History of English

Literature
К.ф.н., доц. Кожокина А.В.
Kozhokina Angelina
Phd, Associate professor
Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia
 Introduction
• English literature includes literature composed in English
by writers not necessarily from England, but all are
considered important writers in the history of English
literature (for example, Robert Burns was Scottish,
James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish,
Adgar Alla Poe was American,).
• Until the early 19th century literature from Britain will
mainly be discussed; then America starts to produce
major writers and works in literature.
• In the 20th century America and Ireland produced many
of the most significant works of literature in English
• After World War II writers from the former British Empire
also began to challenge writers from Britain.
 Lecture 1. The Development of the English
Language on the British Isles. Beowulf

1. The Ancient Britons and Their Language.

2. The Celt's Culture.
3. Mythology.
4. Purpose of Myths.
5. The Roman Conquest.
6. The Invasion of Britain by Germanic Tribes.
7. “Beowulf”
8. The Norman Conquest.
 1. The Ancient Britons and Their Language

The first mentioning of

Britain dates back to
the 4th century BC
and the people who
lived there were
called Britons
Outsiders called them
"Britons" - "tattooed
people" - because
they painted
themselves blue with.
 Celtic Borrowings
Britons belonged to the
Celtic race and the
language they
spoke was Celtic.
Few traces of the
Celtic language are
to be found in the
English today. For
example:
Stratford-on -Avon:
Avon – river;
Loch Ness: Loch - lake
 2. The Celt's Culture
• they kept large herds of cattle and
sheep, cultivated crops;
• were more civilized than other tribes.
Their clothing was made of wool, while
other tribes wore skins;
• painted themselves blue to frighten the
enemy in the battle which gave the
Vikings such a psychological
advantage;
• were wealthy;
• were excellent warriors. They were
acquainted with the use of copper, iron
and tin. They developed iron weapons
before their rivals.
• Celtic women could be warriors too
One such female warrior is Boudicca
who infamously fought to prevent the
Romans from invading her territory 
 Druids
• a class of priests,
• served as judges,
teachers, doctors;
• worshipped nature
and believed in many
gods;
• governed the Britons;
• wore white clothing;
 Stonehenge
A prehistoric stone circle
monument which consists
of a ring of standing
stones
Hypotheses and theories:
• a place of burial,
cemetery
• a place of healing
• a symbol of "peace and
unity“
• an astronomical observat
ory.
 Druids rituals
Mistletoe is a plant that grows on
trees including willow, apple and
oak trees. The tradition of hanging
it in the house goes back to the
times of the ancient Druids. It is
supposed to possess mystical
powers which bring good luck to
the household and wards off evil
spirits
 The Irish Story and Legend of
Cuchulainn
Like all the ancient peoples the
Celts made up many legends
about their gods and heroes,
they were called Sagas. The
heroes of those Sagas and
their adventures were
imaginary. However, they give
us an idea of the Celtic way of
life, their occupations, tools,
weapons, customs and
religion. The greatest hero of
such sagas was Cuchulainn
['ku:kulin]. According to the
legends he lived in Ireland
(Ulster). Cuchulainn was the
greatest champion, like
Achilles [e'kili:z], a Greek hero.
 Mythology
• Mythology is a collection of stories, telling people's believes and history. Some major
issues are the origin of humanity and its traditions and the way in which the natural
and human world functions. Most often the deities' daily activities are described in
mythology, their love affairs, pleasures, jealousy, rages, ambitions and skills.
• In the times of the Celts different kinds of mythological narrations appeared.
Kinds of Mythological Narrations:
• Legends. Unlike many myths legends do not have religious or super natural context.
Folklore. While legends and myths might be embraced as true stories, folk tales are
known to be fictitious. They are often told only within limited geographical area.
Sometimes rather small, such as a town, a mountain range but more often it's a
country.
• Fables. The emphasis of a fable is always on a moral. It's a short story, which has
animals as main characters.
• Primitive myths. They were, generally, stories about nature, usually told by
clergymen (priests)
• Pagan myths. These were like the Greek and the Roman tales of the interplay
between deities and humans.
• Themes raised in myths:
 Cosmic Myths: include narratives of the creation and end of the world;
 Theistic myths: portray the deities;
 Hero myths: give the accounts of individuals, such as Achilles [e'kili:z];
 Place and object myths: describe certain places and objects (all the Myths of Camelot).
 4. Purpose of Myths
1. Myths grant continuity and stability to a culture. They foster a shared set of
perspectives, values, history and so on. By means of these communal tales
we are connected to one another.
2. Myths present guide lines for living. When myths tell the readers about the
activities and attitudes of deities the moral tone implies society's
expectations for our own behavior and standards. In myths we see typical
situations and the options which can be selected in those situations.
3. Myths justify a culture's activities. Through their authoritativeness myths
establish certain customs, rituals, laws, social structures in any culture.
4. Myths give meaning to life within all the difficulties: e.g. the pain becomes
more bearable because people believe that all the trials have a certain
meaning.
5. Myths explain the unexplained. They reveal people's faith in life after death,
show the reasons for crises and miracles and other puzzles and yet they
retain and even encourage the aura of mystery.
6. Myths offer role models. For example, children usually pattern themselves
after heroes of comic books, cartoons and: so on, which depict lots of typical
characters (the superman, for example).
 5. The Roman Conquest
• About the 1st century ВС (Before Christ) Britain was conquered by the
powerful state of Roman (Rome). The Roman period occupies the time
beginning with the 1st century ВС up то the 6th century AD. The Romans
lived on the peninsula, which is now called Italy, and their language was
Latin. This was a people of practical men. They were very clever at making
roads & building bridges.
• The Roman towns were called castra which means “camps”. This word can
be recognized in various forms in such names as Chester, Winchester,
Manchester, Leicester, Gloucester, Doncaster, Lancaster. 
• The monasteries where art of reading & writing was taught became the
scientific centres of the country. The monks wrote stories and verses.
Though the poets were English, they were supposed to write in Latin. But
notwithstanding this custom there were some poets who wrote in Anglo-
Saxon. For example, Caedmon (7th century). He wrote the poem "The
Paraphrase”. It tells us of the Bible-story in verse. Many other monks took
part in this work, but their names are unknown to us.
• The culture of the early Britons changed greatly under the influence of
Christianity, which penetrated into British Isles in the 3d century.
Christianity was brought to all countries belonging to the Roman Empire.
The 1st British church was built in Canterbury in the 6th century and up to
now it is the English religious centre.
 6. The Invasion of Britain by Germanic Tribes

•
449-1066
After the fall of the western Roman
Empire, Britain was invaded by
Germanic tribes: Angles ['æŋglz]
(Denmark), Saxons ['sæksnz]
(Germany) and Jutes ['dʒu:ts]
(later France) who lived in the
northern and central parts of
Europe.
• Soon after these invasions Britain
split up into 7 kingdoms: Kent,
Sussex, Essex, Wessex, Mercia,
East Anglia and Northumbria.
• Germanic tribes were pagans and
most of British Christians were put
to death. That’s why the stories of
Christian martyrs were typical of
the literature that time.
 The Anglo-Saxon English Days of the Week

Four Anglo-Saxon gods

gave their names to the
days of the week

1. Tiu – the War God;

2. Woden - the Supreme
God;
3. Thor - the God of
Thunder;
4. Frigg – the Goddess of
love and beauty.
 Borrowings from Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxon influence on English was tremendous. Around 90% of common words in English
came from the Anglo-Saxons:
Geographical names
endings:
• “-ton” meaning village (e.g. Taunton, Burton, Luton),
• “-ford” meaning a river crossing (e.g. Ashford, Bradford, Watford)
• “-ham” meaning farm (e.g. Nottingham, Birmingham, Grantham)
• “-stead” meaning a site (e.g. Hampstead)
• “-ing” meaning people of (e.g. Worthing, Reading, Hastings).
Common words
• parts of the body (arm, bone, chest, ear, eye, foot, hand, heart),
• the natural environment (field, hedge, hill, land, meadow, wood),
• the domestic life (door, floor, home, house),
• the calendar (day, month, moon, sun, year),
• animals (cow, dog, fish, goat, hen, sheep, swine)
• common adjectives (black, dark, good, long, white, wide)
• common verbs (become, do, eat, fly, go, help, kiss, live, love, say, see, sell, send, think)
• Angle Land - England.

They spoke different dialects of the West Germanic Language. But they had no written language yet.
And the stories and poems they composed had to be memorized. The famous "Beowulf” belongs
to them.
Anglo-Saxon English
 7."Beowulf”
• The beautiful Saxon poem called "Beowulf" tells us of the times long before the Anglo-Saxons
came to Britain. There is no mentioning of England. It has come down to us in a single
manuscript, which was written at the end of the 10th century, at least two centuries after its
composition. The poem was given the title "Beowulf" only in 1805 and it was not printed until
1850.
• The name of the author is unknown. It is impossible for a non-specialist to read it in the original.
Its social interest lies on the description of the life of this period. The scene is set among the
Jutes, who lived on the Scandinavian Peninsula at that time, & the Danes, their neighbors.
• The people were divided into two classes: free peasants & warriors. The peasants planted the
soil & served the fighting-men who defended them from hostile tribes. Their kings were often
chosen by the people for they had to be wise men & skilled warriors.
• The poem shows the beginning of feudalism. The safety of the people depended on the warriors.
There were several ranks of warriors; the folk-king, or lord, was at the head of the community; he
was helped by warriors who were his liegeman. If they were given lands for their services, they
were called "earls", "knights".
• The Danes & the Jutes were great sailors. Their ships had broad painted sails & tall prows which
were often made into the figure of a dragon or wolf or some other fierce animal. The poem shows
us these warriors in battle & at peace, their feasts & amusements, their love for the sea & for
adventure.
• Beowulf is the main character of the poem. He is a young knight of the Jutes, who lived on the
southern coast of the Scandinavian Peninsula. His adventures with the sea-monster abroad, in
the country of Danes, & later, with a fire-dragon at home, form two parts in this heroic epic. His
unselfish way in protecting people makes him worthy to be folk-king. He would be slave to no
man. Though fierce & cruel in war, he respected men & women. He is ready to sacrifice his life
for them. Beowulf fights for the benefit of his people, not for his own glory, & he strives to be fair
to the end in the battle.
 Beowulf (Old English and modern English versions)

Old English Modern English

Gewat ða neosian, syþðan niht becom,  Went he forth to find at fall of night 
hean huses, hu hit Hring-Dene  that haughty house, and heed wherever 
æfter beorþege gebun hæfdon.  the Ring-Danes, outrevelled, to rest had
gone. 
Fand þa ðær inne æþelinga gedriht  Found within it the atheling band 
swefan æfter symble; sorge ne cuðon,  asleep after feasting and fearless of
wonsceaft wera. Wiht unhælo,  sorrow, 
grim ond grædig, gearo sona wæs, of human hardship. Unhallowed wight, 
reoc ond reþe, ond on ræste genam  grim and greedy, he grasped betimes, 
þritig þegna; þanon eft gewat  wrathful, reckless, from resting-places, 
huðe hremig to ham faran,  thirty of the thanes, and thence he rushed 
mid þære wælfylle wica neosan. fain of his fell spoil, faring homeward, 
laden with slaughter, his lair to seek.
 The Language of the Poem
The Anglo-Saxon verse had no rhyme. It had even no regular number of
syllables for its lines. Yet it was necessary that the stressed syllables of one
line should begin with the same consonant. This made their poetry very
musical in sound & was called "alliteration".
Note the different sounds in the following lines of alliterative verse.
• [f]: The folk-kings former fame we have heard of;
• [b]: Bore it bitterly he bided in darkness;
• [t]: Twelve-winters' time torture...;
• [s]: Soul-crushing sorrow. Not seldom in private;
• [k]: Sat the King in his council, conference held they;
• [g]: Good among Geatmen, of Grendefs achievements;
• [h]: Heard in his home: of heroes then living.
Many nouns & names of people are accompanied by one or even two
descriptive words. Based on a certain likeness between two subjects or two
ideas, the descriptive words show the subject in a new light. They help the
reader to catch the exact meaning the author had in mind. These descriptive
words, whether verb, adjective or noun, are now called "metaphors". For
example: salt-streams, sail-road, wave-goer, hot-burning hatred.
 8. The Norman Conquest
• The Norman Conquest took place in the 12th -13th centuries. In the 12th century the
struggle between the Anglo-Saxon earls for supreme power began again. It caused a
foreign conquest. The Norman Duke, (Earl) William the Conqueror became complete
master of the whole of England within 5 years (beginning with 1066 when the battle of
Hastings took place). The lands of most of Anglo-Saxon aristocracy were given to the
Norman barons and they introduced their feudal laws to compel the peasants to work for
them. Thus, the English became the servile class. The Normans spoke Norman – French.
During the following two hundred years that they kept coming over to England they couldn't
suppress the English language.
• Communication went on 3 languages:
 at the monasteries the scholars were taught in Latin;
 Norman - French was the language after ruling class, spoken in court and official institutions;
 common people held obstinately to their own expressive mother tongue.
English French
• Ox Beef
• Calf Veal
• Sheep Mutton
• Pig Pork
Each rang of the society had its own literature:
1) During the 12th and 13th centuries monks (монахи) wrote historical chronicles in Latin. The
scholars at Oxford and Cambridge Universities described their experiments in Latin and
even antireligious societies were also written there.
2) The aristocracy wrote their poetry in Norman — French.
3) The country folk made up their ballades and songs in Anglo - Saxon.
9. The Danish Influence upon the
Language of the Anglo-Saxons
• The Danes, who had occupied the North and East of England, spoke a
language only slightly different from the Anglo-Saxons dialects. The roots of
the words were the same while the endings were different. People made
themselves understood without translators simply bу using the roots of the
words. 13

• The endings, which show the relations between words, were substituted by
dashes. This brought about changes, which developed the language in a
new way. The droppings of case ending meant:
•  The stress of the words was shifted. That's why the sound and rhythm of
the language were all together different.
•  New grammar forms developed to show the relations of words and
prepositions and pronouns came to be used more than before.

• Since both languages were spoken by all classes of society they emerged
with by another very rapidly. The Danes were in many ways far more
civilized than the English (for example, they brought the game of chess to
the English).
 Conclusion
• Thus Old English literature, or Anglo-Saxon literature, comprises literature
written in Old English in Anglo-Saxon England, in the period after the
settlement of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes in England after the
withdrawal of the Romans and "ending soon after the Norman Conquest" in
1066. These works include such genres as epic poetry, Bible translations,
legal works, chronicles, riddles, and others. All in all there are about 400
surviving manuscripts from the period.
• Oral tradition was very strong in early English culture and most literary
works were written to be performed. Epic poems were very popular, and
some, including Beowulf, have survived to the present day. Much Old
English verse in the manuscripts is probably adapted from the earlier
Germanic war poems from the continent. When such poetry was brought to
England it was still handed down orally from one generation to another.
• Old English poetry falls broadly into two styles or fields of reference, the
heroic Germanic and the Christian. The Anglo-Saxons were converted to
Christianity after their arrival in England.
• The epic poem Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English and has
achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia.
Nearly all Anglo-Saxon authors are anonymous: twelve are known by name
from Medieval sources, but only four of those are known by their works with
any certainty: Caedmon, Bede, Alfred the Great, and Cynewulf.
Cædmon is the earliest English poet whose name is known.
 Questions and Tasks on Lecture 1
1. What was the lifestyle of Britons? What were the occupations of people of that
time?
2. Who were druids?
3. Why are myths so popular among people?
4. What Germanic tribes invaded Britain in the 5-7th centuries?
5. What was their influence on the culture of Great Britain?
6. What signs of their invasion can still be traced in the Modern English language?
7. What is the origin of English weekdays?
8. What’s the main feature of the language of “Beowulf”?
9. When was “Beowulf”? written? Who is its author?
10. What is its plot of “Beowulf”?? When and where does the action take place?
11. Why does this poem have a great social and historical significance?
12. What was the name of the Norman Duke who was at the head of the Norman
Conquest? What language did the invaders speak?
13. When did the battle at Hastings take place? What was its result?
14. What languages were spoken in Britain in the 12th and 13th centuries? How did
the Norman Conquest influence the English language?
15. Make a list of modern films featuring the Roman and Norman Conquests of Britain.
Have you seen any of these films? How do they depict the natives of the British
Isles and the invaders? Retell the plot of one of these films in brief.
16. Do you like the modern screen version of “Beowulf”? What can this old legend
teach modern generations?
 Lecture 2. England in the 14-15th centuries.
Geoffrey Chaucer. Robin Hood Ballads

1. 14th Century - Historical Background.

2. The Life of Chaucer.
3. Canterbury Tales.
4. Chaucer's Role in English Literature.
5. 15th Century - Historical Background.
6. Robin Hood Ballads.
 1. Historical Background
• After the Norman conquest of England in 1066, the written form of
the Anglo-Saxon language became less common. Under the
influence of the new aristocracy, Law French became the standard
language of courts, parliament and polite society. As the invaders
integrated, their language and literature mixed with that of the
natives. The Norman dialects of the ruling classes became Anglo-
Norman. At the same time Anglo-Saxon changed into Middle
English.
• Thus in the 12th and 13th centuries Middle English gradually
evolved. This is the earliest form of English which is comprehensible
to modern readers and listeners. But it was in the 14th century that
major writers in English first appeared. Geoffrey Chaucer ['dʒefri
'tʃɔ:sə] is the most notable of them. He was a writer of the world. He
wrote about the things he saw and described people he met.
Chaucer was the 1st who broke away from medieval forms and
approached realism.
 2. The Life of Chaucer
• Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) was
born in the family of a wine merchant.
Chaucer's parents were far from being
wealthy. Chaucer, however, received
what education his parents were able
to give him. Many people think that he
must have been educated at Oxford or
Cambridge, because he was a poet,
but nothing is known about that for
sure.
• As his father had some connections
with the court, Geoffrey was at the
court of Edward the 3rd. Thus, he
became a favourite with the Royal
Family. His education was very good
for his time. At court he met travellers
and men-of-law, who came to England
from other countries. Besides, the
realities of surrounding life taught him
more than could all the absurdities,
taught by some churchmen at
Universities of Middle Ages, when the
printing press had not yet been
invented.
 3."Canterbury Tales"
• This is a collection of stories written in Middle English (mostly written in verse
although some are in prose).
• The framework, which serves to connect the stories, is a Pilgrimage to
Canterbury.
• The Pilgrims agree to tell stories to shorten a tiresome four days trip. The
distance from London to Canterbury is only 60 miles. But in those days there was
no straight way to go by.
• Pilgrimages of every kind were extremely common in Chaucer's time and strongly
advocated by the church. Such journeys were, no doubt, very valuable as a
means to break up the monotony of life in days when there were no printed
books, theatres, and mass media and so on. The most famous English
Pilgrimage was to Canterbury. Some churches possessed relicts and people
believed that they had the healing power, which doctors could not do; other
people were attracted by the beautiful architecture and monuments. The
Pilgrimage was a highly democratic institution, which means that rich and poor,
noble and villain rode side-by-side and stopped at the same places. The prize for
this story-telling contest is a free meal at an Inn on their return.
• Chaucer opens his work with a prologue in which 30 men and women from all
ranks of society pass before the reader's eyes. Chaucer makes a record portrait
of each traveller showing his character. Thus, there was a brave knight who
loved truth, honour and generosity. He was followed by two nuns and 3 priests.
There was a fat monk who loved hunting and a good dinner better than praying.
 4. The Role of Chaucer in English Literature
1. "Canterbury Tales" sum up all types of stories that existed in the middle Ages,
following the literary classification. The knight tells a romance, the Nun a story of a
Saint, the priest a fable and so on.
2. Various ranks of society pass by Chaucer:
a) It was very common to criticize the church, but Chaucer was the 1st to attack the
clergy with real humour. Most of his churchmen are not religious at all. To be a
churchman meant to have a job that was paid well and Chaucer never concealed this
fact in his work. Yet he never was an atheist himself.
b) Being at court, Chaucer was not a follower of monarchism and he hated any kind of
tyranny. Yet he speaks with admiration of the honourable knight for his generosity
and for the dangers he had been in.
c) Chaucer liked the common sense of the town's folk, though he did not take their part
when they behaved dishonorably. And he was merciless in his condemnation of the
wicked.
3. Chaucer was the creator of a new literally language. He chose to compose in the
popular English language though the aristocracy of that time read and spoke French.
Chaucer was the earliest English poet who is still read for human pleasure today.
4. Chaucer drew his characters from life. He saw people not only as rich and poor, but as
belonging to a certain rank of society. Chaucer was the first writer, who described the
individual features of his characters according to the profession and degree. So, they
instantly became typical of their class.
 5. 15th Century - Historical Background
In 1476 William Caxton set up the first English printing press in
Westminster after which event knowledge began to spread again.
William Caxton was a learned man and liked to translate French
stories into English for his own pleasure. When on business in
Germany and France he learned the art of printing. He considered it
a good way to earn a living, so he set up the printing press in
England. During the next 15 years Caxton printed 65 works, both
translations and originals. He sometimes had to translate French
and Latin literature works into English by himself to increase the
sales of his books among English people.
At this time literature was still being written in various languages in
England, including Latin, Norman-French, and English because of
the multilingual nature of the audience for literature in the 15th
century.
Though there had already appeared the written language and the
printing press in England, most people, including aristocracy, could
neither read nor write. That's why folklore was developing rapidly.
Such genres as fables and ballads were the most common.
 6. Robin Hood Ballads
• England's favourite hero Robin Hood is
partly a legendary and partly a
historical character. He lived in about
the second half of the 12th century in
the times of King Henry II and his son
Richard-the-Lion-Heart.
• In those days many of the big castles
belonged to robber barons, who ill-
treated people, stole children and took
away the cattle and corn of peasants.
If the country folk resisted, they were
either killed by the barons or driven
away and their homes were destroyed.
They had no choice, but to go out in
bands and hide in the woods. After
that they were declared outlaws and
found themselves outside the
protection of the law.
• In Sherwood Forest near Nottingham
there lived a large band of outlaws led
by Robin Hood. He came from a family
of a Saxon landowner whose land had
been seized by a Norman Baron.
 Robin Hood Ballads
The ballads of Robin Hood tell us of Robin himself was described as a
his adventures in the forest as an man who never robbed the poor.
outlaw. Many Saxons joined He was a tireless enemy of
him.The men in their green coats Norman aggressors and always
were killing birds and animals for helped the country folk in their
food and playing all sorts of tricks troubles. Though the sheriff had
on anyone who happened to come
put a big prize on Robin's head,
near them.
not a Saxon in the whole
Nottingham betrayed him.
 Questions and tasks on Lecture 2
1. How and when did Middle English evolve?
2. What is known about the life of Chaucer? Why was he so well aware about
the life of different layers of the society?
3. What’s the plot of «Canterbury Tales»?
4. Why is Chaucer so much appreciated by the English people? What is his
contribution to the English language and the English Literature?
5. Paolo Pasolini was a great Italian film director. In 1972 he staged a film
based on Chaucer’s «Canterbury Tales». Find out more information about
the film and its director. When was the printing press set up in England?
Who was it set up by? What is known about this person?
6. Why was literature written in various languages in England in the 15th
century?
7. Why was folklore developing more rapidly than classic literature? What
were the most common genres?
8. What’s the plot of the ballads of Robin Hood? Was he an imaginary or real
person?
9. You are sure to have seen some films about Robin Hood in your childhood.
What image of the robber did they create: was he a romantic hero or a
dangerous criminal?
 Lecture 3. The Literature of the 16th century.
The Renaissance. William Shakespeare

1. Historical background. The Renaissance.

2. Classical Influence on the Renaissance
3. English Renaissance: 1500–1660
4. William Shakespeare’s Life
5. Three periods of Shakespeare’s work
6. Sonnets
7. Major themes of Shakespeare’s works.
Quotations from Shakespeare
 1. Historical background. The Renaissance 1500 - 1600

The "dark" Middle Ages were followed by a

time known in art and literature as the
Renaissance [rə'neisəns]. The word
"renaissance" means "rebirth" in
French. Renaissance is the name of a
great intellectual & cultural movement
of the revival of interest in classical
culture that occurred in the 14th, 15th
& 16th centuries in Europe. A profound study of Latin & Greek uncovered the
A series of events changed the intellectual stories of antique literature for the humanists.
Antique works were looked upon from the new,
& moral attitude of people. Among humanistic, point of view. The humanists also
them are: appealed for the creation of a new science,
1. The invention of printing; Natural Science, based on experiment, study &
investigation, as a result man learned to know
2. The set up of protestant church: Some himself. Antique literature seemed original and
countries broke away from the Catholic up-to-date again. Great men appeared in
Church & set up their own national science, art and literature. There were Dante
Church, the Protestant Church. ['dænti], Petrarch ['petra:k] and Boccaccio
[bəu'ka:tʃiəu] in literature. The Italian painters &
3. The penetration of Greek & Latin sculptors, such as Leonardo da Vinci [liə'na:dəu
culture. də'vintʃi:], Michelangelo ['maikəl'ændʒiləu], and
Raphael ['ræfeiəl] revived the natural beauty of
a body & the subject of love in art, both of
which had been made sinful during the Middle
Ages. In France we find the great writer Rabelais
 [’ræbəleɪ] , in the Netherlands – Erasmus [ɪ
ˈræzməs], in England-Thomas More, Francis
Bacon & Shakespeare, in Poland - the
astronomer Copernicus [koʊˈpɜːrnɪkəs].
 2. Classical Influence on the Renaissance
Renaissance was felt in every sphere of life. In philosophy it gradually replaced the purely
formal methods of thought. In science it led to the great discoveries of Copernicus,
Galileo [ɡali’lɛːo] and Newton. In architecture it brought about the revival of the
classical style. In the Fine Arts it inspired new schools of painting in Italy, such as of
Giorgione [‘dʒɔːrdʒ’oʊneɪ], Raphael, Leonardo, Michaelangelo and the Flemish
school of the Netherlands. In religion its influence can be seen in the revolt of Martin
Luther. Also, in geography it indirectly inspired the passion for exploration that led to
the discovery of the New World.
The philosophy of the Renaissance resolves itself into a search for perfection, for
ideal beauty, for symmetry, proportion, and balance.
 3. Renaissance in England. 1500–1660
The most significant period of the Renaissance in England falls
to the reign of Queen Elizabeth. England's success in
commerce brought prosperity to the nation and gave a
chance to many talented people to develop their abilities.
Explorers, philosophers, poets and famous actors and
playwrights appeared. The age saw a great flourishment in
literature. The theatre became central to the Elizabethan
era. During that era, drama shifted from religious to
secular.
Some of the characteristics or features of play are: 
• Plays were presented quickly. The actors use their voice,
bodies expressively to convey feeling and meaning.
• Plays were generally performed at the time of the
afternoon. It is because there were no light facilities
available. Special effects were a part of the show.
• Women were not allowed to perform as there was the
existence of gender inequality. The males only played as
females.
• The Wealthy people bought the best seats. Sometimes
they even sat on the stage itself.
• Even the illiterates could understand the play.
• The theatre is also seen as a good mode of business in
that period.
Talking about the famous writers of Renaissance in England,
the first person to come on the list is William
Shakespeare. 
 4. William Shakespeare’s Life
• On April 23rd, 1564 a son, William was born to John and Mary Shakespeare
in Stradford-upon-Avon. His mother was the daughter of a farmer. His father
was a glove-maker. William went to a grammar school in Stratford and had
quite a good education. There he learned to love reading.
• While still a teenager, William married Anne Hathaway, a farmer's daughter
eight years older than himself. Nothing is known about how he earned his
living during these early years, perhaps he helped his father in the family
business. During these years his three children were born.
• In 1587 Shakespeare went to work in London, leaving Ann the children at
home. Nobody knows exactly why he did it. Some people say that the
reason was his love of poetry and theatre. But there is another story which
says that he had to run away from law because he killed some deer
belonging to a rich man.
• In London Shakespeare began to act and to write plays and soon became
an important member of a well-known acting company. Most of his plays
were performed in the new Globe Theatre built on the bank of the River
Thames. In 1613 he stopped writing and went to live in Stratford where he
died in 1616. Four hundred years later his plays are still acted – not only in
England but in the whole world.
 5. Three periods of Shakespeare’s work
Shakespeare wrote plays in a variety of genres, including histories, tragedies, comedies
and the late romances, or tragicomedies. His literary work is usually divided into three
periods.
• The first period (1590-1600) - comedies: His early classical comedies, like A
Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Merchant of Venice, Much Ado
about Nothing, As You Like It, and the lively merrymaking of Twelfth Night, the lyrical
comedy Richard II, written almost entirely in verse, and prose comedies, Henry IV,
and Henry V.
• The second period (1600-1608) - tragedies: His characters become more complex
and tender as he switches between comic and serious scenes, prose and poetry, and
achieves the narrative variety of his mature work. This period begins and ends with
two tragedies: Romeo and Juliet, the famous romantic tragedy of adolescent love and
death; and Julius Caesar. In the early 17th century, Shakespeare wrote a number of
his best known tragedies, including Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear and Anthony
and Cleopatra. Humanistic ideas are particularly stressed in “Hamlet”: something
must be done to change the world, the laws and moral. Human relations depend on
social problems; intelligence is not enough to be happy.
• The third period (1609-1612) - Romantic Dramas: In his final period, Shakespeare
turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed the major plays: The Winter's Tale
and The Tempest. These plays are graver in tone than the comedies, but they end
with reconciliation and the forgiveness of potentially tragic errors.
 6. Sonnets
A collection of 154 by sonnets, dealing with themes such as the
passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, were first published in a
1609. Shakespeare's sonnets can't be placed among his best
works; but they occupy a unique place in Shakespeare's heritage,
because they are the only things he has written about himself.
Some critics think that practically every line is absolutely
autobiographical.
The 3 main characters of the sonnets are the Poet, his Friend & the
Dark Lady. The poet expresses the warmest admiration for his
friend. The Dark Lady is the beloved of the Poet. She is false &
vicious, but the Poet, though aware of the fact, can't help loving her.
"Dark" means not only dark-haired but it is a synonym for "wicked",
"sinister".
Sonnet 116
 7. Major themes of Shakespeare’s works. Quotations from Shakespeare
Many scholars have studied Shakespeare's plays; these are the central themes Shakespeare dealt with
in his plays:
1. Humanism. The love for mankind is seen in every play.
2. Freedom. The idea of freedom for people is felt in Shakespeare’s tragedies and historical plays.
3. Patriotism
4. National unity under one strong monarch. The Wars of the Roses were not forgotten in the 16th
century. Shakespeare felt that a central power through direct succession to the throne was the only
force to stand against feudal wars. These last two themes are stressed in Shakespeare’s historical
plays and in the tragedy of “King Lear”.
5. The masses as a political force. Shakespeare was the first dramatist to acknowledge the important
part that was played by the masses in historical events. This is clearly shown in the play “Julius
Caesar”
6. Relationship of men in a society
7. The themes of love and friendship are developed in Shakespeare’s sonnets as well as in his plays.

There are many famous quotations from Shakespeare. Here are some of them.
1. All's well that ends well
2. All that glistens is not gold
3. A sea of troubles
4. Brevity is the soul of wit
5. Delays have dangerous ends
6. Much ado about nothing
7. There is history in all men’s lives
8. There is no darkness but ignorance
9. To be or not to be, that is the question
10. What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
 Questions and tasks on Lecture 3
1. When did the English Renaissance take place?
2. What English monarchs reigned during the Renaissance period in
England? How did they influence the cultural life of that time?
3. When did William Shakespeare live? What is known about his early
life and education?
4. What are the three periods of Shakespeare’s writings?
5. What are some of the most famous Shakespeare’s plays?
6. Speak on the origin of the word “renaissance”
7. Speak on the philosophy of the Renaissance
8. What outstanding representatives of the Renaissance appeared in
science, art and literature in different European countries?
9. Why do sonnets occupy a unique place in Shakespeare’s heritage?
10.What ambiguous facts about Shakespeare’s life and personality do
you know?
 Lecture 4. The Enlightenment.
The 17th – 18th century literature
1. The Enlightenment. Historical background
2. Daniel Defoe
3. Robinson Crusoe
4. Jonathan Swift
5. Gulliver's Travels
6. Robert Burns
 1. The Enlightenment. Historical background
This era is also known as the era of enlightenment. People in England would meet at the coffee
house and talk about productive things. It started the British tradition of ‘afternoon tea’.
People were interested in appearance, not in the being genuine. Having good manners and doing the
right thing to the public was essential.
It was a sound-thinking & rational age. Common sense ruled the day. Common sense was the proper
guide to thought & conduct, in commerce & industry.
This period saw a remarkable rise of literature. People wrote on many subjects & made great
contribution in the fields of philosophy, history & natural sciences.
The problem of vital importance to the writers of the 18th century was the study of man & the origin of
his good & evil qualities. According to them, human nature was virtuous but man neglect virtue
under the influence of a vicious society. "Vice is due to ignorance", they said. It's but natural that
the writers of the 18th century started a public movement for enlightenment of people. The writers
of the age of Enlightenment insisted upon a systematic education for all.
This period saw a transition from poetry to the prosaic age of the essayists. An essay is a
composition of moderate length on any subject usually written in prose. The writer does not go
into details, but deals in an easy manner with the chosen subject, & shows his relation to the
subject. The style of prose became clear, graceful & polished.
The leading form of literature became the novel. The main character of the novel was no longer a
prince but a representative of the middle class. This had never happened before: so far, the
common people had usually been represented as comical characters.
The English writers of the time formed two groups.
To one group belonged those who hoped to better the world simply by teaching:
• Daniel Defoe[1661-1731]
The other group included the writers who openly protested against the vicious social order:
• Jonathan Swift [1667 -1745]
• Henry Fielding [1707 -1764]
• Robert Burns [1759 - 1769]
 2. Daniel Defoe (1661 -1731)
• Daniel Defoe ['dӕnjəl də'fəu] was born in
1661 in London in the family of a well-to-do
butcher. Daniel's father was wealthy enough
to give his son a good education. His father
wanted him to become a priest, therefore at
the age of 14 he was placed in an academy
to get the training of a priest, & remained
there for the full course of five years.
• But Daniel Defoe didn't like his profession
as, in his opinion, it was neither honorable
nor profitable. He became a merchant.
Several times he went bankrupt because he
was more interested in politics than in
business. Being a merchant he travelled
much & collected a lot of material, which he
used later in his writings.
• Several times in his life Daniel Defoe was
prosecuted. Thus in 1702 he wrote his
pamphlet "The Shortest Way with the
Dissenters". The pamphlet looked as if it
had been written in support of the High
Church. In fact Daniel Defoe described the
cruel Measures taken by the High Church.
For this pamphlet Defoe was sentenced to 7
years imprisonment. Besides he had to
stand in the pillory in a public square.
 3. Robinson Crusoe
In 1719 Daniel Defoe tried his hand in another kind of literature – fiction & wrote his famous novel "Robinson
Crusoe“ ['rɒbinsn 'kru:səu]. After the book was published, Defoe became famous & rich.
Books about voyages & new discoveries were very popular in the 18th century. But Daniel Defoe was more
preoccupied with politics & didn't think of trying his hand at writing adventure stories. But a story in one of
the magazines attracted his attention. It was about one sailor. He lived 4 years alone on a desert island. This
story interested Daniel Defoe so much that he decided to use the story for a book. His hero, Robinson
Crusoe, however, spent 26 years on a desert island.
The charm of the novel lies in Robinson as a person. Defoe shows the development of his personality. At the
beginning of the story we see an inexperienced youth, who then becomes a strong-willed man, able to
withstand all the calamities of his unusual destiny.
Defoe was a great master of realistic detail. When reading his description of Crusoe's life & work, one feels that
the person who wrote it must have lived through all those adventures himself, because they are so well
described, even though most of them are rather impossible.
Robinson Crusoe's most characteristic trait is his optimism. His guiding principle in life became "never say die".
He had confidence in himself & in man & believed it was within the man power to overcome all difficulties &
hardships. Another of Crusoe's good qualities, which saved him from despair, was his ability to put his whole
heart into everything he did. He was an enthusiastic worker & always hoped for the best.
Robinson Crusoe like Daniel Defoe himself is very practical. The beauty of the island has no appeal for him. He
does not care for scenery. He regards the island as his personal property. He takes pride in being the
master of the island & is pleased at the thought that everything around him belongs to him. This is also seen
in the fact that he decides to keep the money he finds in the ship, although he knows that it will be of no use
to him on the island.
Crusoe considers his race to be superior to all other races. As soon as a man appears on the island, Crusoe
makes him his servant. "Master" is the first word he teaches Friday to say.
The novel "Robinson Crusoe" is a glorification of energy, yet when concentrated in an individual man these
qualities are exaggerated. According to Defoe, man can live by himself comfortably & make all the things he
needs with no other humans, no other hands to assist him.
Defoe is a writer of the Enlightenment. He instructs people how to live; he tries to teach what's good & what's
bad. His novel "Robinson Crusoe" is not merely a work of fiction, an account of adventures, a biography &
an educational pamphlet; it is a study of man, a great work showing man in relation to nature & civilization
as well as in relation to labour & property.
 4. Jonathan Swift (1667 -1745)

• Jonathan Swift ['dʒɒnəθən 'swift] was the

greatest of the prose satirists of the age of
the Enlightenment. His works reflected
contemporary life more closely than did the
literature of the previous century. He
belonged to the group of writers who openly
protested against the vicious social order.
He criticized all sides of life of the society.
• Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, but he
came from an English family. The boy saw
little of his mother's care. He was supported
by his uncle & from his very childhood he
learned how miserable it was to be
dependent on the charity of relatives.
• At the age of 14 he finished school & went
to Trinity College. Trinity College was a
university, which trained clergymen. But
Swift felt that his calling was literature &
politics & he preferred such subjects as
history, literature & languages to that of
theology. For this reason examinations were
far from what was called brilliant, & he got
his bachelor degree with difficulty in 1686.
 5. Gulliver's Travels. A trip to Lilliput

The first voyage to Lilliput.

Describing the government
& the laws, Swift
described England of his
days in the most
ridiculous way. He gave a
picture of how people
were promoted in life not
according to their merits
but because they were
cunning, used intrigues,
bribery. He ridiculed
English laws &
educational system.
 The second voyage to Brobdingnag ['brɒbdiŋnӕg]
- the country of giants
The second voyage to
Brobdingnag - the country
of giants. The king of
Brobdingnag often asked
Gulliver about European
affairs & his answers
were biting satire on
contemporary politics.
Thus he told the king
about the wars waged in
the interests of the rich;
these wars brought
nothing but misery to
people.
 A voyage to Laputa [lə'pju:tə], a flying island

The third voyage to Laputa.

During the third voyage Gulliver found
himself among scientists of Laputa.
Swift showed that scientists were busy
with foolish problems trying to invent
useless things. It is easy enough to
understand that in ridiculing the
academy of Laputa, Swift ridicules the
scientists of the 18th century. They are
busy inventing such projects as:
• building houses beginning at the roof &
working downwards to the foundation;
• converting ice into gunpowder,
• simplifying the language by leaving out
the verbs & participles;
• softening marble for pillows etc.
A voyage to Houyhnhnms ['huihnəmz] and Yahoos
[jə'hu:z]
The fourth voyage. The fourth voyage
is to the island inhabited by horses
& strange creatures Yahoos. The
horses are endowed with human
intelligence & virtue. Yahoos are
ugly, foolish. Relations between
Yahoos remind Gulliver of those
existing in England. The horses
are clever & noble. The Yahoos
are dirty, greedy. Horses live in
free community. The book
presents a series of grotesque
satires on the society of the
period. Swift was a pessimist. He
criticized the society he lived in &
didn't see the way out. That’s why
he was in constant gloom.
 Gulliver's Travels

• In 1726 Swift's masterpiece "Gulliver's Travels"

appeared. Swift satirized the evils of the existing society
in the form of fictitious travels.
• "Gulliver's Travels" was one of the greatest works of the
period of the Enlightenment in the world of literature.
Swift's fantastic characters, however improbable they
may seem to the reader, were used by the author to
disclose all the faults & failures of the society, thus
making Swift's imaginary world realistic. Swift's
democratic ideas expressed in the book had a great
influence on the English writers who came after Swift.
 6. Robert Burns (1759 -1796)
• Whenever we speak about Scotland the name of Scotland's Bard Robert Burns is always there, as the ever-
living never-dying symbol of that country.
• All of Robert Burns’ poetry shows him to be one of the greatest masters of lyrical verse, a warm patriot of his
native country. His poetry is deeply democratic & full of criticism directed against the landlords, the priests &
the government officials. His sympathy lay with the poor, he hoped for a better future for the people, for the
equality & justice of all.
• Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, was born on January 25, 1759 in a small cottage in a Scottish village.
His father, William Burns was a hard-working small farmer with high ideals about human worth & conduct. He
knew the value of a good education & he was determined to give his children the best schooling possible.
• There were 7 children in the family & Robert was the eldest. When he was six, his father sent him to school,
but Robert's regular schooling was rather short. As a matter of fact, the poet's father taught his children
himself. Reading & writing, arithmetic, English grammar, history, literature & a slight acquaintance of Latin &
French - that was Robert Burns’ education.
• The songs & ballads of Scotland which Burns knew so well were sung to him in his childhood by his mother
who lived long & enjoyed the growing fame of her poet son.
• Robert Burns became a farmer, too. At 13 he was out in the fields all day helping his father, at 15 he did most
of the work on the farm.
• Robert Burns first began to write poetry at the age of 16. Life was hard for the family. Robert's father died in
1784 burdened with debts. The poet needed some money to publish some of his poems. 600 copies of
"Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect" were printed in July 1786. Their success was complete, their edition
was quickly sold out & Robert Burns became well-known & popular.
• He went to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. At first Robert Burns was warmly welcomed but soon the
society of England grew tired of him & forgot all about the poet. The popular character of Burns’ poetry was
foreign to their taste.
• The story of Robert Burns' short life is full of sadness. He worked much on his farm, but could not make it
pay. In 1789 his friends got him a position as a tax collector. This work was not an easy one, but it gave him
much time to think out his poems & at this period of his life Robert Burns wrote much. He had five children. By
1796 Robert Burns' health had greatly deteriorated & in 1796 at the age of 37, the great poet of Scotland died.
• The most popular poems by Robert Burns are "John Barleycorn", "The Tree of Liberty", "Jolly Beggars", "My
heart's in the Highland" & others.
"My heart's in the Highland"
 Questions and tasks on Lecture 4
1. What are the main ideas of the Enlightenment? What problems were raised
by the writers?
2. What forms of literature flourished during this period? Give a definition of an
essay as a literary form.
3. How does Robinson’s personality change from beginning to end of the
book?
4. What are Robinson’s personal qualities that make him an interesting
literature character?
5. How does Defoe’s novel reflect the philosophy of the Enlightenment?
6. What are the differences between D. Defoe’s and J. Swift’s views on life and
on the contemporary society?
7. Speak on Jonathan Swift’s biography.
8. What’s the plot of “Gulliver’s Travels”. How many voyages does it describe?
9. Characterize Gulliver’s first and second voyages.
10. What do Gulliver’s third and fourth voyages depict?
11. Why is Robert Burns considered to be the symbol of Scotland?
12. Why is it said that Burn’s life was full of sadness? When and how did he
die?
 Lecture 5. The 19th century
literature. Romanticism
1. Romanticism. Historical background and
roots
2. Industrial Revolution. Luddites.
3. Romanticism (1798–1837)
4. Lord Byron
5. Jane Austen
6. Walter Scott
 1. Historical background and roots
There are several reasons of the growth of the Romantic Movement in
English literature in the early 19th century:
1. influence of the Gothic novel, novel of sensibility and graveyard
poets of the 18th-century, whose works are characterized by their
gloomy meditations on mortality, "skulls and coffins, epitaphs and
worms" in the context of the graveyard;
2. revival of interest in ancient English poetic forms and folk poetry;
3. a new emphasis on the beauty and value of nature which was
brought about by a reaction against urbanism and industrialization;
4. the changing landscape and the pollution of the environment which
was brought about by the industrial and agricultural revolutions;
5. expansion of the city;
6. social changes, such as depopulation of the countryside and the
rapid development of overcrowded industrial cities that took place in
the period between 1750 and 1850;
7. a revolt against the scientific rationalization of nature at the Age of
Enlightenment.
 2. Industrial Revolution
Romanticism was also closely tied
to the Industrial Revolution in
Europe. From the latter
decades of the 18th century to
the middle of the 19th century,
most of Europe and particularly
what is now the United Kingdom
saw a massive migration of
rural workers into large cities.
These workers wanted to work
in the large factories in
metropolitan areas.
Romanticism also played upon this
drastic social change, as many
in Europe witnessed the large-
scale pollution of coal-burning
industry and the problems it
caused - water and air pollution,
many health problems.
Romanticism emphasized nature
over industry.
Luddites
 3. Romanticism (1798–1837)

Romanticism was an
artistic, literary, and
intellectual movement
that originated in Europe
toward the end of the
18th century. Most
commonly the publishing
of Lyrical Ballads in 1798
is taken as the beginning,
and the crowning of
Queen Victoria in 1837 as
its end. The writers of this
period, however, did not
think of themselves as
‘Romantics’.
 4. Lord Byron (1788–1824)
The generation of Romantic poets includes Lord
Byron. In all his poetry there is a current of
gloom and pessimism. The reason for this
gloom and sorrow may be found in social
and political events of his day. The industrial
revolution in England and the invention of
new machines brought misery to thousands
of workers. Wars, economic and political
oppression of common people, all these
facts gave rise to his discontent with social
and political life. So he raised his voice to
condemn them.
After graduating from Cambridge University,
Byron started on a tour through Portugal,
Spain, Greece, Turkey and Albania. He
returned home in 1811. A trip to Europe
resulted in the first two chapters of Childe
Harold's Pilgrimage ['tʃaild 'hӕrəldz
'pilgrimidʒ] (1812), a mock-heroic epic of a
young man's adventures in Europe, but also
a sharp satire against London society. The
poem contains elements thought to be
autobiographical, as Byron generated some
of the storyline from experience gained
during his European journey.
 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
The main character, Childe Harold by name,
came from an old aristocratic family. His
ancestors were men of great courage and
heroism. Harold’s life was very different
from theirs, it is full of pleasure and
entertainment. But then he only feels
weariness and discontent. He lost faith in
friendship and was disappointed in the world
of lies in which he found himself. Hoping to
find Good in other countries he left England.
Childe Harold is a sensitive, disillusioned and
generous wanderer. But he is merely a
passive onlooker unlike Byron himself who
tried to be an active fighter for freedom. By
right of birth Byron was a member of the
House of Lords. In February 1812 Byron
made his first speech in the House of Lords.
He spoke passionately in defence of the
Luddites. He blamed the government for
the unbearable conditions of workers’ life. In
his parliament speech Byron showed
himself a defender of poor people, and that
made aristocracy hate him.
Byron achieved enormous fame and influence
throughout Europe. However, despite the
success of Childe Harold and other works,
Byron was forced to leave England in 1816
and seek asylum on the Continent.
 5. Jane Austen (1775-1817)
• Jane Austen ['ɒstin] was born in a wealthy
family in a small English village. Her family
was typically large as was customary at that
time. She had six brothers and a sister.
• Jane Austen's plots, though fundamentally
comic, highlight the dependence of women
on marriage to secure social standing and
economic security.
• Austen brings to light the hardships women
faced, who usually did not inherit money,
could not work and their only chance in life
depended on the man they married. She
reveals not only the difficulties a woman
faced in her day, but also what was
expected of men and of the careers they
had to follow. This she does with wit and
humour and with endings where all
characters, good or bad, receive exactly
what they deserve. Her work brought her
little personal fame and only a few positive
reviews during her lifetime, but the
publication in 1869 of her nephew's A
Memoir of Jane Austen introduced her to a
wider public, and by the 1940s she had
become accepted as a major writer.
Austen's works include Sense and
Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice
(1813) and Emma (1815).
 6. Walter Scott (1771–1832)
Sir Walter Scott is one of the most popular
novelists during the Romantic period. He is
often called the father of the English
historical novel. He realized that it was the
ordinary people who were the makers of
history and the past was not cut off from the
present but influenced it. This romantic love
of the past made him create rich historical
canvases with landscape and nature
descriptions, as well as picturesque details
of past ages. His descriptions of the life,
customs and habits of the people are
realistic. Scott's novel-writing career
reached its peak with Ivanhoe ['aivənhəu].
His popularity in England and abroad did
much to form the modern stereotype of
Scottish culture.
At this time in America the prolific and popular
novelist James Fenimore Cooper ['dʒeimz
'fenimɔ: 'ku:pə] (1789–1851) began
publishing his historical romances of Indian
life, to create a unique form of American
literature. Cooper is best remembered for
his numerous sea-stories and the novel The
Last of the Mohicans (1826).
 Questions and tasks on Lecture 5
1. What are the main reasons of the growth of the Romantic
Movement in English Literature of the early 19th century?
2. What is Romanticism? What are the boundaries of this period?
3. What are the main issues highlighted by the Romantic writers and
poets?
4. What was the result of Byron’s trip to Europe?
5. Why was Byron forced to leave England for good? Who became
his best friends?
6. What does Jane Austin focus her attention on in her novels?
7. What are some of her most prominent works?
8. What is Walter Scott’s contribution to the English literature?
 Lecture 6. The 19th century
literature. Realism.
1. The Victorian novel (1837–1901). Realism
2. Charles Dickens
3. William Makepeace Thackeray. “Vanity
Fair”
4. The Brontë sisters
5. Genre fiction
 1. The Victorian novel (1837–1901). Realism
• It was in the Victorian era (1837–1901) that the novel became the
leading literary genre in English. Women played an important part in
this rising popularity both as authors and as readers. Another factor
that caused the the rising popularity of the novel was libraries, that
allowed books to be borrowed for an annual subscription.
• The 1830s and 1840s saw the rise of social novel. This was in many
ways a reaction to rapid industrialization, and the social, political
and economic issues associated with it. A social novel was a means
of commenting on abuses of government and industry and the
suffering of the poor, who were not profiting from England's
economic prosperity. Stories of the poor working class were directed
toward middle class to help create sympathy and promote change.
• The greatness of the novelists of this period lies not only in their
truthful description of contemporary life, but also in their profound
humanism. They believed in the good qualities of the human heart
and expressed their hopes for a better future. The poorest, the most
unprivileged sections of the population were described by Charles
Dickens. He looked into the darkest corners of the large cities.
 2. Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
• Charles Dickens was born in a small town on the
southern coast of England. His father was a clerk at
the office of a large naval station there, and the family
lived on his small salary. They belonged to the lower
middle class and there was always talk between the
parents about money, bills and debts.
• Charles and his eldest sister didn’t go to school for a
long time. Their father lost his job and was
imprisoned for debt. All the property the family had
was sold, and the boy was put to work in a blacking
factory. He worked hard washing bottles for shoe-
polish and putting labels on them, while his father,
mother, sisters and brothers all lived in debtors’
prison. Many pictures were stored in his memory, and
he later described this unhappy time in David
Copperfield and Little Dorrit.
• In about a year the Dickenses received a small sum
of money after the death of a relative, so all the debts
were paid. Charles got a chance to go to school
again. But he left school when he was twelve. He had
to continue his education by himself visiting regularly
the British Museum reading-room. Then he first got a
job as a newspaper reporter, then as a parliamentary
reporter. He started writing funny street sketches.
Thus he discovered his writing abilities almost
accidentally.
• Charles Dickens emerged on the literary scene in the
late 1830s. His most popular works are A Christmas
Carol (1843), Dombey and Son (1846–48), Great
Expectations (1860–61).
 Literary Style
Dickens loved the literary style of the 18th century
Gothic romance. His literary style is a mixture of
fantasy and realism. His writing style is poetic, with
a strong comic touch. His satires of British
aristocratic snobbery are colourful and memorable.
Comparing orphans to stocks and shares, people to
tug boats, or dinner-party guests to furniture are
just some of Dickens's acclaimed flights of fancy.
Many of his characters' names provide the reader
with a hint as to the roles played in advancing the
storyline, such as Mr. Murdstone in the novel David
Copperfield, which is clearly a combination of
"murder" and stony coldness.
Characters
• As for Dickens’s characters, one "character" vividly
drawn throughout his novels is London itself. From
the inns on the outskirts of the city to the lower
reaches of the Thames, all aspects of the capital
are described in his work.
• Dickens is famed for his depiction of the hardships
of the working class, his intricate plots, and his
sense of humour. But he is perhaps most famed for
the characters he created, for his ability to capture
the everyday man and thus create characters to
whom readers could relate. Dickensian characters-
especially their typically whimsical names-are
among the most memorable in English literature.
The likes of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Jacob
Marley, Oliver Twist, The Artful Dodger, Bill Sikes,
Pip, Miss Havisham, David Copperfield, Samuel
Pickwick, and many others are so well known and
can be believed to be living a life outside the novels
that their stories have been continued by other
authors.
 3. William Makepeace Thackeray (1811– 1863)
• Thackeray presents a strong contrast with Dickens, both
as man and as a writer. He was born at Calcutta (India).
His father died while he was a child and he was taken to
England for his education; he was a student at
Cambridge. Next, on the Continent, he studied drawing,
law. His study of the law was interrupted when he came
of age by the inheritance of a comfortable fortune, which
he managed to lose within a year or two by gambling,
speculations, and an unsuccessful effort at carrying on a
newspaper.
• Real application to newspaper and magazine writing
secured him after four years a place on 'Eraser's
Magazine,' and he married. Not long after, his wife
became insane, but his warm affection for his daughters
gave him throughout his life genuine domestic
happiness.
• For ten years Thackeray's production was mainly in the
line of satirical humorous fiction, none of it of the first
rank. During this period he chiefly attacked current vices,
snobbishness, and sentimentality. The appearance of his
masterpiece, 'Vanity Fair', in 1847 (the year before
Dickens' 'David Copperfield') brought him sudden fame.
He died in 1863 at the age of fifty−two of heart failure.
• The great contrast between Dickens and Thackeray
results chiefly from the predominance in Thackeray of
the critical intellectual quality and of the somewhat
fastidious instinct of the man of society and of the world
which Dickens so conspicuously lacked. As a man
Thackeray was at home and at ease only among people
of formal good breeding; he avoided direct contact with
the common people.
 'Vanity Fair’
• His novels seem to many readers cynical,
because he scrutinizes almost every
character and every group with impartial
vigor, dragging forth every fault and every
weakness into the light. On the title page of
'Vanity Fair' he proclaims that it is a novel
without a hero; and here most of the
characters are either altogether bad or
worthless and the others very largely weak or
absurd, so that the impression of human life
which the reader apparently ought to carry
away is that of a hopeless chaos of
selfishness, hypocrisy, and futility. One word,
which has often been applied to Thackeray,
best expresses his attitude—disillusionment.
The last sentences of 'Vanity Fair' are
characteristic: 'Oh! Vanitas Vanitatum! which,
of us is happy in this world? Which of us has
his desire? or, having it, is satisfied?—Come,
children, let us shut the box and the puppets,
for our play is played out.'
• In his books the reader finds the lessons that
simple courage, honesty, kindness, and
unselfishness are far better than external
show.
 4. The Brontë sisters
• The Brontë ['brɒnti] sisters, Emily, Charlotte and Anne, were
other significant novelists in the 1840s and 1850s. They were the
daughters of the rector of a small Yorkshire village, Haworth, where
they were brought up in poverty. Their novels strikingly express the
stern, defiant will that characterized all the members of the family.
They were a product and embodiment of the strictest religious
sense of duty.Their lives were pitifully bare, hard, scarcely varied.
• All three Brontë sisters introduced an unusual central female
character into the novel and complex relationships and problems
this character was involved in. With unusual courage and
directness, together they changed the way the novel could present
women characters: after the Brontës, female characters became
more realistic, less idealized and their struggles became the subject
of a great many novels later in the 19th century.
• Their novels caused a sensation when they were first published but
were subsequently accepted as classics. They wrote from early
childhood, and in 1847 the three sisters each published a novel.
 Charlotte Brontë ['ʃa:lət 'brɒnti] (1816–1855)

• Charlotte Brontë's work was Jane

Eyre ['dʒein 'eə], which is written in an
innovative style that combines
naturalism with gothic melodrama, and
broke new ground in being written from
an intensely first-person female
perspective. One of its two main
theses is the assertion of the supreme
authority of religious duty, but it
vehemently insists also on the right of
the individual conscience to judge of
duty for itself, in spite of conventional
opinion. So it was denounced at the
time as irreligious.
• In 1854 Charlotte Brontë married one
of her father's curates, Mr. Nicholls, a
sincere but narrow-minded man. She
was happy in the marriage, but died
within a few months, worn out by
physical and moral strain of forty
years.
 Emily Brontë (1818–1848)
• Emily Brontë's novel was Wuthering Heights.
The vivid sexual passion and power of its language
and imagery impressed, bewildered reviewersled
the Victorian public and many early reviewers to
think that it had been written by a man. When it first
came out, it was often condemned for its portrayal
of amoral passion; the book subsequently became
an English literary classic.
• Wuthering Heights can be called an early
psychological study of passion and violent
characters. Emily Brontë's characters are unique,
and their violent emotions are connected with the
Yorkshire moors where the action takes place. The
moors are varying to suit the changing moods of
the story, and they are beautifully described in all
seasons.
• The central characters, Cathy and Heathcliff live
out their passion in the windy, rough countryside of
Yorkshire, and the landscape is as wild as their
relationship. To achieve her artistic purpose – to
study her heroes’ psychology and moral conflicts -
the author of the book makes no difference
between the supernatural and natural, both work
together. On the one hand the plot is full of
mystery. On the other hand, the novel is very
concrete: the time of the action, the landscape,
geography and climate are realistic.
 Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)
• Thomas Hardy ['tɒməs 'ha:di] is a great representative of the
late 19th century realism in England. He was the son of an
architect. He attended grammar school and studied
architecture. But from architecture Hardy early turned to
literature and for his setting chose his native place in southern
England, the ancient Wessex. It is the scene of all his novels.
Country people with their patriarchal mode of life are his main
characters. He chiefly preferred to describe small people:
farmers, schoolteachers, petty tradesmen, etc., because he felt
that in their experiences the real facts of life stand out most
truly. For such people Hardy showed warm affection and
sympathy. Hardy’s characters, particularly women, and their
fates are unforgettable. Their tragic lives express the author’s
fatalism and pessimism about life.
• He conveys the idea that people cannot be happy in the
environment where true love and sincere friendship are ruined
by the prejudices of narrow-minded people. Man is a victim of a
blind chance and a mysterious, all-powerful fate. People have
no control over environment, so man’s longing for happiness is
doomed to disappointment. Hardy’s theory is a sheer fatalism—
that human character and action are the inevitable result of
laws of heredity and environment.
• In his works he portrays all the evils of his contemporary
society – poverty, exploitation, injustice and misery.
• Hardy focused more on a declining rural society and the
changing social and economic situation of the countryside. The
illustrations of his rural interests are such novels as Far from
the Madding Crowd (1874), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891),
and Jude the Obscure (1895).
 Tess of the d'Urbervilles
• Tess of the d'Urbervilles ['dɜ:bəvilz] is Hardy’s
masterpiece. In this novel he attempts to create modern
work in the genre of tragedy that is modelled on the Greek
drama. A poor girl struggles for happiness, but all the forces
of her social environment are arranged against her. Tess,
the daughter of poor parents and a descendant of a proud
and ancient family, is seduced by a young man Alec
d’Urberville. Some years later when Tess is working as a
milkmaid on a large dairy farm, she falls in love with a
clergyman’s son Angel Clare. On their wedding night Tess
tells Angel about her past, and thereupon her husband
leaves her.
• After a brave fight against poverty and other evils, she is
forced by the needs of her family into the protection of
d’Urberville. When Angel Clare returns from Canada, he
finds her living with Alec. In order to be free to join her
husband Tess murders Alec. After a time she is arrested,
tried and hanged. The society proclaims her a “fallen”
woman but Thomas Hardy makes the reader believe that it is
not Tess who is guilty of the crime, but the society itself.
• The rough and cruel judgement of society, acting on her
through other people, drives her to misery and crime. Her
husband, Angel Clare regards Tess as hopelessly spoiled
woman which is the result of his false idea of purity.
• On the contrary, in the title page the author calls Tess a pure
woman. Whatever happens to her, her spirit and love for
Clare remain pure and unspoiled. Tess’s faith and devotion,
her strength in love, her sweetness make the reader share
the author’s pity for her sorrows.
 Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
• The real name of Lewis Carroll was Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson. He graduated in
Mathematics at Oxford University and
became a lecturer there and, as he never
married, lived the rather secluded life of a
bachelor. But he corresponded widely and
had many friends in the literary and
academic world. Fascinated by logarithms
and mathematical problems as a child,
many of the riddles and unsolvable
problems in Wonderland reflect his
scientific interests.
• Carroll always loved children. The Dean of
his College Liddell had several children and
Carroll took them on many outings that they
apparently enjoyed. And it all happened by
chance. The sunny, placid afternoon of 4
July 1862 is firmly fixed as the date when
Carroll told the story that became Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland to Alice Liddell
during a boat ride. On the night following
the boat ride Carroll actually began putting
the story down.
 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
• Before anything else, the book is fun. It is full of delicious
nonsense. The story is absurd and plays on the absurdity of
language and people. Nothing is certain in Wonderland
except that nothing is what it seems to be. As Alice moves
through this odd landscape, the reader becomes aware of
the character of the world, where cruelty and uncertainty
exist everywhere, and only Alice recognizes the absurdity of
it all. Lewis Carroll plays with reality, language and logic in
ways that are both comic and frightening.
• One of the peculiarities of Carroll’s writing style is the
emphasis on the writing syntax. He frequently uses italics
and capitalization for emphasis. This technique is incredibly
effective. It makes words stand out and puts emphasis in
the correct places. He uses capital letters to display what is
on signs or labels. The childish whimsical feel of the book
would be partially lost without this peculiar use of syntax.
• The style is very clever, as the author plays on words,
homophone confusion, puns, which add richness to his
writing. In addition, the author also uses poetic language
like songs and nursery rhymes.
• At the time when the first Alice book arrived, nothing like it
had ever been seen before. Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland was a thoroughly imaginative fairy tale without
fairies. It makes bold references to the practices and politics
of the day, and mentions specific friends and acquaintances
of the author—not always in a complimentary fashion.
Theophilus Carter, who ran a furniture shop in Oxford at the
time the story was written, likely appears as the Mad Hatter.
 Through the Looking-Glass, And What Alice
Found There
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was a story
told to privileged little girls. Alice demonstrates
her sense of etiquette through her monologue
about curtsying to the inhabitants she will meet
at the bottom of the rabbit hole. While in
Wonderland, she never once makes a complaint
about being hungry or without adequate clothing
in her waking life.
• The sequel, eventually titled Through the
Looking-Glass, And What Alice Found There
was published in 1871 and was perhaps even
more inventive than the first book.
• Both of the Alice tales give voice to the Victorian
desire to overcome restrictive environments,
demonstrated to some degree through Carroll’s
use of parody. The quest for freedom is one of
the primary themes of the two works. They seem
to invite readers of all ages and from all times to
travel with Carroll in places and with people and
creatures who are not bound by the usual rules
and regulations.
 Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)
• Adventure novels, such as those of Robert Louis
Stevenson, are generally classified as for children as
his Treasure Island (1883) is the classic pirate
adventure.
• Stevenson’s life was a heroic struggle with a lung
disease, and he spent much time abroad. His last
years of life passed in Samoa [sə'məuə]. When he
died, he was carried to his grave by the natives who
mourned for him as their friend and protector.
• Robert Louis Stevenson is generally referred to as a
neo-romanticist. Neo-Romanticism was a trend in
literature which came into being at the end of the
19th century. The writers of this trend turned to the
past or described exotic travels and adventures.
• Stevenson was attracted to the romance of
adventure and exotic countries. He idealized the
strong and brave men who went down to these lands
in ships. In his novels Stevenson told his readers
about life full of novelty, about high passions and
thrilling sensations. Stevenson considered art
superior to life for art could create a new and better
reality.
• Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr
Hyde (1886) depicts the dual personality of a kind
and intelligent physician who turns into a
psychopathic monster after taking a drug intended to
separate good from evil in a personality.
 5. Genre Fiction
• The 19th century saw the rise of the following genres: fantasy, detective, science fiction, horror
and ghost stories, gothic and vampire literature, the lost world genre and literature for children.
• The history of the modern fantasy genre begins with George MacDonald, the influential author of
The Princess and the Goblin and Phantastes (1858). Wilkie Collins' novel The Moonstone
(1868), is generally considered the first detective novel in the English language, while The
Woman in White is regarded as one of the finest sensation novels.
• H. G. Wells's (1866–1946) writing career began in the 1890s with science fiction novels like The
Time Machine (1895), and The War of the Worlds (1898) which describes an invasion of late
Victorian England by Martians, and Wells is seen, along with Frenchman Jules Verne (1828–
1905), as a major figure in the development of the science fiction genre.
• Bram Stoker's horror story Dracula (1897), belongs to a number of literary genres, including
vampire literature, horror fiction, gothic novel and invasion literature.
• Other outstanding Victorian novelists are Elizabeth Gaskell ['ilizəbəθ 'gæskəl] (1810–1865),
Anthony Trollope (1815–1882), George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) (1819–1880).
• Detective stories are widely associated with the name of Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930). He
was born in Scotland of Irish parents but his Sherlock Holmes stories have made a fog-filled
London familiar to readers worldwide.
• Literature for children developed as a separate genre. Beatrix Potter was an author and
illustrator, best known for her children’s books, which featured animal characters. Potter
published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit in 1902.
• By the mid-19th century, the pre-eminence of literature from the British Isles began to be
challenged by writers from the former American colonies. This included one of the creators of the
new genre of the short story, and inventor of the detective story Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49).
Among the significant American novelists were Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) with The
Scarlet Letter, Herman Melville (1819–91) with Moby Dick, and Mark Twain (1835–1910) with
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
 Questions on Lecture 6
1. What were the most important factors in the rising popularity of the Victorian
novel?
2. What were the reasons of the rise of the social novel in the 1830s?
3. Who are the characters of Dickens’ novels? What are his most important
works?
4. Speak about Charles Dickens’ life. What are peculiarities of his literary
style?
5. Why is Thackeray opposed to Dickens? What is known about Thackeray’s
life?
6. Why are the Brontë sisters’ lives considered to be hard and bare?
7. What was Thomas Hardy most interested in? What did he describe in his
novels? What are his most famous works?
8. What are Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous works?
9. What is the message of the book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ”?
10. What other genres also saw the rise in the Victorian period? Who are their
representatives?
 Films recommended:
1. Vanity Fair
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. Sense and Sensibility
4. Ivanhoe
5. King Solomon’s Mines
6. Dracula
7. Frankenstein
8. Alice in Wonderland
9. Tess of the d'Urbervilles
10. Wuthering Heights
11. Jane Eyre
Lecture 7. English and American
literature since 1901. Realism.
1. The 20th century realists
2. George Bernard Shaw
3. John Galsworthy
4. Rudyard Kipling
5. American Literature in the 20th century
6. Theodore Dreiser
7. Ernest Hemingway
8. F. Scott Fitzgerald
 1. The 20th century realists
• At the beginning of the 20th century modernism
became an important literary movement. But
there were many prominent writers who were not
modernists, e.g:
• Thomas Hardy(1840–1928);
• Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936);
• H. G. Wells (1866–1946);
• John Galsworthy (1867–1933),
• Arnold Bennett (1867–1931)
• G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936);
• E.M. Forster (1879–1970).
 2. George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
Irish playwright was influential in British
drama. Shaw’s work started gaining public
recognition due to its comic relief. Some
of his plays during this period such as
‘Caesar and Cleopatra’ and ‘Pygmalion’
received much appreciation and proved to
be some of his greatest successes on the
stage. Being an outright socialist, Shaw
openly expressed his disapproval
regarding the First World War, facing
criticism for his opinions. But after the
war, he returned as a dramatist and was
honored with the Nobel Prize in Literature
for his outstanding contribution. In 1938
Shaw wrote the screenplay Pygmalion,
winning an Oscar for his work. The play
was also adapted into an immensely
famous musical titled ‘My Fair Lady’
(1956).
He lived the rest of his life as an international
celebrity, continually involved in dramatics
until his death. Shaw still remains one of
the most significant playwrights in the
English language who helped shape the
theatre of his time.
 3. John Galsworthy (1867-1933)
• John Galsworthy won a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1932.
His works include a sequence of novels called The
Forsyte Saga. The entire collection of these novels is an
example of social criticism which exposes the upper-middle
class of England as suffering some sort of decline, both
moral and spiritual, as represented by the Forsyte family.
They are so blind to anything outside of their own frame of
reference that they are unaware of how society is
changing.
• With the brilliant combination of intelligent irony, symbolic
characters and deep insight into problems the author tells a
reader about four generations of the Forsyte family. One of
the major problems connected with the family is that the
Forsytes conduct their family lives, love, and appreciate art
under the ideal of "property first". In a similar manner
beautiful and rebellious Irene, Soames' wife, becomes for
her husband a mere "investment", which is highly valuable
for him. But despite the attitude Soames and his close
relatives demonstrate to Irene, her character is crucial for
the novel. Her identity represents the concept of romantic
and altruistic love, which is in conflict with the concept of
love shared by the Forsytes. Of course, Soames has
passion for Irene. "He's fond of her, I know, 'thought
James. "Look at the way he's always giving her things."
These words of James, Soames' father, serve as a good
definition of the Forsytean concept of love. But as the time
goes by and Irene alienates from her husband both
physically and emotionally to the extent of abhorrence,
Soames looks at his past feelings in a different way. Using
the change in attitudes of Soames, Galsworthy develops a
more elaborate definition of the Forsytean concept of love
and passion.
 The Forsyte Saga
• Soames does not understand how his property, Irene, in whom he invested so much love and passion,
can be confiscated from him. He fights for his property. But after Soames realizes that he lost Irene, he
attempts to get rid of her, as stockbrokers get rid of defaulted bonds. Irene knows that a Forsyte's
heart will never understand her concept of love, unless she speaks in the "language of property". That
is why when James rebukes her for not being a good wife to Soames, she quietly replies, "I can't give
him something I do not have."
• The sense of property is also the obstacle, which prevents Forsytes from appreciating art for the sake
of art and enjoying beauty for the sake of beauty. The defining symbol of the Forsytean conception of
art and beauty is the collection of paintings, which Soames gathers throughout his life. On one hand,
Soames loves his paintings and spends hours contemplating them. But then Soames sells the
paintings, which fall in price, without any regret. And the dominant criteria for him in deciding to buy a
painting is the probability that the price of the painting will increase in the future, not the beauty of this
piece of art.
• The art of John Galsworthy has had a great impact on the evolution of world literature as it gives a
masterful example of thorough and original analysis of the history and culture of Britain of his epoch.
• A love affair between John Galsworthy and Ada Nemesis Pearson Cooper began in 1985. This was in
spite of the fact that she was the wife of his first cousin Major Arthur Galsworthy. For ten years they
met secretly y in a farmhouse in Devon. It is said that Irene in ‘The Forsyte Saga’ was modeled after
Ada. The couple got married on September 23, 1905, after Ada’s divorce came through. They did not
have any children and remained together till his death in 1933.
 4. Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
• Rudyard Kipling was born in 1865, in Bombay,
India. For Kipling, India was a wondrous place. He
explored the local markets with his nanny. He
learned the language, and in this bustling city of
Anglos, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews,
Kipling fell in love with the country and its culture.
Then he was educated in England. After school he
travelled to the USA with his best friend whose
sister he married. The newly married Kiplings
settled down in Vermont, in the USA. Rudyard
Kipling wrote The Jungle Book (1894) there. They
had three children and lived happily. Kipling was
delighted to be around children—a characteristic
that was apparent in his writing. His tales
enchanted boys and girls all over the English-
speaking world. By the age of 32, Kipling was the
highest-paid writer in the world. He was the
youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Prize for
Literature in 1907. But after the family tragedies
when their daughter and their son died, the
Kiplings cherished isolation and lived on a quiet
villa in England. He died in 1936. Kipling's ashes
were buried in Westminster Abbey in Poets'
Corner next to the graves of Thomas Hardy and
Charles Dickens.
"If—"
 5. American Literature in the 20th century
Though many American writers of the
beginning of the 20th century supported
modernism, such novelists as Theodore
Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway, Francis
Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck
preserved their loyalty to realism.
 Theodore Dreiser's (1871–1945)
• Theodor Dreiser is an American author,
outstanding representative of naturalism,
whose novels depict real life in a harsh light.
Dreiser's novels were held to be amoral, and
he battled throughout his career against
censorship and popular taste. This started
with Sister Carrie (1900). It was not until
1981 that the work was published in its
original form. Dreiser's principal concern was
with the conflict between human needs and
the demands of society for material success.
• "A woman should some day write the
complete philosophy of clothes. No matter
how young, it is one of the things she wholly
comprehends. There is an indescribably faint
line in the matter of man's apparel which
somehow divides for her those who are
worth glancing at and those who are not.
Once an individual has passed this faint line
on the way downward he will get no glance
from her. There is another line at which the
dress of a man will cause her to study her
own." (from Sister Carrie)
• Sister Carrie was Dreiser’s debut as a
novelist. It is a powerful account of a young
working girl's rise to success and her slow
decline. The story was partly based on the
life of his sister. "She was eighteen years of
age, bright, timid and full of the illusions of
ignorance and youth".
 An American Tragedy
• Dreiser's commercially most successful novel
was An American Tragedy (1925), which
was adapted for screen for the first time in
1931. Dreiser had objected strongly to the
version because it portrayed his youthful
killer as a sex-starved idle loafer. An
American Tragedy tells the story of a bellboy,
Clyde Griffiths, indecisive like Hamlet, who
sets out to gain success and fame. After an
automobile accident, Clyde is employed by a
distant relative, owner of a collar factory. He
seduces Roberta Alden, an employee at the
factory, but falls in love with Sondra Finchley,
a girl of the local aristocracy. Roberta, now
pregnant, demands that Clyde marry her. He
takes Roberta rowing on an isolated lake and
in this dreamlike sequence 'accidentally'
murders her. Clyde's trial, conviction, and
execution occupy the remainder of the book.
Dreiser points out that materialistic society is
as much to blame as the murderer himself.
• Dreiser died in Hollywood, California, in
1945.
 7. Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)
• He was born in 1899, in Illinois, the second of six children.
His family was strict and very religious. His father taught
his children a love of nature and the outdoor life. Ernest
caught his first fish at the age of three, and was given a
shotgun for his twelfth birthday. His mother taught him a
love of music and art. He didn’t go to college after school.
He went to Kansas City and worked as a journalist for the
Star newspaper. He learned a lot, but left after only six
months to go to war.
• Hemingway was fascinated by war. He had wanted to
become a soldier, but couldn’t because he had poor
eyesight. Instead, in the First World War, he became an
ambulance driver and was sent to Italy, where he was
wounded in 1918. In the 1930s, he became a war
correspondent in the Spanish Civil War and World War II.
Many of his books were about war. His most successful
book, For Whom the Bell Tolls, was written in 1940 and
is about the Spanish Civil War. Another novel, A Farewell
to Arms, is about the futility of war.
• Hemingway’s success in writing was not mirrored by
similar success in his personal life. He married four times
but all marriages ended in a divorce. He lived in Florida
where he enjoyed hunting, fishing, and drinking, but he
also suffered from depression. Hemingway’s health was
not good and he had many accidents. When all his
marriages failed and his father committed suicide, he
began to drink heavily. In 1954, he survived two plane
crashes. In October, 1954 he was awarded the Nobel
Prize for literature for his story “The Old Man and the
Sea”.
• His final years were taken up with health problems and
alcohol. He began to lose his memory and he couldn’t
write any more. In 1961 Hemingway killed himself with a
shotgun, just like his father had done before him.
 Hemingway’s Literary Style
• Hemingway’s greatest contribution to the world of literature is his unique style called
“The theory of iceberg”. "Iceberg Theory" deals with the basic principle that "less is
more." Instead of stating the obvious, Hemingway attempts to use dialogue and
subtext to convey his themes. For Hemingway’s works inner dialogues are typical. He
seldom speaks of the feelings of his characters, much is left unsaid, but he manages
to make the reader feel what his hero feels. Needless repetition and irrelevant
information should be avoided. Hemingway likens this style to an iceberg since only a
fraction of it lies visible above water; the rest – the greater mass – is unseen below.
An attentive reader will uncover the missing parts.
• One more peculiarity of Hemingway’s style is the use of weather as an
accompaniment to the emotional tones of different scenes. The background of every
tragic episode in a Farewell to Arms is rain.
• In his novels the author proves that private happiness is impossible in the restless
world of the 20th century. Seeing misery around him, Hemingway’s hero cannot be
happy.
• The primary origin of Hemingway’s peculiar style lies in his career as a reporter .
Journalistic writing, particularly for newspapers, focuses only on events being
reported, omitting superfluous matter. When he became a writer of short stories, he
retained this minimalistic style, focusing on surface elements without explicitly
discussing the underlying themes.
 F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
• F. Scott Fitzgerald was one of the most famous authors of the
Jazz Age, best known for his novel "The Great Gatsby". He
was born in 1896, in St. Paul, Minnesota. His first novel's
success made him famous and let him marry the woman he
loved, but he later descended into drinking and his wife had a
mental breakdown. Then Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood and
became a scriptwriter. He died of a heart attack in 1940, at the
age of 44.
• Published in 1925, The Great Gatsby is narrated by Nick
Carraway, a Midwesterner who moves into the town of West
Egg on Long Island, next door to a mansion owned by the
wealthy and mysterious Jay Gatsby. The novel follows Nick and
Gatsby's strange friendship and Gatsby's pursuit of a married
woman named Daisy, ultimately leading to his exposure as a
bootlegger and his death.
• With its beautiful lyricism, the perfect portrayal of the Jazz Age,
and searching critiques of materialism, love and the American
Dream, The Great Gatsby is considered Fitzgerald's finest
work. Although the book was well-received when it was
published, it was not until the 1950s and '60s, long after
Fitzgerald's death, that it achieved its stature as the definite
portrait of the "Roaring Twenties," as well as one of the
greatest American novels ever written.
• F. Scott Fitzgerald died believing himself a failure. None of his
works received anything more than modest commercial or
critical success during his lifetime. However, since his death,
Fitzgerald has gained a reputation as one of the pre-eminent
authors in the history of American literature due almost entirely
to the enormous posthumous success of The Great Gatsby.
This novel became required reading for every American high
school student, and has had a great effect on generation after
generation of readers.
 Jazz Age (1920-1929)

• The Jazz Age was a post-World War I

movement in the 1920s from which
jazz music and dance emerged.
Although the era ended with the outset
of the Great Depression in 1929, jazz
has lived on in American popular
culture.
• The birth of jazz music is credited to
African Americans, but both black and
white Americans alike are responsible
for its immense rise in popularity.
• The rise of jazz coincided with the rise
of radio broadcast and recording
technology, which spawned the
popular “potter palm” shows that
included big-band jazz performances.
• Female singers such as Bessie Smith
emerged during this period of postwar
equality and open sexuality, paving the
way for future female artists.
 Questions on Lecture 7
1. Who is considered to be a representative of realism in the English
literature of the beginning of the 20th century?
2. Speak on the main topics and characters of the The Forsyte
Saga.
3. What is known about R. Kipling’s life and work? What tragic
events made him live in isolation?
4. Enumerate American realistic writers.
5. What are Theodore Dreiser's major works?
6. What is Hemingway’s greatest contribution to the world of
literature?
7. Speak about Hemingway’s life.
8. Why did Scott Fitzgerald die believing himself a failure?
9. What period of American history is depicted in the novel The
Great Gatsby?
 Lecture 8. Modernism
1. Modernism, its main features, causes
2. Modernism in English literature. The
stream of consciousness
3. James Joyce
4. William Golding’s life
5. Golding’s “Lord of the flies”
6. Aldous Huxley’s novel “Brave New
World”
 1. Modernism and its main features
• Modernism represents a “a deliberate and radical break with the traditional
bases both of Western culture and of Western art” (Virginia Woolf )
• Modernism began in 1910, the date of the first post-Impressionist exhibition
in London.
• There are established features that define modernism thematically and
historically. From a literary perspective, the main characteristics of
modernism include:
1) the need to escape from the certainties of the nineteenth century;
2) a challenge to realism, search for alternative ways of representing reality; not
focusing on the external reality, moving the idea of reality to the inner world.
3) an emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity in writing; an emphasis on
HOW seeing or perception takes place, rather than on WHAT is perceived;
4) new kinds of tools, such as the stream of consciousness, interior monologue
5) representing consciousness, perception, emotion, the relation of the
individual with the society;
6) a rejection of the objectivity, fixed points of view, and clear-cut moral
positions;
7) narrations from different points of view and perspectives;
8) spontaneity and discovery in creation.
 Causes of Modernism
All the mentioned features are a kind of response to the great changes
brought about by the new century:
- industrialization
- urban society
- war
- technological advances: atomic energy, space exploration, genetic
and biomedical engineering and telecommunications
- the new philosophical ideas (the ideas of Charles Darwin (1809–82)
(On Origin of Species) (1859), Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900),
Karl Marx (1818–83) (Das Kapital, 1867), and the psychoanalytic
theories of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
- search for instruments in art with which authors, artists and
musicians attempted to throw off the burden of realism (the
continental art movements of Impressionism, and later Cubism,
were important inspirations for modernist writers).
 2. Modernism in English literature.
The stream of consciousness

English literature modernism developed out of a general

sense of disillusionment with Victorian era attitudes of
certainty, conservatism and belief in the idea of objective
truth.
Representatives of modernism in literature written in
English are:
– Henry Games (1843–1916), an American-born British
novelist;
– Joseph Conrad (1857–1924), a Polish-born novelist;
– James Joyce (1882 – 1941);
– Virginia Woolf (1882–1941);
– Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) published his famous
dystopia The Brave New World in 1932.
 The stream of consciousness technique
Stream of Consciousness is a literary style in which the author follows
visual, auditory, tactile, associative impressions and expresses them
using "interior monologue" of characters either as a writing
technique or as a writing style that mixes thoughts and impressions
in an illogical order and violates grammar norms.
In literature it records character's feelings and thoughts through stream
of consciousness in attempt to capture all the external and internal
forces that influence their psychology at a single moment.
Main characteristics:
• Recording thoughts and feelings
• Exploring external and internal forces that influence individual’s
psychology
• Disregard of the narrative sequence
• Absence of the logical argument
• Disassociated leaps in syntax and punctuation (using italics,
ellipses, dashes, and line breaks to indicate pauses and shifts in the
character's train of thought).
• Prose difficult to follow
 Stream of Consciousness. Examples
Example #1: Mrs. Dalloway (By Virginia Woolf)
• “What a lark! What a plunge! For so it always seemed to
me when, with a little squeak of the hinges, which I can
hear now, I burst open the French windows and plunged
at Bourton into the open air. How fresh, how calm, stiller
than this of course, the air was in the early morning; like
the flap of a wave; the kiss of a wave; chill and sharp
and yet (for a girl of eighteen as I then was) solemn,
feeling as I did, standing there at the open window, that
something awful was about to happen …”
By voicing her internal feelings, the Ms. Woolf gives
freedom to the characters to travel back and forth in
time. Mrs. Dalloway went out to buy flower for herself,
and on the way her thoughts move through the past
and present, giving us an insight into the complex
nature of her character.
 Stream of Consciousness. Examples
Example #2: Mrs. Dalloway (By Virginia Woolf)
In this passage, the title character, Clarissa Dalloway, watches cars driving by:
• She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out,
far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very
dangerous to live even one day. Not that she thought herself clever, or
much out of the ordinary. How she had got through life on the few twigs of
knowledge Fraulein Daniels gave them she could not think. She knew
nothing; no language, no history; she scarcely read a book now, except
memoirs in bed; and yet to her it was absolutely absorbing; all this; the cabs
passing; and she would not say of Peter, she would not say of herself, I am
this, I am that.
Woolf does more than simply say "Mrs. Dalloway watched the taxis and thought
about her life." Rather, she lets the reader into the character's thoughts
by using long sentences with semicolons to show the slow drift of ideas and
the transitions between thoughts. Readers are able to watch as Mrs.
Dalloway's mind moves from observations about things she is seeing to
reflections on her general attitude towards life, and then moves on to
memories from her childhood, then back to the taxi cabs in the street, and
finally to Peter, a former romantic interest. This is an excellent example of
using associative leaps and sensory impressions to create a stream of
consciousness. Woolf manages to convey not only the content but the
structure and process of Mrs. Dalloway's thoughts, a fact which is all the
more impressive because she does so while writing in the third person.
 Stream of Consciousness. Examples
Example #3: Beloved (by Toni Morrison)
In this passage, readers hear the voice of a character named Beloved who
seems to be the spirit of the murdered infant of another character named
Sethe:
• I am alone    I want to be the two of us    I want the join    I come out of blue
water after the bottoms of my feet swim away from me    I come up    I need
to find a place to be    the air is heavy    I am not dead    I am not    there is
a house    there is what she whispered to me    I am where she told me    I
am not dead    I sit    the sun closes my eyes    when I open them I see the
face I lost    Sethe's is the face that left me    Sethe sees me see her and I
see the smile    her smiling face is the place for me    it is the face I lost  
 she is my face smiling at me
Morrison doesn't use proper capitalization or grammar throughout the passage
(e.g., "join" is used as a noun). In the place of punctuation, Morrison simply
inserts gaps in the text. She also makes use of repetition: when Beloved
repeats the words, "I am not dead," she seems to be willing herself to live
through a kind of mantra. Morrison uses run-on sentences and lack of
punctuation to show the frantic urgency that Beloved feels when she finds
herself alone in death, and to convey her deep desire to be reunited with
Sethe—effectively letting readers "listen in" on her thoughts.
 Stream of Consciousness. Examples
Example #4: The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock (by TS Eliot)
Modernist poet TS Eliot uses stream of consciousness techniques in
his famous poem, "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock." 

I grow old ... I grow old ...

I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.

The poem generally follows traditional grammar and syntax, but Eliot
moves from idea to idea and sentence to sentence using
associative thought. For example, when he thinks of walking on the
beach, he is reminded of mermaids. And while it's not immediately
clear what peaches and mermaids have to do with old age, the
passage shows readers something about how the speaker's mind
wanders.
 3. James Joyce
• In 1922 Irishman James Joyce's novel Ulysses [ju:'lisiz] appeared. The novel is one of the
greatest masterpieces of modernist literature. With its depth and complexities, Ulysses completely
changed our understanding of literature and language. Ulysses is endlessly inventive; it is like a
maze in its construction. The novel is both a mythical adventure of the everyday and a stunning
portrait of internal psychological processes. Brilliant and sparkling, the novel is difficult to read.
• In it Joyce creates parallels with Homer's epic poem the Odyssey.
• Ulysses records events in the lives of two central characters – Leopold Bloom and Stephen
Daedalus ['sti:vn 'dedələs] – on a single day in Dublin. The action takes place in 1904. Leopold
Bloom is a middle aged Jewish man. Stephen Daedalus is a young intellectual. Bloom goes
through his day with the full awareness that his wife, Molly, is probably receiving her lover at their
home (as part of an ongoing affair). He buys some liver, attends a funeral and, watches a young
girl on a beach.
• Daedalus passes from a newspaper office, expounds a theory of Shakespeare's Hamlet in a
public library and visits a maternity ward – where his journey becomes intertwined with Bloom's,
as he invites Bloom to go along with some of his companions. They end up at a notorious brothel,
where Daedalus suddenly becomes angry because he believes the ghost of his mother is visiting
him.
• He uses his cane to knock out a light, and gets into a fight--only to be knocked out himself. Bloom
revives him and takes him back to his house, where they sit and talk, drinking coffee. In the final
chapter, Bloom slips back into bed with his wife, Molly. We get a final monologue from her point of
view. The string of words is famous, as it is entirely devoid of any punctuation. The words just flow
as one long, full thought.
• Of course, the summary doesn't reflect a whole lot about what the book is really all about. The
greatest strength of Ulysses is the manner in which it is told.
• This work is an experiment, where Joyce widely and wildly plays with narrative techniques. Some
chapters concentrate on a phonic representation of its events; some are mock-historical; one
chapter is told in epigrammatic form; another is laid out like a drama. In these flights of style,
Joyce directs the story from numerous linguistic as well as psychological points of view.
 4. William Golding’s Life
William Golding was born in 1911 in England. A frustrated child, he found an
outlet in bullying his peers. Later in life, William would describe his childhood
“I enjoyed hurting people.” His father was a schoolmaster and eventually,
William decided to follow his father’s footsteps. In 1935 Golding took a
position teaching English and philosophy at a school. Golding’s experience
teaching undisciplined young boys would later serve as inspiration for his
novel Lord of the Flies.
• Although passionate about teaching from day one, in 1940 Golding
abandoned the profession to join the Royal Navy and fight in World War II.
Golding spent the better part of the next six years on a boat. Like his
teaching experience, Golding’s participation in the war would prove to be
fruitful material for his fiction. In 1945, after World War II had ended, Golding
went back to teaching and writing. In 1954, after 21 rejections, Golding
published his first and most acclaimed novel, Lord of the Flies. Riddled with
symbolism, the book set the tone for Golding’s future work, in which he
continued to examine man’s internal struggle between good and evil.
• In a film adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel was made. Two
decades later, at the age of 73, Golding was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize
for Literature. In 1990 a new film version of the Lord of the Flies was
released, bringing the book to the attention of a new generation of readers.
 5. Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”
Lord of the Flies tells the story of a group of English schoolboys. They are the only survivors of a
plane crash during a war, and they find themselves on a deserted island. The boys soon realize
that they need a leader so they elect Ralph. As a leader, Ralph selects Jack to be responsible for
hunting. After an exploration of the island, Simon comes up with the idea that they should light a
fire to draw the attention of the passing ships. Unfortunately the unmonitored fire burns the forest.
• At first, the boys enjoy their life without adults, and spend most of their time playing. But after a
while they split in two groups; some work together to maintain the order, while the others rebel,
they descent into savages seeking for violence.
• Lord of the Flies. Its modernistic features:
1) Embracing history. History is not rejected in Golding's novel. The English boys find themselves
during a war. Their plane has crashed apparently because an atomic bomb. Here, on the
deserted island, the young boys create a world of their own, a new world, which in fact is not very
different from the one they already knew. Golding's experience with the war let him know the very
different ways in which people respond to stress, change and tension.
2) The search for the answer to the questions like “What is there to be known? Who knows it? How
can I know this world?” When the children get on the island they are eager to know everything
about it and therefore these questions emerge in their minds. Slowly every one of them gets the
answer to these questions. The children are not the only ones who are left with these questions,
the reader also.
3) Crono-topical contextualization. In Golding's novel there are no exact dates or names of places,
everything is vague. The reader only gets to know that the boys find themselves during a war,
they are the only survivors and they are on a deserted island. What we know exactly is that they
are British and that the action takes place at the dawn of the next world war. We can only
assume that this is the Cold War, since the book was written in the 1950's.
4) As for rejecting realism, Golding tries to present the inner life of the boys, their feelings, their ideas.
He manages to do this magnificently because of his own experience with the war.
 Symbolism in Lord of the Flies
• Symbol #1
• Piggy’s Glasses
• Piggy is handicapped and wears glasses. He also has asthma. His asthmatic disability has blessed him with
rational power. On the other hand, his glasses have given him an edge to start a fire. Hence, it becomes a symbol
of life which is used to prepare a fire to use as a signal for rescue. It becomes so much significant among the
boys that Jack and his hunters attack Ralph and Piggy and their group to snatch the glasses to make their own
fire.
• Symbol #3
• The Signal Fire
• The signal created by fire by the boys is actually a symbol of life and safety. It also shows that civilization is alive
on the island. When the boys determine to stay alive and to return to the civilization, they instantly accept Piggy’s
suggestion to light the fire, using his glasses. However, as the boys become lazy and oblivious, they ignore to
keep it alive. Hence, the fire eventually dies. Even by the end, it becomes clear that the signal fire is important for
the civilized behavior and helped in the safe rescue of the boys.
• Symbol #4
• The Beast
• The beast is actually the head of the parachuting dead soldier hanging by the branches of  trees. It is infested with
maggots and flies. The only boy who knows the reality of this beast is Simon. However, he fails to explain it to
other boys. Therefore, it has transformed into a symbol of something dreadful and terrifying. In fact, this head
symbolizes the inner savagery and barbarism of the boys in specific and mankind in general.
• Symbol #5
• The Lord of the Flies
• This is the head of a pig that the hunters from Jack’s group impale and plant on a stick to offer a sacrifice to the
beast. They believe that the beast which supposedly terrifies them will be pleased. It is a physical representation
of their awe towards that beast. The phrase ‘the lord of the flies’ refer to their naming it as the lord of those flies
which swarmed the head of the dead soldier. It symbolizes something that is to be presented as a gift to the beast
to hold sway over the flies as it is their lord.
 Symbolism in Lord of the Flies
• Symbol #6
• Ralph
• There are mostly young boys on the island, and they all represent innocence. Ralph, with his sensible nature, is a
specific representative of civilization and order. It is he who finds the conch and calls others to form an assembly. In this
sense, he represents leadership and guidance. Therefore, he is a symbol of law, order, authority and civilization on the
island.
• Symbol #7
• Piggy
• In spite of the physical disability, due to weak eyesight and asthma, Piggy has a very clear perspectiveon things and is
also a visionary in his thoughts. He represents those sane voices that are not heard much in the crowd, but they prove
true. He shares the idea of lighting the fire by using his glasses. He also gives suggestions for an assembly and
formation of rules on the island. In this sense, he is a symbol of rationalism, order, and legitimacy.
• Symbol #8
• Jack
• Jack does not show much of his true nature at the beginning of the novel. However, he proves highly unpredictable,
barbaric and savage by the end. His first posture of being a hunter and an aggressive young boy shows his wild nature.
He gathers a pack of boys with painted faces. He announces that they are his hunters and that he would train them for
hunting. With the passage of time, they fall into the pit of savagery during hunting and become enemy of the group led
by Ralph. They kill Piggy and chase Ralph to kill him next. Hence, Jack becomes a symbol of evil and savagery. He
represents the savage culture as opposed to Ralph who represents civilization.
• Symbol #9
• Pig
• The pig is an animal found on that island. The boys, the group of hunters, led by Jack, find the traces of a pig and start
hunting other pigs. With the course of time, it becomes their practice to talk how to hunt pigs and trap them. Once Jack
plants the head of a pig on a stick, calling it ‘the lord of the flies’ with the purpose to present it as a sacrificial gift to the
beast. Hence, the pig symbolizes a temptation for the boys to leave humanity and turn to savagery and barbarism.
• Symbol #10
• The Naval Officer
• The naval officer is a British officer of the Royal Navy. He appears by the end of the novel who comes to the island after
seeing the fire. He confronts Ralph who is running for his life from Jack’s hunters. When he sees the boys playing the
barbaric game, he scolds them for showing dirty and rude manners unbecoming of the British boys. He asks Ralph
about their game and their presence on the island over which Ralph’s eyes are filled with tears. He is hardly able to
narrate the barbaric episode to the officer when other boys appear. They instantly become a pack of civilized dirty boys
after seeing the officer in uniform with a pistol in his holster. In other words, the naval officer represents order, authority,
and culture. His uniform and pistol are symbols of the rule of law and the tools to establish it.
 Famous Quotes from Lord of the Flies
• Quote #1
• “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English,
and the English are best at everything.”
• Quote #2
• “What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages? What’s grownups going to think?”
(Piggy, Chapter-Five)
• Quote #3
• “Which is better—to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?” (Piggy, Chapter-
Eleven)
• Quote #14
• “And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph
wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the
air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.” (Chapter-Twelve)
These lines narrated by the end of the novel when Ralph and other boys gather around
the British officer. Ralph is standing in the middle, weeping for the end of innocence.
It is the end of innocence because the hunters are after Ralph to kill him. They have
already killed his wise friend, Piggy and are chasing Ralph through the thick forest
when they come face to face with the officer. The officer has just landed on the island
to look for missing soldiers. Ralph weeps about how they were innocent children, and
how they turned into savages on that island away from society.
 Themes in Lord of the Flies
• all humans have a dark side that can cause a breakdown of
society's ethical standards if this dark side overcomes one's
reasoning and right thinking.
• mankind’s natural savagery can tackle even the most civilized
people. 
• In our society itself we can se how people often loose their
civilization and act savagely certain circumstances. During the wars,
we human kill our own race to attain triumph over one’s ideologies
and gain power. In smaller society for instance, people willing to rob,
cheat and back-stab each other to fulfill their own desire and thirst
for wealth. Even in a family, a father who supposed to be the leader
act savagely by raping his own daughter to fulfill his sex lust. We
labeled ourselves as highly civilized but still the human nature urged
us to loose humanity and go against the civilization. Therefore these
are the issues conveyed by William Golding through his writing by
critically developed his theme on civilization and savagery.
• human discrimination and prejudice
• we human discriminate individuals who are not in the same agreement or ideologies with us. In
terms of the novel, Golding expressed his idea of discrimination and prejudice through the
character of Piggy and Simon. Piggy is an orphan and raised by his aunt, physically he is fat,
wearing thick spectacles and having asthmatic problem. He constantly refers to the old way of
life. He doesn’t believe in the beastie because Piggy is an intellectual who lacks social skills, he
is an outsider. The boys ridicule him over and over again but he can not do anything for himself
and constantly tries to get out of work while relying on Ralph. He is the only voices of reason and
the link to the adult world. Eventually, towards the end, piggy is killed by Roger. Piggy becomes
the victim of discrimination and prejudice because of his differences compare to other boys in the
island.
• Besides that he is also different in a way that he is the only boy wearing spectacles in the island.
Here Golding makes use the literary element symbolism to distinguish Piggy with the other boys.
His spectacles are the symbol of clear sightedness, intelligence and rationale where he is the
only boy with such ability. Yet his opinions are always neglected and his rights are always
discriminated, the act that his glasses are taken away forcefully by Jack, “Here- Let me go!” His
voice rose to a shriek of terror as Jack snatched the glasses off his face.”(Golding, 1954, p.53)
shows how his differences are made used by the others
•  truth and enlightens will be buried in this prejudice society and world. Simon is the one who
arrives at the moral truth of the novel, and the other boys kill him sacrificially as a consequence
of having discovered this truth.
• In today’s world, differences are the core factor of discrimination and prejudice. Differences in
race and skin colour for example left black people discriminated in white world. Their rights are
neglected and even they are not treated as human. For that they have to fight to live and now in
some countries they are still fighting for it. Despite of that, Palestinians are living in fear and
thousands of them are being killed cruelly by Israelis due to their differences in religious and
ideologies. Palestinians rights for a free land are neglected, but just greed, ego and blood lust
remained. There are more and more discrimination happening in our world today, yet Golding
already conveyed this issue his writing few decades ago for us to ponder about. Adolf Hitler and
his Nazi
 Themes in Lord of the Flies
• leadership determines the triumph or destruction of a society
• Ralph, for example stands for the good-hearted but not entirely and effective leader of a
democratic society, a ruler for instance who wants to rule by law derived from the common
consent. Piggy is his adviser, someone who is unable to rule because of his own social and
physical shortcoming, but he is able to offer sound advice to the democratic leader. Jack, on the
other hand, represents a totalitarian dictator, a ruler who appeals to the emotional responses of
his followers. He rules by charisma and hysteria. Roger, the boy who takes the most joy in the
slaughter of he pigs and who hurls the rock that kills Piggy, represent the supporter necessary for
such a totalitarian ruler to stay in power. Golding effectively showed how both type of leadership
works and it consequences at the end. Ralph made a good leader at beginning, but towards the
end Jack succeeded to manipulate the fear of the beast to gain support and name himself as the
leader when he said, “We’ll hunt. I’m going to be chiefWhen Jack took over the leadership, the
becoming more eager in killing and entirely changed into a savage tribe which finally leads into
the fall of civilization and humanity. This is beautifully portrayed by Golding through the imagery
of killing the sow, “the sow staggered her way ahead of them, bleeding and mad, and the hunters
followed wedded to her in lust, excited by the long chase and the dropped blood.” He uses the
imagery to show how human can change themselves under different or particular leadership. The
people will be like an exact mirror of the leader. Therefore leadership should be in the right hand
for the betterment of the people.
• In our world, leadership had once torn the world apart. At the end of the World War II, for many
years, leaders such as British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and United States President
Franklin D. Roosevelt led democratic countries against totalitarian leaders such Germany’s Adolf
Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini. Further, in the early 1950s, the world appeared to be divided
into two camps; the so-called Free World of Western Europe and the United States, and the so-
called Iron Curtain world of communist Eastern Europe and Soviet Union. The innocent people
have just followed their leaders whether they agree or do not agree with it. Even in a family,
leadership is very precious. Parents should possess good leadership and positive influences over
their children for a better family and future. Broken family for example is lack with capable and
positive leadership thus its effect are to the children, they will posses the same ideologies of
leadership which will consequence in more destruction in the future. Therefore leadership is the
crucial element that determines triumph or destruction of family, society or nation
 Questions on Lecture 8
1. What are main features of modernism?
2. Who are its main representatives?
3. Dwell upon the stream of consciousness
technique.
4. What is the plot of Ulysses?
5. Who are its main characters?
6. What is Joyce’s contribution into the world of
literature?
7. What is known about W. Golding’s life?
8. What is the message of his novel “The Lord of
the Flies”?
 Lecture 9. Postmodernism

1. Postmodernism and its main features

2. Ian McEwan and postmodernism
3. Kurt Vonnegut’s biography
4. Postmodernism features in Kurt
Vonnegut’s works
 1 Postmodernism and its main
features
• Postmodernism literature is hard to define and there is little agreement on the exact
characteristics, scope, and importance of postmodern literature. However, unifying
features are as follows:
• 1) Instead of the modernist quest for meaning in a chaotic world, the postmodern
author avoids the possibility of meaning, and the postmodern novel is often a parody
of this quest.
• 2) Postmodern writers often celebrate chance over craft and employ metafiction.
• 3) Postmodern novels deal with an inner reality which is constantly at change
according to the experiences of the characters. While in modern novels the relation to
reality, the attitudes toward it are seen as an experimental reflexion of the inner
reality, in postmodern novels this relation represents a refraction of commodified,
mass-reproduced discourse and also a return to pleasure and to plot.

• Foreign scholars differentiate modernism from postmodernism in the following way:

• -modernist fiction foregrounds questions like: What is there to be known? Who knows
it? How can I know this world of which I am a part? What are the limits of the
knowable? And so on.
• -postmodernism foregrounds questions like: Which world is this? What is to be done?
Which of my selves is going to do it?
• This is a shift from problems of knowing to problems of being.
• The main representatives of post-modernism are:
• Kurt Vonnegut
• Isaac Asimov
• Roald Dahl
• Zadie Smith
• Julian Barns
• Muriel Spark
• Margaret Atwood
• Doris Lessing
• Terry Pratchett
 Divergent attitudes of
modernism and postmodernism
• modernism • Postmodernism

• Cultural progress is • Cultural progress is cynically

celebrated resisted and radically
doubted
• The truth is sought • The truth is constructed

• History is embraced • History is diversified

• The plot is rejected • The plot is foregrounded
• Crono-topical
• Crono-topical
contextualization is
rejected contextualization is
foregrounded
 3. Kurt Vonnegut’s biography

• Kurt Vonnegut ['kɜ:t 'vɒnigət] was born in Indianapolis, USA, in 1922. Vonnegut emerged as a novelist and essayist in the 1960s. His
classics are Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions. He is known for his satirical literary style, as well as the
science-fiction elements in much of his work. He blended the absurd with pointed social commentary. Vonnegut created his own unique
world in each of his novels and filled them with unusual characters, such as the alien race known as the Tralfamadorians in
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969).
• After studying at Cornell University from 1940 to 1942, Kurt Vonnegut enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was sent by the Army to what is now
Carnegie Mellon University to study engineering in 1943. The next year, he served in Europe and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. After
this battle, Vonnegut was captured and became a prisoner of war. He was in Dresden, Germany, during the
• Allied firebombing of the city and saw the complete devastation caused by it. Vonnegut himself escaped harm only because he, along with
other POWs, was working in an underground meat locker making vitamin supplements.
• Soon after his return from the war, Kurt Vonnegut married his high school girlfriend, Jane Marie Cox. The couple had three children. He
worked several jobs before his writing career took off, including newspaper reporter, teacher, and public relations employee for General
Electric. The Vonneguts also adopted his sister's three children after her death in 1958.
• Showing Vonnegut's talent for satire, his first novel, Player Piano, took on corporate culture and was published in 1952. More novels
followed, war remaining a recurring element in his work. One of his best-known works, Slaughterhouse-Five, draws some of its dramatic
power from his own experiences. The narrator, Billy Pilgrim, is a young soldier who becomes a prisoner of war and works in an
underground meat locker, not unlike Vonnegut.
• Emerging as a new literary voice, Kurt Vonnegut became known for his unusual writing style—long sentences and little punctuation—as
well as his humanist point of view. He continued writing short stories and novels, including Breakfast of Champions (1973), Jailbird (1979)
and Deadeye Dick(1982).
• Despite his success, Kurt Vonnegut wrestled with his own personal demons. Having struggled with depression on and off for years, he
attempted to take his own life in 1984. Whatever challenges he faced personally, Vonnegut became a literary icon with a devoted
following.
• His last novel was Timequake (1997), which became a best seller despite receiving mixed reviews. Kurt Vonnegut chose to spend his
later years working on nonfiction. His last book was A Man Without a Country, a collection of biographical essays. In it, he expressed his
views on politics and art, and shed more light on his own life. Kurt Vonnegut died in 2007, at the age of 84, in New York city.
 4. Characteristic features of postmodernism in
Vonnegut’s works

• Most Vonnegut’s works are brilliant examples of the postmodernism trend in literature and they certainly reflect its
particular features.
• First of all, the characteristic peculiar to postmodernism is sense of disjunction and desolation. It appears to this
or that extent in all Vonnegut’s stories. For example, members of the Fords’ family in the story “A big trip up
yonder” are all close relatives. But they are in a constant fight for sleeping places in the flat. They are all rivals in
the competition for the fortune.
• The second feature is “cool apathy”. It can be observed throughout most stories. His characters aren’t concerned
about anything and don’t show any enthusiasm in anything. Such as the painter in the story “2BRO2B”. He is an
aloof observer who doesn’t want to interfere with anything.
• Postmodernism is also marked by intertextuality. It implies explicit allusions and references to other sources,
works. Intertextuality serves as an aspect of the awareness about history and works of art. We can find in his
texts mentioning of various titles of literature works, historical events and the Bible. For example, the very title of
the story “2BRO2B” is a reference to the famous Hamlet’s monologue by W. Shakespeare. One of the main
characters of the same story also mentions “the invisible man” which reminds the reader of Herbert Wells’ novel of
the same name.
• What is also inherent in works of postmodernism is playfulness. It deals with meanings, words, signs, quotations
etc. The author plays with the text and involves the reader in this “game”. Purpose of it is to give the reader an
opportunity to take part in understanding of the text, to guess what is going on and to assume the developing
events. Thus, in the story “2BRO2B” there are several samples that illustrate the wordplay in the text (“My name
is Duncan” “And you dunk people?”).
• We cannot leave out irony. It becomes one of the most important stylistic devices in Vonnegut’s stories. Thus
Wehling in the mentioned above story “2BRO2B” has to choose only one of his triplets to stay alive. So answering
the remark that he doesn’t sound very happy he says with sad irony: “What man in my shoes wouldn’t be happy?
All I have to do is pick out which of the triplets is going to live, then deliver my maternal grandfather to the Happy
Hooligan, and come back here with a receipt”.
• Postmodernism works coolly and ironically expose the constructedness.
• Postmodernism works coolly and ironically expose the constructedness. And K. Vonnegut’s
stories prove it. Constructedness implies the distinct organization of structures. Postmodernism
works refuse it and rather support fragmentation, inconsistency and spontaneity. The author puts
here constructedness on the foreground. In the story “2BRO2B” this fact finds its realization in
the description of the garden “Never, never never had a garden been more formal, been better
tended. Every plant had all the loam, light, water, air and nourishment it could use”. The whole
story ridicules the perfectly constructed and organized society where there were no prisons, no
slums, no insane asylums, no cripples, no poverty, no wars, where all diseases as well as old
age were conquered. But in such a society people can’t perform their main function - to multiply
and replenish.
• Excessive organization and preciseness are also shown in the way of the character’s life in the
story “A big trip up yonder”. Their life sticks to the same routine for decades: “At six o'clock, they
arose again, for it was time for their generation to eat breakfast in the kitchenette. They had
twenty minutes in which to eat, but their reflexes were so dulled by the bad night that they had
hardly
• swallowed two mouthfuls of egg-type processed seaweed before it was time to surrender their
places to their son's generation”.
• In conclusion, it is worth mentioning that unlike modernist works, Vonnegut’s postmodernist
stories are not orderly ended, their denouement is quick and unexpected. Vonnegut’s stories
combine many characteristics of postmodern literature that appear on the level of content,
composition, form, usage of artistic devices and relationship between the author and the reader.
They allow us to observe the distinctive features that show the border between postmodernism
and earlier movements.
 Questions on Lecture 9
1. What are main features of
postmodernism?
2. Who are its representatives?
3. What do you know about Kurt Vonnegut’s
life?
4. What characteristics of postmodernism
can be found in Kurt Vonnegut’s literary
works?
 Quiz:
1. "The Great Gatsby" is the perfect portrayal of the
a) “Roaring Twenties” b) “Roaring Thirties” c) “Roaring Forties”
2. Who wrote the crime novel "Ten Little Niggers"?
a) Sir Arthur Conan Doyle b) Agatha Christie c) Emile Zola
3. How many lines does a sonnet have?
a) 12 b) 14 c) they vary
4. In which century were Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" written?
a) the fourteenth b) the fifteenth c) the seventeenth
5. "Jane Eyre" was written by which Bronte sister?
a) Anne b) Charlotte c) Emily
6. What is the book "Lord of the Flies" about?
a) a road trip around the USA b) a swarm of killer flies c) schoolboys on a desert island
7.Shakespeare was born in … .
A) London B) Stratford-on-Avon C) Oxford
8.Who said "To be or not to be, that is the question”?
A) Othello B) Romeo C) Hamlet
9. Who was the author of the famous storybook 'Alice' Adventures in Wonderland '?
А) Kipling b) Dickens c) Carrol
10.His real name was Samuel Clemens.
А) J. London B) O’ Henry C) M. Twain
11.Sherlock Holmes is the character of the books written by … .
А) A. Christie B) A. Conan Doyle C) G. Chesterton
12.Miss Marple is the character of the books written by … .
А) A. Christie B) A. Conan Doyle C) G. Chesterton
13.Robin Hood lived in … Forest .
A) Black B) Dark C) Sherwood
14.The novel shows the events of the Civil War in the USA.
А) "Gone with the Wind” B) "American Tragedy” C) "Farewell to Arms”
 Complete the statements:
1. Romanticism is a literary movement which appeared as a reaction to
…
2. Modernism in English literature was caused by …
3. The philosophy of the Renaissance was …
4. The main representatives of modernism are …, …, …
5. The main representatives of post-modernism are …, …, ….
6. Constructedness implies …
7. Intertextuality implies explicit …
8. Diversified history (presenting history from different points of view) is
a feature of … trend in literature.
9. The main features of the stream of consciousness technique are …
10. According to his “theory of iceberg”, instead of stating the obvious,
Hemingway attempts to use … to convey his themes.
 Answer the questions:
1. What literary movements reject constructedness and support fragmentation,
inconsistency and spontaneity? Which of these movements ironically exposes
constructedness and which rejects it completely? Give examples of works and
authors.
2. Intertextuality serves as an aspect of awareness about history and works of art. What
authors use intertextuality abundantly?
3. What is K. Vonnegut’s attitude to cultural and technical progress? How is it expressed
in his novels and stories?
4. What novel depicts the perfect dictatorship? How is it connected with democracy? How
are genetics and cloning exposed in the novel?
5. What literary trends focus on the inner world of the main characters, their ideas and
impressions rather than objective presentation of reality? What writing techniques and
tools are used in these trends? Name the authors and works.
6. Why is “Ulysses” a mythical adventure of the everyday and a stunning portrait of
internal psychological processes? How are psychological processes depicted?
7. How did Golding’s experience teaching unruly young boys serve as inspiration for his
literary work?
8. Why does “Beowulf” have a great social and historical significance?
9. Representatives of what literary trend believed that "Vice is due to ignorance"? What
did they fight for?
10. How does Jane Austen depict an average middle-class English family at the end of
the 18th, at the beginning of the 19th century? What hardships did women face in her
time and how did she reveal them in her novels?