English Literature 

==1: Literary Devices==

Alliteration: the repetition of an initial consonant sound. ‘Sally sells seashells.’

Allusion: to make an indirect reference.

Anaphora: repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of sentences, phrases or clauses.

Assonance: identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neigbouring words. ‘the crumbling thunder of seas.’

Consonance: repetitive sounds produced by conconants within a sentence. ‘pitter, patter.’

Hyperbole: use of exaggerated terms for the purpose of emphasis.

Irony: the words convey the opposite of their literal meaning.

Metaphor: implied comparison between two unlike things that have something in common.

Onomatopoeia: the use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the object or actions they refer to. ‘clap, murmur'

Oxymoron: contradictory terms appear side by side. ‘old news, pretty ugly’

Paradox: a statement that appears to contradict itself.

Personification: an inanimate object is endowed with human qualities or abilities.

Pun: a play on words

Simile: a stated comparison (with like or as)

Theme: an idea that recurs in a work of art or literature.

Symbol: an object or reference used to bring deeper meaning to the story.

Setting: the time and place of the story.

==2: Medieval Literature (500-1500)==

Epic poems where the most popular type of literature produced in medieval times. These poems were inspired by classical poets, like Homer and Virgil. They were written in Middle English. The Norman Conquest (1066) influenced the transformation of Old English to Middle English. The focus in medieval literature is on; heroes, monsters, knights, chivalry, courtly love, christianity and morality. The late 14th century was a chaotic time in England. After the Black Death people were questioning the Church’s autority.

  1. The Church: supported by the other two sectors of society, was not supposed to be concerned with material goods.
  2. The nobility: strictly bound to many rules of chivalry and courtliness.
  3. The peasantry: the rest of the population; working class.

@@Geoffrey Chaucer@@

Chauser was born between 1343-5 in London. As an esquire at the King’s court, he served as a spy and travelled to Italy and France, where he likely encountered much of the continental European poetry that influenced his writing. Chauser was a member of a new middle class, existing of merchants, lawyers and clerks. The Canterbury Tales both depict and satirize the conventions of the turbulent 14th century.

The Tales: a vivid description of life in the middle ages by picturing in detail characters from every level of society. It is a collection of stories by pelgrims travelling to the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. The pelgrims meet at the Tabard Inn in Southwark. The Canterbury Tales are a unified whole because of the use of framework of the pelgrimage, links and the matching of content to the main character of a tale. The Canterbury Tales is a compilation of 24 tales. The work was never finished. Types of tales:

  1. Medieval romance: chivalrous knight, supernatural elements, courtly love, stereotypical characters, repeated events with religious significance.
  2. Fabliau: a humourous, rude tale with foolish characters, satiric.
  3. Exemplum: a moral tale, to illustrate a point (in sermon); i.e. the Pardoner’s Tale.
  4. Saint’s legend: describing the life and martyr’s death of a saint.
  5. Beast epic: a fable, often allegorical, features animal characters.

The genre of the Canterbury Tales is satire: a literary genre that uses ridicule, humour, irony or exaggeration to expose and criticide immorality as a form of social commentary. Each Tale has its own climax; there is not a plot that develops throughout all the Tales. The whole frame narrative is told through the eyes of Chausers the pelgrim; he retells the stories of the other pelgrims.

  • The Pardoner’s Tale: a pardoner is someone who works for the church. The main theme of this pardoner’s sermons is: ‘the love of money is the root of all evil’. The pardoner gets his pardons from the pope in the Vatican. The pardoners dream is to live a wealthy life; he tells the story of three friends: they are looking for Death and want to kill him. They meet an old man who points them to Death. Instead they find a lot of gold, one friend goes back to the village and mixes poison with the wine to betray his friends. When he comes back, however, the other two stab him in the back; they drink the wine to celebrate: all three of them dead.
    • The pardoner uses this sermon to make the people feel guilty for their sins: he says God can forgive them in exchange for money.

==3: Renaissance Literature== ==(1500-1670)==

After the fall of Contantinople (1453) a lot of Greek scholars fled to Italy → new impuls to the study of Greek and Roman classical works. The Renaissance is the rebirth of human thinking in the field of art and culture, inspired by the classics. In the field of philosophy: the combination of Christian and classical ideas find their expression in Humanism.

  • Medieval values: life is seen as a preparation for ‘life after death’ (memento mori), theocentrism, literature for the sake of instruction, scholasticism, collectivism;
  • Renaissance values: the motto became ‘seize the day’ (carpe diem) anthropocentrism, literature for its own sake, humanism, individualism.

The focus in Renaissance literature is on; heroes and villains, historical figures, kingship, conflict, the importance of individual thinking, politics, unrequited love.

@@Christopher Marlowe@@

Marlowe was born in 1564. His father was a commoner, but he was able to study at Cambridge. He lived in Elizabeth I’s England: protestant, politics and religion closely entwined.

  • The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus: Faustus is a doctor, but he starts practicing dark magic. Mephistophilis appears: Faustus promises to sell his soul to Lucifer, after twenty-four years of complete power. Later, a Good Angel and a Bad Angel appear to Faustus: Faustus chooses to sign the contract, Mephistophilis gives him, in blood. After years of performing magic tricks an old man appears and tries to get Faustus to hope for salvation, but he cannot. When the clock strikes twelve devils appear to take Faustus’ soul away to eternal damnation.

==4: The Romantic Movement (1780-1830)==

England at this time was often described in terms of ‘Two Nations’; the rich and privileged, who owned the nations burgeoning means of industrial production; and the poor and powerless who were more and more forced to life in industrial cities. In the middle and lower class the number of people who could read grew. New modes of production increased the number of books printed. The government charged authors or publishers with incitement to rebellion or blasphamy.

The Romantic ideal of a writer was conceived as the solitary figure, removed from the realities of everyday life. The novel as a genre grew in important and saw increasing efforts to experiment with form, style and content.

Key principles of Romanticism were a close relationship with nature, an emphasis on the importance of imagination, solitude and comntemplation, escape from reality and the significance of emotion, medievalism, mythology, belief in individual liberty, desire to radical change. A turn to the past or an inner dreamworld, which was believed to be more ‘magical’ than the current world. Concerned with the common people, personal experiences and emotions in simple language. Nostalgia and awe. Emotional responses over logical thought.

Gothic was the dark side to romanticism, with references to the supernatural, themes of madness and death and the extremes of passion.

  1. A ballad tells a tragic story; it deals with love, death, betrayal; objective; simple language; contains a dialogue; has repetition; four-line stanzas; rhymescheme abcb.
  2. A sonnet has 14 lines (3x quatrains; 1x couplet); quatrains establishes problem and couplet describes impact; rhymescheme abab cdcd efef gg.
  3. Blank verse: unrhymed five-stress lines, closest to natural speech, standard in English drama in the 17th century.
  4. An ode means someone is adressed by the poet on a special occasion, elaborate stanza structure; stately style; rhyme; strict formality; lofty sentiments and thought

@@William Wordsworth@@

A keyfigure of the Romantic poets.

  • I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud: spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, celebrating the ordinary, solitude/individualism, imagination, freedom

==5: The Victorian Age (1830-1901)==

During the Victorian Age: England in it’s height of imperial power, population boom, unregulated industrialization (prosperity for a lucky few, misery for the masses); writers had mixed reactions. The focus is on: society, class, poverty, wealth, social decorum, moral behaviour, urban life, injustice, action, power, patriotism, the Woman question (=debates about woman’s rights).

  1. The Early Period (1830-1848)

    1. Public railways expanded on an unprecedented scale.
    2. the Reform bill of 1832: redistributing voting rights to reflect growing populations.
    3. ‘Time of Troubles’: industrialization caused social ‘troubles’. Literature focussed on the plight of the poor and the new urban reality of industrial England.

  2. The Mid Victorian Period (1848-1870)

    1. relationship between industry and government began to work itself out. Acts of Parliament curbed child labour and dangerous working conditions.
    2. time of optimism; promise of prosperity from industry seemed so close
    3. science and technology (i.e. The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin); rationalist way of thinking made religious beliefs more instable
    4. British empire expanded around the globe.

  3. The Late Period (1870-1901)

    1. fundamentally questioning the assumptions and pactises that had made Englands affluence possible.
    2. the second Reform bill of 1867: extending voting rights to (some) working-class. Political writings of Marx and Engels empowered the working-class to imagine themselves in control of the industry.

  4. The Nineties: transitional phase between the the Victorian period and the Modernist movement.

    1. the trust in Victorian propriety and morality was gone
    2. the limits of progress were in clear sight, but there was also optimism

Short-stories and novels became more popular: a common theme involves a protagonist who is trying to define him-or herself relative to class and social systems; was used to address the problems of industrial England and sometimes proposing solutions.

Drama: popular and ranged from traditional plays to musicals. Famous writers like George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde began to satirically reflect on fake values and behaviour of Victorian life.

@@Charles Dickens@@

Dickens father was imprisoned for bad debt, he was sent to work in a factory, where he experienced appalling conditions and loneliness and despair. Dickens began his career as a journalist. He published (parts of) his work in serial instalments in magazines → a direct impact on style, including how plots were paced, organized, and developed.

==6: The Modernist Movement (1901-1950)==

Optimism and triumphalism came to an end → greater degree of scepticism in literary works

Mass literacy became an reality (after Education Act of 1870) →demand for popular fiction → gap between serious and popular art → modern artist became more experimental, challenging and avant garde.

Intellectual changes (by new theories); mass production; women got equality.

  • The First World War / the Great War (1914-1918) marked the end of all optimism → the war had produced death and had destroyed the landscape. The British Empire was falling apart.
  • Economic depression and unemployment → writers became more left-wing (socialism)
  • The Second World War meant the end of Britain’s place as leading world power (to US and SU). People from the colonies started migrating to England looking for work → ethnic diversity but also racial inequality and prejudice. Margaret Thatcher was the first female prime minister; created policies that widened the gap between rich and poor.

The Irish Nationalist movement became increasingly violent. IRA was against British rule. in 1997 England swung back towards a Labour government, but worsening economic conditions.

The focus in Modernist literature is on; simplicity, unity, breakdown of social norms and cultural sureties, change, utopia, the human mind, conflict, perfection and its disruption, purity, pessimism, isolation, disillusionment, alienation.

@@Wilfred Owen@@

  • ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’ is a poem by the English poet Wilfred Owen, it was written while he was fighting in World War 1 → wrencing descriptions of suffering in war. He uses a quotation from Horace to to highlight the difference between the glorious image of war and war’s horrifying reality.

‘It is sweet and right to die for your country.’

@@Rupert Brooke@@

With the outbreak of World War I, he recieved a commision in the Royal Navy. He died.

  • 'The Soldier’ is a sonnet about how great England is and how he is happy to die for his country.

==7: Postmodernism (1950-now)==

The focus on postmodernist literature is on class, gender, race, power, subversion, dystopia, reality, suffering, futility, absurdity, normalcy.

@@Langston Hughes@@

Hughes (1902-1967) was a poet, novelist and playwright. He catalysed a ‘black consciousness’; black people gain consciousness of the beauty of their culture and lives; the celebration of black life. His most famous poem is ‘the negro speaks of rivers’. The Harlem jazzscene inspired Hughes’ musicality in his work. Hughes wrote for the average person in simple language.

  • The Ballad of the Landlord is about a tenant asking his landlord to fix his roof and stairs, but the landlord is racist and does not fix anything. The landlord calls the police. The tenant goes to jail.

@@Ciaran Carson@@

He was a poet and novelist from Northern Ireland. He was born into an Irish-speaking family. He lived through ‘The Troubles’: an era of Irish nationalist terrorism (1970s to 1990s). The IRA fought to end British rule of Northern Ireland (1690: victory of Northern Ireland by the protestant king Willem III (/II)). The conflict began in the 1960s when the minority Catholic population (republicans/nationalists) began campagning against discrimination by the Protestant majority (unionists). The problem of segregation was particular in the working class. British troops became an everyday presence on the streets of Belfast. In 1998 a peace deal was made between Republicans and Unionists: the Good Friday Agreement. Sinn Fein is a (once violent) political party for separation.

  • Belfast Confetti: the poem has an irregular form and structure, this is to reflect the chaos going on in the city and in the poet’s mind. Carson compares an explosion to punctiation. Communication is one of the first things to be lost in a conflict. At the end of the poem, the speaker is being interrogated by a soldier.