TODAY, we explore the incredible journey ( history) of English literature, starting with its origins, and on to what we read nowadays. Imagine it was a long book, having various chapters, each one demonstrating the way people lived, thought, and spoke over hundreds of years.
The History of English Literature: A Trip in Time
Old English Period (approximately 450-1066 AD)
It originated with the Anglo-Saxons, who migrated into England. The majority of the stories were either oral, sung, or recited. Life was harsh during that time, so the stories usually involved courageous heroes, conflicts, and a strong sense of fate.
Key Features
- Oral narrations: People did not write a lot; they spoke stories.
- Special poetry: This was because they employed a device known as alliteration, whereby a lot of words are used together, and they begin with a similar sound (such as Beowulf was brave, and he fought). Rhyme was not really used by them.
- Sharp nicknames: They applied two-word names to objects, e.g., the sea was called “whale-road”.
- Heroic Tales: The stories were focused on powerful, devoted, and courageous warriors.
- Pagan and Christian Ideas: You will find a combination of traditions of the old nature gods and the newer Christianity.
Famous Examples:
- Beowulf: It is the most famous poem of this period. It is about a great warrior, Beowulf, who goes to the battlefield with monsters such as Grendel to save his people.
- The Wanderer and The Seafarer: These poems are sad tales of isolated people who reflect over the misfortunes of life.
Caedmon’s Hymn: A Short early piece about the creation of the world by God.
Middle English Period (c.1066-1500 AD)
This is something that greatly changed in 1066 when the French Normans conquered the English. This introduced new French and Latin words and ideas to the English language, which makes it somewhat sound like what we speak nowadays. It was more knightly stories, love stories, or at times stories that taught people what was wrong and what was right.
Key Features
- The language altered: English acquired so many new words from French that made it richer.
Knights and love: Tales regarded as chivalric romances gained popularity; they talked of courageous knights and lovely ladies, and adventure.
Religious plays: Religious plays were the plays that were acted in churches or cities to instruct people in Biblical stories or virtue.
Old and new poetry: The old alliteration was still used among some poems; however, the rhyme became more familiar, as well.
-B. Famous Examples:
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales , a series of stories by pilgrims to Canterbury. Every individual tells a story, and they illustrate what various sorts of individuals were like at that time. It is comic and witty!
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: An amazing tale of a knight called Gawain who was confronted with a magic contest by a strange Green Knight. It is a matter of honor and truth.
- _Everyman_:It is a celebrated play that carries a moral lesson, that everyone will have to die and atone for his/her life.
III. Renaissance (1500-1660 AD)
It was an age of “/rebirth/ in Europe, when people were extremely interested in ancient ideas, art, and learning of Greeks and Romans. It was the era of discovery (such as the New World) and wonderful plays, especially in England!
Key Features
- Emphasis on human beings: People began to refer more to human potential, capacities, and accomplishments rather than God.
- Discovery time: new lands and new scientific ideas were discovered.
- Golden age of plays: Most of the plays emerged during a time of great popularity of the theater.
- Love poems (sonnets): There was an emergence of a specific kind of love poem, which comprises 14 lines, and this one became a big success.
The Elizabethan Age (Queen Elizabeth I, 1558-1603)
- William Shakespeare: The ultimate known English writer in English literature! He composed amazing dramas and poems.
Tragedies: Hamlet (prince wrestling with the question of revenge), Romeo and Juliet (tragic love story), Macbeth (general goes mad by doing evil deeds and he becomes king).
Comedies: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (a fantasy forest infested with fairies), Twelfth Night (Imbeciles who would masquerade).
- Christopher Marlowe: A playwright who also deserves to be remembered, who also tended to create rather forceful, ambitious characters, such as in Doctor Faustus (a man who sells his soul).
Jacobean Age (King James I, 1603-1625)
John Donne: He composed witty and sometimes shocking poems that made bizarre and far-fetched comparisons, such as in the poem The Flea (the bite of a flea is a symbol of love).
- Francis Bacon: He was an intellectual with a fondness for writing short essays on various subjects, such as truth and revenge.
Caroline Age and Commonwealth Period (King Charles 1st and beyond, 1625-1660)
John Milton composed a long and well-known epic, titled Paradise Lost, explaining the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
The Neoclassical Period (c.1660-1785 AD)
Following a period of civil war, people longed to get order, reason, and logic, and the king came back to England. Authors commonly referred back to the regulations and aesthetics of the ancient Greece and Rome. It was also during this time that the first true novels began to appear!
Key Features
- Rationale and order: The correct thinking and logic, as well as reasonable regulations, were believed in by people.
Appreciation of witty jokes: Words used in witty jokes and those that which is called satire (making fun of things), was employed by writers so that they can draw attention to some silly behaviors in society.
- First novels: This is where the long stories in prose (that is, in regular writing, not poetry) really become popular.
- Coffee shop culture: Individuals used to meet in coffee shops and discuss ideas and read newspapers, and magazines.
Famous Examples:
- William Wordsworth: He was a remarkable poet who wrote about nature and how it affects us, such as in the Tintern Abbey.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The poet who wrote a long, magical poem called The Rime of the Ancient Mariner . This is about the life of a sailor and a damned albatross.
- Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats: These were three young and bright poets who were known to have strong feelings and well-chosen words, and whose lives were typically very depressing. Ode on a Grecian Urn is written by Keats.
- Jane Austen: The author of light-hearted novels about love, marriage, and society. Pride and Prejudice (about Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy), and Sense and Sensibility are notable works of Austen.
Mary Shelley: A famous horror story writer of Frankenstein, the creature that a scientist brought to life.
The Victorian Age (1832-1901 AD)
This was a hectic period named after Queen Victoria. The industrial revolution came with factories and large urban settlements, but also poverty. There were monumental discoveries (such as evolution) made possible by science. Literature was one way that portrayed good and bad as far as this changing world was concerned.
Key Features
- True life experiences: Authors attempted to present life as it really happened, even issues in the society such as poverty or poor working conditions.
- Social messages: Several books were written with certain teaching purposes or with the view of underscoring social ills.
- Skepticism and reform: Old beliefs were examined with skepticism due to new science and new changes in society.
- Novels were dominant: Novels were made up of long books, often sold in serialised formats (as seen on TV now).
Famous Examples:
- Charles Dickens: The writer was a virtuoso at creating enduring characters and exposing the lives of the impoverished in industrial England.
This tells the tale of a young, independent governess who develops feelings for someone.
The author of Jane Eyre, a tale of a young, independent governess who falls in love, is Charlotte Brontë.
The author of Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë, narrates a passionate and sinister tale of love in the moors.
• George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans): A woman who writes under a male pseudonym in order to gain acceptance and respect from society. She was the author of realistic, incisive novels like Middlemarch.
Alfred Lord Tennyson was a well-known poet who served as the nation’s official poet and Poet Laureate. In Memoriam A.H.H. is one of his stretched poems.
Thomas Hardy: Author of realistic, sad novels on people in conflict with nature and society, often in a countryside setting, such as Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
- Oscar Wilde: A cunning playwright fond of playing with words as well as Punch lines, such as in The Importance of Being Earnest (a very funny play of mistaken identities).
VII. Modernism (c1901- 1945 AD)
Having experienced the horrors of World War I, people realized that the old system of thinking and writing no longer had any logic. Modernist writers experimented with new methods of telling stories, frequent options to show the mind of the author, and the fragmented nature of the world.
Key Features
- Decentralizing the rule: Writers did not adhere to the old forms of story structures; they experimented with new forms.
. Stream of consciousness: This refers to writing the exact thoughts of a character, one thought to another, just like in life.
- In people’s heads: Inward-facing tales concentrated more on what was happening in people’s minds.
- Sensing lost: Sadness, confusion, or the world falling apart was depicted in a number of works.
Famous Examples:
- Virginia Woolf: A writer of novels 1920s who employed the so-called stream of consciousness technique not to reveal the inner worlds of her characters, as in Mrs. Dalloway (A day in the life of a socialite).
- James Joyce: An Irish author who created very experimental and hard to interpret novels, one of the most well-known was Ulysses.
- T.S. Eliot: A writer of a well-known and hard poem called The Waste Land that defined the sense of a spoiled post-war world.
- D.H. Lawrence: Author of novels that dealt with emotions and relationships, i.e., Sons and Lovers.
VIII. Postmodernism (1945 – Late 20th Century)
Following World War II, authors started doubting everything, including the big narratives, truth, and even the concept of reality. They would experiment with philosophies and fusion of styles, as well as imitating literature at times.
Key Features
- Meta Stories: Occasionally, books would talk about books, or their composition.
- Confusion: Writers would confuse the confronting type of writing or mention other books and films.
- Single truth: The assumption that there exists a clear truth or meaning usually vanishes.
- Question authority: Questioning everything, they did not like establishments, old rules, or even reality.
Famous Examples:
Samuel Beckett: An Irish playwright who composed quite peculiar plays, such as Waiting for Godot, in which two figures wait in vain to be joined by an unarrived person. This was the portrayal of the meaninglessness or absurdity of life.
- George Orwell: Author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, a chilling novel of a possible future in which everything is controlled by the government, and Animal Farm, a fable depicting an animal-run farm becoming a dictatorship.
- Salman Rushdie: A British-Indian author who combines the elements of magic with the adventure of life and writes about the various cultures, as he had done in Midnight Children.
Modern Literature (Late 20th Century, Present)
This is the literature that is being written today! It carries extremely diverse characters, writers all over the world, new themes, all sorts of writing styles, due to our interconnected world and technology.
Key Features
- Diversity of voices: We listen to stories of different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences (suppliers of color, LGBTQ+ writers, and so on).
- Worldwide Tales: Books tend to transcend borders and enter the lives of other persons in other regions of the world.
The role of technology: In some cases, the narratives link the internet, artificial intelligence, and technology.
- Genre mixing: Authors tend to demonstrate two or more genres in each story, such as a realistic novel with a touch of fantasy or sci-fi.
- Identities: We think more or less about what we are, our race, sex, sexuality, country, and class.
Famous Examples:
. Zadia Smith : A British writer whose novels relating to the multiethnic life of London are filled with life, such as White Teeth.
- Ian McEwan: An author of tight, frequently dark fiction that has taken a look at human character and the hard decisions, such as atonement.
Kazuo Ishiguro: A British-Japanese writer whose novels are subtle and insightful considerations of memory, regret, and what it might mean to be human, such as The Remains of the Day.
- J.K. Rowling: The author of the incredibly popular Harry Potter which has introduced millions of new readers to books and fantasy.
- Hilary Mantel: The Author has won awards for historical novels on the life of Thomas Cromwell during the reign of Henry VIII, such as Wolf Hall.
- Bernardine Evaristo: A British writer who was awarded the Booker Prize for Girl, Woman, Other, the novel about diverse Black British women.
So as you can imagine, English literature is an ever-flowing river that is never constant and is always changing, and about the world in which we live. It is a trip worth making!