LINGUISTICS

*#BASIC_TERMS_IN_LINGUISTICS*

1. *Prescriptive grammar:* The grammar that we are taught in school. Typically a prescriptive grammar is about the "shoulds and shouldn'ts" in a language rather than a description of what speakers actually know when they know a language. Prescriptive grammars typically reflect the grammar of a written standard and are concerned with making determinations about the "correct" choice when there are potential variants (e.g. in English, we can choose to either separate a preposition from the noun it modifies [What did you play with?] or not to do so [With what did you play]). The prescriptive grammar of English says that only one of those is "correct" even though all speakers of English have the option.

2. *Standard language:* The variety of a language that serves as the model for what is "correct" and "incorrect" for a given language. The standard language is generally the one that is written.

3. *Dialect:* A variety of a language with a grammar that differs in predictable ways from other varieties of the language. In many places, “dialects” are especially tied to different regions or geographic areas.

4. *Generative grammar:* The idea that a finite set of rules or constraints can generate [e.g. produce as an output] an infinite number of utterances, many of them novel. This model shows that native speakers of a language acquire a set of rules and a lexicon rather than specific sentences.

5. *Phonetics:* The study of the sounds we use to produce/interpret speech.

6. *Phonology:* The study of the sounds that occur in specific languages and the rules or constraints that govern when they occur.

7. *Morphology:* The study of the units of meaning (words, prefixes etc.) in a language and their patterns of occurrence.

8. *Lexicon:* The set of morphemes in a language.

9. *Root:* The main meaning morpheme in a word and the morpheme to which affixes attach (e.g. in 'untie', the root is 'tie').

10. *Inflection:* The morphology that governs grammatical relationships between words (e.g. the 3rd person, present verb marker in English [-s] tells us something about the relationship between the noun and the verb).

11. *Derivation:* The morphology that governs how new meanings are created (e.g. if I attach the prefix 'un-' to a verb like 'tie', I create a new meaning--namely the opposite of the original word).

12. *Syntax:* The study of the construction of sentences in a language. This includes the linear order (e.g. Subject Verb Object vs. Subject Object Verb) as well as the relationships between the parts of the sentence.

13. *Semantics:* The study of meaning (e.g. what does "open" mean).

14. *Pragmatics:* The study of meaning in context (e.g. "the door is open" can have different interpretations depending on the context).

15. *Diachronic:* The study of language across time (e.g. the history of the changes in a language).

16. *Synchronic:* The study of language at a specific point in time.

17. *Pidgin:* A language that often has a simplified grammar and lexicon and that is used as a kind of lingua franca among speakers who don't share a native language. Pidgins are typically not anyone's native language.

18. *Creole:* A pidgin that has been expanded to fulfill all the functions of a human language and that has become some group of speakers' native language. Of some potential confusion is the fact that creoles are often called pidgins by their speakers.

STRUCTURALISM AND POSTMODERNISM

#A_General_Introduction_to_Structuralism,
#Postmodernism.

John Mann explains what the Continentals are up to these days.

In the 1980s there was a lot of excitement about postmodernism, deconstruction, structuralism and post-structuralism. This flood of theory appeared to offer a radical new perspective for understanding and experiencing the world. It was an enlightenment which left all those who rejected it cursed with still being stuck in the murky mire of the old ways of thinking which had dominated western thought for 2000 years and which at last we could escape. Such religious fervour with its condemnation of heretics and establishment of new messiahs has softened, and it is now possible to look quietly and calmly at what was going on.

#Structuralism

Structuralism arose on the continent, in particular in France, in the early 60s. The first ‘big name’ was Claude Lévi-Strauss, an anthropologist, who took on Jean-Paul Sartre, the leading French intellectual and philosopher of the time, and didn’t so much win, as went unanswered (which from Sartre’s point of view was worse). Here was France’s main philosopher, Sartre, who usually had something to say about everything, being attacked in Lévi-Strauss’ The Savage Mind, and yet not replying! The implication was that he couldn’t reply, and the intellectual mood began to move towards Lévi-Strauss’ intellectual position, which he called structuralism.

A simple explanation of structuralism is that it understands phenomena using the metaphor of language. That is, we can understand language as a system, or structure, which defines itself in terms of itself. There is no language ‘behind’ language with which we understand it, no metalanguage to explain what language means. Instead it is a self-referential system. Words explain words explain words (as in a dictionary), and meaning is present as a set of structures.

Such an approach was an attack on other types of philosophy which claim that there is a ‘core’ of truth which is ‘reality’, something behind the world of ‘appearance’. For example Marxists might argue that we can understand the world (‘appearance’) by examining the relations of production (‘reality’), or some fundamentalist Christians might argue that we should understand the world as a battle of God against Satan, so this ‘truth’ is hidden, but in fact it explains the world.

Another structuralist was Roland Barthes, who claimed the term for a while, who was a literary critic and wrote about the ‘Death of the Author’. He argued the author could not claim to know what his/her book was about any more than the reader. Again, the idea that there was a hidden reality (hidden to the reader but known to the author) was challenged, and instead a view of the ‘text’ presented which was available to all equally.

Michel Foucault, a philosopher and historian, argued that science has to be understood socially before it can be understood intellectually – for example he showed how ‘madness’ is primarily a social invention, rather than a medical discovery. He claimed that the analysis of systems of thought required analysis of the detail, to show how each part interacted with other parts. It wasn’t enough to simply identify a ‘core’ (such as the evolution of scientific knowledge) and to ignore all other aspects of science.

Jacques Lacan, a psychoanalyst who claimed that the unconscious is structured like a language, is widely seen as a major structuralist thinker. He claimed to be ‘returning to Freud’ and be working against the Americanisation of psychoanalysis with its emphasis on egopsychology. He emphasised the role of the unconscious by showing that the ‘I’ is not a centralised core ‘ego’ but a dispersed, fragmented, interrelated unknown (the unconscious).

So we can see that a primary feature of the structuralists is their attack on ‘foundationalism’, attacking any thought that claims to have found a Firm Foundation on which we can construct beliefs. Instead they emphasise the ‘relatedness’ of truth, how Truth is not something we ‘discover’, or can ‘own’, or can ‘start from’, but a structure which society invents.

#Deconstruction

Moving on from the structuralists we come to Derrida and deconstruction. I come to Jacques Derrida next since his first three important books were published in 1967, which is ahead of the main post-structuralist book Anti-Oedipus which came out in the early 1970s.

Derrida can be called a post-structuralist in a sense, since he moves on from structuralism, taking some of it for granted, and challenging other parts of it. Where the structuralists constructed a system, a structure, Derrida deconstructs it, that is, he takes it apart. However, the disconcerting thing is that he does so from the inside. His technique of deconstruction shows how structures or systems of thought contain the seeds of their own downfall.

Derrida does not have a system of thought as such, instead he simply reads an author, for example Rousseau or Lévi-Strauss or Hegel, and shows how their thought contains contradictions. And further, these contradictions are not something which can be corrected, as if the author had errors in an argument which, once corrected, could produce a better argument, no – rather the contradictions were conditions of the system of thought existing in the first place!

Derrida shows each system of thought to be necessarily contradictory. How he does this is quite technical, but the idea is to show how the system (1) creates binary pairs – for example good and bad, male and female, black and white, writing and speaking, mad and sane etc, (2) prioritises one term over another, and indeed defines one in terms of the other – for example male over female (what Derrida calls ‘Phallocentrism’), sane over mad, good over bad etc. (3) then show that in fact you may as well prioritise the second term over the first – show how the first term is dependent on the second, (4) finally show how the system is dependent on this marginalising of the second term, when in fact it relies on the second term (the marginal) also, in some sense, being at the centre.

Jacques Derrida has gained a strong group of followers in the USA, particularly amongst literary critics, who take literally his phrase “there is nothing outside the text” to treat anything as a ‘text’ and so subject to literary interpretation.

#Post_Structuralism

Post-structuralism’s main book, Anti-Oedipus by Deleuze and Guattari, is in fact an attempt to combine Marx and Freud (the subtitle is ‘Capitalism and Schizophrenia’) by liberation through free desire. Post-structuralism is really a cultural movement more than an intellectual movement. Structuralism in the 60s was at least in part an intellectual programme, and it was possible to analyse phenomena by treating them as being parts of a system. Post-structuralism moved beyond this, questioning the very notions of Truth, Reality, Meaning, Sincerity, Good etc. It regarded all absolutes as constructions, truth was created, it was an effect, it wasn’t present ‘in’ something. Similarly there was no authority, no Real, everything was defined in terms of everything else, and that process itself was relative and constructed.

The main philosopher for the poststructuralists was the nineteenth century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, whose main thought began with the realisation that if God is dead, anything is possible – everything is permitted, everything is relative. There are no absolutes anymore. Nietzsche also wrote in a style similar to an Old Testament prophet (see for example his Thus Spoke Zarathustra) – his style is full of such phrases as “we are living among the ruins of God” – and post-structuralists tend to follow this poetic style.

#The_Origins_of_Postmodernism

As this movement was growing in popularity in the 70s some other important things were happening. The radical political groups from the 60s (for example the Maoists) were coming to an ideological dead-end. Solzhenitsyn was being translated, and revealing in detail the horrors of Eastern Europe. The importance of the media as an agent for social change was being realised and media saturation of life was becoming an important cultural phenomenon. These trends now mixed with the philosophical currents just described with the following effects.

Firstly, there was a large backlash against Marxism and socialism. It was argued that Marxism was a ‘totalizing’ system, whose intellectual totalitarianism moved necessarily to the Gulag, and instead liberalism and capitalism were embraced as being more open and relative. Secondly there was a move of intellectuals away from political engagement (Sartre for example had always been out marching with the students, and Foucault was often in demonstrations for prison rights, amongst other things), and back to ‘intellectual’ work. Finally there was great interest in the role of the media in defining reality for us, and an analysis of society as fragmentary, full of images, saturated by the media, making everything relative, ephemeral and short-lived: in other words, postmodern.

#Criticism_and_Evaluation

People are now criticising post-structuralism and deconstruction as providing philosophical justification for conservatism, reaction, depoliticising society and encouraging an irresponsible, hedonistic lifestyle (for example, did Foucault still have unsafe sex when he knew he had AIDS? Should Derrida have tried to defend his fellow philosopher Paul de Man’s Nazi record? What of Heidegger’s Nazi past? What of Baudrillard’s claim that the Gulf War never happened?)

As a result of these criticisms, some of the excesses of post-structuralism and deconstruction are now over. Currently there appears to be a more sober mood among Continental philosophers as they try to re-position these intellectual movements within the fight for human rights, and to create better human values.

MARXISM AND LENINISM

#Difference_Between_Marxism_and_Leninism

#Marxism_vs_Leninism

Marxism and Leninism are two kinds of political thought that show some difference between them when it comes to their ideologies. Marxism is a political thought framed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. This Marxist system aims at a state of living where the society is bereft of the difference between the rich and the poor. On the other hand, Leninism is a kind of a political system that practices dictatorship. It is the dictatorship of the proletariat. In other words, it can be said that Leninism recommends the dictatorship of the working class. This is one of the main differences between Marxism and Leninism.

#What_is_Marxism?

Marxism is a political ideology that explains how there is going to be a proletariat revolution due to the class struggle. This class struggle is the result of means of production being divided very unevenly between different classes.

Marxism takes the help of history to rewrite the living conditions of the people. It has history as a firm base in forwarding its principles. Marxism is considered by many political experts as a branch of philosophy too. It is firmly believed that communism is born out of Marxism only.

#Difference_Between_Marxism_and_Leninism

#Friedrich_Engels

It is important to know that Marxism insists on implementing the theory of its political thought so that others can understand the nuances of it. Unlike Communism, it does not believe in practical implementation. In fact, it can be said that practical implementation of the theoretical ideas of Marxism led to the formation of Communism.

#What_is_Leninism?

On the other hand, Leninism aims at the implementation of both political and socialist economic theories that have been developed from Marxism. It is thus important to know that Leninism was developed by and was named after the Russian revolutionary and political leader Vladmir Lenin.

#Marxism_vs_Leninism

#Vladimir_Lenin

The term Leninism came to be used as early as 1922. It was Grigory Zinoviev who popularized Leninism in the year 1924 at the fifth congress of the Communist International otherwise called as Comintem. It was popularized as a word denoting the meaning ‘revolutionary’ by the then leader Grigory Zinoviev.

What is the difference between Marxism and Leninism?

• Marxism was more of an ideology that Karl Marx created to point out what will happen when the social classes struggle with each other. Leninism was how Lenin changed Marxism to fit Russia. So, in practicality, Leninism was more practical than Marxism as it carried the changes necessary to fit into an actual country.

• When forming Marxism Marx envisaged that his theory would come into practice in more developed and advanced capitalist states because that was where the revolution he talked of could take place. However, Leninism took place in a country which was not so developed or advanced as Marx imagined. Russia at the time was not economically advanced and was populated by a large number of farmers. That is why Lenin has to change aspects of Marxism to fit the Russia at that time.

• In Leninism, economic and industrial development was a key aspect as Russia was behind in these areas. However, that is not the case with Marxism as Marxism talks of a country that is already industrialized and advanced.

• Marxism argued that a proletariat revolution was inevitable. This was based on several assumptions. Firstly, Marxism believed that the capitalist states will not let people move towards socialism. This will create revolutionary wrath in the working class which would make them go for a revolution. However, Lenin did not agree with this. He argued that such capitalist states would have enough power that they will use to suppress any revolutionary feelings in the working class. Leninism says that the capitalist states will give just enough money and benefits to the working class so that they will NOT have revolutionary feelings. Without revolutionary feeling, there will be no revolution.

• Marxism believed people will spontaneously become aware of their status and rise for a revolution. Leninism believed that a party should be formed to guide people because otherwise the revolution happening will not be a practical idea. As a result, Lenin created Bolshevik Party. It seized Russia’s power in 1917.

• Marxism believed in the dictatorship of the proletariat, where the proletariat would rule. However, in Leninism, Russia was led by a Communist Party whose leaders thought they knew what the working class wanted.

In short, it can be said that Marxism was the theory and Leninism was how it was practically used.

STYLISTICS

#What_is_Stylistics?

Stylistics is a relatively modern branch of linguistics, often grouped under applied linguistics, which is devoted to the study of “style” or the linguistic choices made by speakers and writers, especially, but not exclusively, in literary texts as well as in other non-literary contexts such as advertisements, film and media, political speeches, casual conversations, etc.

In A Dictionary of Stylistics, Katie Wales writes “The goal of most stylistics is not simply to describe the formal features of texts for their own sake, but in order to show their functional significance for the interpretation of the text; or in order to relate literary effects to linguistic ’causes’ where these are felt to be relevant.”

A literary or non-literary work differs from any other such work not only in terms of content, but also in terms of how the content is expressed, presented, and arranged. Stylistics makes use of linguistic tools in order to attempt to characterize the linguistic features and devices present in a piece of work, which could be spoken or written, though the emphasis is usually on the written form.

Stylistic analysis involves examination of grammar, lexis, semantics, syntax, phonological properties and discursive devices in a given work. In this way, Stylistics encompasses discourse analyses. Since a major part of Stylistics has always been focused on studying literary texts, it is also known as literary linguistics or literary Stylistics.

Stylistics, or the scientific study of style, examines language variation, but of a particular type, which is different from linguistic variations associated with dialects and registers of a language. Style differences or linguistic choices made by language users can arise because a context or a particular situation, nature of participants and their relationship with each other, time and place of conversation, medium or mode of conversation, etc.

Linguistic stylistics has various overlapping sub-disciplines, which include, but are not limited to- literary stylistics, interpretive stylistics, evaluative stylistics, corpus stylistics, discourse stylistics, feminist stylistics, computational stylistics, literary pragmatics, literary semantics, stylometrics, critical linguistics, schema poetics, cognitive stylistics, etc.

#Scope_of_Stylistics:

The question of the nature of stylistics, its position among the various disciplines, its scope and limits has aroused considerable discussion ever since the inception of the field.

Stylistic analysis of a text can help understand and explain the impact of a literary or non-literary piece of work on a reader. Stylistic study encompasses linguistic analysis as well as psychological processes involved during reading and understanding of a given work. And in this way, Stylistics acts as a middle ground and connective means between linguistics and literary criticism to demonstrate how the linguistic elements act significantly in a text to convey the author’s message.

Quirk (1969) has remarked that a man’s style is as specific as his fingerprints. Stylistic analysis can, in fact, settle many knotty problems in literature because a writer’s use of language can reveal his aesthetic personality, his deep-laid philosophy and worldview, perhaps far more accurately than any study of his background and the literary movement he subscribes to.

Stylistic tools can help validate intuitions of literary critics to evaluate a piece of work and generate objectivity around the conclusions due to the consistent and precise nature of the linguistic arguments.

Forensic Stylistics has emerged as an interesting field in the recent past where the knowledge of stylistic tools is applied in the context of law and crime investigation. This involves understanding of the language of the written law and in judicial purposes, and most importantly, the use of style as linguistic evidence. Both written and spoken materials can be scientifically analyzed and investigated with linguistic or stylistic tools for determination of content, meaning, speaker identification and authorship.

Stylistic analysis of the language of the suspect has become an important part of crime investigation. Linguistic data, spoken or written, can reveal the suspect’s age, race, gender, educational levels, religious and spiritual beliefs, socio-economic and geographical background, culture, and ethnicity. Forensic stylistics makes use of the knowledge of psycholinguistics and extends it to legal venues.

Forensic Stylistics can also be used in the assessment of spoken or written threats, examination of suicide notes, deeper analysis of confessions and statements of criminals, revelation of false allegations, and understanding criminal behavior on a broader level through the word choices of criminals. Stylistic analysis can also be utilized in cases of disputed authorship since literary style varies from author to author.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DRAMA AND PLAY

#What_is_the_difference_between_drama_and_play?

Drama and Play are two words that are often confused when it comes to their usage and meanings. Strictly speaking, there is some difference between the two words. The word ‘drama’ is used in the sense of ‘theater’. On the other hand, the word ‘play’ is used in the sense of ‘a literary composition’. The difference is that a drama is a type of play. A movie or TV show can also be dramas but are not plays. Some other types of plays are musical, comedy,Shakespearean, and biopic.A play is a dramatic performance, as on stage, and a drama is a composition in prose or verse presenting in dialogue or pantomime a story involving conflict or contrast of character.
The most significant difference between these two entities is that drama refers to a form of written literature that is intended for performance while play refers to a theatrical performance. In simple words, a drama is to be read and a play is to be seen. However, different people might give different interpretations to what they read. This is to say, in a drama, we only read the dialogues and stage directions; we often imagine the performance in our minds. But in a play, the audience get to see the story enacted. Here we do not have to imagine the emotions of the characters, sound and light effects or background settings. In addition, the play might present a different interpretation from what we understood from reading the drama. This difference could be even made from a subtlest change of tone, mood or gesture. It can be said that a play gives artists’ interpretation of the drama.

A Brief History of the Sonnet

#A_Short_History_of_the_Sonnet

Invented in Italy in the thirteenth century, the sonnet was brought to a high form of development in the fourteenth century by Francesco Petrarch (1304–74), Italian poet and humanist best remembered now for his sonnets dedicated to an idealized lady named Laura glimpsed in a church, and with whom he fell in love at first sight, or so the legend goes. Laura’s true identity is unknown; supposedly, she married someone else and, being ideally virtuous as well as beautiful, was permanently unavailable. There’s no evidence Petrarch ever talked to her.

The uses Petrach made of the conventions of courtly love for a beautiful, unattainable lady became known as “Petrarchan conventions.” Some of these are that love is excruciatingly painful; the angelically beautiful and virtuous lady is cruel in rejecting the poet’s love; and love is a religion, the practice of which ennobles the lover. Christian and classical imagery coexist. The god of Love, Cupid, is unpredictable, powerful, and cruel. The eyes are the “windows to the soul,” and love usually begins at first sight. The poet is subject to extremes of feeling and internal conflict—the “war within the self.” Life is short and art, fortunately, is long. The poetry will outlive the poet.

Sir Thomas Wyatt (1502–42) and Henry Howard, the Earl of Surrey (1517–47), are credited with introducing the Petrarchan model to England in the sixteenth century and adjusting the rhyme scheme and the meter to accommodate the English language. They, like Petrarch, use religious imagery and terms to convey the holiness and intensity of the lover’s passion for the unattainable love-object and make frequent allusions to both classical deities and Christian symbols.

This model exerted a strong influence on numerous English Renaissance poets: Spenser, Sidney, Sidney’s brilliant niece Mary Wroth, among others, and of course, Shakespeare himself. Writing sonnet sequences became popular among gentlemen, and these poems were often circulated in manuscript form, evidently including Shakespeare’s. Publication was not generally considered gentlemanly or ladylike.

Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets published in 1609 are a “collection” rather than a sequence, although there are some groupings that look like mini-sequences. And they are remarkably various: Shakespeare explores the same theme in different ways but never exactly repeats a pattern. He is keenly aware of Petrarchan conventions and often uses them, but just as often upends them, as in Sonnet 130. The cruel loved one in many of his sonnets is a young man, not a woman, and the “Dark Lady” of sonnets 127–152 is neither virtuous nor ideally beautiful. Shakespeare’s Sonnets represented a kind of apogée of the English sonnet-writing fashion, and, in fact, may have contributed to the vogue’s fading away, since no one could outdo him or even come close to matching his skill and versatility.

The sonnet has proved to be a remarkably durable and adaptable form—a “fixed form” that is, paradoxically, enormously flexible. Although no one has ever equaled Shakespeare’s sonnets, nearly every notable poet writing in English has had a go at a sonnet or two. Among the best-known British writers of sonnets are John Donne, Milton, Wordsworth, W.H. Auden, and Dylan Thomas.

The form survived the transatlantic crossing. Distinguished American practitioners include Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Crowe Ransom, as well as significant African-American and Caribbean-American poets, such as James Weldon Johnson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Countee Cullen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden, Derek Walcott, Marilyn Nelson, and Claude McKay.

The sonnet can be a lens through which to look at poetry over the last 400 years.

BRITISH HISTORY

#British_History

Anglo-Saxon Literature (450-1100) is primarily limited to works from the West Saxon region of England. Although few writings survived, those that have reveal a people who reveled in manipulating their language and whose feelings were not unlike modern man. They delighted in riddles, and their poetry portrayed feelings of loss as well as victory. Poems such as "The Dream of the Rood," "Deor's Lament," and "The Husband's Message" as well as the long epic poems are proof of their sophistication of thought and language. Representative Works of the Period are:

Anglo-Saxon Chronicles by Alfred the Great? (important record of Anglo-Saxon life)
Battle of Brunnanburh (mock epic describing the invasion of Danish Vikings)
Beowulf (heroic epic, written in alliterative form with two half lines broken by a caesura)
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by the Venerable Bede
The Medieval Period (1100-1500) was a time of strong religious influence. The church was the center of learning and monks acted as scribes recording the literature of the times. The French tradition of courtly love whereby men were expected to love from afar and treat women with chivalry was also strongly felt. Generally, the literature can be divided into two categories: secular (worldly) and religious. Religious literature frequently concentrated on teaching the reader ways to a more godly life.

After the invasion by William the Conqueror, little Anglo-Saxon literature was produced because the language of the educated was French. Middle English, as a major literary vehicle, does not appear until about 1300. Before that time, there are few instances of significant writings.

Literature, still dependent upon the oral tradition, was designed to be spoken rather than read and this required a poetic form. Some were merely ballads such as "Bonny Barbara Allan" and "Sir Patrick Spens," but many were long tales consistent in length with a modern novel.

In addition, drama began to appear in the form of Miracle Plays (lives of the saints), Mystery Plays (stories from the Old and New Testament), and Morality Plays (sermons disguised as allegories). Second Shepherds' Play is an example of a Mystery Play. Everyman is an example of a Morality Play. Representative Works of the Period are:

The Bible by John Wyclif (first English translation of this work)
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (major work of the medieval period)
Confessio Amantis by John Gower (religious work)
Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (extensive recounting of the Arthurian legends)
Owl and the Nightingale (dialogue between two birds written in classical debate form)
The Pearl (carefully contrived dream tale with religious overtones.)
Piers Plowman by William Langland (work of social satire particularly critical of the clergy)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Arthurian tale of courtly love)
The Renaissance (1500-1700) was a period of amazing literary productivity during which the church lost importance. The explosion of literature was probably aided by the printing press, but nothing explains the extraordinary quality of the writing. Shakespeare dominates the age, but he is not alone. The concept of a renaissance man, who could fight, write poetry, and be a lover too, was the ideal of the age. Drama and poetry now shared equal literary importance. In addition, Greek and Latin literature was rediscovered and incorporated into the writing of the period. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

The Fairie Queen by Edmund Spenser (religious allegory using the Spenserian stanza)
"Holy Sonnets" by John Donne (poems which mesh the physical with the spiritual)
Paradise Lost by John Milton (epic poem which recounts the Adam and Eve tale and also includes a description of hell which is frequently treated as fact)
"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvel (classic love poem)
novels

King James version of the Bible (translation of The Bible which transforms it into a piece of literature)
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (one of two books most read during the 18th century/early effort at a novel/written as an allegorical tale similar to the Fairie Queen)
drama

Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (tragedy, the literary form for which Marlowe was particularly known)
Plays by William Shakespeare (major dramas of the period and perhaps of all time)
non-fiction

Novum Organum by Francis Bacon (beginning of modern scientific inquiry)
The Age of Reason (1700-1800) was a time of political turmoil. Writing was more scientific and reasoned. The novel as a form of literature begins to appear. Writers began to rely upon the purchase by individuals of their writings to support themselves instead of upon the support of a single patron. The rise of the middle class meant that writers now wrote to this group rather than the aristocracy. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

"Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard" by Thomas Gray (poem with the stirrings of the Romantic period to follow)
"Epistle to Miss Blount" by Alexander Pope (uses the heroic couplet to its advantage)
"To A Mouse" by Robert Burns (Scottish poem which reflects the dialect of Burn's origin as well as a movement to the Romantic period)
novels

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (satire)
Pamela by Samuel Richardson (first work which introduces plot into a novel)
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (beginning of the modern English novel using realistic details)
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (early novel with a well defined plot)
The Vicar of Wakefield (very fine early novel) by Oliver Goldsmith.
drama

The School for Scandal by Richard Sheridan (amusing play showing life through satirical eyes)
She Stoops to Conquer (a humorous play) by Oliver Goldsmith.
The Way of the World by William Congreve (humorous play)
non-fiction

Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson
Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell (describes with detailed accuracy the period as well as the man)
"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift (satire)
The Tattler and The Spectator by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele (early newspapers)

The Romantics (1800-1830) turned away from reason and saw a rose colored world. Their writings in the form of poetry focused on nature and feelings rather than the frailties of the real world. The period represents only a brief interlude before a return to more pragmatic period. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

Don Juan by George Gordon, Lord Byron (epic poem)
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (long narrative poem)
Kubla Khan and Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (long narrative poems)
"Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth (nature poem)
"Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats (lyric poem)
"Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
"The Tyger" by William Blake (mystical poem)
novels

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (early science fiction novel)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (novel of manners)
The Victorians (1830-1880) returned to writing which reflected the relevant concerns of the period. The novel begins to overtake poetry in importance. The writing of the period was generally more restrained and less sensual than that of the Romantics. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (lyric poem by poet laureate)
"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning (dramatic monologue incorporated into poetry)
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald (translation of a Persian poem)
Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (love letters in poetic form)
novels

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson (children's adventure tale)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (early romance work)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (depicts life in the 19th century which was not always pretty)
The Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope (life in the 19th century from the aristocratic viewpoint)
Silas Marner by George Eliot/Mary Ann Evans
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thacheray (novel of love and manners with a touch of adventure)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (romantic novel)
Transitional (1880-1915) writers represent a maturing of the Victorian period. Writing reflected scientific knowledge and self discovery, but lacks some of the maturity found in the post-war writing to follow. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

The Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman (pastoral poem)
novels

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (early mystery novel featuring Sherlock Holmes)
Kim by Rudyard Kipling (tale from India)
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad (dark questioning novel)
Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (dark questioning novel)
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (beginning of modern science fiction)
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (children's tale of adventure)
drama

The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde (play of biting humor)
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (major drama of the period)
Modern (1915-1960) writing reflected a world less sure of itself. Writers produced questioning poetry and novels which reveal the loss of innocence brought on by world wide wars. Poetry was more experimental as were novels. Frequently, the public was shocked by the subjects and treatments of them. Taboos about sex, religion, and politics were often ignored. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot (experimental poem)
novels

Animal Farm by George Orwell (parable)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (novel of the future)
I , Claudius by Robert Graves (historical novel)
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence (one of the first erotic novel to be accepted as a literary force)
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (novel questioning man's place in the world)
Ulysses by James Joyce (experimental novel using the stream of consciousness)
drama

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (experimental play)British History

Anglo-Saxon Literature (450-1100) is primarily limited to works from the West Saxon region of England. Although few writings survived, those that have reveal a people who reveled in manipulating their language and whose feelings were not unlike modern man. They delighted in riddles, and their poetry portrayed feelings of loss as well as victory. Poems such as "The Dream of the Rood," "Deor's Lament," and "The Husband's Message" as well as the long epic poems are proof of their sophistication of thought and language. Representative Works of the Period are:

Anglo-Saxon Chronicles by Alfred the Great? (important record of Anglo-Saxon life)
Battle of Brunnanburh (mock epic describing the invasion of Danish Vikings)
Beowulf (heroic epic, written in alliterative form with two half lines broken by a caesura)
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by the Venerable Bede
The Medieval Period (1100-1500) was a time of strong religious influence. The church was the center of learning and monks acted as scribes recording the literature of the times. The French tradition of courtly love whereby men were expected to love from afar and treat women with chivalry was also strongly felt. Generally, the literature can be divided into two categories: secular (worldly) and religious. Religious literature frequently concentrated on teaching the reader ways to a more godly life.

After the invasion by William the Conqueror, little Anglo-Saxon literature was produced because the language of the educated was French. Middle English, as a major literary vehicle, does not appear until about 1300. Before that time, there are few instances of significant writings.

Literature, still dependent upon the oral tradition, was designed to be spoken rather than read and this required a poetic form. Some were merely ballads such as "Bonny Barbara Allan" and "Sir Patrick Spens," but many were long tales consistent in length with a modern novel.

In addition, drama began to appear in the form of Miracle Plays (lives of the saints), Mystery Plays (stories from the Old and New Testament), and Morality Plays (sermons disguised as allegories). Second Shepherds' Play is an example of a Mystery Play. Everyman is an example of a Morality Play. Representative Works of the Period are:

The Bible by John Wyclif (first English translation of this work)
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (major work of the medieval period)
Confessio Amantis by John Gower (religious work)
Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (extensive recounting of the Arthurian legends)
Owl and the Nightingale (dialogue between two birds written in classical debate form)
The Pearl (carefully contrived dream tale with religious overtones.)
Piers Plowman by William Langland (work of social satire particularly critical of the clergy)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Arthurian tale of courtly love)
The Renaissance (1500-1700) was a period of amazing literary productivity during which the church lost importance. The explosion of literature was probably aided by the printing press, but nothing explains the extraordinary quality of the writing. Shakespeare dominates the age, but he is not alone. The concept of a renaissance man, who could fight, write poetry, and be a lover too, was the ideal of the age. Drama and poetry now shared equal literary importance. In addition, Greek and Latin literature was rediscovered and incorporated into the writing of the period. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

The Fairie Queen by Edmund Spenser (religious allegory using the Spenserian stanza)
"Holy Sonnets" by John Donne (poems which mesh the physical with the spiritual)
Paradise Lost by John Milton (epic poem which recounts the Adam and Eve tale and also includes a description of hell which is frequently treated as fact)
"To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvel (classic love poem)
novels

King James version of the Bible (translation of The Bible which transforms it into a piece of literature)
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (one of two books most read during the 18th century/early effort at a novel/written as an allegorical tale similar to the Fairie Queen)
drama

Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (tragedy, the literary form for which Marlowe was particularly known)
Plays by William Shakespeare (major dramas of the period and perhaps of all time)
non-fiction

Novum Organum by Francis Bacon (beginning of modern scientific inquiry)
The Age of Reason (1700-1800) was a time of political turmoil. Writing was more scientific and reasoned. The novel as a form of literature begins to appear. Writers began to rely upon the purchase by individuals of their writings to support themselves instead of upon the support of a single patron. The rise of the middle class meant that writers now wrote to this group rather than the aristocracy. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

"Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard" by Thomas Gray (poem with the stirrings of the Romantic period to follow)
"Epistle to Miss Blount" by Alexander Pope (uses the heroic couplet to its advantage)
"To A Mouse" by Robert Burns (Scottish poem which reflects the dialect of Burn's origin as well as a movement to the Romantic period)
novels

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (satire)
Pamela by Samuel Richardson (first work which introduces plot into a novel)
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (beginning of the modern English novel using realistic details)
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding (early novel with a well defined plot)
The Vicar of Wakefield (very fine early novel) by Oliver Goldsmith.
drama

The School for Scandal by Richard Sheridan (amusing play showing life through satirical eyes)
She Stoops to Conquer (a humorous play) by Oliver Goldsmith.
The Way of the World by William Congreve (humorous play)
non-fiction

Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson
Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell (describes with detailed accuracy the period as well as the man)
"A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift (satire)
The Tattler and The Spectator by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele (early newspapers)

The Romantics (1800-1830) turned away from reason and saw a rose colored world. Their writings in the form of poetry focused on nature and feelings rather than the frailties of the real world. The period represents only a brief interlude before a return to more pragmatic period. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

Don Juan by George Gordon, Lord Byron (epic poem)
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (long narrative poem)
Kubla Khan and Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (long narrative poems)
"Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth (nature poem)
"Ode on a Grecian Urn" by John Keats (lyric poem)
"Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
"The Tyger" by William Blake (mystical poem)
novels

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (early science fiction novel)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (novel of manners)
The Victorians (1830-1880) returned to writing which reflected the relevant concerns of the period. The novel begins to overtake poetry in importance. The writing of the period was generally more restrained and less sensual than that of the Romantics. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (lyric poem by poet laureate)
"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning (dramatic monologue incorporated into poetry)
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald (translation of a Persian poem)
Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (love letters in poetic form)
novels

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson (children's adventure tale)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (early romance work)
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (depicts life in the 19th century which was not always pretty)
The Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope (life in the 19th century from the aristocratic viewpoint)
Silas Marner by George Eliot/Mary Ann Evans
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thacheray (novel of love and manners with a touch of adventure)
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (romantic novel)
Transitional (1880-1915) writers represent a maturing of the Victorian period. Writing reflected scientific knowledge and self discovery, but lacks some of the maturity found in the post-war writing to follow. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

The Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman (pastoral poem)
novels

The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (early mystery novel featuring Sherlock Holmes)
Kim by Rudyard Kipling (tale from India)
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad (dark questioning novel)
Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (dark questioning novel)
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (beginning of modern science fiction)
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (children's tale of adventure)
drama

The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde (play of biting humor)
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (major drama of the period)
Modern (1915-1960) writing reflected a world less sure of itself. Writers produced questioning poetry and novels which reveal the loss of innocence brought on by world wide wars. Poetry was more experimental as were novels. Frequently, the public was shocked by the subjects and treatments of them. Taboos about sex, religion, and politics were often ignored. Representative Works of the Period are:

poetry

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot (experimental poem)
novels

Animal Farm by George Orwell (parable)
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (novel of the future)
I , Claudius by Robert Graves (historical novel)
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence (one of the first erotic novel to be accepted as a literary force)
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (novel questioning man's place in the world)
Ulysses by James Joyce (experimental novel using the stream of consciousness)
drama

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (experimental play)