English Literature Review

Flashcards of key terms and definitions from the provided lecture notes.

C.S. Lewis

20th-century fantasy writer known for 'The Chronicles of Narnia,' combining Christian apologetics with Greek and Roman mythology. Explored the theme of good versus evil, influenced by the Second World War.

J.R.R. Tolkien

Author of 'The Hobbit,' 'The Lord of the Rings,' and 'Silmarillon.' Known as the father of high fantasy, creating alternative worlds. Catholic with Christian themes, his work was inspired by experiences in WWI.

Philip Pullman

Author of 'His Dark Materials,' a trilogy retelling John Milton’s 'Paradise Lost.' Explored themes of oppression by authority (Church), with 'dark materials' representing the matter of the universe, and included the concept of a Daemon.

Aldous Huxley

Dystopian author of 'Brave New World,' which presents a dark future vision with artificial wombs, social inequalities, psychological manipulation, and a happiness-inducing drug called soma.

George Orwell

Author of 'Animal Farm,' a fable about Revolutionary Russia and a satire on all revolutions, and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four,' featuring concepts like the Thought Police, Newspeak, Doublethink, and Big Brother.

P.D. James

Dystopian author of 'The Children of Men,' set in the UK in 2021 struggling with infertility and the threat of human extinction. It features a Council of 5 ruling the UK and encouragement of suicide for the elderly.

Magic Realism

A literary style presenting magical elements as normal occurrences, often disassociating with Western mythology and engaging with minority discourse.

Neil Gaiman

Author of 'Nowhere,' blending the phenomenal world of London with the fantastic, questioning visibility, normality, masculinity, and happiness.

Literature of Moral Concern

Explores complex moral dilemmas, illustrating philosophical approaches and questioning the boundaries of humanity, created by writers reaching maturity after WWII

Graham Greene

An 'agnostic Catholic' author known for depicting the blurred lines between good and evil, exploring themes of sin, grace, doubt, and suffering in exotic, remote locations.

William Golding

Nobel Prize-winning author whose dominant theme is the corruption of man, depicting men in extreme situations to portray what humans are capable of, influenced by WWII.

Iris Murdoch

Philosophical novelist exploring moral dilemmas in relationships, emphasizing 'unselfing' and 'loving attention' to others, set against the 'fat relentless ego.'

George Bernard Shaw

Irish playwright, critic, and activist known for debated drama and socially engaged theatre, encouraging critical rethinking by the audience.

Samuel Beckett

Irish playwright, theatre director, poet, and novelist; a key figure in the theatre of the absurd, exploring themes of failure, loss, and exile with tragic outlook and black comedy.

Theatre of the Absurd

A dramatic movement developed in the 1950s and 1960s giving dramatic expression to the senselessness of existence using meaningless dialogues, incomprehensible behaviours and plots denying logical development.

Harold Pinter

A playwright marking a shift toward minimalism and ambiguity in postwar drama, known for 'Pinteresque' style, using understatement, pauses, and silences to highlight the impossibility of genuine human communication.

Tom Stoppard

A playwright whose drama reflects a sophisticated intellectualism merged with political concern, known for pastiche, metafiction, and engagement with censorship, human rights, and Eastern European dissidence.

Edward Bond

A playwright recognized for overtly political and socially critical drama, dealing with brutality, alienation, and economic oppression, influenced by violence during the Blitz.

Angry Young Men

A phrase referring to British playwrights and novelists from the mid-1950s whose political views were radical and whose works critiqued middle-class British society, often featuring working-class heroes.

Kitchen Sink Realism

A portrayal of the working-class or lower middle-class with an emphasis on social or domestic realism, often set in poorer industrial areas in the North of England.

Campus Novel

A novel, usually comic or satirical, published since the 1950s where the action takes place within the enclosed world of a university and highlights the follies of academic life.

Postmodernism

A late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, and relativism, questioning the ideological status quo and reacting to modernity.

Metafiction

Postmodern fictional writing that self-consciously draws attention to its status as a work of art, asking questions about the relationship between fiction and reality.

Historiographic Metafiction

Works of fiction that combine the literary devices of metafiction with historical writing.

John Fowles

Postmodern features include intertextuality and metafiction

Peter Ackroyd

Postmodern features include non-linear conception of time and interweaving of fact and fiction

Feminist Fiction

Subversion of traditional roles and focus on female experience.

Wolfenden Report

Recommended the decriminalization of homosexuality as a private act in 1957.

Alan Hollinghurst

He explores how sexuality, class, and politics interact across time

Jeanette Winterson

In her works she explores the gender stereotypes and sexual identities.

Sarah Waters

Class and patriarchy intersect with queer identity.

W.H. Auden

Moral issues in social and political contexts

Philip Larkin

Nostalgia for an older England, themes of rural decay and urban poverty

Ted Hughes

Fascination with the world of nature and animals.

1948 British Nationality Act

Defined British nationality by creating the status of ‘Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies’

James Kelman

Characterized by demotic spelling and the Glasgow vernacular.

Sam Selvon

Respond to colonial language dominance in 'The Lonely Londoners' (1956) by writing in creolised English.

Diaspora

Refers to the dispersion of a population from their native land.

Hanif Kureishi

Race, sexuality and class as factors of discrimination

Monica Ali

About a Bangladeshi woman who moves to London at the age of 18, to marry an older man, Chanu.