Lecture 1

PERIODS OF THE BRITISH LITERARURE:

LITERARY PECULIARITIES OF OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE

ANGLO-SAXONS MIGRATION
The Anglo-Saxons were cultural groups who inhabited England from the 5th
century. They comprised people from Germanic tribes who migrated to the
island from continental Europe, and numerous British groups who adopted
many aspects of Anglo-Saxon culture and language
The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain
The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain is the process which changed the
language and culture of England from Romano-British to Germanic.
The Germanic-speakers in Britain themselves were of diverse origins (celts,
jutes, saxons ). They developed a common cultural identity called as Anglo-
Saxons.
THE EARLY ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD

The early Anglo-Saxon period includes the creation of an English nation, with
many aspects that survive up today, including regional government of shires and
hundreds.
During this period, Christianity was established and there was a flowering of
literature and language.
Charters and law were also established.

The Anglo-Saxons established the Kingdom of England

The modern English language owes almost half of its words (the most common
words of everyday speech)
Old English vs Anglo-Saxon
The term Anglo-Saxon is also used for the language that was spoken and written
by the Anglo-Saxons in England and eastern Scotland between the mid-5th
century and the middle of the 12th century
It is more commonly called Old English

PACULIARITIES OF THE OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Old English developed from a set of Anglo-Frisian or Ingvaeonic dialects
originally spoken by Germanic tribes traditionally known as the Angles, Saxons
and Jutes.
As the Anglo-Saxons became dominant in England, their language replaced the
languages of Roman Britain: Common Brittonic, a Celtic language, and Latin,
brought to Britain by Roman invasion.
Old English had four main dialects, associated with particular Anglo-Saxon
kingdoms: Mercian, Northumbrian, Kentish and West Saxon.
It was West Saxon that formed the basis for the literary standard of the later Old
English period, although the dominant forms of Middle and Modern English
would develop mainly from Mercian.
PACULIARITIES OF THE OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Old English is one of the West Germanic languages, and its closest relatives are
Old Frisian and Old Saxon.
Old English was a synthetic language -- nouns, adjectives, pronouns and verbs
have many inflectional endings and forms, and word order is free.
The oldest Old English inscriptions were written using a runic system, but
from about the 8th century this was replaced by a version of the Latin alphabet.
ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE

the Beowulf manuscript - Beowulf, Judith, and three prose tracts

the Exeter Book - gathering of lyrics, riddles, didactic poems,
and religious narratives
the Junius Manuscript - the Caedmon Manuscript,
contains biblical paraphrases
the Vercelli Book - contains saints’ lives, several short
religious poems

ANGLO-SAXON LITERARY GENRES

• epic poetry (is a lengthy narrative poem, involving a time beyond living
memory in which occurred the extraordinary doings of the extraordinary
men and women who, in dealings with the gods or other superhuman
forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants
• hagiography is an idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk
• sermons
• Bible translations
• legal works
• chronicles
• riddles
In all there are about 400 surviving manuscripts from that period

BASIC THEMES AND MOTIVES

The poetry is drawing on a common set of stock phrases and phrase patterns,
applying standard epithets to various classes of characters, and depicting
scenery with such recurring images as the eagle and the wolf, which wait
during battles to feast on carrion, and ice and snow, which appear in the
landscape to signal sorrow
STANDARD DEVICES OF THE OLD ENLISH POETRY
Old English poetry is written in a single metre, a four-stress line with a
syntactical break, or caesura, between the second and third stresses, and with
alliteration linking the two halves of the line; this pattern is occasionally varied
by six-stress lines
STANDARD DEVICES OF THIS POETRY
Another standard devices of this poetry are the kenning, a figurative name for a
thing, usually expressed in a compound noun (e.g., swan-road used to name
the sea); and variation, the repeating of a single idea in different words, with
each repetition adding a new level of meaning
Epic ‘Beowulf’
“Beowulf” is a heroic epic poem of an unknown author, written in Old
English, approximately between the 8th and the 10th Century CE.
It is one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature and can be
considered as the highest achievement of Old English literature and the earliest
European vernacular epic (literature written in the vernacular — the speech
of the "common people“).
It tells the story of the hero Beowulf, and his battles against the monster
Grendel and against an unnamed dragon.
The epic firstly was untitled, but later it was named after the Scandinavian hero
Beowulf, whose exploits and character provide its connecting theme. Though
there is no evidence of a historical Beowulf, some characters, sites, and events
in the poem still can be historically verified.
The poem was firstly printed in 1815 in a single manuscript, known as the
Beowulf manuscript.
The author of the poem is unknown.
It is generally thought that the poem was performed by memory by the poet or
by a travelling entertainer (scop), and was passed down to readers and listeners,
and was finally written down at the request of a king who wanted to hear it
again.
Historical period
Epic ’Beowulf’ had probably appeared during the period of Anglo-Saxon
literature (also known as an Old English literature) in England.
The Anglo-Saxon period in Britain covers the six centuries from 410 till 1066
AD.
This period is known as the Dark Ages, mainly because there is a few written
sources for the early years of Saxon invasion. However, most historians now
prefer the terms 'early middle ages' or 'early medieval period'.
It was a time of the breaking up of Roman Britannia into several separate
kingdoms, of religious conversion and of continual battles against the Vikings.
Anglo-Saxon mercenaries had for many years fought in the Roman army in
Britain. Their invasions began before the Roman legions departed.
The various Anglo-Saxon groups settled in different areas of the country. They
formed several kingdoms, which were constantly at war with one another. By
650 AD there were seven separate kingdoms.
MAIN FEATURES OF THE EPIC
• The poem has unified structure with a corporation of historical and
mythological traditions.
• The poem has two distinct parts, that is why sometimes scholars believe
that the sections which take place in Denmark and the sections which
take place back in Beowulf’s homeland were written by different
authors.

Main features and peculiarities of the epic

• Each line of ’Beowulf’ is divided into two distinct half-lines (each
containing at least four syllables), separated by a pause and related by
the repetition of sounds.
• Almost no lines end in rhymes.
• The alliteration gives the poetry its music and rhythm.
• The litotes with a negative tone are used to create a sense of irony.

Structural features of the epic

• No real conversation between the characters, just delivering their speech
to one another.
• Dynamic plot, fast change of the actions.
• There is some use of historical digressions, similar to the use of
flashbacks in modern movies and novels, and this interweaving of events
of the present and the past is a major structural device.
• Shifting of the point of view is used to offer multiple perspectives
• The poet also uses a stylistic device called “kenning”.
• The events it relates are set in a historical time and places. The poem
takes place largely in sixth century Denmark and southern Sweden.
• Some characters have their own real prototypes, or could be found in
legends or myths. Scyld Scefing - a folktale or myth. Hrothgar, Danish
 king and his nephew Hrothulf are based in historic fact. Offa was the
fourth century king of the Angles when they were on the continent.
• Using and promoting Germanic historical legend was highly important to
the Anglo-Saxons.
• Legendary figures and their relationships are also used to represent tribal
and inter-tribal relations.
• In ’Beowulf’, the legend is used to create a historical past to the deeds of
Beowulf.

Christian features in the epic ‘Beowulf’

• Elements of Christian philosophy: man survives only through the
protection of God, all earthly gifts flow from God, the proper bearing of
man is to be humble and unselfish).
• The struggle pride vs. humility and sacrifice vs. selfishness was depicted.
• A strong understanding that a warrior must be true to his values, courage,
honesty, and humility and only then he will be able to earn a protection
from God.
• Beowulf achieved the difficult balance between pride and humility, which
is somehow connected to the Christian tradition.
• Beowulf is a mix of two ideals: the heroic warrior of the pagans and the
humble selfless servant of the Christians.
• It is believed that here are several Biblical references in Beowulf
(Grendel is referred to as a descendant of Cain. In addition, there is a
reference to the Great Flood that took place in Genesis).
• Beowulf, who is struggling with Grendel is a metaphor of a person
struggling with the evil.

Pagan features in the epic ‘Beowulf’

• Beowulf represents pagan’s concept of fatalism. Throughout the poem,
the pagan construct of fate is constantly blended with the idea of God’s
will.
• The paganism in Beowulf is depicted through the lens of a medieval
Christian idea of Norse paganism.
• Beowulf's motivations and successes are influenced with the medieval
Christian idea of God and righteousness, while Grendel is depicted as
being demonic (a pagan figure who opposes Christian ideals).
• The heroic pride within Beowulf is in direct conflict with Christian
values.
 • Mentioning of a wyrd is the pagan feature too. In Norse pagan and other
ancient belief systems, wyrd is akin to fate and symbolized by three
women who control the paths of both gods and humans. Critics suggest
that Wyrd or fate has been used in the poem to describe the blind
destiny.
• The use of special swords named Hrunting, covered with symbols. Many
special swords were carved with runes for protection, blessings, and
victory, as well as with prayers or invocations to the Norse gods.
• A warrior's sword was sacred and treated almost as a living thing, which
is also a feature of paganism.
• There are no references of Christ, Virgin Mary, The Cross and the Saints.
• Myth-making and believing in it is a practice in paganism.
• Paganism conceives a note of melancholy and despair, and the grief and
sadness could be found throughout the poem.
• A lot of attention in the epic was showed for nature, and the state of
nature in the epic is influenced by the outgoing events. It could be
considered as the pagan feature, as long as paganism was concentrating
on nature’s processes, f. e. harvest or thunder.

Themes of Beowulf
Loyalty
the conflict between Beowulf and Unferth
Bravery and Valor Beowulf is the perfect embodiment of bravery and valor
Vengeance (Grendel’s mother)
Generosity and Hospitality (King Hrothgar and his wife)

Lecture 2
ENGLISH LITERATURE
OF NORMAN INVASION
• Norman Conquest is the military conquest of England by William, duke
of Normandy, by his decisive victory at the Battle of Hastings (October
14, 1066). It resulted in profound political, administrative, and social
changes in the British Isles
THE MAIN PRELIMINARIES OF THE CONQUEST
• The conquest was the final act of complicated drama that had begun
years earlier, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, last king of the
Anglo-Saxon royal line
1066 – Battle of Hastings
Edward the Confessor
➢ last king of the Anglo-Saxon royal line
➢ was involved in a childless marriage
➢ used his lack of an heir as
a diplomatic tool promising the throne
to different parties (Harold Godwinson, later Harold II,
the powerful earl of Wessex).
➢ had almost designated
William, duke of Normandy,
as his successor in 1051

Harold Godwinson
➢ was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon
king of England
➢ Edward the Confessor promised
him the throne
➢ reigned from 6 January 1066
until his death at the Battle of Hastings
(October 14, 1066)

William the Conqueror

➢ was Duke of Normandy from
1035 onward
➢ had won the Battle of Hastings
➢ was reigning from 1066 until his
death in 1087
THE ESSENCE OF THE CONFLICT
• Harold’s brother, and Harald III Hardraade, king of Norway, also had
designs on the throne and threatened invasion. Among these conflicting
claims, Edward from his deathbed named Harold his successor on
January 5, 1066, and Harold was crowned king the following day.
However, Harold’s position was compromised because in 1064 he had
sworn an oath, in William’s presence, to defend William’s right to the
throne.

THE POLITICAL CONDITIONS OF THE CONQUEST

• Before William arrived, however, Harald III and Tostig invaded in the
north
 • Harold hastened to Yorkshire, where at Stamford Bridge (September 25)
he won a smashing victory in which both Harald III and Tostig perished
• on the Continent, William had support for his invasion from both the
Norman aristocracy and the papacy. By August 1066 he had a force of
4,000–7,000 knights and foot soldiers, but unfavourable winds delayed
his transports for eight weeks. Finally, on September 27, while Harold
was occupied in the north, the winds changed, and William crossed the
Channel immediately

THE INVASION
• Surprised by William at dawn on October 14, Harold drew up his army
on a ridge 10 miles (16 km) to the northwests. Harold’s wall of highly
trained infantry held firm in the face of William’s mounted assault;
• As the battle continued, the English were gradually worn down; late in
the afternoon, Harold was killed (by an arrow in his eye), and by
nightfall the remaining English had scattered and fled.
• William then made a sweeping advance to isolate London.
• He was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, 1066.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE CONQUEST

• William’s victory destroyed England’s links with Scandinavia, bringing
the country into close contact with the Continent, especially France
• Inside England the most radical change was the introduction of land
tenure and military service

WILLIAM’S REFORMS
• William revolutionized the upper ranks of English society by dividing the
country among about 180 Norman tenants-in-chief and innumerable
intermediate tenants, all ruled by knight service.
• The result was the almost total replacement of the English aristocracy
with a Norman one.
• Similar changes took place in personnel among the upper clergy and
administrative officers.

• Anglo-Saxon England had developed a highly organized central and local

government and an effective judicial system (see Anglo-Saxon law). All
these were retained and utilized by William, whose coronation oath
showed his intention of continuing in the English royal tradition
 • William also transformed the structure and character of the church in
England. He replaced all the Anglo-Saxon bishops with Norman bishops.
He also replaced Anglo-Saxon abbots with Norman ones and by
importing numerous monks
• He also supported Lanfranc’s claims for the primacy of Canterbury in the
English church

The most regrettable effect of the conquest

• was the total eclipse of English as the language of literature, law, and
administration in official documents by Latin and then by Anglo-
Norman. Written English hardly reappeared until the 13th century

Medieval Latin
• Medieval Latin had an enlarged vocabulary, which freely borrowed from
other sources.
• It was influenced by the language of the Vulgate, which contained many
peculiarities alien to Classical Latin that resulted from direct translation
from Greek and Hebrew

Medieval Latin

Latin
-the main medium of scholarly exchange
-the working language of science,
literature
-the liturgical language of the Church
-the working language of law and administration

MEDIEVAL CHRONICLES
• Chronicle is a usually continuous historical account of events arranged in
order of time without analysis or interpretation.
• The word is from the Middle English cronicle, which is thought to have
been derived from the Greek chrónos, “time.”
• the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
• Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae (History of the Kings
of Britain)
• Andrew of Wyntoun’s Orygynale Cronykil
• Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland
ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE
-Started under the patronage of King Alfred
-From the 9th century and continued until the 12th century
-Nine manuscripts survive in whole or in part
-The oldest seems to have been started towards the end of Alfred's reign
-The most recent was written at Peterborough Abbey after 1116

THE MEDIEVAL CHIVALRIC LITERATURE

• Chivalric romance is a type of prose or verse narrative that was popular
in the aristocratic circles of High Medieval and Early Modern Europe
(from the 12th century onwards).
• They typically describe the adventures of quest-seeking, legendary
knights
who are portrayed as having heroic qualities.

Romance
• Historically, “romance” derives from the Medieval French romanz/s
referring to a work written in the vernacular rather than in Latin. The
romans first appeared in France in the 12th century and applied to both
verse and prose, and from the beginning were associated with adventure
tales (e.g. the chivalric poems of Chretien de Troyes 1135?-1183?, or the
Roman de Troie or Roman de Thebes, between 1155 and 1180).

Chivalric romance
• literary scholars generally use the term to refer to an early modern form
of the prosaroman that was widespread throughout Europe.
• Such works were often based on medieval antecedents, being prose
reworkings of Arthurian and heroic epics (Heroic poetry) (epics with
Lancelot, Tristan, or Roland as protagonists), but could also derive from
other sources.

The image of a chivalric knight

• the hero with impeccable grace and courtesy, saving damsels in distress
while jousting for sport.
• The age of chivalry flourished between a.d. 1100 and the beginning of the
16 century.

The chivalric code

• The chivalric code guides the conduct of knights

Code of chivalry
 • charged each knight with the defence of the Church, his sovereign king,
and the weak and the poor.
• He was to be just and brave and highly skilled in warfare.
• As a soldier of God, he must be sinless, pious, and charitable.
• In time a knight’s duties would include the safeguarding of women,
which brought an aura of romance to chivalry.
• By the time of the early crusades, knighthood and chivalry were
inseparably bonded.

The legend of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table
King Arthur was a legendary British leader who, according to medieval
histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the
late 5th and early 6th centuries. The details of Arthur's story are mainly
composed of Welsh and English folklore and literary invention, and modern
historians generally agree that he is unhistorical

The Knights of the Round Table are the knights of the fellowship of King
Arthur in the literary cycle of the Matter of Britain. First appearing in literature
in the mid-12th century, the Knights are an order dedicated to ensuring the
peace of Arthur's kingdom following an early warring period, entrusted in later
years to undergo a mystical quest for the Holy Grail. The Round Table at which
they meet is a symbol of the equality of its members, who range from sovereign
royals to minor nobles.
Sources of chivalric literature

• Folklore and folktales

• Religious practices
• Medieval epic
• Contemporary society
• Classical origins
• Courtly love

Features of chivalric romances

• The chivalric romance was vastly superior to the courtesy book in part
because of the manner of its presentation. It contained thrilling
adventures of chivalric heroes and consisted of engaging stories.
• The chivalric romance was intended to be performed orally, often
composed in the vernacular languages.
 • The nobles listened to the chivalric romances because they
weren’tprescriptive guides, but instead were great stories that were easily
understood.

Features

• Idealizes Chivalry (Code of Chivalry – hero-knights abided by this code)

• Idealizes the noble hero-knight and his daring deeds
• Women are idealized and held in high regard by hero-knight
• Imaginative, vast, fairytale like setting
• Mystery and supernatural elements abound
• Repetition of the magical numbers 3 and 7
• Tale involves a quest for love and/or adventure by hero-knight
• Simple, predictable, inevitable plot

Hero-Knight
• Birth of this hero is shrouded in mystery (as in where, when…).
• He is reared away from his true home in ignorance of his real parents.
• For a time, his true identity is unknown.
• After meeting an extraordinary challenge, he claims his right. (He must
overcome obstacles and complete an adventure or specific tasks to claim
his hero status).
• His triumph benefits a nation or a group.

Cycles, characters and plot

Many romances were linked in cycles of thematic tales based on the

recognizable plot
e.g., "Constance cycle" or the "Crescentia cycle“
These stories were filled with adventure and traditional roles of hero and villain.
Code of chivalry guided the behavior of the heroes in these stories.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (anonymous)

Popular Arthurian story written in the late 14th century in Middle English
• The story features two polar plot devices in Arthurian stories: the
beheading game and the exchange of winnings. The former refers to a
“game” in which two knights fight one another, exchanging blows that
could decapitate their opponent.
• It is a poem written in alliterative verse and utilizing the bob and wheel
technique (a group of typically five rhymed lines following a section of
unrhymed lines, often at the end of a strophe).
 • It also uses many of the traditional elements of chivalric romance, such as
a focus on a hero’s quest and the hero’s moral character.
• The main character Gawain is a virtuous knight who accepts the
challenge from the Greek Knight. He tells Gawain that he can deliver a
blow now but will have to face a return hit from the Green Knight in a
year and a day.

Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart by Chrétien de Troyes

• written in the 12th century in verse by Chrétien de Troyes.

• It tells the story of the abduction of Queen Guinevere and the romance
between her and Lancelot, typically depicted as King Arthur's close
companion and one of the greatest Knights of the Round Table.
• The story also features information about Lancelot’s heritage and helps to
establish central character traits that stick with him throughout the
broader history of chivalric romances.
• One of the central themes is sin, particularly in the Christian tradition.
Lancelot becomes the lord of the castle Joyous Gard and personal
champion of Arthur's wife Queen Guinevere. But when his adulterous
affair with Guinevere is discovered, it causes a civil war that is exploited
by Mordred to end Arthur's kingdom.
• his character was expanded upon in other works of Arthurian romance,
especially the vast Lancelot-Grail prose cycle

King Horn

• dates back to the middle of the thirteenth century.

• The story was retold in later romances and ballads, and is considered part
of the Matter of England
• The poem is currently believed to be the oldest extant romance in Middle
English.

'Le Morte D'Arthur' by Sir Thomas Malory

• is a French compilation by Sir Thomas Malory of traditional tales about

the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the
Round Table.
 • Malory both interprets existing French and English stories about these
figures and also adds original material. First published in 1485 by
William Caxton, Le Morte d'Arthur is perhaps the best-known work of
Arthurian literature in English.
• The Middle English of ‘Le Morte d'Arthur’ is much closer to Early
Modern English than the Middle English of Geoffrey Chaucer’s
‘Canterbury Tales’

Medieval prose romances

• Arthurian themes
The Arthurian prose romances arose out of the attempt, made first by Robert de
Boron in the verse romances Joseph d’Arimathie, ou le Roman de l’estoire
douGraal and Merlin (c. 1190–1200), to combine the fictional history of the
Holy Grail with the chronicle of the reign of King Arthur. Robert gave his story
an allegorical meaning, related to the person and work of Christ. A severe
condemnation of secular chivalry and courtly love characterize the Grail branch
of the prose Lancelot-Grail, or Vulgate, cycle as well as some parts of the post-
Vulgate “romance of the Grail” (after 1225); in the one case, Lancelot (here
representing fallen human nature) and, in the other, Balain (who strikes the
Dolorous Stroke) are contrasted with Galahad, a type of the Redeemer. The
conflict between earthly chivalry and the demands of religion is absent from the
Perlesvaus (after 1230?), in which the hero Perlesvaus (that is, Perceval) has
Christological overtones and in which the task of knighthood is to uphold and
advance Christianity.
Medieval prose romances

• A 13th-century prose Tristan (Tristan de Léonois), fundamentally an

adaptation of the Tristan story to an Arthurian setting, complicates the
love theme of the original with the theme of a love rivalry between
Tristan and the converted Saracen Palamède and represents the action as
a conflict between the treacherous villain King Mark and the “good”
knight Tristan.
• In the 14th century, when chivalry enjoyed a new vogue as a social ideal
and the great orders of secular chivalry were founded, the romance
writers, to judge from what is known of the voluminous Perceforest
(written c. 1330 and still unpublished in its entirety), evolved an
acceptable compromise between the knight’s duty to his king, to his
lady, and to God.
Universality

• Romances of chivalry have a universal, timeless quality. The adventures

are variations on the eternal struggle between good and evil, order and
disorder, requited and unrequited love, and happen in some vague time
in the past (but after the birth of Christ) and in exotic and distant places.
• The world depicted in these romances is unreal, a world in which daily
life is irrelevant, where action dominates reflection and exaggeration
rules (the hero is the best, the greatest, the lady the most beautiful, the
enemy the cruelest etc.).

Influence
• Fantastic fiction had many imitations
• Miguel de Cervantes ‘Don Quixote’ (1605, 1615)- a satirical story of an
elderly country gentleman, living in La Mancha province, who is so
obsessed by chivalric romances that he seeks to emulate their various
heroes
• Hudibras, an English mock-heroic narrative poem from the 17th century
written by Samuel Butler, lampoons the faded conventions of chivalrous
romance, from an ironic, consciously realistic viewpoint.
• John Dryden ‘The Indian Queen’ (1664), tragedy
• Restoration spectaculars
• Shakespeare's “The Winter’s Tale’ (1623)
• Thomas Lodge “Rosalynde”
• Gothic novels
• Fantasy genre – J.R.R. Tolkien, W, Morris, P.Anderson

Conclusion
• The medieval chivalric romance is a literary genre of high culture, heroic
romance, written first in verse, then in prose, and popular in the noble
courts from the 12th to the 16th centuries.
• Typically, it describes the adventures of legendary knights, and celebrates
an idealized code of civilized behaviour that combines loyalty, honour,
and courtly love.
• Chivalric romance featured such characteristics as over-the-top heroes,
adventurous plot lines, chivalric knights, quests, and an emphasis on love
and manners.
 • Medieval chivalric romance played a crucial role in the establishment of
the genre of romance in English literature.

Lecture 3
Middle English literature:
th
The 14 century in the history of English literature

Middle English, starts after 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest, and covers
the 12th, 13th and half of the 14th c.
Social and historical events
• Norman Conquest (1066)
• The Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)
• Magna Carta (1215)

• Norman conquest (1066) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation

ofEngland by an army of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French soldiers
led bythe Duke of Normandy, later called William the Conqueror.
• King John and The Magna Carta (1215). Magna Carta Libertatum
(MedievalLatin for "the Great Charter of the Liberties"), commonly
called MagnaCarta, is a charter of rights agreed to by King John of
England atRunnymede, near Windsor, on 15 June 1215.
• First drafted by Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton to make
peace between the unpopular king and a group of 25 rebel barons. It
promised the protection of church rights, protection for the barons from
illegal imprisonment, access to swift justice, and limitations on feudal
payments to the Crown.

Social and historical events

• The Black Death (1340s)

• Peasants' Revolt
• The Wars of the Roses
 • The Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) was a series of conflicts by the
House of Plantagenet, rulers of the Kingdom of England, against the
French House of Valois, over the right to rule the Kingdom of France.
Each side drew many allies into the war. It was one of the most notable
conflicts of the Middle Ages, in which five generations of kings from
two rival dynasties fought for the throne of the largest kingdom in
Western Europe. In the end it finished with the victory of France.
• The Black Death (1340s) also known as the Great Plague or the Plague,
was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, resulting
in the deaths of 200 million people in Eurasia and peaking in Europe
from 1347 to 1351.

• Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising
(1381) was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381.
• The Wars of the Roses (1455-1485) was a series of dynastic civil wars
between the noble Houses of Lancaster (whose badge was a red rose)
and York (whose badge was the white rose)

• 1258 - the first English government document

to be published in the English language
• 1362 - Edward III became the first king to
address Parliament in English
• 1373 - English was promoted to being used as a
tool of learning Latin
• 1399 - British diplomat refused to speak French
• 1404 - 1st time Henry IV made his speech in English

THE KEY CHANGES IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• The Pleading in English Act 1362 made English the only language in
which court proceedings could be held, though the official record
remained in Latin
• By the end of the century, even the royal court had switched to English
• Anglo-Norman remained in use in limited circles somewhat longer, but it
had ceased to be a living language
• The English language changed enormously during the Middle English
period, in vocabulary, pronunciation, and in grammar
 • Old English was a heavily inflected language (synthetic), the use of
grammatical endings diminished in Middle English made it analytic
• Grammar distinctions were lost as many noun and adjective endings were
levelled to -e. The older plural noun marker -en (retained in a few cases
such as children and oxen) largely gave way to -s, and grammatical
gender disappeared
• the definite article þe appeared around 1200, later spelled as the was a
substitute for Old English se and seo, nominative forms of "that"

English spelling of the 14-15th C

• English spelling was also influenced by Norman in this period, with the
/θ/ and /ð/ sounds being spelled th rather than with the Old English letters þ
(thorn) and ð (eth), which did not exist in Norman

Historical events
-Black Death
-Great Famine
-Peasants' Revolt

THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL BACKGROUND

• These events killed around half of England's population, throwing the

economy into chaos
• The economic and demographic crisis created a sudden surplus of land,
undermining the ability of landowners to exert their feudal rights and
causing a collapse in incomes from rented lands
• Legislation was introduced to limit wages and to prevent the consumption
of luxury goods by the lower classes
• The tensions spilled over into violence in the summer of 1381 in the form
of the Peasants' Revolt

THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMICAL BACKGROUND

• The changes in the economy resulted in the emergence of a new class of
gentry, and the nobility began to exercise power through a system
bastard feudalism
 • The magnates depended upon their income from rent and trade which
allow them to maintain groups of paid, armed retainers, often sporting
controversial livery, and buy support among the wider gentry;
• this system has been called dubbed bastard feudalism
• The gentry and wealthier townsmen exercised increasing influence
through the House of Commons, opposing raising taxes to pay for the
French wars
• Many men and women had new opportunities in the towns and cities.
New technologies were introduced, and England produced some of the
great medieval philosophers and natural scientists
• English kings in the 14th and 15th centuries laid claim to the French
throne, resulting in the Hundred Years' War
• At times England enjoyed huge military success, with the increasing
economy by profits from the international wool and cloth trade
• But by 1450 the country was in crisis, facing military failure in France
and an ongoing recession
• More social unrest broke out, followed by the Wars of the Roses,
foughtbetween rival factions of the English nobility
• Henry VII's victory in 1485 conventionally marks the end of the Middle
Ages in England and the start of the Early Modern period

Main periods in literature

Late or Classical Middle English (the later 14th – the end of 15th c.)
Geoffrey Chaucer
(Canterbury Tales)
William Langland
(Piers Plowman)
John Gower
Confessio Amantis)
John Wycliffe
translation of the Bible

JOHN WYCLIFFE
• an English scholastic philosopher, theologian, Biblical translator,
reformer, priest, and a seminary professor at the University of Oxford
• attacked the privileged
 status of the clergy
• attacked the luxury and pomp of local parishes and their ceremonies
• advocated translation of
the Bible into the vernacular (non-standard dialect)

The lollard movement

• Wycliffe's followers, known as Lollards

• They followed his lead in advocating predestination, iconoclasm, and
the notion of caesaropapism
• In the 16th century and beyond, the Lollard movement was sometimes
regarded as the precursor to the Protestant Reformation

The English bible

• appeared over a period from approximately 1382 to 1395
• were the chief inspiration and chief cause of the Lollard movement
• “it helpeth Christian men to study the Gospel in that tongue in which
they know best Christ's sentence”

William lo(-a)ngland
• William Longland was believed to have been born at Cleobury
Mortimer in Shropshire
• He moved from the country to a house in Cornhill in London and,
as he says, supported himself by singing requiems for the dead
• he may have been the author of a poem “Richard the Redeless”

“The vision of piers plowman”

Three distinct versions:

▪ C.1362
▪ C. 1377
▪ C. 1393 or 1398

John gower
Three major works:
• the Mirour de l'Omme,
Vox Clamantis
• Confessio Amantis
• Wrote in Latin, French and English
• He wrote a series of French balades intended for the English court
Geoffrey Chaucer
▪ Served as a soldier in 1359 in the Hundred Years’ War
▪ His works are generally divided into 3 periods:
▪ French, Italian and English
▪ The last English writer of the Middle Ages and the first
of the Renaissance

“The canterbury tales”

• Unfinished collection of tales writtenin verse in London dialect
• Thirty pilgrims meet in an inn to travel together to Canterbury
• Finished twenty-six out of the one hundred and twenty tales
• The pilgrims are persons of different social ranks and occupations

THE MAIN PERIODS OF MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE

• Early Middle English, starts after 1066, the year of the Norman Conquest,
and covers the 12th, 13th and half of the 14th c. It was the stage of the
greatest dialectal divergence caused by the feudal system and by foreign
influences – Scandinavian and French. Under Norman rule the official
language in England was French, or
• rather its variety called Anglo-French or Anglo-Norman; it was also the
dominant language of literature. The local dialects were mainly used for
oral communication and were little employed in writing. Towards the
end of the period their literary prestige grew, as English began to
displace French in the sphere of writing, as well as in many other
spheres.
• This is mainly the time of Anglo-Latin and Anglo-Norman literature.
Chronicles like Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Bitanniae
(1140) or poems like Geoffrey Gaimar’s Estoire des Engleis (c. 1140). A
long verse chronicle called Brut (c.1200), translated to English by
Layamon, is the most remarkable English text of the period.

• 13th century. To this period belong the early romances written in the
English language. The poem The Owl and the Nightingale, the
devotional work Ancrene Riwle (The Anchoress’s Rule) and the early
verse romances Havelock the Dane and King Horn (c. 1300) are the most
important works of this time.
• Early ME was a time of great changes at all the levels of the language,
especially in lexis and grammar. English absorbed two layers of lexical
borrowings: the Scandinavian element in the North-Eastern area (due to
the Scandinavian invasions since the 8th c.) and the French element in
the speech of townspeople in the South-East, especially in the upper
social classes (due to the Norman Conquest). Numerous phonetic and
grammatical changes took place in this period. Grammatical alterations
were so drastic that by the end of the period they had transformed
English from a highly inflected language into a mainly analytical one.
Therefore, H. Sweet called Middle English the period of “leveled
endings”.
• From the later 14th c. till the end of the 15th century – embraces the age
of Chaucer, the greatest English medieval writer and forerunner of the
English Renaissance. We may call it Late or Classical Middle English. It
was the time of the restoration of English to the position of the state and
literary language and the time of literary flourishing. The main dialect
used in writing and literature was the mixed dialect of London. The
literary authority of other dialects was gradually overshadowed by the
prestige of the London written language.
• The first great names of Middle English Literature wrote at this time
(during the reigns of kings Edward III and Richard II). Geoffrey Chaucer
(Canterbury Tales), William Langland (allegorical poem Piers
Plowman), John Gower (Confessio Amantis), John Wycliffe (the first
Middle English translator of the Bible), and the anonymous Gawain-poet
lived and wrote in these times.
• The written records of the late 14th and 15th c. testify to the growth of the
English vocabulary and to the increasing proportion of French loan-
words in English. The phonetic and grammatical structure had
undergone fundamental changes. Most of the inflections in the nominal
system – in nouns, adjectives, pronouns – had fallen together. H. Sweet
called Middle English the period of “levelled endings”.
• 15th century. The rise of English drama. Morality plays like Mankind
were written and performed in the second half of the century.
• In 1476 William Caxton opened the first printing press in London. Sir
Thomas Malory’s Le Morte D’Arthur (The Death of Arthur), a long
prose romance that happens to be the most important Arthurian text in
English, was printed by Caxton in 1485.
 Lecture 4.
The Shakespearean question
Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. At the
age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children:
Susanna and twins Hamnet and Judith. Sometime between 1585 and 1592, he
began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a
playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's
Men.
At age 49 (around 1613), he appears to have retired to Stratford, where he died
three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive; this has
stimulated considerable speculation about such matters as his physical
appearance, his sexuality, his religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed
to him were written by others.
Shakespeare’s oeuvre

Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His
early plays were primarily comedies and histories and are regarded as some of
the best works produced in these genres. He then wrote mainly tragedies until
1608, among them Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth,
all considered to be among the finest works in the English language. In the last
phase of his life, he wrote tragicomedies (also known as romances) and
collaborated with other playwrights.
Many of Shakespeare's plays were published in editions of varying quality and
accuracy in his lifetime. However, in 1623, two fellow actors and friends of
Shakespeare's, John Heminges and Henry Condell, published a more definitive
text known as the First Folio, a posthumous collected edition of Shakespeare's
dramatic works that included all but two of his plays. The volume was prefaced
with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Jonson presciently hailed Shakespeare in
a now-famous quote as "not of an age, but for all time".

The Shakespeare Authorship Question, is the name given to a wide range of

theories that all propose some author other than William Shakespeare for the
plays attributed to him. Over 50 different authors have been proposed as the
'true' author of the works of William Shakespeare. Pretty much the only thing
they agree on is that the plays absolutely couldn't possibly have been written by
the only person whose name has ever been attached to them.
Some may argue that works of literature are not accessible to analysis using the
scientific method. Does this apply to the Shakespeare authorship issue? For
centuries, we have lived with the concept of two cultures: the arts and sciences.
The arts are the creative representation of reality through metaphor, story,
image, and pattern. The quality of the arts is tested by time and opinion.
However, knowledge of the historical background from which great artists
emerge, and which underpins their achievements, belongs to epistemology,
which studies the reliability of knowledge, and is therefore accessible to the
scientific method.
Major theories include Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere
(17th Earl of Oxford) and William Stanley, but this is only the briefest sampling
Though they work hard to deny it, most reasons Anti-Stratfordians offer is
rooted in an anachronistic classism. Shakespeare was too lower-class, too
common, too ordinary a human to have written the works in English literature
(part of the problem may well be the over praise of his works, but that is a
literary, not a historical question.)
Much is made, for example, of Shakespeare's signatures: Six copies have
survived (along with the words 'By me' totaling 14 words in his hand, a
tantalizing and frustrating sample) and of those, three are shaky - a 'barely
literate scrawl' in the words of one Oxfordian (one who believes the Earl of
Oxford to be the true author.) Surely it couldn't be the fact that those three
signatures are from his will, written when he was dying?
Likewise, much is made of the fact that he never spelled his name the same way
twice. This, again, is anachronistic - many famous examples of inconsistent
spellings exist, including Christopher Marlowe (whose supporters are curiously
silent on this particular point) whose spelling eccentricities went as far afield as
to spell his name Marley on occasion.
Another point made is that we have no record of Shakespeare being schooled.
While true, hopefully we've seen enough bad history to be suspicious of these
kinds of arguments from silence. In fact, we have no records of anyone being
schooled in Stratford from the time of Shakespeare and for another hundred
years. What we do have is records of a schoolteacher being paid by the town.
Considering that Shakespeare's father was an alderman during this period, and
the son of another alderman (a year younger than Shakespeare) ended up
becoming a printer in London in adulthood, it seems that this teacher was paid
to actually teach. There's no credible argument made that Shakespeare wouldn't
have been a student.
Even more entertaining than the negative evidence against Shakespeare
however are the hopeless positive arguments for one candidate or another.
Francis Bacon was the first to attract a following, and in addition to the works
of Shakespeare, zealous fans attributed the works of Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and
Edmund Spenser to him. One wonders how he managed to get anything done.
As a matter of fact, we have no record of him ever writing a play, probably
because (as his diary states) he saw the theatre as a silly waste of time.
The candidates

The most popular candidate these days is Edward deVere, forced to write under
a pen-name because it was too scandalous for an aristocrat to write plays for
mere players. Of course, Oxfordians also love to point out that we have a
mention of deVere's reputation as a playwright, suggesting he wrote some well-
received comedies that circulated around court. The contradiction causes them
no trouble; neither does the fact that deVere died in 1605, before much of the
Shakespeare canon had been performed (farsighted of him to write a backlog
that would last until the death of the front man, a decade later.)
Why do we know that the works of Shakespeare are by him?

Possibly because he's the most studied figure of his time period (which is saying
something) and no piece of evidence, ever, has surfaced suggesting anything to
the contrary. He wrote not just for a company, but for his company -
buffoonish, clown characters when the great comic actor Will Kemp was with
the company, which characters disappeared along with Kemp; some plays have
almost no female characters, while some have incredibly substantial ones,
exactly like a company which has boy actors of wildly varying talent join for
short periods.

One complaint that you hear is that he couldn't have known the inner life of
court and the nobility as well as it was seen in his plays; unfortunately, Ben
Jonson disagreed, saying it was something that he got wrong. His geography
was of one who'd never left England (a coastline in Bohemia, two tides in the
Mediterranean, sailmakers in inland Italian cities, and an entire play in Venice
that appears not to know there are canals there.) He uses metaphors of
leatherworking much more often than any of his contemporaries, just as a
glover's son would. In short, every piece of evidence points towards the Man
from Stratford.
His geography was of one who'd never left England (a coastline in Bohemia,
two tides in the Mediterranean, sailmakers in inland Italian cities, and an entire
play in Venice that appears not to know there are canals there.) He uses
metaphors of leatherworking much more often than any of his contemporaries,
just as a glover's son would. In short, every piece of evidence points towards the
Man from Stratford.
The question of authorship can completely change a person’s view on William
Shakespeare, because it speaks to what we think is possible in life.
Shakespeare’s works have long symbolized for us all aspects of the human
condition - and I would argue that he writes equally as honestly, profoundly and
comically about Mistress Quickly, an inn-keeper in The Merry Wives of
Windsor, as he does King Henry V.

Lecture 5
General tendencies in the development of the Renaissance period
in English literature

The Renaissance as the age of transition from the Middle Ages to Modern
Times

• The Renaissance is a period from the 14th to the 17th century, considered
the bridge between the Middle Ages and Modern history.
• It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and
later spread to the rest of Europe.
• The word ‘renaissance’ is a French word which means ‘rebirth’

BACKGROUND OF THE RENAISSANCE

At that times people were trying to recreate the classical models of Ancient
Greek and Rome.
The Renaissance period was a succeeding epoch of the Middle Ages which was
the gap defining the classical and modern period. Often branded as the Dark
Ages, the Medieval period was characterized by some years with famine and
pandemics such as the Black Death.
The Renaissance in Europe was in one sense an awakening from the long
slumber of the Dark Ages. What had been a stagnant, even backsliding kind of
society re-invested in the promise of material and spiritual gain.
HUMANISM

Intellectuals adopted a line of thought known as “humanism,” in which

mankind was believed capable of earthly perfection beyond what had ever been
imagined before. The overwhelming spirit of the times was optimism, an
unquestionable belief that life was improving for the first time in anyone’s
memory.
Indeed, the image of the Dark Ages and the Black Death were still very fresh in
people’s minds, and the promise of moving forward and away from such
horrors was wholeheartedly welcome.
The writings of English humanists
helped bring the ideas and attitudes associated with the new learning to an
English audience:
Sir Thomas More (1478 -1535) was an English lawyer, social philosopher,
author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He wrote Utopia, published
in 1516, written in Latin, which describes the political system of an imaginary
island state.
Sir Thomas Elyot (1490 –1546) was an English diplomat and scholar. He is best
known as one of the first proponents of the use of the English language for
literary purposes.
William Caxton 1422–1491

• was an English merchant, diplomat, and writer.

• He is thought to be the first person to introduce a printing press into
England, in 1474
• his translation of the Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, is thought as the
first book printed in English
• Caxton printed the works of Chaucer and Gower and these books helped
establish the idea of a native poetic tradition

THE ECONOMIC BACKGROUND

• The greatest innovation of the Renaissance era was the printing press, put
into service around 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg.
• Rudimentary presses had existed for a long time, but Gutenberg’s design
maximized printing efficiency in a way that changed the world of arts,
letters, and ideas forever. His greatest innovation was a means to rapidly
produce movable typesets, meaning that new sheets of text could be set
in place and printed with far less effort than had previously been the
case.

CHANGES IN THE SOCIAL ECONOMICS OF READING AND

LEARNING

• The revolutionized printing press allowed for the fast and relatively cheap
reproduction of work. Certainly it is no coincidence that literacy rates
saw a measurable uptick in the decades following the press’s invention.
• The religious upheaval known as the Protestant Reformation would not
have been possible without the capacity to make many copies of a
document quickly and with minimal effort. Martin Luther’s famous “95
Theses” spread like wildfire through Continental Europe thanks to the
newfound ease of reproduction. Even more so than easy reproduction,
printing changed the whole social economics of reading and learning.
THE DOMINANT FORMS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
 • The dominant forms of English literature during the Renaissance were
the poem and the drama. Among the many varieties of poetry one
might have found in sixteenth century England were the lyric, the elegy,
the tragedy, and the pastoral.
One of the earliest English Renaissance poets was Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542)
Much of Wyatt’s literary works consists of translations and imitations of
sonnets by the italian poet Petrarch, but he also wrote sonnets of his own. Wyatt
took subject matter from Petrarch's sonnets, but his rhyme schemes make a
significant departure. Wyatt employs the Petrarchan octave, but his most
common sestet scheme is cddc ee. This marks the beginnings of the English
sonnet with 3 quatrains and a closing couplet.
Other early Renaissance poets:
• The Douglas Aeneid was completed in 1513
• John Skelton wrote poems that were transitional between the late
Medieval and Renaissance styles
• The king, Henry VIII, was something of a poet himself

RENAISSANCE IN ENGLAND

Henry VIII (1509-1547)

• Made himself the head of the Church of England, bringing church and
state together
• Protestantism became more and more important
• The king or queen became the human being on earth who was closest to
God

Elizabeth I
• the symbol of the Golden Age
• was a Protestant
• set about restoring the moderate Anglicanism of her father
• although Elizabeth cut the ties with Rome, her tolerance and her ability to
compromise won her the loyalty of both Catholic and Puritans

KEY FEATURES OF English Renaissance POETRY

• the symbol of the Golden Age
• was a Protestant
• set about restoring the moderate Anglicanism of her father
• although Elizabeth cut the ties with Rome, her tolerance and her ability to
compromise won her the loyalty of both Catholic and Puritans
KEY FEATURES OF English Renaissance POETRY

• Conventions played a large part in how particular poetic styles were

manifested. Expectations about style, subject matter, tone, and even plot
details were well-established for each poetic genre.
• Even the specific occasion demanded a particular form of poetry, and
these tried and true conventions were tacitly understood by all.
• Frequently, poetry of that time was intended to be accompanied by music.
In any case, the general consensus among critics is that the chief aim of
English Renaissance verse was to encapsulate beauty and truth in words.
• English poetry of the period was ostentatious, repetitious, and often
betrayed a subtle wit. One attribute that tended to set English letters apart
from the Continent was the willingness to intermix different genres into
a sort of hodgepodge, experimental affair. This pastiche style is
exemplified in Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queen, a long poem which
mingled elements of romance, tragedy, epic and pastoral into an
entertaining and still cohesive whole.

English court life and English literature

• English court life and the opinions of noble patrons had a profound
influence on the direction of the arts. Being close to the king or queen
was desirable, but also dangerous. The literature reveals that courtiers
were exceedingly clever with their use of language, employing double
meanings and sly wit to protect their own interests. The verbal duels one
might have overheard in the court naturally found their way into the
poetry and drama of the time. The communication style of Shakespeare’s
characters had its genesis in the court of the English royalty.

Periodization of the English Renaissance literature

• The first period covers the end of the 15th and the first half of the 16th
centuries. In England the first scholars and humanists appeared. In this
period the English humanistic literature was mainly of theoretical
character (Thomas More)
• The second period, the so called Elizabethan one covers the second half
of the XVI century and the beginning of the XYII. It is the time of
flourishing the English Renaissance literature, the time of creating of the
 new literary forms: Shakespeare’s masterpieces are created in this
period.
• The third period – the time after Shakespeare’s death and up to 1640 (the
forties of the 17th century), it was the time of declining the English
Renaissance literature.

Utopia by Thomas More

• Written in 1516.
• The work was written in Latin and published in Louvain (present-day
Belgium).
• Utopia is a work of satire, indirectly criticizing Europe's political
corruption and religious hypocrisy
• The Greek word Utopia translates as "no place" or "nowhere," but in
modern parlance, a Utopia is a good place, an ideal place (eu-topia).

Utopia Genre

• Philosophical travel fiction married to autobiography and satire.

• More's playful fusing of genres is characteristic of European humanism,
as is his self-deflating wit.
• This also is a clue to how the "novel" emerged in the next two centuries
as a genre of prose fiction pretending to historical truth, even though its
readers and author know it is in some sense a "lie."
• The text contains many layers of protective narrative insulation,
especially More's decision to deliver the most radical comments from the
persona of the character, Raphael Hythloday.

Impact of Utopia on political thought and literature

• The utilitarian philosophy expounded in the late 1700s and early 1800s
developed the idea of the ideal and perfect balance of happiness.
• In the 1800s, the rise of urban industrialization triggered the proliferation
of Utopian projects (agricultural communes), all of which failed.
• As a literary work, Utopia has retained its power to impact British and
American writers. From the Greek prefix dys- (i.e. bad, ill) comes the
word "Dystopia," reflecting Utopia's negative qualities.

The Elizabethan period 1558 – 1603 is called Golden Age in English history
in poetry is characterized by a number of frequently overlapping
developmentslike:
• the introduction and adaptation of themes, models and verse forms from
other European traditions and classical literature
• the Elizabethan song tradition
• the emergence of a courtly poetry often centred around the figure of the
monarch
the growth of a verse-based drama

Thomas Campion (sometimes Campian 1567 –1620)

was an English composer, poet, and physician. He wrote over a hundred lute
songs, masques for dancing, and an authoritative technical treatise on music
Campion is also notable because of his experiments with metres based on
counting syllables rather than stresses. These quantitative metres were based on
classical models and should be viewed as part of the wider Renaissance revival
of Greek and Roman artistic methods.
By the end of the 16th century, a new generation of composers were helping to
bring the art of Elizabethan song to an extremely high musical level.
John Dowland, William Byrd, Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Weelkes, Thomas
Morley.
Edmund Spenser (1552/1553 –1599)

• was an English poet, is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen of

nascent Modern English verse is often considered one of the greatest
poets in the English language
• He is best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical
allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I
• The poem Shepheardes Calender marks the introduction into an English
context of the classical pastoral, a mode of poetry that assumes an
aristocratic audience with a certain kind of attitude to the land and
peasants

Sir Philip Sidney (1554 –1586)

was an English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier who is remembered as one of
the most prominent figures of the Elizabethan age.
His works include:
• Astrophel and Stella,
• The Defence of Poesy (also known as The Defence of Poetry or An
Apology for Poetry)
 • The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia.

LECTURE 9.
THE KEY FEATURES OF THE ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE 17
CENTURY
THE KEY PROBLEM
The notion «English literature of the 17th C» in the history of the English
literature doesn’t coincide with the chronological boundaries of the century.
HISTORIC INTENSIVE STRUGGLES
• The 10s-20s of the 17th C witnessed considerable shifts in the English art,
especially the crisis of the humanistic tradition, highly developed in the
Renaissance.
• The period, encomprising the next decades till 1690s, was marked by
intensive struggle of pro-monarchistic art and the opposing art of other
social groups and classes.
• This struggle was finished at the end of the century by a new art’s victory
and by the introduction of a new generation of English authors, first of
all Defoe and Swift, etc., and the appearance of a new literary genre –
the novel.

THE RANGE OF THE ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE 17TH C

That was a compromise between agrarian and trade-industrial England, that
defines English society of that time. Thus, the general range of the English
literature of the 17th C can be defined as approximately 1620—1690.
PERIODS OF THE ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE 17 C

• The first period of 1620—1640s reflected intensification of social

conflicts in the country;
• the second period of late 40-s – 1660s is the period of revolution;
• the third period of late 60-s – late 80-s — the period of trends and styles
struggle in the country after the fall of the republic and within the period
of Restoration.

THE FIRST PERIOD (1620 C -1640 C)

 • This was a period of intensive struggle between parliament and the court
for religious issues.
• A new king announced the so-called Episcopal church, which meant a
decisive change of absolutism towards religious intolerance.
• Wide circles of opposition, which differed in political issues, were
generally defined as “puritanism” (from Latin “purus” — pure), that
meant purification of manners and customs, introduced by the Stuarts.

THE KEY LITERARY GENRES OF THAT PERIOD

Biblical motifs, translations and psalms editing, sermons, Biblical stylistics,

direct address to early Christian literature tradition were characteristic of the
revolution literature, literature influenced by different democratic antifeudal
movements, and absolutist reaction literature.
HISTORIC AND CULTURAL PECULIARITIES OF THAT PERIOD

• This situation led to increasing polarization of English cultural life: the

civilization of the nobility on the one hand, and the middle class
imitating it, on the other.
• Some remaining English humanists tried to find a way to defend
parliament’sand people’s rights, and became revolutionary humanists;
• other, having become confused and disappointed in humanism, became
victims of the crisis and got caught under the power of dominating
church ideology, they took part in creating a shortliving but bright court
civilization of the first decades of the 17th C.

THE BREAKE OF THE MIDDIVAL POETRY TRADITION

• The poet who challenged and broke the supremacy of the Petrarchian
tradition was John Donne.
• Occasionally, Donne can adopt the Petrarchian pose, but the tone and
temper, the imagery and rhythm, the texture and colour, of the bulk of
his love songs and love elegies are altogether different from those of the
fashionable love poetry of the sixteenth century.
• With Donne, begins a new era in the history of the English love lyric. The
spirit of his best love poetry passed into the most interesting of his
elegies and his religious verses, the influence of which was not less, than
that of his songs.

THE CAVALIER POETS

 • A group of court poets of the I third of the 17th C known as the Cavalier
Poetsor Caroline poets appeared at the court of Carl I Stewart.
• Robert Herrick (1591-1674) - “Love and Mistresses”; “Flowers”; “On
HisBook”; “On Julia”; “Upon Princes and Potentates”; “Poems Upon
SeveralPersonages of Honour”
• Edward Herbert (1582-1648) – “Autobiography”; “De veritate”;
“Sonnet ofBlack Beauty”;
• Thomas Carew (1594-1640) – "A Divine Mistress"; "An Elegy on the
Deathof the Dean of St. Paul's Dr. John Donne"; “Poems”; “To Ben
Johnson”
• James Shirley (1596-1666) – “Echo ; or, The Unfortunate Lovers”;
“Narcissus”; “The School of Compliment”; “The Maid's Revenge”;
“HydePark”; “The Gamester”; “Poems”; “The Wedding”
• Mildmay Fane (1600-1666) – “Otia sacra” [Sacred meditations];
• Edmund Waller (1606-1687) – “Poems”; "Panegyrick to my Lord
Protector"; "To the King, Upon His Majesty's Happy Return"; “Song. Go
Lovely Rose”;
• Sir John Suckling (1609-1642) – “Account of Religion by Reason”;
“Aglaura”; “The Goblins”
• Richard Lovelace (1618-1658) – “The Scholar”; "To Althea. From
Prison"; “Lucasta”;
• Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) – “The Mistress: or, Several Copies of
LoveVerses”;
• Richard Braithwaite (1588-1673) – “Indifferent”

Though the Cavalier poets only occasionally imitated the intellectual

conceptsof Donne, and his followers, and were fervent admirers of Jonson's
elegance, they tried to learn from both parties.
In fact the common factor, that binds the cavaliers together is their use of
directand colloquial language to express their individual personality, and
theirenjoyment of the casual, the amateur, the affectionate poems written “by
theway”.
They are 'cavalier' in the sense, that they distrust the over-earnest, the
toointense, too serious.
LITERARY REPRESENTATIVES OF THAT PERIOD

• Two playwrights Francis Beaumont (1584—1616) and John Fletcher

(1579—1625) were skillful poets and plot masters but they also
 contributed into the development of literary language. Fletcher became
a reformer of English drama, having refined his style of vulgarisms,
barbarisms, his poetic language delicately rendered psychological
subtones. He wrote a number of plays with Beaumont:
• By Beaumont alone:
• The Knight of the Burning Pestle, comedy (performed 1607; printed
1613)
• The Masque of the Inner Temple and Gray's Inn, masque (printed 1613)
• With Fletcher:
• The Woman Hater, comedy (1606; 1607)
• The Captain, comedy (c. 1609–12; 1647)
• The Scornful Lady, comedy (ca. 1613; 1616)
• Love's Pilgrimage, tragicomedy (c. 1615–16; 1647)
• The Noble Gentleman, comedy (licensed 3 February 1626; 1647)

THE GENRE OF “HORROR TRAGEDY”

• Fletcher and Beaumont were the brightest playrights in the group of
authors that singled out in the pre-revolution years.
• Among the other it is important to recollect of John Marston (1575—
1634), the creator of the so-called “horror tragedy” like “Antonios
Revenge” (1602). The fatal theme in “horror tragedies” sounds the most
interesting in “The Atheist’s Tragedy”.
• Depravity and perversity of the age are impressed into the image of
atheist D'Amville (the word “atheist” meant the immoral person).
D’Amville is the representative of the worst human character features
and human desires, he is revengeful and evil. That’s why he is himself
revenged accidentaly at the end of the play by the hand of a noble
person, whom he was setting a trap for.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF EHGLISH DRAMA

• Ben Johnson (1573 — 1637) remained the follower of the ideals of the
Renaissance and of Shakespeare. His works are especially interesting in
the course of clacissism formation process.
• Already in 1601 Johnson determined his artistic principles in a comedy
“The Poetaster”, in which he opposed Marston and Thomas Decker,
who were considered the authors of high dramatic art. Johnson depicted
 Horatio, who became one of the most popular and followed ancient
authors of the century due to this play.
• His artistic ideas Johnson embodied in 2 cycles of essays “Discoveries”
and “A Discourse of Love”. In the first cycle Johnson indicated that:
“Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may see thee. It springs
out of the most retired and inmost parts of us, and is the image of the
parent of it, the mind. No glass renders a man’s form or likeness so
true as his speech. Nay, it is likened to a man; and as we consider
feature and composition in a man, so words in language; in the greatness,
aptness, sound structure, and harmony of it.”
• Johnson also paid attention to such an important notion for poet as —
“human integrity” and education, by which he meant first of all
knowledge of ancient authors but he suggested that a poet can’t always
be guided by only ancient authority as one can contrast their every
remark with one’s own experience.
• Johnson himself became an interesting innovator by creating the so-called
“theory of humours” — types of mood embodied by characters of a
play or a poem but also a humour – is the most important feature of a
person’s character. In his comedy “Everyman out of his Humour”
(1599).
• This idea he embodied brightly in his comedies “Volpone” (1606),
“Epicoene, or the Silent Woman” (1609), “The Alchemist” (1610)
showing certain ugly sides of English contemporary life and especially
in a comedy “Bartholomew Fair” (1614).

THE SECOND PERIOD: 40-s – 60-s OF THE 17TH C

02.11.1642 – the Parliament act banning all kinds of theatrical performances

• The third period of late 60-s – late 80-s — the period of trends and styles
struggle in the country after the fall of the republic and within the period
of Restoration
The literature of this period reflected all the complexity of English social
life after the so-called “Glorious Revolution” of 1688, when the Stuarts
dynasty was overthrown by the Dutch stadtholder Wilhelm, who was
assisted by English noblemen and representatives of major middle class
 Lecture 1.
Daniel Defoe’s literary work

Daniel Defoe is an English writer and publicist. He is known, first of all, as

the author of the adventure novel "Robinson Crusoe".
In Defoe's biography, three periods should be distinguished according to the
predominant type of occupation: he was a businessman until the age of forty, a
journalist after the age of forty, and a writer from the age of about sixty.
Daniel was born in late 1659 or early 1660 - the exact date of biographers
is still unknown. His father, James Foe, was a merchant. The future writer was
educated at the then-famous Charles Morton Dissenter Academy in Stoke-
Newington, where he studied theology, as well as classical and modern
languages, history, geography and mathematics. The father wanted to see his
son as a priest, but Daniel thought otherwise.
These times old feudal order collapsed, the era of the bourgeois class
began, and he plunged headlong into the realm of private enterprise and trade.
Beginning in 1680, as a trade intermediary between importers and
merchants, the young man traveled extensively in Europe, especially in Spain
and Portugal. Unfortunately, he did not succeed as a businessman. He suffered
both minor defeats and great bankruptcy.
The writer began his literary career in 1697 as a publicist with a pamphlet
"Essays on Projects", in which he proposed a number of political and economic
reforms. In 1700, at the age of forty, Daniel Fo became a professional journalist,
starting to publish the weekly newspaper "Review". In 1702 he published an
anonymous pamphlet "How to deal with dissenters as soon as possible." He was
imprisoned for this and, after paying a large fine, was exposed to a shameful
pillar three times.
In prison, he wrote the Hymn to the Pillar of Shame (1703), which the
crowd gathered to support the writer sang as a folk song in honor of the author.
His release from prison was made possible only by his consent to become a
secret agent of the authorities.
1703 was the year of birth of the Defoe’s phenomenon in literature. He
adds the particle "de" to his family name, and since then the energetic merchant
and popular pamphleteer Foe has become a well-known first-class journalist-
innovator, reporter, editor-in-chief, author of sensational articles and a skilled
master of true fiction.
In general, Defoe's literary activity was quite diverse - from poetry to
large-scale novels with a clear moral trend.
 He is the author of a huge number of journalistic articles, essays, historical
and ethnographic works. He became the first professional writer in England in
the early eighteenth century.
I would like to emphasize that the writer actively continued his creative
and intellectual activity at a respectable age. At this time, Defoe enjoyed his
wealth and a quiet measured life in his own home in Newington, near London,
surrounded by three daughters. His son, already married, lived separately and
was also engaged in literature.
Some time later, in London, separated from his family, he died. All the
items left behind were sold by the landlady at auction to cover the funeral
expenses. Thus, on April 26, 1731, at the age of 71, the famous author of
"Robinson", a living legend of English literature, passed away.
Some Important Facts of His Life
• Young Defoe married Mary Tuffley at the age of twenty-four in 1684 and
the couple had had eight children.
• After the publication of his satirical work “The Shortest Way with
Dissenters” he was imprisoned in May 1703 and charged within three
days. However, he was released shortly.
• He is widely acclaimed for his work, Robinson Crusoe.
• He is said to have used at least 198 pennames.

His Style
Daniel Defoe enjoyed a successful literary life. His trade experiences,
political passions, and the personal tragedies he encountered during his early
years played a pivotal role in his writing career. Using his unique style, he
beautifully portrayed his ideas in his literary pieces. Although the satirical style
and harsh tone of his political and religious pamphlets annoyed the ruling class,
yet he continued presenting the true picture of his time in his writings.
For example, his much-appreciated work, Robinson Crusoe, presents the
realistic projection of the human psyche and emotion. Marked with the use of
reflective tone, satirical style, irony, symbolism, and metaphors, his works won
universal recognition. The recurring themes in most of his writings are
prejudice, politics, religion, and human nature.

Daniel Defoe’s Impact on Future Literature

Daniel Defoe’s writing style and literary qualities of his masterpieces
brought praiseworthy changes in the global English literature years later him.
His distinctive writing approach and unique expression have made him stand
among the best historical fiction writer of his time as well as the later times.
Also, his political passion and views regarding legitimacy and power had a
significant influence on a diverse range of writers and other influential figures.
He is so much popular at this time that intertextualities have made it easy for
other writers to allude to him in every other novel they create.
Important Quotes
• “Those people cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them
because they see and covet what He has not given them. All of our
discontents for what we want appear to me to spring from want of
thankfulness for what we have.” (Robinson Crusoe)
• “It put me upon reflecting how little repining there would be among
mankind at any condition of life, if people would rather compare
their condition with those that were worse, in order to be thankful,
than be always comparing them with those which are better, to
assist their murmurings and complaining.” (Robinson Crusoe)
• “…in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to
shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us,
is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which
alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen
into…” (Robinson Crusoe)
• “And I add this part here, to hint to whoever shall read it that
whenever they come to a true sense of things, they will find
Deliverance from Sin a much greater Blessing than Deliverance
from Affliction.” (Robinson Crusoe)

Lecture 2.

ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

What is Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment = Age of Reason /the Enlightenment was an

intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the world of ideas

in Europe during the 18th century, the "Century of Philosophy".

The Enlightenment

The Age of Enlightenment or The Enlightenment is a term used to describe a

period in Western philosophy and cultural life of the 18th century, in which

reason was advocated as the primary source for authority.

Date of Enlightenment

French historians traditionally date the Enlightenment from 1715 to 1789, from

the beginning of the reign of Louis XV until the French Revolution.

IDEAS OF ENLIGHTENMENT

- ideas circulated their ideas through meetings at scientific academies,

Masonic lodges, literary salons, coffeehouses and in printed books,

journals

- undermined the authority of the monarchy and the Church and paved the

way for the political revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries.

- liberalism and neo-classicism trace their intellectual heritage to the

Enlightenment.

Figures of the Enlightenment

Joseph Addison, Edward Gibbon, John Locke, Isaac Newton, Alexander Pope,

and Jonathan Swift

ENLIGHTENMENT AS A PHYLOSOPHY

INFLUENCE

A variety of 20th-century movements:

- liberalism

- neo-classicism
- reductionism

- rationality

It is held to be the source of critical ideas, such as the centrality of freedom,

democracy, and reason as primary values of society, the establishment of a

contractual basis of rights would lead to the market mechanism and

capitalism, the scientific method, religious tolerance, and the organization of

states into self-governing republics through democratic means

THE NOVEL AS THE KEY GENRE

Ian Watt argues that the novel ‘‘rose’’ together with the ‘‘middle class”, a

diverse social group that possessed income and leisure time. It seems that the

novel was a middle class enterprise.

THE KEY FEATURES OF THE 18TH CENTURY ENGLISH NOVEL

- first half of the eighteenth century = no understanding about what a novel

should be

- The eighteenth century novel has the world of everyday experience; its

characters were people who were no different from the implied reader

in an ordinary world of common sense.

- it saw a turn towards individualism as opposed to collectivism (and

tradition) - influenced by the philosophy of René Descartes and John

Locke.

The Early Enlightenment

1685-1730
Precursors included the Englishmen Francis Bacon and Thomas Hobbes,

the Frenchman Renee Descartes and the key natural philosophers of the

Scientific Revolution, including Galileo, Kepler and Leibniz.

- Isaac Newton published his “Principia Mathematica” (1686)

- John Locke his “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” (1689)—two

works that provided the scientific, mathematical and philosophical toolkit

for the Enlightenment’s major advances.

The High Enlightenment:

1730-1780

- Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, Buffon and Diderot

Voltaire’s “Philosophical Dictionary”: “a chaos of clear ideas.”

The signature publication of the period was Diderot’s “Encyclopédie” (1751-

77), which brought together leading authors to produce an ambitious

compilation of human knowledge.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF LITERATURE IN THE MID18 C

THE LATE ENLIGHTENMENT

The Late Enlightenment has three main ideas:

Liberity, Tolerance and Rights.

A belief that all mysteries could be solved using reason

Brought together ideas from The Renaissance and Scientific Revolution.

LITERARY DEVELOPMENT:
THE NOVEL
SOURCES OF THE NOVEL
LITERARY SOURCES OF THE NOVEL
PASTORAL LITERARURE
PASTORAL LITERARURE
Pastoral is historical literary perspective in which authors recognize and

discuss life in the country and in particular the life of a shepherd. This is

summed up by Leo Marx with the phrase "No shepherd, no pastoral."

In literature, the adjective 'pastoral' refers to rural subjects and aspects of

life in the countryside among shepherds, cowherds and other farm

workersthat are often romanticized and depicted in a highly unrealistic

manner. The setting is a beautiful place in nature, sometimes connected with

images of the Garden of Eden.

THE PICARESQUE NOVEL

The picaresque novel (Spanish: picaresca, from pícaro, for "rogue" or

"rascal") is a genre of prose fiction that depicts the adventures of a roguish,

but "appealing hero", of low social class, who lives by his wits in a corrupt

society

THE PICARESQUE NOVEL

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761)

RICHARDSON’S LIFE

- born in Derbyshire, the son of a carpenter.

- aged 17, he was apprenticed to a printer, and followed the trade to the end

of his life

- 1733, Richardson was granted a contract with the House of Commons to

print the Journals of the House

- In 1739, he began to write a series of letters - the story of a beautiful and

virtuous maidservant who succeeded in marrying her youthful master,

and the result was Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, an epistolary novel

THE SUCCESS OF PAMELA LED TO a parody of it, Joseph Andrews by

H. Fielding in 1742 , one more parody on this work probably written by

Fielding – Shamela (1741); another epistolary novel by S.Richardson,

Clarissa Harlowe, or Virtue Triumphant in 1747-48, which brought the

author European fame.

His third and last novel, Sir Charles Grandison, was published in 1754.

The chief contribution of Richardson’s Pamela to the development of the

English novel lies in the penetrating psychological study of the heroine

employed for the first time in English prose fiction.

Pamela marked a defining moment in the emergence of the modern novel. In

the words of one contemporary, it divided the world “into two different

Parties, Pamelists and Anti-Pamelists.”

Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded

Clarissa Harlowe, or the History of a Young Lady

Influence

- praised by the great French Enlighteners

- in Germany it’s known for its influence upon Goethe

- in England the novel had its effect upon Fanny Burney , Jane Austen

S. RICHARDSON’S CONTRIBUTION

S. Richardson sympathized with women in their inferior social status and

entered into detailed psychological study of his female characters

His sympathy for the suffering heroine ends in sentimentality, making him

the earliest exponent of the sentimental tradition in 18th century English

literature
“Sir Charles Grandison”

(1753-54)

Written as a response to Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, a

Foundling;

EPISTOLARY NOVEL

a novel written as a series of documents.

- usual form is letters ( diary entries, newspaper clippings and other

documents);

Henry Fielding (1707-1754)

- the passion in letters urged him to write his first play in 1728

Love in Several Masques.

In 1730-1737 - 28 plays, including operas, comedies, tragedies, and

burlesques. He later came into having his own Little Theatre.

Some of his plays were characterized by their acid satire on the corruption of

the government, such as The Historical Register for the Year 1736.

Licensing Act was passed in 1737 and the closing of his Little Theatre was

closed; his career as playwright ended.

Fielding as a Journalist

- conducted a thrice-weekly anti-Jacobite periodical, The Champion (1739

—41), most of whose essays he wrote himself.

- wrote for Tory periodicals, usually under the name of "Captain Hercules

Vinegar".

- As Justice of the Peace in later years he issued a warrant for the arrest of

Colley Cibber for "murder of the English language".

 - wrote tirelessly on judicial, criminal, and social topics, producing such

reformist works as An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of

Robbers (1751) and A Proposal for Making an Effectual Provision for

the Poor, for Amending Their Morals, and for Rendering Them Useful

Members of the Society (1753).

- conducted The Covent-Garden Journal during 1752

Fielding’s fictional writing started in 1742, when he published his first

novelJoseph Andrews, a parody of Richardson’s Pamela and an acid satire on

the false sentimentality and the conventional virtues of Richardson’s

protagonist.

Then came The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great, The History of Tom

Jones, a Foundling (1749), Amelia (1751). The History of Jonathan Wild

the Great

The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling a comic epic in prose

- Tom became a national hero in England

- Tom Jones brings its author the name of the “Prose Homer.”

- Plot construction: 3 divisions (6 books each): in the country, on the

highway, and in London.

By these, Fielding has indeed achieved his goal of writing a “comic epic in

prose.”

Main Features of Fielding’s Novels

- the omniscient

- educational function of the novel. The object was to present a faithful picture

of life, “the just copies of human manner.”

- Father of English Novel

Tobias Smollett (1721-1771)

- Scottish surgeon on a battleship

- He wrote 5 novels in entirety, among which 3 are successful and significant:

The Adventure of Roderick Random (1748), The Adventure of Peregrine

Pickle(1751) and The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker (1771).

- were modeled on Cervantes’s Don Quixote.

- the first of the 18th century English novelists to use a maritime and an

international setting for his stories.

Lecture 3. PRE-ROMANTICISM

IN ENGLISH ENLIGHTENMENT LITERATURE

Pre-Romanticism

- complex of new ideas and stylistic tendencies in West European literature of

the last part of the 18th C.

- preserves succession of several main motifs and ideas of Sentimental

literature

ECONOMICAL AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS OF THAT PERIOD

PERIOD OF CHANGE: reforms did not occur because the philosophy of

laissez-faire (“let alone”) prevailed

ECONOMICAL AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS

- unemployment and poverty

- while the poor suffered, the leisure class prospered

 - women of all classes were regarded as inferior to men, were uneducated,

had limited vocational opportunities, were subject to a strict code of

sexual behavior, and had almost no legal rights

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

- writers and intellectuals began questioning whether human reason alone

could solve every problem

- style of the neoclassicists and instead used common, everyday language.

THE KEY FEATURES OF PRE-ROMANTICISM

- transitive nature of Pre-Romanticism found confirmation in creative ways

of many writers, often related to either already Romanticism (W.Blake),

or still to Sentimentalism (Anne Radcliff, Clara Reeve, Thomas

Chatterton)

- full of impulses of self-determination and personality affirmation

(especially in gothic and Jacobean novels), also closely linked to anti-

feudal revolt

- in 1763, Thomas Percy published Five Pieces of Runic Poetry from

Icelandic, which he translated and “improved”. He began searching for

more ballads, in particular. He wanted to collect material from the border

areas, near Scotland. His greatest contribution is considered to be his

Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), the first of the great ballad

collections, which was the most responsible for the ballad revival in

English poetry that later became a significant part of the Romantic

movement

THE RISE OF THE GOTHIC NOVEL AT THE CENTURY'S END

 - plot occurs in a distant time and place, often Renaissance Italy,

- involved the fantastic events of an imperiled heroine.

- classic Gothic novel is Horace Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto (1764).

THE ORIGINE OF THE GOTHIC NOVELS

- The first edition was a translation based on a manuscript printed at Naples

in 1529 and recently rediscovered in the library of "an ancient Catholic

family in the north of England".

- This "ancient Catholic family" is possibly the Thomas Percy family, as

Walpole would have known the Duke of Northumberland and his wife

Elizabeth Percy, though this is not proven.

Horace Walpole The Castle of Otranto

- the notion of the sublime is central, and the sublime and the beautiful

were juxtaposed.

- The sublime was awful and terrifying while the beautiful was calm and

reassuring.

- It is the first supernatural English novel and one of the most influential

works of Gothic fiction.

THE KEY ELEMENTS OF THE GOTHIC NOVEL

- blends elements of realist fiction with the supernatural and fantastical,

- secret passages, clanging trapdoors, pictures beginning to move, and

doors closing by themselves

THE KEY FEATURE OF THE GOTHIC LITERATURE

- Romanticized Past

- Plot conventions
 - Horror

- Supernatural Beings

- Explorations of Romance and Sexuality.

THE KEY FEATURE OF THE GOTHIC LITERATURE

- Anti-Heroes

- Heavy Reliance on Symbolism

- Common Devices, Themes, and Motifs

- The metonymy of gloom and horror

- The vocabulary of the Gothic

- Women in distress - lonely, pensive, and oppressed heroine

- Women threatened by a powerful, impulsive, tyrannical male

THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Jane Austen wrote a Gothic novel parody titled Northanger Abbey (1803),

reflecting the death of the Gothic novel.

J.Austen introduced the comedy of manners, but her novels often are not

funny, but rather scathing critiques of the restrictive, rural culture of the early

nineteenth century.

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) - romantic fiction.

Her Sense and Sensibility - "witty satire of the sentimental novel"

Since the 1950s, this type of fiction has, to a large extent, merged with science

fiction tropes involving time travel between alternate histories, psychic

awareness of the existence of one universe by the people in another, or time

travel that results in history splitting into two or more timelines. Cross-time,
time-splitting, and alternate history themes have become so closely

interwoven that it is impossible to discuss them fully apart from one another.

In Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan and Galician, the

genre of alternate history is called uchronie / ucronia / ucronía / Uchronie,

which has given rise to the term Uchronia in English. This neologism is based

on the prefix ου- (which in Ancient Greek means "not/not any/no") and the

Greek χρόνος(chronos), meaning "time". A uchronia means literally "(in) no

time," by analogy to utopia, etymologically "(in) no place." This term

apparently also inspired the name of the alternate history book list,

uchronia.net.[6]

JAMES MACPHERSON

- born in 1736 near Kingussie, the son of a small farmer.

- university of Aberdeen

- was a schoolmaster in his native parish, Ruthven.

- 1758, he published a poem, The Highlander

He was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the

"translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poems. Ossian is based on Oisín, son

of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a legendary bard

who is a character in Irish mythology. He was the first Scottish poet to gain an

international reputation.

Macpherson wrote The Death of Oscar, a romantic story, resembling in plot

Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale, but more tragical—it ended in the death of the two

rivals and the lady also.

 In the next year, 1760, appeared Fragments of Ancient Poetry collected in

the Highlands of Scotland, and translated from the Gaelic or Erse

language.

THOMAS CHATTERTON

(20 November 1752 – 23 August 1770)

Thomas Chatterton was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in

suicide at age 17. He became a heroic tragic figure in Romantic art

- fatherless

- raised in poverty

- an exceptionally studious child

- publishing mature work by the age of 11.

He was able to pass off his work as that of an imaginary 15th-century poet

called Thomas Rowley, chiefly because few people at the time were familiar

with medieval poetry

- At 17, he sought outlets for his political writings in London, having

impressed the Lord Mayor, William Beckford, but his earnings were not

enough to keep him, and he poisoned himself in despair.

Lecture 4.
SENTIMENTALISM. SOURCES AND BACKGROUND ENGLISH
NOVEL AT THE END OF THE 18 CENTURY
-a writer had become a professional writer; he is independent, begins to write to
please larger middle class public

-the Enlightment novel presents everyday private life in all its shades
-a new type of a protagonist from democratic layers of society. He is practical,
self-made, self-reliant.
-rises contemporary philosophic, social and ethical problems
-time: exact, chronological sequence of events
-space: very detailed with descriptions full of particulars which increase the
impression of real life
-the narrator is omniscient, intrusive; he never abandons his characters

SENTIMENTALISM: SOURCES AND BACKGROUND

The term “sentimental” as applicable to literature appeared in 1749; became

widely used after the publication of Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne
(1768)
Sentimentalism is a literary movement of the mid18th century, which
emphasized overindulgence in one’s emotion for the sake of his overwhelming
discontent towards the social reality and pessimistic belief and emphasis upon
the virtue of man.
-social regress & impoverishment
-devastation of peasantry, destruction of reserved territories of nature
-struggle with old aristocratic culture
-interest towards the “little man” & his misfortunes

David Hume in his work An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

(1751) proclaimed kindness, benevolence, philanthropy as innate qualities of a
person feelings & emotions — fundamental principles of human activity

A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful (1757) by an English journalist & philosopher Edmund Burke
proclaimed two basic emotions: joy & fear

Adam Smith in Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) stated that the beautiful
appears to be first of all the emotional reaction to reality

SENTIMENTALISM: CULTURAL BACKGROUND

-new religious movements: methodism - denial of Anglican church dogmas,
glorification of spontaneous feelings and intuitive attraction to God
-the Cult of Emotions - shifted stress from Reason to natural, unspoilt,
immediate feeling, innate for human beings
-preference to individualizing as the main principle in art
-ejection of normativeness

LITERARY BACKGROUND
-freedom of expression of individual relation to the world – Oliver Goldsmith
advocated humour and satire in drama, creating “merry comedy”
-Laurence Sterne developed the whole theory of hobby-horses, using it in
eccentric-free composition of his books and in outlining of grotesque
characters;
-grotesque (or grottoesque) a general adjective for the strange, mysterious,
magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, unpleasant, or disgusting.
-In literature grotesque may also refer to something that simultaneously
invokes a feeling of uncomfortable bizarreness as well as sympathetic pity.
-From Italian grottesco (through Middle French), literally "of a cave", from
Italian grotta (see grotto), an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art

Laurence Sterne (1713-1768), an English pastor, essayist, novelist, the

reformer of English novel
“Tristram Shandy” is a comic meta-novel that was extremely popular during
Sterne's lifetime. Written over 10 years, in 9 volumes, but covers the time
period of 24 hours
-The digression into Tristram Shandy's eccentric family is that the main
character does not appear until the 4th volume.
-Though Tristram's conception takes place in Volume 1 (and is connected with
the winding of a clock), he is not actually born until the 3rd volume, but
constantly expresses his opinions upon the narrative of his life

LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY, GENTLEMAN

-Tristram (tristis, sad)
-Shandy (daft)
His father wanted to give him a name Trismegistus (three times great), but the
name was misspelt and they called him Tristram (misarable). All the characters
are weird, crazy, unable to communicate.
MISUNDERSTANDING is the key point of the novel. Various points of view
on each event make the stream of consciousness technique
LAURENCE STERNE
- comic-satiric narrative.
-L. Sterne anomalous experimental novel derives from the fusion of a new
technique with older elements.
-The picaresque form: the patchwork (collage) of episodes and the apparently
limitless length of the novel
-the sense of chance that dominates the work: order in disorder
-the mock-heroic treatment of certain subjects (a hobby horse)
-new technique: a new sense of time, based on Bergson's theory of duration,
according to which each person lived moments and experiences which cannot
be measured in fixed periods of time, since the mind has its own inner time,
distinct from the conventional ones of external world

SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE NOVEL

Tristram Shandy has many of the techniques of hypertext fiction

LAURENCE STERNE LITERARY INNOVATIONS

-Laurence Sterne is considered the first writer to use the stream of
consciousness technique
-The plot is non-existent
-Sterne takes advantage of every opportunity to introduce personal thoughts,
considerations and anecdotes
-His digressions even consist of graphic jokes like empty or marble-designed
pages, a whole chapter composed of only one word Alas!, written in bigger
letters, pages of lines and dots and dashes only!
-Clock time is abandoned for the psychological time
-Another aspect of his originality lies in the attention he gives to detail
L. STERNE'S ORIGINALITY
-On the basis of the Bergson's theory of duration what is important is no
longer the chronological sequence of events but what the character feels and
thinks: no facts but emotional implications of facts.
-That is why he uses first person narration and basis his book on an
overlapping of memories that the protagonist describes in an apparently illogical
sequence of progression (flashforwards) and regression (flash-back).
-Great attention is paid to the so called "hobbyhorses" or rather obsessions,
passions. Everyone in the book has his "hobbyhorse" since it is not determined
by any external reality but rather by an inner drive

Lecture 5.
THE ROMANTIC ERA IN THE ENGLISH LITERATURE: LAKE
SCHOOL
ROMANTICISM: GENERAL IDEAS
Romanticism is one of the most important historical events of all times.
It refers to the birth of a new set of ideas. It is about a mindset and a way of
feeling.

Romanticism began in Western Europe in the mid-18 century, in the work of

artists, poets and philosophers. And it subsequently spread all over the world.

Romanticism is best understood as a reaction to the birth of the modern

world and some of its key features: industrialization, urbanization,
secularization and consumerism.

Romanticism as artistic movement

Romanticism is the term applied to the literary and artistic movement that took
place between 1785 and 1832 in Western Europe.
Romanticism is special attitude or intellectual orientation that characterized
many works of literature, painting, music, architecture, criticism, and
historiography in Western civilization over a period from the late 18th to the
mid-19th century.

ROMANTICISM CAN BE SEEN AS A REJECTION

Romanticism can be seen as a rejection of the precepts of order, calm,
harmony, balance, idealization, and rationality that typified Classicism in
general and late 18th-century, and Neoclassicism in particular.
It was also to some extent a reaction against the Enlightenment and against
18th-century rationalism and physical materialism in general.
The Romantic period as major social change
The Romantic period was one of a major social change in England, due to
depopulation of the countryside and rapid development of overcrowded
industrial cities that took place roughly between 1798 and 1832.

The movement of so many people in England was the result of two forces: the
Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution
Indeed, Romanticism may be seen in part as a reaction to the Industrial
Revolution, though it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and
political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, as well as a reaction against the
scientific rationalization of nature.

THE MAIN CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMANTICISM

The main characteristics of Romanticism:
- a deepened appreciation of the beauties of nature;
- a general exaltation of emotion over reason and of the senses over
intellect;
- a turning in upon the self and a heightened examination of human
personality and its moods and mental potentialities;
- a preoccupation with the genius, the hero, and the exceptional figure in
general and a focus on his or her passions and inner struggles;
- a new view of the artist as a supremely individual creator, whose creative
spirit is more important than strict adherence to formal rules and
traditional procedures;
- an emphasis upon imagination as a gateway to transcendent experience
and spiritual truth;
- an obsessive interest in folk culture, national and ethnic cultural
origins, and the medieval era;
- a predilection for the exotic, the remote, the mysterious, the weird, the
occult, the monstrous, the diseased, and even the satanic.

THE ROOTS OF ROMANTICISM

Romanticism proper was preceded by several related developments from the
mid-18th century on that can be termed Pre-Romanticism.
Among such trends was a new appreciation of the medieval romance, from
which the Romantic movement derives its name.
The romance was a tale or ballad of chivalric adventure whose emphasis on
individual heroism and on the exotic and the mysterious was in clear contrast to
the elegant formality and artificiality of prevailing Classical forms of literature.
This new interest in relatively unsophisticated but overtly emotional literary
expressions of the past was to be a dominant note in Romanticism.

LAKE POETS

The Lake Poets were a group of English poets who all lived in the Lake District
of England, United Kingdom, in the first half of the nineteenth century.
They are considered part of the Romantic Movement.

MAIN FIGURES
- William Wordsworth
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- Robert Southey
They were associated with several other poets and writers, including Dorothy
Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, Mary Lamb, Charles Lloyd, Hartley Coleridge,
John Wilson, and Thomas De Quincey.

The first phase of ROMANTICISM

Romanticism in English literature began in the 1790s with the publication of the
Lyrical Ballads of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Wordsworth’s “Preface” to the second edition (1800) of Lyrical Ballads, in
which he described poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of powerful
feelings,” became the manifesto of the English Romantic movement in
poetry.

ROMANTICISM IN EUROPE

William Blake was the third principal poet of the movement’s early phase in
England.

The first phase of Romanticism

The first phase of the Romantic movement in Germany was marked by
innovations in both content and literary style and by a preoccupation with the
mystical, the subconscious, and the supernatural.

A wealth of talents, including Friedrich Hölderlin the early Johann Wolfgang

von Goethe, and Friedrich von Schlegel, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, and
Friedrich Schelling, belong to this first phase.

In Revolutionary France, François-Auguste-René, vicomte de

Chateaubriand, and Madame de Staël were the chief initiators of
Romanticism,

The second phase of Romanticism

-from about 1805 to the 1830s
-was marked by a quickening of cultural nationalism and a new attention to
national origins, as attested by the collection and imitation of native folklore,
folk ballads and poetry, folk dance and music, and even previously ignored
medieval and Renaissance works.

THE ROOTS OF ROMANTICISM

The Romantic movement in English literature of the early 19th century has its
roots in 18th-century poetry, the Gothic novel and the novel of sensibility;
includes the graveyard poets, who were a number of pre-Romantic English
poets writing in the 1740s and later, whose works are characterized by their
gloomy meditations on mortality,
To this was added by later practitioners, a feeling for the “sublime” and
uncanny, and an interest in ancient English poetic forms and folk poetry.
These concepts are often considered precursors of the Gothic genre.

THE SENTIMENTAL ROOTS

The sentimental novel or "novel of sensibility" is a genre which developed
during the second half of the 18th century. It celebrates the emotional and
intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism and sensibility.
Sentimental novels relied on emotional response both from their readers and
characters.
Scenes of distress and tenderness are common, and the plot is arranged to
advance emotions rather than action.
The result is a valorization of "fine feeling", displaying the characters as
models for refined, sensitive emotional effect.
The most famous sentimental novels in English are Samuel Richardson's
Pamela,or Virtue Rewarded (1740), Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield
(1766), Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy (1759–67) and A Sentimental
Journey (1768), Henry Brooke's The Fool of Quality (1765–70).

ROMANTIC POETRY
Romantic poetry − an artistic, literary, musical and
intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards
the end of the 18th century.
The dominant themes of English Romantic poetry:
the filtering of natural emotion through the human mind in order to create
meaning.

William Wordsworth
7 April 1770 – 23 April 1850
-was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint
publication ”LyricaBallads” (1798).
KEY PRINCIPLES OF ROMANTICISM POETRY
the importance of the imagination is a distinctive feature of romantic poets
such as John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and P. B. Shelley, unlike the
neoclassical poets.
For Wordsworth and William Blake, as well as Victor Hugo and Alessandro
Manzoni, the imagination is a spiritual force, is related to morality;
they believed that literature, especially poetry, could improve the world. The
secret of great art, Blake claimed, is the capacity to imagine.

Love for nature is another important feature of Romantic poetry, as a source of

inspiration. This poetry involves a relationship with external nature and places,
and a belief in pantheism. However, the Romantic poets differed in their views
about nature.
Wordsworth recognized nature as a living thing, teacher, god and
everything.
Shelley was another nature poet, who believed that nature is a living thing and
there is a union between nature and man.
John Keats is another lover of nature.
Coleridge differs from other Romantic poets of his age, in that he has a realistic
perspective on nature.

Pantheism is the belief that reality is identical with divinity, or that all-things
compose an all-encompassing, immanent god. Pantheist belief does not
recognize a distinct personal god, anthropomorphic or otherwise, but instead
characterizes a broad range of doctrines differing in forms of relationships
between reality and divinity.
Melancholy occupies a prominent place in romantic poetry, and is an important
source of inspiration for the Romantic poets.
Romantic poetry was attracted to nostalgia, and medievalism which is another
important characteristics of romantic poetry, especially in the works of John
Keats, for example, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, and Coleridge.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( 21 October 1772 – 25 July 1834) - an English poet,

literary critic, philosopher and theologian who, with his friend William
Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a
member of the Lake Poets.
-The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan
-Biographia Literaria.
Robert Southey ( 12 August 1774 – 21 March 1843) - an English poet of the
Romantic school, one of the Lake Poets and England's Poet Laureate from 1813
until his death in 1843.

The "Lake Poet School" (or 'Bards of the Lake', or the 'Lake School') was
initially a derogatory term ("the School of whining and hypochondriacal poets
that haunt the Lakes", according to Francis Jeffrey as reported by Coleridge)
cohesive school of poetry.
Dorothy Wordsworth was an auxiliary member who was unpublished during her
lifetime)

Lecture 6.
CLASSICAL REALISM IN THE ENGLISH LITERATURE
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE ENGLISH REALISM

Realism is a literary movement that started in France in the 1850s as a reaction

against Romanticism and which tried to show "life as it was" in literature all

over Europe;

Its real objective was to root out what is called fantastic and romantic in

literature and art, to insert what is real

PHYLOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND OF REALISM

Realism attempts to illustrate life without romantic subjectivity and

idealization.It focuses on the actualities of life, and truthfully treats the

commonplace characters of everyday life. The purpose of using realism is to

emphasize the reality and morality that is usually relativistic for the people as

well as for the society.

REALISM AS A LITERARY TECHNIQUE

In literature writers use realism as a literary technique to describe story

elements, such as setting, characters, themes, motives, etc., without using

elaborate imagery, or figurative language, such as similes and metaphors.

Through realism, writers explain things without decorative language or

sugar-coating the events.

Realism is something opposite to romanticism and idealism.

THE "VICTORIAN ERA"

In England, this movement coincided approximately with the "Victorian era", a

period ruled by Queen Victoria (1837-1901) which meant the height of the

British Empire and the Industrial Revolution. The United Kingdom expanded its
borders into America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania and became the first economic

and political world power.

NOVELS are certainly the most important literary form of that period,

excellent novels read by an expanding educated middle class that had

developed with economic prosperity.

AESTHETIC ASSAMPTIONS OF ENGLISH REALISM

-a new approach to character and subject matter, a school of thought which

later came to be known as Realism.

Realism It is attention to detail, and an effort to replicate the true nature of

reality. There is the belief that the novel’s function is simply to report what

happens, without comment or judgment.

THE REALIST NOVEL

the realistic novel rests upon the strengths of its characters rather than plot or

turn of phrase.

The characters that the realistic school of novelists produced are some of the

most famous in literary history, from James’s Daisy Miller to Dostoyevsky’s

Raskolnikov. They are psychologically complicated, multifaceted, and with

conflicting impulses and motivations that very nearly replicate the daily

tribulations of being human.

The realist novel was heavily informed by journalistic techniques, such as

objectivity and fidelity

Social Realism

There arose a subgenre of Realism called Social Realism, which can be

interpreted as Marxist and socialist ideas set forth in literature.

-the realist sensibility

-Advances in the field of human psychology also fed into the preoccupation

with representing the inner workings of the mind, and the delicate play of

emotions.

-William James, brother of novelist Henry James, was a famous figure in the

early history of human psychology.

-Psychologists were just beginning to understand that human consciousness was

far more complicated and various than had previously been considered.

-Realism embraced the concept that people were neither completely good

orcompletely bad, but somewhere on a spectrum.

REALIST FICTION CHARACTER

Novelists struggled to create intricate and layered characters who, as much

as possible, felt as though they could be flesh and blood creatures. This effect

was achieved through internal monologues and a keen understanding of

human psychology.

-Changes in plot structure

- Typically, novels follow a definite arc of events, with an identifiable climax

and resolution. The school of Realism observed that life did not follow such

patterns, so for them, neither should the novel. Instead of grand happenings,

tragedies, and epic turns of events, the realist novel plodded steadily over a

track not greatly disturbed by external circumstances.

-Narrative style

A popular device for many realistic novelists was the frame narrative, or the

story inside a story. This device compounds the unreliable narrator by

placing the reader at a further remove from the events of the novel. The purpose

of all ofthese innovations, as with the whole of Realism, was to more accurately

simulate the nature of reality – unknowable, uncertain, and ever-shifting.

- critics sometimes accused the practitioners of Realism of focusing only on the

negative aspects of life. Readers complained that very little happened in

realistic fiction, that they were all talk and little payoff. By the end of the

nineteenth century, Realism in the pure sense had given way to another form

called Naturalism.

THE ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE 19 CENTURY

KEY REPRESENTATIVES OF ENGLISH REALISM LITERATURE

Walter Scott (1771-1832) started out as a writer of Romantic narrative verse

and ended up as a historical novelist. He wrote several historical novels,

mainly about Scottish history: Ivanhoe (1819).

Jane Austen (1775-1817) shared the chronological time with the Romantics,

but she shares some of the features of Realism. Her novels (Sense and

Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Emma (1816)) remain as

popular and critically acclaimed as ever. Her primary interest is people, not

ideas, and her achievement lies in the exact presentation of human situations

and in the delineation of characters that are really living creatures. Her

novels deal with the life of rural land-owners, seen from a woman’s point of

view, have little action but are full of humour and true dialogue.

The Brontë sisters wrote after Jane Austen but are the most Romantic of the

Victorian novelists, particularly Emily Brontë (1818-1848), who wrote

Wuthering Heights (1847), the epitome of the Romantic novel, wild passion set
against the Yorkshire moors. Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) wrote Jane Eyre

(1847), a love story of great realism.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) was perhaps the most popular novelist of the

period. Ch. Dickens wrote vividly about London life and the struggles of the

poor, but in a good-humoured fashion (with grotesque characters) which was

acceptable to readers of all classes. His early works such as the Pickwick

Papers (1836) are masterpieces of comedy. Later his works became darker,

without losing his genius for caricature: Oliver Twist (1837), David

Copperfield (1850), Great Expectations (1861). A Christmas Carol (1843) is

the popular story of Mr. Scrooge visited by the four Christmas ghosts.

William M. Thackeray (1811-1863) wrote Vanity Fair (1847), a satire of high

classes in English society.

George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans, 1819-1890) might be the most realistic of

these writers: Middlemarch (1874).

Anthony Trollope (1815-1888) wrote novels about life in a provincial English

town.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) was a very pessimistic writer who wrote stories of

people in the countryside (the fictional county of Wessex) whose fate was

governed by forces outside themselves (which connects him to Naturalism).

Jude the Obscure (1895), Tess of the d'Urbervilles(1891).

POPULAR LITERATURE

-the Detective Stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), who,

following the example of Edgar Allan Poe, wrote his tales of Sherlock Holmes.
G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) -Father Brown detective stories as well as other

non-genre novels.

H.G. Wells (1866-1946) -The Time Machine (1895) or The War of the Worlds

(1898) as well as non-genre novels.

Victorian poets

Robert and Elizabeth Browning (husband and wife), Gerald Manley

Hopkins(1844-1849), a precursor of Modernism, and the pre-Raphaelites

(school of painters and poets) Christina and Gabriel Rosseti (brother and

sister); Lord (Alfred) Tennyson (1809-1892) was Poet Laureate during most of

Queen Victoria’s reign and sang the values of the British Empire and the

Victorian Age in some of his poems, like “The Charge of the Light Brigade”

(1854); Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) several years later in his poems and in

novels like The Man Who Would Be King (1888) and The Jungle Book (1894).

RISE OF FEMINISM AND IMPORTANT FEMALE NOVELISTS

The Victorian Era was a period of great social and political reform, especially

regarding the role of women.

Women wrote in order to make a living, contribute to the literary world, and

most importantly change British society and fight for women’s rights.

The reasons of Feminism

Voting and property rights, education opportunities, and employment

restrictions were all issues women of 19th century Britain faced.

Feminism started to gain momentum out of the frustration women faced with

the openly unfair and worsening social and political situation.

The idea of the “New Woman”

The New Woman was the opposite of the stereotypical Victorian Woman who

was uneducated, reliant entirely on a man, and led an entirely domestic life. She

was intelligent, independent, educated, and self-supporting.

New Woman novels generally focused on rebellious women and were known

for voicing dissatisfaction with the Victorian woman’s position in marriage

and society overall.

FEMALE NOVELISTS

-Charlotte Bronte and George Eliot.

Many women of the Victorian Era published their work anonymously or under

pseudonyms to ensure that their works would be given the same merit that

works by male authors were granted.

THE CREATIVE WRITING OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE

-Charlotte Bronte published most of her works under the gender

neutralpseudonym “Currer Bell”. In her novels, Bronte created strong female

heroineswho possessed free thought, intellect, and strong moral character.

She wrote for the women she saw as being oppressed by society, which

included teachers, governesses, and spinsters

THE GOVERNESS NOVEL

a governess has no security of employment, received minimal wages, and was

isolated in the household with the label of being somewhere in-between a

family member and a servant.

-The large amount of middle-class women who had to resort themselves to the

ambiguous role of governess lead to a rise in popularity of the governess novel

because it explored a woman’s role in society (“The Victorian Age”).

-The most popular example of a governess novel would be Charlotte Bronte’s

novel “Jane Eyre”, which is a fictional autobiography of the orphan Jane Eyre

as she matures and becomes a governess at Thornfield manor.

-Jane is rebellious, resourceful, and brave woman, despite a male-dominated

society.

Lecture 7.

THE KEY FEATURES OF THE ENGLISH LITERATURE OF THE 30-

50S OF THE 19 CENTURY

KEY FEATURES OF CLASSIC REALISM NOVELS

-sequence of events, with an identifiable climax and resolution.

-Instead of grand happenings, tragedies, and epic turns of events, the realist

novel plodded steadily over a track not greatly disturbed by external

circumstances.

THE NARRATIVE STYLE

-Instead of an omniscient narrator calmly describing the characters and events,

readers often confront unreliable narrators who do not have all the information.

-A popular device for many realistic novelists was the frame narrative, or the

story inside a story.

INNOVATIONS OF CLASSIC REALISM

This device compounds the unreliable narrator by placing the reader at a

further remove from the events of the novel. The purpose of all of these

innovations, as with the whole of Classic Realism, was to more accurately

simulate the nature of reality – unknowable, uncertain, and ever-shifting

FOCUS ON THE MINUTIAE OF CHARACTER

-The fascination with things falling apart was unpleasant to many, and critics

sometimes accused the practitioners of Classic Realism of focusing only on the

negative aspects of life.

-The focus on the minutiae of character was seen as unwillingness to

actually tell a story. Readers complained that very little happened in realistic

fiction,

By the end of the nineteenth century, Realism in the pure sense had given way

to another form called Naturalism.

NEWSPAPERS, PRESS, AND PUBLISHING IN THE 19 CENTURY

-By the early 19th century, there were 52 London papers and over 100 other

titles. There was a massive growth in overall circulation of major events,

informationand weekly publication of literature.

-The book publishing industry grew throughout the 19th century. There was a

dramatic increase in literacy along with the growth of libraries and public

schools.

Anthony Trollope (1815-1888)

A series of books set in the imaginary English county of Barsetshire remains

his best loved and most famous work, but he also wrote convincing novels of

political life as well as studies that show great psychological penetration. One of

his greatest strengths was a steady, consistent vision of the social structures

of Victorian England, which he re-created in his books with unusual solidity.

LIFE AND CAREER

the son of a sometime scholar, barrister, and failed gentleman farmer. He was

unhappy at the great public schools of Winchester and Harrow. The years 1834–

41 he spent as a junior clerk in the General Post Office, but he was then

transferred as a postal surveyor to Ireland. In 1844 he married Rose Heseltine,

an Englishwoman, and set up house at Clonmel, in Tipperary.

THE WORKS AND WRITING STYLE

The Warden (1855) was his first novel of distinction.

During the next 12 years Trollope produced five other books set, like The

Warden,in Barsetshire: Barchester Towers (1857), Doctor Thorne (1858),

FramleyParsonage (1861), The Small House at Allington (1864), and The Last

Chronicle of Barset (serially 1866–67; 1867).

THE STYLE OF WRITING

In 1859 Trollope moved back to London, resigning from the civil service in

1867.

Before then, he had produced some 18 novels apart from the Barsetshire group.

He wrote mainly before breakfast at a fixed rate of 1,000 words an hour.

-Outstanding among works of that period were Orley Farm (serially, 1861–62;

1862), which made use of the traditional plot of a disputed will.

Traces of his new style

the slow-moving He Knew He Was Right (serially, 1868–69; 1869), a subtle

account of a rich man’s jealous obsession with his innocent wife.

-Purely psychological studies include Sir Harry Hotspur of

Humblethwaite(serially, 1870; 1871) and Kept in the Dark (1882). Some of the

later works, however, were sharply satirical: The Eustace Diamonds (serially,

1871–73; 1873), a study of the influence of money on sexual relationships; The

Way We Live Now(serially, 1874–75; 1875), remarkable for its villain-hero, the

financier Melmotte.

THE END OF REALISM

-Realism had turned to Naturalism towards the end of the nineteenth century.

-With Naturalism, writers defined their characters using their heredity and

history. --------Qualities that people found distasteful in Realism, which was the

fixation with character and the thoroughly dull plots, was intensified by

Naturalism.
-The impact was uniquely because of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution that

inspired other writers to branch out into something that differs from Realism.

Whereas Realism seeks only to describe subjects as they really are,

naturalism also endeavors to govern “scientifically” the underlying forces, like

the heredity and history, manipulating all of the actions of the subjects.

NEO-VICTORIANISM AND THE NEW REALISTIC NOVEL

The Neo-Victorian movement began as a revival of the social and literary

elements of the Victorian Era.

A Neo-Victorian Novel is a novel written in modern times that takes place in

the 19th century and usually puts a spin on the characteristics of the Victorian

Era.

- it often tells the intimate stories of those who were not the center of

Victorian novels because of social constructs, such as, women and servants.