İNGİLİZCE ALAN LITERATURE PERIODS FASİKÜL 6 ENGLISH LITERATURE 1. ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD (OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE and LITERATURE) 2. THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD 3. RENAISSANCE PERIOD a) THE ELIZABETHAN AGE b) THE JACOBEAN ERA 4. THE RESTORATION AGE 5. THE AUGUSTAN AGE 6. THE ROMANTIC PERIOD 7. THE VICTORIAN AGE 8. 20TH CENTURY LITERATURE 1. ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD (OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE and LITERATURE) Old English had been spoken from 450 to 1150. It had a complex grammar with a system of word endings to indicate words relationships. The words of Old English were small and resistant to change unlike modern English and it had not yet been influenced by French and Latin. The oldest surviving English text is Caedmon’s Hymn of Creation Old English Literature, it means mostly poetry(dominated by poetry). This period has 2 different styles of poetry (the heroic Germanic poetry, the Christian-religious poetry). Riddle Elegiac Poems Religious Poems Heroic Poems -were written in Latin -Most of the poems are concerned with heroic -represents sad -is a joke or by the monks or battle feats whereas some are lyrical (about the feelings about someone puzzle in which churchman. history of Germanic tribes). who has died or you ask a -focus on religious the most famous heroic poem of this period is something that no question that is events or figures such deliberately BEOWULF. longer exists. as Jesus the Christ or very confusing -It contains supernatural elements, historical facts -tell of the sadness of and hints of Christianity and Anglo-Saxon values. exile or separation from saints’ lives. and has a -the greatest Old English poem is BEOWULF. one’s lord or community. e.g. ecclesiastical humorous or history of English -it is the first English epic. e.g. the wanderer, the clever answer. people(VENERABLE -author is unknown. seafarer, deor’s lament BEDE) Old English Prose consists of sermons and translations of religious works that were composed in Latin. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is an example for prose genre. CHARACTERISTICS OF OLD ENGLISH LITERATURE The lines do not rhyme. Anglo-Saxon poetry is like blank verse. The rhythm of a line depends on the number of beats or accented syllables. Each line has four beats. Each line has pause called caesura after the second beat. Alliteration is an important factor. Alliteration is the use of several words together that begin with the same sound or letter in order to make a special effect. Kenning is an important characteristic. Kennings are elaborate and indirect ways of naming persons, places, things, events. 2. THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD In the 13th and 14th centuries, the most popular literary works for the anti-aristocratic audiences were medieval romances, in which the heroic knights behaved. Medieval Romances consisted of tales of chivalry (to which were added a love interest to please the ladies and all sorts of wonders and marvels were commonly used such as giants, wizards, fairies. CHARACTERISTICS OF MEDIEVAL ROMANCE usually idealizes chivalry idealizes the hero knight and his noble deeds – the knight’s love for his lady imaginary and vague settings derives mystery and suspense from supernatural elements concealed or disguised identity Drama in medieval age -plays were presented in the church. -the actors were priests. -the plays were about religious events. Mystery Plays -based on Biblical stories Miracle Plays -a story from the Bible or the life of a saint Morality Plays -were dramatized allegories of a representative Christian life in the plot form of a quest for salvation, in which the crucial events are temptations, sinning and the climatic confrontation with death.(the best known morality play is the 15th century EVERYMAN) e.g. the castle of perseverance, mankind Middle English Lyrics and Ballads -Lyrics are short melodic poems and they express intense personal emotion. -Ballads are poems that tell stories that have folk origin. -Both of them were written to be sung. Middle English period was represented by a major authorGEOFFREY CHAUCER Chaucer and his works -known as the father of English literature -the greatest English poet of the mediaeval times -his masterpiece CANTERBURY TALES is a collection tales told by pilgrims. These tales are not written in prose but in poetry. -he uses irony very effectively. 3. RENAISSANCE LITERATURE New forms are used such as sonnet. Classical comedy and tragedy characteristics affected the English drama. Grate writers such as Shakespeare combined classical conventions of both comedy and tragedy with their owns, as result they developed their own rules and patterns. Poetry in Renaissance Prose in Renaissance SIR THOMAS MORE: Utopia, tells of an ideal state SIR THOMAS WYATT and SIR PHILIP SIDNEY: the Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia(pastoral prose romance), HENRY HOWARD wrote lyric Pilgrim’s Progress poetry. SIR WALTER RALEIGH: A Report of the Truth of the Fight about the Isles of Acores They used Italian poetry style (historical) sonnet. a) THE ELIZABETHAN AGE Edmund Spenser His poetry continues in the allegorical verse tradition of the Middle age. THE FAERIE QUEENE John Milton and his works His writings combine the restless intellectual spirit of the earlier period with the later emphasis on religion and politics. AREOPAGITICA, OF EDUCATION, PARADISE LOST Drama in Renaissance -divided into 2 sections pre-Shakespearean and Shakespearean drama. Pre-Shakespearean Drama Miracle and morality plays are continued to be performed. Academic Drama-were performed in schools by sts Court Drama-were performed at court on festival days Interludes-although they were didactic, they were more comic and realistic and the heroes more individualized. SHAKESPEARE as a POET Shakespeare is a playwright and poet of the Elizabethan Age. During 1590s, he wrote sonnets that were published as a sequence in 1609 and are considered his finest work except for dramas. He wrote 154 sonnets. Shakespearean rhyme scheme is different from traditional Italian sonnet rhyme. Hİs rhyme scheme is abab – cdcd – efef- gg. List of Shakespeare’s Plays Tragedies Comedies Histories Antony and Cleopatra *Hamlet The problem The Romances The Romantic Comedies Coriolanus *Macbeth comedies -Cymbeline -The taming of the shrew Julius Caesar *Othello -Troilus and Cressida -The winter’s -Love’s labour’s lost King John *King Lear -All’s well that ends tale -A midsummer night’s dream Richard II -Romeo and -The tempest(his well -Much ado about nothing Richard III Juliet -Measure for measure last play) -The merchant of Venice Pericles -Fall of -As you like it Henry IV(part1, 2) princes -Twelfth night Henry V -Comedy of errors Henry VI(part1,2,3) -Merry wives of Windsor Henry VIII -Two gentleman of Verona EXPOSITION Things go wrong in some way The General Structure of Drama COMPLICATION RESOLUTION disorder and confusion, problems are resolved, order reestablished life is turned upside down and things end happily The Clear Structural Pattern of Drama EXPOSITION DRAMATIC INCITEMENT COMPLICATION CRISIS RESOLUTION The Pattern of Shakespeare’s Plays Chaos ensues. Climax. Introduction Problem(s) emerge and/or More chaos and confusion occurs. Chain of to confusion. Chain of events In a tragedy, leading to the events started. characters More events leading continues. death of one or more to: characters. Reestablishment of order. The General Pattern of the Romance Plays (Shakespeare’s) PROSPERITY DESTRUCTION RECREATION Shakespeare’s History Plays cover the reigns of earlier English kings and deal with the nature of kingship and the qualities of good king. Shakespeare’s Comedies and Romances include masque fantasies, romantic comedy, farces and problem comedies. CHARACTERISTICS of SHAKESPEAREAN COMEDY Fine and artistic blend of romance and realism. Related to real life. Romantic Settings are imaginative It is a comedy of love which ends with marriage. Wooing distinguishes it from classical comedy. It ends with the celebrations of many marriages The use of dramatic device of disguise is common Humor is the soul of it. Full of song and music. Comic and tragic elements are combined. Role of fortune is important. All the difficulties and complications are unexpectedly removed by the power of fortune. SAHAKESPEARE’S TRAGEDIES Middle Tragedies Early Tragedies The Four Great Later Differ in style and tone Tragedies Tragedies Similar in depicting a world full of inscrutable - Titus Andronicus -Hamlet - Antony and and interesting evil, presented objectively, not - Romeo and Juliet -Othello Cleopatra subjectively - Julius Caesar -King Lear - Othello – Macbeth - King Lear - Hamlet -Macbeth CHARACTERISTICS of SHAKESPEAREAN TRAGEDY The story of a person, the hero or the protagonist. His fate affects the fate of a whole nation or empire. The hero is an exceptional person. The tragic heroes are exceptional beings (there is a marked one-sidedness, a predisposition in one particular direction or an obsessiveness of thought or action TRAGIC FLAW) Fate or destiny places the protagonist in difficult situations with which he is incapable of dealing. Some abnormal conditions of mind (hallucinations) affect human deeds (in Hamlet and Macbeth). The supernatural agency plays a vital role. Conflict is an important element. It is cathartic. It is true to life. It is not depressing. Man’s destiny is determined by his own character. He is an architect of his own fate. It ends with the restoration of the power of the good. OTHER ELIZABETHAN PLAYWRIGHTS MARLOWE, who made blank verse an instrument of eloquence and grandeur in his tragedies. TAMBURLAINE BEN JOHNSON, the master of classical satiric comedy. THOMAS HEYWOOD b) THE JACOBEAN ERA The Cavalier Poets-tribe of Ben Their lyrics r characterized by symmetry of form, sensuousness and playful tone. Ignored the sonnet form, instead short lines, idiomatic diction, and urbane wit. John Donne And Metaphysical Poetry -synthesized passion and intellect to show feeling and learning. -religion and romantic love -the most distinctive features of this are wit and metaphysical concepts(unusual simile and metaphors) -his religious poems are full of paradoxes and ambiguities. -philosophy, astronomy, geography Andrew Marvell -metaphysical poet -he wrote prose satires criticizing the monarchy and Catholicism. -To His Coy Mistress-his most famous poem- is carpe diem poem. Philosophy in Literature Philosophy was a type of literature. -Francis Bacon is the most famous philosophical writer. -he is the creator of Empiricism. 4. THE RESTORATION AGE (age of DRYDEN) Literary Characteristics of Restoration age -breaking off ties with Renaissance literature. -Neo-classicism imitating the great authors of antiquity as a matter of aesthetic principle. -writer, poets, playwrights turned to the ancient writers for guidance. -correctness and appropriateness were valued -creativity and freedom were underestimated. -rules became more important than what was said how it was said in a literary work. Poetry of Restoration Age -formal, intellectual, realistic -its form is more important than its subject matter. John DRYDEN -he was the first of the new.(ALL FOR LOVE) -he wrote heroic plays and tragedies, literary criticism, satiric poetry and occasional poems written to commemorate important event. e.g. Absalom and Achitophel, Medal, Mac Flecknoe Restoration Comedy -a new type of playcomedy of manners -these comedies expressed a reaction to Puritanism and the sexual repression it had attempted to enforce. -fashionable intrigues, sex, marriage and adultery were with cynicism, worldly wit and a sense of the comedy of life. Heroic Play -aim was to celebrate love and valour. Restoration Tragedies -more realistic in style, more naturally poetic in the blank verse meter and more integrated in plot as they followed the dramatic unities of time, place and action. 5. THE AUGUSTAN AGE (the Age of Pope) The evolution of prose style during the 18th century. Alexander Pope Henry Fielding Richardson and Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift Joseph Addison – -he wrote a new direction the Birth of Novel and Satire -He is the Richard Steele SHAMELA as a to Novel -18th century, novel -satirethe representative -prose began to reaction to -Defoe’s novels literary art of poet of the excel poetry in emerged as a form Richardson’s lacked plot. diminishing a Augustan Age quantity and with tight structure Pamela. -The first novel -he used heroic quality in the early subject by making and interplay -SHAMELA to be guided it ridiculous and couplet rather 18th century. between individuals satirizes throughout by a than liberating -THE SPECTATOR evoking toward it and their sentimental and single motif attitudes of poetic forms. -THE TATTLER relationships in virtue-valued (love) was amusement, -Pope’s literary society. PAMELA written nature of Pamela. contempt, scorn, criticismAN -Defoe wrote the -Fielding’s books by Samuel indignation. ESSAY ON first English Novel, show a dislike of Richardson. -Swift is the CRITICISM Robinson Crusoe. foremost prose -Pope’s -Defoe’s method was -He wrote all his high society. -Satire dominates works in satirist of English philosophical poem journalistic, his most of his works. epistolary form. literature. ESSAY ON narratives are -Epistolary novel e.g. TOM JONES, -GULLIVER’S MAN fictional JOSEPH the narrative TRAVELS is his -Pope’s satire autobiographies. ANDREWS is conveyed by most universal THE RAPE OF -Robinson Crusoe is an exchange of satire. THE LOCK (is an a fictional epic, comic poem) autobiographic novel letters (writing to the moment). that includes didactic purposes. -Moll Flanders (Defoe’s novel) is a fictional picaresque novel including didactic purposes. The First novel in the history of the World is DON QUIXOTE written by CERVANTES and was not written in English. DRAMA OF THE AUGUSTAN AGE The early 18th century drama was sentimental. The plays were called “WEEPING COMEDY”. The plays of this period included both laughter and sadness. 6. THE ROMANTIC PERIOD The senseless, soulless, formal and rule-maniac nature of the Augustan Age is one of the reasons triggered the Romanticism. Romanticism: favoring the indefinite and the boundless. It may be regarded as the triumph of the values of imaginative spontaneity, visionary originality, wonder and emotional self-expression over the classical standards of balance, order, restraint, proportion and objectivity. The literary form in which desires and dreams prevail over everyday realities. References to nature and natural objects, intimate self-revelation of the poet and direct expression of emotions are usually regarded as the general features of this period. Romantics took the nationalistic direction followed by Romantic poets and composers in other countries, who rediscovered and revalued great writers of the past such as Shakespeare and Milton who had been ignored during the Augustan Age. Romanticism is a movement that unleashed individualism and privileged the particular experience over the general rule. It is usually taken to represent a second renaissance of literature in Britain, especially in lyric and narrative poetry, which displaced the Augustan cultivation of satiric and didactic modes. In addition to novel and short-story, the Romantic Period was the great age of literary criticism and theory ( in the writings of HAZLITT and COLERIDGE, in the major essays by WORDSWORTH and SHELLEY) (LORD BYRON) Percy Bysshe Shelly John Keats Samuel Taylor William Wordsworth and his William Blake -Platonic idealism Coleridge revolutionary theory of poetry -he was a mystic, -He wrote personal provides the -He was an -His theories changed the face other-worldly sonnets in some of intellectual innovative poet, of poetry. poet. which he used narrative background for many in Spenserian stanzas writing strange -A poet can heighten sensitivity -He broke neoof his poems. poems of the through words, yet he should classicism with his with unusually delicate -Themes of his supernatural as not elevate himself above his simple but and sensuous imagery. poems are beauty, well as personal readers and should also “speak psychological -He used all his senses the passions, nature, in his concrete imagery. meditations called lyrics of innocence as man speaking to men”. political liberty, -He advocated poetry written in “conversation and experience He has the ability to creativity, poems”. the language really used by -He continued in lose his identity in imagination. -His poems were simple rural people and dared to the Romantic vein contemplating the e.g. Ozymandias, quiet, descriptive use subject matter that was with his complex external world. Beauty Ode to the west and personal. common and considered long poems, overcomes every other wind, To a skylark, -Realistic imagery unpoetical. “prophetic works”. consideration in his Music, When soft of rural life -His beliefpoetry is the poetry. voices die, The e.g. BIOGRAPHIA spontaneous overflow of cloud, The masque of LITERIA powerful feelings that are anarchy recollected in tranquility. e.g. LYRICAL BALLADS PROSE in the ROMANTIC PERIOD Although poetry was the most important literary medium of the Romantic Period, an innovation in prose was significant. The innovation was the personal essay. DEQUINNCEY, HAZLITT, LAMB abandoned the tradition of the formal essay for this more impressionistic, less structured essay that disclosed more of the personality of the writer. NOVEL in the ROMANTIC PERIOD There are four general categories of the Romantic Period novel. History novels The novel The novel of manners Gothic novel of purpose -It concerns the manners and customs of a specific social -SIR WALTER SCOTT wrote e.g. DRACULA, class. FRANKENSTEIN historical novels. The historical -JANE AUSTIN was one of the greatest novelists of the period of his novels varied from period. Anglo-Saxon period to the late e.g. Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Sense and 18th century. Sensibility, Emma -MARIA EDGEWORTH 7. THE VICTORIAN AGE Literature of this age tends to come closer to daily life which reflects its practical problems and interests. It is considered as an age of doubt due to the influence of science. Scientific changes contributed to the emergence of science fiction novel (THE ISLAND OF DR. MONREAU, TIME MACHINE, DR. JEKYLLAND MR. HYDE, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS). Though he age is characterized as practical and materialistic, most of the writers exalt a purely ideal life (IDEALISM). The great ideals like truth, justice, love, brotherhood are emphasized by poets, essayists, novelists. The concept of the “white man’s burden” was exalted in the works of colonial writers such as RUDYARD KIPLING. Many literary works from this time period reflected feelings of national pride and imperialism (PATRIOTISM). VICTORIAN PROSE Writers such as THOMAS CARLYLE, JOHN STUART MILL, and JOHN HENRY NEWMAN had one aim: to lead their readers to superior viewpoints and improve their taste in art and literature. The notion of “art for art’s sake” was abandoned in Victorian literature. Victorian essayists were concerned with a criticism of society’s morals, priorities and tastes. Carlyle emphasized the overall decline of his age. Mill’s more restrained autobiography and essays are classically liberal in philosophy whereas NEWMAN was opposed to religious liberalism. Prose was more popular than poetry among Victorians. Essays were read by the middle class. There were three major critics in the period; MATTHEW ARNOLD, JOHN RUSKIN, WALTER PATER. VICTORIAN NOVEL The Victorian’s supreme literary achievement was the novel with no distinction being made between popular fiction and literature. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE VICTORIAN NOVEL Good characters are rewarded, bad ones punished. The adjustment of the individual to society is the major human problem resented, with a general acceptance of the values of the middleclass. The major characters were recognizable Victorian types. The poor were usually treated patronizingly, the rich scorned and envied. Human nature is considered basically good, the heroes and heroines are persons of virtue, even though sometimes weak. Main types of the Victorian novel Social Romances Gothic Fiction Historical Social Novel Bildungsroman novel Wuthering Heights Cranford by novels David Copperfield by Vanity Fair by William Makepeace by Emily Bronte A Tale of Two Thackeray and Mary Barton by Elizabeth Elizabeth Gaskell Charles Dickens and Cities by Gaskell Barry Lyndon by Charles -criticizes defective points of the William Makepeace Dickens Victorian Period, especially problems of Thackeray the working class. The First Modern Novelists: Charles Dickens Thomas Hardy -Oliver Twist and Pickwick -with humor and folklore he often George Elliot (Mary Ann Evans) Papers(social criticism and reveals his love, the natural world -She is the earliest English novelist humor) with a massive intellect. She believed in detail and with strong symbols. -Hard Times and Great in discarding the old concepts of God, -his view of life is darkly cynical Expectations(darker, faith and immortality for a religion of and the novels generally end indicting Victorian society in humanity. Realistic and naturalistic tragically. elements are common in her works. general e.g. Far from the Madding Crowd, William Makepeace The Mayor of Casterbridge, Tess Anthony Trollope Thackeray of The D’Urbervilles -his principal conflict in all his novels -He wrote popular novels e.g. The Trumpet Major and The is the struggle to retain the old way that contrasted human Well-Beloved (romancesof life against forces within and pretentions and human fantasies) outside the middle class. weaknesses. Novelists opposed to Victorianism: Samuel Butler (EREWHON), Lewis Carroll (ALICE’S ADVENTURES in WONDERLAND), George Meredith. The novels of Brontes (3 sisters) -Charlotte BronteJane Eyre and Villette -Emily BronteWuthering Heights -Anne BronteAgnes Gray (social romances) VICTORIAN DRAMA OSCAR WILDE is the greatest playwright of the Victorian Age. He was the spokes for the Aesthetic Movement (art for art’s sake) with his brilliant wit and conscious posing. His best plays were comedies of manners that were closer to Restoration comedies than to other Victorian plays. E.g. LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN, THE IMPORTANCE OF BEİNG EARNEST VICTORIAN POETRY Most of the important poetry followed closely the style and content of the Romantic predecessors. The three major Victorian poets Tennyson, Arnold, Browning came to grips with the religious anxiety and social change of the period. Rossetti and Morris Matthew Arnold Elizabeth Browning Alfred Lord Tennyson -his poems show -she wrote some of her works in Romantic -the oracle of the -Pre-Raphaelite loneliness and a style, yet AURORA LEIGH (her masterpiece) Victorian Age Brotherhood form: desperate search was written in “novel verse” style and contains -the most popular poet dedicated to carrying on a for life’s meaning witty comments on the positions of women in of the age romantic revolt against and purpose. Victorian society. -he was the un failing academic painting and a -he was the least -AURORA LEIGH is an epic novel written in voice of orthodox return to the clarity, popular of all three. morality, a talented and blank verse and it consists of 9 books. brightness and fidelity to Robert Browning romantic lyricist, nature of the painting -he wrote dramatic monologues, showing “action dreamer and mystic. before Raphael. in character” rather than “character in action”. 8. 20TH CENTURY LITERATURE Modern Literature: 20th century writers have been torn between expressing the era’s new discoveries and insights and expressing dissatisfaction with western civilization. Modern writers felt increasingly alienated from the public, and there was a recurrence of ironic, esoteric and fiercely antagonistic works throughout the period. 20TH CENTURY FICTION Social Criticism in the Modern Novel: Some novelist condemned the class system. They satirized the materialistic acquisitiveness of all classes in their works and deplored the terrible conditions of poverty. These novels appealed to middleclass readers. George Herbart Wells is the foremost example of such novelists. He was the one of the most prolific English writers. He embroidered social criticism elaborately into his science fiction as well as his novels of lower-middle class life. His bourgeois novels are autobiographical and include comic and realistic elements. He also wrote scientific romances. THE TIME MACHINE is social allegory with a society divided into classes. He wrote a feminist novel ANN VERONICA. Joseph Conrad began writing novels with a cosmopolitan world view. His works are regarded as boldly experimental in form. He avoided dealing with the conventional problems of other contemporary novel. His themes were universal. He wrote of honor, guilt and moral ambiguity and alienation (e.g. LORD JIM). He scrutinized western politics and society and dealt with themes of corruption and human loneliness as well as terrorism and anarchy (e.g. UNDER THE WESTERN EYES, THE SECRET AGENT). He criticizes imperial states and their adverse effect on colonial states in his work especially in THE HEART OF DARKNESS. James Joyce is a remarkable combination of realism and symbolism. Intense mythological and religious symbols, especially Christian symbols, are quite common in his works. DUBLINERS, PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN, ULYSSES. Virginia Woolf experimented with fiction that ignored plot and discarded conventional characterization. She attempted to explore the inner complexities of experience and probe the intricacies of personal relationships. She used stream of consciousness in most of her works (JACOP’S ROOM, MRS. DALLOWAY, and THE WAVES) as well as allegory (ORLANDO). David Herbert Lawrence wrote autobiographical novels such as THE WHITE PEACOCK and SONS AND LOVERS, both of which include poetical elements. He also wrote novels of emotional adjustment (THE RAINBOW, WOMEN IN LOVE) and prophetic mysticism (THE PLUMED SERPENT, LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER) along with short stories. Aldous Huxley was the wittiest commentator on foibles 20the century society. His most famous work A BRAVE NEW WORLD combines satiric and dystopic elements and science fiction. George Orwell/Eric Arthur Blair wrote several lightly regarded novels dealing with his frustrations in a world full of “man’s domination over man” (BURMESE DAYS, KEEP THE ASPIDISTRA FLYING, THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER). ANIMAL FARM, one of his major works, is a satire in fable form about Russian communism. 1984 is a dystopic novel of a future totalitarian state and one man’s hopeless struggle against it. He also wrote essay dealing with social problems (POLITICS AND ENGLISH LANGUAHE). E. M. Forster satirized English travelers abroad and criticized the snobbery of the self-consciously cultured. A ROOM WITH A VIEW is a comedy of manners, mildly satirizes some self-satisfied English tourists. His masterpiece is A PASSAGE TO INDIA. Graham Greene’s novels depict a struggle for grace that frees men from bondage of sin especially in THE POWER AND THE GLORY. His political novel THE QUIET AMERICAN involves spy fiction characteristics and criticizes American policy and America’s co-called effort to bring democracy in Vietnam which caused catastrophic result to Vietnam. J. R. R. Tolkien became internationally appreciated as the author of books of fiction based on a mythology of his own language and legends, which confronts its characters with many of the same problems of our modern era faces (THE HOBBIT). THE LORD OF THE RINGS, his masterpiece, is a sequel and is mix of history, saga and poetry as well as philosophy, adventure and sentiment. Though deriving from the traditional English novel, it is more like Nordic myth. Saki’s (Hector Hugh Munro) stories of bizarre humor, tinged with the macabre, satirized upper class conventionality and stupidity. His wit is mostly reminiscent of Wilde. A favorite device is to use animals (wolves, tigers, bulls) as agents of revenge upon humans. Katherine Mansfield is the first short story writer in English to show the influence of Anton Chekhov. She was interested in external world and moments of illumination when one learns something about life or selfhood. She contributed to the short story genre by using stream of consciousness technique to follow the wanderings of the human mind. 20TH CENTURY POETRY Thomas Hardy considered as a 19th century novelist and 20th century poet. Hardy greatly affected the course of 20th century poetry especially with his dark themes of human alienation. In plainly stated lyrics and biting satires, Hardy conveyed both a pessimistic view of the world and the belief that it could be made better. (HAP, THE DARKLINH THRUSH, THE CONVERGENCE OF THE TWAIN are the most famous poems all of which reflects his pessimism. Rupert C. Brook romanticized World War I, whereas A. E. Housman reflected his pessimism in his works. Wilfred Owen expressed the prevailing post-war English sentiment; bitterness about slaughter, patriotism without sentimentality and courage in a pointless, cruel world. William Butler Yeats. His poetry falls into 3 distinctive periods. First, the aesthetic period refers to Yeats early poetry. He influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and the French Symbolists, and his main purpose were the creation and revelation of beauty. The second one is the mask period. Yeats began writing terser, simpler poems about the realities of the Irish problems in this period. The last period is the prophetic poetry. In his later years Yeats had a remarkable burst of creative energy that resulted in his best poetry, which was complex yet realistic and humorous. T.S. Eliot was the dominant proponent of “modernist” poetry, which he defined in THE SACRED WOOD. In his first period, he produced poems that indicted modern culture and that combined the contemporary scene with subtle allusions from antiquity, and employed ironic satire (THE LOVE SONG OF ALFRED PRUFROCK, THE WASTE LAND). In his second period, he declared himself an Anglo-Catholic in religion, a classist in literature and a realist in politics (MURDER IN THE CATHAEDRAL, FOUR QUARTETS). Dylan Thomas reacted against the classicism of Auden with turbulent and surrealistic imagery. His poetry appealed to the literati because of his surrealistic imagery, but a wide range of readers loved his wild intensity and the excitement generated by his eloquence and energy. W. H. Auden was one of the New Signature Poets. A group of important English poets in the 1930s were referred to as “New Signatures poets”. A prototype of left-wing intellectual, Auden wrote poems satirizing the middle-class failure to create an ideal communist state. Philip Larkin was the best known poets of the group “The Movement”. A group of young poets influenced by Eliot and Auden. Their poetry was characterized by a conversational style, allusions to everyday trivia, disillusionment with a seemingly mad world and extensive self-scrutiny. Unlike The New Signature poets, they had no interest in politics. THE LESS DECEIVED is the major example of the movement verse. In some of his works (THE WHITSUN WEDDINGS) Larkin satirized the pointlessness of urban and suburban life. 20TH CENTURY DRAMA Drama in the modern era moves from the realism and naturalism to the theatre of the absurd and the experiment drama of the contemporary stage. Social and political criticism is a major preoccupation throughout the period. George Bernard Shaw advocated replacing light, artificial dramas with plays depicting social and moral problems in the mode of Henrik Ibsen. As a free thinker, Shaw supported women’s rights, equality of income, abolition of private property and a change in the voting system. In his plays he sought to provoke his audiences intellectually by making them laugh. His early dramas followed Ibsen in presenting social criticism in well-made plays but relied on Shaw’s distinctive wit. (MRS. WARREN’S PROFESSION, ARMS AND THE MAN, CANDIDA, MAN AND SUPERMAN, MAJOR BARBARA, PYGMALION) John Synge (playwright) wrote on of the 20th century’s great tragedies as well as one of its great comedies. In his best plays Synge reflects the gullibility, superstition and brutality as well as innate charm of the Irish peasantry. His language enriched with rhythms and diction of peasant speech. Sean O’Casey was rated by some critics as second only to Shaw among 20th century playwrights. His plays tied strongly to the life and language of the Irish poor, bring together the tragic and comic. THEATRE OF THE ABSURD it uses banal repetitions and fantasy. there is not logical discussion on the stage. the language used on the stage does not produce clear meanings. characters are no longer concrete individuals. They are representative characters. the action on the stage does not develop through logical story. The action on the stage provides for us the cycles found in universal situations like seasons, birth, death, hunger. the dynamics of a play is created through a static situation. the inner world of the characters (dreams, fantasies) are represented on the stage. Like a clown show. Absurdist drama shows that it is impossible to catch the truth, absolute truth. Samuel Beckett (absurdist) wrote his remarkable dramas in French (WAITING FOR GODOT) then translated them into English himself. As the leading proponent of the “Theatre of Absurd”. WAITING FOR GODOT was first staged in French in 1935. WAITING FOR GODOT is a harsh criticism of brutality of human beings (due to the WWI and II). Beckett powerfully and symbolically portrays the human nature condition as on ignorance, delusion and paralysis, enlightened rarely by flashes of hope and human sympathy. Harold Pinter is known for his “Pinteresque” style of dialogue which realistically reproduces the nuances of conversational speech, with its pauses, silences and difficulties in communication. His frequent themes include jealously, mental aberrations and erotic fantasies. Tom Stoppard has a biting wit and a strong sense of theatrical possibilities and great inventiveness in the structure of plays. His dramas pose ethical problems and realistically do not always offer a solution.
