Study Guide
GRADE 11/12 | 21ST CENTURY LITERATURE FROM THE PHILIPPINES AND THE WORLD
UNIT 14
English Literature
Insert the lesson objectives here:
Identify the characteristics of English Literature;
Distinguish the differences in different literary periods; and
Demonstrate understanding of the evolution of English Literature.
I. Old English and Middle English Literature
Old English literature could be described as religious because of the Norman Conquest that bought Christianism to England. It can be observed in the major manuscripts of that period that told about the lives of saints, religious poems, as well as religious narratives.
Most of Old English poetry survived through these four manuscripts, namely, The Beowulf Manuscript, The Exeter Book, The Junius / Caedmon Manuscript, and The Vercelli Book.
Old English Poetry is characterized by patterns of four-stress lines and six stress lines. In addition, a caesura or syntactical break is placed in between the second and third stresses of the poem. Poetry in Old English is known to be formulaic, poets draw patterns from a common stock of phrase patterns and have a prescribed description for every kind of character. A unique feature of this kind of poetry are the use of kennings. Kenning is a type of figurative language that poets use instead of a noun. It is often made up of two words and separated by a hyphen. They may call the sea as a swan-road or a sword as a wound-hoe.
One example of Old English Poetry is the Dream of the Rood from the Vercelli Book.
It was the earliest dream poem and one of the greatest religious poems in the English language. It was about the dream of the rood or the cross as it was used as an instrument for Jesus’ sacrifice for mankind. The cross, which once symbolized death and punishment was now a symbol of the redemption of mankind.
The term Middle English was first created to mark a period in the development of English language. Most of the philologists at that time wanted to divide the history of language into three periods, Old English, Middle English and New or Modern English. Literary historians adopted the name Middle English from the language historians.
Middle English poetry, like its predecessor, has its own set of rules. Alliterative verse is one of the features of Middle English poetry along with the stress and caesura from the Old English period. Alliterative poetry has no standard but a variety of versions that developed as the centuries passed.
One example of alliterative verse is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight which also exhibits the style of bob and wheel. The bob, is the first line that is shorter than the rest and the wheel is the quatrain that follows the bob. The poem is about Sir Gawain, a knight of the round table, and the Green knight who challenges Sir Gawain to strike him with his axe in exchange of a return blow after a year and a day.
II. Elizabethan Literature
Elizabethan Literature are the body of works written during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England from 1558 to 1603. It is in this period that writers such as Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, Phillip Sidney, and Roger Ascham flourished. This period of time saw the rise of the sonnet, Spenserian stanza, and the blank verse in the poetry genre as well as the novel, literary criticism, and pamphlet in prose. Elizabethan era was best known as the golden age of drama, where Shakespeare’s plays reign.
Sonnets along with the blank verse were introduced to England by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, earl of Surrey. The blank verse is an unrhymed version of the iambic pentameter. It was used in the first English drama by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton. Christopher Marlowe used it in his plays such as Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus, and Edward II. William Shakespeare also utilized it in his plays such as Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, and The Winter’s Tale.
England had its own version of the sonnet through the Elizabethan sonnet or the Shakespearean sonnet. The characteristics of the English sonnet are the Iambic pentameter, the rhyme scheme (abab cdcd efef gg), and the pivot which is the sudden change in direction or conclusion found in the ending couplet. Here is an example of a Shakespearean sonnet that should be read in iambic pentameter which means stressing every other syllable.
The Spenserian stanza, however, has eight iambic pentameter lines and ends with a ninth line with six iambic feet. Its unity is shown in its first eight lines is completed by its last line.
During the Elizabethan era plays became part of the people’s social life because of the Queen’s fondness of it. Things changed during this time, subjects of drama shifted from religious to secular, making the playwrights and poets the most active participants of this era. Despite its popularity it roused criticism from the church who found the playwrights’ and the actors’ characters questionable. But because of the protection of Queen Elizabeth, it continued to flourish.
III. The Romantic Period and the Victorian Period
The Romantic and Victorian Period are both reactions the previous literary movements and events. Romanticism, which was considered to have taken place from 1770 to 1830 was a reaction against the industrial revolution. The writers of romanticism inclined towards nature as a way of reclaiming a life that was threatened by urbanization.
Romantic period focuses on the emotions and expressions of man. William Wordsworth, one of the metaphysical poets, calls it as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”. Praise of nature is the most common subject during this period. Romantics are obsessed with showing originality and authority, for them they must create their own rather that follow another man’s rule this was in contrast with the previous rule-bound literary periods such as the Old and Middle English.
Some of the literary works during this period are Jane Austen’s Emma, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, Lord Byron’s She Walks in Beauty, and Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.
Victorian period started in the reign of Queen Victoria which lasted from 1837 – 1901. It was characterized by a decline in religious belief and novelists writing about the hopeless status of humanity in a modern world. It was seen through the lens of realism and writers during this time wanted to chronicle the struggles during this period. Its language was restrained unlike the carefree and emotional romantic period.
The Victorian period approaches literature in a deliberate and careful way, using irony to challenge its readers as well as using long and complicated plot in their novels. Because of the Victorian period’s intention to show things as realistically as possible, the use of imagery and figures of speech are lessened in this era.
Charles Dickens’ work, A Tale of Two Cities unabashedly presents the truth about revolution and poverty and shows how poor people thrive in a tough world. What makes Dickens’ work popular to both the rich and the poor is that it exposes both the needy and the mighty in his works.
Some of the literary works during this period are William Makepeace Thackeray’s Vanity Fair, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Alfred Tennyson’s Ulysses, and Robert Browning‘s My Last Duchess.
IV. 20th Century Literature
As each literary period is created as a reaction to the previous one, 20th century literature was a response to the restrictions of Victorian Literature. Since Edward VII’s ascension to the throne, a free and uninhibited era for literature began. For many, this was a start of a new era where science and technology will move humanity forward.
Many of the 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. The theatre have become a venue for discussion of the necessity of political organization, morality of war, function of classes and professions, family and marriage, and female emancipation.
Novelists of this period eager to reveal the shortcomings of English social circles. But despite the hardships of their time they believed that positive change was about to happen and their writings could help bring out that change.
Literature in 1945 or after the Second World War was characterized by increased attachment to religion. William Golding and Muriel Spark are the two most innovatory novelists who started writing after the war, are also religious believers. Their novels often touched the topic of original sin, according to Golding, “man produces evil as a bee produces honey.”
William Golding’s Lord of the Flies reenacts man’s fall from grace in the schoolboys’ innocence that turned into barbarianism. George Orwell’s Animal Farm in 1945 explores the ideas of capitalism, rebellion, war, and communism in the guise of animals. In Muriel Sparks’ The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, discusses themes of betrayal, innocence, as well as cold rationality in contrast with unchecked emotionalism. These novels expose different issues and boldly writes about systems and figures that should be eradicated.
This Learning Tasks section may come before or after the discussion. It includes activities for students. Enumerate the instructions using numbers.
1. Identify religious symbolisms in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies
2. Write a cause and effect essay about two consecutive literary periods of your choice.
3. Read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Find 20 kennels in the poem and identify their meaning.
Questions:
Have 3 examples from easy, average to difficult.
1. It is a type of figurative language that poets from the Old English period use instead of a noun. It often made up of two words and separated by a hyphen.
2. Which of the following periods are formulaic in nature?
a. 20TH CENTURY
b. Victorian Period
c. Middle English
d. Old English
3. Which of the following is characterized by obsession towards originality and authority?
a. Middle English
b. Romantic Period
c. Elizabethan Era
d. 20th Century
Answers:
1. Kenning
Explanation:
Kenning is a type of figurative language that poets use instead of a noun. It often made up of two words and separated by a hyphen.
2. c and d
Explanation:
Only the first two periods of English literature was formulaic in nature. The succeeding periods did not have a specific standard of writing.
3. B
Explanation:
Romantics are obsessed with showing originality and authority, for them they must create their own rather that follow another man’s rule this was sin contrast with the previous rule-bound literary periods such as the Old and Middle English.
Old English literature could be described as religious because of the Norman Conquest that bought Christianism to England.
Alliterative verse is one of the features of Middle English poetry along with the
stress and caesura from the Old English period.
Elizabethan Literature are the body of works written during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England from 1558 to 1603.
Romanticism, which was considered to have taken place from 1770 to 1830 was a reaction against the industrial revolution.
The Victorian period was characterized by a decline in religious belief and novelists writing about the hopeless status of humanity in a modern world.
The 20th century was a start of a new era where science and technology will move humanity forward.
Lambdin, Laura C, and Robert T. Lambdin. 2002. A Companion to Old and Middle English Literature. London: Laura C. Lambdin and Robert T. Lambdin.
Burrow, J. A. 2008. Medieval Writers and their Work: Middle English Literature-. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coodin, David. 2017. The Differences Between Romanticism & Victorianism . Accessed May 26, 2017. http://penandthepad.com/differences-between-romanticism-victorianism-.html.
Hugh Alistair Davies, Peter Kemp, et. al. 2017. The literature of World War II (1939–45). Accessed May 26, 2017. s://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-literature-of-World-War-II-1939-45#toc13020.
Luebering, J. E. 2011. English Literature from the Old English Period Through the Renaissance. New York: Britannica Educational Publishing .
National Endowment For The Arts. n.d. Iambic Pentameter. Accessed May 26, 2017. http://www.shakespeareinamericancommunities.org/education/iambic-pentameter.
Peter Kemp, Nicholas Shrimpton, et. al. 2017. English Literature From 1900 to 1945. Accessed May 26, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-20th-century.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. 2017. bob and wheel. Accessed May 26, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/art/bob-and-wheel.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. 2017. Elizabethan literature. Accessed May 26, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/art/Elizabethan-literature.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. 2017. Spenserian stanza. Accessed May 26, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/art/Spenserian-stanza.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. 2017. The Dream of the Rood. Accessed May 26, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Dream-of-the-Rood.