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Old English and Middle English Literature

The document provides an overview of English literature across different time periods. It discusses Old and Middle English literature from 600-1200 AD, which included Anglo-Saxon works telling the lives of saints. It then summarizes Elizabethan literature from 1558-1603 during Queen Elizabeth I's reign, noting it as a golden age of drama with writers like Shakespeare and Marlowe. Finally, it outlines some 20th century literature after 1900 that responded to Victorian restrictions and explored topics like politics, war, and morality through works such as Lord of the Flies.

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Michael Lopez
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283 views23 pages

Old English and Middle English Literature

The document provides an overview of English literature across different time periods. It discusses Old and Middle English literature from 600-1200 AD, which included Anglo-Saxon works telling the lives of saints. It then summarizes Elizabethan literature from 1558-1603 during Queen Elizabeth I's reign, noting it as a golden age of drama with writers like Shakespeare and Marlowe. Finally, it outlines some 20th century literature after 1900 that responded to Victorian restrictions and explored topics like politics, war, and morality through works such as Lord of the Flies.

Uploaded by

Michael Lopez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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English Literature

What we'll discuss


Old and Middle
English Literature
Elizabethan Literature
20th Century
Literature
Old and Middle
English Literature
Old English Literature
spans from around 600 to 1200 AD
the soulful and practical expressions of a people
who struggled, lost, and triumphed over and
against neighboring invaders and warring factions
encompasses Anglo-Saxon written and spoken works
and Anglo-Latin works
major manuscripts of that period told about the
lives of saints, religious poems, and religious
narratives
Important Personalities in Old English
Literature

Alfred the Great


was the Father of the English (Old English)
language. He was the first Anglo-Saxon king
who unified the Anglo-Saxons. He brought
literacy to the people.

St. Augustine of Canterbury


In 597 AD, St. Augustine went to England.
Because of this, schools and monasteries
were founded.

Important Personalities in Old English


Literature

St. Bede or Venerable Bede


was a monk who wrote the


ecclesiastical history of
England.

William, the Duke of Normandy


In 1066, William, the Duke of Normandy defeated
the Anglo-Saxon king Harold Godwinson. This
victory ushered in Anglo-Norman dominance in
Britain.

Old English Poetry and Prose


Because of the foresight of the various monasteries or
abbeys across the centuries in Britain, most Old English
poetry survived through these four manuscripts: Beowulf,
The Exeter Book, The Junius or Caedmon Manuscript, and
the Vercelli Book.
Poetry is characterized by patterns of four-stress
lines and six-stress lines. A caesura or syntactical
break is placed in between the second and third
stresses of the poem.
A unique feature of this kind of poetry is the use
of kennings, a type of figurative language that
poets use instead of a noun.
Middle English Literature
1
2
The term Middle English

Most works of literature in


was first created to mark this period are devoted to
a period in the some aspect of religion.
development of the They are both religious
English language. and secular in nature.
3
Examples of these 4

were stories of the centralized on poetry


saints’ lives, miracle adapted from the
plays, and sermons, Normans
among others.

Significant Works

“The Legend of King “The Canterbury Tales” by


Arthur” by Thomas Geoffrey Chaucer
Malory
Warm Up!
1. Form groups of four.
2. Read Shakespeare’s “Sonnet
18.”
3. Perform an interpretative
reading of the sonnet in front
of the class.
Elizabethan
Literature
Queen Elizabeth I
reigned from 1558 to 1603
the patroness of literature in the United
Kingdom
The literary works during her time were
called Elizabethan literature.
The prose, novel, literary criticism, and
pamphlet were some of the notable
contributions of this era.
The Elizabethan era is considered the
golden age of drama.
Famous Writers during the Elizabethan Period
Christopher Marlowe was an Elizabethan
poet and playwright who established the
use of blank verse in his poems.
William Shakespeare is known to be the
greatest dramatist of all time. He was a poet,
dramatist, and actor who performed his plays
in a small theater troupe during his time. His
works are considered relevant and relatable
to audiences until the present time.
Famous Writers during the Elizabethan Period
Aside from being a poet, Sir Philip Sidney is
also a statesman, soldier, patron of scholars
and poets, and the ideal gentleman. He is the
writer of the Elizabethan sonnet sequence
Astrophel and Stella.
Edmund Spenser is an English poet who
wrote the poem The Faerie Queene, which is
also known as one of the greatest poems in
English language. The Spenserian stanza is
also named after him.
Blank Verse
introduced to England by Sir
Thomas Wyatt and Henry
Howard, Earl of Surrey
an unrhymed version of the
iambic pentameter
used in the first English drama
by Thomas Sackville and Thomas
Norton

The Shakespearean Sonnet


made up of 14 lines in iambic
pentameter (five metrical feet
consisting of one unstressed and one
stressed syllable)
follows the rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD
EFEF GG, where the rhyme happens after
every other line of the first three quatrains
except for lines 13 and

14 (the couplet)

The Spenserian Sonnet


an adaptation of the Shakespearean
sonnet but with a change in its
variation
This variation in rhyming scheme is
called linking couplets because the
rhyme scheme is tangled in a series of
weaves.
Has the rhyme scheme ABAB BCBC CDCD
EE.

20th Century
Literature
20th Century Literature
a response to the restrictions of Victorian
literature
a free and uninhibited era for literature
began since Edward VII’s ascension to the
throne
a start of a new era in which science and
technology will move humanity forward
The Theater in the 20th Century
Many writers of the Edwardian era
continued the realism of the previous
century while exploring the anti-
aestheticism in conflict with the
aestheticism started by Oscar Wilde.
Theater became an avenue for the discussion
of the necessity of political organization,
morality of war, function of classes and
professions, family and marriage, and female
emancipation.
Novelists of 20th Century Literature
Literature in 1945 (after World War II) was
characterized by increased attachment to
religion.
William Golding and Muriel Spark, the two
most innovative post-war novelists and
religious believers, often touched the topic of
original sin, as according to Golding, “man
produces evil as a bee produces honey.”
Novelists of 20th Century Literature
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies reenacts
man’s fall from grace in the schoolboys’
innocence that turned into barbarism.
George Orwell’s Animal Farm in 1945 explores
the ideas of capitalism, rebellion, war, and
communism in the guise of animals.
Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
discusses themes of betrayal, innocence, as
well as cold rationality in contrast with
unchecked emotionalism.
Thank You for
listening!

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