) 

                 " Clarissa Harlowe" (1748)

* Laurance Stern's "A Sentimental Journey" (1768)

                 " Tristram Shandy" (1767)

Graveyard Poetry:

   * Graveyard School of poets refers to a group of 18th Century poets whose works dealt with the themes of death, sorrow and mortality often set in a graveyard they mused on the vicissitudes of life, the solitude of death and the grave and the anguish of bereavement.

* The term Graveyard applies to four poems:

  1. Thomas Parnell's "Night Piece on death" (1721)

2. Robert Blair's "The Grave" (1743)

3. Edward Young's " Night Thoughts" (1742-45)

4. Thomas Gray's " An Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.

Major writers of the Augustan Age:

  Poets:

   * Alexander Pope (The Rape of the Lock)

   * Samuel Johnson (A dictionary of English Language & The lives of the Poets)

   * Thomas Gray (The Progress of Poesy & The Bard)

Prose Writer:

  * Joseph Addison ( An Account of The Greatest English Poets)

 * Richard Steel (The Conscious Lovers: A Comedy)

 * John Arbuthnot ( Of the Laws of Chance)

Dramatists: 

* Oliver Goldsmith (She Stoops to Conquer)

Novelist :

   * Jonathan Swift (Guliver's Travel)   

   * Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe & Moll Flanders )  

   * Samuel Richardson (Pamela & Clarissa)

   * Lawrence Sterne (Tristram Samdy)

   * Henry Fielding (Joseph Andrew & Tom Jones)

Romantic Period (1798-1837)

   * The Romantic Era in English Literature began with the publication of William Wordsworth and S.T. Coleridge's "Lyrical Ballads" in 1798 and end with the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837.

    * Romanticism as literary and artistic movement started in reaction against the Age of Enlightenment and its focus on reason and Empirical thoughts.

   * Romantic Period coincided with the revolution in France and America and is also known as the "Age of Revolutions". 

* The Writers of this agr were influenced by the French Revolution and tried to transform these ideas into the realm of Literature.

* Poets such as Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge supported the Revolution and the ideals of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.

* The Romantic Moment in Literature is characterized by a reasoned approach. While the Enlightenment thinkers of the 18th Century had valued reason and rationality, Romantics valued emotion passion and Individuality. 

They turned impersonal works to the works of a more subjective personal nature.

Literary Trends:

   * Poetry was the dominet genre in the Romantic period. 

   * The Romantic Poets withdrew into an inner world and were less concerned with the outer public world they also turned to the nature and devoted themselves to recording its beauty.

   * Rise of the gothic novel in England.(Gothic novel is devoted to the stories of fear, horror and the supernatural. It presents the dark side of human nature). 

Major Writers of Romantic Age:

Poets: 

  * Romantic Poets are divided into two major groups:

  1. First Generation Romantics

William Blake (Songs of Innocence and of Experience)

 S.T. Coleridge  (Biographia Literaria)

Willam Wordsworth  ( The Prelude)

Robert Southey (Madoc)

 

 2. Second Generation Romantics

    * Lord Byron (Child Harold's Pilgrimage)

    * P.B. Shelley (A Defence of Poetry)

    * John keats (Endymion)

    

Novelist:

  * Gothik Novelist:

          1. Ann Radcliffe : pioneer of the Gothic nove 

                      (The Mysteries of Udolpho)

      2. Matthew Gregory Lewis (The Monk)

      3. Mary Shelley (Frankenstein)

* Jacobin Novelist:

    *It refers to the group of novels of the period 1780-1850 which espoused radical ideas.

   * The term was coined by the critic Gary Kelly in her book " The English Jacobin Novel 1780-1805 (1976).

        1. Thomas Holcroft ( Anna St Ives)

        2. Elizabethan Inchbald (A Simple Story & Nature and Art)

        3. William Godwin (An Enquiry Concerning   political Justice)

        4. Mary Wallstonecraft ( A Vindication of the Rights of Women.

        5. Mary Hays (Memoirs of Emma Courtney)

Some other Novelist :

       * Fanny Burney

       * Maria Edgeworth

       * Walter Scott

       * Jane Austen

     

Prose Writers:

  * Charles Lamb (Essays of Elia)

  * William Hazlitt ( Table-Talk)

  * Thomas De Quincey (Confession of an English Opium Eater)

  * Thomas Love Peacock.(The Four Ages of Poetry)

The Victorian Age:

   * The Victorian age is named after the rein of Queen Victoria.

   * Several movements and reforms took place during this period, which influenced the Literature.

   * It was one of the most prosperous period in the history of England.

   * It is also called the "Age of Reform" because of the plethora of reforms, which took place during this period.

   * There was a conflict between Science and Religion in the Victorian Age.

   *There are three Phases of Victorian Age:

           1. Early - (1837-1848)

           2. Mid - (1848-1870)

           3. Late - (1870-1901)

 Literature of this Period:

   * There was a tremendous growth in publication of periodicals and also the emergence of Children's Literature.

   * Dramatic monologue introduce by Tennyson.

   * Tennyson, Browning, Dickens, George Eliot, the Bronte Sisters and Oscar Wild the representative writers of this period.

* Novel became the most chosen form of writing during this period.

Literary Movement of this Age:

   1. Oxford Movement

   2. Aesthetic Movement

   3. Pre-Raphaelite/Brotherhood Movement

  1. Oxford Movement: (1833)

       * It was a 19th Century movement centred at the University of Oxford that sought renewal of Romana Catholic thought and practice within the Church of England.

* Richard Hurrel Froude.  * Frederick Faber

* Isaac Williams.         * Charles Marriott

* Bernard Dalgairns.      * William Ward

* Edward Bouverie Pusey

  2. Aesthetic Movement: (1873)

This movement was launched during the later part of the 19th Century and emphasised aesthetic values over moral or social themes in literature and other arts.

* The most importan writer of this period associated with this movement was Oscar Wild.

3. Pre-Raphaelite/Brotherhood Movement: (1848)

* It was the group of artists, poets and painters , who rejected the dramatic, artificial Mannerist painting styles succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo.

* Brotherhood was formed by the three Royal Academy students

1. Dante Gabriel Rossetti

2. William Halman Hunt 

3. John Everett Millais

   They were later joined by 

    * William Michael Rossetti

* James Collinson

* Thomas Woolner

* F G Stephens

Major Writers of this Age:

 * Poets:

   1. Alfred Lord Tennyson(In Memoriam)

   2. Robert Browning (Pauline & Sordello)

   3. Elizabeth Barret Browning (Aurora Leigh)

   4. Matthew Arnold (Dover Beach, Thyrsis)

Novelist:

 1.Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist, Great Expectations)

 2. George Eliot (Romola, Adem Beds)

 3. Bronte Sisters i. Charlotte Bronte

                ii. Emily Bronte

                iii. Anne Bronte

 4. William Makepeace Thackeray (Vanity Fair)

Prose Writers: 

     1. Thomas Carlyle (Sartor Resartus)

     2. Thomas Macaulay (Critical and Historical Essays)

     3. Walter pater (The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry)

  

The Modern Age: (1910-1945)

* The early decades of the 20th Century, specially the period after World War I, is known as Modern Age.

* In the 20th Century several social, economic, scientific, cultural, and political changes took place that shook the foundation of the existing world order. 

* Development in the fields of science and technology, rise of industrialization and capitalism, Suffragette Movement, Feminist Movement all these combined to usher in the Modern Age. 

* Old norms and rules about sex, race, art, life, literature, and propriety gave way to new ones based on liberty and self realization.

* According to Virginia Woolf, around 1910, not only had Human Character changed, but all "Human relations between masters and servants, husband and wives, parents and children" had also shifted.

* The year 1922, is significant in this respect, since it saw the publication of three principal modernist texts- T.S. Eliot's " The Wasteland", 

James Joyce's "Ulysses" and 

Virginia Woolf's "Jacob's Room"

  * Friedrich Nietzsche, Carl Marks, and Sigmund Freud are considered to be the intellectual precursors of modernism.

  Literary Trebds/ and movement of the Age:

 * Imagism

 * Dadaism 

 * Surrealism

 * Georgian poetry

Major Writers of this Age:

   Poets:

     * WB Yeats (The Second Coming)

     * Alfred Noyes (The Highwayman [included in "Forty Singing Seamen and Other Poems]

     * T.S. Eliot (The Waste Land)

     * WH Auden (Look, Stranger !)

     * Dylan Thomas (Deaths and Entrance)

  Playwrights:

    * GB Shaw ( Man and Superman)

* John Galsworthy (The Silver Box, Strife, Justice)

* Samuel Beckett (Waiting for Godot)

* John Osborne (Look Back in Anger)

* Harold Pinter (The Birthday Party)

 Novelists:

* Thomas Hardy (A pair of Blue Eyes)

* Joseph Conrad (Heart of the Darkness)

* Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book, Kim)

*HG Wells [Father of Science Fiction] (The Time Machine)

   * EM Forster (A Passage To India)

   * James Joyes (Ulysses)

   * Virginia Woolf (Mrs. Dalloway)

   * DH Lawrence ( Sons and Lovers)

   * George Orwell (Animal Farm)

   * Graham Green ( The Confidential Agent)

Other Writers:

   * John Drink water (Abraham Lincon)

   * Katherine Mansfield (Bliss and Other Stories)

   * JB Priestley (Dangerous Corner)

 

      

 

 

 

  

 

   

  

   

   

4.Post Modern Literature (1940-Till now)