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Summary Introduction to the Study of Literature in English (Complete)
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Table of ContentsThe Literary Canon 4
The Middle Ages (to ca. 1485) 4
Historical Introduction 4
Beowulf (8th-10th century) 5
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight (1375-1400) 6
The Canterbury Tales (1400) - Geoffrey Chaucer (1340s-1400) 8
The 16th Century (1485-1603) 10
Historical Introduction 10
They ee from me - Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542) 13
Sonnet 75 - Edmund Spenser (1552?-1599) 15
Sonnet 18 - William Shakespeare (1564-1616) 17
Twelfth Night (1601) - William Shakespeare (1564-1616) 19
The 17th Century (1603-1660) 23
Historical Introduction 23
The Sun Rising - John Donne (1572-1631) 26
Easter Wings - George Herbert (1593-1633) 28
To His Coy Mistress - Andrew Marvell (1621-1678) 29
Paradise Lost (1667) - John Milton (1608-1674) 31
The Restoration & The 18th Century (1660-1785) 33
Historical Introduction 33
Oroonoko; or, The Royal Slave (1688) - Aphra Behn (1640?-1689) 34
A Modest Proposal (1729) - Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) 37
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751) - Thomas Gray (1716-1771) 40
The Romanticism period (1785-1832) 42
Historical Introduction 42
Various works - William Wordsworth (1770-1850) 45
Preface to Lyrical Ballads (1802): 45
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud (1804): 47
My Heart Leaps Up (1807): 48
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, The Lamb & The Tyger - William Blake (1757-1827) 50
A Vindication od the Rights of Woman (1792) - Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) 54
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) - Samuel Coleridge (1777-1834) 56
Ode on a Grecian Urn (1819) - John Keats (1795-1821) 58
American History and Romanticism 59
Song of Myself (1855) - Walt Whitman (1819-1892) 62
“Wild nights - wild nights!” (1861) - Emily Dickenson (1830-1886) 64
The Victorian Age (1830-1901) 66
Historical Introduction 66
The Charge of the Light Brigade (1854) - Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) 67
Dover Beach (1851/1867) - Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) 69
Daisy Miller: A Study (1878) - Henry James (1843-1916) 71
Various works - Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) 74
Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890): 75
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895): 76
(Post)Modernism: 20th and 21st century 79
Historical Introduction 79
Various Works - Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) 80
Modern Fiction (1919/1925): 81
Mrs Dalloway (1925): 81
Various Works - William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) 83
Easter 1916 (1920): 84
The Second Coming (1919): 85
Araby (1914) - James Joyce (1882-1941) 87
Anecdote of the Jar (1923) - Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) 90
Various Works - T.S. Eliot (1888-1965) 92
Tradition and the Individual Talent (1919): 93
The Waste Land (1922): 95
Musée des Beaux-Arts (1938) - W.H. Auden (1907-1973) 98
Waiting for Godot (1955) - Samuel Becket (1906-1989) 100
A Supermarket in California (1955) - Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) 104
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, No Name Woman (1976) - Maxine Hong Kingston (1940-still alive) 107
Seminars 112
Walker Brothers Cowboy (1968) - Alice Munro (1931-still alive) 112
Brown Girl Dreaming (2014) - Jacqueline Woodson (1963-still alive) 113
The Fire Starters (2019) - Jan Carson (1980-still alive) 115
Never Let Me Go (2005) - Kazuo Ishiguro (1954-still alive) 115
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, ISLE 2022-2022
The Literary Canon
The literary canon is a list of books that are felt, at a given time and by a speci c group of
people, to represent the motion of literature as it functions in that group at that time. This
canon can change overtime.
The canon is important to understand how literature in English developed into what it is
today.
Some reasons for canonisation:
1. Historical relevance.
2. Signi cance for contemporary culture.
3. Introduces something new into literature of a certain time and place.
4. Innovative formal technique.
5. Exemplary example of a certain literary tradition/genre/mode.
6. Content.
7. Beauty of language.
The Middle Ages (to ca. 1485)
Historical Introduction
The Middle Ages = roughly from the collapse of the Roman Empire to <the Renaissance
and the Reformation.
The 3 literary periods during the Middle Ages:
1. The Anglo-Saxon period 450-1066 —> Beowulf
2. The Anglo-Norman period 1066-14th C
3. The Middle-English period 14th-15th C —> Sir Gawain and Canterbury Tales
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,Beowulf (8th-10th century)
General information:
- Written somewhere between 8th and 10th C and is the oldest of the great long poems
written in English and possibly the lone survivor of a genre of Old English Epics.
- Author is unknown but is almost sure to be a Christian.
- Believed to be an oral story before it was written down.
- The title was assigned by later editors.
- Originally composed in the dialect of Mercia, but was later converted into the West-
Saxon dialect.
- 1731: The manuscript was damaged in a re, dome words and lines are lost.
The story:
- When: 5th-7th C, some centuries before it was written, though not historically accurate
or even realistic.
- Where: Heorot, Denmark.
- Who: Danes and Geats, Beowulf is part of the Geats.
- What: 3 great ghts to defend human society against evil that end with Beowulf’s death.
1. Fight against Grendel.
2. Fight against Grendel’s mother
3. Fight against the dragon: Beowulf dies
Stylistic features and narrative techniques:
- Traces of the oral tradition:
‣ Call to attention L. 1.
‣ Insider perspective L. 3-4, 19.
‣ Tendency to digress L. 1-60 and Beowulf in L. 343.
‣ Foreshadowing L. 7, 81-3.
‣ Parallel and appositive (= repetition but in different words) expressions L. 4-5.
- Circular structure: begins and ends with a funeral.
- Alliterative verse form = Early verse of the Germanic languages in which alliteration is a
basic structural principle rather than an occasional embellishment.
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, ‣ The Germanic alliterative line consists of 2 hemistichs (half-lines) separated by a
caesura (pauze). There are 1 or 2 alliterating letters in the rst half-line preceding
the medial caesura; these also alliterate withe the rst stressed syllable in the
second half-line.
‣ Alliteration in text L. 4, 16, 61.
- Litotes = ironic understatement L. 43.
- Elegiac = sad or mournful L. 3148-55.
- Kenning = two words that replace one word (sort of compound-word) whale-road,
bone-house.
- Pagan and Christian tension:
‣ Christianity in Beowulf: Grendel is said to originate from Cain, Hrothgar and
Beowulf believe in a single God, and other illusions towards the bibel and
Christian traditions, importance of forgiveness.
‣ Paganism in Beowulf: af rmations of Germanic Heroic poetry, most important
relationship is that of the king and his knight (based on mutual respect, voluntary
companionship), relationship between kinsmen was very important as well,
revenge and death-tolls when a friend or family member was slain.
‣ Ironic tension: It is clear that the author is Christian even though the main
character is pagan. He views his character as a real hero but also (subtly)
acknowledges that due to Beowulf’s pagan ways he will not go to heaven. The
poet warns the reader agains everlasting blood-vengeances (which are the norm
in the heroic pagan tradition).
The entire poem could be viewed as the poet’s lament for heroes like beowulf who went
into the darkness without the light of the Christian faith.
Sir Gawain and The Green Knight (1375-1400)
General information:
- Written in a very sophisticated for of Middle English.
- It’s a relatively short epic poem.
- Belonging to the Alliterative Revival and the poet writes in oral tradition asking the
audience to “listen to a story he has heard”, this has its roots in Anglo-Saxon poetry.
- Good example of an Arthurian Romance: we get a Christianisation of an old Celtic story.
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, Comparison between Beowulf and Sir Gawain and The Green Knight:
- Stress on lineage of the Characters: both texts open with it.
- Importance of courage and honour in both texts.
- Cultural differences between the heroes: Gawain is Christian and Beowulf is Pagan.
- Beowulf faces a physical challenge: uses violence and has to kill.
- Gawain faces a moral and psychological challenge: he has to keep his promises.
Comparison between Grendel and The Green Knight:
- Both are supernatural beings: Grendel is depicted more like a monster while The Green
Knight is more human-like.
- Physical versus mental challenges.
Stylistic features and narrative techniques:
- Genre: short epic poem.
- Oral tradition: there is a narrator who inserts himself in the story L. 26-36.
- Example of Arthurian Romance: chivalrous and courteous L. 51.
- Hero embodies national and religious ideals.
- Alliterative Revival: long lines, caesura, no xed nr of stresses L. 4, 7, 12, 161.
- Bob and wheel = nal 5 lines of each stanza are in bob and wheel format. The rst line
only has one stress (bob), the last 4 each have 3 stressen (wheel). The rhyme scheme is
ABABA.
- Christianisation of a Celtic story: Gawain is Christian.
Reasons for canonisation:
- Signi cance for contemporary culture.
- Appeal of the narrative.
- Captures the ideology of the time.
- Fine example of an Arthurian Romance.
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,The Canterbury Tales (1400) - Geoffrey Chaucer (1340s-1400)
Medieval societies were made up of 3 estates:
1. The Clergy.
2. The Nobility.
3. The Commoners/Peasants.
‣ Within this 3rd estate grew an emerging middle class (merchant class). This new
estate wanted to distinguish themselves from the peasants (mostly merchants,
Chaucer was part of this new middle class).
General information:
- Written in 1400 by Geoffrey Chaucer (1340s-1400).
- Not only meant for the nobility but for a larger audience.
- Mix of genres:
‣ Romance: “The Knights Tale”.
‣ Fables: “The Nun’s and Priest’s Tale”.
‣ Fabliaux: short story, erotic satire, wordplay and rhyme.
‣ Estates Satire: Expose and pillory typical examples of corruption on all social
levels.
- The story is left un nished: each pilgrim is supposed to get two tales but several of the
pilgrims don’t even get one story, and they never actually make it to Canterbury.
- May be inspired by Giovanni Boccaccio’s ‘Decameron’.
The story:
- A group of pilgrims set on a pilgrimage and tell each other stories.
- Many different characters tell their tales, but the whole frame narrative is told through
the eyes of Chaucer the pilgrim.
- Each Tale has its own climax, but the Tales as a whole are un nished, and though they
are interconnected in terms of characters and themes, there is not a single plot thread
that develops throughout.
- The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales is an estates satire.
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,- In the Chaucer's portraits of the pilgrims, he sets out the functions of each estate and
satirises how members of the estates – particularly those of the Church – fail to meet
their duties.
- The social satire that Chaucer sets up in the General Prologue continues throughout the
tales that the pilgrims tell.
- Even though the Tales are ctitious, Chaucer draws directly on real people and real
events in his satire of human life. Chaucer presents his characters as stock types – the
greedy Pardoner, the hypocritical Friar, etc. – but he also presents them as individual
people who exist in the world around him.
- All social classes are represented except for the poor because they wouldn’t be able to
afford to go on a pilgrimage.
Which class is criticised the most?
1. Higher clergy:
‣ A prioress: pretence, luxury L. 118-62.
‣ A friar: greedy deceitful L. 208-71.
‣ More positive about low church orders.
2. Nobility and upper middle class/bourgeoisie:
‣ Knight: old cliché, effeminate L. 43-78.
‣ Wife of Bath: hypocrisy, lustful L. 447-78.
3. Merchants: ‘worthy man’, ‘dette’ L. 272-86.
4. Commoners: ‘fair burgeis’ L. 363-80.
Stylistic features and narrative techniques:
- Frame narrative: A story within a story, within sometimes yet another story.
- Iambic pentameter:
‣ Iamb = unstressed + stresses, pentameter = 5 stresses.
- Rhyming couplets: AABBCC —> standard English verse form.
- Intradiegetic narrator: the narrator is a character in the story.
- Irony in praise and neutral descriptions: irony and criticism.
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, The 16th Century (1485-1603)
Historical Introduction
The 16th century is start of the ‘early modern period’. It starts with the accession of Henry
VII in 1485 (start of the Tudor Dynasty), continues withe Henry VIII, and ends with Elizabeth
I in 1603.
The English language:
- Early 16th century:
‣ Almost no prestige abroad.
‣ Britain still perceived as a wild, remote place.
‣ Within Britain: discussion whether te language was t for elevated use.
- End 16th century:
‣ Huge increase of the “linguistic con dence”.
‣ Vital literary culture.
- How did this turnabout come about?
‣ Complex process: look at the important factors in historical context.
1. Change in political situation.
2. The Reformation.
3. Renaissance humanism.
Change in political situation:
- The War of Roses (1455-1485): house of York (white) vs. Lancaster (red).
‣ Struggle resolved by the establishment of the Tudor dynasty.
- Start of Tudor dynasty with Henry VII in 1485.
- Stronger central authority.
- Court became center of power as well as culture.
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