This article mainly discusses English literature written in English. Please refer to the "See Also" section at the bottom of the page for literature on specific English-speaking regions.
Content [hide]
1 Old English
2 Renaissance literature
3 Early modern times
3. 1 Elizabethan era
3.2 James I's Literature
3.3 Caroline and Cromwell Literature
3.4 Repair literature
3.5 Augustus literature
418th century
5 romanticism
6 Victorian literature
7 Modernism
Post-8 modern literature
Nine viewpoints of English literature
10 See Synonyms at 0
1 1 external link
Old English. Also known as anglo-Saxon
Main article: Anglo-Saxon literature
The first English work written in Old English appeared in the early Middle Ages (the oldest existing writing is C? Dmon's hymn). In early British culture, oral tradition was very strong, and most literary works were written for performance. Therefore, epics are very popular. Many epics, including Beowulf, have been circulated in the rich Anglo-Saxon literature to this day, which is very similar to today's Norwegian, or better yet, Icelandic. Many Anglo-Saxon poems in the existing manuscripts may be "moderate" adaptations of early Viking and German war poems. When this kind of poem was brought to England, it was still passed down orally from generation to generation, and the constant appearance of alliteration poems or consonant rhymes (this technology is widely used in newspaper headlines and marketing today, as in The Bigger the Better) helped the Anglo-Saxons remember it. This rhyme is a feature of Germanic language, which is contrary to the vowels or endings of Romance language. However, the earliest written literature can be traced back to the early Christian monastery established by St. Augustine and his disciples in Canterbury, so there is reason to believe that it meets the needs of Christian readers to some extent. Even without the most vulgar poems, Viking war poems still smell of blood hatred, and their harmonious rhythm sounds like the smashing of swords under a gloomy northern sky: there is always a sense of imminent danger in the narrative. Sooner or later, everything must end, because Beowulf finally died at the hands of the monster he fought in the story. Beowulf believes that nothing is eternal, and that youth and joy will become death and sorrow. This view has entered Christianity and dominated the future of English novels.
Renaissance literature
Main article: English Renaissance
As william caxton introduced the printing press to Britain in 1476, vernacular literature flourished. The religious reform stimulated the emergence of vernacular liturgy, which led to the emergence of the Book of Common Prayer, which had a lasting impact on literary English. Poetry, drama and prose during the period of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I constitute the so-called early modernity (or Renaissance) today.
Early modern times
Further information: early modern English and early modern Britain
Elizabethan age
Main article: Elizabethan literature
The Elizabethan era witnessed the great prosperity of literature, especially in the field of drama. The Italian Renaissance rediscovered ancient Greek and Roman dramas, which contributed to the development of new dramas, which began to be separated from the ancient mysterious and miraculous dramas in the Middle Ages. Italians were especially inspired by seneca (an important tragic playwright and philosopher, Nero's mentor) and Plautus (whose comic platitudes, especially the boasted soldiers, had a powerful influence on the Renaissance and beyond). However, the Italian tragedy embraced a principle contrary to seneca's ethics: to show blood and violence on the stage. In Seneca's plays, such scenes are only played by characters. But British playwrights are interested in the Italian model: a striking group of Italian actors has settled in London, and Giovanni florio has brought many Italian languages and cultures to Britain. Elizabethan era is a very violent era. It is also true that the high incidence of political assassinations in Renaissance Italy (represented by Niccolò Machiavelli's The Prince) did not quell the fear of the Pope's conspiracy. Therefore, for Elizabethan audiences, it may be better to express such violence on the stage. Following the early Elizabethan plays, such as sackville and. The Spanish Tragedy of Norton and Kidd provided a lot of material for Hamlet, and william shakespeare was outstanding as a poet and playwright in this period. Shakespeare is not a writer by profession, and may have only received some grammar school education. He is neither a lawyer nor an aristocrat. When he started writing, he was a "great scholar" who monopolized the British stage. But he was very talented. Incredibly, he surpassed the "professionals" who laughed at this humble "swing dance" like robert green. Although most plays were great successes, in his later years (marked by James I's early rule), he wrote what was considered his greatest plays: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra and The Tempest, which was a tragicomedy and was written for the new king in major plays. This "play-in-play" takes the form of a masked ball, which is an episode interspersed with music and dance, and is colored by the novel special effects of the new indoor theater. Critics point out that this masterpiece itself can be regarded as a dramatic work, written for James' court, if not for the monarch himself. Prospero's magic art, which relies on the result of plot, implies the beautiful relationship between art and nature in poetry. It is worth noting that at that time (the first colonists arrived in America), as the study of Bermuda pamphlet (1609) showed, the storm (though not obvious) was set in Bermuda, which linked Shakespeare with Virginia company. As Frank Kermode pointed out, "News from the New World" has been published, and Shakespeare's interest in this aspect is remarkable. Shakespeare also popularized English sonnets, which greatly changed Petrarch's mode.
This sonnet was introduced into English by Thomas Wyatt in the early16th century. With the wider spread of printed literature in the family, poems set to songs like Thomas Campion have become popular. See English pastoral school. Other important figures in The Biography of Queen Elizabeth include christopher marlowe, Thomas Dekker, John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont. Anthony Burgess said that if Marlowe (1564-1593) hadn't been stabbed in a pub fight at the age of 29, he might be as talented as Shakespeare in poetry. It is worth noting that he was born only a few weeks before Shakespeare, and he must know him very well. However, Marlowe's theme is different: it focuses more on Renaissance moral drama than anything else. Marlowe was fascinated and frightened by the new fields opened up by modern science. With the help of German legends, he introduced Dr. Faust to Britain, a scientist and magician who was obsessed with curiosity and pushed the strength of human science and technology to the limit. He acquired extraordinary talent, and even allowed him to go back to the past and marry Helen of Troy, but at the end of his 24-year contract with the devil, he had to give his soul to him. His dark hero may be a bit like Marlowe, and his early death is still a mystery. As we all know, he is an atheist, living a lawless life, having many mistresses and associating with hooligans: living a "senior life" in the London underworld. However, many people suspect that this may be to cover up his activities as an agent of Elizabeth I, suggesting that the "accidental stabbing" may be a premeditated assassination by the royal enemy. Beaumont and Fletcher are little known, but it is almost certain that they helped Shakespeare write some of the best plays, which were quite popular at that time. It was also at this time that the genre of urban comedy developed. In the late16th century, English poetry was characterized by elaborate language design and a large number of quotations from classical myths. The most important poets of this era include edmund spenser and Sir Philip Sydney. Elizabeth herself is a product of Renaissance humanism, and occasionally she writes some poems, such as When Mr. Left.
Classics of Renaissance Poetry
Literature in James I's Period
After Shakespeare's death, Ben Jonson, a poet and playwright, was a major literary figure in the period of James I (under James I). However, Jonson's aesthetics returned to the Middle Ages, not the Tudor era: his characters embodied the theory of humor. According to this contemporary medical theory, behavioral differences are caused by one of the four "body fluids" (blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile) being more dominant than the other three. These body fluids correspond to the four elements of the universe: air, water, fire and earth. This led Jonson to illustrate this difference to create types, or platitudes.
Jonson is a master of style and an outstanding satirist. His Volpone shows how a group of swindlers are fooled by a top swindler, evil is punished by evil, and virtue rewards it.
Other people who follow Jonson's style include Beaumont and Fletcher, who wrote the brilliant comedy The Burning Knight, which makes a mockery of the emerging middle class, especially the nouveau riche who pretend to dominate the literary taste but don't know anything about literature. In this story, a pair of grocers quarreled with professional actors in order to let their illiterate son play the leading role in a play. He became a knight with a burning pestle on his shield. In order to win the princess's heart, the young man was laughed at like Don Quixote. One of the main achievements of Beaumont and Fletcher is to realize that feudalism and feudalism have become snobbish and hypocritical, and that new social classes are rising.
Another popular drama form in James I period was revenge drama, which was popularized by John Webster and Thomas Kyd. Chapman wrote several subtle tragedies of revenge, but people remember him mainly because he translated the famous Homer epic, which had a far-reaching influence on later English literature and even inspired john keats to write one of his best sonnets.
The King James Bible is one of the largest translation projects in English history so far, which started at 1604 and was completed at 16 1 1. It represents the culmination of the tradition of translating the Bible into English, which began in william tyndale. It has become the standard Bible of the Church of England, and some people think it is one of the greatest literary works of all time. This project was personally led by James I, who directed the work of 47 scholars. Although there are many other English versions, some of which are widely regarded as more accurate, many people prefer King James's Bible aesthetically, and its rhythm imitates the original Hebrew poetry.
Apart from Shakespeare, his image stood out in the early 1600' s. The main poets in the early17th century included John Donne and other metaphysical poets. Influenced by the Baroque style in continental Europe, metaphysical poetry focuses on Christian mysticism and pornography, and uses unconventional or "non-poetic" images, such as compasses or mosquitoes, to achieve surprising results. For example, in one of Donne's songs and sonnet Farewell: No Mourning, the hands on the compass represent two lovers, one of whom is waiting at home and the other is far away from her lover. But the greater the distance, the closer the compass pointer is to each other: separation makes love closer. Paradox or contradiction modification is a constant in this poem, and fear and anxiety also express a spiritual world shaken by modern geography and scientific discoveries, a world that is no longer the center of the universe. In addition to Donne's metaphysical poems, the17th century was also famous for his baroque poems. Baroque poetry and the art of that period achieved the same goal; Baroque style is lofty, grand, epic and religious. Many of these poets have obvious Catholic feelings (that is, Richard Crashaw) and write poems for Catholic counter-reform, in order to establish a sense of supremacy and mysticism, which will ideally persuade the emerging Protestant groups to return to Catholicism.
Caroline and Cromwell Literature
/kloc-During the turbulent years in the middle of the 0/7th century, English political literature flourished during the reign of Charles I and the subsequent Commonwealth and protectorate. The pamphlets written by sympathizers of various factions in the British Civil War ranged from vicious personal attacks and arguments, through various forms of propaganda, to noble national reform plans. For the latter type, Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes will prove to be one of the most important works of English political philosophy. Hobbes' works are one of the few political works still published regularly in that era, while John Brahm Hall, Hobbes' main critic, is basically forgotten. This period also witnessed the prosperity of news books, which was the predecessor of British newspapers. Journalists like Henry Mudiman, Ma Erkai Mon needham and John Birkin Head represented the views and activities of both competitors. Authors are often arrested and their works are suppressed, which leads to the appearance of foreign or underground printing, which leads to the emergence of licensing system. John milton's political pamphlet "On Freedom of the Press" is against permission and is regarded as one of the most eloquent defenses for freedom of the press in history.
Especially during the reign of Charles I (1625–42), the British Renaissance Theatre experienced its heyday. Ben Jonson's last works appeared on the stage and printed matter, along with the last generation of major voices in the drama of this era: john ford, Philip Massinger, James Shirley and Richard Brom. With the closure of theaters at the beginning of the English Civil War in 1642, drama was suppressed for a generation and only recovered in the changed society during the British Restoration in 1660.
Other literary forms created in this period are usually regarded as political subtext, or their authors are grouped according to political lines. Knight poets, mainly active before the civil war, owed a lot to metaphysical poets in early schools. After the execution of Charles I, the forced retirement of royalist officials was a good thing for izaak walton, because it gave him time to write his book The Complete Angler. Published in 1653, this book is a fishing guide on the surface, but actually a meditation on life, leisure and satisfaction. The two most important poets in Britain under oliver cromwell were andrew marvell and john milton, who both created works praising the new government. Such as Marville's "Horace Ode when Cromwell returned from Ireland". Although they believed in republicanism, they escaped punishment after the restoration of charles ii, and then Milton wrote some of his greatest poems (any possible political information was hidden in fables). Thomas brown was another writer in that period; As a scholar with a large collection of books, he wrote a lot of articles about science, religion, medicine and profound knowledge.
Restoration literature
Main article: Restoration literature.
Literary works in the restoration period include Paradise Lost and Sodom of the Earl of Rochester, the passionate comedy of the country wife and the moral wisdom of pilgrim's progress. It witnessed Locke's paper on government, the establishment of the Royal Society, robert boyle's experiment and Boyle's sacred meditation, Jeremy Collier's hysterical attack on the theater, the pioneer of Dryden's literary criticism, and the first newspaper. The censorship and radical moral standards under Cromwell's Puritanism system led to the formal interruption of literary culture, which created a gap in the literary tradition and allowed all forms of literature to have a seemingly brand-new start after the restoration. During this period, the royalist forces belonging to the court of Charles I went into exile with charles ii, 20. Therefore, the nobles traveling with charles ii stayed on the literary stage in continental Europe for more than ten years. Charles took part in a drama performance in France and became interested in Spanish drama. The nobles living in the Netherlands began to understand the commercial exchanges and the tolerant and rationalistic prose debates circulating in that officially tolerant country.
The largest and most important form of poetry in that era was satire. Generally speaking, the publication of satires is anonymous. It is dangerous to be associated with satire. On the one hand, libel law is a big net. If a satirist is proved to have written an article that seems to criticize the nobility, it is difficult for him to avoid being sued. On the other hand, the response of the rich to satirical works is often to make people suspected of being poets personally attacked by villains. John dryden was accused only because he was suspected of writing satirical works. One consequence of this anonymity is that a large number of poems, some of which are valuable, have not been published and most of them are unknown.