Books to Read to Understand Asian History
English literature has a long and illustrious history that has spawned some of the world's most famous writers, novels, plays and poems.
That history can be broken down into a number of distinct literary eras, in each of which a set of characteristics or beliefs shaped the works of literature produced. Sometimes the all-time fashion of understanding different periods of literary history is to read the works that each period produced. It's often hard to narrow down the wealth of literature springing from each era of literature to just i or two exemplary texts, but this commodity seeks to requite you a beginner'south guide to the most prominent periods in English literary history.
Medieval Literature (500 – 1500)
The earliest works of English literature arose from the writing down of tales that had probably been around for centuries before, surviving via the oral tradition. Medieval literature tends to be split up into Old English (658-1100) and Middle English (1100-1500), and these are 2 of the almost prominent works from this period.
ane. Beowulf
English Literature is said to brainstorm with Beowulf, an epic Anglo-Saxon poem by an unknown writer, idea to have been penned anywhere between the 8th and 11th centuries. It speaks of Scandinavian kings, mythical beasts and battles, and is extremely important for being the the longest surviving ballsy poem in Old English language.
2. Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales
Later in the medieval menses, a civil servant named Geoffrey Chaucer popularised the use of vernacular English, with the writing of his most famous work, The Canterbury Tales. More than twenty private stories are presented in the context of a story-telling contest that takes place betwixt a group of pilgrims who are en route to Canterbury Cathedral. Thank you to this and other works, Chaucer is often thought of as "the Male parent of English Literature".
The Renaissance Era (1500 – 1670)
The Renaissance Era (1500 – 1670)Stemming from the menstruation of huge cultural advance known as the Renaissance (which began in Italy in the 13th century but took a while to attain England), this period in English literature is dominated by Elizabethan playwrights such every bit William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and John Webster. Other notable writers include Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser. A central influence in this period was the revival in interest in classical literature, which had a profound influence non only on writing, merely on art and philosophy.
three. William Shakespeare – Henry Iv Parts i and ii
All Shakespeare is worth reading, and volition aid you get a sense of this menstruum of English literature; simply Henry IV, particularly Part I, is noted for beingness amongst the playwright's best. Contrasting between serious and funny scenes, betwixt solemn kings and bawdy drinking houses, it'southward a superb case of the kind of contrasts Elizabethan audiences would have enjoyed. It besides introduces i of Shakespeare's greatest and virtually enduringly popular characters: the roguish knight, Sir John Falstaff.
iv. Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene
A contemporary of Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser was another highly influential Elizabethan poet, who exemplified Elizabethan literature with his defining masterpiece, The Faerie Queene, an emblematic poem written in commemoration of the Tudor dynasty and the reign of Elizabeth I. It's one of the longest poems in the English language, and represents an important development in modern English poesy. Her Majesty must take approved: on the strength of this poem, its author was granted a pension for life.
The Restoration (1660 – 1700)
This relatively narrow catamenia of literary history coincides with the end of the Stuart monarchs, and is generally idea of as literature that flourished nether the restored court of Charles II. It's difficult to pin it down to exact dates, though, every bit literature was in a land of flux during this flow, with new genres (such every bit the laudatory ode) springing upwardly and responding to the political, social and economic state of play at the time; this influenced unlike literary genres at different times. Poesy is by far the most of import genre of this period.
5. John Bunyan – The Pilgrim's Progress
The allegorical elements of Spenser'southward Faerie Queene probable influenced John Bunyan in his writing of The Pilgrim's Progress, an important religious poem that is an allegorical handling of Christian life, particularly the thought of personal salvation. Its protagonist, Christian, is an 'lowest' character, and the poem is differentiated from similar preceding texts by the simplicity of its manner.
6. John Milton – Paradise Lost
More than seventy years afterward The Faerie Queene brought fame to Edmund Spenser, John Milton brought out another epic verse form that would secure his reputation as another of the land'south finest poets. Paradise Lost, more than than 10 thousand lines in length, tells the Biblical story of the Fall of Man, and information technology's an achievement fabricated all the more than impressive past the fact that information technology was dictated in its entirety, Milton having gone blind some years before he wrote it. Though Paradise Lost isn't archetypal Restoration literature, and Milton is studied separately from other Restoration literature, this is certainly one of the most famous and influential works that sprung from this period.
The Age of Enlightenment (1700 – 1800)
The Age of Enlightenment, sometimes referred to as the Age of Reason, was a cultural movement led past philosophers such as Francis Salary and René Descartes. It was characterised by a scientific, rational arroyo to the issues of the solar day, challenging prevailing beliefs, which had a religious basis. The movement advocated the logical working out of problems, the use of empirical evidence to support beliefs, and the rejection of superstition. Isaac Newton and Mozart are ii of the famous names this era spawned.
7. Alexander Pope – The Rape of the Lock
Based on an incident said to have been described to Pope by a friend, The Rape of the Lock is his most famous poem. It'southward a witty satire of England'south ruling classes, written in the style of the classical heroic epics (such as the works of Homer) that he also devoted his time to translating. The work is an important instance of satire during this catamenia (of which Jonathan Swift'southward A Minor Proposal is besides an excellent example), the aim of which was to poke fun at society's failings and abuse, specially when assorted with the prevailing ideals.
The Romantic Period (1798 – 1870)
The Romantic period was a response to the major social change taking place in England at the time, with the Industrial Revolution seeing a move from countryside to town, and the appearance of polluted, overcrowded industrial cities. The Romantic flow was also a reaction against the thoughts and ideals of the Historic period of Enlightenment, in which poets in particular rejected the scientific rationalisation of nature.
viii. William Wordsworth – Lyrical Ballads
William Wordsworth was one of a group of poets whose work exemplifies Romanticism, and his poems, many of which were written at his home in the Lake District, are some of the finest examples of Romantic literature. The Lyrical Ballads was a collection of poems mostly by Wordsworth, with a few contributed by his friend, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Though the response to the collection at the time of its publication was underwhelming, information technology is now seen every bit an important evolution in English literature considering the simpler language used – a reaction against the florid, overly intellectual linguistic communication of 18th century poetry – made the poems attainable to anybody. This was also an acknowledgement of the fact that human emotion is a universal feel, whether rich or poor – an idea besides reflected in the title of the drove and the apply of the carol class, which came from a long tradition of oral storytelling dearest of the poor.
Transcendental Move (1830 – 1860)
While the likes of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Shelley dominated the Romantic scene here in England, another movement was developing over in America, where Romanticism influenced New England Transcendentalism. Followers of this movement believed in the innate goodness of the individual and of nature, simply also that the individual is prone to corruption past society and its organised religion and politics. Like Romanticism, Transcendentalism reacted confronting rationalisation and advocated the power of inherent human spirituality.
9. Louisa May Alcott – Piffling Women
The Transcendentalist author of whom nearly British people will take heard is Louisa May Alcott, author of the much-loved Little Women serial. Her begetter, Amos Bronson Alcott, was a prominent effigy in the motility, and his ideas shaped Alcott's education and upbringing, making the movement an of import backdrop to her literary career. Her family and its transcendental thinking formed the inspiration for Little Women – the character of Jo being a loose portrayal of Alcott herself. The novel is nonetheless a childhood staple in homes in the U.s.a. and Britain alike.
Literary Realism (1820-1920)
Literary realism began in France in the mid-19th century, though a motion towards realism had begun earlier; Jane Austen'due south novels are function of the transition. Its focus was on realistic depictions of gimmicky life and society, including realistic details of day-to-twenty-four hours life – the kind of scenes previously shunned in favour of the idealised subjects of the Romantics.
ten. George Eliot – Middlemarch
The true masterpiece of this flow is George Eliot's Middlemarch, its realism evident even from its subtitle: "A Study of Provincial Life". The Middlemarch of the novel's title is a fictional Midlands boondocks populated by the many characters whose lives intermingle in a series of masterfully woven plotlines. The realistic details with which Eliot narrates her characters' problems and their reactions to the real-life issues of the twenty-four hour period (such as the development of the railways) are what makes the novel so impressive, earning it high praise from literary critics, some of whom have described it equally the greatest of all English novels.
Victorian Literature (1837 – 1901)
The reign of Queen Victoria saw the novel come up to the fore as the leading literary genre, and it was a menses that saw the emergence of some of the state's nearly famous writers, including Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, William Thackeray and the Bronte sisters. Poetry was still a prominent literary genre, with Browning and Tennyson two of the well-nigh famous Victorian poets; merely this form was far less pregnant than information technology had been during the Romantic period. Later in the Victorian period nosotros see drama sally as a significant genre again for the first time since the Renaissance, with Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operas, and the plays of George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde.
eleven. Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist
Victorian novelist Charles Dickens is one of the most famous of all English language authors, and his novels are often seen as the archetypal Victorian novels. They've been and so influential that the term "Dickensian" is often used to describe anything reminiscent of his novels, in particular the temper conjured up in his tales of young street urchins living in urban poverty in grim Victorian London. The temper of one of his nigh famous novels, Oliver Twist, is a adept instance of this. It tells the tale of a young orphan, who's living in appalling conditions in a workhouse before he's sent to alive with an undertaker – from whom he escapes and goes on to join a group of juvenile pickpockets. Information technology speaks powerfully almost the treatment of orphans in Victorian London, and is also a proficient example of Dickens' superb characterisation – notably the character of Fagin, ringleader of the pickpockets.
Modernism (1901-1939)
Just every bit previous literary movements had rebelled against the attitudes of those that had gone before them, so literary modernism reacted against the conservative attitudes of the Victorian period; the Commencement World War was besides a key influence. An important characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness, which saw a spate of literary experimentation; the stream-of-consciousness novel was one such innovation.
12. James Joyce – Ulysses
In James Joyce'due south Ulysses, the idea of stream-of-consciousness was taken to the extreme in a novel described as "a demonstration and summation of the unabridged [Modernist] motion". In a manner, information technology's a modern retelling of Homer'southward The Odyssey, based on the experiences of its protagonist throughout the grade of a day in Dublin. The novel bankrupt new basis in many means, simply its almost famous feature is its utilize of a different literary genre or experiment for each chapter; one, for case, has no punctuation, while another is written every bit though it were a play.
Post-modernism (post-World State of war Two to the present)
After Modernism came Postmodernism, which is harder to define than the other periods we've discussed in this article, because there's little agreement about what information technology means. Postmodernism can be said to react to Modernist ideas, introducing new concepts such as the unreliable narrator and pastiche. Well-known Postmodern novels include Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar.
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Source: https://www.oxford-royale.com/articles/great-books-periods-literature/
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