A. PALEOLITHIC TRIBES Stone Age left no written literature or history

B. CELTS ( Central Europe during the Iron Age) Celtic (language) 1)Goidels or Gaels Ireland2) Britons/ Brythons or Cymry invaded Britain

Characteristics/ Contributions to Literature of the CELTSclasses of poets (The Bards)sang songs in praiseTwo passions-- to fight well& talk cleverlyfierceness in battle, art and poetry, great respect for women, high sense of personal honor

C. BELGAE ( Germanic Race during the first Century B.C.) Agricultural economy of the islandsCultivation of valleys

D. ROMANS In 55 BC Julius Caesar crossed the English Channel 400 years after, large part of Britain was occupied & ruled by RomansEmperor Claudius established Roman rule in Britain in 43 A.D.

Contributions of the Romans Established law and orderErected walls to the country from the barbarous tribes of the northBuilt roads, walled towns, stone forts, &other structures such as temples and baths*About 410 A.D. the Roman government was forced to withdraw the

Roman troops from Britain. Hence, the early literature shows few traces of the Roman occupation

D. THE ANGLO-SAXONS 449 A.D. (Angles, the Saxons,& the Jutes )

From Denmark & from the other parts of GermanySemi-agricultural, semi-nomadic Lived in wooden houses - tun (town) ham (house) , or wic Passion: War &love for freedom

Eorlz - the ruling classCeorlz - herdsmenThanes - tiller of the soilWitan - assist the king

Formation of Structured KingdomsNorthum Bria & Mercia - formed by the AnglesEssex &Wessex - formed by the SaxonsKent - settled by the Jutes

*The country became England from Angle-land (Land of the Angles)

the most excellent Anglo-Saxon rulerLawmaker and patron of literatureproposed that the students be educated in Old English and those excelled would go on to learn Latin.invited scholars from Europe and Wales to promote literature and the arts

King Alfred the Great (871)

E. THE SCANDINAVIANS (NORTHMEN or VIKINGS)They cared nothing for Christianity and learning because they were PagansThey destroyed many valuable libraries and literature didn’t appear until after Alfred the Great became the king in 871.

BEOWULF: c. 1000 Written in alliterative verse and uses kennings, as does

Caedmon’s Hymn.  An epic poem in the elegiac mode.  

Deals with the Danish King, Hrothgar, whose court is attacked by the monster Grendel and his mother, who kill Many of the kings men. 

Beowulf , a young Great, comes boasting to Hrothgar’s court, and avenges these deaths by fighting Grendel and his mother, receiving rich rewards from Hrothgar—his ring-bearer—for these deeds.   He then fights a dragon to save his own people, but dies in slaying it.  The poem ends in a lament for Beowulf.

Contributions to Literature1. Epic and War poetry

2) Anglo-Saxon Chronicles ( Earliest English History)series of rough notes jotted down by the monks of various monasterieswork attributed to Alfred the Great*Saint Augustine – was sent by Pope Gregory to preach Christianity in England

3) Christian Literature Caedmon- the father of English song made Famous by his work, “Hymn” Caedmon Hymns – the oldest piece of verse in English language Cynewulf - 9th Century poet came form the Kingdom of MerciaVenerable Bede (greatest of the Latin writers)-

Ecclesiastical History of the English people -Tone of

*Anglo- Saxon literature- generally dignified and rather gloomy

Effects of Christianity Scribes began to translate the bible and to compose literature to Latin

and in Anglo-Saxon Christianity & literature flourished in Britain specially in the North Monasteries became the haven of literature and the Arts Monks gathered ancient folktales of the Anglo-Saxons.

England’s oldest literature grew out of confluence of two traditions: pagan and Christianity.

Pagan represents the poetry which the Anglo-Saxons probably brought with them in the form of oral sagas.

Christian represents the writings developed under teaching of the monks.

• Their writings stressed the love of battle, fidelity to one’s lord, and the implacability of faith

Forms of Literature1) Epic2) Lyric Poetry: rude stanzas, elegiac • Tone is generally dignified and gloomy• First literary works are preserved in the “Exeter book.”

Norman conquest led by William of Normandy “The Conqueror”

EFFECTS/INFLUENCES

Love of law and order

William drew up the code of laws and prepared the Domesday Book w/c includes a gigantic survey of all the real estate & other taxable property of England

great increase in the growth and importance of towns in England

French or Anglo- Norman which is based on Latin.

Many words were introduced.

English grammar was simplified. Standard English language

Writers and their Contributions

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1) Geoffrey of Monmouth- History of the Kings of Britain

2) Geoffrey Chaucer- “ The Father of English Poetry”- The Canterbury Tales

3) The Pearl Poet- Sir Gawain and the Green Knights

4) William of Malmesbury

5) Roger Bacon

6) John Wycliffe – first complete translation of the Bible into the English language

7) Sir Thomas- Malory Le Morte D’ Arthur

8) First version of Piers Plowman

GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1343 – 1400)

The Canterbury Tales (1380s)   

24 tales and a framing prologue that sets up the fiction of pilgrims meeting at a tavern as they begin their pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. 

Each agrees to tell a tale.  The tales are inked by prologues.  The narrator begins the prologue by describing the fine April day and each of the pilgrims in his entourage. 

Some characters:  Knight, Miller, Wife of Bath, Prioress, Nun’s Priest, Squire, Reeve, Pardoner, Summoner, Cook, Man of Law, Oxford Scholar, etc. 

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT(1375 – 1500)

Written by the unknown “Pearl poet,” who also wrote the allegorical dream-vision poem, “Pearl.” 

Arthurian Romance in Alliterative Verse  Involves Sir Gawain’s quest to confront the Green Knight, who has disrupted Arthur’s court.  The Green Knight may represent fertility.  Gawain’s chastity is tested by his host’s wife, who tries to seduce him. Gawain fails his test of trust by taking the girdle the woman offers him; it has protective power.  The host turns out to be the shape-shifting Green Knight, who spares Gawain’s life in a beheading game.  He Gives Gawain a green girdle as a token of G’s weakness and need for forgiveness.

 

Literature1. Histories

2. Romances – pose and verse (Metrical Romances)

3. Tales

4. Dramas

5. Lyric poetry

6. Ballads

RENAISSANCE LITERATURE (1485 – 1660)

“Renaissance” means “Rebirth”--Rebirth of interest in the Greek and Latin classics.

Emphasis on humanistic education for statesmanship 

Focus on the individual and a concern with the fullest possible cultivation of human potential through proper education

Focus on individual consciousness and the interior mind concern with the refinement of the language and the development of a national, vernacular literature 

Reformation- movement that aimed for reformation in the Roman Catholic church which gave rise to the Protestant domination empowered by Martin Luther.

1. Sir Thomas More

- “The Man of Renaissance” & Lord Chancellor

- Utopia

2. Sir Philip Sidney- finest product of Renaissance culture in England

ProsePoetry

Drama

Sonnet

Tudor Literature Courtly Literature - romantic by nature Citizen literature – more realistic by nature

Henry VII

Henry VIII

HumanismAnglican Church

Italian Writers

First Printing Press

Defender of the Faith

Outburst of creative energy/ overflowing with vigorous life

Great variety of almost unlimited creative force

Dominated mainly by the spirit of Romance

Full of dramatic action

Period of experimentation

Largely influenced by the literature of Italy

Literary spirit was all-pervasive ( authors were men)

3. John Lyly

1. Edmund Spenser

7 . Christopher Marlowe

2. Sir Walter Raleigh

- used euphemism as a style

- The Faerie Queene

- The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

- The Nymph’s Reply To The Shepherd

4. Sir Philip Sidney - Sonnet Forty One

5. Francis Bacon – Of Studies

6. William Shakespeare - The Immortal Playwright

ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND(1558 – 1603)

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)  The Shepheardes Calender (1579). 

Written in Imitation of Vergil’s Ecologues, the Calender has an ecologue for each month of the year.   

Ecologue = a short pastoral poem written as a dialogue or soliloquy.  Conversations among shepherds and rustic folk. 

10. Ronald A. Knox

8 . Ben Jonson -“1st Poet Laureate”

9 . John Donne

- To Celia- Masques, a new type of comedy

- “Father of Modern Writers”

- Translator- Paul’s Speech at Athens

11. Edmund Campion – the Brag

ProseLyric poetry

The Sonnet

Drama- crowning glory of the Renaissance

The Bible

The Book Of Psalms

Essay

TranslationsKing James Bible –protestantsDouay-Reims Version – Roman Catholics

Queen Elizabeth

Great Armada

Era of Discovery & Exploration

Authors were men

Outburst of Creative Energy

1. Francis Bacon

- “Forerunner of the Essay”

2. King James- “Finest Translator of the Bible”

3. John Milton- “Greatest Puritan Pamphleteer”

- Paradise Lost

- Bible

- On His Blindness

4. John Bunyan

- The pilgrim’s Progress

5. John Dryden

- “Greatest Satirist of the Period” - “ Literary Dictator of the Restoration Period”

- Alexander’s Feast & Absalom & Architophel

6. Samuel Pepys- “Greatest Diarist”

- The London Fire

Metaphysical Poetry

Drama

Satirical

Ode

Essay Diary

Bible

Merchant ClassProtestants

Oliver Cromwell

Charles II

Pseudo-Classical

Leader of theRepublican Commonwealth

AUGUSTAN AGE

1. Daniel Defoe- Shaped modern Journalism- The Apparition of Mrs.Veal

2. Jonathan Swift- “The Greatest Genius of the Age”- “The Greatest English Satirist”- Life with Giants

AGE OF POPE

Alexander Pope- An Essay on Criticism- Supreme in Epigrams- Chief representative of Pseudo - Classicism- “Dictator of Neo - Classic Poetry

Joseph Addison

Richard Steele- “Literary Dictator of the Age”

- Editor of the London Gazette

- The Spectator

- Tatler

AGE OF JOHNSON

Samuel Johnson- “ Chief English Man of Letters”- Dictionary

James Boswell

- Life of Johnson

- Representative of the modern method of accurate Biographical Writing

Edward Gibbon- “Greatest of all Biographers”

- The History of Eighteen Century Literature

Pseudo - Classicism

“Cogito ergo sum”

Reason & Formalism

1. William Wordsworth- The Tables Turned- The World is too much with us

2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge- Kubla Khan

3. Walter Scott- Ivanhoe & Ave Maria

4. George Gordon, Lord Byron

- The Eve of Waterloo

4. Percy Bysshe Shelley- To a Skylark

5. John Keats- Ode To a Nightingale

6. Charles Lamb- A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig

The Rediscovery of Old Ballads

Romanticism &Exaggerated Romanticism

Revolt Against Artificiality

Imagination

Feelings/Emotions

Age of Liberty

Other Significant Person

Jean Jacques Rousseau- “ Father of Modern society”

1. Thomas Carlyle-The Storming of the Bastille

2. Alfred Tennyson

- Break, Break, Break

3. Robert Browning- My Last Duchess

4. Rudyard Kipling

- Recessional

6. Christina Rossetti

- Up - Hill

7. Jane Austen

- Sense and Sensibility

5. Elizabeth Barret Browning- How Do I Love Thee

Queen Victoria

Oxford Movement

Catholic Revival

Democracy on the March

Industrial Revolution

It marked the occasion when the world paid homage to ENGLAND as the WEALTHIEST, the most SECURE, the most LIBERAL, and the most POWERFUL NATION of the WORLD.

1. John Galsworthy- Quality

2. Katherine Mansfield

- Taking the Veil

3. Bryan MacMahon- By the Sea

4. Sheila Kaye-Smith

- Superstition Corner

5. Lytton Strachey- Queen Victoria’s Marriage

6. Thomas Hardy

- The Man He Killed

7. William Butler Yeats- Lake Isle of Innisfree

8. T. S. Eliot

- Journey of the Magi

9. John Masefield- A Consecration

10. Dylan Thomas

- Reminiscences of Childhood

11. Gilbert Keith Chesterton- The Romance of Orthodox

12. Ronald Duncan

- The Winslow Boy

The Rise of Labor party

World Wars

Era of Change

Socialism

Surrealism

Loneliness & Isolation

Political and Social Changes

Atomic Age

Significant Insights

1. People are unaffected by the issues/problems and yet, they are concerned.2. Maturity begins when one has undergone struggles in life.3. The creativity of the person can be polished through hardships & sacrifices.4. Literature serves as a mirror of one’s weaknesses & strengths5. Failures lead to success & triumphs.6. Literature must serve as a unifying factor to attain harmony.

Significant Insights

7. Your country dictates who you are.

8. An individual is molded by the events in becoming real person, true to his convictions & genuine in her commitments.

9. History teaches lessons that an individual should learn from them.

10. Man’s growth & success is not solely based on his past.