...English literature From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Selected English-language writers: Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Mark Twain, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie. The focus of this article is on literature in the English language from anywhere, not just the literature of England, so that it includes writers from Scotland, the whole of Ireland, Wales, as well as literature in English from former British colonies, including the US. However, up until the early 19th century, it deals with the literature written in English of Britain and Ireland. English literature is generally seen as beginning with the epic poem Beowulf, that dates from between the 8th to the 11th centuries, the most famous work in Old English, which has achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia. The next important landmark is the works of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343–1400), especially The Canterbury Tales. Then during The Renaissance, especially the late 16th and early 17th centuries, major drama and poetry was written by William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Donne and many others. Another great poet, from later in the 17th century, was John Milton (1608–74) author of the epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). The late 17th and the early 18th century are particularly associated with satire, especially in the poetry of John Dryden and Alexander Pope, and the prose works of Jonathan Swift. The 18th century also...
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...The English novel is an important part of English literature. This article focuses on novels, written in English, by novelists who were born or have spent a significant part of their lives in England, or Scotland, or Wales, or Northern Ireland (or Ireland before 1922)]. However, given the nature of the subject, this guideline has been applied with common sense, and reference is made to novels in other languages or novelists who are not primarily British where appropriate. Portrait of Samuel Richardson by Joseph Highmore.National Portrait Gallery, Westminster, England. Contents [hide] 1 Early novels in English 2 Romantic period 3 Victorian novel 4 20th century 5 Survey 6 Famous novelists (alphabetical order) 7 See also 8 References Early novels in English[edit source | editbeta] See the article First novel in English. The English novel has generally been seen as beginning with Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722),[1] though John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (1688) are also contenders, while earlier works such as Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, and even the "Prologue" to Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales have been suggested.[2] Another important early novel is Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended 1735), by Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, which is both a satire of human nature, as well as a parody of travellers' tales like Robinson Crusoe.[3] The rise of the novel as an important...
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...English literature is generally seen as beginning with the epic poem Beowulf, that dates from between the 8th to the 11th centuries, the most famous work in Old English, which has achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia. The next important landmark is the works of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400) especially The Canterbury Tales. Then during The Renaissance, especially the late 16th and early 17th centuries, major drama and poetry was written by William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Donne and many others. Another great poet, from later in the 17th century, was John Milton (1608-1674) author of the epic poem Paradise Lost (1667). The late 17th and the early 18th century are particularly associated with satire, especially in the poetry of John Dryden and Alexander Pope, and the prose works of Jonathan Swift. The 18th century also saw the first British novels in the works of Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, while the late 18th and early 19th century was the period of the Romantic poets Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats. It was in the Victorian era (1837–1901) that the novel became the leading literary genre in English,[1] dominated especially by Charles Dickens, but there were many other significant writers, including the Brontë sisters, and then Thomas Hardy, in the final decades of the 19th century.The Americans began to produce major writers in the 19th century, including novelist Herman Melville, author of...
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...BENTRAND RUSELL * * His full name is Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell * He was born on the 18th of May 1872 in Trellech, Monmouth shire, UK * A 20th century British philosopher, as well as a logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic * A was a Nobel award winner in literature in 1950 * Russell led the British "revolt against idealism" in the early 1900s. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy along with his predecessor Gottlob Frege and his protege Ludwig Wittgenstein, and is widely held to be one of the 20th century's premier logicians. * Russell was a prominent anti-war activist; he championed free trade and anti-imperialism. Russell went to prison for his pacifist activism during World War I. He then later campaigned against Adolf Hitler, as well as criticized Stalinist totalitarianism, attacked the United States of America's involvement in the Vietnam War, and finally became an outspoken proponent of nuclear disarmament. * Russell had two siblings: Frank, and Rachel * In June 1874 Russell's mother died of diphtheria, followed shortly by Rachel's death. In January 1876, his father also died of bronchitis following a long period of depression. Frank and Bertrand were placed in the care of their staunchly Victorian grandparents, who lived at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond...
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...Arab nationalism celebrates the glories of the Arab civilization; the language, literature and a calling for a more youthful and politically unionised Arab world. Having said this, one of the priorities in Arab nationalism, especially over the past century, was to eradicate the western worlds influence upon the Arab world. The Arabs saw periodic success in their ambition but it can all be dated back to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. This looks to be the first promising event in their world but this was not always replicated in other, future events such as conflict involving Israel. It is believed that the ‘Arab Nation’ was already in existence before the appearance of Arab nationalism and that language and religion formed a common ground within the Arabian Peninsula. Arab nationalism in the 20th century saw various frontiers and leaders that all possessed definitively separate influences upon the Arab people (i.e. Arafat). However it must be argued due to its obvious effect, that western civilisation, in particular Britain, the U.S.A and France were of, welcomed or not, huge influence to nationalism with the Arab people. But we must delve deeper; the nature of Arab nationalism seemed to be predominantly, an independent idea not effect by the external world, but with some exceptions. Contrary to this, the growth looked to be directly effected and events such as the Suez crisis and the Six Day war were to ac/decelerate the rate at which it was to grow. The origins of Arab nationalism...
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...Over the last few decades British governments have been committed to tackling various aspects of direct and indirect racial discrimination with the incentive of promoting 'equality of opportunity' and remedying other social disadvantages suffered by black minority communities in British society’ (Solomos 1989:2). Equality of opportunity in this sense is associated to the concept of racial equality, which can simply refer to ‘social equality for peoples of all races’ (Crenshaw 1988). In spite of this however, there remain deeply entrenched processes of discrimination resistant to legal and political interventions throughout society (Solomos 1993). This essay will discuss the claim ‘there ain’t no Black in the Union Jack’ in relation to these processes of discrimination which have encouraged the mis representation and exclusion of Black people within British society. The first part of the essay will outline the meaning of race and racism in the 21st century. It will then go on to discuss processes of exclusion, which are reinforced by the media and politicians representation of black migrants and the existence of so called ‘White spaces’. These exclusions of black people can be seen to prevent them from identifying as British thus excluding them from being part of ‘the Union Jack’. Whilst the concept of racism has been restricted by the notion of ‘colour’ as it has concealed the full range of ways in which racism has operated in Britain, including against Jews, Gypsies and the...
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...Introduction Chapter I General Information on American Poetry 1.1 Historical and Cultural Contexts of 20th Century American Poetry 1.2 American Modernism Chapter II The Life and Work of Some of the 20th Century American Poets 2.1 Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 – 1965) 2.2 Marianne Moore (1887 – 1972) Conclusion Bibliography INTRODUCTION Development in learning English has widely opened the door to the unknown world of foreign literature. While learning a new language may require the devotion of a learner, it exposes the original beauty that is hidden under the names which, I’d like to mention, culture, traditions and literature. It is clearly seen from the history that a nation cannot exist without its customs, spoken language and written literature. Having all these nuances in mind, I dedicate my course paper to revealing all the perfection of literature which is expressed through poetry. There are as many definitions of poetry as there are poets. Wordsworth defined poetry as "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings;" Emily Dickinson said, "If I read a book and it makes my body so cold no fire ever can warm me, I know that is poetry;" and Dylan Thomas defined poetry this way: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing." Poetry is a lot of things to a lot of people. One of the most definable characteristics...
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...UNDERSTANDING THE ARYANS A roadmap for students and beginners Burjor Avari (Manchester Metropolitan University) It is a known fact of history that the British curiosity and interest in Indian cultures increased phenomenally after the East India Company came to acquire a territorial hold on Bengal from the late 1750s onwards. Their paramountcy over India’s millions depended upon their thorough understanding of the cultures of the sub-continent which required a mastery in its languages.[i] The small circle of dedicated and assiduous students of India’s languages included Sir William Jones, the eminent jurist and polymath who resided in India between 1783 and 1794.[ii] After studying Sanskrit for just under three years he observed, in 1786, that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin and Old Persian had all descended from an original speech. His observation has proved correct; and, since his time, most learned philological opinion has accepted that, in terms of language classifications, the common source of these tongues was what is now called proto-Indo-European. Its geographical focus was presumed to be the area around the Caspian Sea. It is also generally accepted that the eastern branch of the Indo-European family of languages is known as the Indo-Iranian whose first speakers called themselves Aryans. Whether the Aryans, speaking some variety of Indo-European languages, invaded or migrated into Iran and India from their original trans-Caspian homeland or...
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...Romeo Sherman Ms. Wells British Literature 27 April 2015 Aldous Huxley Aldous Huxley was a British writer and philosopher born in Surrey, England on July 26, 1984 into an upper middle class family known for their scientific and literary achievements. His father, Leonard Hurley was a poet, biologist and editor and his mother, Julia ran a boarding school. Three of Aldous siblings as well as his grandfather were well known scientist. Aldous life experiences made him depart from the class into which he was born. “Even as a young child, Aldous was looked upon as being different, showing intelligence, what his brother called superiority. He was respected and loved not hated for his abilities, but he drew on that feeling of separateness in writing Brave New World”( “Aldous Huxley: The Author and his Times,” n.d. para. 4). At age fourteen, Aldous lost his mother. Shortly after in 1911, while attending Eton school, where he was trained in medicine, the arts and science and became ill with a disease that nearly took his eyesight. Aldous’s loss of eyesight kept him from being able to pursue his career interest as a scientist or as a soldier in World War I and as a result, turned his interests toward literature. Even though his...
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...Ernest Hemingway is regarded as one of the greatest of America’s 20th century writers, primarily as a novelist. Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Cicero, Illinois. He went on to serve in the United States of America Military during World War I. After the war Hemingway worked in journalism, during which he wrote and published his first pieces of writing. Furthermore, Hemingway went on to become a prolific writer and novelist, publishing various novels, such as For Whom the Bell Tolls, Death in the Afternoon, A Farewell to Arms, The Killers, and most importantly, The Old Man and the Sea, which won Hemingway the 1953 Pulitzer prize. The following year of 1954 was momentous for Hemingway as well, when he was bestowed the great honor of receiving the Nobel Prize. Unfortunately, Hemingway became increasingly unstable mentally, turning to self-medication, paranoia, and eventually suicide. Finally, Ernest Hemingway snapped and ended his own life on July 2nd, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho....
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...of many world organisations. English arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England as a fusion of closely related dialects, now collectively termed Old English. These dialects had been brought to the south-eastern coast of Great Britain by Anglo-Saxons settlers by the 5th century. The word English is the modern spelling of englisc, the name used by the Angles and Saxons for their language, after the Angles' ancestral region of Angeln. The language was also influenced early on by the Old Norse language through Viking invasions in the 9th and 10th centuries. The Norman conquest of England in the 11th century gave rise to heavy borrowings from Norman French: thus a layer of elaborate vocabulary, particularly in the field of governance, and some Romance-language spelling conventions were added to what had by then become Middle English.[7] The Great Vowel Shift that began in the south of England in the 15th century is one of the events that mark the emergence of Modern English. Through the worldwide influence of England, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom from the 17th to mid-20th centuries under the British Empire, it has been widely propagated around the world. Through the spread of English literature, world media networks such as the BBC, the American film and television industry, and the...
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...1. Literature of the 17th century. John Milton. “Paradise Lost”. John Bunyan. “Pilgrim’s Progress”. The peculiarities of the English literature of the 17th century are determined by the events of the Engl. Bourgeois Revolution, which took place in 1640-60. King Charles I was beheaded in 1649& General Oliver Cromwell became the leader of the new government. In 1660, shortly after Cro-ll’s death, the dynasty of the Stuarts was restored. The establishment of new social&eco-ic relations, the change from feudal to bourgeois ownership, escalating class-struggle, liberation movement and contradictions of the bourgeois society found their reflection in lit-re. The main representatives of this period is: John Milton: was born in London&educated at Christ’s College. He lived a pure life believing that he had a great purpose to complete. At college he was known as the The Lady of Christ’s. he Got master’s degree at Cambridge. It’s convenient to consider his works in 3 divisions. At first he wrote his short poems at Horton. (The Passion, Song on May Morning, L’Allegro). Then he wrote mainly prose. His 3 greatest poems belong to his last group. At the age of 23 he had still done little in life&he admits this in one of his sonnets. (On his 23d B-day) In his another sonnet he wrote on his own blindness. (On his Blindness) Milton wrote diff. kinds of works. His prose works were mainly concerned with church, affairs, divorce & freedom. The English civil war between Charles...
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...Evelia Barahona Acting Under Pressure George Orwell writes about an experience in British-ruled India in the early 20th century. He was at the time, inexperienced police officer. He was there to protect the Queen. By the way he wrote, he had to make an ethical judgment within in him. Orwell had to make a decision to kill an elephant that had gone “must”. The people in the village were upset and had sent out to get him so that he could restore order before anyone got hurt. While the elephant had gone “must” he had destroyed a truck, a hut, and a villager. Orwell decision was not to look bad in front of the villagers. Orwell needed to show unity. Orwell had a conflict with himself and would try to justify, why killing the elephant was best for the village and himself. I believe that the first reason in justifying in killing the elephant would be in that the elephant had killed a villager. In this country if you kill someone you be put to death or you will do life in prison. Why is it any different for the elephant? By killing the animal it reassures the villagers, that it won’t happen again. The villager that was killed cannot be replaced and his family will have to live without the support or help the family member made to the family. The villager death was in a manner that no one should have had to die, “The friction of the beast’s foot had stripped the skin off of his back as neatly as one skins a rabbit.” Orwell’s made the right choice. “The Burmese population had not...
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...and theoretical base to help them survive in the increasingly competitive global market. Discussions of findings 1. Literature review The so-called global market is, in fact, not new in the world history. As examined by Giovanni (1999), global market has developed through 3 stages. The first stage was under the British hegemony which came into existence in the second half of the nineteenth century through the extension of the industrial revolution to long-distance transport and communication. Thirty years after the industrial revolution began; the rapid development of railways and steamships was forming the world into a single interacting economy as never before. The most remote parts of the world began to be linked together by means of communication which had no precedent for regularity, for the capacity to transport vast quantities of goods and numbers of people, and above all, for speed (Hobsbawm, 1979 cited in Giovanni, 1999). With this advanced system of transportation and communication, world trade expanded at unprecedented rate. According to Hobsbawm, the values of trade exchanges between Britain and the Ottoman Empire, Latin America, India and Australasia increased about sixfold. Not until the first half of the 20th century did witness the destruction of this first global market due to a gradual weakening of Britain’s global power. The British centered global market collapsed in the 1930s. After the...
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...2015 In the past several years, settler colonial theory has taken over my field, Native American studies. Comparative indigenous histories focused especially on British-descended “settler colonies”—Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the United States—have proliferated. And settler colonial theory is now dogma. At my last two conference presentations, a fellow panelist was astonished that I didn’t deploy it. My research on native New England whaling history made me more globally comparative, but it also forced a reckoning that many places experienced colonialism without an influx of foreign settlers. As scholars parse settler colonialism into its multiple manifestations, colonialism itself remains undifferentiated. One of settler colonialism’s leading theorists, Lorenzo Veracini, juxtaposes the two completely. “Colonialism and settler colonialism are not merely different, they are in some ways antithetical formations,” he wrote in the 2011 founding issue of the journal Settler Colonial Studies. For Veracini, “colonialism” apparently refers to the late 19th-century European scrambles for Africa and Asia—in popular imagery, plantation colonies where members of a white ruling class dressed in white linen lounge on the edge of a cricket field, sipping cocktails served up by dark-skinned natives. Indeed, most of the literature on colonialism explores the history of the plantation colonies of that era. Instead of casting colonialism and settler colonialism as antithetical categories,...
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