Anglo Saxon period

 Anglo-Saxons came from three powerful nations of Germans

(Saxones, Angli and Iutae) to England in 600 A.D.
 Heroic poetry of surviving Anglo-Saxon literature tells about the
Germanic origins of invaders.
 About 30,000 lines of Anglo-Saxon poetry have survived in four
manuscripts-
 Junius Manuscript (Caedmon manuscript): an illustrated poetic
anthology.
1. Exeter Book: also a poetic anthology
2. Vercelli Book: a mix of poetry and prose
3. Nowell Codex: also a mix of poetry and prose
Anglo Saxon Literature Characteristics
 Heroic Poems
1. Widsith: One of the earliest surviving Anglo-Saxon poems. It is
an autobiography of a scop. It tells about the Germanic world.
2. Beowulf: Longest and most important poem of Anglo-Saxon
poetry. It appears in Nowell Codex and comprises of 3182 lines.
3. The Flight at Finnsburh: Deals with the other events in the story
of Beowulf.
4. Deor: A poem of 42 lines tells about the complaint of a minstrel
who has been supplanted by a rival from his services.
5. Waldhere: It tells the stories of continental Germanic heroes
among Anglo-Saxons.
6. The Battle of Brunanburh: Towards the end of Anglo-Saxon old
heroic poetry re-emerged. The Battle of Brunanburh appears in
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. It shows strong patriotic sentiments.
7. Battle of Maldon: It is the story of a disastrous English defeat.
 Religious Poems
1. Ecclesiastical History of English People: Written by Bede. It
marks the beginning of Anglo-Saxon religious poetry (680 A.D.)
2. Junius Manuscript: It contains the following religious poems:
  Genesis: Longest poem, comprising of 3000 lines. It tells the
story of Satan’s fall and Adam in two parts. (Genesis
I and Genesis II).
 Exodus: It tells the same story more vividly.
 Daniel: It is prosaic in nature and is a re-wording of Biblical
passages.
 Christ and Satan: It is an untitled religious poem. It is
influenced by the school of Cynewulf (first Anglo-Saxon poet
to sign his work). He wrote four poems- Christ, Juliana,
Elene and The Fates of the Apostles.
3. Exeter Book
 It contains series of Poems Christ I, Christ II and Christ
III that tell the story of Jesus Christ.
 It also contains poems like Guthaic and Juliana that tell about
the lives of Saints.
4. Vercelli Book: It contains following religious poems:
 The Dream of the Rood: the oldest surviving English poem in
the form of a vision or a dream.
 Andeas: A 1722 lined poem. It is the closest of the surviving
Anglo-Saxon poems to Beowulf in style and tone. It tells the
story of St. Andrew.
 Elene: It tells the story of St. Helena and her discovery of True
Cross.
5. Norwell Codex:
 Judith: It is the retelling of the story of Judith. Only
concluding section has survived.
 Personal Poems
o The Wanderer: It is the story of a solitary man who is wandering
along the sea after his lord’s death and lamenting over the loss.
The line uni sunt? or wheres the snow of yesteryear? became
theme of many contemporary poems.
o The Seafarer: It is the lament of an old sailor who recalls his
hardships in the sea life.
o The Ruin: It tells the decay of a once glorious city of Roman
Britain when Romans departed in early 5th c.
 Love Poems
o The Wife’s Lament: It tells the story of a wife separated from her
husband who is forced to live in a cave in the forest by the
plotting of his kinsmen. The poem represents her love and longing
for the husband and her curse against her enemies.
o The Husband’s Message: It is the story of a husband who has
carved a message on wood to tell his wife how he has been
separated from her by a feud.
o Wulf and Eadwacer: It is a dramatic monologue that tells the story
of a woman separated from her lover (Wulf) and forced to marry
and live with a cruel man (Eadwacer).
 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
An outline of English History from Julius Caesar’s invasion to the
middle of the 5th century and continues to 1154. It was started during
the time of King Alfred. It demonstrates the continuity of English prose
from the Anglo-Saxon English to Middle English.
 Anglo-Saxon Sermons
Aelfric was the most notable writer of Anglo-Saxon sermons. His most
important work the Colloquy tells about the triumph of Christianity in
England.
 Riddles
The Exeter book contains about a 100 Anglo-Saxon riddles translated
from Latin.

The medieval period

After Norman Conquest (1066), Anglo-French became the language of
highest social class and Anglo-Saxon (that later developed into Middle
English) became the language of lower classes. English was introduced
in law courts in 1362 and used for the first time in parliament in
1363. One of the key differences between Middle English and Anglo-
Saxon literature is that the latter used heroic poetry and the formerly
used romance verse.
English Renaissance Literature Summary
After the end of the War of the Roses (1453-87), Tudor Dynasty came to
power in England. Henry VIII was the ruler of English from 1509-1547.
He desired to annul his first marriage as he had no heir from his wife.
However, polygamy was prohibited under the rule of Catholic Church.
Thus he fell into conflict with the Church.
He was even ex-communicated by Church but he did not pay heed to it. To fulfill his desire he,
for the first time in the History of England, ended the rule of Catholic Church and established
himself as both the head of the state as well as of the Church. This step of his influenced every
aspect of English including life, culture, literature, thoughts etc from that time onward.

English Renaissance Literature Writers

1. MARTIN LUTHER: Protestantism originated with Luther’s 95
Theses in Wittenberg in 1517. Later it became the official national
religion of England.
2. CHARLES DARWIN: His work On the Origin of Species (1859)
undermined the religious and biblical beliefs and led to the
emergence of new ideas that challenged the old beliefs.
3. ERASMUS: He challenged the narrowness of Catholic Church. He
criticized the unnecessary rituals, the sale of pardon paper etc. He
wished to return to the values of early Church. In order to do so, he
produced a Greek edition of Scriptures in place of existing Latin one.
4. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: He traveled in search of the Indies
in 1492 and landed first in the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola and
was credited with having discovered the Americas. This discovery
also opened the eyes of the world.
5. COPERNICUS AND GALILEO: They established and postulated
scientifically that Earth is not the center of the universe as believed
by the people.
English Renaissance Literature Characteristics
1. Reforms in the Institutions
In the earlier times, literature was dominated by the spirit of religion and
blind faith. However, in the Renaissance Age, institutions were
questioned and re-evaluated. Renaissance broadened and took the
cognitive level of human mind to new heights.

2. Dominance of Reason
In the Renaissance age, it was the reason instead of the religion that
governed the human behavior. The man was free to make the use of his
power. Now reason dominated all the spheres of life that decreased the
influence of religion on the people. Most of the blind faiths and practices
were given up.

3. Man-Centred Society
Earlier religion was the center of interest. Hence the main concern of literature was to deal with
the religion directly or indirectly. In the Renaissance age, the focus shifted from religion to man
and man became the center of interest.
4. Development of Science
The age was accompanied by the birth of modern science, mathematics,
astronomy etc. In the 4th decade of 16th century, Copernicus replaced
Aristotle’s system with the sun, instead of earth at the center of the
universe. In astronomy, Harvey discovered circulation of blood in 1628.
In addition to this, there was the use of clocks, telescopes, thermometers,
compasses, microscopes etc. Hence there was a considerable
development in the scientific field.
5. The era of Renowned Names
The literature of the English Renaissance contains some of the greatest
names in all world literature:

 Dramatists: Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webster, and Jonson.

 Poets: Sidney, Spenser, Donne, and Milton.
 Prose Writers: Bacon, Nashe, Raleigh, Browne, and Hooker.
 Authorised Version of Bible was published in 1611.
6. The Counter-Reformation
The Counter-reformation also took birth in response to reformation soon
after the fame of the later touched skies. It began with the Council of
Trent (1545–1563). The primary objective of this movement was to
reform the Christian Catholic Church and counter the influence of
Protestantism.

The Restoration Period begins in 1660 A.D., the year in which King
Charles-II was restored to the English Throne.
 England, Scotland and Whales were united as Great Britain.
 Commercial prosperity and global trade increased for Britain.
 Literacy expanded to include the middle classes and even some of the
poor.
The monarchical restoration was accompanied by the re-opening of
English theatres (that were closed during Cromwell’s Puritan regime)
and the restoration of the Church of England as the National Church.
Now sacraments by all civil and military offices were taken in the
Anglicans Church and those who refused (Protestants and Roman
Catholics) were not allowed to hold the public offices.
Charles had no legitimate heir. His brother James (a Catholic) was to ascend the throne after
Charles. The Parliament tried to force Charles to exclude his brother from the line of succession.
Charles ended his “exclusion crisis” by dissolving the Parliament. Once crowned, James-II
quickly suspended the Test Act(sacrament taken in Anglican Church) for he was
a Catholic.
In 1688 A.D., James’ son was born that alarmed the county because they
did not want another Catholic ruler. Secret plans were made to bring a
Protestant Ruler. In 1688 A.D. (same year), William of Orange and his
wife landed in England with a small army and seized power-an event
known as the “Glorious/Bloodless Revolution”. James-II fled to
France. There were two main parties in England at that time-
 Tories- “Tory” is an Irish word meaning “Irish Rebel”. The Tory
party included those who favoured monarchy and supported king
(Charles-II).
 Whigs- “Whig” is a Scottish word meaning “cattle driver”. Whig
party included those who opposed Charles-II and favoured
Aristocratic succession for Monarchy.

Neoclassical literature has been written in a period where social order

was undergoing a tremendous change. In the so-
called Enlightenment Period, people believed that natural passions
aren’t necessarily good; natural passions must be subordinated to social
needs and be strictly controlled.
Authors believed that reason was the primary basis of authority. They
believed that social needs are more important than the individual needs.
It is quite on contrary to its preceding age, in which emphasis was laid
on individualism rather than the socialism.

Neoclassical Period Characteristics

Influence of Materialism
When Pope declares the limits of man, he also sets, by implications, the
limits for artist:“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan
The proper study of mankind is man!” But Pope echoes only dominant
philosophical thoughts here. After the Renaissance, Platonism and
Christian Humanism, we find in the Neo-classical age, the dominance of
Materialism and Empirical Science. The ruling thought of the age is
shaped by philosophers like Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Joseph
Butler. The philosophical empiricism of the age propagated through the
writings of Bacon, Hobbes and Locke were supported and strengthened
by the advancement of empirical science.
Under the influence of empirical philosophy and experimental science,
writers of the age narrowed both their vision of man and view of life.
The affairs of men, their politics, their morals, and manners became the
chief concern. Although the concern with politics was present in the
time of Shakespeare also, his and his contemporaries’ treatment was
ideal and utopian. But the treatment of Neoclassical writers was practical
rather than utopian.
Imitation of Classics
One of the most important features of the Neoclassical literature is the
imitation of the classics of ancient Greek and Roman literature.
Although the Renaissance writers had imitated the classics, whereas
Renaissance writers mere derived inspirations from the classics rather
than copying the models of the past, the Neoclassical writers strictly
adhered to the authority of their models. Thus Neo-classical literature
can be called as ‘Traditional’.
The Neo-classical writers like Dryden, Pope, Swift, and Johnson were
convinced that excellence and perfection in the literary art have been
attained by the Roman writers of antiquity, thus they can only copy the
models of perfection and excellence.

Concept of Nature
The concept of nature was also an important characteristic of the Neo-
classical age. By nature, they never meant the forest nature, but for
them, nature meant the general human nature. The general human nature
was not what the ordinary men and women felt and thought, but the
standard view of human nature as held by Homer and Horace.

Like their static view of the world, the Neo-classical writers thought of
human nature also was something static and standard, which is the same
in all men and remains the same at all the times. Thus their view of
nature as well as of man, world, and genre was static and standard.
 The Romantic Age in England was not only an age of glorious poetry
but also of glorious literary criticism. In fact, most of the eminent men of
letters of the age were critics as well as creative writers. Wordsworth,
Coleridge, Byron, Hazlitt, Lamb, Leigh Hunt, and De Quincey all
contributed to critical literature. But the main critics who gave a
direction to the current of literary criticism were Coleridge, Lamb,
Hazlitt and De Quincey. All of them have often been categorized
as “Romantic Critics.”

Critical Realistic English Period