Final ExaminationEnglish Literature 1. Old and Middle English Literature 1. Old and Middle English literature. Introduce the background and the various literary genres current in the period (597–1066–1450). The heroic epic, the romance, lyric poetry. Talk in more detail about Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, analysing two particular tales. 1. Old English or Anglo-Saxon Period (until 1066 or ca. 1150) 1.1. Important historical and cultural events 410 597 601 c. 625 634 664 669 731 782 793-795 867 870 871 871-899 Withdrawal of Roman legions, afterwards Anglo-Saxon tribes conquer Britain. St. Augustine’s mission to England - sent by pope Gregory the Great – anything written in the Latin alphabet in English must needs come from after this date, as it was the missionaries who taught the Anglo-Saxons to write. Runes, their old script, only served special purposes like marking objects as one’s own, etc. Paulinus’ mission to the North, the second attempt to convert the AngloSaxons to Christianity after a relapse upon the death of the first generation of Christian kings. Ship-burial at Sutton Hoo – this is an archaeological find with many valuable objects, a strange parallel to what we read in the first 52 lines of the poem Beowulf. Aidan founds Lindisfarne with Irish monks from Iona, this is the second mission, which affirms the influence of Irish Christianity in Britain. A proof of its high artistic output is the Lindisfarne Gospels, a beautifully decorated manuscript now in the British Library Synod of Whitby: assertion of Roman practices of Christianity over Irish – the decision made at this synod about how to calculate the date of Easter in each year meant that the English church will be closely attached to Rome and thus continental European culture. Archbishop Theodore and Abbot Hadrian arrive in Canterbury - third wave of conversion by missionaries whose mother tongue was not English, and who therefore promoted the use of the vernacular more than anywhere else. The Venerable Bede completes his Ecclesiastical History Alcuin leaves York, where he was trained to be a scholar, and joins the court of Charlemagne, who gives him the task of establishing his palace school. He is the first English scholar of European fame. Viking raids on Lindisfarne, Jarrow, and Iona. This is the end of the first great period of Anglo-Saxon culture and literature in Latin. Northumbria falls to the Danes East Anglia falls to the Danes, murder of St. Edmund The Danes attack Wessex Alfred the Great, king of Wessex – he succeeds in re-gaining a large part of Britain from the Vikings establishing peace in the south not only with the help of his military projects, but also with his literary ones. His and 1 Final Examination English Literature 937 Mid-10th century End of 10th century 991 1042-1066 Oct. 14th 1066 1154 1. Old and Middle English Literature his circle of scholar’s translations of important scholarly works into English and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is unprecedented in Europe. Battle of Brunanburh: Aethelstan’s, king Alfred’s grandson’s victory over the Northern alliance of Scots and Norsemen celebrated in a poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Benedictine reform in England: A reform of monastic life after its disruption by the Viking invasions. A similar movement started on the Continent in Lotharingia and Flanders was introduced also in England with the aim to return to a stricter following of the Rule of St. Benedict. The result of the reform was a flourishing of scholarship and vernacular prose literature (Aelfric – Catholic Homilies, Wulfstan – sermons) Renewed Viking invasions Battle of Maldon - practice begins of ‘buying off’ the Viking invaders with money until at last Cnut the Dane becomes king of England (10141035) joining the country to his large North-Atlantic empire. Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon king Duke William of Normandy defeats and kills king Harold Godwinson of England at Hastings Last entries in the Peterborough copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 1.2. Literature • • • Includes much wider range of texts than in later periods o Almost all written texts (except for the ones of very practical use like wills and legal texts) are studied as literature Historical texts (e.g. chronicles) Religious prose (e.g. homilies, sermons, saints’ lives, biblical exegesis (explanation of the meaning of biblical texts)) Scientific philosophical and theological writings Small group of contemporary readers and listeners of readings o Reading for its practical didactic value (not cultivated for its own sake, i.e. for mere enjoyment!) o Teaching was supposed to be made more effective by literary means Prose works o Far more in Anglo-Saxon or Old English than in any other European language from the first millennium o Translations of Latin works (medieval translators re-worked their originals according to their special needs: they added their own ideas, updated the text, conflated several sources to bring their ideas closer to their readers) o Can usually be discussed in chronological order (they can be dated: their writers are known or at least the period and place when and where they were written can be closely defined on the basis of the topic, the manuscript, the dialect, etc.) 2 Final Examination English Literature • • • • 1. Old and Middle English Literature Poetry o Composed by the Germanic peoples and others since times immemorial o Handed down to posterity without writing it down (it was easy to recall the stories from memory and put them into a poetic form according to the need of the occasion, i.e. sing them again and again) o Late development: versifying Christian topics like biblical stories and saints’ lives the time when Beowulf found its way to paper through the effort of monks in a monastic scriptorium (earlier versions must have existed (characters, e.g. Hygelac lived in earlier centuries) but only in oral form No purely pagan poem among the 30.000 lines of poetry preserved (all works were re-thought by someone Christian, since only those trained in the religious orders could write) All Old English poems are preserved in late 10th century manuscripts Poems can only be discussed according to their genre (no names, except for Caedmon and Cynewulf; no dates) o Heroic poems (Beowulf, The Battle of Maldon, The Battle of Brunanburh) o Elegiac poems (The Seafarer, The Wanderer) o Meditative religious poems (The Dream of the Rood) o Others (e.g. biblical paraphrases, verse saints’ lives, charms) 1.2.1. Prose • The Venerable Bede (672/3 - 735) o A monk, studied and taught all his life in the double monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow in Northumbria o A scholar of very wide learning o Only wrote in Latin: grammar, hagiography, natural science, history, biblical exegesis, poetry. o Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum (The Ecclesiastical History of the English People) Aim: to prove that God supports the English people who have conquered Britain, they have fulfilled God’s wish, and that’s why they have been successful Consists of 5 books, ranging from the time of Julius Caesar’s invasion to Britain in 60 B.C. to 731 A.D. when Bede finished the work. Beside historical events: papal and episcopal correspondence, acta of church councils, anecdotes, metrical epitaphs, poetic quotations, visions of holy men, saints' lives, descriptions of miracles Only source of English history from this period The story of Caedmon: a shepherd who lived in the Whitby monastery, learnt to compose poems on biblical topics by a miracle in his dream Translated into Old English in King Alfred’s time (9th c.) 3 similes. aiming at the spiritual education of the clergy Alfred had a copy sent to each bishop in the country In the Preface composed by the king he describes the poor state of learning in his country as a result of the Viking invasions. and how he wants to remedy this with his translations and with the education of young people: laymen to read in English.Final Examination English Literature • 1. comments. They contain the description of more motivation. and grandsons Aethelstan (924-39) and Eadmund (939-46) o Translations of Alfred and his circle Pope Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care The bishop’s duties. personality. to the Vistula river o The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles A year-by-year register of events in English from Julius Caesar’s invasion on The prototype is compiled to ca. written during Alfred’s lifetime first biography of an English layman (combines the features of annals and saint’s lives) Cultural upsurge continued under his son Edward the Elder (899924). fuller. the longest: The Battle of Brunanburh 4 . later ones longer. metaphors. too Bede’ Historia Ecclesiastica A quarter shorter than the original miraculous. Augustine’s Soliloquies Radical adaptation of Latin. the Welsh monk described his career in his Latin Life. additions of illustrations. fortified defence of the country Launched a cultural project of teaching his people by providing English translations of the books he considered the most useful in the education Asser. very personal. Old and Middle English Literature The Alfredian Revival o Break in Latin learning because of the Viking invasions o Alfred. making the abstract philosophical thoughts concrete Paulus Orosius’s History Insertions of contemporary local material: travels of Ohthere and Wulfstan up the Scandinavian coast and to the Baltic. 890. more complex in syntax. King of Wessex (871-99) Managed to fight back the Vikings. factual. and clerics to go on to learn Latin. Six poems included. parochial. local features strengthened in the translation Caedmon’s poem is included in Old English Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy St. cause and effect of events. the last continuation is entered 1154 (Peterborough MS) this is in Old English prose Six MSs (manuscripts) survive – Parker Chronicle is the oldest Earlier entries are simple. verse making.studied in Winchester. 1020) . supposedly because there are monsters in it) o Beowulf The longest complete Germanic primary epic poem from the early Middle Ages consists of 3182 lines 5 . poetic language. homilist and statesman Helped rebuild York library after Viking attacks 21 sermons. Beowulf is preserved in a book about monsters. Old and Middle English Literature Benedictine Reform o 2nd half of 10th century o Re-enacted the Carolingian reform initiated by Louis the Pious of France and Benedict of Aniane (+821) o Introduction of uniform liturgical and disciplinary practices . abbot of Eynsham Catholic Homilies 2 series of OE homilies.Final Examination English Literature • • 1. disloyalty and other sins Brutally realistic pictures Style: alliteration.g. among them: Sermo Lupi ad Anglos Afflictions from the Vikings come to the English as God's punishment because of treachery.973 Regularis Concordia accepted by the synodal council of Winchester for “all England. verse form (4-stress alliterative line) are similar in all Germanic languages) o Shorter heroic lays and long epic are transformed by Christian literacy o These poems were not preserved in writing because of their literary value (only survived by chance.” Flourishing of Vernacular Prose o Aelfric (+ c. rhyme. parallelisms 1. speculative. often translated pieces) Lives of Saints Aim: to strengthen his people through learning against the horrors and chaos of Viking attacks Private. intellectual approach Style: simple diction. e. metrical Old English prose in imitation of contemporary rhymed Latin prose Colloquy For teaching Latin o Wulfstan (Lupus)(+ 1023) Archbishop of York Energetic public man. Poetry • • 30.2. (altogether 80.2. style.000 lines of poetry survives in single copies in four MSS o The Exeter Book o The Vercelli Book o The Beowulf MS o The Junius MS Heroic poetry o part of the common Germanic heritage (legends. who wants to take revenge for her son. still they sing about generosity. where he would have to be unChristian: e. Beowulf displays virtues like bravery. the Creation at their celebrations (i. Beowulf returns home with his men. Before he dies he kills the dragon.e. that he is facing after death. Some persons in Beowulf are known from historical sources (but not the hero!) events happened in the early 6th century Date of the composition: 8th c. whose treasure has been robbed. After Hygelac’s and his son’s death Beowulf rules the Geats for fifty years. fate. might mean “fame” which Beowulf earned with killing the dragon.g. loyalty. the word “dom” used by the poet. Heorot. or “judgement” of God. when a dragon. Beowulf goes on this exploit with his retainers because he is indebted to Hrothgar as the Danish king had helped his father earlier. a monster and his mother. Are these only later interpolations or were the poem composed with them in mind? o Aim of heroic poems No written records of historical events the memory of leaders and events were preserved in oral form To set an example for both leaders and retainers (loyalty. when Beowulf dies. The Danes are pagan. and he is mortally wounded. Old and Middle English Literature survived in a single MS (BL Cotton Vitellius A XV. a young Geatish hero.) Topics Patterns of behaviour of ideal Germanic kings/war leaders The tragic conflict within Germanic heroic ethic between the requirements of the ideal. individual glory. Beowulf fights the fire-spitting monster in a single combat as all his men escape for fear except for Wiglaf. Well rewarded with treasure. ruthless.-10th century Christian or pagan? Christian Pagan Grendel is Cain’s descendant Does Beowulf want to obtain the dragon’s hoard of treasure – does he have gold-lust? Hrothgar’s people seem to be punished as “Wyrd” pagan doom is often mentioned.Final Examination English Literature 1. they are pagan but in the key scene. in defence of the ageing Danish king. fighting for the leaders until death AND rewarding the retainers with 6 . and the good of the community Story Beowulf. and the possibilities of life. attacks the country. fortitude and wisdom. nephew of King Hygelac fights and kills Grendel. Christian values) and he is not put into situations. Hrothgar and his great hall. varying them according to actual needs of versification. composed the epic in its present form in writing. weapon. Kenning: a form of compound in which at least one element is metaphorical: hron-rad = whale road=sea. using shorter or longer set units (formulas. and protecting them) Singing poems of earlier heroes for entertainment of the war band after battles. feast. women have little role Typical features: Compounding: endless lines of synonyms. Alliteration connects the two halves. ship. sword. poetic. woruld-candel= world candle= sun Variation: simple syntax in a sentence is loaded with synonyms “wordum wrixlan” (to vary words) . arrival. heavily ornamented.e. narration. especially in the case of frequently occurring words: warrior. type-scenes (funeral. etc.syntactical breaks often placed over mid-line caesura Four-stress alliterative line: consisting of two half-lines with a caesura between them. This is the only form used in Old English poetry Shorter heroic lays The Battle of Brunanburh A formulaic poem in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle celebrating the 937 victory of the English over joint Scotch-Viking forces The Battle of Maldon 7 . fight) Artificial world Elaborately decorated speeches. and themes). manneristic style Slow-going narration No everydays No love. etc. when boasting and gift-giving took place (eating. formulaic expressions. Old and Middle English Literature treasure.Final Examination English Literature o o o o 1. sea. drinking mead (strong alcoholic drink prepared from honey)) Composition of heroic poems A collection of lays (heroic stories) were patched together by a later Christian poet Oral-Formulaic Theory (Parry) Unlettered singers were capable of extemporizing long epic poems about traditional topics. Some critics think the epic was probably noted down after dictation Theory of Written Composition A clerical person. and horses in return after the fight. it is so called oral-derived poetry Style and form Formal treatment of events. like heroes. but the poem shows clear features of oral style. wars. i. who was familiar with the traditional ways. homiletic: about the inevitability of death.personal: harsh lot of seaman is compared to that of land-dweller 2nd part (to the end) . Daniel in the Junius MS Paraphrase parts of the Bible. ubi sunt (Christian attitude of value) Topoi occupy the majority of the poem. decline of earthly splendour. monastic. a body of armed retainers St. e. let us reach our true home The span of the meaning: from despair to heaven. and they had to pay tribute for the first time to the Vikings in order to keep them away Parallels of the ideal behaviour described here (loyalty. description of the war of the Elanites against Sodom and Gomorrah. with contrastive patterns of loss (loss of life or lord) and consolation for the loss in heaven o The Wanderer Motives of exile. to which (sometimes gnomic) comments are added o The Seafarer 1st person narrator 1st part (to l. which took place in 991 in East Anglia during the reign of Aethelred the Unready. some are clearly indebted to Beowulf o Transfer of heroic ethic and military terminology Abraham and Moses behave like Germanic chieftains The apostles form a comitatus.Final Examination English Literature • • 1. reflective or dramatic. Old and Middle English Literature A fragment about a major battle. their leader Byrhtnoth died. dieing with the lord on the battlefield) described in Tacitus’s Germania written 900 years earlier Elegiac poems o About ten poems all together.g. Abraham’s rescue of Lot) Strongly demonstrate God’s power to provide the feeling of protection to the monastic audience and demonstrate his might to those who are not too deeply convinced in the new religion o Saints’ lives About the heroes of the new religion 8 . professional artists in respectable style o Often based on Latin originals other than the Bible o Intended for additional devotional readings and not as vernacular versions of the Scripture for unlettered audiences who did not know Latin o Heroic style. death comes unexpected. 64a) . Exodus. laying emphasis on a chosen idea Often some episodes are elaborated in detail (especially if they are fit topics for heroic poetry. Cuthbert is described as the soldier of Christ o Scriptural poems Genesis. all in the Exeter Book o Calling attention to the transitory nature of the pleasures of this world o Short. The English lost. gold cannot help the sinful soul. Deliberate ambiguity: possible allegorical interpretation: sea journey: real travelling or peregrinatio pro amore Dei Religious poems o Works of bookish. ruin. made into a gallows and how Christ. wisdoms in a nutshell o Riddles For popular entertainment. o Bestiary About animals 9 .Final Examination English Literature 1. often Christianised. found Christ’s cross o Devotional poems Aim: individual meditation outside the liturgy The Dream of the Rood The dreamer sees a vision. o Gnomic verse Maxims. mostly based on Greek and Latin originals. etc. The vision persuades the dreamer to go and teach this to everyone he meets Connection with the runic inscription on the 8th c. who according to the legend. Andrew’s journey to Mermedonia to rescue Matthew from the cannibals based on a story from the apocriphal Acts of the Apostles Elene About St Helen. like good warrior eager for battle died on it. Against illnesses. in which the holy cross tells its own story. mother of Constantine the Great. how it was cut down in the wood. Ruthwell cross located in the south of Scotland Paradox of the cross: a sign of victory and a sign of shame Other poems o Charms The oldest relics of pagan Germanic literature. vermin. Old and Middle English Literature • Andreas About St. 1290 First official use of English since the Conquest (Provisions of Oxford designed to limit royal power) Legenda Aurea (Latin) of Dominican. MS Harley 2253 Important collections of romances. translated by Chaucer) Murder of Thomas Becket in Canterbury The Owl and the Nightingale Loss of Normandy: division of Angevin kingdom Magna Carta. Old and Middle English Literature 2. 1320 Dante: The Divine Comedy c. Richard Coeur de Lion 1382-85 Chaucer: Troilus and Criseyde c. love poems. Important historical and cultural events 1096-1099 1337-1453 The first Crusade. e.1330 1338 Auchinleck MS. Fourth Lateran Council: annual confession obligatory Layamon's Brut 1224 Arrival of Franciscan friars in England 1309-78 The captivity of the Papacy at Avignon 1249 First college at Oxford founded 1258 c.1400) 2. satirical poems.1. Havelok.Final Examination English Literature 1. early reformer of the church. 1280 10 . translator of the Bible into English Geoffrey Chaucer 1378 -1417 Great Schism (two popes) 1138 1170 c. A-text 1455-85 The Wars of the Roses (Lancaster and York) 1387 Chaucer begins The Canterbury Tales 1152 1154 1155 1235-75 c. The former one contains Sir Orfeo. Middle English Period (1066 . Jacobus de Voragine (Collection of Saints’ Lives) Early romances. Boccaccio: Il Filostrato (The source of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde) 1348-9 Black Death (one of the greatest European plague epidemics) 1362 Langland: Piers Plowman. 1220 Geoffrey of Monmouth: Historia Regum Britanniae (Latin) -the most important source of the Arthurian legends Marriage of future Henry II to Eleanor of Aquitaine Last entries in the Peterborough copy of Anglo-Saxon Chronicle Wace dedicates Anglo-Norman Roman de Brut to Eleanor Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun (basic book of courtly literature. the capture of Jerusalem The Hundred Years' War between England and France 1330-1408 John Gower c.g. Anglo-Norman verse and prose. Guy of Warwick. religious and didactic poems. 1320-1384 1343-1400 John Wyclif.1200 1204 1215 c. on horseback. who fought on foot Had to be rich enough to purchase such expensive gear. This MS contains Sir Launfal 1415 Agincourt: great English victory over the French 1415 Important record of York play cycle c.) documents preserve the local dialect in which they were composed or copied Knighthood and chivalry o Knighthood a very wide term: customs of politeness (e. with a sword and lance. Pearl.: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. who fights in armour. spelling.g. modern knightly orders (e. courtiers) after the Norman Conquest usually used three rather than two languages: French. 1400 MS Cotton Nero A x.g. etc. lyric poetry) o New verse forms: Alliterative revival (e. and ornamental rhyme was introduced o No standardizing force in the language (no standard use of forms. Mankind First English press set up by William Caxton 2. Literary works were also composed in these languages (Gower. English. European kind of versification system. Patience. and Latin (the language of the church).Final Examination English Literature c.g. which is active wherever people are in need) Medieval knight A soldier.1440 1453 c. Chaucer) o New topics (e. trochees. CHANGE FROM OLD TO MIDDLE ENGLISH • • • Amorphous (not the product of a single coherent tradition with a systematic style and diction and a standardised language) BUT a series of fragmentary and imperfect responses to a multitude of European influences Changes: o Educated people (clerics. unlike his Anglo-Saxon ancestor. romance. ideals like honour.1470 1476 Development of N-town play cycle Byzantium falls to the Ottoman Morality plays: Wisdom.g. Cleanness Malory completes Le Morte Darthur BL Cotton Caligula A II. with women). 1390 1. Old and Middle English Literature 1469-70 c. love) o New genres (e. the Maltese Order.1430 Development of Wakefield play cycle c. For this he received protection and fief 11 . based on the regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables Metrical feet (iambs. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight): a new.g.2. etc.). or has to have proved himself in battle to obtain the necessary gear for fighting from his lord Duty of a knight as vassal: to give homage and fealty to his lord. Trowthe e. without excluding the possibility of marriage for courtly lovers An elaborate code of behaviour and expressing emotions Forerunner of romantic love and ‘courtship’ Started among the troubadours in southern France in the early 12th c.1184). loyalty to one’s lord) Largesse (generosity to ones in need.Final Examination English Literature • 1. 2nd half of 12th c. the final part is about the rejection of love) o courtly lover Noble of heart.g. generous. pleasure. liberal. chaplain of Marie de Champagne The rulebook for courtly lovers OR a mock treatise.. acting without selfinterest. as love multiplies his good qualities. Courtesy. impartial. authority on his part excluded o Chrétien de Troyes (fl. like the poor. and one’s companions) Measure (avoiding excess in everything. eating and drinking. who was excluded from the game of love by his profession (He claims that no love can exist within marriage. and witty conversation Hates vulgarity. influence of Arab poetry. written in the legal language of the age by a cleric. self-interest on her.g. avarice. suffering. desire. cupidity. Ovid: Ars Amatoria and Remedia Amoris misunderstood in a moral way) o De Amore of Andreas Capellanus (c. to be followed by everyone who wished to be a true knight: Trowthe Prowess (courage in battle.) Elaborated and amplified the Arthurian stories 12 . anguish and exaltation Love should not be satisfied rapidly or easily o Discretion and secrecy are basic o Amorous relation is modelled on the feudal relationship of lord and retainer: the lady is of higher standing. Adultery. and was cultivated first in French Origins of the idea: obscure (social circumstances. defence of the lord and all those in need (e. but also love!) Franchise (sincerity. well educated Skilled in fighting. whose characteristics may be enumerated as Humility. chivalry A set of ideals of the knightly class. and the Religion of Love o “Fin’ amors” (refined love): a set of courtly conventions. hunting. Old and Middle English Literature Being a lord: giving protection and justice to peasants for receiving food and labour Knighthood. and do whatever his lady wants him to o ”Joi”: love. or a desire for gain He must be in love. ladies) Faith (firm belief and service of God) “Courtly Love” o “Courtly love” (amour courtois): ‘love of a highly specialized sort. son most sweet and dear o Let us gather hand in hand Passion o Man and woman.2.Final Examination English Literature 1. of sin and death.g. Perceval) 2. Yvain and Lancelot. Godric’s Hymn) Religious and secular lyric pieces appear from c. looking forward to marriage (unlike French) Usual love themes o description of the lady o sorrows of love o the wandering lover meets love adventures o even the lady might complain Sumer is icumen in . or about the Nativity. and short Latin prose pieces 13 . or other festive occasions o Agincourt Carol written after the English victory over the French at Agincourt – 1415 Most lyrics are anonymous. exist in a variety of texts.Perspice. St. in a monologue or a dialogue form Nativity o I sing of a Maiden o Jesu. Secular lyric • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • English lyric poetry is frank. 1250 on Versification is based on stress and rhyme Verse is usually stanzaic intended for singing (sometimes music also survives.3.3.1330-40) unique collection of literary pieces in a manuscript secular love poems and political ones collected and written down in Herefordshire contains English verse. Lyric poetry • • • • No lyric poetry proper in the Anglo-Saxon period (exception: e.1. the Passion of Christ.3. outspoken. Anglo-Norman verse and prose. e. etc. many were accompanied by music 2.3. look on me! Carols o probably songs accompanying a ring dance o later written for Christmas or the Epiphany. christicola religious and lay texts applied to the same tune Now blossoms the spray Not long ago I met a clerk 2. in the case of Sumer is icumen in) 2.3. Old and Middle English Literature Greatest influence on English courtly poetry (Erec and Enide.g. British Library MS Harley 2253 (c. Religious lyrics Written to Christ or the Virgin Mary (they might be treated as the lover or the beloved lady). Cliges. Romances • • • • • • Originally o Only meant that the work was in one of the vernacular languages (in Romance: Old French. Charlemagne.e. Arthur: leader of Celtic resistance to Germanic invaders of the British Isles in 6th century 14 . designed for entertainment Compared with the heroic epic: o Has less unity o Characters are less well defined.e. Old and Middle English Literature satirical and complaint poems. 14 love poems (e. Love hurts me. usually later. o Adventures are hung on a biographical thread. but contrasting ideas (i. Between March and April. King Horn) o The most widely cultivated ones: about King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table originate from Britain.g.g. o The story is based on similar incidents: a knight can only prove his virtue in battle Well-known heroes and topics of romances are borrowed from o classical antiquity (e. a battle.). Spring’s about with love again.Final Examination English Literature • • • 1.4. the other religious o same vocabulary. especially in France.g. and have French originals (exception: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight) Demonstrations of an ideal code of conduct o In the form of a quest. With the Norman-French influence they returned to England. popular political poems. Roland) o early history of England (e. In Maytime in the merry dawn) The heart of a Man can hardly know o Pair poems: one is secular. in prose o Cultivated all over Europe o Early examples composed in England were in Norman-French o Almost all the English ones are late – from after 1250 and much later-. fleeting earthly love for a woman and everlasting love of God) Mother Stand Firm Beneath the Rood! o meditative religious poem o Mary in pain at the foot of the cross and Christ on the cross introduce the reader to the story of the redemption 2.g. Alexander the Great or the Trojan war) o the early history of France (. etc. during which the stories developed and became very successful on the Continent. a love affair o A test and proof of the code: the values by which the characters of romance live are exposed to some threat. for the entertainment of those who did not understand Latin o In verse. and are shown always to triumph plurality of perspectives a clerical narrator offers an ironic perspective on his chivalric hero a ‘secular narrative with a hero. but the tradition was broken for about a hundred years. some conflict. Provencal. Spanish. only some similar motives o English Chronicles Celticists say that most of the stories. 800) calls Arthur ‘leader of the Celts’ in one paragraph. Inventionists are of the opinion that the romance stories were rather invented by Chrétien de Troyes. but Ambrosius Aurelianus Nennius’s Historia Britonum (c.000-line poem the story of the Round Table is mentioned Layamon’s Brut (c.g. which later appear in romances of international fame (those of Chrétien de Troyes). Cymbeline) mentions his source to be ‘an ancient book in the British tongue’. 1100-1155). Historia Regum Britanniae (1137) a cleric of Oxford. probably one in Welsh or Breton. not so-much of structural importance any more o popular in the North and West o successfully used by the Gawain poet and Langland in Piers Plowman • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 15 . 1205) Arthur appears first in an English poem Written by a country priest in Worcestershire Also has ornamental rhymes Sources are Bede. but the British leader is not Arthur. who won in twelve battles and killed 960 enemies single-handed William of Malmesbury’s Gesta Regum Anglorum (1125) cannot be considered a historical source. Gildas’s De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae. Wace and the tradition Slow going with alterations and additions of the poet (e. Bede. but he has close paraphrases of Gildas. Uther Pendragon and Arthur Wace’s Roman de Brut (1155) 15. Livy and Virgil. Old and Middle English Literature • Sources of the Arthurian Legends o Celtic tradition Except for four books no Welsh literary sources exist In Irish sources Arthur does not occur.Final Examination English Literature 1.g. it only bears witness to Arthur’s growing popularity.D. 545) mentions the battle of Mount Badon. Book VI contains the first stories about Merlin. and calls him “Rex Britonum” Geoffrey of Monmouth’s (c. about Lear. Gorboduc. the story of the Round Table) Very few French words Good descriptions of indoor and outdoor scenes • The Alliterative revival o the line has becomes the unit of thought instead of the half-line o it is rather decorative.(A. of Breton stock filled his chronicle with much legendary matter (e. are based on folk tales. Across the river. Purity.5. pentangle.g. Old and Middle English Literature o In: MS Cotton Nero A X. no cloudless ending.’ his twoyear-old daughter. that he cannot 16 . hunts. the topic is the test of virtues rather than mere adventures o Verse form: the flow of traditional unrhymed alliterative lines is broken up by short metrical rhymed lines at irregular intervals. about grief and salvation. He is instructed by his daughter. demons or God) Dream setting: free use of poetic imagination opportunity to reach beyond the realistic world anything can happen that otherwise would not occur Readers’ response: responsibility of interpretation Literary tradition: o go back to antiquity o prophetic dreams in the Bible o Macrobius’s. After waking up the narrator shares this knowledge with the reader. Other genres • • • • • • • 2.Final Examination English Literature 1. a dream vision about a 2-year-old daughter of the poet. virtues.5. temptations) elaborated in a single adventure o Realism and the marvellous in the presentation o Playful or serious? o Patterns of threes and fives (temptations.1. He finds himself at the river of death. creating a loose stanza-like structure 2. who died.) together with Pearl. overeating. Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth I) Pearl o In a vision the dreamer. or the imbalance of the humours. etc.) o elaborate point of view. and is a bride of Christ. author’s commentary on Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis (especially popular in the Middle Ages) o Dante’s Divine Comedy o Boethius’s The Consolation of Philosophy (translated into English by King Alfred. Dream vision A conventional medieval literary genre The narrator falls asleep usually in agreeable rural surroundings often on a May morning. a father laments the loss of his ‘pearl. two homiletic poems o Written in the dialect of the North-West Midlands o Unknown author o Intended for a sophisticated audience: double suspense: The outcome of the game The nature and meaning of the adventure o A combination of two stories (beheading game. The dreamer learns something in the dream that he could not have learnt otherwise. but could also arise by the influence of supernatural forces. then meets either real people or personified abstractions and is involved in various activities often to be interpreted allegorically. and Patience. benign or malign. (end of 14th c. the early 5th c. ambiguity. who is now grown up. Dreams: intimately connected with both the physiological and the metaphysical (a reflex of the body to e. in a paradise-like landscape. a French poet living in England in the late 12th and early 13th century Sir Orfeo o In the Auchinleck MS in the National Library of Scotland o Composed in the 13th century o A medieval version of the Orpheus myth. like King Alfred’s translation of Boethius. lives in the wood for ten years. The emotional drama unfolds when first the dreamer is delighted to meet his beloved ‘pearl. Breton Lay Epic genre Shorter than the romance (short enough for one recitation) Topic: usually love Supernatural Celtic elements often appear Earliest: The Lais of Marie de France (in the 1170s).C. and loses her. but the number of different meanings given to the events and persons of this myth is endless. and the symbol of the purity of the bridehood with the Lamb Immutability of the pearl is contrasted with the passing beauty of the rose 101 carefully composed stanzas in which the last lines always echo the first one of the next stanza. “Looking back” in later Christian versions. The stanzas are grouped in fives by these repetitions. Elegy Contrast of the temporal and transcendental views of human existence Intricate metaphoric and dramatic techniques Central image: the pearl: goes through several metamorphoses: it is a precious possession. renouncing his kingdom. but looks back. the exile and return of the hero) o In the medieval version. who attracts the goodwill of the king by his song. It is difficult for him to accept that he cannot yet join his daughter in heaven. King Orfeo. B. but is subtly related to the expression of the intellectual and imaginative ideas of the poem 2. and must struggle on when he wakes up. the loss and regain of the wife. whose distant sources go back to Greece. set in England. Orpheus. resigned to the will of God. and Celtic legends o In Virgil’s Latin version. son of the muse of epic poetry. because she reprimands him because of his earthly thinking instead of being compassionate. often using the same word in a different sense. the strange Otherworld.Final Examination English Literature o o o o o o o • • • • • • 1. and follows her to the underworld. o Celtic and folk-tale elements (e. Queen Heurodis is not killed. At the end of the poem he has to go on living. it is the daughter. Old and Middle English Literature yet swim.’ but soon he is frustrated. to the 6th c. Calliope. which is a technical device. There 17 . represents temptation and sin. he sees the Heavenly Jerusalem of the Apocalypse.5. o Immediate source of this version: probably French.g.2. Eurydice is bitten by a snake and is taken to Hades. He spies the queen in a hunting party. leads her out. but abducted by a demonic kind of fairy king. He frees her in the guise of a begging minstrel. Then she preaches him about the Labourers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20). which has a different rhyme. Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) • • • Cultural context of the 14th century o A cultural Golden Age within the Middle Ages a flowering of literature(the Gawain poet. and becomes his lady on condition of secrecy. at the end of the 14th century o Combination of the Arthurian story with folk motifs. Langland. was educated in the Latin classics o Never followed any political extremes o His works very rarely contain any reference to historical events o Literary patronage did not have a major role in his life. He betrays his secret love.g. the Wyclifite Bible. a versatile ‘civil servant’ depending for his living on his annuities. This tail line carries the same rhyme throughout the stanza. that he cannot take part in a tournament. and loses his property because of his generosity towards his men.6. they return to England much like Odysseus to Ithaca o Form: rhyming iambic tetrameter (very frequent in romances) Sir Launfal o Composed in the South-East of England by Thomas Chestre. He leaves. he is tempted by the too promiscuous Guinevere. Nobody may know about their relationship. but is rescued by the fairy queen. The Book of the Duchess written upon the death of Blanche of Lancaster. When in despair. the fairy queen Triamour calls him to herself.Final Examination English Literature • 1. John Gower. and is taken away with her from the court. an early professional o A page in the court of the Countess of Ulster (re-appointed under three kings) o Controller of the customs in the port of London o Overseer of the king’s construction works o Diplomatic missions to France and Italy o Captured during the war in France. Old and Middle English Literature is no taboo of looking back. first wife of John of Gaunt) 18 . Chaucer) Historical events o Black Death o The captivity of the papacy at Avignon o The Great Schism o The Hundred Years War (1337-1453) Chaucer’s life o He was of gentile status. which in this poem is divided into half 2. compliment or please superiors (e. restores him to his standing with her gifts. o Written in tail-rhyme stanza: a rhymed four-beat couplet is followed by a three-beat line. Upon return to the court of King Arthur. ransomed by the king o Learnt French and Italian. o Launfal is not in favour in King Arthur’s court at the distribution of gifts because of Queen Guinevere. although he wrote several works to console. and The Knight’s Tale) o Original works: Dream visions The Book of the Duchess • Written at the occasion of the death of Blanche of Lancaster. pot belly little man. divine providence and free will Chaucer used Boethius’ ideas (esp. returning home after work to his writing. in Troilus and Criseyde. as documents prove. new meanings Chaucer’s audience o Literate people and those who listened to the works when somebody was reading them out aloud o Fictionalized audiences (e. wished to follow the French example. Chaucer’s patron • Courtly description of their love. topic: the ambiguous nature of fame The Parliament of Birds • St Valentine’s Day love debate among birds: the female eagle cannot decide between her courtly suitors. still he wrote only in English o Managed to make the language flexible and versatile by introducing new words. and the mourning of the Man in Black House of Fame • The dreamer is taken up to the House of Fame by the Eagle. first wife of John of Gaunt. experimenting o Complained about the poor tool the English language was for a poet. courtly love poem. who. manuscript is depicting Chaucer reading the same poem to King Richard II and his court Chaucer’s works o Translations The Romaunt of the Rose (Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun) Basic book of the courtly tradition Very influential 13th c.g. destiny. the less aristocratic birds happily find mates 19 . a dream vision Boethius’s De Consolatione Philosophiae (A. necessity.D. Jove’s messenger. the pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales) are socially mixed o Immediate audience Probably of Chaucer’s social standing King Henry V also possessed a copy of Troilus and Criseyde The frontispiece of a 15th c. was once fined for rape o Independent income ability to write what he wanted. a funny.Final Examination English Literature • • 1. her decision is postponed by a year.525) Philosophical treatise Discusses the issues of fortune. but never gets any. and is promised famous love themes. Old and Middle English Literature o Pictures himself with irony as a bookworm. and Italian: Boccaccio’s early work. the daughter of Calkas. but looks down upon his dead body and comments laughingly on the woe of those “who wept his death so busily. but soon is dropped from the height by the same • Happiness is pictured as temporary in this world. Dido. who had been unhappy in love (Cupid’s martyrs. the traitor during the Trojan War (only serves as a background story) Most polished and complete work of Chaucer’s on love Medieval tragedy • The hero first is taken up by the Wheel of Fortune to great prosperity. by Guido delle Colonne (13th c.). neither a calculating woman nor a seduced innocent) Written in Rhyme Royal stanza form (five-foot lines in seven line stanzas with an ababbcc rhyme scheme) The Canterbury Tales (from about 1387 to his death) A collection of tales is set in the frame of a pilgrimage where a mixed group of people go from the Tabard inn in Southwark. like Cleopatra. Il Filostrato Use of a double perspective: medieval and ancient + Christian and worldly/pagan concepts of love Symmetrical structure in five books in which parts of the poem ‘speak to each other’: the history of Troy becomes corporate analogue of Troilus’ story Dramatic style • Courtly (Troilus) • Realistic (Pandarus) • Mixed (Criseyde: ambiguous.love vision: the God of Love censures the poet for publicizing the kind of love. especially if it was guided by blind desire • There is a way out of the wretchedness towards heaven: Troilus dies at the end of the poem.). Latin. who was murdered by Henry II in 1170) 20 . South London to Canterbury. Ariadne) Troilus and Criseyde (1382-86/7) Topic: the love and separation of Troilus. Archbishop of Canterbury (a very popular English saint in the Middle Ages. to the shrine of St. Thomas Becket. and Criseyde. by Benoit de Ste Maure (12th c. Old and Middle English Literature • Topic: the kinds of love Legend of Good Women • Prologue . which is in the Romance of the Rose • Ten descriptions of lives of women.” Sources • Earlier medieval Troy books (French. Lucrece.Final Examination English Literature 1. the Trojan prince. in which we start from this sinful world. 5 Guildsmen). On the way we do different things. can tell their own stories in different styles) No end of literature no end of the Tales • A social panorama with a great number of characters from Chaucer’s contemporary world. 10 21 . Seven pilgrims do not tell tales (Yeoman. colourful details. one is told by the Canon’s Yeoman. the inn in London. People. see a lot of sin and virtue acted out. but the ways to it cannot be numbered) • A drama on the road. easy to imagine Neither the stories nor the characters are realistic! (they just give such an impression to the modern reader. moving the fantasy. quarrel and argue between the tales and with the tales. the celestial Jerusalem. Monk). At the end of the work they arrive in Canterbury Various ways of reading. One is fragmentary (Cook). represented by the cathedral of Canterbury. but in the middle (the end is known. Endless number of kinds of people no end to picturing them • A Book of Life: pilgrimage is a metaphor for life. two from Chaucer. and they listen to each other’s stories. like and hate each other the dynamism of medieval life Various interpretations Lively. who is not familiar with medieval rhetoric) Original pattern • Described in the General Prologue • Remained unfulfilled although the beginning and end of the book are complete (Chaucer may also have changed his mind) • 29 pilgrims were to tell 2x2 tales. all together we have 24 tales of 21 pilgrims. who managed to compose in all contemporary genres. He chooses the best representatives of each estate group either as pilgrims or figures in the tales. Old and Middle English Literature The pilgrims tell stories to each other on the way to entertain themselves on the road.Final Examination English Literature 1. Civitas Dei. joining the company later. • A great literary achievement by Chaucer. are brought together on the occasion of the pilgrimage. three are interrupted (Squire. to vary his voice and mock his characters (the pilgrims. and journey towards the heavenly world. like it is in the tales. Plowman. Life has no end (generations of people follow each other) the Tales are also unfinished. who would normally not meet in Chaucer’s day. Sir Topaz. who represent various social groups. they are not portrayed with realism . so many people riding along a narrow road could never hear each other. General Prologue • A series of portraits are presented by Chaucer the narrator with subversive irony and gentle satire • The figures are not individualized. more important than the satisfaction of the appetite for food or sex Indecent subject matter Gross humour Naturalistic representation Pathetic tales • Pathos works with extremes (terror. grief.Final Examination English Literature 1. described according to rhetorical conventions which Chaucer shared with the audience and which he playfully surpassed • The naive narrator figure allows Chaucer to avoid making judgements. burlesque. not didactic Assertion that there are no values. without any ability to fight back. 22 . interrupted) • Squire’s Tale (end lost?) • Franklin’s Tale (Breton lay. to evoke pity and compassion) • Pathetic heroes: passive victims facing undeserved suffering. Still Chaucer makes it easy to accept with the detailed descriptions and the lively dramatic links. much unlike his contemporaries. the best of their kinds. Hengwrt).they are rather estate types. Romances • Wife of Bath’s Tale (marginally Arthurian) • Tale of Sir Topaz (by Chaucer. joy). This way he is not didactic. Old and Middle English Literature fragments are arranged in basically two different ways according to the order of the two main manuscript traditions (Ellesmere. The frame is basically fictional. romance with much Boethian philosophy) Comic tales • Miller’s Tale • Reeve’s Tale • Shipman’s Tale • Merchant’s Tale • Friar’s Tale • Summoner’s Tale • Cook’s fragment No noble ideas. • Aim: to produce extreme emotions. secular or religious. final word on marriage) • Knight’s Tale (Based on Boccaccio’s Teseida. fabliau.exemplum + sermon • Nun’s Priest’s Tale . and are flat • Second Nun’s (saint’s life) • Man of Law’s (religious romance) • Clerk’s (originally a folktale) • Physician’s (expanded exemplum) • Prioress’s (miracle of the Virgin) • Monk’s (de casibus story) Exemplum and fable: • Friar’s Tale .beast fable • Manciple’s Tale . more interested in underlying patterns than causation • Hyperbolic (exaggerated in expression and story) • Timeless and essentialist (figures are best of their kind) 23 . not analytic but additive. exemplum • Pardoner’s Tale . Old and Middle English Literature • Characters are motivated by a single virtue.Final Examination English Literature 1. no narrative element) Narrators • Limited points of view • No precise psychological correspondence between portraits in the General Prologue and tales given to them Two ‘confessions’ • Pardoner • Wife of Bath Style • Basically oral (blending literate thought with the ‘old ways’) • Speaks directly to the audience • Uses formulas and set phrases • Sententious (opportunity for authorial comment) • Repetition with variation(redundancy) • Metonymic rather than metaphoric.exemplum No – tales • The Tale of Melibee (long prose about the futility of revenge) • Canon’s Yeoman’s (extended occupational portrait) • Parson’s (a sermon about the seven deadly sins. not named either anonimity they are rather the embodiments of a male and female principle (paradigms in the battle between the sexes) o The tale opens with the crime of rape the ultimate assertion of male’s mastery over the females o It is the ladies at the court who take over judgement on the knight: it is the female who puts the man to the test o The knight has to look for the answer in women’s voice: ironic. it is Arthur’s life that is at stake for the lack of an answer to the riddle Chaucer altered these sources to make the tale more responsive to the purposes of the wife o The knight and the hag are not named.: he must discover the point of wisdom upon which his salvation depends by finding the solution to the Boethian Q. transformation (the dance of the 24 maiden on the meadow and their disappearance: a common folk-tale motif. because knights were always looking for some ultimate. His rape of the maiden is a vulgar display of the male sovereignty and establishes the depraved condition from which he is to be saved. the maiden is classless. it creates the atmosphere of wonder for the first appearance of the hag) Narrative exemplum: intended to illustrate the wife’s argument developed in her Prologue: it illustrates the transforming power of the virtue of obedience o The tale is about women’s love of sovereignty.Final Examination English Literature • 1. but it ends with marital – especially sexual – bliss it offers a fulfilment not only of the Wife’s consciousness desire for mastery and a young husband. here: it is the knight The Arthurian setting romance. Breton lay and romance Romance: typically includes a return from some kind of threatened or symbolic death. 2. for the restoring of her lost youth and beauty o The wife of Bath is a practitioner of matrimony o Here. he goes to the wrong authorities. for the answers are those we have heard attributed to antifeminist clerks in the Wife’s Prologue. one has to apply his knowledge in practice 24 . the foul and old hag is an image of the wife of Bath herself she is restored to be beautiful and powerful at the same time o Sources Gower’s Tale of Florent from the Confessio amantis (a tale) The weddynge of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell (a romance) The marriage of Sir Gawain (a ballad) Boethius In the romance and the ballad. but of the desire she can express only as regret. fairy-tale. but then he finds out the rights answer BUT it is not enough to know the truth. At first. spiritual truth (traditional is turned upside-down) o The knight has to pass three stages in his purgation: 1. Old and Middle English Literature Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales – The Wife of Bath’s Tale o Genre On the borderline between folk-tale. Breton lay magical elements. already familiar from the Prologue of the wife (assertive. in Ovid. packed with first person pronouns and gender words) and the Chaucerian narrator Most powerful rhetoric is used in the hag’s speech of ‘gentilesse’ Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales – The Miller’s Tale o After the Knight’s Tale. the Host invites the Monk. The Wife of Bath’s Tale) 25 . the potential bridegrooms are told in advance about this) delayed climax o The knight says: “Take all my goods. but the solution is not uttered by the old hag. the bearer of the secret was Midas’s barber (not his wife) the wife of Bath herself turns this story into an exemplum of women’s inability to keep a secret. the Friar’s Midas His wife cannot keep the secret that Midas has the a pair of ass’s ears) Originally. supposed to have sex with sleeping women) in their habit of dishonouring women as they roam about the countryside) It is a cue for the following tale. but she omits the ending. Old and Middle English Literature o The word “sovereignty” is used when the solution to the riddle is told. virtue is independent from rank) It is a part of the hag’s speech who attempts to win over her husband It gives way to the final meaning of the tale: virtue o Style Two principal styles in the tale: personal voice.Final Examination English Literature • 1. the highest ranking of the ecclesiastic. perhaps more moral one o Q whether one can find a good woman (cf. colloquial. he can turn the page and find another. but by the knight only before the court: the climax is delayed o The old hag demands the knight’s agreement to do whatever she asks him without telling him that her request is marriage (in the analogues. but leave my body free” at the beginning he was the one who raped a woman o The demands of the flesh and the demands of the spirit cannot be simultaneously satisfied until one agrees to obey the knight obeys o The transformation is very typical in such stories (fair and foul. to follow the highest ranking layman BUT hierarchical ordering does not seem to function in the world of pilgrimage: the drunken Miller interrupts and wants to tell his tale instead o The miller claims that if someone does not like his tale. foul and fair): it illustrates a moral principle. in which it is the reeds that tell the secret to the world Gentilesse Gentilesse: the distinction between virtue and birth was a medieval commonplace (“Gentility must come from God alone”. the doctrine of obedience o 3 digressions: all have their functions in the structure of the tale Passage of satire on friars They have replaced elves and incubuses (a male evil spirit. of all those feelings suppresses by courtly politeness or religious asceticism that break into joyous burlesque o Source The Knight’s Tale (cf. The Knight’s Tale) Fabliaus are set in the contemporary everyday world. other saints mentioned also have local references Dits van Heilen van Beersele: a Flemish fabliau. Nicholas and Alison) Characteristics of this genre are in diametric opposition to the characteristics of the romance (e. romance!): this tale follows the knight’s tale: contrastive pieces Contemporary Oxford Setting is crucial for the working out of the plot Nicholas needs to have lodgings in the carpenter’s house It is John’s involvement in the great building works that keeps him away from home when Nicholas first makes a pass at Alison Proper names are also used carefully: Absalom is a recorded town name. Nicholas who can quote from the Bible in the service of his adultery) o The female character is deceitful and immoral (cf. it generally concerns humankind’s most basic functions.g. and a smith. it often contains an element of parody of courtly values or language. the John+Alison) o Robin (the John’s servant) is the miniature portrait of the miller in the story (he is also called Robin by the host) 26 . come to her in succession one night (here the miller is the narrator. it is concerned more with cunning and folly than virtue and evil. peasants or clerks. The Knight’s Tale) o Here. not the far away and long ago.Final Examination English Literature 1. Old and Middle English Literature o Optimistic answer: there are thousands of good wives to every bad one. The point of this form is amorality The fabliau is the expression of the non-official culture of carnal irreverence. its characters are bourgeois. whereas romance looks to ideals and idealized love. and it helps the statistics favourable if one is not too “inquisitive in life either about God’s secrets or one’s wife” the miller thinks that he has not been cuckolded yet o Genre Fabliau Predominantly a French form The commonest plot is the love triangle (here it is represented between John. Absalom. it opposes all pretensions to authority. the heroine is married to an elder man (recurrent motif in the tales): o The three lovers: husband and rival suitors (Nicholas. not a participant) Source could be Dame Siriz (late 13th century) Bible is used as a source (Noah’s flood. sometimes excretion. Absalom. a priest. in which a woman of easy virtue whose favours are sought by a miller. mostly sex. not aristocrats. St Nicholas was the patron saint of the scholars. but also money for Alison “For there are some a money-bag provokes/And some are won by kindness. calf. distancing from the main characters: the folk’s comments on the carpenter’s folly) o Themes Main purpose of literature in the Middle Ages: ethical and didactic it is not an exemplum Parody. and later to Absalom (Nicholas is interested in everything but studying. goos cf. but then the focus shifts to Nicholas and Alison. Alison is young and wild. Dante’s Divine Comedy. Absolom’s squeamishness about farting is described) Alison’s visit to the church: opportunity to introduce Absolom Transitions are kept to a minimum: no narrative discontinuity between the events End of the tale: climax (all characters are at the same place as never before. notions of wisdom and folly. but amoral: no justice is meted out: Nicholas and Absolon may get their punishment. adultery. some by strokes. Flood motif.” what do women need? o Style Narrative pace is fast High proportion of Germanic and Romance vocabulary Uncomplicated syntax Animal imagery (not noble animals.Final Examination English Literature 1. cock. and John suffers a broken arm and general ridicule in return for gullibility Common themes here and later on: idea of marriage. May/December wedding (wedding between a young and an old) o Connection with The Wife of Bath’s Tale The choice of the name ‘Alison’ is not by chance: the Wife of Bath is also called Alison Both characters are sex-loving Both of them find their mate in the form of an Oxford Student (Jankin. wifely obedience – or the lack of it. Old and Middle English Literature o Structure The carpenter is the ‘authority figure’ of the tale. duck. Several contemporary issues: corruption of the church (represented by Absalom). the tale opens with him and closes with his literal and metaphorical downfall We here the names of Alison and John first from each other’s mouth (cf. motifs of the Flood and the legend of a carpenter and his wife near blasphemy) Ethical issues are not raised: the story is not immoral. kid. The Knight’s Tale) the sexual 27 . old husbands and young wives. Absolon’s aping of courtly manners and his linguistic extravaganzas in his serenades. burlesque (city life. Nicholas) Absalom offers not only his songs. but farmyard ones: mouse. where Dante’s name is uttered first by Beatrice) The first few lines of the tale introduces the carpenter. but the tale is unfair: Alison gets away with everything. 28 .Final Examination English Literature 1.g. in individual words. etc. kiss/piss). juxtaposing the religious and the lustful. Old and Middle English Literature appetite of the various characters are equated with the natural world Incongruity (e. the weavers for the Crucifixion. pro+fano: ‘before the temple’) 1. actions o Mystery = the spiritual mystery of Christ’s redemption o Acted out by various crafts: the performance of mystery/miracle plays became the concern of the trade-guilds. the period (theatrical traditions. then to the market-place and the streets and other convenient and busy areas of the town: drama gradually became ‘secular’ and ‘profane’ (cf. one comedy and one tragedy either by Marlowe or Shakespeare. Medieval Drama 1. performances. tragi-comedy.1. the romance). The origin of Medieval drama: the ‘Quem quaeritis’-trope • Origin of Medieval drama o Almost total independence from the Greek and Roman theatrical tradition o Its ‘cradle’ is the ‘empty grave’ o The ‘empty grave’ occurs in a tiny performance or ‘play’ called trope. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance 2. constituting a ‘series’ Chester (25 episodes) York (48) Coventry/N-Town (42) Wakefield/ Towneley cycle (32) o Corpus Christi Day Cycle Established in 1264 1 . in detail. each being responsible for particular episodes of the Bible (e. the chronicle play. audiences. 1. for the spectacular Last Judgement scene) o Cycles: a group of plays. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance.2. which became an important part of the Easter service (Easter story was acted out. Miracles and mysteries • Mystery (miracle) play o Developed from the ‘Quem quaeritis’-trope o Treated the life of Christ or of saints and/or re-enacted certain stories from the Bible o Main point: re-enact events.g. the masons for Noah. the bakers for the Last Supper and the wealthiest group. comedy. the Mercers. Introduce the main developments in.Final Examination English Literature 2. tragedy. later the whole Bible was dramatised) o Liturgical drama slowly moved out of the church-building into the church-yard. Discuss. and the major dramatic genres of. repeating the scenes at successive stations o “Wakefield Master” An author of true genius Active around 1475 Cain and Abel. the battle-ground of good and evil forces (psychomachia: the battle for the soul) Everyman (cc. The lower part of the wagon was the dressing room. evil: we look at somebody/something from the outside. sympathises. the Flood. ‘Lust’.3. reminding people of death (cf. as the allegorical-essential-typical embodiment of general human features. etc. 1485-1500) 4. The Second Shepherd’s Play. The problem of comedy in the Middle Ages • • Comedy in moralities: from (spiritual) poverty to (spiritual) prosperity. or even ‘Man’ or ‘God’. Each wagon (also known as pageant) presented a different scene of the cycle. Slaughter of the Innocents and Buffetting (The Trial before Caiaphas) 1. with the characters (cf. ‘the World’. Medieval memento mori – ‘reckon with death!’. didactic exemplums. constantly colliding and negotiating with history and fiction) They represent the Medieval idea that life is a pilgrimage from birth towards either Heaven or Hell. and the wagons were following each other. Noah and His Wife.Final Examination English Literature 2. Man (the human being) often appears in these plays as ‘Everyman’ or ‘Mankind’. an ‘abstraction’ like ‘Flesh’. Make the words alive by showing them in action (without relying on a wellknown story from the Bible) allegories in a dramatic form Simple. or the ‘muting’ of. from sin to redemption ‘the comic’ is associated with joy rather than with laughter Source of the comic o Belittling. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance Dedicated to the real presence of the body of Christ. The First Shepherd’s Play. Greek 2 . from a distance and from above ( the tragic is usually possible trough taking an inside view: one commiserates. ‘Folly’. ‘don’t forget to die!’) and emphasising the absolute necessity of repentance and the severity of the last judgement Mode of presentation: exposition (a kind of narrative theatre. Moralities • • • • • • Main aim: to dramatise a word (a ‘concept’). suffers together. being. with a huge procession in which the Host (the consecrated bread and wine of the Mass) was carried through the town o Each play was mounted on a wagon with a curtained scaffold. which deals with private affairs of imaginary ‘low’ people o It was sung in the theatre by one man while the actors were moving as in a ballet or imitating speech (the singer ‘dubbing’ their parts) o It was written in high style (as opposed to comedy. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance sym+pathos – ‘together+ feeling.e. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. which are just the shadowy images of real (‘perfect’) The Renaissance. often crimes o It is concerned with public and often historical (‘real’) figures (kings). The Renaissance world-view • 1 Plato’s teaching: the chasm between beings and Being: man is only capable of experiencing and getting to know phenomena.e. written in low style) Growing interest and serious study in the tragedies of Seneca Knowledge about classical theatre and of the performance of tragedies started to spread 2. Ideas and forms of tragedy from Aristotle to the Middle Ages. especially in the late 15th century. sorrowful) deeds. i. one’s feelings are in harmony with the feelings of another person)) o Not only alienating the spectators from the Evil but also humanising Evil “Composite authorship”: the text passes through the hands of several unknown authors. the ladder of hierarchies Aristotle constructe.Final Examination English Literature • 2.1. though will never totally replace. each adding something from his own tradition 5. passion’. will question. (the time when it was translated into English) Authors mentioned • Horace (Ars Poetica) o Ovid o Diomedes and Donatus (two 4th century grammarians) o Cicero o The Rhetorica ad Herennium o Plautus and Terence (comedy-writers) o Seneca Medieval authors till the 13th century never talk about catharsis and they usually mention the following features of tragedy o It is about sad (mournful. This section is based on Henry Ansgar Kelly. as opposed to comedy. i. 1993 3 . The problem of tragedy in the Middle Ages1 • • • • • Almost nobody writes tragedies as we understand it Aristotle’s Poetics: almost totally unknown till the 13th c. Renaissance Drama 2. problematise the ‘fixed’ place of the human being in this hierarchy. fellow? Kent. No. the ‘Supreme Being’ by claiming that everything inherently contains its own perfect ‘idea’ and constantly strives towards it.1. unrest. Who would’st thou serve? Kent. Robert Green. Thomas Middleton. Thomas Kyd. The “Tudor Age” • • • 2 “Tudor age” (1485-( Richmond. a great chain of beings (cf. uncertainty o Henry VIII’s Act of Supremacy in 1534 o Execution of Sir Thomas More in 1535 Cf. tests his “relative strength” and “relative weakness” o Main concern of the Middle Ages: the study of ‘Being’ and ‘to be’. God 2. satirical. John Marston. Sir. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance (Aristotle wanted to make it at least theoretically possible to reach the ‘Prime Mover’. John Fletcher. What’s that? Kent. and of man’s relation to its supreme form.2. erected by a grocer. Christopher Marlowe. 2. Lear. Lear. poetic. You. philosophical.3)) The question of free will: man is given freedom to choose his role on the stage of the Renaissance o Epistemic and deontic possibility (“Thou shalt…”): sometimes overlap o Human being takes “authority”2 over from God.Final Examination English Literature • 2.) o Printing appeared o Revolution in the field of drama o Opening of permanent theatres A scaffold stage at the Red Lion in Whitechapel. creating. Francis Beaumont. John Brayne in 1567 First “real” permanent theatre: The Theatre (built in 1576 in Shoreditch by James Burbage and John Brayne) Closing of the theatres: 1642 Playwrights: John Lily.” 4 . Ben(jamin) Jonson. John Shirley o Religious turmoil. historical. thereby. including lyrical and epic poetry and romance. Thomas Dekker. with the following exchange: “ Lear. What would’st thou? Kent. Dost thou know me. Lear. Richard Peele. Thomas Heywood. Authority. William Rowley. John Webster. etc. Service. the future Tudor Henry VII defeated Richard III at Bosworth field) 1603 (Tudor Elizabeth I died and Stuart James VI of Scotland (James I in England) ascended to the throne) In literature it is more customary to talk about “the Tudor age” as falling between 1485 and 1558 (or 1509-1558) and to call the rest (up to 1603) “the Elizabethan age” Elzabethan age o Unprecedented literary growth in the field of all kinds of writing (religious. but you have that in your countenance which I would fain call master. and some companies even playing in the Royal Court o First English tragedy: Gorboduc or the Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex (written by two lawyers. 1587) o “Swan” (1595) o “Globe” (1599.g. Lord Admiral’s Men. Robert Greene. Thomas Nashe and Christopher Marlowe o The permanent playhouses (the ‘public theatres’) were erected one after the other o “The Red Lion” (1567) o “The Theatre” (1576) o “Curtain” (c.Final Examination English Literature 2. became associated with them (e. rebuilt in 1614) o Writing plays and acting: sometimes quite rewarding enterprise o Permanent companies performed under the patronage of an aristocrat or the member of the Royal Family the name to the theatrical group. in permanent ‘playhouses’ (theatres) in London. Thomas Lodge. later King’s Men) Public theatres 5 . Renaissance theatrical conventions • • ‘Elizabethan’ and ‘Jacobean’ drama o Initiated by young intellectuals mainly in and around Cambridge o Following Latin examples both in comedy (Plautus and Terence) and in tragedy (Seneca) o Students and graduates wrote plays and gave performances (first in Latin. later in English) at their universities joined by some semiprofessional or professional players. training in rhetoric Roger Ascham’s The Schoolmaster (1570): humanist principles of teaching o Study of the human body the study of the human spirit and the human mind: Medieval analogical thinking o Multiplicity of perspectives o o o o o 2.3. burnt down in 1613. Lord Chamberlain’s Men. first produced at the Inner Temple (the ‘law school’ or ‘university’) in 1561 o ‘University Wits’: John Lyly. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance Image-breaking in churches in 1538 Dissolution of monasteries in 1539 Protestant reign of James VI Mary’s brief but vehement return to Catholicism Adaptation of humanist learning from Italy. France and Spain education. finally. 1577) o “Rose” (c. Thomas Sackville (1536-1608) and Thomas Norton (1532-1584) in blank verse. in inns and. while also touring in the country. George Peele. 300 people Torches and candles were used to give light E. Thomas Kyd (1558-1594) • • • • The Spanish Tragedy (probably written in 1587) Madness is able to create a reality a real-like illusion Play-within-the play (meta-theatrical element) Revenge tragedy o The appearance of a ghost. as a path for Old Hamlet’s Ghost to come up from the ‘underworld’ or as Ophelia’ grave o All layers of contemporary society were represented in these theatres o Audience: eating. to protect the musicians and the rich and expensive costumes of the actors o Hardly any stage-props the detailed explanations at the beginning of scenes were necessary o Roof above the stage: also called ‘Heaven’: storing some stage machinery. oval or octagonal building o ‘Apron’ stage jutting into the yard. on three sides. seating c.) to take revenge for him (or her) 6 . while for another penny the more well-to-do could occupy covered seats in three rising tiers around the yard o Visibility around and from above the stage o ‘Tiring house’ in the back of the stage with a right and left entrance on its respective sides. etc. son. by the standing spectators. in which the King’s Men played 2. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance o Able to house c.g. talking. more refined or intellectual audience Completely roofed building Smaller in size. serving e. such as pulleys and ropes to lower ‘gods’ or ‘goddesses’ from above o In the middle of the stage: a trap-door called ‘Hell’. where some hungry dogs were set on a hungry bear. drinking. chained to a pole o Plays were performed in broad daylight (usually between 2 and 4-5 in the afternoon) o ‘Private theatres’ For an aristocratic or upper-middle class.g. the so-called ‘groundlings’. daughter. paying a penny as entrance-fee. 2000-3000 spectators o Unroofed. surrounded. who gives some clue to a close-family member (father. or serving as the ‘balcony’ o Roofed stage extended well beyond the tiring house.4. used for coming and going by the actors o Flat top of the stage: the place of the musicians.Final Examination English Literature 2. Blackfriars. laughing around the stage and if the play was poor they went next door to enjoy the ‘bear-biting’. on the basis of an ‘ancient’.Final Examination English Literature 2. making tragedy a condition of the human being’s insatiable desire to know o Faustus. inevitably becomes the ‘writer’. the famous ‘First Folio’ Belonged to the Lord Chamberlain’s Men in 1594 (later the King’s Men from 1603 Born in Stratford-upon-Avon. or ‘natural’ law. quickly changing single-line dialogue.6. the revenger’s contemplated act is not only totally motivated but. 1587) The Jew of Malta (c. of plotting.5. in order to inquire into more than is humanly possible. total revenge or complete knowledge –.1589-90) Doctor Faustus (c. the ‘stage-manger’ and the ‘principal actor’ of the play o Since it is a blood-relative to be revenged. of designing. moving at a great pace and also figuring the split. of structuring in itself: the hero. whose task is revenge.1593. though a version may have been ready by 1588) o Direct connection between tragedy and knowledge. the difference between the characters (like wit-combats in comedies) 2. around whom minor characters revolve great theme: the fall of a never-compromising man. makes a bargain with the devil. having to offer his soul to Mephistopheles. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance o Dramaticality of revenge o Contains the necessity of planning. most probably on 23 April 1564 7 . while the Good and the Bad Angels fight for and against him throughout the play 2. Hemminges and Condell complied his ‘complete works’. it seems even morally justifiable ( the Biblical teaching that it is only God who is entitled to take revenge and to give the just punishment for sins) o Revenge should be the climax of the play dramaturgical delays are important o Close association between love and death o Stichomythia: a concise. passionately in search of ultimately the unattainable – absolute political power. William Shakespeare: the playwright (1564-1611) • • • • Well esteemed and financially abundantly rewarded 1623: his fellow-actors. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) • • • • • Established the richly poetic-rhetorical blank-verse (decasyllabic iambic pentameter) on the English stage Created the type of tragedy in which there is an extraordinary and highly ambitious character (an ‘over-reacher’) in the centre. entirely obsessed with this single idea Tamburlaine the Great (c. Henry IV. comprising Richard II (c. Plautus. (whereas the ‘terminating’ metaphor of tragedy was the death of the protagonist or an important character) Division of Shakespearian plays o ‘Green comedies’ Only typical example is As You Like It (1599) Permeated with the atmosphere of optimism ‘witty dialogues’ (‘wit-combats’) as organising principle One of the most important characters of these comedies is the Fool Marks of the ‘pastoral tradition’ 8 . The ‘history play’ and Shakespeare's two tetralogies • History plays o English development o It dramatisesthe life of a nation. before and after the Civil War o Shakespeare: no philosopher of history he re-presented it rather than explained it 2. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance Seven siblings Became a successful actor and playwright by 1596 Attended Stratford’s grammar school Surely read Ovid’s Metamorphoses.6. Terence and Seneca 28 November. by ‘comedy’ they meant a play ending in marriage. Henry IV. Aeasop’s Fables.6. Shakespeare’s Comedies: three types • • • Shakespeare was more highly esteemed as a writer of comedies than of tragedies or histories Hemminges and Condell put Shakespeare’s plays into groups in the First Folio of 1623.Final Examination English Literature • • • • • 2.2.1595). Part 2 (1597) and Henry V (1599) o Popular plays o Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicle: About English people. or at least its governing class o Main character: king (or 'monarch' or 'sovereign' or 'England') o Shakespeare produced two tetralogies (two series of four pieces) About the time of the Wars of the Roses (1420-1485): the three parts of Henry VI (c. Part 1 (1596). 1590-1592) plus Richard III (1592 or 1593) About the times before the Wars of the Roses (1398-1420). 1582: marriage with Anne Hathaway 2. Apulueus’ Golden Ass. amidst their ‘changing’ geographical position on the map and under the constant threat of the Catholic Spanish Armada.1. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance Elderly characters are basically benevolent towards young love The Comedy of Errors (1591) The Taming of the Shrew (1592) The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1593) Love’s Labour’s Lost (1593).Final Examination English Literature 2. and the Future was thought not ahed. opportunity) this is usually missed and thus the story becomes a race with time Irreversibility (cf. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595-96) The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597) Much Ado About Nothing (1598) Twelfth Night (1600) o ‘Problem plays’/‘bitter comedies’ Typical feature of the problem-comedies Filth (‘comedies set on a tragic stage’) Irredeemable moral universe in their centre Troilus and Cressida (1602) All’s Well That Ends Well (1603) Measure for Measure (1604) The Merchant of Venice (1596) o ‘Romances’/‘tragicomedies’ They are ‘almost’ tragedies. but behind the human being) Here. comedy. agents) preventing the tragedy Relative temporal and spatial freedom Private and publis happiness is ensured especially for the younger Heroes are predominantly passive: Fortune and Time are the masters of dramaturgy (Time was often represented as an old man. tragedy) Pericles (1608-9) Cymbeline (1610) The Winter’s Tale (1611) The Tempest (1611) 2. everything can be undone (cf.6.3. where everything is precisely reversible) Opens up the eye for the greatest scandal and the most incomprehensible absurdity of human existence: the fact that one day we shall be no more 9 . with some transcendental intervention (supernatural forces. Shakespeare’s tragedies • • • Time is also a time for something (=chance. the bloodiest murderer is able to lose) lies in his full knowledge of his position.Final Examination English Literature • • • • • • • • • • 2. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance Tragic hero’s human dignity (something not even Macbeth. in his awareness that he is as much the sufferer of his inevitable fate as he is the fully active maker of his destiny at the same time Tragic hero’s enterprise must include death: full awareness of being is impossible without the full awareness of non-being Titus Andronicus (1591) Romeo and Juliet (1595) Julius Caesar (1599) Hamlet (1599-1600): the possibility of existence through thinking Othello (1604): the possibility of existence through the Other King Lear (1605): the possibility of existence as such Macbeth (1606): the possibility of existence through destructive action (a special type of non-action) Antony and Cleopatra (1607) 10 . ‘As cannons overchare’d with double cracks’ / So they / Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe’ (I.4. who identify fair as foul. nor must be known / No less to have done so. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance William Shakespeare: Macbeth o Murder takes place right at the beginning.4 30-31) 11 .2. and see Duncan’s attempts at a scale at balance: ‘What he hath lost [=the Thane of Cawdor]. [I. heart and deeds o Central problem: it is very difficult for Man to dissociate himself from his humanity.2. in various forms (on the battlefield and in Duncan’s bed-chamber) o Macbeth starts talking about himself in the third person singular (the index of the ‘split’ in the tragic hero. trying to understand the precise nature of evil in his mind. [I.2.11]. which occurs only at the end of Hamlet and Othello but also at the beginning of King Lear) immediately after the crime: ‘Methought. it is as difficult to turn totally into a beast as it is to become thoroughly human riddle of Macbeth: can a villain be a tragic hero. the reports of the battle in Act I Scene 2 desperately try to dispel the dubious and equivocal nature of all phenomena by insisting on a kind of quantitative equilibrium (as opposed to the qualitative blends of opposing qualities in the rhetoric of the Weird Sisters. noble Macbeth hath won’ (I. and vice versa): cf. where the only thing ‘left’ to Duncan ‘to say’ is that ‘More is thy due than more than I can pay’ (I. may we talk about tragedy when a genuinely ‘bad man’ is suffering? we begin to appreciate the human traits in Macbeth.Final Examination English Literature • 2. / That hast no less deserv’d. let me enfold thee’ (I. So each ‘doubt’ is dispelled by a double amount of counterbalancing force.2.34-35) o Macbeth is interested precisely in the metaphysics of sin and guilt that dwells in him and within his good and loving marriage to Lady Macbeth o He becomes an ally to destructive forces but he never ceases to reflect on his position. while in Duncan’s camp people will mostly be worried about identities (here ‘who’ is repeated several times) o While the Weird Sisters destabilise and disrupt meaning from the start (‘Fair is foul and foul is fair’.38).20-21) and : ‘Noble Banquo.3. later echoed by Macbeth himself in his first sentence of the play: ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’. I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murther Sleep’ ‘ (II.38]).126) would have to find their place in Duncan’s world.7).1. the ‘wound up charm’ of the three Weird Sisters o Weird Sisters seem to be in full control of time (their key-term is ‘when and where’ very important in plays). 69) o Macbeth’s ‘two truths’ (I.3. when we realise that in Shakespeare even total condemnation is to be deserved and is in need of human dignity o It is an interrogative play: starts with Qs o In the sequence of the four great tragedies it is only Macbeth which immediately starts with supernatural forces.: ‘doubtful it [=the battle] stood’ (I. 142). articles of clothing in general (Caroline Spurgeon. being.1. success and the possibility of mastering (handling) the ambiguities of time as represented by the Weird Sisters.2l) o Time. that being. later Cleanth Brooks in his The naked babe and the cloak of manliness (in The Well Wrought Urn) o Macbeth can only react to this duality with nothing: ‘And nothing is. garments. one of the chief concerns of the play o Lady Macbeth.128-129) o One of the most important systems of metaphors: dresses. This sentence is several times ambiguous – one may read it as a ‘definition’ of nothing. as given in the future and in succession (apart from success) is. get associated with succession: it is Banquo and not Macbeth to whom the conception of a dynasty is promised and the Macbeth-family suffers from the marked absence of children. thou anticipat’st my dread exploits: / The flighty purpose never is o’ertook. and catch / With his surcease success. / Unless the deed go with it’ [IV.3. I.7. as well as Macbeth’s hysterical desire to murder not only Fathers (Kings) (God?) and friends (Banquo) but also offsprings (Fleance and Lady Macduff and her son and. the plot of the drama and Macbeth’s endeavours will either be to stop the show (‘if th’ assassination / Could trammel up the consequence.146-148) Macbeth’s famous hand. to control it. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance o Macbeth is caught between two codes. gets associated with ‘firstlings’ (meaning not only ‘first ideas’ but also ‘first borne (sons)’. ‘From this moment.144-146]).54-55]) and Macbeth: ‘Bring forth men-children only’ [I.3. transforming-translating her female identity into that of a witch (the fourth Weird Sister?) tries to solve the riddle of time not by stopping or overtaking it like Macbeth but by trying to convince her 12 . their significant absence (cf. indeed.7. ‘too full o’th’milk of human kindness’. finally. before the murdering of Duncan. / The very firstlings of my heart shall be The firstlings of my hand’ IV. the child of Lady Macbeth o Macbeth.l. but what is not’ (I. the thing itself (meaning) are always deferred (Jacques Derrida). The obscure fantasies of Macbeth and his wife about their children ( Lady Macbeth: ‘I have given suck. clearly point toward this.7. as an identification of being with nothingness and as a realisation. is ultimately defeated by the lack of ‘a naked new-borne babe’ (I. the thing-itself and meaning are there (they are present) in and through their non-presence.2-5]) or to get before the next happening (‘Time. the ‘empty grave’) o From now on. to master it. young Seward) o Macbeth will become a child-like figure. in a truly ‘deconstructivist fashion’. to have it in his hand (cf.Final Examination English Literature 2. that but this blow / Might be the be-all and the end-all’ [I.7.73]). Macbeth’s efforts will be devoted to trying to catch up with that meaning. a dagger appeared o As the hand. each ambiguous in its own way and both trying to dress him up ‘to the swelling act / Of the imperial theme’ (the first metatheatrical instance in the play. the equivocal meaning represented by the Weird Sisters in their prophecies o The Weird Sisters provide the story. as well as the opportunity to stop time. and know / How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me’ [I. towards which. ready to kill. through her brilliant-mad playacting. after all.. in the plot of his own drama. hence.e. and to-morrow. through which we can identify and comprehend time o Chronos (the narrated time). Her advice ‘to beguile the time. Hermia is still doting on Lysander while Demetrius is after Hermia. while we may now experience nothing to the full.5. come to Dunsinane. defeated by the equivocation which ‘lies like truth’ (V. she insists that ‘ ‘I dare not’ ‘ should not ‘wait upon ‘I would’ ‘ ( I. as Helena was at the beginning) is desperately trying to win Lysander back.44) and that ‘ ‘tis time to do’t ‘ (V. / Signifying nothing’ (V. / And then is heard no more: it is a tale / Told by an idiot. full of sound and fury. and Helena is chasing Demetrius in vain. i. what Lady Macbeth feels) William Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream o Written probably between 1594-96 o Title: a dream you dream on the 23rd June when couples jump over the bonfire believing that they will have a long-lasting relationship o The play is around the problem of what is real and what is imagined o Source of the ‘comic’: not an exaggerated human feature. while Demetrius is after Hermia. She erases Duncan’s tomorrow (‘O! never / Shall sun that morrow see’ [I. presence) of the theatre. the swapping of the positions of the characters (the constant re-ordering of the pattern of young lovers. Demetrius (as a result of the ‘second round’ of the ‘love-in-idleness’ flower and Puck) now also falls in love with Helena. nothing can now give meaning to nothing: nothing (not a thing) makes sense any longer. Even in her sleepwalking(mad) scene – from which the last quotation is taken – she transposes. ‘ (V. / Look like the time’ (I. Lysander will love Hermia again and Demetrius will love only Helena.7. For her there is only present tense. He becomes ‘the poor player / That stuts and frets his hour upon the stage.5. finally. but still chased by Helena.44). an incident of the past into the always-present-tense (and. no past or future.5. and to-morrow. 5.e. .5. 19) o Macbeth.5. .34 ). (Birnam wood does and does not. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance husband that the present is identical with the future. Lysander ‘falls in love’ (as an effect of Puck’s love-juice’) with Helena.1. i. who would be in love with him were she not suspecting mockery.Final Examination English Literature • 2. nothing has reached it fullest meaning There is no ‘tale’ (plot) to redeem the tragic hero o It is always events. he is and is not defeated by woman-borne) can no longer find meaning in the story. happenings that give sense to time. o Girls never change 13 . anchored in the person him/herself BUT it is based on the situational transformation of characters.63-64) is more than a strategy for pretence – she is the one who ‘feels now / The future in the instant’ (I. while Hermia (now alone. Lysander is still chasing her.24-28) o Since there is no future.60]) and it is this tomorrow which is echoed by Macbeth after Lady Macbeth’s death in the famous tomorrow monologue : ‘To-morrow.58). the mechanical repetition of circumstances with small but decisive variations. Cairos (the opportunity. after Oberon sets things right. as if they were taking part in a round-dance)s o Hermia and Lysander are mutually in love. Final Examination English Literature 2. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance o Demetrius only loves Helena as a result of the love-juice, which never gets wiped off o The main scene, the ‘green wood’ is the opposite of ‘civilised’ Athens, the town standing for institutions, dictating, from the start, with fatherlymonarchical authority to the young lovers (old patriarchal father, who thinks that Hermia is his possession: Egeus represents the Greek and Roman comic father figure and not the English one, for whom love is much more important than money or dowry) o The forest is not only the place of ‘freedom’; it is also the world of unforeseeable, ghastly and sinister forces, according to Géher, it is a place of the ‘collective libido’ where the ‘dream’ displays total promiscuity o Reginald Scot’s The Discovery of Witchcraft: must have influenced this play, as well as Macbeth (Weird Sisters) o Fairies, mythological figures might come from Ovid’s Metamorphoses o The craftsmen’s play The actors hope to perform for the celebration of Theseus and Hyppolita’s wedding They chose to perform Pyramus and Thisbe (the lovers are separated by their parents, they speak to each other through a wall; one night a lion tatters Thisbe’s mantle; Pyramus thinks that she has been killed by the lion, he commits suicide; when Thisbe finds his corpse, she, too commits suicide) They perform at the end of the play then the lovers go to bed blessed with the protective charm given by the fairies Puck remains on stage and asks the audience for forgiveness and to remember the play as it had been a dream A meta-theatrical element (the play draws attention to its on fictional status as a theatrical performance) Their performance satirizes the melodramatic story of the Athenian lovers and gives the play a purely joyful and comedic ending (they have no idea how to put on a dramatic performance; their speech is full of impossible ideas and mistakes; they are not professional, but inexperienced, they perform a play familiar to Shakespeare’s audience they are laughed at in the theatres When rehearsing the play, Bottom fears that the audience will be frightened by the lion and Pyramus’s suicide they include a prologue in which they could explain that neither lion nor the sword is real. They also clarifiy that the events take place at night and the lovers are separated by the wall (moon and wall are performed) Their play represent many ideas and themes of the main plot, it revisits the romantic hardship and confusion running through the whole play (e.g. Pyramus and Thisbe face parential disapproval in the play just like Hermia and Lysander; Pyramus mistakenly believes that Thisbe has been killed by a lion – the Athenian lovers experience intense mysery because of the mix-ups caused by the fairies) Powerful emotions are made comical by its representation 14 Final Examination English Literature 2. English drama from medieval times to the Renaissance o o o o The handicraftsmen (Bottom and his gang) are at the ‘bottom’ of the social ladder, performing the parody of the whole play at the end of the play, as well as the parody of Romeo and Juliet, by putting on stage a tragedy “the very tragical mirth” of Pyramus and Thisbe at a private performance MND is a theatrical illusion (as Puck says) and a play to commemorate wedding of Elizabeth Carey (Queen Elizabeth’s goddaughter and the granddaughter of the Lord Chamberlain, the patron of Shakespeare’s company), and Thomas, Lord Berkeley Shakespeare, to please an illustrious audience, had to write a perfect play, including its own parody to escape (and promote) ridicule the beginning of Shakespeare’s metatheatrical interest Shakespeare employs stichomythia (a form of dramatic dialogue in which two disputing characters answer each other rapidly in alternating single lines; typical in Greek and Roman plays) The ‘bottom’ meets ‘the top’: Bottom encounters Titania; the celestial realm is penetrated by the ‘down-to-earth’, well-meaning but clumsy and also highly potent world of the ‘physical workers’ and here transformation becomes ‘translation’: Bottom not only gets into a totally new (and pleasant) situation, but gets changed, transformed (‘translated’) temporarily into a creature with an ass-head The only truly private (intimate) scene is precisely between Titania and Bottom again with the other fairies serving them: otherwise love is lunacy, bringing humiliation, jealousy and threats, till the very end, when the selfparody of the ‘tragic mirth’ exorcises disharmony and brings, finally, concord. However, the traces of confusion remain not only on Demetrius’s eyes but also in Titana’s shame in and Bottom’s famous ‘dream’, about which he says: “The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s hand is not able to taste, his tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was” (IV,1;209-212) (one of the main themes of the play: the perversion of perception, e.g. Hermia: “I would my father looked but with my eyes”) 15 Final Examination English Literature 3. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton 3. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton. Introduce the main developments in the history of the genre in the period (the birth of new poetical forms in England, the reception of the Continental Renaissance, etc.). Discuss, in detail, three representative works of the genre written in the period. 1. Tudor Poetry (cca. 1520-1603) 1.1. Historical and Cultural Background • • • 1454 1485 1492 1490s 1513 1517 1527 1531 1534 1543 1545 1549 1553 1557 1559 1570 1572 15th century Political and economic transition o 1454-1485: Wars of the Roses destroyed nobility; middle class rose steadily; establishment of Tudor monarchy The Tudor Dynasty (1485-1603) o Henry VII (reigned: 1485-1509) o Henry VIII (r.: 1509-1547) o Edward VI (1547-1553) o Mary (1553-1558) o Elizabeth I (1558-1603) Johann Gutenberg invents movable printing types Battle of Bosworth: Henry Richmond defeats Richard III, is crowned as Henry VII, the Tudor period begins Columbus discovers the Bahamas Platonic Academy at Florence (Marsilio Ficino, Pico della Mirandola) Theologia Platonica Works of Plato first printed Luther’s 95 theses nailed to the door of Wittenberg Palace Church Castiglione: Il Cortegiano (’The Courtier’) manual in the form of dialogue for young men at court regarding manner of conduct, speech, clothing, sport -- in general the ethical and intellectual qualifications of the ideal courtier. The book had great influence on Wyatt, Surrey, Sidney and Spenser Henry VIII declared Head of the Church in England Act of Supremacy (England’s final break with Rome) Copernicus’s heliocentric theory published Council of Trent opens: Counter-Reformation begins Book of Common Prayer first published (to set and control standards of piety) Catholic restoration in England, protestant bishops imprisoned Tottel publishes a collection of Wyatt’s and Surrey’s poems in his Miscellany Tottel publishes Surrey’s Aeneid translation (books 2 and 4) Protestantism re-established in England by the Second Act of Supremacy Elizabeth Tudor excommunicated by papal bull St Bartholomew Massacre (Protestants murdered in Paris) 1 English poetry from Wyatt to Milton London’s first playhouse opened Mary Sidney (Sir Philip’s sister) marries Henry Herbert. writes Astrophel and Stella Sir Thomas Smith: De Republica Anglorum (towards the definition of Englishness. but of other art forms (applied art forms) o Architecture colleges built at Oxford and Cambridge Hampton Court Whitehall Timber-framed houses 2 . Wiltshire and. minted on Elizabeth’s order to demonstrate God was on England’s side) Sidney’s ’new’ Arcadia published (’new’ because Mary Sidney revised and edited it) Spenser’s Faerie Queene. establishes literary academy Spenser: The Shepherds’ Calendar Sidney finishes the Defense of Poesie. edited by Mary Sidney Marlowe/Chapman: Hero and Leander published Giordano Bruno burnt by Inquisition for ’heresy’ Bodleian Library founded in Oxford James I grants tolerance to Catholics Elizabeth I dies: end of the Tudor period Large-scale development not only of literature. an important concern of the age) Star Chamber decree the all published works must have church approval Mary Queen of Scots executed Pope declares Crusade against England Marlowe: Doctor Faustus The Spanish Armada is defeated (’Afflavit Deus et dissipati sunt’ inscribed on a commemorative coin. Wilton House. (edited by Mary Sidney) Spenser’s Amoretti and Epithalamion published Spenser: Faerie Queene. Books1-3 published Astrophel and Stella published Kyd: Spanish Tragedy Shakespeare: Venus and Adonis Church attendance compulsory in England London plague Michael Drayton’s sonnet sequence Idea’s Mirror published Shakespeare writes most of his sonnets (will be published in 1609 by Thomas Thorpe) Sidney’s Defence of Poesie published. with her brother. second Earl of Pembroke. Books 4-6 Michael Drayton: England’s Heroical Epistles published (largely Elizabethan propaganda) Second Armada attack fails again because of bad weather Sidney’s collected Works published.Final Examination English Literature 1576 1577 1579 1581 1583 1586 1587 1588 1590 1591 1592 1593 1594 1595 1596 1597 1598 1600 1602 1603 • 3. moves to the Pembroke home. La Pléaide in France) o Ethical: concerned with the highest ideals of Greek and Roman thought (Platonic Academy at Florence: Marsilio Ficino 1450-99) o Theocentric view replaced by a homocentric universe Henry VII (1485-1509) o Literature: retrospective. vital interest in an improved vernacular language (cf. the First Act of Uniformity of 1549. The literary scene • • • • Renaissance and Humanism o Scholarly: recovery of the accurate text of the classics o Stylistic: interest in classical rhetoric and literary criticism. among others. skeptical of the future o Some measure of political stability: Renaissance could take root Henry VIII (1509-1547) o Renaissance began flowering Tudor poetry: courtly poetry o the court (royal or aristocratic) is central and unavoidable o much of them: praise poetry immortalizing the monarch. Surrey. rather o Gardening o Interior decoration o English music Thomas Tallis William Byrd Thomas Morley o Painting not so outstanding masters (Nicholas Hilliard does not count as such) Henry VIII invited. the Marian Restoration Tudor monarchs) • 1.g. forgiveness were not among the virtues of the average Renaissance monarch) the reason why English poets frequently turned to Seneca who was in a 3 .2.g. following the patterns of the Italian capitali genre Only poets born into aristocratic families and thus having substantial means could afford to write poetry to entertain and not for money (e. Hans Holbein the Younger over to his court Elizabeth’s ascension and her developing personal cult portraitpainting censored representations of the great queen Intolerance in questions of faith and denomination (The Six Articles of 1539.Final Examination English Literature 3. the Second Act of Uniformity of 1559. Raleigh or Sidney). English poetry from Wyatt to Milton Elizabethan country houses or palaces. Wyatt. like e. the baron or the patron. Poets were in a schizophrenic state: having to praise and flatter whilst seeing what was going on around them (patience. continuing with sonnets and writing the great narrative (e. forms. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton similar situation in the court of Emperor Nero and whose wittily put stoicism they liked Low literacy level: only a couple of hundred were literate enough to write elaborately (more could read) Lyric poetry was not meant to be published o Poems circulated among the chosen few in manuscripts rarely getting into print during their authors’ lifetime Exception: Shakespeare’s Sonnets (published in 1609) Amalgam of European influences English literature is very eclectic in the 16th century o Wyatt and Surrey “Anglicizing Italian poetry”: rapid and vigorous Thought of themselves as importers and imitators (imitation: not aping.g. but rather measuring yourself to other poets. topics and forms Main genres of the age o Narrative poetry o Praise poetry o Elegiac poetry o Love poetry o Descriptive poetry o Discursive poetry o Satirical poetry o Beast fables o Songs o Ballads o Dream visions Decorum o A major rule in Renaissance literature o A standard of appropriateness by which certain styles. and actions in literary works are deemed suitable to one another within a hierarchical model of culture bound by class distinctions Various literary genres were fixed in set ranks. Spenser. rubbed shoulders with the ’beautiful people’ of the times Pattern for many poets o Starting with the pastoral. absorbing and appropriating their moods. Marlowe or Milton) 4 . or mere translation. characters. part of the court or at least around it.Final Examination English Literature • • • • • • • • • 3. not to be mixed with each other (mixture of high and low levels was unorthodox) Composing poetry being high on the prestige scale o Meant that you were educated. Drayton. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton 1.1. canzone. Marcus Aurelius. Latin and Italian Commitment to Englishness o Wanted to plant and domesticize mainly Italian Renaissance models into the English culture Ottava rima (eight-line stanza. consisting of an octave and a sestet.g. (esp. Rerum vulgarum fragmenta: the collection of Petrarch’s sonnets and canzoni).g. common sense Antecedents o Chaucer o Classical authors (e.2. Castiglione) Well-educated Well-travelled Read Greek. Virgil.1. the Bible and the English Bible translations) o Psalms of the French Clement Marot o Authors of the Italian Renaissance (e. Pietro Bembo. eyes as windows of the 5 . rhyming abababcc) Terza rima (three-line stanzas.Final Examination English Literature 3. etc. rondeau. down-to-the-point.g.) His sestets sometimes end in a couplet. rhyming abba abba cdc cdc or: cdc dcd or: cde cde. Serafino. Seneca.2. beginning to show the ’English’ sonnet structure Use of dozens of other kinds of verse form (e. Ovid. Early Tudor Poetry: Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) and Henry Howard.) Enriched the English language Petrarchism imitation of the writings of Petrarch. separated by a turn/volta/. metaphors (e. Petrarch.1. Earl of Surrey (1517-1547) 1. Lodovico Ariosto.g. • • • • • • • • • Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) Large collection of short secular poems purporting to record isolated moments of personal emotional experience Enthusiastic reader of Pynson’s 1526 edition of Chaucer Affected by the English chivalric tradition (amour courtois) o Probably under the influence of Northern Humanists (More. rhyming aba bcb cdc introduced by Dante in the Divina Commedia) Sonnet (principally from Petrarch Italian sonnet: 14 lines of iambic pentametre. ballade. following his style. Erasmus and Colet) wanted fair deal in matters of love as well and was frustrated and repelled by the ’courtly code’ (unlike Surrey) Style o Ragged. Dante. fire as lust.) “the first English classical poet” Imitation of classical authors (e. Earl of Surrey (1517-1547) Affected by the English chivalric tradition (amour courtois) o Felt comfortable in the role of the self-effacing lover who gives all and expects nothing in return (unlike Wyatt) Style o More elaborate. fondness for image play (conceit) Blazon.2. ice as chastity). • • • • • • • • • • • • 3. bosom: white as snow. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton Henry Howard. Cicero. i. obsessive and embittering His renderings of Petrarch therefore are a mixture of imitation and individualism poet and lover are virtually the same thing BUT! neither love nor poetry is seen as inspired by a superior being. conventionally elegant than that of Wyatt’s Well-educated Well-travelled Read Greek.e. lips: coral.g. a catalogue of the lady’s physical beauties: e.. alabaster neck.g. paradoxes and oxymorons Setting up the scene for the angelic. in Shakespeare’s plays. for her purity by the frustrated and anguished poet (unfulfilled desire. eyes: sparkling diamonds) For him love was not a transcendental thing. Ovid) 6 . in vain. flowers and jewels as symbols of the lady's beauty.Final Examination English Literature • • soul.g. adored. hair: golden wire. golden hair. but confrontative.2. Latin and Italian Commitment to Englishness o Wanted to plant and domesticize mainly Italian Renaissance models into the English culture Efforts ’towards a definition of Englishness’ Developed the Poulter’s measure (alternating. perfumed breath. couplet-rhymed lines of 12 and 14 syllables) its unsophistication is ridiculed by Shakespeare in Midsummer Night’s Dream Introduced blank verse in his translations from Virgil’s Aeneid (unrhymed lines of iambic pentametre. later to be found e. etc.1.g. Livius. admiration of her purity in conflict with the desire to possess her. smooth. lover and lady confront each others as equals (poet's service deserves its “reward”) 1. singling her out as almost otherworldly (e. dazzlingly beautiful lady. coral lips. Milton’ Paradise Lost) Modified the Italian sonnet (his version being abab cdcd efef gg: three quatrains and a closing couplet. 2. formal charm that sometimes results in loss of ordinary vitality Neither Wyatt nor Surrey was a professional! (Aristocrats had no profession. by some classic.2. second meaning behind the visible. ease. put in the category of love poems. literary and visual. the representations. emotional detachment in the non-lyrical modes. thus conveying the image of ’the queen’. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton Interest in numbers.Final Examination English Literature • • • • • 3. during the reign of Catholic Mary Tudor. since having one was out of class. often as part of the demonstration of expected courtly skills Their poems were first published posthumously by the printer.g. Neoplatonism. the biblical judge and restorer of Israel She understood the importance of visual language in an age of low litaracy rates and claimed monopoly over her portraits: she had to license the painting for it to be shown On public occasions she would dress up like her portraits. rationality coloured by metaphysical habits thought to be a forerunner of Milton and Pope His poetry is characterised by elegance. and had to be left for the servants) They were diplomats. getting from the level of the ephemeral to that of the transcendental is the essence of Platonism and also of the Christianized version of it. Tottel in his Miscellany in 1557 o 96 poems by Wyatt o 40 poems by Surrey o All their poems were given titles. symmetry. is ’a story or a visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning’ (e. perhaps to suppress. Elizabethan Poetry: Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) and Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) • • • Deeply allegorical period o Allegory is ’giving bodies to ideas’. of Lucrece in the Renaissance as the embodiment of chastity) o The Queen The focus of a number of allegories • A Protestant saviour after the reign of Bloody Mary • “The English Deborah”. the most encompassing philosophical trend of the age ’Poetry’ in Elizabethan times was ’fiction’ it could serve as a terrain for Neoplatonist thought 7 . or. the political overtones present in not one of them o 40 poems by Nicholas Grimald o 95 poems by ’uncertain authors’ 1. not of Elizabeth Tudor Seeking the hidden. in other words. courtiers who wrote poetry in the intervals. e. maker o Special role of poetic imagination o While all other arts depend on nature as their object.) were first brought into Christian thinking by Plotinus (205-262 A. rival to God in his capacity to create something out of nothing o True art is to remake the world. poetry is uniquely free o Embodied all the traits of personality and character Elizabethans admired Sidney cult after his death (Spenser: Astrophil) o A debate with Plato o Human being is imperfect but is able to better himself and that language plays a crucial role in this process Language is a means to ’turn the mind round’. self-irony and apparent nonchalance frequently cover up for true anger he feels over the limitations imposed on him by convention The Defence of Poesie o Theoretical writing o Written in 1579 o Published twice (!) in 1595 popular o Written in response to a Puritan attack against poetry as being immoral and newfangled o Seen as an ars poetica o Vindication of English literature o Eloquent argument for the dignity.). new coinages Words stop being reliable as they change their meaning fast Sidney exhibits a marked scepticism about poetic language His versatility. to Sidney. the poet. i. that you can change the way people think by speaking to them (acc. adaptations. is rival to Nature. acc. sophistry.g. to Plato.D. vulnerability. this should be the poet. who is superior to the philosopher) o It is not enough to teach people of the good. not to reflect it Astrophel and Stella 8 . prophet. dry humour. lingering attachments to the old ways of romance and chivalry make his poetry distinctive Translations.Final Examination English Literature 3. • • • • • • Sir Philip Sidney 1554-1586) embarrassed by the unreasonably high hopes that were entertained of him. poites. this should be the philosopher. social efficacy and moral value of imaginative literature o Poet = vates. according to Sidney.C. and were further developed by the Florentine Platonic Academy in the late 15th century (e. Ficino and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola) 1.2.2. Plato(427-347 B. a nagging sense that he had never come up to the mark self-mockery. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton o The ideas of the Greek philosopher.1. they have to be seduced into goodness by the sensual language and imagery only poetry is capable of putting in front of them o In creating images. Castiglione. sensibility. a prose romance o Contains a number of verse forms (e. written in different metres o Prime purpose of the work: to get rid of foreign poetic encumbrance and restore Chaucerian vigour and simplicity (i. Wordsworth. enriched and complicated by the Neoplatonist conceptualisation of the Lady as the embodiment of heavenly good who should be desired in the purest manner. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton “The star-lover and the star” The first sonnet sequence in English of 108 sonnets and 11 songs Written in 1581-1583 Published after the author’s death in 1591 Mocking and self-mocking tone A record of (mainly hopeless) love in the Petrarchan tradition. propriety and fitness of tone and distion and verse form.Final Examination English Literature 3. to put English poetry on the European map and hammer out an unmistakably English lyrical mode) o special emphasis on decorum (an important Renaissance aesthetic ideal. tenderness and bitterness. followed by an envoi which incorporates lines and words used before) Sidney was mourned after his death (e. Theocritus. Swinburn The Shepherd's Calendar o Written in 1579 o Heralds a poetic revival o 12 eclogues (pastoral dialogues).2. Byron. to virtue (beauty = virtue) BUT the more beautiful the image. • • • • • • • • Edmund Spenser (1552-1599) Great synthetizer Thorough grounding in the classics (Virgil. helping the reader/viewer to get to what is behind them. eclogues and sestinas (6 stanzas of 6 lines. Tennyson.2.e. the more difficult it is to do so o Sidney often openly confesses the impossibility of disregarding Stella’s physical charm and not desiring her in the earthly way o non-identification: Sidney constantly watches himself watching Stella selfmocking Arcadia o First written in 1581 (Old Arcadia) o Revised but unfinished in 1583-84 (New Arcadia) o A pastoral love story. Shelley.g.2. Bion) Re-established contacts with Chaucer Re-awakaned interest in Platonic thought Impressed by the developments in the vernacular Inspired by Puritan idealism Impressed Blake. in Edmund Spenser’s Astrophel) o o o o o o • • 1. one for each month of the year. an anatomy of love: hope and despair.g. Keats. suiting of the style to 9 . go-betweens. bodily desire and spiritual transcendence o Basic problem: images of beauty are meant to be means. devoid of any physicality o exploration of the lover's state of mind and soul. Theocritus). medieval romance. Tasso. refused and then requited love. deliberate avoidance of anything disproportionate and incongruous) o 13 different verse forms (2 of them new to English verse.D. English history. Adonis. under various names but always as a storehouse of virtues o Great synthesis of themes and influences (Homer. Ronsard) Mother Hubberd's Tale o Written in 1591 o A satire on the abuses of the church and the evils of the court in the form of a beast fable Amoretti o Written around 1595 o Sonnet sequence o Rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee (Spenserian sonnet) o The history of wooing. Renaissance Humanism. Epithalamion with its 23 strophes registering 24 hours of the day (epithalamion is a Greek term for a song or poem celebrating a wedding. classical epic. ending in marriage which is celebrated by perhaps Spenser’s most famous poem. Latin and Greek classics (Virgil. Renaissance literature of Italy and France (Petrarch. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton the matter. Plato and neo-Platonism. 18) Roman poet) Metamorphoses 10 . Virgil. folklore) o Spenserian stanza: 8 iambic pentametres and a concluding alexandrine.Final Examination English Literature • • • 3. Protestant idealism. rhyming ababbcbcc 2. Sidney. Shakespeare’s poetry • • • • William Shakespeare (1564-1616) poems often stigmatized by the privative prefix: non-dramatic works of Shakespeare Venus and Adonis (1593) and (The Rape of) Lucrece (1594) are the first poems of Shakespeare o Narrative poems o Immensely popular in their own time o Written during a visitation of the plague when the theatres were closed (15921594) Venus and Adonis o Based on the mythological story of Venus falling in love with the beautiful youth. who eventually gets killed by a boar he is hunting for o Shakespeare took the story from Ovid’s (Publius Ovidius Naso (43 B. geography. 5 Spenser's own invention) show what English verse craftsmanship was capable of in 1579 o a synthesis of great medieval English verse (Chaucer). Donne. Marvell.C – A. Dryden and Shelley all cultivated the genre) o Uniquely musical sonnets o Classic elegance in simplicity The Faerie Queene o Books 1-3: 1590 o Books 4-6: 1596 o Elizabeth is effectively present in all of the 6 books. Jonson. Catullus. Ariosto. moist.g. Gavin Hamilton’s. fears to lose not his virginity but his youth (= youth as metaphor and emblem for aesthetic beauty) beardless boy=springtime under-ripeness Precious moment: between adolescence and manhood To protect his sterile. narcissistic and yet transitory condition.D. Venus at the end of the poem: mater dolorosa o multiple perspectives and self-deception. smell. to protect his integrity. pluck the flower of youth. Venus's kisses are consuming. heat – all underlining a very openly sensual view of love) o Venus unashamedly descends down the Elizabethan hierarchy of senses (from sight. "textual intercourse" o Adonis: inexperienced.Final Examination English Literature • 3. That relationship often takes on a homoerotic charge. frequently written by poorer male poets to richer and more powerful male patrons to get financial support. and together with her the feminine principle of mutability Birth. Lucretia: emblems of chastity in the Renaissance o The rape of Lucretia is a favoured. 11 . fertility can also be associated with death and decay in the world of mortals Venus is forever young. Titian’s Tarquin and Lucretia (cca. much pictured theme (e. hearing and touch down to taste and smell) o Venus’s wooing becomes almost like having lunch: Desire is greed. mother love transformed into smother love. sexual longing is appetite o Inverted sexual roles blurring gender boundaries o Venus overwhelming. weight.g. Adonis refuses Venus. rhyming ababbcc) o A sequel to Venus and Adonis o Diana. Adonis is only young now o poetry of 1590s: often homosocial.C. – A. Tiepolo’s. to engage a male reader's desire for a male author's male creation o Love often presented as a predatory chase. Artemisia Gentileschi’s. 17) Roman historian) o Written in rhyme royal (seven 5-stress iambic lines. she occupies 1106!). procreation. discrepancy between what the grieving lover feels and what is represented as being true: central to Shakespeare's poems (groundwork on which the Sonnets are based) The Rape of Lucrece o Original story: Livy’s (Titus Livius (59 B. avoid the fate of Narcissus (out of the 1194 line of the poem. and some of Venus’ arguments also appear there o Awful lot of body and bodily sensations (e. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton o Written in sesta rima (mostly iambic six-line stanzas rhyming ababcc) o Here Adonis does not return Venus’ love o Venus’ advances are described by Shakespeare in an almost physically disturbing way o The poem impels the reader to be a voyeur o Adonis has some overlap with the fair youth of the early sonnets. 1570). reproduce yourself. fearful fully mature woman=full summer bloom she is given a full repertoire which men in the Petrarchan tradition use to seduce women: breed. her soul then being ‘absent’ the readers are turned into voyeurs as they watch her through Tarquin’s eyes o All through the narrative Lucrece is subordinated to other people’s intentions and desires. to kill herself. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton Ian Donaldson’s book. and 145 (tetrameters) o 1-60 composed c. 1594-5 o 104-26 composed c.concern with the inner secrecies of the mind Erasmus . perhaps to sell the book?) o Altogether 154 sonnets o Ojects of biographical speculation o Published first by Thomas Thorpe in 1609 in the so called Quarto edition o A sonnet sequence o Modelled after Petrarch and the continental o unmistakably idiosyncratic lyric diction o Form: All but three of the 154 poems of fourteen pentameter lines – three quatrains and a couplet – and rhymed abab.Final Examination English Literature • 3.poems addressed to a male beloved Sidney .H. his desire destroys him. Her father and husband battle a bit over her dead body aiming to possess the precious sacrificial token o About rape and about how women and men respond to rape The Sonnets o Dedication to the Sonnets: enigmatic. The three exceptions in Q are 99 (fifteen lines long). Only by destroying her corrupted body can she purify her soul and save the good fame of her husband and his family o women are less in possession of their souls. cdcd. efef. The Rapes of Lucretia: A Myth and Its Transformations. W. open ones (the ‘good woman’ was transparent. leaving self-contempt behind in both cases o Lucrece’s body is the mere object of desire. uneasily pointing to the power of lust over humans. the description of which while she is asleep. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1595-6 (possibly revised later) o 61-103 composed c. non-ceasing speculations about the identity of “Mr. His gross self-division.preoccupied with fame and thoughtful solitude Michaelangelo . In vain does he know what he should not do. as much more visible. gg. 1982) o Sexuality is put into civil war with what Tarquin.exhortation to marry 12 . 126 (six couplets). The only way for her to become mistress of her fate is. paradoxically. the latter being corruptible o Lucrece’s Tarquin’s bodies – both the temple of the soul – are conquered by lust. and subsequent self-alienation imply that he has raped himself as well by yielding to a stronger power in him o A deeply Platonic poem in the sense that it separates wit and will. the king’s son. 1591-5 o Some (structural) models for the sonnets Petrarch . 1598-1604 o 127-54 composed c. surveyable. they cannot and should not (!) hide their feelings while men are more capable of hypocrisy and duplicity o Women appear as much simpler constructs than men.” (Dedication was most probably the publisher's design. raper of Lucrece believes to be the better part in him. hiding nothing) o By the end of the poem Lucrece’s body is curiously made use of again: it becomes the ‘foundation’ of the republic. e. whether it can provide a form of permanent beauty which could substitute for biological reproduction Later the Young Man has an affair with the Dark Woman multiple aspects of the friend: his androgyny. third Earl of Pembroke William Hart (Shakespeare’s brother-in-law). third Earl of Southampton William Herbert. 78-80 and 82-86) Mention a poet (or some poets) with whom the speaker seems to be in competition for the love and/or the patronage of the beloved No valid grounds for favouring any one poet or any coalition. improbably. the Young Man. her role is to triangulate desire o Rival Poet – competes for the attention of the Young Man (79-86): rivalry is of central importance: rivalry between lovers and between poets o Meditations on the destruction of beauty and passage of time (5. perhaps not even one person.115.11.18.126) o The Young Man as/and Mr.123.73. 'sweet boy'.60. a dramatist <inconveniently named Richard>)” “William Himself” o Homosexuality: no evidence on that o The Dark Lady: Sonnets 127-152 Refer to or address a woman (or. There are no grounds for certainty that Shakespeare had any real particular poet(s) in mind 13 . 'friend'.g. some women) of dark complexion and whore-like habits May be a literary creation No clue whatsoever as to the woman’s identity o The Rival Poet: Several of the sonnets (i. 'thou'.7.15. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton Main characters of the sonnets: the Poet. H Henry Wriothesley. considered as a detached coda to the mistress o 1-126 To a Young Man(?). his mutability.12.63-65.100. W. the Rival Poet o 1-17 Urge the young friend to marry to sustain value by biological Failed urge much of the rest of the sequence: revolve around the question whether poetic power can provide an alternative to the biological decay. the Dark Woman.19. hard to define the addresse: 'youth'. 'he' (Shakespeare's 'homosexuality' is a readerly fiction generated by the desire to read narrative coherence into a loosely associated group of poems) very often poetic persona rather than the poet o “Dark Lady”: never called by that name in the Sonnets! she escapes poetic conventions. his cruelty time: destructive force which can write its presence into the most beautiful faces the very last poems: little allegories about Cupid.Final Examination English Literature 3. several William Hathaways (e. her role is different in each poem.116. King Lear.2. ’An Horatian Ode’ Hobbes. union of the crowns of England and Scotland Shakespeare’s plays including Othello. Poems (posthumously). Henry VIII ’Authorized’ version of the Bible 1611 Globe Theatre burned 1613 Death of Shakespeare Ben Jonson.Final Examination English Literature 3. accession of James VI of Scotland as James I of England. Historical and Cultural Background 1603 1604-8 1605 1608-13 Death of Elizabeth. reopening of theatres Restoration of Church of England and final revision of Book of Common Prayer 3. Macbeth. Advancement of Learning Shakespeare’s last plays including Tempest. Herbert. Coriolanus Gunpowder plot Bacon. Works Pilgrim fathers sail for America 1616 1620 Donne appointed Dean of St Paul’s 1621 Death of James I. The Literary Scene • 1603-1625: James I (Stuart): the coming of the Baroque (for a time high Renaissance and early Baroque styles coexist) 14 . Metaphysical Poetry 3. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton 3. Winter’s Tale. Lycidas 1642 Theatres closed by order of parliament 1642-49 The English Civil War 1649 1650 1651 Trial and Execution of Charles I Marvell. The Temple 1633 1637 Milton. accession of Charles I 1625 Donne. Antony and Cleopatra.1. Leviathan 1653 Cromwell becomes Lord Protector 1658 Death of Cromwell 1660 1662 Restoration of Charles II. 1615-1631 from his ordination to his death o directness and familiar tone of speech (immediacy and colloquial language) o Fusion of passionate feeling and logical argument o Donne's poems: intense dramatic monologues in which the speaker's ideas shift and evolve from one line to the next 15 . by borrowing words and images from nonpoetical fields like medicine. introspection corresponding style: short. uncertainty about dating the poems o 3 main periods of his career: 1592-1601 from his arrival in London to his marriage. Andrew Marvell (“the university wits”) John Donne (1572-1631) o (Except the Anniversaries and a few minor pieces) his poems were not published in his lifetime. botany. epigram. George Herbert. egocentricity and impersonality. speaker. very importantly. invariably resulting in the profanisation of the former o Poems are often rather aggressive towards the addressee o They often and mockingly reason where there is no place for logic (i. audience and reader o Baroque world-view: poetry often attempts to span the entire range between religious sentiment and libertinage. self-consciousness and self-criticism Baroque style in poetry o Abounds in conceits* (elaborately sustained metaphor) unusual similes and puns (*”A conceit is an unusually far-fetched or elaborate metaphor or simile presenting a surprisingly apt parallel between two apparently dissimilar things or feelings) o Tendency to manipulate time and exploit its paradoxes o Dramatic situation of the poem: interaction betw. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton Elizabethan conventions. astronomy. Giordano Bruno (1548?-1600). 1601-1615 from his marriage to his ordination. cartography.e. law. temporality and eternity. “Metaphysicals” o A small but influential group of poets o Broke free from Tudor conventions by extreme exploitation of the capacities of language through conceits. in matters of love and physical desire) and they are also sensual about thoughts o New genres: love elegy. gardening. dramatic monologue. alchemy or physics o Interest in psychology. astrology. far-fetched similes and. Galileo (1564-1642). meditative religious lyric and country-house poem o John Donne. religious and scientific events of the 17th century.Final Examination English Literature • • • • • • 3. These issues were presented with immediacy by the political. elaborate puns. verse epistle. introspection. genres and topics survived into Jacobean times New style and frame of thinking in poetry Copernicus (1473-1543). concentrated. colloquial and witty poems o Brought together the sublime and the ephemeral. Francis Bacon (1561-1626): challenge on traditional assumptions increase in scepticism. beauty and ugliness. the sacred and the profane. objects or ideas are used to express thoughts and feelings. a phrase from Horace Fll utilisation of the present time. dramatic monologues. poetic creation and sacrifice) The Garden (nature and art. introspective psychological penetration and a wide range and variety of mood (no consistent philosophy of love) o Religious poetry: the same style and method are employed. 4 penitential meditations The term "metaphisical" first used by Dryden. they directly challenge the Petrarchan sonnet sequences of the 1590s) o New sexual realism. complexities of tone. metaphysical arguments o A number of poems published posthumously (1681) o Many poems explore the human condition in terms of fundamental dichotomies The Dialogue Between Soul and Body (nature and grace. well-crafted. fallen and Edenic state. and daringly erotic images occur in his religious verse (e. 6 focus on Last Things. idealizing courtship and ravages of time) o Carpe diem poems “Pluck the day”. Holy Sonnets 18) o 19 Holy Sonnets . o Songs and Sonets: cornerstone of his reputation (despite the title. physical sex and Platonic love. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton o Basic method: conceit (extended metaphor or extreme analogy).Final Examination English Literature • • • 3. Thomas Traherne (1637-1674). limpid style o Paradoxes.g. Richard Crashaw (1612-1649). contemporaries called it "strong lines" "School" of Donne: George Herbert (1593-1633). implicit warnings about the transience of life and inevitability of future Rapid shifts from the world of fantasy to the charnal house of reality 16 .they dramatise Donne's sense of unworthiness in contrast to divine power and mercy. violent passion and contentment) To His Coy Mistress (flesh and spirit. Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) Andrew Marvel o Elegant. 6 are colloquies on divine love. witty. in which dissimilar concepts. Henry Vaughan (1622-1695). theological language abounds in his love poetry. literary predatoriness of Wyatt towards Petrarch: Wyatt is determined to seize the Italian source and force it to his own purpose) o Structures are very different: in Petrarch. socially. elevated appearance of the In all sense. octave (2 quatrains) and sestet (2 tercets) abba abba cde cde or cdc dcd: coupling rhyme argument and answer.Final Examination English Literature • 3. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton Sir Thomas Wyatt: Whoso list to hunt o Petrarch’s Una candida cerva is used as a source (Wyatt translated Petrarch. complete as a poem. richness) Laurel: women almost like a saint Women is unreachable Nothing is said of the woman: she is a hind. but incomplete as an experience o Wyatt introduces the hunting image in the poem admitting the predatory nature of the speaker’s attitude towards women (cf. shivering at midsummer. the follow of the deer is hopeless (in a net I seek to hold the wind). living death. a must. he is inferior to the woman woman (physically. the female is in the focus The follow of the woman is delight Pure. earliest translation of Petrarch by Chaucer) o There was an active cult of Petrarch in Italy o Conventions of Petrarchism: symptoms of love in terms of paradoxes: sweet torment. against his will Petrarch Doe The doe. Christ when he bears his cross 17 . gold (chastity. is bitter like a season unreliability) Nothing of joy. the male is in the focus Unlike in Petrarch. a misery. Compares himself to a miser. in Wyatt: Wyatt Hind The hunter. burning in winter o Wyatt is finely sensitive to the formal and stylistic features of Petrarch’s verse but he wrenches the Petrarchan tradition to serve his own purposes o Wyatt wrenches the dream-like allegory and serene sadness into an expression of inner torment and frustration o Uneasily balancing between secular and religious o Petrarch’s poem creates and completes the limpid version of a single event Wyatt’s poem exists as an unstable balance of opposing impulses. delightful harm. “net”: metaphor of hunt The woman is a delight and a treasure (conceit) He does not even think of touching the woman: women are untouchable In the octave: the description of the woman like an apparition “let no one touch me”: Ovid. whose work she is fleeing and like the wind (changing. geographically) He is the hunter He is a worker “To hold”. white. I) From the beginning of the poem: one woman. the potential moment of water and awakening (Medieval image.: 127-154 (Dark lady sonnets)) o All the 17 sonnets are dedicated to a boy o The poet is urging this boy to get married and to have a child. the animals were marked by this sign Whoso list to hunt. but “graven with diamonds” implies hurt. When I fell into the water. Who list her hunt. but no reference to gender sometimes). touching is central dream vision. to multiply. purification o Noli me tangere: let no one touch me: in Caesar’s garden. her fair neck round about: Noli me tangere. And wild for to hold. My eyes wearied with gazing.: 18-126 (Lovely Boy sonnets. Pearl) religious (holding comes back again) connotation: baptism to a new life. I put him out of doubt”: a textual refrain more concrete (her hunt. though I seem tame”: A seemingly abrupt ending: plunging into paradox ending. to biological reproduction o 17: not accidentally (they were written to a 17-year-old son of one of Shakespeare’s acquaintances or to Henry Wriothesley. 1. in the shade of a laurel. Her appearance was sweetly proud. and she disappeared. ’Let no one touch me’ round abut her beautiful neck was written with diamonds and topazes. • A pure white doe upon green grass Appeared to me. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton Noli me tangere: the only praising about the woman is that she has a fair neck “graven with diamond in letters plain”: it is quite simple. Caesar was gracious enough to set her free Inactive. hélas. for Caesar's I am. While the sun was rising. in the bitter season. simple letters + it is plainly stated to make everyone understand this the message is important It is not ornamented by diamonds. I leave off therefore. William Shakespeare: Sonnet 9 o In the first 17 sonnets (altogether 154. holding is central. all he is doing is gazing. Myth of Tantalus: almost within reach. but cannot reach it) No willing submission here. “Rose”) 18 . but as she fleeth afore Fainting I follow.: 1-17 (Procreation sonnets). I may no more. willing word of freedom submission. topazes) “It pleased my Caesar to set me free” even setting her free is pleasure. not even a No chasing of the woman. ’It pleased my Ceasar to set me free’ And already the sun had turned to midday. I know where is an hind But as for me. I put him out of doubt. Shakespeare. The vain travail hath wearied me sore I am of them that farthest cometh behind Yet may I by no means my wearied mind Draw from the deer. 2. 3. chased by a hoard of men Even this sign is to praise the woman (diamonds. That to follow her I abandoned all work. cruelty of the hunt + it can never be erased “Who list her hunt. letting her free “Wild for to hold. Like the miser who in seeking treasure With delight makes his work less bitter. cf. with two horns of gold Between two streams. Sithens in a net I seek to hold the wind. though I seem tame. not satiate.Final Examination English Literature 3. As well as I may spend his time in vain And graven with diamonds in letters plain There is written. adoring (not satiate the more he gets the less he is satisfied. yourself (it is like a crime) Is it for fear to wet a widow's eye. i. When every private widow well may keep By children's eyes. it is not meaningless o Spending. enjoying. than her lips red: If snow be white. you are cursing the world. No love toward others in that bosom sits That on himself such murd'rous shame commits. of false compare o The couplet states that the individual nature of the woman. elszórása a magnak) o If you do not waste it. punished by God with diseases OR it can refer to your murder of your image. why then her breasts are dun.Final Examination English Literature 3. wasting”: like money. for still the world enjoys it. wasting his productivity o Waste: two-fold meaning (pazarlás. perfumes. Coral is far more red. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton o “The world will be thy widow” the whole world is against him. the rarity of her beauty is much more beautiful than the Petrarchan female My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun. That thou consum'st thy self in single life? Ah! if thou issueless shalt hap to die. beauty has an aim (procreation): waste has a meaning here. i. masturbation: in the Renaissance they thought that it is a sin. I have seen roses damasked. he is a lonely man who will not comply with what is due o Other women let themselves live on in their child o “beauty’s waste hath in the world an end”: it has an aim. red and white. But no such roses see I in her cheeks. The world will be thy widow and still weep That thou no form of thee hast left behind. double entendre: murderous shame can refer to autoeroticism. prasing her o It is typically a Petrarchan convention (coral lips. • William Shakespeare: Sonnet 130 o Blazon: catalogue of the woman’s beuty. roses. black wires grow on her head. her husband's shape in mind: Look what an unthrift in the world doth spend Shifts but his place. If hairs be wires. But beauty's waste hath in the world an end.e. treasure. And in some perfumes is there more delight 19 . simily to a godess) o This sonnet suggest an atypical Petrarchan lover o Shakespeare ridicules the convention. The world will wail thee like a makeless wife. And kept unused the user so destroys it.e. you waste your life o Last two lines: “No love towards others in that bosom sits/ that on himself such murd’rous shame commits” (Narcissus myth: unrequited love: in love with himself) if you are not in love with others. Final Examination English Literature 3. English poetry from Wyatt to Milton Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. 20 . when she walks. I love to hear her speak. yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound: I grant I never saw a goddess go. As any she belied with false compare. My mistress. treads on the ground: And yet by heaven. I think my love as rare. one longer work (drama. Louis XIV – the Sun King. refinement and correctness to English verse. Age of Pope (until Pope's death in 1744) 3. Restoration 1642-49 1649 1649-60 25 May 1660 1666 1678 Civil War Trial and execution of Charles I. la Fontaine. great French influence in England (Corneille. Rochester. diverse trends in eighteenth century poetry). the Duke’s Company) o Promoter of sciences (Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge) o A man of wit and a great lover of women (philanderer) o Praised in many poems (e. Interregnum Restoration of Charles II. journalism. translator and the first comprehensive critic in England Brought elegance. textual criticism o John Dryden (1631-1700) Poet. The long eighteenth century. extremes (Milton. Provide an overview of the era. Dryden’s Astraea Redux) Literature o btw 1660 and 1785 traditionally divided into 3 lesser periods 1. Age of Dryden (until Dryden's death in 1700). harmony. 1. highlighting the major developments in its literature (Restoration drama. Racine. William of Orange and Mary 1685-88 1688-89 • • Charles II (1630-1685) o Before 1660: Charles in exile in the Netherlands and France after his return. periodicals. 1 . Dryden. The long eighteenth century 4. the rise of the novel. Discuss. made it part of the European tradition. Bunyan).Final Examination English Literature 4. 2. novel) or two major poems from the period. playwright. Moliere. Le Roi Soleil 1638-1715) o Merrie Monarch – great patron of arts (Italian and French musicians and Dutch painters migrate to England) o Lover of the theatre (patent to the King’s Company. Age of Johnson ( until the death of Johnson in 1784) o Literature is characterized by: diversity. in detail. Great Fire of London The Popish Plot (beginning of a strong anti-Catholic hysteria) James II Glorious revolution.g. The characters can be often divided between the young aristocrats who can understand and manipulate the rules of the social game. Duke’s) Rebirth of English drama Luxurious playhouses built by Sir Christopher Wren (moveable scenery. with perpetual bustle and numerous deaths. usually by means of bombast. military victory. that flourished during the Restoration period in England. exciting. exotic settings. the great fire. aims at grandeur. Dryden: The Conquest of Granada 1670s: Restoration comedy A kind of comedy. the plots being based on the complex intrigues of the marriage-market. Written in heroic couplets e. thunder and lightning machines) The appearance of women on the English stage (breeches roles are very popular) 1660s:’heroic drama’ a kind of tragedy or tragicomedy. control and clarity o Public poetry: commenting on public matters (coronation. breathtakingly beautiful heroine. Dryden’s Annus Mirabilis (1667) o Restoration drama Considerable French influence 1642-1660: Puritan ban on theatres Charles II: patent for two companies of players (King’s. death of prominent figures) (e. public. Restoration comedy relied upon highly sophisticated repartee and a knowledge of the exclusive code of manners in high society. Appealing to a fairly narrow audience of aristocrats in the recently reopened theatres. influenced by French classical tragedy.g. usually in the form of the comedy of manners.g. hero typically caught in conflict between love and patriotic duty. and the middle-class upstarts who wish to 2 . when actresses were first employed on the London stage. noble hero.accordingly: poetry attempts to achieve some of the characteristics of Augustan literature Respect for elegy and panegyric (classical genres) Some traits of Latin syntax adapted to English Echoes of Virgil Elevated. The long eighteenth century o Charles' reign depicted as analogous with the great periods of arts in Augustan Rome . superhuman. reasonable tone Heroic couplets to create sense of order.Final Examination English Literature 4. anecdotes. Southeast) Bad educational system -> self-taught readers (practical purposes/pleasure) . Titus Andronicus. (more in London. new plays had to be licensed. Scotland. 40 % of adult women. Troilus and Cressida. innuendoes. creative sparkle. political pamphlets. religious hysteria (1685: James II.g. accounts of crime. 1680s political crisis. William Congreve’s The Way of the World Typical features: seductions. -> 1750: 60 % of adult men. all with an additional sense of elegant arrangement Sexually explicit drama sanctioned by the philanderer king. double entendres.> no classical learning New readership: largely from middle classes and lower Readings: practical needs of different trades. The long eighteenth century be thought fashionable and witty but expose their ignorance in a series of blunders E. newspapers popular culture. Wycherley’s The Country Wife. unremitting sexual intrigue. amorous widows Wit: combination of intelligence.Final Examination English Literature 4. stories of notorious thieves and pirates. handsome rakes. sophistication. 3 . originality and imagination. irreligious or offensive to the government 2. licenser removed anything immoral. couplings and cuckolding. 1688: Glorious Revolution) Lean years for the theatre Attendance at playhouses dwindle Proliferation of tragedies Adaptations of Shakespeare (King Lear. how-to guides on ethics. Tempest) 1690s Restoration comedy renaissance (Congreve’s The Way of the World) Audience: strong middle class element. travel books. The Printing Press and the Rise of the Novel in England in the 18th Century • • • • • England becomes more and more print-oriented culture in the 18th century Literacy: doubles in the 18th c. female spectators Focus shifts to marital relations. matrimonial discord 1698 Jeremy Collier’s A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage 1737 Licensing Act Limited the number of legitimate theatrical venues to two. preposterous fops. Anthony and Cleopatra. The long eighteenth century Boundary between fact and fiction is uncertain 2. reasonableness. reports on manners. speeches.Final Examination English Literature • 4. punishments. moderation. newspapers multiply heterogeneous (reports on parliamentary proceedings. accessible style to attract a large readership (business) Alexander Pope criticises all journalistic ventures descending into triviality and only having financial interests o Social ideal: urbanity. crimes. miracle cures. the sphere of private people who join together to form a "public" o Spread of literacy. I. good taste.1. monopoly situation manipulates readers “Licensing Act” (1662): to “prevent the frequent Abuses in printing seditious treasonable and unlicensed Bookes and Pamphlets and for regulating of Printing and Printing Presses" 1678: “Popish Plot” government + Act collapses news market opens. advertisements. discussing events o Emergence of the “public sphere”‘. accounts of military encounters. newspapers (available information+opinions) 4 . fashion. Steele and Joseph Addison • The Female Tatler • The Female Spectator • Periodical essay o New genre o To improve the mind and manners of readers in a witty. reading news. etc) • The Public Advertiser (1657) • The Ladies Mercury (1693) • The Daily Courant (1702) (Fr: “courir” (run) + “au courant” (up-to-date)) • The Tatler (1709) by Richard Steele • The Spectator (1711) by R. political manifestos. enjoyable. gossiping. Rise of newspapers • • • London Gazette (1665) o First newspaper-like paper o Royalist government’s official newspaper. self-control • Huge periodical market (mercantile and middle classes) • Spread of public coffee-houses o Conversation. novels: “history”. individual name having identity 5 . natural style Focus on the present Encompasses either the whole life. “lives”. Rise of the novel • Price of an author estimated by the number of sheets he wrote favour prose over verse and drama • Novel o From Italian novella (tale. “adventures”. “fortunes and misfortunes” o Realism: novels are both constructed by the real. Love and Duty Reconciled (1692) o The term “novel” only came into general use in the late 18th century o Clara Reeve: The Progress of Romance (1785) Distinction between the romance and the novel Recognisable. local. or a longer section of the life of a character presents the passing of time through life and does it in a realistic way possibility of identification o Characters o Ordinary. “memoirs”. presenting fiction as fact and dramatising fact as fiction o 18th c.2. separation from and a certain control over authorities and received oppinions rise of liberal democracy 2. and particular social and cultural context Simple. a piece of news) o “a long prose narrative about largely fictional if usually realistic characters and plausible events” o Early and mid-18th c: fluid boundary between fact and fiction. everyday world and shape this everyday world fictitious world that gives the illusion of being applicable to reality o William Congreve called his own work a novel first in his preface to Incognita: or.Final Examination English Literature 4. rational-critical debate on politics and literature independently from authorities “public opinion”. The long eighteenth century o Free discussion. freedom of choice. included in anthologies – either in their own time. reflects the interests of the age • Autobiography: the shape of the novel is determined by the shape of the individual life. love. strive for better position. career identification novels are guides to life • Canon o Originally. Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)) o Emerging concept of individuality: personal autonomy. finding ‘true self’) middle-class myth is reflected upon in the novels 19th c. authoritative list of books accepted as Holy Scripture o Literary canon: works frequently discussed by literary critics and historians.Final Examination English Literature 4. and the shape of the novel gives shape to the individual life • Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) o London merchant class o Presbyterian dissenter (separated from Church of England) 6 . individual achievements (no need for inherited property). The long eighteenth century o Personal identity: continuity of one’s consciousness through time: remembrance of past states of consciousnesses. causal connections through life. or by posterity canon changes. or that of narrator) o Shift in consciousness about life and its possibilities Bank of England (1694) financial revolution one can acquire good social status through hard work. projections in the future. there is personal possibility and development (leaving home/past authorities. self-consciousness (reflected in and reflected upon in novels) o World presented from (an) individual point(s) of view(s) (that of a character. Bildungsroman o Novels are relatively cheap Readership: middle class + bellow o Circulating libraries o More female than male reader (more leisure time) o More young readers than old (novels are mostly about young people and their important life decisions. one event determines the next ones (John Locke. settles down in England o A Tale of a Tub (1699) A satire The tale is the allegory of three brothers with ordinary names. Ireland. the Catholics and the English Church No unifying narrative voice We cannot really know the narrator’s own opinion o The Battle of Books (1704) o A Modest Proposal (1829): let’s eat up Irish children (irony) 7 . as Protestant o Trinity College. The long eighteenth century o writes: political pamphlets. newspapers.) Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) o Poet. novelist.Final Examination English Literature 4. related by the seventy-year-old Moll. and reflect upon its form and its themes o Moll Flanders (1722) female version of the male Bildungsroman Situation of a woman in the 18th century Moll is like a man. pamphleter. narrated past self. implied author. satirist o Born in Dublin. one of the earliest English science fiction (A Letter from the Man in the Moon (1706)). which are all parodied: the Dissenters. sociological treaties. editorially shaped by Defoe) First person singular retrospective narration • Different points of view to interpret the events (narrating present self. who try to find their way in the world The three brothers represent the three branches of Christianity. reader. one of the first ghost stories: A True Relation of the Apparition of Mrs Veal (1706) o His Robinson Crusoe (1719) is considered to be the fist English novel. satirical poems. the proto-novel (Bildungsroman) other novels of the time rewrite. has freedom to shape her own life by her own means (prostitution (moneymaking) + storytelling) protofeminist Narrative reliability is questioned (story of younger Moll. power liberation.Final Examination English Literature 4. but inner world o Pamela. B’s aristocratic household) complete reality effect B’s conversion B. and that so very few are offended with it” o Satire upon 18th c. subjectivity not outside. B. which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world. published anonymously) o “Satire is a sort of glass wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own. marries Pamela she finds her “true place” in society (socially subversive) Mr. or the History of a Young Lady (1747-48) Opposes her parents will of marriage she is humiliated. England’s society and on the theme and form of Robinson Crusoe • Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) o “Father of the English novel” o Focus on private. becomes a good man of feeling (middle class virtue) Both female and male Bildungsroman Women’s writing: secrecy. but her spirit never breaks she has to cutt herself off from society. but she accepts it with Christian fortitude ideal Christian morality o Sir Charles Grandison (1753-54) • Henry Fielding (1707-1754) o Lawyer. novelist o An Apology for the life of Mrs Shamela Andrews. generally female. The long eighteenth century o Gulliver’s Travels (1726) (original title: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In which many notorious Falsehoods and Misrepresentations of a Book called ‘Pamela’. self-assertion resistance. are exposed and refuted (1741) Parody of Pamela 8 . emancipation o Clarissa. or Virtue Rewarded (1740) Grows out of a “conduct book” “epistolary novel” (composed of letters written by Pamela (servant girl in Mr. journalist. selfcentred individualism) Represents identity as a social fact No introspection Character defined by actions and social interactions plot defines the character (picaresque tradition) o Mistrust of autobiography Interruptive.Final Examination English Literature 4. a Foundling (1729) o A comic epic in prose o Ironic comment on the “genre” of Bildungsroman o Mistrust of individualism Third person narrative (exceptions are parodic of Robinson. Virgil. Horace) o Relation between the cultural and the political: the poet establishes the authority of the monarch (Virgil. The long eighteenth century o The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. “Augustan” Poetry • “Augustan” period (1660-1750s/80s) o Augustus (27 BC – 14 AD) Model of great monarch (peace. direct address to the audience/reader by the 3rd person narrator destroys the illusion of reality in fiction it draws attention to narrating itself o Conscious construction (as opposed to the alleged confessional flow of 1st person narratives) Parallel episodes from different points of view no single truth 3. Aeneid). Abraham Adams (1742) o criticised the government of Robert Walpole (1736–37) and the “Stage Licensing Act” of 1737 (closes down all non-patent theatres) • The History of Tom Jones. the monarch sustains the poet (mutual process) 9 . prosperity after civil war) similarly to Charles II o Roman “Augustan” age The Golden Age of Latin literature (Ovid. pointed. clear expression. proportion. The long eighteenth century o The Augustan poet adopts the Greco-Roman conception of the poet as the voice of society o Neoclassical style Literary ideals and standards modelled on the classics (Spenser or Shakespeare barbarous as compared to the refinement of British “Augustans”) Roman Augustan poets as models: urbanity. the proper relation between the form and the substance of a poem The norms of social behaviour and the intellectual virtues on which this style is based Couplet: pair of rhymed lines. displaying a strength of thought. capacity for making just and unexpected arrangement of subjects (contrasts with metaphysical wit) o Poetry a public affair Poetry is a form of public communication (even when “Augustan” writers have no monarch to celebrate 10 . harmony. dignified tone) Epigrammatic use: playfulness Signalling the intention of discussing important issues Suitable for argumentative verse Wit: A form of verbal inventiveness. but immediately acknowledged to be just. not obvious. clarity. sequences of such pairs in verseparagraphs End-stopped couplet: each line constitutes a syntactic unit Heroic couplet: couplets in iambic pentametres (air of gravity. polish. elegance. making phrases that strike one as at once natural and new. compliance with the codes of decorum Decorum: stylistic and intellectual behaviour that accords with the codes of propriety Stylistic rules that determine e. capacity for quick.g.Final Examination English Literature 4. Samuel Garth’s The Dispensary (1699). The long eighteenth century Poetry: a broader term than today (sacred and profane. original. paraphrased. elegies upon departed friends. John Dryden’s Absolom and Achitophel (1681). or argumentative) Close interaction with political circumstances (Tories and Whigs. powers of monarchy diminish. and satires upon living enemies) Poetry could address larger cultural issues Poet assumes a public role as a spokesman or analyst of culture more impersonal and more public topics were the more characteristic (didactic. and translated. epistles. John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1728)) Epistolary poem Letter in verse 11 . system of cabinet government develops 1727-1760 George II 1721 Sir Robert Walpole begins his governmental career – alienates many Whigs 1742 Walpole resigns. Swift vs. love verses.Final Examination English Literature 4. Defoe) 1702-1714 Queen Anne (the last Stuart) 1710-1714 Tory government 1714-1727 George I (House of Hanover) decades of Whig dominion begins. tales. satirical. Defoe’s A True-Born Englishman (1701) Scriblerus Club (1712) “Tory satirists” (Not only poetry: see Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726). imitated. epigrams. but Whig governmental management continues o Poetic modes /genres Satire Inbuilt corrective aim System-satires (Samuel Butler’s Hudibras (1663-1678). imitating the spirit of the model.Final Examination English Literature 4. The long eighteenth century Reader is aware of being a listener »» the poem does not want to draw reader into the emotional processes of the speaker. Odessey. 1725] [translations of Homer (Iliad. new star adorning the skies mocking tone An Essay on Criticism (1711) Discusses the rules of taste. elfs. but the lock transfers into the skies. 1714) Mock-heroic epic Ironic. and using it as a point of reference in adopting it to the social and cultural issues of the present o Alexander Pope (1688-1744) Self-taught A cripple due to tubercolosis The Rape of the Lock (1711. 1718-20. coffee party. erring judgements. 1725-26)] The Dunciad (1728) Satire against dullness. nymphs) Descriptive (card game. witty Epic machinery (sylphs. gives rules for good criticism [edition of Shakespeare. the didactic mode reaches into virtually all kinds of poems it the period Imitations Poems that relied on some earlier (usually classical) model. stupidity Against such writers who produce books without talent Epistles to Several Persons (Moral Essays) (1731-35) 12 . Belinda’s dressing table) narrative emptiness of social life Epic climax: cutting the lock sad tone. but wants to convince Didactic poetry Seeks to instruct the reader. Epilogue to the Satires: Dialogues I & II. Edmund Burke (1729-1797). Book iv). Mid. seeks some social consensus concerning this. Goldsmith’s The Traveller (1764). a process of discovery through the contemplation BUT explorations do not lead to any ethical action. in Four Books). The Progress of Poesy: A Pindarick Ode (1757) New tendencies o Loss of public engagement o Melancholy musings 13 . Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751) o Shared characteristics: speaker has a visionary prospect.e. The Dunciad (revised. they are isolated figures. Johnson’s The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749). (1742). centres on some ethical universal. and seeks to avoid delusions and to escape solitude.g. 1733-38 (Epistle to Augustus. Oliver Goldsmith (1728/30? – 1774) Prospect poems (continuity and change) o Related to the ethical epistle (e. (1743) 4. who end up in some kind of defeat Mid-century odes (examples of new departure) o Mark Akenside (1721-1770): Odes on Several Subjects (1745) o Joseph Warton (1722-1800): Odes on Various Subjects (1746) o William Collins (1721-1759): Odes on Several Descriptive and Allegorical Subjects (1746) o Thomas Gray: The Bard (1757).g. and produces ethical action) o Explores human frailties. The long eighteenth century An Essay on Man (1734) Very witty Examination of man’s place in the universe Imitations of Horace. a mental view of what is surveyed.Final Examination English Literature 4. (1738) The New Dunciad (i. 1736). Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College (1742). Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792). speakers find they do not have the power to help themselves with the knowledge they arrive at.and Later-18th Century Poetry • • • • Persistence of Augustan idiom o “The Club” (1764): Johnson (The Vanity of Human Wishes – 1749). Pope’s Epistles to Several Persons – about the way the understanding of individual psychology leads to ethical understanding. explore aspects of human behaviour as a means to ethical action that could lead to happiness o E. The Deserted Village (1770). etc). primitivism Antiquarian work: the recovery. Collins: Ode on the Poetical Character o Subjects: may be conventional (evening. James Macpherson (1736-1796): The Works of Ossian (1765) 14 . a sense of the uncontrollable. describing abstract ideas or landscapes as allegorical. Gray’s translations of Welsh and Norse poetry) Forgeries. freer explorations of subject. precedent: Thomas Parnell (1679-1718. greatness whether of physical objects or of feelings. interpretation of archaic poetry (e. to the purity of death (Gray’s Elegy) precedent: James Thomson’s (1700-1748) The Seasons (1730) (BUT: Thomson’s poem saturated with political involvement melancholy musing becomes a form of turning away from the socio-historical world “graveyard poetry”: pleasure of melancholy incurred by tombs and ruins (e. to childhood (Gray’s Eton Ode). incurs awe and terror. authority derives from private genius. g.g.Final Examination English Literature • 4. move from social commentary and public communication towards the sublime and visionary o Ancient traditions. nightingales. Edward Young (1683-1765): A Complaint. 1745). e. involves the sense of the apprehension of something divine Turn to the past o Native literary traditions Medieval romance and Spenser Milton Bearer of an English tradition: Paradise Lost a universal poem.g. imitations (e. spring. the collection. an archetype of the inspired poetry of transcendental vision Blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentametre lines) liberation from the restrictions of rhyme. as situations that are actually states of mind or passions of the soul o The sublime: quality of vastness. Death and Immortality (1742. or Night Thoughts on Life. a Scriblerian): A Night-Piece on Death (1722) o Poet figure: a lonely wanderer (no longer analyst of culture and the voice of society).g. but the aim is to remove the subject from the everyday of life of which they were part and to create imagined worlds in which they functioned subjects treated through personifications. based on traditions of divine insight. Supreme representative of the sublime style. translation. the figure of the poet is part of the imagined world beyond the ordinary. The long eighteenth century retreat: to country. makes us benevolent and sociable (e. farces and comedies (e. and the expression of emotion for its own sake is morally motivated Sympathy: capacity of grasping the resemblance between ourselves and others.g.g. William Cowper (1731-1800). The long eighteenth century 5. and enables recording the impact on others. or the History of a Young Lady (1747-48).g. George Lillo’s (1693-1739). 15 . Sir Charles Grandison (1753-54).g. Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729).g. and money theatres take “sentimental” forms: plays built on pathos seek to evoke sympathy. move towards tragicomedy. The London Merchant (1731)) o Comedies: make space for tears and woes. suffering women and passive.g. Charlotte Smith (1749-1806) Drama and sentimentalism o Resistance to Restoration drama’s concern with sex. Gay’s Beggar’s Opera) o “Laughing” and “weeping” comedies (e. A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) Sentimental: emotionally touching and morally elevated Sensibility: refined and delicate (physical and emotional) sensitivity which enables our responding to the sentimental The poetry of sensibility o Melancholy musings: turning away from socio-historical world BUT sensibility aims at counteracting poetic isolation poetry of sensibility a form of the tension of poetic withdrawal and social obligations o The display of private feelings is offered as a way of reaching out towards others emotions are both personal and social o e. The Literature of Sentiment and Sensibility • • • • • • • The cultivation of feelings where expression of sentiment is the central aim. of being understanding and compassionate towards others frees us from self-interest.g. anti-Walpolean popular operas. The Conscious Lovers (1722)) o Drama in political context: “historical parallel” plays. David Hume (1711-1776). whose tearful responses provided the example for the reader’s reaction E. or Virtue Rewarded (1740). not subordinated to other elements of the work. tearful responses that ignite benevolence o Tragedies focusing on victimized woman characters (“she-tragedies”). gender conflicts. benevolent heroes (e. School for Scandal (1777)) Sentimental novels o Samuel Richardson (1689-1761) Focus on private subjectivity motivated by the assumption that the delicate feelings he depicts are morally admirable Epistolary form depicts the inmost feelings of characters in the passing moments of their formation (“writing to the moment”). Clarissa. Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816).Final Examination English Literature 4. (e. of feeling what others feel. Pamela. Final Examination English Literature 4. The long eighteenth century o Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768) A journey through sentimental encounters Episodic, fragmentary Continually associating sentimental encounters with erotic excitement o Sentimental writing suggests that affection transcends language (tears, blushes, fainting, silence) 16 Final Examination English Literature 5. Romanticism 5. Romanticism. Provide an overview of the era, highlighting the major developments in its literature (the emergence of Romanticism: the historical context, the intellectual and poetic inheritance; the first generation of Romantic poets; the second generation of Romantic poets). Discuss, in detail, two representative works from the period. Romanticism — (1770s-1830s) Neo-Classicism, Age of Reason, Enlightenment — (1660s-1770s)1 head reason humans as social beings (products of social order) respect for authority heart feeling, passion, imagination humans as natural beings (products of Nature) questioning of authority, identification with and love of Nature symmetry, balance, harmony diagonals, dynamic motion stability challenge to status quo hierarchy democracy universality individualism, egocentrism conformity, representative truths eccentricity, idiosyncrasy tradition originality decorum rebellion against form measure and proportion intensity, excess clarity, simplicity mysticism, ornateness restraint, self-restraint indulgence of feeling public, daytime orientation private, night orientation; joys of solitude rational sense to universe: patterns, mysterious universe: hidden, dark forces, the laws, meaning supernatural mechanistic world organic world present world exotic and medieval subjects real world yearning for the infinite and the ideal sensibility as moral force sense of the sublime melancholy musings importance of childhood and the past impossibility of happy love Noble Savage Byronic hero Gothic world: morbid, forbidden impulses, animality, illicit forces Decartes, French philosopher. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French writer: "For us, "Cogito ergo sum." ("I think: existence is feeling: and our capacity to feel therefore I am.") Discourse of Method inarguably precedes our reason." Moral Letters. 1 Final Examination English Literature 5. Romanticism 1. Romanticism: background • Important historical events o American War of Independence (1775-76) o French Revolution (1789) Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen o Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) o First generation: first start sas radical supporters, later turned into conservatives o Second generation: liberal, supporters of the revolution o Industrial Revolution economic rise of the middle classes o Pantheism: God is immanent in Nature; human mind is similar to the divine o Empiricism: tabula rasa, knowledge is from experience 2. Romanticism: The first generation • • Beginning of Romanticism in England: customarily identified with the publication of the Lyrical Ballads in 1798 The Age of Johnson (1744-84): transition to the new literary age • Edmund Burke’s Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757) • Transition from lucidity to sublimity • Central innovation: questioned the classical ideal of clarity, arguing that vagueness and obscurity is far more evocative of the infinite • Sublime: emphasis on terror, obscurity, power, darkness, solitude, natural magnificence and vastness; the effect on the beholder: terror, (religious) awe, admiration, astonishment, reverence beautiful: based on the passion of love and associates with pleasure, smoothness, delicacy, smallness and light • Although the sublime feelings of astonishment and awe may resemble pain, the excitation and exertion that they produce yield a very real pleasure: a consciousness of one's own powers • William Blake, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge: key figures of the first generation of the Romantic movement 2 Final Examination English Literature 5. Romanticism 2.1. William Blake (1757-1827) • Imagination, energy • Almost completely unknown in his age • Created an idiosycratic visionary universe o Contemporaries regarded his ideas completely "mad" o Mythical characters: Urizen, Luvah, Los and Tharmas • Consciously repudiated the major ideas of Enlightenment (considered Bacon, Newton and Locke=the unholy trinity) • Composite art: unusual mode of publication of his poems (illustrated, engraved his works; limited number of hand-made copies) • Poetical Sketches (1783) o Experimental in metrics and imagery • Songs of Innocence and of Experience / Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul (1789-94) • Innocence series printed in 1789 in 22 copies; combined Innocence and Experience appeared in 1794 in 28 copies • State of Innocence and Experience: not opposites but contrasts, which complement each other • Innocence o Introduced by the piper inspired by an angel-like child; quasi-idyllic world of pastorals and psalms o Central figures: child, lamb, flower, piper, shepherd, nurse o Main elements: humble life in uncorrupted nature, uninhibited sexuality, Poet-Christ-Divine Providence (The Shepherd) o The inhabitants of Innocence are not immune from menace: they get lost or punished, live in orphanages, sold as slaves or chimney sweeps (The Little Boy Lost, The Little Black Boy, The Chimney Sweeper) o Inhabitants unaware of dangers, dependent on the Nurse, Shepherd, Angel, Christ o Children victimized by circumstances and consoled by the false morality of Church (The Chimney Sweeper) 3 Final Examination English Literature 5. Romanticism o Despite their vulnerabiliy these children retain a spiritual resilience and believe in a better world • Experience o Introduced by the ancient Bard, "Who Present, Past & Future sees" o Dark, self-enclosed, claustrophobic world o Dominant images: prematurely blighted and embittered children, dark forests, sick flowers, wild beasts, black city, poisonous Tree of Mystery that grows in the human brain, hostile (instead of protective) adults o Strong criticism of contemporary society, politics (London, The Chimney Sweeper) and the religious dogmas of the Church, most emphatically its restriction of freedom of emotions and sexuality (The Garden of Love, A Little Girl Lost, The Sick Rose) o Old Testament God=Nobodaddy, restricter and bounder of freedom (Earth's Answer) o The Tyger a symbolic poem Tyger represents the sublime, poetic imagination in constant fight with Nobodaddy, the creator, i.e. God • For Blake the only acceptable God is the creative/poetic Imagination • Further works: o Mythological epics: The Book of Urizen, The Book of Los o Political trilogy: America: A Prophecy; Europe: A Prophecy; The Song of Los o Major prophetic books: Vala; Milton, Jerusalem 2.2. William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge • Lake Poets • 1798: publication of the Lyrical Ballads: turning point in literary history, revolution in English poetic style o A joint project of Wordsworth of Coleridge o 4 editions: 1798, 1800, 1802 and 1805 o 1798 edition: 19 poems by Wordsworth and 4 by Coleridge 4 which is the source of inspiration Pantheism Sensory experiences are vital Memory plays an important role 2.Final Examination English Literature 5. rapture. The Thorn) Poems on children's psychology (e.g.1. regeneration • A poet of visual perception • Tintern Abbey o The first statement of Wordsworth's "myth of nature" 5 . We are Seven) Poems that exalt nature (e. it takes its origin from emotions recollected in tranquillity Exquisite delight in nature.2. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) • Loss and consolation • Mysterious unity of man and nature (man part of nature. company in unlimited nature versus vacant and pensive mood in an urban isolation • Memory of the experience=source of inspiration. consolation. Tintern Abbey) o 1800: second edition of the Lyrical Ballads. preceded by a massive new critical 'Preface' To choose incidents and situations from common life. and at the same time to throw over them a certain colouring of imagination.g. and to relate or to describe them throughout a selection of language really used by men. Romanticism o Opening poem: Coleridge's Ancient Mariner. whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual way Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings. realistic (English!) landscape yet endowed with some mystic. nature depicted in terms of a human) • Everyday experience. delight. closing one: Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey o Thematic and topical groupings Poems of the supernatural (e. active spiritual life joy.g. The Ancient Mariner) Poems on human suffering (e.g. Schelling 6 .2. complete freedom) to the experience of maturity (still a lover of nature but conscious of the surrounding society) growth of his mind is a painful process . circular. tripartite structure: nature description o Knowledge. glory passing from earth Stanzas V-VIII: examines the nature of this glory in the light of prenatal existence Stanzas VIII-XI: though the vision has perished. but there is compensation for the loss • Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood (1802-1804) o Pindarick ode on the immortality of the soul and the mortality of the body o Unusual element: Plato's concept of recollection and pre-natal existence of the soul o Composed in two phases: first 4 stanzas in 1802.2.Final Examination English Literature 5. Romanticism o Written in blank-verse o Reflection on his growth through nature o Loco-descriptive poem o Double exposure technique o 5-year time gap: depicts the changes. stanzas V-XI in 1804 Stanzas I-IV: describe a spiritual crisis. instinctual unity. inspiration. life has still a meaning and a value o Crisis explanation consolation • Children: symbols of innocence and wisdom • The Prelude o Autobiographical Poem o Journey in time and space o Tries to recapture some of the joys of his early years: self-reflective structure 2. change in individual history BUT: o Permanence in nature. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) • Unity and comprehensiveness • Formative influences: Plato. Neoplatonism. Kant. consolation comes from nature o Individul development: from the innocence of youth (part of nature. illumination. Kubla Khan (Heaven) • Conversation Poems o Informal. and between the subjectivity of the lyric voice and the objectivity of dramatic exchange o The Nightingale. Christabel (Hell). all-embracing divinity o Blessing of the watersnakes: turning point. the mariner compelled to tell his story o Two levels of "reality": the wedding (familiar) and the journey (supernatural) • Kubla Khan o Fragment o Unpublished for almost 20 years o Exploration of the mind when it is not shackled by reason 7 . It situates itself between speech and writing.Final Examination English Literature • 5. of spontaneous impulse and of voluntary purpose" • A poet of auditory perception • 1797-98: composition of his "Divine Comedy" of three "supernatural poems": The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner (Purgatory). between artifice and spontaneity. landscape is a way to explore one's consciousness o Killing of the Albatross: sin against the "One Life" o Unitarian pantheism=belief in a unifying. Dejection: an Ode • Dramas o Fall of Robespierre. but not in length) o Framework: marriage (=new life) o Journey by sea: intellectual journey. Romanticism Coleridge: the act of composing poetry involves the psychological contraries 'of passion and of will. Frost at Midnight. gaining of experience=painful process. It anticipates the dramatic monologue. Zapolya • Translations o Schiller’s Wallenstein and some of the first translations of Goethe • The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner o Ballad or epyllion (= a miniature epic poem resembling an epic in metre and/or style. colloquial poem whose tone echoes relaxed conversation. Albania and Greece 8 . Malta. lectures on philisophy (1818-19) 3. metaphors. Wordsworth and Coleridge) Neoclassical tradition represents true poetry Rejection of the Lake Poets 1809-1811: “Grand Tour”: Portugal. wisdom: dangerous for the ordinary people o Biographia Literaria (1817) Lectures on Shakespeare. cosmopolitan. at the end: return to Paradise o 2 dreams: of Kubla Khan and his superhuman power. Gibraltar. knowledge. classical allusions. Cambridge (1805-1808) o Extravagant life o Career: 1807-1812 Hours of Idleness (1807) Conventional verses. satanic landscape/subconscious/sublime. fascination with Greece and the Mediterranean.g. elaborate forms. Milton. Dante. Ariosto and Cervantes (1819). pastime activity of a young aristocrat Harsh criticism from The Edinburgh Review („so much stagnant water”) English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809) Uncompromising satire on contemporary literary life in the couplet style of Pope Tactlessly ridiculing the famous contemporaries (e. Romanticism sections: Garden of Paradise/conscious/beautiful. Romanticism: The Second Generation • Second generation: overlaps in their poetic style with the first generational poets o Rich poetic language. European context • George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) o Trinity College. Abessynian maid o The poet has a superhuman creative energy experience. Scott.Final Examination English Literature o 3 5. Spain. Spenser. scepticism A panorama of contemporary life Attacks the sexually prudish. Greece and Albania Dramatis persona: the Byronic hero: alien. who. nameless gilt that drives him toward an inevitable doom. superior in his passions and powers to the common run of humanity. mysterious.Final Examination English Literature 5. sated with his past life of sin and pleasure. He harbours the torturing memory of an enormous. whom he regards with disdain. Isolated. gloomy spirit. pursuing his own ends according to his selfgenerated moral code against any opposition. religiously orthodox and politically conservative parties in England Everything is reduced to the same materialistic level 9 . self-reliant. human or supernatural Identification of Byron with his poetic persona he left England forever in 1816 1816-1818 (Swiss period) 1816: Met Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley in Geneva Childe Harold the final two Cantos (III-IV) Manfred (1816-1817) verse drama (similarities with Goethe’s Faust) 1818-1824 (Italian period) Don Juan Satirical novel in verse Picaresque Doubt. Spain. Romanticism 1812-1816 Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage The travels and experiences of a pilgrim. finds distraction in his travels through Portugal. Plato and Neoplatonism o 1816 in Geneva with Byron: intellectual and creative collaboration o Mont Blanc (1816) “Local” poem Major influence: Tintern Abbey Landscape: emblem of the human mind o The Mask of Anarchy (1819) Political protest in the language Satire medieval dream allegory with surrealistic effects o Ode to the West Wind (October 1819) 5 sonnet-like verse paragraphs written in terza rima Statement of faith in the ability of human beings to resist the oppression of church and state. and to realize their power of selfdetermination o Prometheus Unbound (1818-19) Lyrical drama. telescopes) and radical political and philosophical ideas (Thomas Paine. partly psychodrama. The Necessity of Atheism o Queen Mab (1813) First important work Institutional religion and codified morality are the roots of social evil o Major influences: Wordsworth and Coleridge. magnetism. interest in science (electricity. partly political allegory Prometheus: stands for the desire in the human soul to create harmony through reason and love o A Defence of Poetry (1821. 1840) 10 .Final Examination English Literature 5. William Godwin) o Expelled from Oxford because of his pamphlet. belief in the perfectability of man o Conservative background o Thorough grounding in the classics. chemistry. Romanticism Left unfinished by Byron’s untimely death in the fight for Greek Independence • Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) o Love. publ. Milton. Romanticism o Adonais (1821) Elegy on Keats’s death Keats (Christ-like figure.Final Examination English Literature 5. Claude Lorrain. Titian) o Influence of Hellenism (“religion of joy”) Elgin marbles (Sonnet: On First Seeing the Elgin Marbles) Homer o The Eve of St Agnes o La Belle Dame Sans Merci o Lamia o Ode to Psyche o Ode to a Nightingale o Ode on a Grecian Urn o Ode on Indolence o On Melancholy o Hyperion – The Fall of Hyperion o Distinctive qualities of his poems Richly sensuous surface (all senses combine to give a total apprehension of an experience) Objective correlative 11 . suffering for the benefit of art) is lamented under the name Adonais. Spenser. Shakespeare. Greek god of beauty and fertility. Byron o Influence of painting (Poussin. Belief in Neoplatonic resurrection in the eternal beauty of the universe o Tragically early death on 7 July 1822 (sudden storm sunk their boat Don Juan/Ariel) • John Keats (1795-1821) o Beauty and truth o Medical studies o Rapidly deteriorating health o Influences: Dante. Final Examination English Literature 5. in Rome 12 . Ode to a Nightingale) Slow-paced movement Melancholy in delight. 1821. pleasure in pain Imagination: often expressed in the combined metaphor of consummated love and death o Died of tuberculosis on February 23. Romanticism Negative capability: the poet totally identifies himself with the object he contemplates (almost loses his own identity cf. man will be perfect.” . machinery. attitude: (at times contrary tendencies counterbalancing each other). industrial growth) belief that the scientific and industrial progress would lead to equality. All else confusion.” (Tennyson. significant differences between the early and the late decades (High Victorian.: speed – travel by land increased from 12 to 50 miles an hour on land within a few years. is noble. “all work even cotton-spinning. and have not yet acquired new ones”) OPTIMISM: growing democracy 1851 Great Exhibition .Joseph Paxton’s Crystal Palace: the building itself a sign of development . happiness for all. fine arts) . guides (Carlyle: “On Heroes. manufactures. work is alone noble” - duty. national pride (science. 1871: 26 m. Late Victorian periods) Queen Victoria’s long reign (1837-1901): a ‘faster’ age than the previous ones.. The Princess) . to which. will doubt for a moment that we are living at a period of most wonderful transition. Patmore) or a ‘fallen woman’ awareness of the lower classes ~ ANXIETY: Parliamentary reforms (rather than revolution) – representation: (1832 Reform Act: some of the ‘rotten boroughs’ removed. Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History” 1841) the duty and responsibility of literary men: social concern. “The Spirit of the Age”: “mankind have outgrown old institutions and old doctrines. 1851: 21 m. electorate increased) (1834 Poor Law: workhouses) 1848 Chartist movement and it collapse 1867 Second Reform Act: vote for everyone (men) in town. a sense of ‘haste’[ e. indeed.exhibits from all over the world (raw materials. with significant changes. all history points – the realization of the unity of mankind.. moral responsibility FAMILY - definite roles.imperial power.g. but still open elections 1872 Secret Ballot Act: the real liberation of working-class power . earnestness and responsibility: also that of the upper classes should be leaders. Past an Present 1843) .a speech by Prince Albert about the exhibition in 1850) opportunity: a greater opportunity to rise socially – ‘only’ hard work and resolution are needed (Samuel Smiles: Self-Help 1859) ‘gospel of WORK’ (Thomas Carlyle. population (Great Britain) – 1831: 16 million. duties within the family: the separate sphere for men and women “Man for the Field and Woman for the Hearth: Man for the Sword and for the Needle She: Man with the Head and Woman with the Heart: Man to command and Woman to obey.Lecture 9 The Victorian Age Term: refers to a historical period.woman: either an ‘angel in the house’ (C.the dignity of work: “blessed is the man who has found his work”. which tends rapidly to accomplishthat great end. not to a literary trend diversity in its literature. life easy and joyful: (“Nobody . ~1900: 27 m] → ‘age of transition’ (1831 John Stuart Mill. who has paid any attention to the peculiar features of our present era. fear of the working classes new models. home. Principles of Geology. (evidence for the gradual development of the strata in the earth) 1857 remains of Neanderthal Man discovered 1859 Darwin. they still believed that it would lead to a new set of codes. new ‘biographies’ of Christ 1830-33 Charles Lyell. The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) – earnestness. agnosticism. English translation. education – all put to ridicule (points toward the theatre of the absurd) MODERNISM at the turn of the century – a different view: though the Victorians saw their age as that of ‘transition’.working conditions: . the ‘condition of England’ novel – the appalling living and working condition of the poor. new moral codes are needed: chivalry (cf.). Liverpool. the Arthurian revival) classical heroes (cf. fear of loss of moral standard. “On the Physical Basis of Life” Strauss: Leben Jesu (1835. Shaw) - - official reports.housing and health . family. Origin of Species by Natural Selection 1868 Thomas Huxley. 1885 Reform Acts: vote to all adult males (1819 prohibition to employ children under 9 in cotton mills) (1833 limited hours for workers under 18) 1842 Shaftesbury’s Mines Act: forbade the employment of women and children under 10 below ground 1847 ten-hour days for women and children [no control over small workshops] (1832-37 outbreaks of severe epidemics) 1848 Public Health Board 1875 Public Health Act 1832-48 Chartist movement (Feargus O’Connor) 1836 London Working Men’s Association (William Lowett) 1870 Labour Representation League 1881 Democratic Federation Henry Hyndman) – later: Social Democratic Federation 1884 Fabian Society (G.B. work.DOUBT: - scientific challenges leading to agnosticism or to the loss of faith: . evasion. the importance of the fleeting moment (“not the fruit of experience but experience is the end”) Oscar Wilde.. G. even ridiculed: Walter Pater. religion. Eliot: 1846) Renan: Vie de Jesus (1863) Seeley: Ecce Homo (1865) Reactions: Catholicism.more detachment from High Victorian values: basic Victorian values challenged. especially in the growing industrial cities like Manchester.workers’ associations: 1884. free thinking (might bring a sense of relief as well as despair. inquiries: claim for REALISM. beliefs by the end of the century no such belief was possible . ‘classical revival’) Late decades ~ new generation: . The Renaissance (1873) Conclusion: the role of changing impressions – relativity of knowledge and the sense of solitude (“each mind keeping as a solitary prisoner in his own dream of a world”). Birmingham literature: had a strongly moral aspect ~ also in relation to: problems of religion . love.Bible criticism. Charlotte Brontë. makes the reader laugh or cry. for he mixed history with fancy . though critical of their society. collector and editor of Border ballads. reviving past events and historical characters: the Jacobite rebellion (1745) in Waverley (1814). Thackeray.Scottish poet. the intent of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents”]. learning respect and overcoming pride and prejudice → love based more on reason than on passion .the Romantics could not appriciate her work: lack of passion. a bishop demanded the burning of Hardy’s Jude the Obscure.themes: marriage.. wishing to promote the social and moral development of their country (Elizabeth Gaskell.historical novels. everyday country-life. studies the human character (a narrative technique similar to that of the miniaturist’s: working on a “little bit of ivory . social status . presents her material with gentle irony . he called his novels ‘romances’ [“a fictitious narrative. Dickens. lack of imagination (though Scott praised her). most Victorians also found her world too ordinary (though G. Richard I’s and Robin Hood’s medieval England in Ivanhoe (1819) – yet. . Eliot liked her novels) Victorian Novels Great variety – useful division: High Victorian novelists: can be seen as the spokesmen of their age. Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as evidence at the author’s trial (of ‘indecent conduct’. strong emotional appeal → good or bad characters. then: keener social awareness – Oliver Twist (1837-38) on the living conditions of the poor .wished to please his readers. happiness achieved by understanding character.was immensely popular in his lifetime as well as in the Victorian period: many of his characters served as models of the Jane Austen (1775-1817) . plot: twists. George Meredith.especially children . mysteries . homosexuality) Charles Dickens (1812-70) .Pride and Prejudice (1813): in the main plot the development of the love relationship of Elizabeth Bennet and Darcy.in the city. some 20 years after his death]. George Eliot.successfully merging realism and fancy: his first novel established him as a comic novelist in the eighteenth-century tradition. Charles Kingsley) Late Victorian novelists: more against their age. Butler could not have The Way of the Flesh published in his lifetime [only in 1902. Oscar Wilde – cf. but also hostile to their society. Samuel Butler.more of a classical writer: an acute observer of middle-class provincial life → limited scope: 3 or 4 families.. with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labour”). novelist .Nineteenth-Century Novels The First Decades Walter Scott (1771-1832) . still in agreement with the reading public. not only critical. difficulties in getting accepted by the reading public (Hardy.successful as the author of long narrative poems – then the astonishing success of Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage in 1810 made him turn to writing novels . Gothic elements: the mystery of Bertha Mason (the lunatic wife of Rochester) George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (1819-80) . Charlotte Brontë (1816-55).on the workhouses. Magwitch. round the rugged old oak to which you cling!” . how he became devoted to the cold-hearted Estella. for the most part. turns) . Ellis and Acton Bell 1846) . dedicated to Carlyle .first publication: poems (Poems by Currer. and how he learns loyalty and humility from his bitter experiences. Northern England: nature.] (“I want to leave everybody dissatisfied an unhappy at the end of the story – we ought all to be with our own and all other stories. a story of passionate love. her behaviour still claims independence for women – her marriage in the end means spiritual and financial equality. tender little parasite. gloomy settings.childhood in Yorkshire.) Keeping a distance: the “manager of the puppet-show”. Anne Brontë (1820-49) . Hard Times (1854): ridiculing utilitarianism and laisses-faire ideology.Great Expectations (1860-61): more disappointed. Even Dobbin is a fool for loving and eventually marrying the unworthy Amelia. omniscient intrusive narration. calls herself a “belated historian” in Middlemarch (1871-72). selfish. vain characters . the first-person narration of the life of Philip Pirrip (Pip).the ‘condition of England novel’: developed in England in the 1840s as a result of the growing middle-class awareness of the miserable life of the industrial working-class.his realism is different: keeps a distance → no heroes. tracing the protagonist’s growth) – here Jane Eyre. none of the characters deserve admiration: the author wished “to indicate in cheerful terms that we are. though her actions observe the conventional codes. also likened herself to a scientist. shows that life is ‘unheroic’. multilayered narration: Lockwood (the ordinary outsider) and Nelly Dean (the more subjective ’insider’) and many others within the main narrations. ghosts.Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847): a Romantic novel. the ward of Miss Havisham. mature woman. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63) . fancy: incredible coincidences.Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero (1848): the Victorian materialistic view of life → opportunism (ambition. telling how in his childhood he helped the starving convict.”→ far from Victorian optimism.David Copperfield (1849-50) describes the society of Victorian England . intellectual companionship as well as sexual passion (much unlike the Victorian pattern).observes and analyses in depth and detail characters and circumstances.a definite claim for realism in literature as well as in art .suggests a deliberately unhappy ending. Gothic elements (revenge. on the underworld of London (realism: the figure of the magistrate. an orphan girl growing into an independent. framed narrative with broken chronology . her . self-help: Becky Sharp) and snobbism. more disillusioned view then before (it characterizes Dickens’ later works). George Henry Lewes . an abominably foolish and selfish people. the moors . the demonic Heathcliff). no villains – fools. irony Emily Brontë (1818-48). desperately wicked and all eager after vanities”. [“Grow green again.much aware of the concerns of the age: studying theology she could no longer believe in God (her translation of Strauss). snobbish.Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (1847): a ’bildungsroman’ (a novel of development. how he was given the opportunity to rise and become a gentleman with the allowance of a mysterious benefactor. also lived to some extent as an outcast for living together with a married man. later rejected by her love and suitor (husband) Angel Clare for her ‘fallen’ state. Preface) but the outcome suggests that such a way of life would not pass without its due punishment . determined. Caleb Garth: the personification of HighVictorian earnestness: serious. of the conscious disregard for High Victorian values. Basil Hallward →Dorian wishes that the picture would grow old instead of himself – it comes true. while Casaubon fails writing his Key to All Mythologies for ignoring scientific results. hard-working. the beautiful innocent young man: his portrait painted by his friend. Dorian preserves his youthful. Lydgade is also devoted to his work. the concerns of her characters Middlemarch: portraying English economic. his characters are no longer masters of their fates – they are exposed to the indifferent forces that determine human destiny → Hardy’s pessimism. yet helpful. benevolent and honest. sinful life). while his wife is the true ‘angel in the house’. she tries to understand the motives. and as the portrait becomes hideous (bearing the traits of Dorian’s wicked. of Aestheticism [art for art’s sake]. Hardy studies the elemental forces of human behaviour Tess of D’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman (1891): the story of Tess – an innocent young girl seduced by the vulgar Alec D’Urberville. The late Victorians: Thomas Hardy (1840-1928): his novels set in “Wessex”. unlike the High Victorians who were concerned with people in society. but fails for choosing a woman who is not a true companion. innocent looks → life and art change places.- realism is coupled with sympathy. social and religious life in the years 182932. Dorothea Brooke is a woman in search of her “mission”: a meaningful active life difficult to find for a woman. to his mission. Its heroine. wishing to destroy the portrait Dorian stabs ‘himself’ and is found dead aged and ugly → the novel ‘deconstructs’ itself: it preaches ‘new hedonism’ (cf. finally driven to murder and consequently being hanged: Hardy’s rejection of the traditional concept of the Victorian heroine → accusations of immorality Oscar Wilde (1854-1900): Walter Pater’s The Renaissance: his “golden book” → Lord Henry in Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) is a spokesman of ‘new hedonism’ [a belief that pleasure is the most important thing in life]. especially morals Dorian. most known of his dramatic monologues (a poem consisting of the speech by a single character – historical or imaginary . his poetry becoming more didactic The Idylls of the King rewriting the legend of King Arthur to the Victorian readers dedicating it to the Queen.the celebrated poet of the age: a superb technician. weaving. 1842 Poems . then revised for the 1842 volume – both show Tennyson’s “passion of the past”: the first relies on the medieval. 1832 Poems. though Tennyson’s source was an Italian ‘novella’ – ways of interpretation: the isolation of the artist (the lady singing. character and situation. lavish ornamentation . feeling a languorous content they become reluctant to continue their journey home → the desire to withdraw from the world of work and competitive struggle. the reader gets only the words of the duke) and it is left to the reader to piece . and of motion.”.both “The Lady of Shalott” and “The Lotos-Eaters” were first published in the 1832 volume. a desire for rest. less confidence in the power of poetic imagination [cf.Victorian Poetry Romantic poetry → Victorian poetry → Modernism: influence of romantic poetry: mostly Keats the most important difference: a growing sense of distance.early volumes: 1830 Poems. on the death of Arthur Hallam – meditates upon questions of faith and doubt (different interpretations: the ‘Victorian’ view – like that of Queen Victoria . “Surely.who reveals his thoughts. the modernist’s view: T. the reader listens to the duke as he speaks of his dead wife (although it is part of an imaginary conversartion.Sordello (1840): the story of a 13th-century troubadour [traveller poet and singer] → made him notorious of his ‘obscurity’ ..“The Lady of Shalott”: a similar story to that of Elaine. the world of poetic/creative imagination seems brighter than reality).: “Next to the Bible. in Browning’s poems: mostly ironic character-sketches) .“My Last Duchess” (published in Dramatic Lyrics 1842): one of his early dramatic monologues set in the 16th-century Ferrara. the isolation of the Victorian woman . the second on the classical tradition .early enthusiasm: for Byron and Shelley . in his early poetry showing the influence of Keats – vivid descriptions.S. surely.. situations (→ Imagism of the early 20th century) Alfred Tennyson (1809-92) . Chiefly Lyrical. → weariness. the ‘White Maid of Astolat’ (Arthurian legends).“The Lotos-Eaters”: based on an episode from Homer’s Odyssey: the sailors returning home after the fall of Troy land on a strange island.. they taste the fruits of the lotos plant growing there. In Memoriam is my comfort”.”] 1850 In Memoriam – elegy. Browning suggesting that after the subjective prophets there must come another race of poets: “prodigal of objects for men’s outer and not inner sight”] general feature: Victorian poetry is usually pictorial: creates visual images to represent emotions.. likening Prince Albert to the great King of the Round Table Robert Browning (1812-89) . for death [“We have had enough of action. Eliot: the poem is remarkable not “because of its faith but because of its doubt”) 1850 Poet Laureate: Tennyson’s awareness of his duties as the leading poet of his country – accepting the role as a guide of the public. slumber is more sweet than toil . 1842) [“’How long.his early poem “The Blessed Damozel” first published there: the influence of Edgar Allen Poe and Dante. little else is worth study.: the comment of George Eliot: “we would rather have ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ than any essay on Realim in Art”) “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” (1852): the quest of a knight (mentioned in Shakespeare’s King Lear). many of the details are taken from Horne’s writing. editing the short-lived magazine: The Germ . on a child’s heart?’”]. the Dark Tower: his mysterious. Horne.together the situation. the influence of Italian literature: Dante and the ‘dolce stil nuovo’ sonettiers [second half of the 13th century]. an early admirer of William Blake .a verse novel on “the growth of a female poet’s mind” (as such seen in parallel with Wordsworth’s Prelude) – the heroine following her poetic vocation rather than becoming a typical Victorian wife Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850): a collection of sonnets (Petrarchan. “Andrea del Sarto” [in Men and Women 1855]): “My stress lay on incidents in the development of the human soul. with the spiritual connection between earthly and unearthly.appreciated by the Victorians mostly for her poems of social awareness: “The Cry of the Children” – written in response to the report on the inhuman conditions of children employed in mines and factories (R. also a number of translations from Italian to English . also: “Porphyria’s Lover” [note the speaker’s abnormal state of mind]. “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” – on the helpless situation of black slaves .Browning resented any suggestion that he revealed his own mind in his characters → objectivity (cf.Italian background. and “Fra Lippo Lippi”. [the children] say.in style: more colloquial and discordant than Victorian poets in general Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61) . / Will you stand.” .H.aims at psychological insight (cf. ‘how long.: his double-works). gradual movement towards the unification of the blessed damozel and her lover on earth. to move the world. but what happens after is left unsaid – an enigmatic. ultimate goal: after a journey through a frightening wasteland Roland reaches the tower.a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848): a group of artists intending to reform British art – advocating the unity of the sister arts (cf. but strongly influenced by Shakespeare’s sonnets) published under the disguise of translations from the Portuguese. very personal. sensuality . blows his horn. commemorating her love relationship with Robert Browning Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1827-82) .in her time more popular than her husband (some suggested that she should follow Wordworth at his death in 1850 as Poet Laureate) . nightmarish poem: Is it a ‘Victorian’ story of courage and gain or the presentation of a ‘modern’ wasteland and hopelessness? . the character of the dutchess and the character of the duke. his search to seize the fleeting. O cruel nation. the denial of the traditional view of heaven.they provide distance . the power of the poem lies in the tension between the story and judgement the duke thinks he is giving and the one that is finally gained by the reader (that he arranged the murder of his wife) → Browning’s interest in the psychology of the speaker .poet-painter.likewise comtemporary social concerns: Aurora Leigh (1856) . usually a candidate for knighthood. emotionally tense moments of life .a life-long fascination with Dante and his love for Beatrice. ‘child(e)’: means a youth. foreign influence is gaining ground in late Victorian poetry: Swinburne was an enthusiast of Baudelaire: in his review on Fleurs du Mal: “a mass of readers seem actually think that a poem is the better for containing a moral lesson”. exponent of duty. narrative fables. technical experimentation: invents new words. it is not so – a denial of the didactic aim of High-Victorian art and literature . sprung rhythm [based on the number of stresses rather than on the number of syllables] → seen as a pioneering figure of modern literture .most known work: “Goblin Market” – multilayered meaning: a simple tale of two sisters tempted by goblin men to eat their forbidden fruits.” Gerald Manley Hopkins (1848-89) . but also nursery songs. her deceptively simple style . according to Swinburne. but do good on her own: all is well with her while she sticks fast to that. family. children’s poetry .he intended to shock the public: attacking the traditional values like love. moral codes .The House of Life – his sonnet-sequence severely attacked by some of the contemporaries for its (alleged?) sensuality .his view of art and life – his concern rather for beauty than morals – anticipates the aesthetic movement Christina Rossetti (1830-94) . but. combines words in surprising ways.a Victorian poet whose works became known only in 1918 . or an erotic display of repressed sexuality . pure lyrics. or a religious account of sin and redemption.in his essay on Blake: the declaration of ‘art for art’s sake’: “Handmaid of religion. servant of fact.her sonnet “In an Artist’s Studio” gives an account of her brother’s obsession with the beauty of Elizabeth Siddal (herself writing poems and painting water-colours). tangible descriptions.was a Jesuite (Roman Catholic) priest: most of his works: on his spiritual relations with God . ballads.a great variety in her poetry: much of it is devotional.the influence of Metaphysical poetry. pioneer of morality [art] cannot in any way become … [Art’s] business is not to do good on other grounds. dramatic monologues.her affinity with the Pre-Raphaelites can be seen in her minute. often interpreted on feminist terms: the model is ‘reduced’ to what she (her beauty) means to the painter Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) . Modernism in fictions • • • Modernism o A phase in the history of European art and literature from the last decades of the 19th century to the years before WWII.) o British literary Modernism Early Modernism High Modernism (from end of WWI to early thirties) W. Eliot. etc. [. . allegory and satire.) Subsequent decline of religion Rise of realism in art o Modernism must also be seen as a reaction to these developments. for it expresses a need. comparative religion. physics. realism. S. in detail. Introduce the main developments in the history of the genre in the period (modernism. utopia and dystopia. Imagism etc. Imagism.Final Examination English Literature 7. . Cubism. The English novel from the 1890s to the 1960s 7.] Nothing is really beautiful unless it is useless. everything useful is ugly. not useful] things” “Nothing beautiful is indispensable to life. James Joyce. Futurism. it covers a wide range of movements (l’art pour l’art. T. one representative novel. The English novel from the 1890s to the 1960s. B.). and the needs of man are ignoble and 1 . etc. biology. o An umbrella term. a rejection of the 19th century traditions o The cult of the beautiful: Walter Pater and the Aesthetic Movement “The artist is the creator of beautiful [that is. Discuss. 1. Yeats. Virginia Woolf Late Modernism The philosophical underpinnings of literary Modernism o Idealism (aesthetic and historical) o Anti-utilitarian ethos o Primacy of sensory experience o Conviction that knowledge is subjective and relative distrust of the personal and preference of the objective o Epistemological scepticism o Experimenting (the pursuit of the perfect form) o Elitism (the cult of the great man – most often personified by the figure of the poet) Literary Modernism: a reaction against Victorian values o Britain An industrial-mercantile society dominated by utilitarianism Great scientific discoveries (in geology. Symbolism. Expressionism. Richard Poirier) regard Modernism as a phase of Romanticism Generic questions (true not only for fiction. thoughts. The English novel from the 1890s to the 1960s disgusting. but a system of conventions producing a lifelike illusion of some real world outside the text.) Experimenting with new forms (e. but also for drama and poetry!) o Novel The dominant form in Modernism because adaptable. capable of gratifying a variety of tastes and interests Grows out of 19th century fiction Adoption of complex and difficult new forms Principal technical characteristics Modernist writing is predominantly cosmopolitan. exclusion. The most useful place in a house is the lavatory” (Théophile Gautier) Affinities with Romanticism o The qualities mentioned above permeate Romantic literature and thought as well some critics (Frank Kermode. Henry James (1843-1916) Realism: a mode of writing that gives the impression of recording or ‘reflecting’ faithfully an actual way of life. James’ The Turn of the Screw. Modern criticism usually insists that realism is not a direct or simple reproduction of reality. Woolf. feelings. the literary method of representing the continuous flow of senseperceptions. like his poor weak nature.g. Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. by processes of selection. description. often expressing a sense of urban cultural dislocation Awareness of new psychological theories Juxtaposition and multiple point of view challenging the reader to establish a coherence of meaning from fragmentary forms Broad-endedness. Dalloway) Free indirect discourse: third person narration is combined with first person direct speech 2 . open-endedness life is not a single crisis. and manners of addressing the reader.Final Examination English Literature • • 7. a direct impression of life. experience is “an immense sensibility) e.g. but a series of crises Spatial form Impersonality New view of experience (“The novel is in its broadest definition a personal. popular. 1898) Stream of Consciousness technique (coined by William James.g. and memories in the human mind usually in the form of an interior monologue by mingling the impressions and often violating the norms of grammar or punctuation (e. e. Allegory can be used as a method of satire (e.g. spatial form impersonality. epistemological concerns) Utopia: a fiction written about an imagined form of ideal or superior human society. truth is no longer a given the aim of art ceases to be the (perfected) expression of established truth.Final Examination English Literature 7. authorial neutrality Sensibility: the artist is isolated. Orwell) 3 . George Orwell’s 1984. Utopian fiction is usually the basis of satire of the contemporary life. 1949) Allegory: a story or visual image with a second distinct meaning partially hidden behind its literal or visible meaning.g.g. usually of the projected future (e.g. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World) Dystopia: the inverted equivalent of a utopia. 1899) Handling of time (analepses and prolepses)(Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. applied to any unpleasant imaginary world. Marlow in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. (e. The English novel from the 1890s to the 1960s Symbolic structures: primary way to achieve unity in the text heavy use of imagery Critique of self-reliance Homodiegetic/ heterodigetic and extradiegetic/intradigetic narrators (e. BUT search for private truths by means of innovative techniques and the cultivation of sensibility (i. 1899) the accepted continuity of chronological development was upset Distancing. society. and their fate is modelled on his own or on what he feared his own fate might be”. slavery slave trade depopulation Kingdom of the Congo weakened. have little or no hope to return. but the personal possession of Leopold) State agents and concessions of Leopold: ivory and rubber Rebels against oppression Roger Casement: 1904 report 4 . the individual—cannot be adjusted to them. but their defeat is victory as it brings out their finest qualities “Conrad’s heroes are all more or less his doubles. They are trapped. what follows: tragedy or resignation and knowledge→the “qualitative” change from Romantic to Modern o Heart of Darkness (1899) Historical background Exploring the Congo (1482: Portuguese entered the mouth of the river Congo. his characters as projections of aspects of himself (Kurtz as well as Marlow in HD) o Conrad & Romanticism: Conrad’s heroes are cast in the Romantic mould. Stanley finds David Livingstone. 1871: Henry M. The English novel from the 1890s to the 1960s Joseph Conrad (1857-1924): Heart of Darkness o Polish background (born Józef Teodor Konrad Nałęcz Korzeniowski) o He was orphaned at 12 o Went to sea at 17 on French & British ships o Went to Congo in 1890 o Left the sea in 1893 o Almayer’s Folly published in 1895 o He chose to write in English (his mother tongue was Polish. they cling to lofty ideals but have to learn that reality—nature. he also spoke French) o Psychological consequences of emigration can be found in his fiction: all his heroes can be brought under one formula: they are outcasts lured away from home by inexplicable impulses and longings. their lives end tragically.Final Examination English Literature • 7. his stories seen as accounts of self-discovery. wanted colonies Stanley—acting as the King’s agent—gets Congo chiefs sign treaties Monopoly of ivory trade 1884-85 Berlin conference: US and European powers acknowledge Leopold’s claim to the Congo River basin “Congo Free State”(neither free nor a state. 1874-77: Stanley’s expedition through Africa from the eastern coast to the western) King Leopold constitutional monarch of Belgium. or by very peculiar circumstances. ” Handling of time: time-shift (the use of analepsis and prolepsis) Heart of Darkness is for one thing tells us about the horror Marlowe witnessed during his journey but the way how this horror is represented is at least that interesting. we have his commentary on the story subjective) Qs of narratology The extra/intra distinction concerns the level at which the narrator is located as narrator of his story. The English novel from the 1890s to the 1960s 1908: under pressure from Britain and the United States. the Lawyer. while homo/hetero defines whether or not the narrator participates in his own story.: Frame story: the centre of all (human) time and all (human) space 2.: The Congo: Marlow’s mission to find Kurtz Frame narratives explain and motivate the embedded narrative They are usually removed in time and space from the embedded narrative The narrator’s values and assumptions are challenged by Marlow’s story two points-of-view as two different understandings of man’s relationship to the natural world and the people in it Narration 2 narrators A man aboard the Nellie. produced by the extradiegetic narrator’s act of narrating. a middle-aged ship’s captain (narrates his story in the first person singular. the Accountant) Marlow himself. on behalf of three other passengers who listen to Marlow’s tale – the Director of Companies. who listens to Marlow’s story – anonymous (uses the first-person plural. including the narrating act of the intradiegetic narrator Homodiegetic narrator’s account of Marlow’s yarns in HD: “for him the meaning of an episode was not inside like a kernel. Extradiegetic: Refers to the first narrative level at which the extradiegetic narrator’s act of narrating is carried out Intradiegetic: refers to the second narrative level. but outside. which brought it out only as a glow brings out a haze […] The role of (homodiegetic) narrators as witnesses or agents In “Preface” to The Nigger of the ‘Narcissus’ (1897): “I want to make you see. Leopold turned over ownership of the Congo Free State to the Belgian government 1960: the Congo became an independent state Setting: frame 1. Marlowe struggles to put his experiences into 5 . and to every event in the world of this first narrative. enveloping the tale.Final Examination English Literature 7. . they worry about it [. So his books always look bigger than they are..] Marlow […] is never straightforward. the horror.”: illusions preserved at the cost of a lie: Marlow back in the “sepulchral city” Brussels Meeting the “Other”: Africa in HD – Chinua Achebe.] Conrad’s way of demonstrating this discrepancy between the orthodox and his own views of empire is to keep drawing attention to how ideas and values are constructed (and deconstructed) through dislocations in the narrator’s language. They (and of course Conrad) are ahead of their time in understanding that what they call ‘the darkness’ has an autonomy of its own. for his own part. Edward Said “Conrad dehumanizes and depersonalizes “a portion of the human race” in order to make it a prop to the disintegration of one petty European mind” (Chinua Achebe) Conrad dates imperialism. he had little notion of what that Africa might be (Edward Said) Despite their European names and mannerisms.E. [.. & space becoming time. the former as he is dying.. 6 . shows its contingency. a suggestion of something he can't say or do or think. the name Congo is not in the book! Kurtz’s idealism (spreading the light of civilization) and what happens to it Approach to Kurtz’s station = an introduction to failure The synchronicity of the non-synchronous. Conrad’s narrators are not average unreflecting witnesses of European imperialism. They do not simply accept what goes on in the name of the imperial idea: they think about it a lot.. or rendering them vague and contradictory Kurtz and Marlow acknowledge the darkness. The English novel from the 1890s to the 1960s words. “Going up that river was like travelling back to the earliest beginnings of the world.” (T. and can reinvade and reclaim what imperialism had taken for its own..” Kurtz’s failure is applicable to Marlow and to civilized humanity (Marlow: “The most you can hope from life is some knowledge of yourself”) The meaning of Kurtz’s cry: “The horror. he permits his later readers to imagine something other than Africa carved up into dozens of European colonies. the latter as he reflects retrospectively on the meaning of Kurtz’s final words. He [. but the way it is told (the narrative) is important too “He can never say what it is he wants to say.] rarely resists making peculiar things seem more peculiar by surprisingly misstating them. even if. Lawrence about Conrad) Marlow is not able to fully articulate the exact meaning of what he saw in the Congo. which would be to recognize that what they saw. The tale (the story) is of great importance.Final Examination English Literature 7. But Marlow and Kurtz are also creatures of their time and cannot take the next step. all his things end in a kind of hunger. records its illusions and tremendous violence and waste […]. ivory trade in the Congo.Final Examination English Literature 7. to reestablish the darkness Three kinds of exploration Colonization of Africa (Livingstone’s and Stanley’s expeditions to Africa. and not. King Leopold II of Belgium) The dark side of European civilization The human psyche (William James) 7 . as a non-European ‘darkness’ was in fact a non-European world resisting imperialism so as one day to regain sovereignty and independence. The English novel from the 1890s to the 1960s disablingly and disparagingly. as Conrad reductively says. philosophical. etc.). Modernism in dramas • • • • • Serious drama is confined to books in the 19th century It is brought back to the stage by Modernism (Wilde. one representative drama. The aim is to make an impact upon the audience's social conscience as well as upon their emotions o E. English drama from the 1890s to the 1960s 8. Samuel Beckett’s En attendant Godot (Waiting for Godot.g. the “Angries” and the kitchensink drama. in detail. English drama from the 1890s to the 1960s. 1952) o Convention of clowning and farce to represent the impossibility of purposeful action and the paralysis of human aspiration o Farce: a kind of comedy that inspires hilarity mixed with panic and cruelty in its audience through an increasingly rapid and improbable series of ludicrous confusions. mistaken identity) o Anti-theatre/New theatre: no conflict. and controversial attitudes. and sexual innuendos among its stock characters. Discuss.g. conventionalized speech. George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion (1913) The theatre of the absurd o Term coined by Martin Esslin in 1961 o Causes Loss of values (post-WW) Decline of religious faith o Dealing with the absurd nature of human existence. character and dialogue together with realistic illusion o E.g. o Stock situations: incidents or plot-elements that recur in fiction or in drama (e. 1. the theatre of the absurd. slogans o Problem of communication between people o Isolation o Anti-literary attitude: turning away from language as an instrument for the expression of the deepest level of meaning 1 . Introduce the main developments in the history of the genre in the period (the comedy of ideas. turn-of-the century experimentation. modernism. Shaw) New forms of abstraction in place of realist and naturalist representation Comedy of ideas o Dramatic genre that combines comedy with political. o Stock character: a stereotyped character easily recognized by readers or audiences from recurrent experiences in literary or folk tradition. physical disasters.Final Examination English Literature 8. human purposelessness in a universe without meaning or value o These works evoke the absurd by abandoning logical form. no plot just the pattern of poetic images o No real dialogues only clichés. Lawrence Durrell (“I do not belong to the Stream-ofPompousness school”) o The climate became unfavourable for innovation o The social scene Egalitarianism after the war (Labour government: 1945-51) Higher education more widely available to working-class children Expansion of education a new type of intellectual Rise in standards of living. sometimes working from one end backwards. sometimes even anarchic The “Angries” o tradition of the working-class novel (Robert Tressell’s The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists (1914). Waugh John Wain. they deal with social alienation. Jean Genet. Artur Adamov Kitchen-sink drama o Before the 1950s: working class was often depicted stereotypically in Noel Coward's 'Drawing-Room' comedies kitchen-sink drama intended to change this o New wave of realistic drama from the late 1950s onwards. (e.g. 1934) o Suspicion of experimenting (e. . and an end. Eugéne Ionesco.g. of Marx as well as Freud (Jack Jones’s Rhondda Roundabout. was the first play fully representing the theatre of the absurd o Edward Albee. seeking to focus attention on the destruction of moral values caused by consumerism and the break down of community. nevertheless a feeling of “being left out” among the working classes o The “angry” generation o o o o • • 2 . or from the middle. Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s A Scots Quair (1934) o Left-wing radicalism co-exists with rejection of ideological assumptions. Roger Dataller. The Trial (1947).] evokes little enthusiasm from a man who likes a story to be a story” o Rejection of Modernism and of further experimenting after WWII. John Osborne o The political views of these writers were initially labeled as radical. The fashion of chopping a story into component parts and of reshuffling the pieces. either way [. a middle. English drama from the 1890s to the 1960s Action is often in opposition with words Fantasy and dream reality Verbal nonsense The adaptation of Kafka’s novel. .g. depicting the family lives of working-class characters o These plays are socially and politically motivated. claustrophobia and frustrations of a provincial life on low incomes o E. Václav Havel.Final Examination English Literature 8. Alan Sillitoe. The Plain Man and the Novel (1940): “The Plain Man still looks for a beginning. Arnold Wesker. Harold Pinter. daughter of rich businessman) Alan Sillitoe’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1958) Sillitoe’s philosophy: the world is a jungle and one has to survive in it as best one can The hero (Arthur Seaton) is aware of the improvement in conditions The title implies: escape from the monotony of a worker’s life is possible only when work ceases Longing for a different—pastoral—sort of life 3 . things straightening out: Jim Dixon. rewarded both by love of rich girl and an lucrative job at the end John Braine’s Room at the Top (1957) Frustration as the source of anger is very directly related to class The hero (Joe Lampton) with strong working-class consciousness is determined to achieve “the good life” knowingly and symbolically he betrays his class. not successful in changing class-allegiances Title of American edition: Born in Captivity (1954) Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim (1954) The hero personifies the frustration of young generation of intellectuals Target of satire: middle-class pretentiousness and academic hypocrisy Much low comedy. abandons one woman (Alice) for the sake of another (Susan. English drama from the 1890s to the 1960s Name: from Osborne’s Look Back in Anger (1956) and Leslie Paul’s Angry Young Man (1951) Not a really coherent movement (A number of writers arbitrarily lumped together by critics and journalists) Common themes: Feeling ill at ease in the positions they hold in society. they want (and do) achieve more suitable ones John Wain’s Hurry on Down (1953) The hero’s (Charles Lumley) failure to adapt after university. the hero.Final Examination English Literature 8. useless o It does not tell a story. a tree. it explores a static situation where nothing happens. dreamlike effect amplifies the theme of uncertain time o The dilemma intensifies in Act II: the characters have a harder time passing the time. Didi tries to articulate some kind of truth. they’re often absurd. we are usually frightened away. silence becomes part of the play’s theme. Only rarely does language help us arrive at truth—and at those times. The one lighting effect—day turns rapidly to night Surreal. actions and dialogue may seem nonsensical or surreal o There’s no causal sequence to observe. intended “meaning” o The shape of a place (set): A country road. Gogo is more desperate to leave. (Near the end of the play. language isn’t the wonderful tool we think it is: it can be the source of all our most damaging illusions. absurd. anything that might give the play an obvious. and it does not have a plot Instead. a nothingness the characters desperately try to fill with their chatter o Lighting. it seems to take on a character of its own—an intolerable void. everything external that might help you situate the action and the characters. and most of the time. English drama from the 1890s to the 1960s Samuel Beckett: Waiting for Godot (1952/55) o Purposeless. Pozzo is more helpless.Final Examination English Literature • 8. things are a little more absurd 4 . the characters are still waiting o Character motivation is unclear. which can be tragic and comic (tragicomedy) o Carefully crafted dialogue and “meaningful” speeches are too contrived. It could be anywhere universal o Sound: NO but silences: silences stand out more emphatically. we either use it carelessly to say nothing at all or we use it to oppress one another in some way. all human actions become senseless. man is lost. things happen without clear causes o Meaning is subjective and ambiguous o The theater of the absurd is sometimes referred to as nihilistic—it believes in nothing o The existentialist recognizes the meaninglessness but declares it the responsibility of every human being to make our own meanings—to create meaning o People aren’t heroic. nobody comes and nobody goes (it is the passive Canterbury Tales) o Story seems meaningless or absurd o Progression is circular rather than linear o Act II repeats the same action as ACT I o The play ends in the middle. but in the end he pulls back—“What have I said?”) o Beckett has tried to strip away all outer contexts. they sing. wait beside a leafless tree for Godot passing time in verbal games. who is one of the two main characters of the play seems to be more responsible and mature. although they are a little bit changed: Pozzo is blind) Vladimir. in the second act he is found dumb. Albert by the boy. 5 . The play follows two consecutive days in the lives of a pair of men who divert themselves while they wait expectantly and unsuccessfully for someone named Godot who never arrives. The boy. After sometime they leave and a boy arrives. However. He appears at the end of each act to inform Vladimir that Godot is going to come on the next day. This is heightened by the sparse stage decor. Pozzo and his slave Lucky arrive on the scene. ‘We are waiting for Godot’ is an endless refrain that occurs in both acts The futility and the monotony of such a wait is the link that holds both Acts together. indicating that this cyclic pattern will continue like an unbroken circle till the end of time. To engage themselves. While Estragon. In the first act. play games. sleep and contemplate suicide— anything "to hold the terrible silence at bay". and Pozzo and Lucky Structural pattern of the play is both parallel and circular: monotonous sameness. he entertains by ‘dancing’ and ‘thinking aloud’. Lucky has to ‘dance’ and ‘think aloud’ to entertain his master and the tramps. Lucky is the next character represented as slave to Pozzo. that is Vladimir and Estragon. is the man for whom Vladimir and Estragon are waiting unendingly. but in fact they have know acquaintance with him as they admit that they would not recognise him if seen. Estragon seems to be weak. Godot never appears. talk. Vladimir and Estragon. the two Tramps. his name is often thought to refer to God In Act I. informs the tramps that Godot will definitely come the next day. Pozzo treats his slave rather horribly. Two characters. He thus lends his play a universal dimension in terms of time and space The two Acts are about the same happenings with little alternations (Estragon and Vladimir are waiting for Godot. And. is called as Gogo by Vladimir.Final Examination English Literature o o o o o o 8. Pozzo becomes blind in the second act and does not remember meeting Vladimir and Estragon. There is only an open country road with a leafless tree. Beckett has not placed his characters in a ‘specific’ place or time. however. English drama from the 1890s to the 1960s Symmetrical structure: two Acts. The next set of characters are Pozzo and Lucky. eat. the second of the two main characters. They claim that they know him. two messenger boys. the next important characters are the boy who acts as a messenger to Godot. He is addressed as Didi by Estragon and as Mr. where Vladimir and Estragon are waiting beside a leafless tree. and perpetual recurrence. Godot. Pozzo is the person who passes by the spot. obviously a messenger from Godot. and two sets of characters. helpless and always looking for Vladimir’s protection. He carries Pozzo’s bags and stool. Pozzo and Lucky arrives. If Godot is God. The rope is now much shorter and Lucky – who has acquired a new hat – leads Pozzo. with Pozzo now blind and insisting that Lucky is dumb. he looks and feels inside but finds nothing. "shatter the space of the play". who may. camaraderie. with similar roles. The same boy returns to inform them not to expect Godot today. Again. Pozzo and Lucky enter again. Estragon's trousers fall down. and the boy arrives with the same message. then Didi and Gogo's (mankind's) faith in God is not only subject to 6 . Vladimir also refers to Estragon as a "pig" several times later in the play. otherwise there is no change in the act. English drama from the 1890s to the 1960s In Act II. oppression. Pozzo and Lucky then arrive. There is a bit of realization on Vladimir's part that the world they are trapped in evinces convoluted progression (or lack thereof) of time. The two again consider suicide but their rope. Act I: The play opens with the character Estragon struggling to remove his boot from his foot. music hall traditions and vaudeville comedy (this is only one of a number of canine references and allusions in the play). hope. they agree to leave but neither of them make any move to go. Only the tree has a few leaves in Act II. breaks in two when they tug on it. The motif recurs throughout in the play. echoing Pozzo's abuse of Lucky Act II: opens with Vladimir singing a round about a dog which serves to illustrate the cyclical nature of the play’s universe. corruption. basically he is living the same day over and over. muttering. They resolve to bring a more suitable piece and hang themselves the next day. Their waiting is interrupted by the passing through of Pozzo and his heavily-laden slave Lucky. but he doesn’t notice till Vladimir tells him to pull them up. Estragon eventually gives up. Just prior to this. according to Beckett. Pozzo has lost all notion of time. rather than being driven by him.Final Examination English Literature o o o o o 8. anxieties and incertitudes. Though determined to leave. the implication being that nothing is a thing that has to be done and this pair is going to have to spend the rest of the play doing it. and also points toward the play's debt to the carnivalesque. but he would arrive the next day. Once again they leave. if Godot fails to arrive. and assures them he cannot remember meeting them the day before. Vladimir observes that they are "tied to Godot" as Lucky is tied to Pozzo. Pozzo is now blind and Lucky is dumb. Continuing to wait. and that he does not expect to remember the current day’s events when they are over Lucky and Pozzo depart. Both comedy and pathos Waiting for Godot also illustrates an attitude toward man's experience on earth: the poignancy. "Nothing to be done. the tramps do not move. Pozzo and Lucky have been seen to represent a sort of double of Vladimir and Estragon. When Estragon finally succeeds in removing his boot. Estragon’s belt." His friend Vladimir takes up the thought and muses on it. Vladimir peers into his hat. and bewilderment of human experience that can only be reconciled in mind and art of the absurdist. At one point. there is no change in the scene. He begins to see that although there is notional evidence of linear progression. By and large they believe that life is very difficult and that it doesn't have an "objective" or universally known value. Yet the illusion of faith— that deeply embedded hope that Godot might come—still flickers in the minds of Vladimir and Estragon Political: allegory of the cold war Existentialist: Broadly speaking existentialists hold there are certain questions that everyone must deal with (if they are to take human life seriously). questions such as death. this is the misunderstanding of the absurd Godot = God ??? Repentance. The play touches upon all of these issues (Beckett was very much influenced by existentialism. everyone is free to chose a meaning) Ultimate freedom of action. English drama from the 1890s to the 1960s doubt. and Jean Paul Sartre there is no predeterminate meaning. there is no omnipotent God We only know that we are going to die. but no progress Pozzo and Lucky: master + slave relationship subjected to change all the time (fortune can change it) 7 . but according to Beckett. and we live our life in a responsible way Suicide: seems to be a free option for everyone. but that the individual must create value by affirming it and living it.Final Examination English Literature o o o o o o o o o o 8. original sin (existential guilt) Vladimir likes thinking about philosophical questions They imagine Godot as a man with white beard and a flock of sheep (very God-like image) The characters are rather universal figures No sense of identity: we know that we have identity if we can remember and project our consciousness into the future a continuity of consciousness through time (John Locke’s narrative identity) Change vs progress: there is change (tree). the meaning of human existence and the place of God in human existence. but may also have almost entirely disappeared. not by talking about it. music. English poetry from the 1890s to the 1960s 9. Cubism. and the exact word was always to be used. 1 . whether subjective or objective. etc.g. two representative poems. Ulysses = Odyssey) • Imagism o Leader: Ezra Pound o Direct treatment of the "thing". o Complete freedom of subject matter. Introduce the main developments in the history of the genre in the period (early and “classical” modernism. o Common speech language was used. art (e. as opposed to the almost exact word. imitative/structural allusions to works which remind us the structure of another (e.g. stream of consciousness in fiction • Rejection of traditional metres in favour of free verse • Logical expression of thoughts is replaced with collages of fragmentary images and complex allusions (Ezra Pound. and foreign phrases • Allusion: an indirect or passing reference to some event. quotations. atonality in music. T. 1. free verse in poetry. o Free verse was encouraged along with other new rhythms. Surrealism. place or artistic work. person. in detail. This technique is an economical means of calling upon the history or the literary tradition that author and reader are assumed to share topical allusions to events. English poetry from the 1890s to the 1960s. Eliot) • Collage: a work assembled wholly or partly from fragments of other writings. the “engaged” poetry of the 1930s and 1940s. personal allusions to aspects of one’s own life and circle of friends. Modernism in poetry 1918 the Representation of the People Act gave vote to all males over 21 and all females over 30 1919 Einstein Theory of Relativity was confirmed experimentally (rocking faith in all kinds of absolutes) 1927 Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle the universe was constructed by randomness the physical world seemed less comprehensible and less secure 1921 the Partition of Ireland fragmentation of the Empire 1922 the publication of James Joyces”s Ulysses and T. Eliot’s The Waste Land the publication of Edward Marsh’s final Georgean anthology mass car production reached Britain the BBC started its daily broadcast • Symbolist Movement (very strong connection with Romanticism) • New features in literature. New Romanticism. S. incorporating allusions. Anti-representationalism in visual arts. the nature and relevance of which is not explained by the writer but relies on the reader’s familiarity with what is thus mentioned.Final Examination English Literature 9. the Movement. Discuss.).S. Apology: the preface written to Late Lyrics and Earlier.g.g. Walter de la Mare. Robert Bridges) Georgean poets (Rupert Brooke. Edward Thomas – realism. Hilarie Belloc) “Studious craftsmen” (e. B.2. 1898 o W. Yeats and the Celtic Twilight ( Ezra Pound and the new imagist theory) o The change form Romanticism to Modernism was evolutionary Modernsim = tendencies of Romanticism carreid to their limits o o o o o • 1.Final Examination English Literature 9. compassion. surface verbal music. Wilfred Owen. inexpressive rhythms. as challenge to established culture the period from 1901 (when Queen Victoria died) up to 1914 (the outbreak of the First World War) displays continuity between Romanticism and Modernism o Eminent Victorians lingered. Traditionalists • • • • • • The poet of the empire: Rudyard Kipling. but he tried to defend himself in his prefaces (e. English poetry from the 1890s to the 1960s Concision. The classical modernist 1. aesthetes (Oscar Wilde.2. as an opposition to the established conventions. sensuous perceiving) Avantgarde “decadent” poetry. e. Latin) he was criticized by his contemporaries. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) • • • • 40 years of his life devoted to prose A 19th century fiction writer (Jude the Obscure was his last fiction to be published) and a 20th century poet Wessex Poems (1898).1. Ernest Dowson – derived identity from negation of Victorian values) 1. Rupert Brooke. the poem has to find its own shape Modernism is generally defined as a rejection of traditional styles and theories. directness Poem should be brief Poem should not contain superfluous words The whole poem should be built around one single image The poem should not follow the beat of the metronome. Rupert Brooke) o Thomas Hardy’s Wessex Poems. who maintained the idea of the British Empire in powerful echoes of hymns Edwardian “entertainers” (e. g. as a violation of continuity. 1922) 2 . to be followed by seven more collections He used weird words (from Anglo-Saxon. John Masefield. reigned between 1910 and 1936) (e. stereotyped techniques) War poets (e. i.g. Walter de la Mare – vague emotions. Arthur Symons. Rudyard Kipling o Georgian poetry is regarded conventional (after the name of King George V.g.e.g.1. Robert Graves. yet the personal emotions ate distanced by a tissue of allusions (to the Bible.2. rhythms get much more modern (influence of Pound) A Vision (1925. ballads) Employment of short lines Unadjusted impressions have their value. Galic language was oppressed) Irish Revival Spent his childhood’s summers in Ireland. to Thoreau) o Supported various occult studies 1910s: his style. Drummer Hodge) Hardy’s personal metronome was ridiculed he was not a typical modernist. William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) • • • • • Enlgish oppression on Ireland (Irish. man is an alien in a impersonal universe. but he claimed that he is an evolutionary meliorist (in Apology) Refusal to surrender to any poetic fashion. ‘meliorism’ was invented by William James. songs. elegies. Henry James’s brother) Agnosticism. no Prime Mover) A perceptional artist: the world is interpreted in terms of personal experience His poetry is conceived of as the expresssion of that experience. and the road to a true philosophy of life seems to lie in humbly recording diverse readings of its phenomena as they are forced upon us by chance and change” chance and change! He was not a supporter of the monarchy (cf. a form of knowledge. and published again in 1902) o 1899: foundation of the Irish Literary Theatre Abbey Theatre o The Lake Isle of Innisfree Nostalgic. in Sligo.2. at the mercy of sheer chance and change “Meliorist” – one who believes that the world may be made better by humman effort (the term. revised edition in 1937) o His own system is described about the working of the universe and about history o Pattern of double interpenetrating gyres 3 . he composed his personal experiences into sensory poems (no imagism) Attacks oppressive and hierarchical social orders 1. quietly searching individual accent Darwinian struggle for survival people thwarted by the irony of chance circumstances inabilty to believe in the government of the world by a benevolent God. scepticism (Unknown God. a means of ordering sensation Composed elatively short poems (dramatic monologues. at his grandparents Celtic Twilight o Revival of Irish culture o A cultural movement with the goal of reviving Irish culture in order to bridge the gap of disrapture in cultural discontinuity o 1893: publication of A Collection of folktales and myth from Sligo and Galway (later revised. or atheist.Final Examination English Literature • • • • • • • • • • • • • 9. English poetry from the 1890s to the 1960s He rejected the idea that he was a pessimistic poets. 3. religion by commerce.g. objectivist poetry Tradition and the Individual Talent (1919) o Essay o Introduced the “impersonal theory of poetry”: poetry is an escape from personal emotions” o The poet should not verbalize his or her emotions o The poet is a catalyst. Shakespeare. but this experience must be cleansified in the process of composing o Discards the subjective poetry of Romanticism Hamlet and His Problems (1922) o Introduced the term “objective correlative”: the external equivalent for an internal state of mind o The task of the poet is to create a verbal painting capable of evoking emotions in the reader The individual was superseded by the citizen. death by water. the community by the state. Alfred Prufrock (1917) o Dramatic monologue practical for expressing objectivity 4 . break the hold of the iambic pentameter o Collage-work. Grail-legend the poem is a quest for something) The Love Song of J. Eliot (1888–1965) • • • • • • • • Modernism arrived decisively in English poetry with Eliot Abandoned the conventional way of writing Objective. English poetry from the 1890s to the 1960s Poems reflecting this pattern (e. The Second Coming. fragmentariness (Ezra Pound simply cut out certain passages from the text) o A dialogical poem. the need for spiritual regenration failure of the universe o Fragmentation of metre. but there is no progress the land cannot give proper harvest o 5 parts of the poem each and every part contains similar images. multiplicity of perspectives o Waste land is ruled by an impotent king there are fertility rituals. who transmits certain emotions over to the reader from his own personal experience. Sailing to Byzantium. a patchwork. birth) o Lost social meaning. the loss of a sense of community in modern life.Final Examination English Literature o 9.2. high by mass culture. Byzantium. Upanishads.g. T. death. disintegration of internal and external world o Disjunction. desert. S. recurrent motives (e. Easter 1916) 1. poetry by advertisement The Waste Land (1922) o Unified vision of the world is broken o A typical post-WW poem: loss of values. a tissue of literary allusions (Bible. no coherent shape) BUT: o Recurrent motifs. Auden (1907-1973) • • • • • • • • • Politically committed (left-wing intellectual) Impact of Marx and Freud on their politics and psychology Reacted against experimentalism. objective tone. poems as objects o Early poems Obscurity. contemporaries at Oxford) o Wystan Hugh Auden o Louis MacNeice (1907-1963) o Cecil Day-Lewis (1904-1972) o Stephen Spender (1909-1995) 1. outbreak of the Second World War) The Auden Group (or Oxford poets.3. yet learnt from Eliot The leading poet of the generation.1. refrains. communication can be carried out by turning to the holy communion o o o o • 1. rise of fascism. self-identification the failure of the individual Ash-Wednesday (1930) o Religious turn: Eliot turned to Anglican Catholicism o “turning”: a recurrent motive in the poem o Influenced by Dante’s Purgatory and The New Life o Meditative and incantatory elements like a sermon o Here.3. he had teaching jobs at universities Features of his poetry o Impact of Eliot’s diction. Spanish Civil War. often inspired by political events Technical-brilliance 5 . S. H.Final Examination English Literature 9.. English poetry from the 1890s to the 1960s A web of allusions Fragments of conversations A shifting succession of images Structure: architectonic design (fragmented narrative plot. the use of personal pronouns gives unity to the diverting lines o Main theme: problem of communication. amiguity. labyrinth with no centres Prolific – topical urgency. from the very beginning an acclaimed master Middle-class professional background Oxford education Ambulance driver in the Spanish War In 1939 settled in the U. The poetry of the 30s : the engaged poetry • • 1930s: economic and political crisis (The Wall Street Crash. o Uses technical and scientific terms o Dispassionate. the Great Depression. W. idealized childhood o Rustic idyll o State of original innocence (actually summer holidays) o Complex structure of assonance and alliteartion. In this French fixed form. and contemporary world.3. emotional detachment 1. more conversational writing Growing respect for tradition. but more pantheistic than Christian o Repetitive. English poetry from the 1890s to the 1960s Rhytmic vitality o American period Turning point More intimate Less rhetorical. Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) • • • • • • • • Neo-romantic style (challenging the High Modernism of the 1920s and a reaction against thirties discursive. internal rhymes Do Not Go Gently into That Good Night (1952) o Villanelle on the death of his father o Villanelle: a poem composed of an uneven number of tercets rhyming aba with a final quatrain rhyming abaa.Final Examination English Literature • • • 9. intellectual styles) Mystical intuitions. all equally brutal violence of history. 1. Christianity As I Walked Out One Evening (1938) Musée des Beaux Arts (1940) The Shield of Achilles (1955) o Pictures simultaneously the Homeric. he had completed half of his Collected Poems (1952) enormous success self-destructive life Rhetorical poems And Death Shall have No Dominion (1936) o Sounds like preachers.3. and together as the final couplet of the quatrain. natural imagery The Welsh bard o Welsh background o Welsh bardic tradition By the time he was 21. paratactical structures.2. double framework Fern Hill (1946) o Romantized. Philip Larkin (1922-1985) and The Movement • The Movement 6 . the first and the third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternatedly as the third lines of the succeeding tercet. Imperial Roman. emotional intensity.3. personal utterance. Thomas Gray’s Elegy Written in Country Churchyard) o Sad Steps (1974) Literary allusion to the moon in Sonnet 31 from Sir Philip Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella the moon is (1) an orb. intellectual clarity o Technical accomplishment o Pathos and grim humour of experience o Agnostic stoicism o Descriptive-meditative tradition: his poems describe some sight. post-war generation poets (e. description-plusevaluation pattern. Philip Larkin.g. new.e. Scott in an article published in The Spectator (1954) o Not a “movement”. summarizing argument) o Church Going (1955) Parody of church elegies (cf. yet there was something stylistically cohesive o Main features o Reaction against wild. lucidity. Donald Davie (1922-1995)) o Name ironically given by J. (4) the metaphor of memory stereotypical literary symbolism is mocked o • 7 .: renewed Neo-Classicist tendencies Philip Larkin o Personal. loose emotions o Distrust of flamboyant mannerisms. autobiographical speech o Plain phrasing. D.e. Elizabeth Jennings (1926-2001). J. D. (3) a geometrical object. i.Final Examination English Literature 9. object. Enright (1920-2002). English poetry from the 1890s to the 1960s 1950s. Kingsley Amis (19221995). Romantic attitudes. event and present his response or lack of response to it (i. great theoretical constructs o Neutral tone. (2) a romantic symbol. birds are personified. it refers to Hardy’s spiritual state o Scene: deep in the winter. iambic pattern). refers to an evening service of thanksgiving for the day (very unusual. in which Time and God are talking to each other the passing of time is never neutral. Hardy is not like this. typical in the English tradition (cf. God meditates how the Earth was in earlier times. it has a dark plumage That the bird belongs to the species ‘darkling thrush’ That it was darkling when the bird sang Very few instances of this word in English poetry: John Milton’s Paradise Lost (there is a darkling bird). open closure Sentences are very well-balanced. Shelley’s To a Skylark) o In all these poems. it reads like prose. the turning of the century o What does darkling mean? That the bird itself is darkling. New Years Eve) are just as sceptical and agnostic as the others o It has the same form as By the Earth’s Corpse (another poem of Hardy.g. no coming home. at the edge of the forest the poet’s mood is horrifying o The bird starts to sing “a full-hearted evensong”at the middle of the poem changing in mood o Evensong: a religious term. they represent some philosophical idea or human behaviour o Original title: By the century’s deathbed it was written on the last day of the 19th century it can be considered as an almanach poem (poems celebrating certain days of the year)? no. 4-3-4-3. which had the same theme as this poem. used in the Anglican church. also had the word ‘darkling’ in it Hardy used this o Ending of the poem “whereof he knew. as Hardy was even thought to be an atheist) it gives a religious tint to the poem (also words like ‘hope’. ‘blessed hope’) o Form of the poem: common metre (a song form. a vision poem. Wordsworth’s The Reverie of Poor Susan. such poems of his (e. spiritual darkness). and how it is now) it seems that the image of burying Earth is recurring for Hardy o The changing of the title suggests that this poem is not just about the fulcrum. very rugged 8 . English poetry from the 1890s to the 1960s Thomas Hardy: The Darkling Thrush o Can be considered as a bird poem. John Keats’s Ode to a nightingale (there it refers to a mental state. and I was unaware” reversed word order Open-ending. hymnlike (used also by Naham Tate and William Cowper) o John Kable published a poem in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861).Final Examination English Literature • 9. Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach (there the plain is darkling) Here. Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale. who is the repository of the accumulated knowledge 9 . a transcendental being.S. but it can end in hope! the poem ends in doubt.g. man must have a religion to guide his ethical choices Nature is not hostile. he did not believe in any benevolent God o Hardy described himself as an evolutionary meliorist (in Apology written to Late Lyrics and Earlier) Meliorism: bridge between optimism and pessimism Maybe there is no benevolten God. Spencer. make the Universe aware of our pain? 3. gave up belief in God 2. Q: how should we.Final Examination English Literature 9. H. and the word ‘unaware’ o ‘un’: privative suffix is very common in Hardy’s poetry (e. it is indifferent William Butler Yeats: The Second Coming o A cultic text o Written in 1919 (extraliterary political background: WWI. Self-Unconsciouss. but there is some progress in the human conditions The word ‘evolutionary’ marks that this progress is very slow 3 phases in becoming a meliorist 1. BUT: 3 things needed: man must begin with a darkened view of life. Soviet Revolution in Russia. Huxley. people. St.) o “rough beast”: the beast is mentioned in the Book of Revelations o The gyre. the spiral already set the prediction of the 2nd coming o According to Yeats’s system the Christian civilization is drawing to the end of its 2000-year period next section in the history will grow out of the destruction of this Christian civilization (“twenty centuries of stony sleep”) o Yeats mentions no god in this poem. 24. Matthew. Irish troubles + personal anxieties) o The title is an allusion to the Bible (the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ is predicted in the Gospel. Unknowing) agnosticism in Hardy’s poetry: agnosticism (coined by T. English poetry from the 1890s to the 1960s • Ending cannot be the praise of a benevolent God. there is not even an implied reference to God o Spiritus Mundi: the spirit of the universe. maybe the Unconscious Will of the Universe can become conscious.: influence of Darwin. Huxley is the philosophy of not knowing.: influence of Arthur Schoppenhauer’s The World as will and idea and Eduard von Hartmann’s Philosophy of the Unconscious consciousness developed only as an accident of evolution. human intelligence may find the upward way. man must rely on himself alone. ch. Mill.: ecological aspects of the evolution: man has some power to guide development toward ethical goals that apparently nature ignores. J. he became an agnostic pessimist. etc. falcon is frequently identified with Jesus Christ)+(desert birds also reel around also a spiral movement) Rough beast: Anti-Christ: ironically. constantly whirling. national life. divided into 28 parts by spokes Each part has a name. beast. you have to find your True Mask. the birthplace of Christ Rhyme pattern: blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter) with off-rhymes (hold-world) Yeats’s system Described in his A Vision (1925. order and with the chaotic situation (end of WWI. it is the point of balance 10 . we are all composed as compounds of history. English poetry from the 1890s to the 1960s Rhetorical pattern of the poem does not follow the linear history: it starts with the loosening of discipline. family life. you are ok.Final Examination English Literature o o o o o 9. antithetical. but if you are born into a subjective phase. If you are born into an objective phase. characteristic The huge wheel is divided horizontally into an objective and a subjective part According to Yeats. we go back retrospectively to the birth of the civilization Biblical references: title.). it slouches towards Betlehem. but it is very easy to err Gyre system: double interpenetrating gyres. 1937) The working of the universe is like a mixture of linear movements and repetitiveness Human history is divided into 2000-year periods add up to the Great Year (56 000 year) The great year is represented by a huge wheel. a part which contains some element of one’s oppositional. contrasted character there is an optimum halfway through. birds (falcon-falconer: the falcon abandons the falconer in a spiral movement gyres. moving around: they represent the opposite forces in history Everyone has an antithetical part. and promiscuous superficiality. it is applied to a cultural condition prevailing in the advanced capitalist societies since the 1960s.Final Examination English Literature 10. postmodernity is said to be a culture of fragmentary sensations.g. The narrator of such works is often called a self-conscious narrator. in which the traditionally valued qualities of depth. Tom Stoppard. o E. e. Self-reflexivity can also be found in poetry. disposable simulacra. and authenticity are evacuated or dissolved amid the random swirls of empty signals As applied to literature. Salman Rushdie. Introduce the work. Jeanette Winterson. Contemporary English literature. 2. Angela Carter. Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead Self-reflexivity o A term applied to literary works that openly reflect upon their own processes of artful compositions. of a major writer or poet (Salman Rushdie. Highlight some characteristic developments in the literature of the recent past.g. implying either that modernism has been superseded or that it has continued into a new phase. the term is notoriously ambiguous. Postmodernism • • • • • • Sort of after-modernism No need to establish a demarcation line between modernism and postmodernism The term refers generally to the phase of 20th century Western culture that succeeded the reign of high-modernism More often. Contemporary English literature 10. Seamus Heaney). Angela Carter. 1. eclectic nostalgia. in some detail. and limited application to drama outside the absurdist tradition. Julian Barnes. Postmodernism may be seen as a continuation of modernism’s alienated mood and disorienting techniques and at the same time as an abandonment of its determined quest for artistic coherence in a fragmented world It seems to have little relevance to poetry. Features of postmodern literature • • • Total/ cruel theatre o Theatre of the absurd o E.g. but is used widely in reference to fiction. Such self-referentiality is frequently found in modern works of fiction that repeatedly refer to their own fictional status. John Fowles. In this sense. John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman Meaning of any text is unstable o Idea of Ferdinand Saussure 1 . coherence and meaning. characterized by a suberabundance of disconnected images and styles. originality. and offers the reader alternative endings (each chapter begins with a motto from a literary work from the Victorian period) o E. sometimes several centuries).g. o E. the other on the failures of Flaubert’s life no stable meaning Literary allusions o It gives an intellectual frame of reference the reader is provided with certain expectations o It also means in a sense the death of the author (Roland Barthes) if the whole work is completely an allusion to an earlier work o E. Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead: the story is told from the two side-characters’ point of view meaning is unstable o E. only plural readers’ response is important o E.g.g. and in which some attempt is made to depict accurately the customs and mentality of the period. Stoppard’s Arcadia: reference to a painting by Nicholas Poussin: Et in Arcadia Ego helps the audience Intertextuality o the original title of Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead was Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meets King Lear Metafiction o Fiction about fiction. the readers are familiar with the story. Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s parrot: it is a fiction about writing fiction. John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969). Contemporary English literature o No stable meaning. but even in this sense. o The term is usually used for works that involve a significant degree of selfconsciousness about themselves as fictions. John Fowles’s The French Lieutenant’s Woman: the reader is offered alternative choices concerning the ending of the novel) o E.g. Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot: the novel can be taken as a biography of the French author. in which Fowles interrupts the narrative to explain his procedures. Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead: the intellectual frame of reference is given by Shakespeare. in ways that go beyond occasional apologetic addresses to the reader.g. 2 . the meaning is plural: biographies also depend on the prejudices of the writers: one biography concentrates on the successes.Final Examination English Literature • • • • 10.g.g. a kind of fiction that openly comments on its own fictional status. the biography of one’s life Historical novels o A novel in which the action takes place during a specific historical period well before the time of writing (often one or two generations before. they just have to adjust their version to the new one o E. g.g. V= versus (left vs right). verse (self-reflexivity). vandalism o E. Tony Harrison’s V: 1980s: Margaret Thatcher came into power heavy industry was closed down.g. o E. football hooliganism. flight. but the story itself is in the 19th century double nature of the narration + the narrator appears in the novel hard to distinguish between the author and the narrator the narrator is also a character o Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot: The narrator is also a character in the novel o E. when the bodies were most probably sacrificed for fertility goddesses o E. racism. victory (sign used by Churchill and Thatcher). telekinesis – are among the means that magic realism adopts in order to encompass the often phantasmagoric political realities of the 20th century. Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s parrot: the history of the French author gets fictionalized Narrative techniques o E.Final Examination English Literature • • • • 10.g. uses vocabulary from the 20th century.g. Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children: story-telling tradition (realistic) tale-tradition (supernatural): the history of the nation is represented through individual’s experience: 1001 children were born at midnight -Schecherazade tells 1001 stories to delay her execution. question of self-identification: Sarah finally manages to pronounce her name o E. The fantastic attributes given to characters in such novels –levitation.g.g.g. miner’s strikes. Contemporary English literature o E. Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and other stories Social criticism o E.g. o E. not just 2000 years ago.g. telepathy. distinctive voice. Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day: the narrator. unemployment. John Fowles’s The French lieutenant’s woman: Fowles explicitly claims this o E. Brian Friel’s Translations: individual and national identity is taken away by the English. Stevens is unreliable: the language reveals and conceals at the same time Magic realism o A kind of modern fiction in which fabulous and fantastical events are included in a narrative that otherwise maintains the ‘reliable’ tone of objective realistic report. John Fowles’s The French lieutenant’s woman: the narrator is allknowing. Caryll Churchill’s Serious Money: satire on Thatcherist era Use of objective correlatives 3 . etc. the story starts with Aadam – he was the first man according to the Bible. Seamus Heaney’s The Tollund Man: the poet says he feels at home maybe because violence has been always in our lives. just like Bovary. Julian Barnes’s Flaubert’s Parrot: the life of the great French author is the objective correlative for the protagonist to express his private pains and losses (Geoffrey Braithwaite: a medical doctor. and subsequent transitions to post-Independence society 4 . the Indian sub-continent.e. Seamus Heaney’s Bog poems: the case of the Tollund Man was for him the objective correlative through which he could express his and his family’s history (i. the Caribbean.g. o In practice.Final Examination English Literature • 10. and other regions whose histories during the 20th century are marked by colonialism. just like Madame Bovary) Postcolonial literature o It covers a very wide range of writings from countries that were once colonies or dependencies of the European powers. anti-colonial movements. the term is applied most often to writings from Africa. turf-digging tradition) o E. Contemporary English literature o E.g. his wife died. they have no imaginative power. whenever R&G speak to characters of Hamlet. they know the play : title refers to it. the Ambassador says it o Stage-technique: turn a successful play inside-out. and upside-down 5 . relying on change rather than on own individual decisions o Do they die? We don’t know. has a greater understanding of the world and the events o Self-reflexivity. but they did not results in selfdestruction Hamlet changes the letter o Relationship btw life and stage Self-reflexivity. or memory o Kind of absurdist play o Death is only believable when it is expected o Incomprehensibility of the world R&G have no idea where they are. but capable of sensitive thought o G: anxious. it is not presented. what is their task Ambiguous and unclear motives of the characters o The difficulty of making meaningful choices R&G let themselves flow No action. coins: chance. seeks explanations o Player: witty. close connection The Tragedians perform a play which depicts parallel events to those in which the two men find themselves o Gambling. story is also the same: intellectual frame of reference: helps the audience o R&G are everyman figures. meta-fiction o R&G exist only in the present. no identity. not by actions Total confusion. the original play refers to it. no choice. Contemporary English literature Tom Stoppard: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead (1967) o 1964: one-act play: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern meet King Lear intertextuality matters to Stoppard. later rewrote it to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead o Story of Hamlet. but passivity Constant confusion inability of making meaningful choices in a world what we do not really understand No choice: the danger of passivity: they could have saved Hamlet’s life by destroying the letter. represented from the side-characters’ point of view o Direct quotation from Shakespeare. mysterious. but the Player says that death is believable when expected audience expects it. lacking identities Unable to remember where they are going. but different o R: easygoing. randomness. driven by chance.Final Examination English Literature • 10. what they are doing. hallucinations. no. I’ll stay with you. you mean? R: I mean I don’t believe it. I’ll stay with you o Puns (e. no decision.g. you wouldn’t take it” P: “We learn something every day. that way. repeatedly absurdist. stay together. Godot) o They are called Ros and Guil (as nicknames) o They forget how long they have been spinning coins o They remember only that they were sent for o Tragedians They can perform anything (blood. sometimes to kill time. they’re all we have to go on” no action. I have no image. rhetoric) Player recognizes R&G as his fellow artists self-reflexive P: “we take our chance where we find them” P says that he never changes out of his costume life is theatre The Murder of Gonzago P: “Uncertainty is the normal state. of course – off course) o G says about boats: “You don’t have to worry about which way to go. Contemporary English literature o This is just another version of Hamlet no stable meaning. dies. to make the other happy.” o R confuses himself with G o Hamlet. words. amnesia.Final Examination English Literature 10. o Hamlet’s problem is described with contemporary terms: claustrophobia. when rehearsing how to find out Hamlet’s problem. to our cost. just talking o They do not understand each other fully. G: What? R: England G: Just a conspiracy of cartographers. and when rehearsing what to say to the English king9 o G: “We don’t know how to act” self-reflexive o Going after Hamlet: this way. at terrible odds – if it was a bet. You’re nobody special” P: everyone who is marked for death. paranoia 6 . often answers a question with another question o Question and Answer game (used twice. Claudius and Gertrude also mistake R&G’s identities o Existentialism: G: “the only beginning is birth and the only end is death. or whether to go at all” later he regrets that they got on the boat o R says about England: I don’t believe in it anyway. it depends on the point of view o Tossing coins. and that is all that they are prepared to believe in P: “Life is a gamble. love. to release the tension (cf. no. no. if you can’t count on that. what can you count on?” o G: “Words. because it is written (he says that 8 corpses are told) P: audiences know what to expect. Postmodern poetry (the Black Mountain Poets. American poetry and drama. the unity of effect). the San Francisco Renaissance. but is based on total control by the author. The poetry of Edgar Allan Poe. to match with the presumed student narrator poring over his volumes of forgotten lore. Wallace Stevens.e. The bust was of Pallas in order to evoke the notion of scholar. The poetry of Edgar Allan Poe • • • • • 1809-1849 First half of the 19th century: The Myth of South (difference between North and South) The differences between the North and the South is also visible in literature He was the first professional American writer He wrote several essays on poetry o The Philosophy of Composition (1846) Establishes the origins of literary criticism How good writers write when they write well He uses his poem The Raven as an illustrative example. Applying all this to The Raven: he purposely set the poem on a tempestuous evening. The death of a beautiful woman is unquestionably the most poetical topic in the world he was quite obsessed with this theme Method: writing is methodical and analytical. William Carlos Williams). He purposefully chose a pallid bust to contrast with the dark plume of the bird. Modern American drama (Eugene O'Neill. American poetry and drama 11. Robert Frost. Arthur Miller. the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes). Eliot. High modernism and radical modernism (Ezra Pound. No aspect of the poem was an accident. Tennessee Williams. Even the term 1 . which. causing the raven to seek shelter. except for the novels. The distinct limit to all works of literary art is the limit of one sitting. are superior to novels Unity of effect: a work of fiction should be written only after the author has decided how to end his work and which emotional effect he wishes to create (i. Kubla Khan) Plagiarism is the biggest sin of authors Poetry should be conscious and logical in order to capture the beauty 3 central elements of composition: Length: all works should be short. S. Edward Albee). 1. the Confessionals. the New York School.Final Examination English Literature 11. which is in deliberate contrast to the spontaneous creation (cf. Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson. Discuss one of the following topics in detail: American poetry from the period of Colonization to the age of Enlightenment. for this reason. the Beats. but also for short stories. He especially applied this to poetry. not spontaneous. T. the Language Poets). spiritual journey of the poet’s figure Aim: to grab the mystical identity Self-identity. it is not deductive. The raven is meant to symbolize Mournful and neverending remembrance Basic theories of the symbolist poetry The task of poetry is not to teach. The sounds in the vowels have more meaning than the definition of the word itself. free from all deductive aim. which should be based rather on imagination than on reality From 1830: wrote short stories. transcendentalist beauty Tamerlane and other poems (1827): his first collection of poems o Poems’ musicality and rhythm is important Poems (1831) o More mature poems o Surrealistic world o A Sonnet to science He blames science because they deprived the poets from myths. The poetry of Walt Whitman • • • • • • • • • • 1819-1892 Both Whitman and Dickinson renewed the contemporary poetical views and styles Modern free verse Picturing the American landscape – identification with America Ambivalent concerning slavery. in which he mixed reality and imagination. published anonymously with 12 poems o Song of Myself Metaphysical. founder of the detective-story 2. but his works represent some ideas of them (e. fantasy ghost-stories. harmony between self and nature) 2 . topics: self-identity. optimism He wrote prefaces to his poems o His poetical aims are similar to those in Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads’ preface o The task of the poet: identification with the American present Main themes. friendship.g. fairytales and dreams Became interested in death and what comes after death Metaphysical questions His aesthetics as a poet is distinctive from the traditions of the American poetry for him. for mere enjoyment L’art pour l’art: art for art’s sake The essence of poetry is to be found in the superior. inevitability of death He was not a Transcendetalist.Final Examination English Literature • • • • • • • • • • 11. i. but later he took part in the Free Soil Movement abolitionist movement Obsession towards the America nation 1855: Leaves of the Grass: his first collection. but poetry is cultivated for its own sake. art for its own sake.e. initially he accepts slavery. love. American poetry and drama ‘nevermore’ is based on logic following the unity of effect. innocence Deep religious crisis: she could not accept the state of being inferior to men personal revolution: she did not get married. a kind of dirge. expression of disappointment and personal anxiety which only the ocean and the sea can heal o E. when. marriage she had to make a choice) Dickinson-riddle: letters written to a Master (we don’t know who he was. elegy Complete poetry and prose: his last collection Whitman’s main points: o Founder of the free verse tradition o Almost imagist views o Acceptance of death – elegies o The first poet writing explicitly about the forms of sexuality American Bard: trying to found the American modern epical poem (Song of Myself) which would raise national self-identification 3. only 7 poems of hers were published. why and whether they were sent at all) topic: transition between Puritanism and romanticism She lived in privacy. childhood appears as a nostalgic picture. and Samuel Bowles. but she wrote poems to both of them (themes. she did not have contacts with other writers She talked to her books many of her poems are about what books matter to her Dramatic monologues perfect from for objectivist poetry She devoted all her life to poetry Late poetry: after the death of her father about death Wrote also about sexuality Psychology was also present in the poems She did not accept traditional religion. she chose for an independent and creative life (she could do that because she inherited money from her father) She had 2 great loves (Charles Wadworth. a journalist) we do not know whether her love was requited or not.g. a priest.Final Examination English Literature • • • • • • • 11. anonymously 1955: publication of all of his poems Modernist view Follower of the English metaphysical tradition Feminist criticism No titles are added to her poems Childhood often appears as a metaphor for claustrophobia (she has to do whatever others ask her to do) later. As I Ebb’d with the ocean of life o When Lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d Written on the death of Lincoln. topics: romantic affection and artistic creation vs. The poetry of Emily Dickinson • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • In her life. American poetry and drama Very explicit in his poems. even about very personal topics shocked the contemporary readership (Emerson admired him) Praised sex (very unusual) His views as a poet are very revolutionary 1860s: poems are not optimistic anymore. wanted to have an own religion 3 . idiosyncratic dashes at the end of the lines 4 . ellipsis o Inversion. synesthesia. she left out modal auxiliaries o Unique spelling: she used capital letters o Very short lines. metonymy. American poetry and drama Introspective poems with the aim of knowing herself Experimenting with poetry o Oxymoron.Final Examination English Literature • • 11. Scott Fitzgerald. American prose and fiction. Discuss one of the following topics. Thoreau.Final Examination English Literature 12. Mark Twain. Fuller The Dial: magazine edited by Fuller and Emerson Transcendentalist Club (1836) o Radical writers living in New England o Debates. Henry James). Kurt Vonnegut). Transcendentalism • • • • • • • Emerson. Postmodern fiction (Thomas Pynchon. he later used these notes for his writings o Diary writing o European tour: met Coleridge and Wordsworth 1 . lectures Flourishing: 1830-40 1836: Emerson’s Nature Transcendentalism o Influenced by German Romanticism and its philosophy (Kant). feminism. 1. Italian Humanism and Renaissance o Ideal of the American dream o Rejected the dependency on European culture o Demanded reforms (abolitionism. Herman Melville. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Edith Wharton. Modernist fiction (F. Twentieth century women writers (Kate Chopin. Toni Morrison). educational reforms o Emerson. Ernest Hemingway. aim is to get through nature o Nature is subordinated to the human o Only those religions are valid that imagines divinity in the humans themselves o Leader of the transcendentalist movement o He noted down everything which he thought to be interesting. American prose and fiction 12. Thoreau: abolitionism o Unity of humans and God o Harmony of humans and nature o Writer’s superiority Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) o Aim: to solve the riddle of nature o Nature covers divinity. Robert Coover. John Barth. English Romanticism (Coleridge). Aspects of 19th century prose (Edgar Allan Poe. Henry David Thoreau. educational reforms. William Faulkner). Margaret Fuller). 19th century women writers and the slave narrative. American Transcendentalism (Ralph Waldo Emerson. in detail: American prose from the period of Colonization to the age of Enlightenment. Villa Cather. putting an end to the poverty in cities. temperance movement) o Fuller: feminism. deistic God o Established the Transcendentalist Club o Urged the need for social reforms. otherwise he just observed and took notes Walden. free life Self-probe He did not consider himself as a hermit. embittered mood He lived in Concord he was the Concordian wiseman o Fought for abolitionism o His poetry bears traces of Wordsworth’s poetry o His motto: art should be based on nature o Supporter of Thoreau. Fuller and Whitman Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) o Loved privacy and company as well o Introspectivity and extraspectivity o The man of Concord o Friendship with Fuller o Wrote to The Dial o He retreated to the shore of Walden (a lake) Experimenting for about 2 years Simple. prophetic language readers’ response o Self-Reliance Forms in a radical way the ideal transcendentalist man Individual is always prior to the social o Experience Disappointment. post does not send forward real messages. or life in the woods (1854) Romantic naturalism Transcendentalist pastoralism 2 . indirect logical relationships.Final Examination English Literature • 12. he went daily to Concord. American prose and fiction o Scepticism towards Christian faith o Nature. talked to other people He noted his observations about the flora and fauna Kind of spiritual autobiography Emphasized his doubts about technical progress (he opposed train system. the plodding embitters the daily lives of people) critique against the marketoriented world He only did those works which he had to do. 1836 Very influential Neo-platonic view. also for women’s rights o 2 series of essays: Essays: First Series : short sentences. visional. fantastical writings.g. cookery books also emerged because of the social circumstances (urbanization. settled in Italy. in 1846. women characters. American prose and fiction Simplicity of life Task of an individual is self-improvement through hard physical work and art Unfavourable opinion about women in the work: they are pulseless unable to have intimate relationships Follower of Wordsworth Joined the abolitionist movement Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) o Years before the Civil War: characterized by the ‘literature factory’ all kinds of writings. sentimentalism o Literature was the only chance for women to establish a connection between their private sphere and the public o Women’s writings Women are in the focus. women readers o Women writers wrote: historical. growth of the population. had a son.Final Examination English Literature • 12. Industrial Revolution also advanced printing) o Favourite topic of women’s writings: family. not men Realism Engages itself to social justice Shorter genres E. religious books. demand for reading. when travelling by boat back to America their ship sank 3 . travel guides. emergence of women writers. Harriet Beecher Stowe: abolitionist writing. in Italy she met her future husband. slave-narrative Fuller: against injustice towards women o Organized weekly discussion groups for women important intellectual forums o Editor of The Dial between 1840-44 o Integral part of the group of Transcendentalists o Associate of Emerson o Known for having broken every possible stereotype for 19th century female writers o Married late (also against a stereotype as the fulfilment of a woman's life is marriage) o Social and political criticism o Struggled for intellectual acceptation o Tragic biography: travelled to Europe at the time of the revolutions. children’s books. higher living standards. an Italian aristocrat and revolutionarist. suppression of women and materialistic and monetary politics 4 . systematic study on a subject First feminist writing Suffragette movement. women’s rights Egalitarianism Individualism Opposed slavery. American prose and fiction o The Great Lawsuit + Woman in the nineteenth century (1846) America’s first treatise: formal. lengthy.Final Examination English Literature 12.
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