ENGLAND/ ENGLISH LTERATURE

English Literature
The largest body of literature written in a modern language, English literature has developed continuously over 15 centuries from the Anglo-Saxon period to modern times. The introduction of printing to England by William Caxton exercised a stabilizing influence of the language. Caxtons press, unlike those of other European printers, produced books in the vernacular for the general reader, so laying the foundation of a literary language that survives fundamentally unchanged to the present day and gives English literature a greater degree of coherence than other national literatures. 9th Century The Danes invaded England but were eventually put under control by Alfred the Great who, during his reign, introduced political, social and educational reform. He himself participated in literary ventures by initiating the writing of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. Aelfric Who wrote ecclesiastical works, started the trend of translating the Bible into English. He also wrote a great bulk of Old English prose in elaborate out controlled alliterative style. In 1066 William the Conqueror, a Norman French, invaded England. His reign changed the English language quite dramatically. Norman French Was to be the language of the court and in all official and governmental functions. His subjects, however, continued to speak the vernacular English For 300 years The Anglo-Saxon language was influenced by Norman French. Latin The Language of the clergy, exerted its influence on English. These linguistic influences made English more flexible. History calls this era the Middle English Period (1066-1485) Geoffrey Chaucer The literary titan of Medieval England. A poet whose brilliant character portrayals made his Canterbury Tales an enduring literary legacy.

In 1476 William Caxton established a printing press and came out with the first printed book in England, Dictes and Sayings of the Philosophers. At this time, legends and apocryphal stories were the fad, and Sir Thomas Malorys Morte D Arthur, which consisted of the tales of King Arthur and his court, became immensely popular. In the 16th Century Several translations of the Bible were made. William Tyndale Translated the New Testament from Greek. 1535 Mites Coverdale published the first printed copy of the whole Bible. 1560 The Genevan Bible, the precursor of the famous King James Version, was issued from Switzerland. Francis bacon published his volume of essays. His Of Studies was a gem of precision writing. Late in the 18th Century William Blake, a visionary poet, took the first steps that led to the Romantic Age (1798 - 1837) with his Songs of Experience. In 1873 Queen Victoria ascended the throne, marking the beginning of the Victorian Age (1837-1900) which was to last till the end of the 19th century.

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Old English Literature

Much Old English verse in the extant manuscripts is probably adapted from the earlier Germanic war poems from the continent. When such poetry was brought to England it was still being handed down orally from one generation to another. But the first written literature dates to the early Christian monasteries founded by Augustine of Canterbury and his disciples and it is reasonable to believe that it was somehow adapted to suit the needs of Christian readers. The Anglo-Saxon Period Englands oldest literature grew out of the confluence of two traditions: the paganism of the Anglo-Saxons, who invaded the island in the 5th and 6th centuries, and the Christian culture introduced to Northombria by the Irish missionary Aidan and to Kent by Augustine of Canterbury. The invaders Teutonic heritage stressed the love of battle, fidelity to ones lord, and the implacability of fate. The Christian influence tended to soften this heroic outlook.

Anglo-Saxon heroic and elegiac verse was characterized by regular stress, free rhythm, and-stopped and unrhymed lines, abundant alliteration, and the use of conventional figures of speech known as kennings. Before the reign of Alfred the Great prose writers, working in Latin, produced numerous homilies and chronicles. Aldhelm wrote a number of Latin riddles later translated into Old English and found today in the Exeter Book. A generation later, BEDE, the greatest Anglo-Saxon scholar, wrote about 40 books, the most famous of which is the Ecclesiastidcal History of the English People.

The Age of Chaucer

Langland and the Gawain poet were major writers, but their work marked the end, not the continuation, of a tradition, for neither their language nor their alliterative verse from were destined to survive. It was Geoffrey Chaucer, writing in a London dialect in rhymed, syllabic verse, who determined the future course of English poetry. Despite the changes in grammar, inflection, and orthography of the language that have occurred since Chaucers tim, the educated modern reader has little difficulty in understanding his work. The 15th century also marked the high point in English medieval drama, with mystery cycles such as the Towneley or Wakefield Plays and morality plays such as EVERYMAN. The last medieval chronicler of the Arthurian legends, Sir Thomas Malory, is thought to have written his prose romance Morte Darthur while in prison; he may have died there, a victim of the Wars of the Roses that raged from 1455 to 1485. The Renaissance The 15th century in England is marked by the influence of the Renaissance . it reached its full flowering during the Elizabeth period. So rich is the period in lyric and narrative poetry, in the drama, in pure and dignified prose, that it is also known as the creative period in English literature made so by such luminaries as Edmund Spencer, the early dramatists followed by the greatest of them all, William Shakespeare, and the essayist Francis Bacon, to name but a few. The literature of the period is a source of delight and inspiration to the student of the English literature. The Reformation The spirit of the Renaissance gave place to the deepening and intensifying spirit of the Reformation. The youth and the cheer of the Elizabeth era was supplanted by Puritanism with John Milton as the dominating spirit of the times. His great powers in both prose and poetry is still Englands best. With the death of Cromwell, Charles II was recalled from his exile in France. This period is known as the Restoration. Charles court was the center of the French manners, French dress and freedom of thought reflected in the literature of the era. John Dryden was the leading exponent of the Classical movement in its earlier stage. His poems and plays give the expressions to the spirit of the times. The diary finds its exponents in Pepys and Evelyn.

The 17

Century The Elizabeth Age was characterized by pride and self-confidence; the 17th century was haunted by doubt and dissension, and between 1642 and 1649, torn by bitter civil strife. It produced a host of poets, religious and profane, and a large array of prose writers, some primarily imaginative artists, others important contributors to the history of ideas.

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The Augustans
The 18th century in English literature has been called the Augustan Age, the Neoclassical Age, and the Age of Reason. It immediate roots, of course, were in the literature of the latter half of the 17th century, notably the works of Dryden. But when Dryden died in 1700, he left a vacant throne, and it remained vacant until Alexander Pope boldly took his place.

The 19

Century The 19th century, like the 17th, was a period of change and conflict. Especially in 1848, the year of European revolutions, violent clashes between the two nations, as Benjamin Disraeli has called the rich and the poor, frequently seemed close at hand. Industrial progress had altered the face of the country, and parliamentary reform shifted the balance of power; but new social problems had replaced the old. In literature a series of eloquent prophets, notably John Ruskin and Thomas Carlyle, thundered against the purblind materialism of the money mad Industrial Age.

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Middle English Literature

The period is known as the Anglo-Norman period which covers the era from the 13th to the 15th century. Malorys Le Morte Darthur is one product of this period. The greatest literary figure in this period is Geoffrey Chaucer whose Canterbury Tales is still considered one of the finest in English Literature. Piers Plowman, a poem written in the Old English alliterative form, belongs to this period, so are a large body of the best ballada in literature. The Middle English literature of the 14th and 15th centuries is much more diversified than the previous Old English literature. A variety of French and even Italian elements influenced Middle English literature, especially in southern England. In addition, different regional styles were maintained, for literature and learning had not yet been centralized. For these reasons, as well as because of the vigorous and uneven growth of national life, the Middle English period contains a wealth of literary monuments not easily classified.

Restoration Periods
The successive stages of literary taste during the period of the Restoration and the 18th century are conveniently referred to as the ages of Dryden, Pope and Johnson, after the three great literary figures who one after another, carried on the so called classical tradition in literature. The age as a whole is sometimes called the Augustan age, or the classical or neoclassical period.

The Romantic Movement

The Romantic school of poets was dominated by such ;literary luminaries as Lord Bryton, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and a host of others. Covering about 40 years, the period is one of poetry glorified by such writers as Sir Walter Scott, Charles Lamb, Hazlitt, and De Quincey, to name a few. Romanticism is notable because of the display of youthful enthusiasm, the revolt against rigid rules, its imaginative fervor, sense of beauty, and the regard for the fine impulses of the heart.

The Victorian Period (1837-1901)

The period is one of the prose just as the Romantic period was characteristically an age of poetry. The pressing problems of Victorian England were best expressed in the prose of such scientist and philosophers as Darwin, Huxley, Mill, and Spencer. These men greatly influenced the thought and life of the period. A noble company of unexcelled masters of prose included Thomas Babington Macaulay, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, John Henry Newman and Matthew Arnold.

The 20

Century The novel has continued in its rise to prominence in literature. It owes its popularity to the fact that it seeks to tell the real facts of life. Propaganda and sociological novels have gained popularity among the readers of a generation beset with problems. The turn of the century brought to the limelight such names as Rudyard Kipling, Joseph Conrad and John Galsworthy.

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The Period Before Chaucer Beowolf was originally written in Old English which can hardly be understood now. However, it has been translated to Modern English. Yet, even in translation a touch of old age. English Writers and their Famous Works: The Age of Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) : Canterbury Tales Troilus and Criseyde Book of the Duchess The 15th Century: The Poetry of the Masses Edmund Spenser(1552-1599): The Faerie Queene Iambicum Trimetrum The Shepheardes Calender. Christoher Marlowe(1564-1593): Tamburlaine Doctor Faustus The Jew of Malta The Passionate Shepherd to his Love Thomas Champion(1567-1620) Chance and Change William Shakespeare(1564-1616) From Sonnets Blow, blow Thou Winter Wind Fear No More the Heat O Sun From Hamlet From Macbeth

The 17th Century John Donne(1573-1631): Song A Hymn to God the Father Death Be Not Proud Confined Love The Dissolution Oh my black soul! now art thou summoned Father part of his double interest A Hymn to Christ at the Author's Last Going into Germany Francis Bacon (1561-1626): The Advancement of Learning The Essays The New Atlantis Valerius Terminus of the Interpretation of Nature John Milton(1608-1674): Lycidas Sonnets Paradise Lost Samuel Pepys(1633-1703) The Diary of Samuel Pepys Thomas Carew Disdain Returned The Age of Reason: Sense and science Daniel Defoe(1659-1731) The Education of Women Sir Richard Steele(1672-1729) The Tatler Jonathan Swift(1667-1745) A Meditation Upon a Broomstick

References: Grolier Academic Encyclopedia http://www.luminarium.org/renlit/morebib.htm http://sairam-english-literature.blogspot.com/2009/04/famous-writerstheir-work.html

Catanduanes Colleges College of Education Virac, Catanduanes

Submitted by: Leizl Siz Maricel Zafe Daisy delos Reyes Shiela Mae Rendon

Submitted to: Jomel Romero