English literature and culture

1. Docente: Dra. Eva Aida Ponce Vega
Arequipa - 2015
UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE
SAN AGUSTIN DE AREQUIPA
ENGLISH LITERATURE AND
CULTURE
FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS DE LA EDUCACIÓN
SEGUNDA ESPECIALIDAD EN DIDÁCTICA DEL INGLÉS
COMO LENGUA EXTRANJERA

3. 1. What is Literature?
• Literature refers to the practice and profession
of writing. It comes from human interest in
telling a story, in arranging words in artistic
forms, in describing in words some aspects of
human experiences.

4. 2. Why we read Literature?
• Pleasure
• Relaxation
• Knowledge

5. English literature
Is the literature which is distinctly
written in the English language, as
opposed to differing languages.
English literature includes
literature composed in English by
writers not necessarily from
England nor primarily English-
speaking nations.

6. Until the early 19th century, this article
deals with literature from Britain
written in English; then America starts
to produce major writers and works in
literature. In the 20th century America
and Ireland produced many of the
most significant works of literature in
English, and after World War II
writers from the former British
Empire also began to challenge writers
from Britain.

7. Geographical
Background

9. • Great Britain is the largest of the
British Isles. On Great Britain are
located three constituent countries
of the United Kingdom: Scotland
in the north, England in the south
and east and Wales in the west.
There are also numerous smaller
islands off the coast of Great
Britain.

10. • The British Isles is an archipelago consisting of
the two large islands of Great Britain and
Ireland, and many smaller surrounding
islands.
• By tradition, it also includes the Channel
Islands, although they are physically closer to
the continental mainland.
• The full list of islands in the British Isles
includes over 6,000 islands, of which 51 have an
area larger than 20 km².

12. History Of English
Literature

13. The
Anglo-Saxon
Period
(449-1066
BC)

14. The Anglo-Saxons
• “Anglo-Saxon” is the term applied
to the English-speaking inhabitants
of Britain from around the middle
of the fifth century until the time of
the Norman Conquest, when the
Anglo-Saxon line of English kings
came to an end.

15. The Anglo-Saxons
• Bede tells us that the Anglo-Saxons came
from Germania.
• The languages spoken by the inhabitants of
Germania were a branch of the Indo-
European family of languages, which
linguists believe developed from a single
language spoken some five thousand years
ago in an area that has never been
identified—perhaps, some say, the Caucasus.

16. Old English dialects
The language spoken by the Anglo-Saxons at the
time of their migration to Britain was probably
more or less uniform. Over time, however, Old
English developed into four major dialects:
1. Northumbrian, spoken north of the river
Humber
2. Mercian, spoken in the midlands
3. Kentish, spoken in Kent (in the far southeastern
part of the island);
4. West Saxon, spoken in the southwest.

17. Old English literature, or Anglo-
Saxon literature, encompasses
literature written in Old English
in Anglo-Saxon England, in the
period after the settlement of the
Saxons and other Germanic
tribes in England after the
withdrawal of the Romans and
"ending soon after the Norman
Conquest" in 1066.

18. The Anglo-Saxon influenced English
Literature when they brought with
them a rich tradition of oral literature
steeped in their customs, pagan beliefs
and rituals.
 The lyric and epic poetry they wrote
told of the hardships of survival and the
importance of courage in performing
heroic deeds. It dignified the difficulties
and dangers faced by the warriors
before they succeeded in their heroic
feats.

19. Some significant literary work in
this period:1. Ecclesiastical History of the English
People and Caedmon Hymn by Bede
2. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle by Alfred the Great
3. The Wonderer
4. Deor’s Lament
5. A Dream of the Rood
6. The Battle of Maldon
7. Beowulf (Lone Surviving Epic of English
Literature)

20. The significant literary genres were:
Chronicle
Formulaic Poetry
Epic Poem (Tribal Scop)

21. Some significant literary
work in this period are
came from
ANONYMOUS
WRITERS

22. The Medieval
Period
(1066 B.C.-1485
A.D.)

23. The Medieval Period (1066 B.C.-
1485 A.D.)
Celtic fancy, Anglo-Saxon solidity, and
Norman vivacity-these were the original
ingredients of English life and letters. The
third of these was brought into England from
northern France by William the Conqueror
and his Norman knights and churchmen.
Castles and feudalism, joust and duels,
cathedral and monasteries, chivalry and
adventure were the contributions of these
aristocratic newcomers.

24. Middle English lasts up until the 1470s, when
the Chancery Standard, a form of London-
based English, became widespread and the
printing press regularized the language. The
prolific Geoffrey Chaucer, whose works were
written in Chancery Standard, was the first
poet to have been buried in Poet's Corner of
Westminster Abbey. Among his many works,
which include The Book of the Duchess, the
House of Fame, the Legend of Good Women
and Troilus and Criseyde, Chaucer is best
known today for The Canterbury Tales.

25. Some Significant literary
Works of this period were:
1. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
2. Morte D’Arthur by Sir Thomas
Malory
3. The Vision of the Piers Plowman by
William Langland
4. The Owl and the Nightingale
5. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey
Chaucer

26. The Significant Literary Genres
were:
1. Elegy
2. Religious Liturgy
3. Narrative Romance
4. Lay or Lais
5. Arthurian Romance
6. Fabliau

27. GEOFFREY
CHAUCER
(1343-1400)

28. Geoffrey Chaucer
Outstanding in English Poet before
William Shakespeare whose Canterbury
Tales ranks as one of the greatest poetic
works in English.
Born in the middle class family. He was
said to be fluent in French, Latin and
Italian.
His first important poem The Book of
Duchess a dream vision of elegy for
Blanche, Duchess of Lancaster who died
for a plague.

29. Geoffrey
Chaucer
Literary
Works

30.  The Canterbury Tales,
 Troilus and Criseyde
 Book of the Duchess.
Other Major Poems
 The House of Fame
 The Parliament of Fowles
 The Legend of Good
Women
Prose
 Treatises
 Treatise on the astrolabe
Short Poems
 The Complaint of
Chaucer to His Purse
 Truth
 Gentilesse
 Merciles Beaute
 Lak of Stedfastnesse
 Against Women
Unconstant.

31. English
Renaissance
or
The
Elizabethan
Period
(1485-1625)

32. The Elizabethan Period (1485-
1625)
The most splendid in the history of English
literature. Literary works were characterized
by immense vitality and richness.
The flowering of poetry and the golden age
of drama. The most noted poet of the period
was William Shakespeare.

33. The Elizabethan Period (1485-
1625)
Queen Elizabeth the most regal monarch at
the age of monarchy was the key figure in
influencing the life of her constituents. She
was a great advocate of peace and order.
The high age of aristocracy.
The golden age of English literature.

34. Significant Dates
1492 – The discovery of America; an
opening of entirely new world.
1534 – The Act of Supremacy; the
sundering of the English Church from
Rome
1558 – The accession of Elizabeth I;
the beginning of an age of
comparative toleration.

35. Gradual Appearance of several
literary features
1. There was an increase in the number of
translation. Such as the North’s translation
of Plutarch’s Lives (1579); Phaers (Virgil
1588); Golding’s Bird (1565) and
Chapman’s Homer (1595). These
translation opened out new realms of
wonder and romance and provided models
for the creative writing of Englishmen.
2. A lyrical impulse, strong and sweet, began
o pervade English literature. Most of the
greater poets contributed to poetry of time.

36. Gradual Appearance of several
literary features
3. The drama assumed a commanding position
in the writing of the day. William
Shakespeare roll to fame and honor.
4.The technique of poetry–the skill in the
management of meter show great
advancement.
5. The rise of prose writing. There was a vast
travel of body of travel literature. There was
even an approach to prose fiction.

37. Some significant literary works
in this period were:
1. Faerie Queene, Shepher’s Calendar by
Edmund Spenser
2. Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity by Richard
Hooker
3. Book of Martyrs by John Foxe
4. Musophilus by Samuel Daniel
5. The Nymph’s Replied to the Shepherd by
Sir Walter Raleigh
6. William Shakespeare Works

38. William Shakespeare
• Born: Baptised 26 April
1564 (birth date unknown)
Stratford-upon-Avon,
Warwickshire, England
• Died: 23 April 1616 (aged
52)
Stratford-upon-Avon,
Warwickshire, England
• Occupation; Playwright,
poet, actor
• Signature:

39. William
Shakespeare’s
Works

41. Significant literary genre
1. Sonnet
2. Elizabethan Lyric
3. Elizabethan Drama
4. Historical Poems
5. Pastoral Romance

42. The 17th
Century
or the
Puritan
Period
(1625-1700)

43. The 17th Century
or the
Puritan Period
(1625-1700)

44. The 17th Century or the Puritan
Period
(1625-1700)
Catastrophe struck Britain. The Civil
War, the Black Plague and the great fire
of London disrupted the otherwise
orderly existence of the English people.
Literature was permeated by the light
hearted cavalier of the solemn Puritans.
The Period of Dissension and Calamity

45. Significant literary works during
this period
1. Areopaitica by John Milton
2. Devotions by John Done
3. Religio Medici by Thomas Brown
4. History of Henry VII by Francis
Bacon
5. Works by Ben Johnson
6. The garden by Andrew Marvell

46. Significant literary genre:
1. Restoration Comedy and
Tragedy
2. Metaphysical Poetry
3. False Pindaric or Irregular Ode
4. Light Prose

47. The 18th
Century
or the
Period of
Classism

48. The 18th Century or the Period of
Classism (1700-1800)
Dawning of the age of reason
The London become the the center of of the
bustling city life.
Literary mastered have their crafts and have
written with sophistication and finesse.
Prose writing become popular.
The periodical and novel gained popularity
and public acceptance.
The periodical became the origin of what we
call now as clarity and public acceptance.

49. Significant literary works during
this period
1. The London Merchant by George Lillo
2. Conscious Lovers by Richard Steels
3. The Fair Penitent: The Tragedy of Jane
Shore: The tragedy of Lady Grey by
Nicholas Rowe
4. The Distressed Mother by Ambrose Philip
5. Cato by Joseph Addison
6. The West Indian by Richard Cumberland
7. The Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith
8. The Rivals: School for Scandals by Richard
Brinsley Sheridan

50. Significant literary genre:
Opera
Ballad Opera
Pantomime
Prose Tragedy

51. The
Romantic
Period
(1800-
1837)

52. The Romantic Period (1800-
1837)
The Golden age of the lyric poetry belongs
to the youth.
A literature of vigor and courage, love and
wisdom, despair and hope.
Romantic poets pointed to the wild,
unfathomable beauties of nature, the elusive,
supernatural vision of mystics and the
mysterious atmosphere of religion that had
east such celestial light about the middle
ages.

53. The Romantic Period (1800-
1837)
• Queen Victoria came to the throne,
this romantic fever had somewhat
burned itself out.
• Men had turned their attention to the
far reaching implications of the
industrial revolution which was at last
transforming the entire surface and
structure of England.

54. Significant literary works during
this period
1. Society: Castle by Thomas W. Robertson
2. Widowers’ Houses by George Bernard
Shaw
3. Lady Windermere’s Fan by Oscar Wilde
4. The Second Mrs. Tanqueray by Arthur
Wind Pinero
5. Song of Innocence and of Experience by
William Blake
6. Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth
and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

55. Significant literary works during
this period
7. Prometheus Unbound by Percy
Bysshe Shelley
8. To Psyche; On a Grecian Ura; To a
Nightingale by John Keats
9. Childe Harold; Don Juan by Lord
Byron
10. Sense and the Sensibility; Pride and
Prejudice; Mansfield
Park;Persuasion by Jane Austen

56. Significant literary genre:
• Heroic Couplet
• Historical Novel

57. The
Victorian
Period
(1837-1900

58. The Victorian Period (1837-
1900)
Victoria I became a Queen of England in
1817, 3 years after the death of
Coleridge and thirteen years before the
death of Wordsworth.
She reigned until her own death in 1901.
The reign in England of comparable
length is that of Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
and like Elizabeth Victoria had not only
a political but a literary epoch named for
her.

59. The Victorian Period (1837-
1900)
The keynote of the age was the
1851 Great Exhibition to London,
a triumphant display intended to
illustrate the superiority of
England’s scientific, social and
technological achievements.

60. Significant literary works during
this period
1. The Pickwick Papers; Oliver Twist: David
Copperfield: A Tale of Two Cities: Great
Expectations by Charles Dickens
2. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace
Thackeray
3. Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
4. The Last Chronicle of Barset; Barchester
Towers; The Warden by Anthony
Trollope
5. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bront

61. Significant literary works during
this period
6. Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
8. Silas Marner; Scenes of Clerical Life; The
Mill on the Floss Middlemach by George
Elliot
9. The Lotos Eater; Ulysses; Lockley Hall;
Idylle of the Kings; In Memoriam by Alfred
Lord
10. The Cry of the Children by Elizabeth
Barrett Browning

62. Significant literary works during
this period
11.The Bishop Orders His Tome at St.
Fraxed’s Church; The Ring and the Book
by Robert Browning
12. Culture and Anarchy by Matthw Arnold
13. Confession of an English Opium-Eater;
On Knocking in the Gate of Macbeth by
Thomas DeQuincy
14. History of England by Thomas Babington
Macaulay

63. Significant literary works during
this period
15. Sartor Resartus; The French Revolution;
Heroes and Hero-Worship; Past and
Present by Thomas Carlyle
16. The Stones of Venice by John Ruskin
17. The Development of Christian Doctrine;
The Idea of a University; Grammar
Assent by John Henry Newman
18. On Liberty; The Subjection of Women by
John Stuart Mill

64. Significant literary genre:
Novels
Magazine Serial
Dramatic Dialogue

65. The 20th
Century
or
The Modern
Period
(1900 up to

66. The 20th Century or The Modern
Period
(1900 up to 2000)
Literature of this periods exemplifies the
improved crafts of masters. The novel
has flourished and writers have risen not
only to popularity but to distinction as
well.
The emerging values of the modern
times are embodied in the works of
authors who defy the conventions of the
old world.

67. The 20th Century or The Modern
Period
(1900 up to 2000)
Science and technology became the
basis for advancement. While
Orthodox beliefs are considered
standard criteria for excellence, the
emerging needs for radical changes
became the order of the day.

68. Significant literary works of
this period
1. Jude, the Obscure; Far From
Maddening crowd; The Dynasts; The
Return of Native by Thomas Hardy
2. The Tower; The Winding Stair by W.B.
Yeats
3. The Lyrical Ballads by William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor
Coleridge
4. The Almayer’s Folly; The Nigger of the
“Narcissus” by Joseph Conrad

69. Significant literary works of
this period
5. Howard End; A Passage to India by
E.M. Foster
6. The Voyage Out; Night and Day;
Mrs. Dalloway; To the Lighthouse by
Virginia Woolf
7. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young
Man by James Joyce
8. Sons and Lovers; The Rainbow; Lady
Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence

70. Significant literary works of
this period
9. Modern Comedy; Swan Song; The
Man of Property
10. The White Monkey; The Silver
Spoon by John Galsworthy
11. The Egoist; Beauchamp’s Career by
George Meredith
12. Captain Courageous; Jungle Book
by Rudyard Kipling

71. Significant literary genre:
Novel
Blank Verse

72. History of American
Literature

73. O V E R V I E W
During its early history, America
was a series of British colonies on
the eastern coast of the present-day
United States. Therefore, its literary
tradition begins as linked to the
broader tradition of English
literature. However, unique
American characteristics and the
breadth of its production usually
now cause it to be considered a
separate path and tradition.

74. Colonial
Literature
Some of the earliest forms of American
literature were pamphlets and writings
extolling the benefits of the colonies to both
a European and colonist audience.
Captain John Smith could be considered the
first American author with his works: A True
Relation of ... Virginia (1608).
The revolutionary period also contained
political writings, including those by
colonist Samuel Adams. Two key figures
were Benjamin Franklin and Thomas
Paine. Franklin's Poor Richard's
Almanac and The Autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin are esteemed works with
their wit and influence toward the formation
of a budding American identity.
Benjamin Franklin
Thomas Paine
John Smith
Samuel Adams

75. Early U.S. Literature
In the post-war period, The Federalist essays
by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison,
and John Jay represented a historical
discussion of government organization and
republican values. Thomas
Jefferson's United States Declaration of
Independence, his influence on the
Constitution, and the mass of his letters have
led to him being considered one of the most
talented early American writers.
The first American novel is sometimes
considered to be William Hill Brown's The
Power of Sympathy (1789). Much of the
early literature of the new nation struggled to
find a uniquely American voice. European
forms and styles were often transferred to
new locales and critics often saw them as
inferior
Alexander Hamilton
John Jay
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
W.H. Brown

76. Unique American Style
With the War of 1812 and an increasing desire
to produce uniquely American work, a
number of key new literary figures appeared,
perhaps most prominently Washington
Irving, James Fenimore
Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe.
Irving, often considered the first writer to
develop a unique American style (although
this is debated) wrote humorous works
in Salmagundi and the well-known satire A
History of New York, by Diedrich
Knickerbocker (1809).
Anti-transcendental works from Melville
(Moby-Dick), Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter),
and Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher) all
comprise the Dark Romanticism subgenre of
literature popular during this time.
Washington Irving
James Fenimore Cooper
Edgar Allan Poe
Hawthorne

77. American 19th Century
PoetryAmerica's two greatest 19th-century poets could hardly have
been more different in temperament and style. Walt
Whitman (1819-1892) was a working man, a traveler, a self-
appointed nurse during the American Civil War (1861-
1865), and a poetic innovator. His magnum opus was Leaves
of Grass, in which he uses a free-flowing verse and lines of
irregular length to depict the all-inclusiveness of American
democracy. Taking that motif one step further, the poet
equates the vast range of American experience with himself
without being egotistical.
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), on the other hand, lived the
sheltered life of a genteel unmarried woman in small-town
Amherst, Massachusetts. Within its formal structure, her
poetry is ingenious, witty, exquisitely wrought, and
psychologically penetrating. Her work was unconventional
for its day, and little of it was published during her lifetime.
Many of her poems dwell on death, often with a mischievous
twist.
Walt Whitman
Emily Dickinson

78. Realism
Mark Twain (the pen name of Samuel Langhorne
Clemens, 1835-1910) was the first major American
writer to be born away from the East Coast -- in the
border state of Missouri. His regional masterpieces
were the memoir Life on the Mississippi and the
novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain's style
changed the way Americans write their language.
His characters speak like real people and sound
distinctively American, using local dialects, newly
invented words, and regional accents.
Henry James (1843-1916) confronted the Old World-
New World dilemma by writing directly about it.
Among his more accessible works are the
novellas Daisy Miller, about an enchanting
American girl in Europe, and The Turn of the
Screw, an enigmatic ghost story.
Mark Twain
Henry James

79. Turn of the Century
At the beginning of the 20th century, American novelists
were expanding fiction's social spectrum to encompass
both high and low life and sometimes connected to the
naturalist school of realism.
More directly political writings discussed social issues and
power of corporations. Some like Edward
Bellamy in Looking Backward outlined other possible
political and social frameworks. Upton Sinclair, most
famous for his meat-packing novel The Jungle,
advocated socialism. Henry Adams' literate
autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams also
depicted a stinging description of the education system
and modern life.
Experimentation in style and form soon joined the new
freedom in subject matter.
Upton Sinclair
Edward Bellamy
Henry Adams

80. Turn of the
CenturyAmerican writers also expressed the disillusionment
following upon the war. The stories and novels of
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) capture the restless,
pleasure-hungry, defiant mood of the 1920s. Fitzgerald's
characteristic theme, expressed poignantly in The Great
Gatsby, is the tendency of youth's golden dreams to
dissolve in failure and disappointment.
Depression era literature was blunt and direct in its social
criticism. John Steinbeck (1902-1968). His style was
simple and evocative, winning him the favor of the
readers but not of the critics. The Grapes of Wrath,
considered his masterpiece, is a strong, socially-oriented
novel that tells the story of the Joads, a poor family from
Oklahoma and their journey to California in search of a
better life.
Scott Fritzgerald
John Steinbeck

81. Post-World War II
The period in time from the end of World War II up until,
roughly, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw to the
publication of some of the most popular works in American
history.
The poetry and fiction of the "Beat Generation," largely born of
a circle of intellects formed in New York City around
Columbia University and established more officially some
time later in San Francisco, came of age. The term, Beat,
referred, all at the same time, to the countercultural rhythm
of the Jazz scene, to a sense of rebellion regarding the
conservative stress of post-war society, and to an interest in
new forms of spiritual experience through drugs, alcohol,
philosophy, and religion, and specifically through Zen
Buddhism
Regarding the war novel specifically, there was a literary
explosion in America during the post-World War II era.
Some of the most well known of the works produced
included Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (1948).
Norman Mailer

82. Colonial
Period
TIMELINE
1700s1600s 1800s
Early US
Literatu
re
Unique
America
n
Style
America
n
Poetry
RealismTurn of
the
Century
Post
World-
War II
19th
century
20th
century
1950s-
21st
century

83. Beat Generation (USA)
Allen Ginsberg's Howl (1956),
William S. Burroughs's Naked
Lunch (1959) and Jack Kerouac's
On the Road (1957) are among
the best known examples of Beat
literature.
Allen Ginsberg
Jack Kerouac
Underground, anti-conformist youth movement
in New York

84. MAGIC REALISM
Thomas Bernhard, Peter Handke, John Fowles, Angela Carter, John Banville,
John Fowles Angela Carter

85. Margaret Atwood Jonathan Franzen (USA) Ian McEwan
David Mitchell Toni Morrison (USA) Philip Roth (USA)
The Handmaid's Tale (1985) is
perhaps Atwood's best known
novel and emblematic of the
social criticism
The Corrections, his third novel, was
selected for Oprah Winfrey's book club in
2001
British writer Ian McEwan started winning
literary awards with his first book, First Love,
Last Rites (1976) and never stopped.
Atonement (2002) won several awards and is
being made into a movie, and Saturday (2005)
won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
In his first novel, Ghostwritten
(1999), he uses nine narrators to
tell the story and 2004's Cloud
Atlas is a novel comprised of six
interconnected stories
Toni Morrison's Beloved (1987) was named best novel of
the past 25 years in a 2006 New York Times Book Review
survey. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, and
Toni Morrison, whose name has become synonymous
with African American literature, won the Nobel Prize in
Literature in 1993.
The Plot Against America (2005)
In Everyman (2006), Roth's 27th
novel,what it's like growing old
Jewish in America.
ENGLISH & AMERICAN WRITERS
TODAY

86. Zadie Smith John Updike (USA) Kazuo Ishiguro
In his first novel, An
Artist of the Floating
World (1986), Ishiguro
explored the world of
post World War II
Japanese society.
Guildford, Surrey, England
She wrote her first
novel, White Teeth,
while still at Cambridge
and published it after
graduation in 2000.
In 2002, Smith
published The
Autograph Man.
On Beauty (2005)
In 2009, Smith
published Changing My
Mind
John Updike's first book of poetry,
The Carpentered Hen and Other
Tame Creatures, was published in
1958, and his first novel, The
Poorhouse Fair, was published in
1959. In 1960, Updike published
Rabbit Run, the first of the
"Rabbit" novels (Rabbit, Run;
Rabbit Redux; Rabbit Is Rich;
Rabbit At Rest; and Rabbit
Remembered). The book was an
instant success and established
Updike's reputation as one of the
most significant contemporary
American novelists.

87. ENGLISH & AMERICAN WRITERS TODAY