A.

PALEOLITHIC TRIBES
Stone Age
left no written literature or history
B. CELTS ( Central Europe during the Iron Age)
Celtic (language)
1)Goidels or Gaels
Ireland
2) Britons/ Brythons or Cymry
invaded Britain
Characteristics/ Contributions to Literature of the CELTS
classes of poets (The Bards)
sang songs in praise
Two passions-- to fight well& talk cleverly
fierceness in battle, art and poetry, great respect
for women, high sense of personal honor

C. BELGAE ( Germanic Race during the first Century B.C.)

Agricultural economy of the islands
Cultivation of valleys
D. ROMANS
In 55 BC Julius Caesar crossed the English
Channel
400 years after, large part of Britain was occupied
& ruled by Romans
Emperor Claudius established Roman rule in
Britain in 43 A.D.
Contributions of the Romans
Established law and order
Erected walls to the country from the barbarous tribes of the
north
Built roads, walled towns, stone forts, &other structures such as
temples
andthe
baths
*About
410 A.D.
Roman government was forced to withdraw the
Roman troops from Britain. Hence, the early literature shows few
traces of the Roman occupation

D. THE ANGLO-SAXONS 449 A.D. (Angles, the Saxons,& the

Jutes )
From Denmark & from the other parts of Germany
Semi-agricultural, semi-nomadic
Lived in wooden houses - tun (town) ham (house) , or
wic
Passion: War &love for freedom
Eorlz - the ruling class
Ceorlz - herdsmen
Thanes
- tiller of the soil
Witan - assist the king
Formation of Structured Kingdoms
Northum Bria & Mercia
- formed by the Angles
Essex &Wessex
- formed by the Saxons
Kent
- settled by the Jutes
*The country became England from Angle-land (Land of the
Angles)

E. THE

SCANDINAVIANS (NORTHMEN or VIKINGS)

They cared nothing for Christianity and learning
because they were Pagans
They destroyed many valuable libraries and literature
didnt appear until after Alfred the Great became the king
in 871.
King Alfred the Great (871)

the most excellent Anglo-Saxon ruler

Lawmaker and patron of literature
proposed that the students be educated in Old
English and those excelled would go on to learn
Latin.
invited scholars from Europe and Wales to
promote literature and the arts

Contributions to Literature
1. Epic and War poetry

BEOWULF: c. 1000

Written in alliterative verse and uses kennings, as does

Caedmons Hymn. An epic poem in the elegiac mode.

Deals with the Danish King, Hrothgar, whose court is

attacked by the monster Grendel and his mother, who
kill Many of the kings men.

Beowulf , a young Great, comes boasting to Hrothgars

court, and avenges these deaths by fighting Grendel
and his mother, receiving rich rewards from Hrothgar
his ring-bearerfor these deeds.
He then fights a dragon to save his own people, but dies
in slaying it. The poem ends in a lament for Beowulf.

2) Anglo-Saxon Chronicles ( Earliest English History)

series of rough notes jotted down by the monks of
various monasteries
work attributed to Alfred the Great
*Saint Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory to preach
Christianity in England
3) Christian Literature
Caedmon- the father of English song made Famous by
his work, Hymn
Caedmon Hymns the oldest piece of verse in English
language
Cynewulf - 9th Century poet came form the Kingdom of
Mercia
Venerable Bede (greatest of the Latin writers)Ecclesiastical History of the English people -Tone of
*Anglo- Saxon literature- generally dignified and rather
gloomy

Effects of Christianity
Scribes began to translate the bible and to compose literature to Latin
and in Anglo-Saxon
Christianity & literature flourished in Britain specially in the North
Monasteries became the haven of literature and the Arts
Monks gathered ancient folktales of the Anglo-Saxons.
Englands oldest literature grew out of confluence of two traditions: pagan and
Christianity.

Pagan represents the poetry which the Anglo-Saxons probably

brought with them in the form of oral sagas.
Christian represents the writings developed under teaching of the
monks.
Their writings stressed the love of battle, fidelity to ones lord, and
the implacability of faith
Forms of Literature
1) Epic
2) Lyric Poetry: rude stanzas, elegiac
Tone is generally dignified and gloomy
First literary works are preserved in the Exeter book.

Norman conquest led by William of Normandy The

Conqueror
EFFECTS/INFLUENCES

Love of law and order

William drew up the code of laws and prepared the Domesday Book w/c includes a gigantic survey of all the real estate & other
taxable property of England

great increase in the growth and importance of towns in England

French or Anglo- Norman which is based on Latin.

Many words were introduced.

English grammar was simplified.

Standard English language

Writers and their Contributions

1) Geoffrey of Monmouth
- History of the Kings of Britain
2) Geoffrey Chaucer
- The Father of English Poetry
- The Canterbury Tales

7) Sir Thomas
- Malory Le Morte D Arthur

3) The Pearl Poet

- Sir Gawain and the Green Knights

4) William of Malmesbury
-

8) First version of Piers

Plowman

5) Roger Bacon
6) John Wycliffe
first complete translation of
- the Bible into the English language

GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1343 1400)

The Canterbury Tales (1380s)
24 tales and a framing prologue that sets up the fiction of
pilgrims meeting at a tavern as they begin their pilgrimage
to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket in Canterbury.
Each agrees to tell a tale. The tales are inked by prologues.
The narrator begins the prologue by describing the fine
April day and each of the pilgrims in his entourage.
Some characters: Knight, Miller, Wife of Bath, Prioress,
Nuns Priest, Squire, Reeve, Pardoner, Summoner, Cook,
Man of Law, Oxford Scholar, etc.

SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT(1375 1500)

Written by the unknown Pearl poet, who also wrote the

allegorical dream-vision poem, Pearl.
Arthurian Romance in Alliterative Verse Involves Sir
Gawains quest to confront the Green Knight, who has
disrupted Arthurs court. The Green Knight may
represent fertility. Gawains chastity is tested by his
hosts wife, who tries to seduce him. Gawain fails his
test of trust by taking the girdle the woman offers him;
it has protective power. The host turns out to be the
shape-shifting Green Knight, who spares Gawains life
in a beheading game. He Gives Gawain a green girdle
as a token of Gs weakness and need for forgiveness.

Literature
1. Histories

2. Romances pose and verse (Metrical Romances)

3. Tales
4. Dramas
5. Lyric poetry
6. Ballads

RENAISSANCE LITERATURE (1485

1660)

Renaissance means Rebirth--Rebirth of interest

in the Greek and Latin classics.
Emphasis on humanistic education for
statesmanship
Focus on the individual and a concern with the
fullest possible cultivation of human potential
through proper education
Focus on individual consciousness and the interior
mind
concern with the refinement of the language and
the development of a national, vernacular literature
Reformation- movement that aimed for reformation in the Roman Catholic
church which gave rise to the Protestant domination empowered by
Martin Luther.

1. Sir Thomas More

- The Man of Renaissance & Lord Chancellor
- Utopia
2. Sir Philip Sidney
- finest product of Renaissance culture in England

Tudor Literature
Courtly Literature - romantic by nature
Citizen literature more realistic by nature

Prose
Poetry
Sonnet

Drama

Henry VII
Henry VIII

Humanism

Defender of
the Faith

Anglican Church

Italian Writers
First Printing Press

Outburst of creative energy/ overflowing with vigorous life

Great variety of almost unlimited creative force

Dominated mainly by the spirit of Romance

Full of dramatic action

Period of experimentation

Largely influenced by the literature of Italy

Literary spirit was all-pervasive ( authors were men)

1. Edmund Spenser - The Faerie Queene

2. Sir Walter Raleigh - The Nymphs Reply To The
3. John Lyly

Shepherd
- used euphemism as a style

4. Sir Philip Sidney - Sonnet Forty

One

5. Francis Bacon Of Studies

6. William Shakespeare - The Immortal Playwright

7 . Christopher Marlowe - The Passionate

Shepherd to His Love

ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND
(1558 1603)
Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
The Shepheardes Calender (1579).
Written in Imitation of Vergils
Ecologues, the Calender has an ecologue
for each month of the year.
Ecologue = a short pastoral poem written
as a dialogue or soliloquy. Conversations
among shepherds and rustic folk.

8 . Ben Jonson

-1st Poet Laureate

- To Celia
- Masques, a new type of comedy

9 . John Donne
10. Ronald A. Knox

- Father of Modern Writers

- Translator
- Pauls Speech at Athens

11. Edmund Campion the Brag

Drama- crowning
glory of the
Renaissance

Essay

Prose
The Bible

Lyric poetry
Translations
King James Bible protestants
Douay-Reims Version Roman
Catholics

The Book Of Psalms

The Sonnet

Queen Elizabeth
Great Armada
Era of Discovery & Exploration
Authors were men
Outburst of Creative Energy

1. Francis Bacon
- Forerunner of the Essay

2. King James
- Finest Translator of the Bible
- Bible

3. John Milton
- Greatest Puritan Pamphleteer
- Paradise Lost
- On His Blindness

4. John Bunyan
- The pilgrims Progress

5. John Dryden
- Greatest Satirist of the Period
- Literary Dictator of the Restoration Period
- Alexanders Feast & Absalom & Architophel

6. Samuel Pepys
- Greatest Diarist
- The London Fire

Metaphysical Poetry

Satirical

Drama
Essay
Ode

Diary
Bible

Leader of the
Republican Commonwealth

Oliver Cromwell

Charles II

Merchant Class

Protestants

Pseudo-Classical

AUGUSTAN AGE
1. Daniel Defoe
- Shaped modern Journalism
- The Apparition of Mrs.Veal

2. Jonathan Swift
- The Greatest Genius of the Age
- The Greatest English Satirist
- Life with Giants

AGE OF POPE
Alexander Pope
- An Essay on Criticism
- Supreme in Epigrams
- Chief representative of Pseudo - Classicism
- Dictator of Neo - Classic Poetry

Joseph Addison

- The Spectator
- Literary Dictator of the Age

Richard Steele

- Editor of the London Gazette

- Tatler

AGE OF JOHNSON
Samuel Johnson

- Chief English Man of Letters

- Dictionary

James Boswell

- Representative of the modern method

of accurate Biographical Writing
- Life of Johnson

Edward Gibbon
- Greatest of all Biographers
- The History of Eighteen Century Literature

Pseudo - Classicism

Cogito ergo sum

Reason & Formalism

1. William Wordsworth
- The Tables Turned
- The World is too much with us

2. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

- Kubla Khan

3. Walter Scott
- Ivanhoe & Ave Maria

4. George Gordon, Lord Byron

- The Eve of Waterloo

4. Percy Bysshe Shelley

- To a Skylark

5. John Keats
- Ode To a Nightingale

6. Charles Lamb
- A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig

Age of Liberty
Imagination

Romanticism &
Exaggerated Romanticism

Feelings/Emotions

Revolt Against Artificiality

The Rediscovery of Old Ballads

Other Significant Person

Jean Jacques Rousseau
- Father of Modern society

1. Thomas Carlyle
-The Storming of the Bastille

2. Alfred Tennyson
- Break, Break, Break

3. Robert Browning
- My Last Duchess

4. Rudyard Kipling
- Recessional

5. Elizabeth Barret Browning

- How Do I Love Thee

6. Christina Rossetti
- Up - Hill

7. Jane Austen
- Sense and Sensibility

Queen Victoria

Industrial Revolution
Oxford Movement
Catholic Revival

Democracy on the March

It marked the occasion when the world paid

homage to ENGLAND as the WEALTHIEST, the
most SECURE, the most LIBERAL, and the most
POWERFUL NATION of the WORLD.

1. John Galsworthy
- Quality

2. Katherine Mansfield
- Taking the Veil

3. Bryan MacMahon
- By the Sea

4. Sheila Kaye-Smith
- Superstition Corner

5. Lytton Strachey
- Queen Victorias Marriage

6. Thomas Hardy
- The Man He Killed

7. William Butler Yeats

- Lake Isle of Innisfree

8. T. S. Eliot
- Journey of the Magi

9. John Masefield
- A Consecration

10. Dylan Thomas

- Reminiscences of Childhood

11. Gilbert Keith Chesterton

- The Romance of Orthodox

12. Ronald Duncan

- The Winslow Boy

Atomic Age
The Rise of Labor party
Political and Social Changes
Socialism
World Wars
Era of Change

Surrealism

Loneliness & Isolation

Significant Insights
1. People are unaffected by the issues/problems and yet, they are
concerned.
2. Maturity begins when one has undergone struggles in life.
3. The creativity of the person can be polished through hardships &
sacrifices.
4. Literature serves as a mirror of ones weaknesses & strengths
5. Failures lead to success & triumphs.
6. Literature must serve as a unifying factor to attain harmony.

Significant Insights
7. Your country dictates who you are.
8. An individual is molded by the events in
becoming real person, true to his convictions
& genuine in her commitments.
9. History teaches lessons that an individual
should learn from them.
10. Mans growth & success is not solely based
on his past.