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A Brief Introduction to British Literature

A Brief Introduction to British Literature. 山东大学外国语学院 申富英 http://www.jpkc.sdu.edu.cn/culture/final/content12.htm. An Introduction. British literature can be roughly divided into eight periods, for the sake of convenience: I. Early and Medieval Literature;

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A Brief Introduction to British Literature

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  1. A Brief Introduction to British Literature 山东大学外国语学院 申富英 http://www.jpkc.sdu.edu.cn/culture/final/content12.htm

  2. An Introduction • British literature can be roughly divided into eight periods, for the sake of convenience: I. Early and Medieval Literature; II. Literature of the Renaissance Period; III. Literature of the Revolution and Restoration Period; IV. Literature of The 18th Century; V. Literature of The Roman Period; VI. Literature of Critical Realism; VII. Prose and Poetry of the Mid- and Late 19th Century; VIII. Literature of the 20th century. • Today we will mainly introduce the literature before the 18th century.

  3. I. Early and Medieval Literature • First, Early and Medieval Literature. For this part, the most important things for you to know include: 1. The national epic of the English people, which belongs to the primitive literature; 2. Romance cycles, which belong to the feudalist literature; 3. Folk literature whose subjects are from the lower class; 4. Chaucer’s literary works.

  4. 1. National Epic:Beowulf • A long poem of 3000 lines; • Written in old English in alliterative form; • Telling a story about an ancient hero Beowulf’s fight against a lake monster and his mother, a monster, too; • Beowulf’s battle against a fire dragon. • The poem reflects ancient people’s longing for a courageous hero who can fight against the unknown and terrible nature and protect them from the threats from nature. The outstanding features of the poem is its use of alliteration, understatement and metaphor.

  5. 2. Romance (1) The knighthood • The most prevailing kind of literature in feudal England is the Romance. Romance is usually about the knights’ stories. • A knight is a man of noble birth, skilled in the use of weapons. • He loves adventures and tournaments. • His most outstanding characteristics include: • A. Loyalty to the king; • B. Loyalty to his lord; • C. Loyalty to the church, and • D. Chivalry and devotedness to ladies.

  6. 2. Romance (2) Romance Cycles • The great majority of Romances mainly fall into 3 cycles. That is: 1. The matters of Britain: About King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table 2. The matters of France: About Emperor Charlemagne and his peers 3. The matters of Rome: About Alexander the Great • Of these three cycles, the matters of Britain is the most important one, and the culminations of its is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The last thing I want to say about Romances is that they are literature for the feudalist ruling class.

  7. King Arthur and his knights of the Round TableSir Gawain and the Green Knight.

  8. 3. Folk Literature • Literature of the lower class in the feudalist society includes written folk literature and oral folk literature. • As for the written folk literature, the most important writer is William Langland, whose masterpiece is Piers the Plowman.

  9. 3. Folk Literature • With an oral tradition, popular ballads usually deals with a single episode and their beginning is often abrupt, without any introduction to the characters and background information. • The themes of ballads are various in kind. • And among the ballads published, the Robin Hood ballads are of special significance. • Robin Hood, the famous outlaw welcomed by the poor was a half-historical and half-legendary hero. He and his men lived in the forest, fighting with the oppressors and protecting the poor and the oppressed. • The best known of the earliest collections was given by Bishop Thomas Percy (1729～1811), named Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.

  10. 4. Chaucer • Chaucer is the most important poet in the medieval age. • He is the father of English poetry in that he introduces rhymed verse, especially couplet, into Britain to replace alliterative verse formerly prevailing in British poetry and making English the literary language. • He is also the founder of English realism because The Canterbury Tales, his masterpiece,provides a panorama of the life in the medieval England. • He is the forerunner of humanism for in his masterpiece the keynote is humanism. He praises human intellect, human beauty, human passion and human living environment, and affirms human rights to pursue earthly happiness. • He does much in making London dialect the foundation of modern English speech.

  11. II. The Renaissance (1) • Chaucer's death starts the transition period in England full of significant changes. • The King of England, after the Wars of Roses, assumed greater power than before; and Henry VII (1485～1509) founded the Tudor dynasty which was a centralized monarchy and met the needs of the rising bourgeoisie and so won its support. Declaring the separation from the Roman Catholic Church, implementing a large-scale suppression of the monasteries and confiscating the property of the Church to enrich the new bourgeois, Henry VIII (1509～1547) started the movement called the Reformation, the essence of which is the fight of the bourgeois for power. However, the Counter-Reformation carried out by Queen Mary (1553～1558) put an end to the Reformation and caused the bloody religious persecution. • The reign of Elizabeth I (1558～1603) was a period of political and religious stability on the one hand and economic prosperity on the other. The Church of England was re-established, ending the long time religious strife; commerce and industry forged ahead as a result of the enclosure movement at home and the opening of new sea routes in the world. In the meantime, the rise of the bourgeoisie also showed its influence in the sphere of cultural life.

  12. II. The Renaissance (2) • The word “Renaissance” means revival of interest in ancient Greek and Roman culture, specifically between the 14th and mid 17th century. • Renaissance, in essence, was a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of feudalist ideology in Europe and introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie, to lift the restrictions in all areas placed by the Roman catholic church. • Humanism is both the keynote of the Renaissance and the intellectual liberation movement. Humanists took interest in human life and human activities and gave expression to the new feeling of admiration for human beauty, human achievements and human reason and passion. • The English Renaissance was an exciting time for literature which experienced a burst of ideas and literary brilliance.

  13. II. The Renaissance (3) • In order to appreciate literature in the Renaissance period, it is necessary to grasp some key wordsfor this period: • Of course the most important one is humanism and revival of the interest in the ancient Greek and Roman literature. • Besides these two words, which can be applied to all the works by all the renaissance writers, there are also some key word which can be used in analyzing some individual writers. • Emphasis on the importance of national unity. • The importance of ideal kingship. • The importance of legal succession to the throne. • The issue of witchcraft and racial prejudice. • The close study of human nature, esp. human weakness.

  14. II. The Renaissance (4) • Thomas More (1477～1535), scholar, thinker and statesman, was the leading humanist of his day. Among his writings the best known is Utopia (1516) • The work tells of a journey to an imagined island name Utopia, where an ideal form of society exists. • Its title comes from the Greek word meaning “nowhere” and was adopted by More as the name of his ideal commonwealth.

  15. II. The Renaissance (5) • Edmund Spenser (c. 1552～1559) was the most influential poet and the dominating literary intellect in the late 16th century in England. The Shepherd's Calendar (1597), a poem in the traditional pastoral form and his first important work, established his poetic reputation. • The union of line and meter in the poem is more harmonious, more supple, and richer than that in the works of Chaucer. • His sonnet Amoretti is one of the most famous sonnet sequences of the Elizabethan Age. • In his masterpiece The Faerie Queene, Spenser devised a verse form called the Spenserian Stanza, which consists of eight ten-syllable lines, plus a ninth line of 12 syllables, an iambic rhythm and a rhyme scheme as follows: abab bcbc c.

  16. II. The Renaissance (6) • Politician, philosopher and essayist, Francis Bacon (1561～1626) showed his great intellectual energy in his day. • His major works are The Advancement of Learning and New Instrument. • While being the founder of English materialist philosophy and the founder of modern science in England, he is also the first great English essayist. • In 1597 Francis Bacon published his first collection of essays, which made popular in English a literary form widely practiced afterward. It is the most informal and casual of his works, the Essays, that is read most often.

  17. II. The Renaissance (7) • Based on the miracle play, the morality play, the interlude and the classical drama, drama flourished in this age more than any other form of literature. • Christopher Marlowe (1564～1595) was the greatest of the pioneers of English drama. • His importance is due to the energy with which he endowed the blank verse line (unrhymed iambic pentameter), which in his hands developed an unprecedented suppleness and power. • His plays have great intensity, but sometimes they show a genius which is epic rather than dramatic—at least in Tamburlaine, The Jew of Malta and Doctor Faustus which are his acknowledged masterpieces. • The final scene of Doctor Faustus is one of the most intensely dramatic in English literature. It shows his musical handling and control of the ten-syllable line. • Marlowe's works paved the route for the greatest dramatist—William Shakespeare—whose accomplishments were the monument of the English Renaissance and whose works gave the fullest expression to humanist ideals.

  18. II. The Renaissance (8) William Shakespeare (1) • William Shakespeare (1564～1616), a great poet and dramatist of the English Renaissance period, is surely one of the greatest writers the western world has ever produced. • The facts concerning Shakespeare's life are scarce; nevertheless there are many records left in the works of his contemporaries and later biographers that help us to restore his image. • William Shakespeare was born probably on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. As a child William was sent to the local grammar school that he had attended for six years. He studied Latin and Greek and read widely the books current in his day. When Shakespeare was fourteen, his father fell into debt, and the boy probably left school and became a country schoolmaster to help support his family. • In 1582, William Shakespeare, then eighteen, was married to Anne Hathaway, eight years of his elder. Six months later, Susanna was born; in 1585, their twins, Hamnet and Judith, were baptized.

  19. II. The Renaissance (9) William Shakespeare (2) • Shakespeare arrived inLondonin the year 1586 or 1587. At that time drama was rapidly gaining popularity among the people. • Shakespeare worked both as actor and playwright. He established himself so well as a playwright that Robert Greene, one of the “University Wits” resentfully declared him to be “an upstart crow. ” However, during the period in London, he became an acclaimed actor and established playwright. • Shakespeare retired from the stage and returned to Stratford in 1612. He died on April 23,1616, the 52nd anniversary of his birthday. • William Shakespeare produced 37 plays, 2 narrative poems and 154 sonnets. • His plays can be divided into four types: historical plays, comedies, tragedies and romantic tragi-comedies. His major dramas may fall into three periods:

  20. II. The Renaissance (10) William Shakespeare (3) • The first period (1590～1600) • Henry VI (1590～91) • Richard III (1592～93) • The Comedy of Errors (1592) • Titus Andronicus (1593) • The Taming of the Shrew (1593～94) • The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594) • Love's Labour's Lost (1594) • Romeo and Juliet (1595) • Richard II (1595～96) • A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595～96) • King John (1596～97) • The Merchant of Venice (1596～97) • Henry IV, Part I (1597) • Henry IV, Part II (1597) • Much Ado about Nothing (1598～99) • Henry V (1598～99) • The Merry Wives of Windsor (1598～1601) • Julius Caesar (1599) • As You Like It (1599～1600) • Twelfth Night (1599～1600)

  21. II. The Renaissance (11) William Shakespeare (4) • The second period (1601～1608) • Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1600～01) • Troilus and Cressida (1602) • All's Well That Ends Well (1604) • Measure for Measure (1604～05) • Othello, the Moore of Venice (1604～05) • King Lear (1605～06) • Macbeth (1606) • Antony and Cleopatra (1607) • Coriolanus (1607) • Timon of Athens (1605～08) • Pericles (1608) • The third period (1609～1612) • Cymbeline (1609～10) • The Winter's Tale (1610～11) • The Tempest (1611～12) • Henry VIII (1613)

  22. II. The Renaissance (12) William Shakespeare (5) Hamlet: It praises humanists as represented by Hamlet. He is the scholar, a soldier and a statesman. It shows the inevitable problems faced by the humanists. Hamlet’s delay of action is due to his awareness of the possible national disaster which will be brought about by his personal revenge and his sense of responsibility to put the interests of his nation and his people before his own. • Let’s have a brief look at Shakespeare’s greatest dramas. • The Merchant of Venice: • It deals with the conflict between the rising bourgeois and the feudalist money lender. • It praises true love and friendship and attacks greed and selfishness. • It also reveals the prevailing prejudice against the jew. • It shows the rising bourgeoisie’s confidence in winning the future.

  23. II. The Renaissance (12) William Shakespeare (5) Othello: A tragedy of human weakness, esp. envy. A tragedy caused by hypocrisy and selfishness. The issue of racial prejudice against the black. • Macbeth: • A tragedy of human weakness, esp. ambition. • Importance of legal succession to the throne, which has great significance in keeping national unity.

  24. II. The Renaissance (13) William Shakespeare (6) The Tempest: The spirit of reconciliation. The spirit of forgiving. • King Lear: • A tragedy caused by splitting national unity. • A tragedy caused by Lear’s impulse. • A tragedy due to Lear’s inability to distinguish between the true and the false. And his irresponsibility as a king. • A tragedy due to the prevalence of the social evils.

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