the term literature refers to literature written in the language,including literature composed in by writers not necessarily from england;joseph conrad was pol**h,robert burns was scott**h,james joyce was ir**h,dylan thomas was welsh,edgar allan poe was american,salman rushdie ** indian,v.s.naipaul was born in trinidad,vladimir nabokov was russian.in other words,literature ** as diverse as the varieties and dialects of spoken around the world.in academia,the term often labels departments and programmes pract**ing studies in secondary and tertiary educational systems.despite the variety of authors of literature,the works of william shakespeare remain paramount throughout the speaking world.
th** article primarily deals with literature from britain written in engl**h.for literature from specific speaking regions,consult the see also section at the bottom of the page.
contents[hide]
1 old 2 rena**sance literature
3 early modern period
3.1 elizabethan era
3.2 jacobean literature
3.3 caroline and cromwellian literature
3.4 restoration literature
3.5 augustan literature
4 18th century
5 romantic**m
6 victorian literature
7 modern**m
8 post-modern literature
9 views of literature
10 see also
11 external links
old main article:anglo-saxon literature
the first works in written in old appeared in the early middle ages(the oldest surviving text ** cædmon's hymn).the oral tradition was very strong in early brit**h culture and most literary works were written to be performed.epic poems were thus very popular and many,including beowulf,h**e survived to the present day in the rich corpus of anglo-saxon literature that closely resemble today's norwegian or,better yet,icelandic.much anglo-saxon verse in the extant manuscripts ** probably a"milder"adaptation of the earlier viking and german war poems from the continent.when such poetry was brought to england it was still being handed down orally from one generation to another,and the constant presence of alliterative verse,or consonant rhyme(today's news** headlines and marketing abundantly use th** technique such as in big ** better)helped the anglo-saxon peoples remember it.such rhyme ** a feature of germanic languages and ** opposed to vocalic or end-rhyme of romance languages.but the first written literature dates to the early chr**tian monasteries founded by st.augustine of canterbury and h** d**ciples and it ** reasonable to believe that it was somehow adapted to suit to needs of chr**tian readers.even without their crudest lines,viking war poems still smell of blood feuds and their consonant rhymes sound like the smashing of swords under the gloomy northern sky:there ** always a sense of imminent danger in the narratives.sooner or later,all things must come to an end,as beowulf eventually dies at the hands of the monsters he spends the tale fighting.the feelings of beowulf that nothing lasts,that youth and joy will turn to death and sorrow entered chr**tianity and were to dominate the future landscape of fiction.
rena**sance literature
main article:rena**sance
following the introduction of a printing press into england by william caxton in 1476,vernacular literature flour**hed.the reformation inspired the production of vernacular liturgy which led to the book of common prayer,a lasting influence on literary language.the poetry,drama,and prose produced under both queen elizabeth i and king james i constitute what ** today labelled as early modern(or rena**sance).
early modern period
further **rmation:early modern and early modern britain
elizabethan era
main article:elizabethan literature
the elizabethan era saw a great flour**hing of literature,especially in the field of drama.the italian rena**sance had red**covered the ancient greek and roman theatre,and th** was instrumental in the development of the new drama,which was then beginning to evolve apart from the old mystery and miracle plays of the middle ages.the italians were particularly inspired by seneca(a major tragic playwright and philosopher,the tutor of nero)and plautus(its comic clichés,especially that of the boasting soldier had a powerful influence on the rena**sance and after).however,the italian tragedies embraced a principle contrary to seneca's ethics:showing blood and violence on the stage.in seneca's plays such scenes were only acted by the characters.but the playwrights were intrigued by italian model:a conspicuous community of italian actors had settled in london and giovanni florio had brought much of the italian language and culture to england.it ** also true that the elizabethan era was a very violent age and that the high incidence of political assassinations in rena**sance italy(embodied by niccolò machi**elli's the prince)did little to calm fears of pop**h plots.as a result,representing that kind of violence on the stage was probably cathartic for the elizabethan spectator.following earlier elizabethan plays such as gorboduc by sackville&norton and the span**h tragedy by kyd that was to provide much material for hamlet,william shakespeare stands out in th** period as a poet and playwright as yet unsurpassed.shakespeare was not a man of letters by profession,and probably had only some grammar school education.he was neither a lawyer,nor an ar**tocrat as the"university wits"that had monopol**ed the stage when he started writing.but he was very gifted and incredibly versatile,and he surpassed"professionals"as robert greene who mocked th**"shake-scene"of low origins.though most dramas met with great success,it ** in h** later years(marked by the early reign of james i)that he wrote what h**e been considered h** greatest plays:hamlet,romeo and juliet,othello,king lear,macbeth,antony and cleopatra,and the tempest,a tragicomedy that inscribes within the main drama a brilliant pageant to the new king.th** 'play within a play' takes the form of a masque,an interlude with music and dance coloured by the novel special effects of the new indoor theatres.critics h**e shown that th** masterpiece,which can be considered a dramatic work in its own right,was written for james's court,if not for the monarch himself.the magic arts of prospero,on which depend the outcome of the plot,hint at the fine relationship between art and nature in poetry.significantly for those times(the arrival of the first colon**ts in america),the tempest **(though not apparently)set on a bermudan **land,as research on the bermuda pamphlets(1609)has shown,linking shakespeare to the virginia company itself.the"news from the new world",as frank kermode points out,were already out and shakespeare's interest in th** respect ** remarkable.shakespeare also popularized the sonnet which made significant changes to petrarch's model.
the sonnet was introduced into by thomas wyatt in the early 16th century.poems intended to be set to music as songs,such as by thomas campion,became popular as printed literature was d**seminated widely in households.see madrigal school.other important figures in elizabethan theatre include chr**topher marlowe,thomas dekker,john fletcher and franc** beaumont.had marlowe(1564-1593)not been stabbed at twenty-nine in a t**ern brawl,says anthony burgess,he might h**e rivalled,if not equalled shakespeare himself for h** poetic gifts.remarkably,he was born only a few weeks before shakespeare and must h**e known him well.marlowe's subject matter,though,** different:it focuses on the moral drama of the rena**sance man than any other thing.marlowe was fascinated and terrified by the new frontiers opened by modern science.drawing on german lore,he introduced dr.faustus to england,a scient**t and magician who ** obsessed by the thirst of knowledge and the desire to push man's technological power to its limits.he acquires supernatural gifts that even allow him to go back in time and wed helen of troy,but at the end of h** twenty-four years' covenant with the devil he has to surrender h** soul to him.h** dark heroes may h**e something of marlowe himself,whose untimely death remains a mystery.he was known for being an athe**t,leading a lawless life,keeping many m**tresses,consorting with ruffians:living the 'high life' of london's underworld.but many suspect that th** might h**e been a cover-up for h** activities as a secret agent for elizabeth i,hinting that the 'accidental stabbing' might h**e been a premeditated assassination by the enemies of the crown.beaumont and fletcher are less-known,but it ** almost sure that they helped shakespeare write some of h** best dramas,and were quite popular at the time.it ** also at th** time that the city comedy genre develops.in the later 16th century poetry was character**ed by elaboration of language and extensive allusion to classical myths.the most important poets of th** era include edmund spenser and sir philip sidney.elizabeth herself,a product of rena**sance human**m,produced occasional poems such as on monsieur’s departure.
canons of rena**sance poetry
jacobean literature
after shakespeare's death,the poet and dramat**t ben jonson was the leading literary figure of the jacobean era(the reign of james i).however,jonson's aesthetics hark back to the middle ages rather than to the tudor era:h** characters embody the theory of humours.according to th** contemporary medical theory,beh**ioral differences result from a prevalence of one of the body's four"humours"(blood,phlegm,black bile,and yellow bile)over the other three;these humours correspond with the four elements of the universe:air,water,fire,and earth.th** leads jonson to exemplify such differences to the point of creating types,or clichés.
jonson ** a master of style,and a brilliant satir**t.h** volpone shows how a group of scammers are fooled by a top con-art**t,vice being pun**hed by vice,virtue meting out its ...