The Development of English Literature
In old English period, the main literary contribution of this period is the Epic. Beowulf, is the oldest surviving and national epic in Anglo-Saxon literature.
In middle English period, the prevailing style of Middle English Literature is impersonal, including prose, folk ballad, and romance…After the Norman Conquest, the customs and ideals known as chivalry was introduced by the Normans into England. Medieval romance was the most popular literary form during the Anglo-Norman period. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is the most famous Romance. Meanwhile, the Geoffrey Chaucer, called “The Father of English Poetry”, has an important impact on the English works. His The Canterbury Tales represents the summit of achievements in Middle English poetry.
The 16th century in England is regarded as the greatest in English literature as well as the society. An intellectual movement known as Renaissance stimulated a quick development in literature, especially the booming of poetry and drama. Poetry flourished and became the mainstream of this time with outstanding poets like John Skelton who brought a fresh voice to the genre, Edmund Spencer who gained greater renown with his epic poem The Faerie Queene. Shakespeare and Marlow’s fame also rests on their works of poetry. Drama was the most impressive achievement of the English Renaissance. The famous dramatists like Thomas Kyd(The Spanish Tragedy),Robert Greene(A Pleasant Conceited Comedy of George A.Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield). Shakespeare also is a drama giant. Another literary giant Francis Bacon, was a famous essayist. His literary power and success find in his masterpiece Essays, the first collection of essays as such in the English language. Utopia written by Thomas More is also a great work.
Literature of 17th century was concerned with the tremendous upheavals of that time. A major literary form of this period is poetry. The greatest representatives of this period are the “Three Johns”: John Milton (Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes), John Donne (Songs and Sunsets), the representative of the Metaphysical School and John Bunyan (The Pilgrim’s Progress), a great prose writer.
Classicism, or Neoclassicism, dominated 18th century. Alexander Pope was a greatest poet in this century. One of the most important phenomena of this period was the rise of periodical literature. Particularly influential were Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. In the middle of 18th century, novel rose in England. Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe), Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels), Samuel Richardson (Pamela), Henry Fielding(Tom Jones), Oliver Goldsmith(The Vicar of Wakefield) were all the famous novelists of this period.
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Pre-Romanticism emerged. Robert Burns (A Red, Red Rose) and William Blake (Songs of Innocence) were the typical poets. With the publication of Lyrical Ballads written by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Romanticism began to bloom. Byron (Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage), Shelley (“Ozymandias”, “Ode to the West Wind”), Keats (“Ode to a Nightingale”) were the representatives.
In Victorian Age, the most important achievement lies in Critical Realism novels. Dickens (Oliver Twist), Charlotte Bront? (Jane Eyre), Emily Bront? (Wuthering Heights) were the great giant of this period.
In the 20th century, Modernism and Post-Modernism rose. Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, James Joyce’s Ulysses are the great works of stream of conciousness novel. Yeats is famous for “The wild Swans at Coole” as a poet and dramatist of this time.
The development of English literature
