OKRUHY NA ŠTÁTNU SKÚŠKU
BRITSKÁ A AMERICKÁ LITERATÚRA
BRITSKÁ LITERATÚRA
1. Old English Literature (to 1066)
Historical context: Conquest of Angles, Saxons and Jutes, St. Bede
Literature: Beowulf, Heroic poetry, Christian literature (The Dream of the Rood, Caedmon’s
hymn), Elegies, figures of speech
2. Middle English Literature (1066 – 1500)
Historical context: Hundred Years War between England and France, The War of Roses –
1455 – 1485, the arrival of printing
Literature: Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,
mystery plays, morality plays
3. Tudor Literature (1500 – 1603)
Historical context: Renaissance and Reformation, England’s place in the world, Elizabethan
period
Literature: Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare – his life and works – Hamlet,
Macbeth, Shakespeare’s sonnets, Shakespeare’s achievements and drama: Elizabethan theatre
4. Stuart Literature (to 1700)
Historical context: the outbreak of the Civil War, temporary overthrow of the monarchy,
James I’s reign
Literature: Metaphysical poets – John Donne – The Flea, Batter My Heart, Three Personed
God, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert
John Milton – Paradise Lost, John Dryden – Mac Flecknoe, Restoration theatre
5. Augustan Literature (to 1790)
Historical context: Enlightenment
Literature: Jonathan Swift – A Modest Proposal, Gulliver’s Travels, Alexander Pope – The
Rape of the Lock, the emergence of the novel, Daniel Defoe – Robinson Crusoe
1. The Romantics: 1790 – 1837
Historical context: Romanticism and Revolution, French Revolution and its impact
Literature: “First” Romantics – William Blake – the Tyger, the Lamb, William Wordsworth –
The World is Too Much With Us, S.T. Coleridge – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
“Younger” Romantics – George Gordon, Lord Byron, P.B. Shelley, John Keats
Romantic prose – Mary Shelley: Frankenstein.
2. Victorian Literature (to 1880)
Historical context: The Victorian Age, the Industrial Revolution, growth of the British Empire
Literature: Victorian fiction: the Bronte sisters (blend of Romanticism, Realism, and
Gothicism), Emily Bronte – The Wuthering Heights, High Victorian fiction – reflection of
industrialized England and its values – Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist, Late Victorian
literature – Thomas Hardy: Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Victorian drama: Oscar Wilde,
aestheticism , G.B. Shaw: Pygmalion
3. Modernism (1914 – 1927)
Historical context: the impact of the First World War, new inventions in science, art, breaking
with prevailing formal conventions of society.
Literature: Modernist fiction – Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway, D.H. Lawrence: Sons and
Lovers. Modernist poetry – W.B. Yeats, T.S Eliot – The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,
innovations in themes, approaches, writing techniques
4. Postmodern fiction (second half of the 20th century)
Historical context: the position of Great Britain in the world,
Literature: Salman Rushdie – Shame, Angela Carter – The Nights at the Circus, themes,
writing techniques
FORMA SKÚŠKY: ústna
Aplikácia znakov obdobia na konkrétne literárne dielo, analýza historického kontextu;
študent si vyberá dve otázky: jednu z americkej a jednu z britskej literatúry
Literatúra:
Alexander, M.: A History of English Literature (2nd edition). Basingstoke. Palgrave
Macmillan, 2007.
Baštín, Š. et. al: Dejiny anglickej a americkej literatúry. Bratislava. Obzor, 1993.
Drabble, M.: (ed.) The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford. Oxford University
Press, 2000.
McRae, J.: The Routledge History of Literature in English. London. Routledge, 2003.
Rogers, P.: The Oxford Illustrated History of English Literature. New York, 2001.
Sanders, E.: The Short History of English Literature (2nd edition) Oxford. OUP2000.
Stephen, M.: English Literature. Harlow. Pearson 2000.
Thornley, G.C., Roberts, G.: An Outline of English Literature. Harlow. Longman, 1984.
Vypracoval: Mgr. Marek Hampl
10.10. 2011
AMERICKÁ LITERATÚRA
1. EARLY AMERICAN / COLONIAL LITERATURE: (1630s- 1773) William Bradford, John
Smith, Anne Bradstreet, John Winthrop
Historical and cultural context: Life in Leyden, reasons for leaving for America, Pilgrim
Fathers, Puritans, Social, Political, Religious life, Relationship to Indians, original idea of
American dream, idea of exclusivism
2. REVOLUTIONARY LITERATURE: (1773- 1800) Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Benjamin
Franklin
Historical and cultural context: Fight for Independence, Boston tea party, Ideals of Enlightenment,
Human Rights and Documents: Declaration of Independence, Constitution
3. ROMANTICISM: (1850-1855) Nathaniel Hawthorne, E.A. Poe, James Fenimore Cooper
Historical and cultural context: Urbanism versus Return to Nature, Expansion westwards
4. TRANSCENDENTALISM: (1830s and 1840s) Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau
Historical and cultural context: Philosophy of Transcendentalism, relation to romanticism
Intellectual Independence of American Nation, Idea of Americanism
5. LOCAL COLOR WRITING, REGIONALISM: Mark Twain, Bret Harte
Historical and cultural context: The tragedy of Gilded Age: Economic boom versus loss of
innocence, money, business, racial issues, Conditions of black Americans
6. NATURALISM: (1880s to 1940s) Jack London, Theodore Dreiser
Historical and cultural context: Reflection of Darwin in Literature, The idea of 'the survival of the
fittest' in American society
7. SOCIAL REALISM: (1930s) John Steinbeck, Upton Sinclair
Historical and cultural context: Reflection of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl in literature
8. MODERNISM, LOST GENERATION, IMAGISM: (WWI - WWII) Francis Scott Fitzgerald,
Ernest Hemingway, Ezra Pound, W.C. Williams
Historical and cultural context: Political, social changes in society, inventions and modernization,
Gertrude Stein, fine art: cubism, WWI, philosophy of Lost Generation, anti-tradition movement
9. SOUTHERN RENEISSANCE: (1920s and 1930s) William Faulkner, William Styron, Truman
Capote
Historical and cultural context: Particularities of Southern region, decline of southern values
10. AMERICAN DRAMA: (20th century) century Eugene O’ Neill, Arthur Miller, Tennessee
Williams
Historical and cultural context: The decline of American Dream in American drama
11. MINORITY WRITING (20th century)
Jewish literature: Saul Bellow, Afro-American literature: Toni Morison
Historical and cultural context: Particularities of minority writing in American literature
13. BEAT GENERATION: (20th century) Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Lawrence
Ferlinghetti,
Jack Kerouac
Historical and cultural context: Consumerism and Conformism in American society, affluent
society, traditional values versus their reflection and denial in Beat Generation movement
14. ANTI -WAR TRADITION: (20th century) Ernest Hemingway, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut,
Norman Mailer, William Styron:
Historical and cultural context: WWI and WWII, Korean War, absurdity of war
15. SHORT STORY: Nathaniel Hawthorne, E.E. Poe, Ernst Hemingway
Historical and cultural context: technological growth, inventions, Philosophy of Composition,
Iceberg principle and other principles in short story writing
16. AMERICAN EXISTENCIALISM: (20th century) Ralph Ellison, J.D. Salinger, John
Updike
Historical and cultural context: Philosophy of existentialism in American literature
17. POSTMODERNISM: (20th -21st century) William Styron, Don de Lillo, Paul Austere,
Vladimir Nabokov
Historical and cultural context: The Fall of Grand Narratives in literature, relativism,
problems of identity, fragmentation, the media
FORMA SKÚŠKY: ústna
Aplikácia znakov obdobia na konkrétne literárne dielo, analýza historického kontextu;
študent si vyberá dve otázky: jednu z americkej a jednu z britskej literatúry
Literatúra:
Bajánek, J. Americká literatúra 20. storočia: Modernizmus a postmodernizmus. Bratislava.
Retaas, 2002.
Baštín, Š. A Short History of American Literature. Bratislava. SPN 1976
Baštín, Š. Reader in American Poetry, Bratislava. SPN 1976
Baštín, Š. et. al: Dejiny anglickej a americkej literatúry. Bratislava. Obzor, 1993.
Cinkotta, E. (ed.) The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York. Norton 2003.
Hart J. (ed). The Oxford Companion to American Literature. New York. Oxford 1973.
Vietorová, Nina: Texts from American literature. FF UK, Bratislava 2006
Vypracovala: Mgr. Zuzana Žilová, PhD.
10.10. 2011