English Literature Summary

English Literature Summary

Juan Sebastián Pinto

Old English Era

• Strongly influenced by conquest

• Epic poems: tales joined by oral performances about legendary heroes

• Most representative literary figure: Beowulf

Medieval literature

• Arcthurian Legend (fiction)

• Historia Regum Britanniae (Geofrey of Monmotuh)

• La mort d'Artur (Thomas Mallory)

• Birth of theater by medieval drama

• Liturgical tales about morality performed by bards

• Literary genres: Mummers play & Morris Dance

The Elizabethean Era

• Birth of shakespearean tragedy

• Ploriferation of theater

• Hamlet: what's goal of life and what's beyond death

• Romeo and Juliet: the archetypical lovers

• Literature makes people more conscious about their existence

The jacobean era

• Moral Drama: strongly influenced by Christianity

• Christopher Marlow's play of Dr. Faustus: concecuences of dealing with the devil

• The Authorized King's version of the Bible and the Book of Common Prayers spread the early versions of modern English

The Renaissance

• Secular society

• Sciencies flourished

• Literature fosters self-awarness and rationalism

• Poetry becomes complex and elaborated

The restoration

• Re-opening of theaters supported by Charles II

• Theater tradition becomes avaliable for all the public

• Heroic Drama: literature for men, focused on legendary heroes

• Pathetic tragedy: amied at women, moral dramas of puritan ladies

The XVIII Century

• Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe) & Gulliver's Travels (Johnathan Swift): the archetype of the English adventurer

• Roots of romatiscim: authors tried to become more sensitive

• Sentimental novel: literature based on emotional response and empathy

• Graveyard poets: obscured mediations on death

Romantiscim

• Industrial revolutions turned the cities into crowed steamy places

• The lake poets: authors detached from aesthetics

• Thomas de Quincy: confessions of an English opium-eater

• Mary Shelly & Frankenstein: birth of the gothic novel

Romantiscim

• Jane Austen & Pride and Prejudice: critiscim against gender roles and wealthy elites

• Lord Byron & The byronic hero: brillant, passional, skillful and cast himself out of society

The Victorian Era

• Times of social inequality and extreme poverty

• Abraham Stoker & Dracula: the birth of vampiric literature

• Conan Doyle creates the iconic decetive Sherlock Holmes

Charles Dickens

• Archetype of the orphan boy

• Literature for children

• Portrayal of the working-class

• Christmas Carol (1843)

• Oliver Twist (1838)

• Great expectations (1861)

• A tale of two cities (18589)

The XX Century

• Two World Wars strike and change every aspect of society

• J. R. R. Tolkien & The Lord of the Rings saga: literature of escapism

• J. K. Rowlling & The Harry Potter Saga: juvenile literature

• George Orwell & 1984: Distopya, totalitarism, opression by fear and pain

• Aldous Huxley & A Brave New World: Distopya, apathy, control by ignorance and pleasure

Literary Institutions

• The Eisteddfod society

  
  

• The Welsh Books Council

• The Royal Society of Edinburgh 

  
  

Literary Prizes

• Man Booker Prize

• Commonwealth Writers' Prize

• International Dublin Literary Award

• Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry

  
  

Nobel Prize Holders

• Beltran Russell (1950)

• Wiston Churchil (1953)

• Harold Pinter (2005)

• Doris Lessing (2007)