the development of english literature

A Survey of the Development of English Literature

English literature has a long history by the 5th century to the present, which can be mainly divided into seven periods.

It begins with the literature of old and middle English periods including two parts. The first part called Anglo-Saxon Period extends from about 450 to 1066, the year of the Norman-French conquest of England. The earliest written works in Old English were probably composed orally at first, and may have been passed on from speaker to speaker before being written. During this period the main expressions were in poetry and prose. The main literary contribution of this periods the Epic, and its masterpiece was the national epic ,The Song of Beowulf, in which pagan heroism and fatalism were mingled with Christian qualities. It is the oldest poem in the English language and the oldest surviving epic in Anglo-Saxon literature, expressing a hope that evil should be punished and the righteous will be rewarded. Then, the Norman Conquest markets the beginning of Anglo-Norman Literature. The literature of this period is greatly influenced by the Norman Conquest, and the main expressions are in the varied forms of poetry, prose, and drama. The most prevailing form of literature in this period is Romance and the most famous Romance is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. About the poet, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury’s Tales is the greatest work, which is a collection of stories told by a group of pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. Chaucer is considered the father of the modern English poetry because he opened a brilliant page in English literature and has a profound influent on many important English poets.

The second is the Renaissance period(14th to 17th century) full of great events and regarded as English Golden Age in literature. It reached the peak during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, involving a rebirth of letters and arts, and it also unleashed new ideas and new social, political,and economic forces. The essence of Renaissance was humanism. During this period, a number of outstanding poets appeared with great work. The poet’s poet, Spencer gained still greater renowned with his epic poem The Faerie Queene. The greatest Elizabethan dramatist, Shakespeare created altogether 39

plays such as King Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, many of his plays enjoy international popularity. And his sonnets represent the finest poetic craftsmanship of Elizabethan poetry.

The 17th Century is the Period of Revolution and Restoration .The literature of

17th century was greatly concerned with the tremendous social upheavals of this period. A major literary form of this period was poetry. The greatest representatives of this period are the “Three Johns”: John Milton, a great poet with his epic Paradise lost which sits safely in English literature along with Beowulf and Fairie Queene, John Donne, the representative of the Metaphysical School and John Bunyan, a great prose writer.

The period between 1688 and 1798 is called the Age of Enlightenment, which was an expression of struggle of the then progressive class of bourgeoisie against feudalism. The 18th century literature can be roughly divided into followership stages: (1)The first stage witnessed the Neo-Classical which Flourished from late the late

17th century to 1730s. Pope, Addison, and Steele were the representative of this school. (2)The second stage lasted from 1740s to 1750s, which saw the rise of modern English novel. (3)The third stage was from 1750s to 1798, with the appearance of Sentimentalism. Most of the Sentimentalism writers were in the field of poetry, such as Thomas Gary who was regarded as the dominant poetic figure in his day.

In the late of 18th century, a new literary movement called Romanticism came to European mainland and then to England. Romanticism is generally regarded as the thought that designates a literary and philosophical theory which tends to see the individual as the very center of all life and all experience. The Romantic period is an age of poetry from the late18th to the mid-19th century. Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats are the major poets. Wordsworth was regarded as a “worshipper of nature ”, and his work Lyrical Ballads marked the beginning of Romanticism in English poetry.

When Water Scott died in 1832, the Victorian literature began until 1900. During this period, writers were all concerned about the fate of common people. By the time,Romanticism gave way to Realism. Jane Eyre created by Charlotte Bronte was

seen wicked and received controversial criticism from public because the affection of girl for a married man was against the Victorian moral standard. And Charlotte’s sister, Emily wrote the her only novel, Wuthering Heights, telling the story of passionate love which was thwarted between Catherine and Heath cliff. In many writers, such as Dickens and Thackeray ,we find loud denunciations to the social evils of oppression, poverty, snobbishness, hypocrisy and mannerisms.

The last period is the Literature of the20th century (1902-2000), which witnessed the blooming of Modernism and Post-Modernism. During this time, the realistic tradition was gradually overtaken by other literary trends such as symbolism, the stream of consciousness and naturalism. And moral and ethical degradation of upper classes first and of the most part of society a bit later was the main theme of the contemporary art of late period. Virginia Woolf, considered a significant force in the 20th-century fiction, criticizes the reserved world of Englishmen in the 1920’s, mentioning the importance of seeking unity and harmony with each other. To the lighthouse was often considered her best novel with the Consciousness techniques.