OLD ENGLISH (ANGLO-SAXON) PERIOD

1066.

450.

It was a period from the invasion of the Germanic tribes in 450. till the conquest
of England by the Normans in 1066. (William the Conqueror).

HISTORY
Up to the 7th century, all the poetry (unknown authors) was passed on orally by
the wandering singers - gleemen and scops; [e.g. the pseudohistorical tale
Legend of King Arthur and the Knights. included in Geoffrey of
Monmouths Historia Regum Britanniae where he used the character of Arthur
for the first time and writer Wace added the knights, both in the next period in
the 12th century.]
As Anglo-Saxons adopted Christianity in the 7 th century, literature started to be
written and monasteries became the centres of culture; writings were in Latin as
it was the standard language of international scholarship.
Churchmen as Alcuin, Aldhelm and Venerable Bede wrote in Latin. Venerable
Bede wrote Ecclesiastical history of the Anglos, which records the history
of the Angles. Caedmon and Cynewulf wrote religious poetry on biblical
themes such as the lives of saints, sermons and paraphrases of the Bible.
Cynewulf was the best writer of the period (except for the unknown writer of
Beowulf).
Up until the 9th century England was divided into 3 kingdoms: Northumbria,
Wessex and Mercia. There was no common language that covered the whole of
England, although the predominant dialect was Northumbrian.
In the second part of the 9th century, Alfred the Great of the Danes invaded
England, precisely Wessex and from there expanded over and united all the
kingdoms of southern England.
Alfred the Great was a great supporter of literacy and culture. He wanted to
introduce mother tongue in schools instead of Latin and personally translated
many works from Latin to West-Saxon among which also the Ecclesiastical
history of the Anglos. During his reign the southern dialect started to be more
popular and prose started to be written; mainly by Wulfstan and Aelfric who had
the best style and connected sentences via alliteration.
He founded the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that had to record in writing the
happenings of the century in England. He also founded the colleges Oxford (11 th
century) and Cambridge (12th century).

LIFE
Characterised by constant hardship, the life was that of both rough living and
deep feeling. Five important principles were the struggle for personal freedom
and glory, love of womanhood, religion and responsiveness to nature.

LITERATURE
The English of the time was heavily inflected (many forms of the same word) and
had a small vocabulary. Vernacular language, that of the native populace, was
very popular and so were the works written in it such as the heroic epic Beowulf
and the lyrical laments The Wanderer, The Seafarer and Deor. The three
latter ones reflected the real life conditions of the pagans, although written by
Christian writers.
The literature can be divided into pagan or heathen and religious or Christian.

Heathen or pagan poetry

charms: magic heathen prayers to nature
riddles: descriptions of animals used to portray Anglo-Saxon society
poems of war
lyrical elegies: sad poems about death; in this period they were any serious
meditative poems
heroic epics: long narrative poems on a serious subject, often dealing with heroic
deeds upon which depend the fate of a tribe, nation or humanity which are
written in formal and elevated style
literary style:
-writers invented new words and used metaphors; common things were give
special names
-head rhyme (lines beginning with the same sound)
-darkness, melancholy, mystic atmosphere
characteristics:
-heavily inflected language and small vocabulary
- a line had 4 feet and so 4 stressed syllables with a varying number of
unstressed ones, each two feet were called half-lines in between which there was
a strong pause a caesura

Religious or Christian poetry

There were 2 great schools of Christian influence:
1) Rome, Augustine (south and central England): educated but rough people with
no lasting literature
2) Ireland, Saint Aidan (Northumbria monasteries and abbeys): 3 greatest
writers of the time Caedmon, Bede and Cynewulf, had lasting literature
Christian poetry flourished in Northumbria, as it had many monasteries. The
authors were in touch with ancient Greece and Rome and Christian Europe.
Caedmon and Cynewulf wrote in Latin about the genesis and the origin of
mankind Exodus Daniel Christ and Satan. The poems had literary
verse, but their style was heathen-like (alliteration). The poetry was religious and
didactical, although generally sad and melancholic.
2

EPIC
2 kinds of epic:
1) traditional or primary epics: written versions of originally oral poems
Odyssey, Illiad, Chanson de Roland, Beowulf
2) literary or secondary epics: written by individual poets in deliberate imitation
of the traditional form
Virgils Aeneid, Miltons Paradise Lost, Dantes Divine Comedy, Keats
Hyperion
Aristotle ranked epics second best next to tragedies, but in Renaissance they
were the best.
An epic has to have: a hero of great importance, a love story, a geographically
vast setting, supernatural characters and other elements, gods and power.
Bourgeois epic: all novels that reflect the social reality on a broad scale
Beowulf
Written in the 8th century, it is the longest epic in Anglo-Saxon language
consisting of more than 3000 lines in vernacular language.
In it Grendel, an imaginary half-man-half-monster, attacks the land of the Danish
king Hrothgar (real character). Beowulf, a Gaetish hero comes from Sweden and
kills Grendel and his mother who comes to revenge her son.
The author is unknown and the story is based on folklore and myth, deriving from
a Scandinavian legend. The aim was to portray nature and the way of life at the
time and to criticise some parts of it. Grendel represents winter and death and
Beowulf the new era, which is characterised by agriculture and the rise to
nobility.
It has head rhyme; harsh language and an expanded vocabulary. It is melancholic
and mystic.
The Wanderer
Consists of two speeches or moral passages:
1) Earth wanderer or wraeca (autobiographical soliloquy): roaming in search for a
new lord
2) soliloquy against the world; reflections of past times, victory of winter and of
night
The Seafarer
Again, an exiled wraeca who speaks of events and predicts his future. More
emotional than the Wanderer, however emotions change from fear and
desperation to understanding and hope of a better life.
It has a more soliloquy-like form than The Wanderer and more punctuation
easier to read.

Both The Wanderer and The Seafarer have soliloquies and a Christian structure
(prologue, main body, epilogue).
The Deor
Not in soliloquies and has more protagonists. At times cheerful and optimistic.
The poem is arranged in strophes and is more poetic, which is important for its
effect on later works.

MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD

1066. 1500.

HISTORY
In the battle of Hastings in 1066. the last Saxon king Harold was defeated by
William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy, who became the ruler of England. The
Norman conquest brought Latin culture and ideals and a wealth of culture and
literature. It imposed a French-speaking ruling over England, which became the
language of the upper classes, while Anglo-Saxon developed as the language of
the lower classes French had a great influence on English literature and culture.
The period can be subdivided into 2:
1) until 1350.
The Normans had absorbed Roman values and Christianity; they were literate.
Until 1350. English had been used by lower classes and written literature had
been mainly religious because of the Churchs wish to teach the right way of
life.
2) after 1350.
By the 14th century English won over Norman French as it was the language of
the majority; it became the language of both the court and the common people.
Vernacular or middle English (East Midland English and later London English)
came into general literary use this was an age of secular literature. (modern
English derives from East Midland)
There were remains of French in the court and Latin kept being the language of
science, philosophy and religion.
This was the greatest age of the Middle English period with writers such as
Chaucer, Langland, Wycliffe and the Pearl poets.

LIFE
The Normans brought a lively Celtic disposition and a progressive Latin
civilisation. Norse traits will and power; French traits curiosity and
imagination.

LITERATURE
themes: history, chivalry, love, religion, (mis)deeds of monks
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purpose: to instruct, but now also to amuse the audience

-METRICAL ROMANCES
are written forms that express certain ideals like chivalry, love and religion,
casting protagonists such as heroic knights, fair ladies, dragons and enemies of
the Church or state.
They vary in form as they can be one long poem or a series of poems. Their
meter is exact with only verses varying in length. Assonance and rhyme are very
important for melody.
One such metrical romance is:
SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT
is the best romance of the period; also written by an unknown author. The same
author supposedly wrote the Pearl. It has stanza form (meter + alliteration)
and a tail rhyme.
GEOFFREY OF MONMOUTH
wrote Historia Regum Britanniae; however it is not literature but a source
book containing an immense number of legends and stories of kings and monks
LAYAMON
wrote Layamons Brut the most important English chronicle where the
English history and life are recorded in verse
JOHN WYCLIFFE
was a social and religious performer, a realist who criticised the Church and
demanded societal reforms. He encouraged the translation of the Bible to English
so that the poor could read it.
WILLIAM LANGLAND
WROTE Piers Plowman, an allegorical didactic epic which is a critique of
society in 3 parts; Do well, do better, do best.
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
was the son of a wine merchant but married into a rich aristocratic family; he
studied both French and Latin but wrote in East Midland English so he had to
invent many new words and expressions it is said that he created the English
language and established literary tradition.
He had skill, a passion and love for humanity and a very strong sense of humour
which he used to ridicule society. He saw life as it really is and therefore he wrote
realistically about common men in whom he looked for flaws, but also presented
the positive sides and all without judgement.
He had 3 periods of creativity:
1) French: translations from Roman de la rose and allegorical poems; also
famous is ABC which is a prayer to Mary in an alphabet form
2) Italian: Boccaccios influence
The House of Fame Troilus and Criseyde where he uses rhyme royal (a
5

7 lines stanza with ABA BB CC) The Parliament of Fawles The Legend of
Good Women
3) English: leaves allegorical visions and writes about his contemporaries
CANTERBURY TALES
is a collection of tales more than 1700 lines long.
It starts off with The Prologue which introduces the setting and characters;
theres 32 men and women, all pilgrims, on a pilgrimage to the grave of the
former archbishop of Canterbury. On this journey, each person has to tell 2
stories, one going to and the other fro. The pilgrims are knights, priests,
merchants, common people,
Their host is Harry Bailey (actually Chaucers voice) who interferes and
comments but leaves it to the reader to understand the tale.
tale The wife of Bath; shes a woman ahead of her time, has 5 husbands and
controls the marriage which is opposite to the then patriarchal society
The pardoners tale is an illustration of culture and faith; the pardoner
represents a broken and twisted faith and the corrupted Church, he sells
forgiveness for money
The knights tale describes the noble knight as a feminine figure
(homosexuality?)
The nuns priest tale is a beast fable written in heroic couplet (rhymed
iambic pentameter) where cock, hen and fox represent human virtues and vices;
romance is also present and the cock brags himself (the only thing he knows how
to do) which is an ironic approach to the animal

RENAISSANCE

1500. 1660.

HISTORY and LIFE

It began in the 14th century in Italy and spread across Europe during the 15 th and
16th centuries. Renaissance came to England in the 16 th century and flourished in
the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages.
It is characterised by the discovery of the world and of man, by individualism,
thought and art. These can be observed through 3 levels:
1) philosophical: thought liberated from dogma
2) religious: reformation of the Church;
Protestantism had a great influence on English culture (Henry VIII); it was part of
the 16th century religious movement Reformation. Humanists wanted to reconcile
the classical European legacy with original Christian ideals.
3) practical: discoveries of America, the printing press and Copernican system
THOMAS MOORE writes Utopia; in Latin, it describes a perfect society on an
imaginary island; it has 2 parts:
1) first part: an explorer comes to the island and criticises laws, nationalists,
ambitions,
2) second part: describes an idealistic world with no possessions or materialism,
no unemployment, wars or pain
John Colet founded St. Pauls School where teaching was in Latin and Greek,
while Erasmus of Rotterdam , who was a Dutch humanist philosopher, revised
English grammar for St. Pauls School
William Caxton was first to use the printing press and had the first printed copy of
Canterbury Tales
English renaissance can be subdivided into 3 periods:
1) The early Tudors:
- the period of Henry the VII and VIII
- drama is the most appealing style, performed on stage so that even the
illiterate could follow it; acting was very popular, though sometimes forbidden
2) Shakespeares England or the Elizabethan period:
- rapid development of commerce, maritime power and national feeling
- great period of English literature, especially drama
3) Early Stuarts and Commonwealth

Shakespeares England or the Elizabethan period

LITERATURE
DRAMA
The Globe, The Swan, The Rose, The Fortune
;theatres had no roof; there were just galleries and a pit + some theatrical
devices and machinery
All actors were male. Play copies were available to them but they had little or no
time to practice.
Topics: murders among royalty, violence, legends from past centuries
The first drama in English is Gorbodue, it was written by Norton and Sackville;
no artistic value.
Comedies were written by Udall (Ralph Roister Doister) and Gurton
(Needle)
Tragedies were still influenced by Senecas unity of place, time and plot. While
English ones only talked about horrors, Italian tragedies showed violence on
stage.
The Spanish Tragedy was written by THOMAS KYD; it was a revenge
tragedy of love and war that dealt with the victory of Spain over Portugal; some
believe this work resembles Hamlet and suppose that Kyd might have written it
Revenge tragedies used 3 conventional devices from Seneca: ghost, revenge
of a murdered relative, liberal use of soliloquies. They often had scenes of
insanity, those of graveyards and mutilation. Also, play within a play.
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
Dramatist, poet and translator; Marlowe was the foremost Elizabethan tragedian
of his day who greatly influenced Shakespeare as Marlowe was his predecessor.
He introduced blank verse as a form of dramatic expression and authored the
tragedies:
Doctor Faustus Queen of Cartage The few of Malta
BEN JONSON
first poet laureate of England
sought inspiration in contemporary life of London as he wanted to portray all
traits of people, focusing on the negative ones, in a satirical way
The Alchemist is a comedy in which 2 rogues pretend to have discovered a
formula to turn things into gold
Volpone a comedy in which a fox pretends to be on his death bed (greed)
Comedy of manners is based on 4 body fluids and deals with intrigues

between ladies and gentlemen living in a quiet, sophisticated society which

evokes laughter
He writes in blank verse and obeys the 3 unities

POETRY
- it effectively evokes vivid experiences, emotions and ideas through imagery,
tone, meter, figures,
SIR THOMAS WYATT
wrote They flee from me
theme: love, the poet is in prison and remembers his past loves (they)
The poet used to be popular, but now all of them left him as he couldnt provide
them with a demanded change. He blames himself for it. There was a special
woman (She) who lacked loyalty in love. He compares his women with halfdomestic pets.
The poem was written under the influence of Italian sonnets; its tone is sad,
melancholic with comparisons and irony. It is written in iambic pentameter.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
wrote sonnets addressed to a certain male friend and a Dark Lady; he printed his
books in folio and quarto
That time of year
English sonnet (3 quatrains + 1 couplet)
theme: getting old and the passing of youth; hes getting old perhaps even dying
and he thinks that the person hes speaking to will love him even more now that
they must part
yellow leaves which shake against the cold. getting old
The twilight of such a day black night. death
My mistress eyes
a mocking at Italian sonnets false compare
usage of conceits to talk about how horrible and ugly his mistress is, but he still
loves her I think my love is rare
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
typical sonnet: love, sorrow, joy, hate, friendship, suffering
he thinks that he wasted his time, thinks about the friends and loves he lost; he
will always feel sorrow but friendship is here to stay forever
SIR PHILLIP SIDNEY
poet and critic
Poetry was said to be worthless and useless and thus he wrote the essay The
defence of Poesy where he says that poetry is important as it delights but
also teaches morals and life; in it he accepts Aristotles theory that poetry is
imitation of nature, that it makes nature more beautiful than it is
He wrote about 150 sonnets and a sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella
along with a prose romance Arcadia, a collection of eclogues, written in
sanazzaro

10

EDMUND SPENSER
poet, wanted to clean English of unnecessary establishments to make it simple
and show that its fit for poetic writing
The shepherds calendar, a poem for every month of the year; written in
different meters and 10 of them are eclogues
Mother Hubbards tale a satirical poem in which he criticises the Elizabethan
court
Amoretti is a sonnet sequence with a famous (love poem) ending
Faery queen is an allegorical poem about human virtues, each of which has
been given a special knight protector; Gloreana is the faery queen who signifies
the glory of possessing virtues as that makes one rich; the poem describes every
social class, it is patriotic and addressed to 3 Elizabeths (mother, future wife,
queen)
Spenserian stanza consists of 9 lines (8 iambic pentameters + 1 iambic
hexameter)
with rhyme ABAB BCBC C

Jacobean, Caroline and Commonwealth age (Puritan age)

. 1603 - 1660
HISTORY AND LIFE
After the death of Elizabeth, James Stuart ascended to throne and that was the
start of the Jacobean age and the puritan life. There was moral awakening across
England and in the North. Puritans rejected pleasures and art and were devoted
to work. The objects of their movement are personal righteousness and civil (and
religious) liberty. Through the age puritans closed down theatres and drama
greatly diminished.
In 1625 Charles I succeeded James on the throne (Caroline age). In 1642 however
there was a civil war between the Parliament (round heads, Cromwell) and the
king (cavaliers). It finished in 1649 when the Parliament headed by Lord Protector
Oliver Cromwell took power and ruled for 11 years (Commonwealth period). The
political split remained with the Tories (cavaliers) on one side and the Wigs
(roundheads) on the other. It was a time of austerity and rigidity as economy had
to be fixed.
In literature it was quite a confusing time between the old and the emerging new;
there was no more romance or ideals, no more standard criticism. However,
metaphysical poets stood up and thus poetry was renewed.

LITERATURE
Metaphysical poetry ( motto: Carpe diem! )
Secular poetry

Religious poetry
11

John Donne, Marvell, Cowley,

Cleveland

Herbert, Vaughn, Crashaw

These poets were different and untraditional, eccentric and complicated;

considered the forerunners of modern poetry;
their poems are witty and full of logic, cynical and ironic with intelligent images
modelled on actual speech but organized in a form of argument ahead of their
time.
The poets used conceits and abstruse (hard to understand) arguments with
hidden meanings; they used their knowledge of philosophy and astronomy,
described physical love in oppositions to ideals.
JOHN DONNE
wrote Songs and Sonnets which is a collection of 52 love poems
A valediction of weeping
The Flea
Batter my heart, three-personed god
A lecture upon the shadow
JOHN MILTON
well-read and educated, an accomplished poet by age 17, familiar with 7
languages and influenced by Donne; strangely, he was a puritan but still
passionate in his poems
3 creative periods:
1) Poetry before the civil war:
Elegy on the death of the fair infant fathers death, for his sister
Ode on the morning of Christs nativity victory of Christ over false gods
Lycidas elegy about his friend who drowned and died, yet less about his
feelings and more a critique of Church and contemporary politics
2) Prose and poetry of the commonwealth period:
He wrote prose works and pamphlets on various themes; economy, politics,
marriage and divorce, education,
3) Prose of restoration:
A new approach to biblical themes; writes Paradise lost and Paradise
regained; both are religious epics written in blank verse with a medieval
concept of Heaven and Hell, but breaks the tradition by giving Adam and Eve
hope for the future

NEOCLASSICAL PERIOD

1660. 1785.

The restoration age

HISTORY, LIFE AND LITERATURE
England was socially, politically and morally corrupt a great crisis for England. It
was an age of austerity, yet also of progress. Puritanism and restraints were
almost completely removed as the middle class became the central power that
dictated the taste in everything, literature as well. This resulted in a revival of art
12

(restoration) and theatres. The latter underwent considerable technical

improvements and were fitted with roofs, curtains, scenery, proscenium, Plays
were for upper classes and the most popular was the comedy of manners
(Molieres influence) in which the plot is based on an exaggerated feature of a
character.
A new definition of literature opened its doors to philosophical debates, letters
etc. As it was the age of reason and science, intellect was held much more
important than emotions and the latter found themselves expulsed from
literature or at least devoid of any importance. Literature lacked vividness and
Elizabethan values; also form became more important than content. As towns
became centres of culture, the topics were: town themes, intellectual, political
and moral topics, good manners,
The 2 developed tendencies were:
1) realism: truth without ideals, exteriors and vices in focus
2) formalism: simplicity and preciseness of expression, perspicuous and natural
speaking
JOHN DRYDEN
father of modern criticism, especially literary art; literature has to provide truth,
obey rules and satisfy reason beginning of literary theory
Absalom and Architophel is a political satire in form of a poem based on the
Bible story of David and Absalom in which he discusses the 2 parties and gives
his opinion
Essay on dramatic poesy
Of heroic plays
Discourse on satire
Dryden was a very influential prose writer.
He also wrote poetry as Alexanders feast which is an ode.
He is credited for: using heroic couplet in poetry, having a direct prose style and
for having developed literary criticism.

The Augustan age

HISTORY AND LIFE
After the 1688 revolution, political struggle ended and balance came back
between the king and the Parliament. It was an age of prosperity and growth, of
reforms and new freedoms marked by the publishing of books and of newspapers
like the Chronicle, Post or Times.
Reason still ruled supreme and social conventions were more important than
individual ones. People cultivated an art of socialising and living together. Man
was considered basically good and needed no laws or religion (development of
deism and atheism).

13

LITERATURE
As reason still ruled supreme, form was also still above content and emotions
were scarce. Life was studied with a lack of balance; it was more studied than it
was lived. Although it didnt disappear, poetry became more prosaic. All literature
retained realism and formalism and the prevalent form of literature was satire
with a great influence of ancient classics. Also, writers didnt want to experiment
so they repeated what they already knew; heroic couplet, same rhythm and same
phrases a petrification of language.
ALEXANDER POPE
Singer of the Universe; a classical poet and master of rhetoric figures, he sums
up the 18th century
a perfectionist in writing, wanted correctness and polished phrases
he was also a critic: Ode to solitude Essay on man
; mocked the epic with The rape of the lock where a trivial subject such as a
cut-off lock of hair is treated as a catastrophe

The age of sensibility

GOTHIC NOVEL
is an exploration of the irrational that lies beneath the surface of the civilised
mind. Gothic novels deal with fiction, mystery, supernatural elements and
exaggerated emotions (melodramatic violence). The stories are set in medieval
times in gloomy castles and dungeons where supernatural occurrences, such as
ghost, occur but turn out having natural explanations. The purpose is to evoke
horror.
The first Gothic novelist was Horace Walpole The Castle of Otranto.
Mary Shelley Frankenstein
Jane Austen Northanger Abbey
Charles Dickens Bleak house and Great Expectations
DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON
famous as the author of the first English dictionary, he was also a critic on
metaphysical poetry for which he said that it had purposeful comparisons
satires: London Idler Rambler Vanity of human virtues

ROMANTICISM

1785. 1830.

HISTORY AND LIFE

Began in the year of the French revolution or alternatively in 1798 when
Wordsworth and Coleridge published Lyrical Ballads.
The age is characterised by an interest in history, especially medieval times and
the Orient. There is a great interest in nature and rural life; inspiration is derived
14

from legends and folk ballads. Individualism is marked by a will to develop a

creative personality engulfed in strong emotions, passion and, often, solitude.
English is studied at universities and language of poetry is the language of
ordinary people.

LITERATURE
In romanticism prose became more of an artistic form and was followed by the
development of the historical novel (Ivanhoe W. Scott). Romanticism is
characterised by a fight against the social norms and every limitation. Freedom
and nonconformity are the principles of the protagonists who are regularly
outcasts.
Poetry of meditation concerns itself with these problems and overall human
experience.
There are 2 generations of authors:
1) William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake, Robert Burns
2) Mary Shelley, John Keats, Lord Byron
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
rejected poetic diction; his writing was simple as he said that Good poetry is the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
Daffodils; theme: nature
WILLIAM BLAKE
The sick rose; theme: illicit love affair
uses very strange images: rose ~ the invisible worm, bed of crimson, dark secret
love
rose feminine beauty, love, women
worm death, secret lover
crimson joy passionate sex
dark secret love concealed love affair
ROBERT BURNS
A red, red rose; theme: love
uses similes that establish comparison with words like like as such
JOHN KEATS
wrote Ode to a nightingale
The poet is sad. He is sitting in an orchard and he sees the nightingale; he wants
to escape with it into the forest, out of reality. He chooses poetry to do so over
drunkenness as it brings him closer to thought of immortality. He reaches the
woods mentally; at first hes overwhelmed but doesnt want to die, then he
allows himself that thought. Hes in the fairy land forlorn; midway between his
world and the one he wants to live in. He confesses that despite thought of death
he still wants to live and wonders whether the song he heard or the world are
real.
15

VICTORIAN AGE

1832. 1901.

HISTORY AND LIFE

Industrialisation produced wealth for the middle class but led rural England into
massive poverty. It was a time of rapid economic and social changes. Although
there was optimism and national pride, there was also social distress and anxiety
about the ability to cope with the social and political problems.
Victorianism is usually connected to narrow-mindedness, sexual ignorance and
social respectability; women started fighting for their rights and equality;
also, doubts about the religious dogma led to strict biblical fundamentalism
It has 3 subperiods:
1) Early Victorianism
2) Middle Victorianism Pre-Raphaelites
3) Late Victorianism Aestheticism and Decadence

16

LITERATURE
Literature reflected the problems of the time (religious, intellectual, social,
political).
The dominant form is the novel (monthly publishing) and the dominant theme is
childhood.
The critics of the time, Carlyle, Ruskin and Arnold rebelled against Victorian
doctrines (materialism, utilitarianism, narrow-mindedness) and wanted class
harmony.
LITERARY MOVEMENTS
1) PRE-RAPHAELITES
a group of critics who wanted to bring back Raphaels style of painting and art,
also into poetry; truth, simplicity and a spirit of devotion;
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, William Morris
2) LART POUR LART
love of art for its own sake proposed by Immanuel Kant in his writings and
introduced to England by Walter Peter;
Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, Lionel Johnson
3) AESTHETICISM
a work of art has no use or moral aim outside its own being, it is a human product
of supreme value;
Charles Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe, Flaubert, Mallarme, Verlaine
4) DECADENCE
exploration of strange sensations, experiments with drugs and different modes of
sexual experience; a representative work is The picture of Dorian Gray;
Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, Algernon Charles Swinburne
--------------------------POETS:
Lord Tennyson, Robert and Elizabeth Browning, Mathew Arnold
NOVELISTS:
Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, William M. Thackeray,
Samuel Butler, Thomas Hardy
ESSAYISTS:
Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Mathew Arnold, Walter Peter
CHARLES DICKENS
He was very good in portraying characters and had a great feeling for the rhythm
of speech of the poor and uneducated. His novels are marked by a sense of
injustice and everything depends on the individual to solve.

17

Oliver Twist David Copperfield Nicholas Nickelby

Bleak house Great expectations The tale of two cities
WILLIAM M. THACKERAY
wrote about the upper classes in a completely unromantic way
Vanity fair Virginians Book of snobs The newcomers

EDWARDIAN AGE

1901. 1914.

The period between the death of queen Victoria and the start of the first World
War.
POETS: William Butler Yeats, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling
PROSAISTS: Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, John Galsworthy, Henry James
PLAYWRIGHTS and DRAMATISTS: William Butler Yeats, John Galsworthy, George
Bernard Shaw, Lady Gregory, Henry Arthur Jones, Synge

GEORGIAN AGE

1910. 1936.

The period of the reign of George V.

TheGeorgian poets gathered their poetry in an anthology Georgian poetry.
Their poems are rural in theme, delicate in manner and traditional in form.
POETS: Rupert Brooke, Walter de la Mare, W.H. Davies, John Maefield, Ralph
Hodgson

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