Unseen Time periods Flashcards
When is the middle english period?
1066-1485
What were the key types of literature in the middle english period?
Oral tradition, folk ballads, mystery/ morality plays
Name some key authors/texts from the middle english period
Chaucer, (Canterbury Tales), Malory, The tales of King Authur
Historical context in the middle english period
Money economy established by crusades, as trading increases dramatically. Willy conqueror crowned in 1066. Many people illiterate so they see/hear literature in morality plays - church instructs in this way. Henry III crowned in 1154 brings judical system, royal courts, juries and chivalry to britain.
When was the British Renaissance? When were the Elizabethan and Jacobean subdivisions?
1485-1660 - renaissance
Elizabethan period: 1586 - 1603
Jacobean period: 1603 - 1625
What style of literature was popular during the Renaissance?
sonnets, metaphysical poetry, metaphors and conceits, drama, verse, tragedies, comedies histories.
Literary context during renaissance?
world view shifts from religion and afterlife to one stressing human life on earth. Development of human potential, many aspects of love e.g. unrequited, constant timless courtly, love subject to change. Chain of being and religious ideas still used. Pastoral settings idealised
Historic context during renaissance?
Stability comes as war of roses ends in 1485, printing press helps to stabilise english language - more people read variety of literature. Economy shifts from farm based to international trade - age of exploration
What was the effect of the new forms of literature in the Renaissance period?
Commoners were welcome at some stage productions e.g. Globe, but conservatives try to close theatres on the grounds that they promote brazen behaviours. Not all middle class embrace metaphysical poets and their abstract conceits.
Who were some key authors of the Renaissance era?
Willy Shakey, Thomas Wyatt, Cavalier Poets, Metaphysical Poets, Christopher Marlowe, Andrew Marvell, Aphra Behn
When was The Restoration period?
1630-1660
Historical context of restoration?
The reign of Charles II after his restoration to the throne following the Civil War and Cromwell. 50% of men now literate. Enclosure laws cause demise of traditional village life. Start of industrial revolution, impoverished masses grow - farming life declines. Coffee houses, where educated men spend their evenings with literary and political associates emerge.
Literary context of Restoration period?
emphasis on reason and logic, stresses harmony stablity wisdom. Locke philosophy: a social contract exists between the government and the people. The government governs guaranteeing “natural rights” of life liberty and property. Emphasis on the individual - belief that humanity is basically evil.
What was the theatre according to conservatives?
‘A hotbed of dissident politics’ -John Brewer
What were popular literary styles during the Restoration?
Satire, poetry, essays, letters, diaries, biographies, novels
Key Authors from the Restoration Period?
Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, John Bunyan, John Milton
When was the Romantic Period?
1798-1832
Historical context for Romantic period?
Tory philosophy that government should not interfere with private enterprise. Middle class gain representation in parliament, railroads. British empire brought global trade and class divide, nationalism and trade
Literary context in Romantic period?
Human knowledge consists of impressions and ideas formed in the individuals mind
Introduction of gothic elements and terror/horror stories- reaction against previous period, importance of rebellion and independence
Nature offers peace and comfort that man-made urbanised towns cannot
evil is attributed to society not human nature, human beings are basically good
children seen as hapless victims of exploitation and poverty
Popular styles of literature during Romantic era?
Poetry, lyrical ballad, gothic poetry and prose, romantic novels
Key Romantic writers?
Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, Robert Burns, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Sammy tays Coleridge, Lord Byron Burger, Percy Shelley, his kickass wife Mary and Johnny from down the road keats
When was the Victorian Period?
1832-1900
Historical Context of Victorian period?
Conflicts between those in power and the common masses of labourers and the poor. Industrial revolution and Shocking life of working class and urban poor is highlighted in literature to insist on reform. Paper becomes cheap - magazines and novels become cheap to mass produce, unprecedented growth of industry and business in UK unparalleled dominance of nations. Economies trade abroad. British empire continues. Darwinian influence on knowledge
What were popular literary styles of the Victorian period?
Novels (mass produced for the first time), political and patriotic verse, bildungsroman, detective novels (Sherlock), Serialised novels (Dickens), elegies, daramatic monologue, magazines offer stories to the masses - poetry falls out of fashion
Common Victorian themes?
country v.s. city life, sexual discretion (or lack thereof) strained consciences, romantic triangles, heroines in physical danger, aristocratic villains, misdirected letters, bigamous marriages, doubt and poigniancy
Key Victorian authors?
Dickens, Lord Tennyson, Charlotte Bronte, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Darwin, Robert Browning, Christina Rossetti
When was the modern period?
1900-1940s/50s
Historical context of modern period?
World War one brought upheaval and questioning to all aspects of life, rupture with past ideals and beliefs e.g. heroes British empire loses one million soldiers in WW1. British colonies demand independence. Winston Churchill leads britain through WW2, Germans bomb britain.
Literary context of modern period?
Writers turn to art for arts sake, intrest in theory, experimentalism and breaking the rules. preoccupation with social and personal identity. Breakdown of social norms, realistic embodiment of social meanings. Spiritual lonliness and alienation. Frustraion, disilusionment. Rejection of history and outdated social systems, objection to traditional thoughts and moralities and religion, substitution of mythical past. Traditional chronological narrative replaced by connotation, association and use of symbols
Popular forms of literature?
Stream of consciousness novels, sci-fi and psychological fiction emerges. Concept of epiphany, recognition of instability and complexity of personality. Speeches, memoirs, attempt to search for truths and deep ideas and meanings
Key Modern Authors
T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, William Butler Yeats, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Bernard Shaw
When was the Postmodern period?
1950s (ish) - now
Historical context of early postmodernism
60s - nuclear and atomic bomb threat, melancholic undertones.
Literary context of postmodernism
preoccupations of modernism shared but taken futher. Traditional linear narrative mocked and rejected and comfort of closure rejected. Randomness, discontinuity, and contradiction, pastiche and deliberate irony makes us reflect on act of writing and relationship between writer, character and reader.
How is post-modernism different from modernism?
- modernism places faith in ideas, values, culture and norms of the west, postmodernism rejects this
- modernism attempts to reveal profound truths of experience and life, postmodernism is suspicious of being ‘profound’ because this is based on particular western value systems.
- modernism attmepts to find depth and interior meaning beneath the surface of objects and events, postmodernism dwells on exterior image and avoids drawing conclusions or suggesting underlying meanings
- modernism is focused on central themes and a united vision, in a particular piece of literature, postmodernism sees human experience as unstable, internally contradictory, ambiguous, inconclusive, indeterminate, unfinished, fragmented and discontinuous. No one specific reality is possible - vision of a contradictory and fragmented world
- modern authers guide and control the readers response to their work, postmodern writer creates an “open” work in which the reader must supply their own connections, work out alternative and provide their own unguided interpretation
Key postmodern authors?
Bret Easton Ellis, Jack Kerouac, George Orwell, Tom Stoppard, Sylvia Plath, Margaret Atwood, McEwan
