PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. Daniel Schulze

Transcription

1 PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE Daniel Schulze

2 Repetition What is a text? What is an isotopy/isotopic field? What, according to de Saussure, is a linguistic sign? Name two differences between literary and expository texts!

3 Homework (Culler) What is the difference between literature as context and literature as language? What does he mean by studying texts as literature? What does tellability mean? What functions does literature fulfil (5)?

4 Overview 500-ca ca Old English Literature Middle English Literature Renaissance From Commonwealth and Restoration to 18 th Century (Neo-Classicism and Enlightenment) Romanticism Victorian era (incl. Realism und Naturalism) Edwardian era (Begin Modernism) Modernism Post-War era/postmodernism

5 Old English Literature

6 Old English Literature Earliest period of English Literature: 500-ca AD Origins rooted in the Christianisation of the British Isles (Latin Literature)) Christian hero literature Biblical motives and stories Germanic epic poetry and episodes form Old English history as template Beowulf, The Battle of Brunanburg Dark outlook on life Epic forms Themes: Bravery, Wantonness Beowulf; MS Cotton Vitellius A.15

7 Beowulf

8 Middle English Literature

9 Middle English Literature Caesura in culture, language and literature after the Norman invasion of 1066 English Literature as a means for teaching ecclesiastical truths, values, norms and morals of society Characteristics: Allegories on piety, virtue, sins (Morality Plays) Religious secrets (Mystery Plays) Tales of pilgrims (Canterbury Tales) English subjects (Arthur-Myth) Knights tales (Romances) Antique subjects (Troilus and Criseyde) Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (Ellesmere MS)

10 York Mystery Cycle

11 Renaissance

12 Renaissance Early modern period Time of large political, social and lietrarry changes Last proliferation of epic poetry, new forms of prose, revival of drama Authors (selection): Edmund Spenser ( ) Philip Sidney ( ) John Lyly ( ) William Shakespeare ( ) Christopher Marlowe ( ) Queen Elizabeth I

13 From Commonwealth and Restoration to 18 th Century Literature

14 From Commonwealth and Restoration to 18 th Century Literature Religious prohibition of drama and closure of theatres : John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667) 18. ct.: intense reception of classical texts, rise of theoretical essays, beginning of literary magazines and literary theory Development of the novel as a new genre (e.g. satire und parody) Jonathan Swift, Gulliver s Travels Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe Samuel Richardson, Pamela Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews Jonathan Swift, Gulliver s Travels (1726)

15 Romanticism

16 Romanticism Reaction towards Enlightenment, neo-classical rule-based poetry, major political changes in Europe and America Nature and individual, emotional perception are central Begin with the publication of Lyrical Ballads (1798) Authors (selection): William Blake William Wordsworth Samuel T. Coleridge John Keats Percy B. Shelley, Mary Shelley Lord Byron Percy B. Shelley

17 Victorian Literature

18 Victorian Literature Queen Victoria: Century of deep changes and accelerating transitions: French Revolution, Industrial Revolution, Urbanisation, Nation states Rise of the novel; new ways of publication (e.g. magazines) Movements: Realism, Naturalism etc. Authors (selection): Charles Dickens Brontë sisters George Eliot William Makepeace Thackeray Oscar Wilde Chalotte Brontë

19 Modernism

20 Modernism Reaction towards realism and aestheticism of the 19th ct., 1st World War Themes and Characteristics (selection): innovative narrative techniques, irony Rise of the short story Individualism, distrust against institutions and rigid conventions, doubting of absolute truths Authors (selection): James Joyce Virginia Woolf E.M. Forster George Orwell Virginia Woolf (1902)

21 Post-War Literature/Postmodernism

22 Post-War Literature/Postmodernism Period starting after World War Two, hard to define because of the large number of forms and styles Characteristics (selection): Irony, Playfulness, dark humour intertextuality, meta-fiction Unreliable narrators Fragmentation, non-linear narration Authros (selction): Samuel Beckett John Fowles Doris Lessing Salman Rushdie Salman Rushdie (2008)

23 Homework Please read Jonathan Culler s What Is Theory? (pp. 1-18)! What is a Theory? What is meant by theory in terms of literary and cultural studies? How can something become theory? Why is it not useful to look for what the author had in mind?

24 Additional Reading on Literary History Hans Ulrich Seeber (2004). Englische Literaturgeschichte. 4. Aufl. Stuttgart: Metzler. Ina Schabert (1997). Englische Literaturgeschichte: eine neue Darstellung aus der Sicht der Geschlechterforschung. Stuttgart: Kröner. Ina Schabert (2006). Englische Literaturgeschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts: eine neue Darstellung aus der Sicht der Geschlechterforschung. Stuttgart: Kröner.