British literature
British literature comprises the body of written works produced by inhabitants of the British Isles with the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, as well as that of England, Wales and Scotland, prior to the formation of the United Kingdom. Most British literature is written in the English language, but there are also works written in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, and other languages.
Old English literature was fermented by Latin and Anglo-Norman writings of foreign origin. From this combination arose a flexible and subtle linguistic instrument exploited by Geoffrey Chaucer and skilfully used by William Shakespeare. During the Renaissance, the renewed interest in learning and classical values had a major effect on British literature, as on all the arts; and ideas of Augustan copyright in the 18th century and reverence in the XIX by less specific classical antiquity, though still viewed selectively, continued to shape the literature. All three of these impulses derived from a foreign source, namely the Mediterranean basin. The Decadents of the late 19th century and the modernists of the early 20th century looked to movements and individuals from continental Europe for inspiration.
Moreover, Britain's past imperial activities around the world continued to inspire literature, in some cases melancholic, in other cases hostile.
British literature is a separate element of the continental European tradition. It excels in all conventional genres: in Shakespeare it has a world-renowned playwright; in poetry, a unique genre and difficult to compare with the poetry of other literatures; on the other hand the humor of British literature is idiosyncratic and is as difficult to convey to foreigners as poetry. The volume of travel writing in British literature is notable; and has outstanding works in the field of autobiography, biography and historical writing. Children's literature, fantasy and essays are fields of exceptional achievement when it comes to British literature. As for philosophical writings, which are popularly considered difficult to equate with literary value, thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, John Stuart Mill, and Bertrand Russell are comparable in lucidity and grace to the best of philosophers. French and science. masters of classical antiquity.
British identity
The nature of British identity has changed over time. The island containing England, Scotland and Wales has been known as Great Britain since the time of the Roman Pliny the Elder (c. 23-79). English as a national language had its beginnings with the Anglo-Saxon invasion beginning around 450. Before that, the inhabitants mainly spoke various Celtic languages. The various constituent parts of today's United Kingdom came together at different times. Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England through the Acts of Union of 1536 and 1542. However, it was not until 1707 with a treaty between England and Scotland, that the Kingdom of Great Britain came into existence. This merged in January 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Until fairly recent times, Celtic languages continued to be widely spoken in Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland, and these languages still survive, especially in parts of Wales.
Subsequently, Irish nationalism led to the partition of the island of Ireland in 1921; thus the literature of the Republic of Ireland is not British, although the literature of Northern Ireland is both Irish and British.
Works written in English by Welsh writers, especially if their subject matter relates to Wales, have been recognized as a distinctive entity since the 19th century XX. The need for a separate identity for this type of writing arose due to the parallel development of modern Welsh-language literature.
Because Britain was a colonial power, the use of English spread throughout the world; from the 19th century or earlier in the United States, and later in other former colonies, important English-language writers began to appear beyond the borders of Great Britain and Ireland; later these included Nobel laureates.
The arrival of the Anglo-Saxons: 449 – c.1066
The Other Languages of Great Britain
Although the Romans withdrew from Britain in the early V century, Latin literature continued to be written, mostly ecclesiastical, including Bede's Chronicles (672 / 3-735), Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum; and Gildas (c. 500-570), De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae.
At that time, many Britons spoke several Celtic languages. Among the most important written works that have survived are Y Gododdin and the Mabinogion. From the 8th to the 15th century, Viking and Norse settlers and their descendants colonized parts of what is now modern Scotland. Some Old Norse poetry survives relating to this period, including the Orkneyinga saga, a historical retelling of the history of the Orkney Islands, since their capture by the Norwegian king in the IX to about 1200.
Old English Literature: c. 658-1100
Old English literature, or Anglo-Saxon literature, encompasses the surviving literature written in Old English in Anglo-Saxon England, from the settlement of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes in England (Jutes and Angles) around 450, until "shortly after the Norman Conquest "in 1066; that is, c. 1100–50. These works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiographies, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, riddles, and others. In total there are about 400 surviving manuscripts from this period.
Oral tradition was very strong in early English culture and most literary works were written to be performed. Epic poems were therefore very popular, and some, including Beowulf, have survived to the present day. days. 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 these are known by their vernacular works with any certainty: Cædmon, Bede, Alfred the Great, and Cynewulf. Cædmon is the first English poet whose name is known. small-caps;text-transform:lowercase">VII.
The chronicles contained a variety of historical and literary accounts, a notable example being the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The poem The Battle of Maldon also deals with history. This is the name given to a work, of uncertain date, which celebrates the actual Battle of Maldon in 991, in which the Anglo-Saxons failed to prevent a Viking invasion.
Classical antiquity was not forgotten in Anglo-Saxon England, and several Old English poems are adaptations of late classical philosophical texts. The longest is King Alfred's (849-99) translation of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy.
Late Medieval Literature: 1066-1500
The linguistic diversity of the islands in the medieval period contributed to a rich variety of artistic production and made British literature distinctive and innovative.
Some works were still written in Latin; these include Giraldus Cambrensis's late-12th century book about his beloved Wales, Itinerarium Cambriae . After the Norman conquest of 1066, Anglo-Norman literature developed, introducing literary tendencies from continental Europe, such as the chanson de geste. However, the autochthonous development of Anglo-Norman literature was early in comparison to the continental Oïl literature.
Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1100 - c. 1155) was one of the leading figures in the development of British history and the popularity of the King Arthur tales. He is known for his chronicle History Regum Britanniae (History of the Kings of Great Britain) of 1136, which spread Celtic motifs to a wider audience. Wace (c. 1110 - after 1174), writing in Norman French, is the earliest known Jersey poet; also developed the Arthurian legend.) In the late 12th century, Layamon in Brut adapted Wace to make the first play in English to use the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It was also the first historiography written in English since the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Middle English
Interest in King Arthur continued into the 15th century with The Death of Arthur (1485) by Sir Thomas Malory, a popular and influential compilation of some of the Arthurian French and English romances. It was one of the first books printed in England by Caxton.
In the late medieval period, a new form of English now known as Middle English developed. This is the earliest form that is understandable to modern readers and listeners, though not easily. Middle English translations of the Bible, particularly the Wycliffe Bible, helped establish English as a literary language. The Wycliffe Bible is the name now given to a group of Middle English translations of the Bible that were made under the direction or at the instigation of John Wycliffe. They appeared during the period 1382 to 1395.
Piers Plowman or Visio Willelmi de Petro Plowman (Piers Plowman's Vision of William) (written c.1360-1387) is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passūs" (Latin for "steps"). Piers is considered by many critics to be one of the first great works of English literature along with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight during the Middle Ages.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a Middle English alliterative romance from the late 14th century. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, of an established type known as the 'beheading game'. Developed from the Welsh, Irish and English tradition, Sir Gawain stresses the importance of honor and chivalry. "In the same manuscript with Sir Gawayne were preserved three other poems, now generally accepted as the work of their author, including the intricate elegiac poem, Pearl".
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Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343-1400), known as the father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages and was the first poet buried at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer is best known today for The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories written in Middle English (mostly written in verse, though some are in prose), which are entered as part of a storytelling contest. storytelling by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from Southwark to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral. Chaucer is a crucial figure in the development of the legitimacy of the vernacular, Middle English, at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin.
The multilingual nature of the audience for literature in the 14th century can be illustrated with the example of John Gower (c 1330 - October 1408). A contemporary of Langland and a personal friend of Chaucer, Gower is best remembered for three major works, Mirroir de l'Omme, Vox Clamantis and Confessio Amantis, three long poems written in Anglo-Norman, Latin and Middle English respectively that are linked by common moral and political themes.
Women writers were also active, such as Marie de France in the 12th century and Juliana of Norwich in the early span style="font-variant:small-caps;text-transform:lowercase">XIV. Juliana's Revelations of Divine Love (circa 1393) is believed to be the first published book written by a woman in English. Margery Kempe (c. 1373 – after 1438) is known for writing The Book of Margery Kempe, a work considered by some to be the first autobiography in the English language.
Major Scottish writers of the 15th century include Henrysoun, Dunbar Douglas and Lyndsay. Chaucer's works influenced Scottish writers.
Medieval theater
In the Middle Ages, drama in the vernaculars of Europe may have grown out of religious performances of the liturgy. Mystery plays were performed on the porticos of cathedrals or by traveling actors on holidays. Miracle and mystery plays, along with moralities and interludes, later evolved into more elaborate forms of drama, as seen on Elizabethan settings. Another form of medieval theater was mime plays, a form of early street theater associated with Morris dancing, concentrating on themes such as Saint George and the Dragon and Robin Hood. These were folk tales retelling old stories, and the actors traveled from town to town performing them for their audiences in exchange for money and hospitality.
Mystery plays and miracle plays are among the first formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Mystery plays focused on reenacting biblical stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal songs. They developed from the X century to the XVI, reaching the height of its popularity in the XV century before being obsolete by the boom of the professional theater.
There are four complete or nearly complete English Biblical collections of plays from the late medieval period. The most complete is the York cycle of forty-eight paintings. They were performed in the city of York, from the mid-XIV century to 1569. In addition to the Middle English theatre, there are three surviving works in the Cornish language known as Ordinalia.
Having grown out of religiously based mystery plays, the morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment, which represented a shift toward a more secular basis for European theater. Morality are a type of allegory in which the protagonist encounters personifications of various moral attributes who attempt to prompt him to choose a pious life over an evil one. Plays were most popular in Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries.
The Somonyng of Everyman (The Summoning of Everyman) (c. 1509-1519), generally referred to simply as Everyman, is a turn-of-the-century English morality work. XV. Like John Bunyan's allegory Pilgrim's Progress (1678) Everyman examines the question of Christian salvation through the use of allegorical characters.
The Renaissance: 1500-1660
Renaissance style and ideas were slow to penetrate England and Scotland, and the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) is often considered the height of the English Renaissance. However, many scholars see its beginnings in the early 16th century during the reign of Henry VIII (1491-1547).
Italian literary influences reached Britain: the sonnet form was introduced into English by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century, and was developed by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, (1516/1517 - 1547), who also introduced blank verse to England with his translation of the Aeneid of Virgil c. 1540.
The spread of the printing press affected the transmission of literature in Great Britain and Ireland. The first printed book in English, William Caxton's translation of Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, was printed abroad in 1473, followed by the establishment of the first printing press in England in 1474.
Latin continued to be used as a language of learning long after the Reformation established the vernaculars as liturgical languages for the elites.
Utopia is a work of fiction and political philosophy by Thomas More (1478-1535) published in 1516. The book, written in Latin, is a narrative framework primarily describing a fictional island society and their religious, social and political customs.
Elizabethan Period: 1558-1603
William Shakespeare's career spanned the turn of the Tudor and Stuart dynasties and spanned English history and the emerging imperial idea of the 17th century .
- Poetry
At the end of the 16th century, English poetry used elaborate language and extensive allusions to classical myths. Sir Edmund Spenser (1555-1599) was the author of The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. The works of Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), a poet, courtier and soldier, include Astrophel and Stella, The Defense of Poetry and Arcadia. Poems intended for music as songs, such as those by Thomas Campion, became popular as printed literature became more widely disseminated in homes.
- Theatre
During the reign of Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and then James I (1603–25), a London-centered culture that was both courtly and popular produced great poetry and drama. English playwrights were intrigued by the Italian model: a notorious community of Italian actors had established themselves in London. The linguist and lexicographer John Florio (1553-1625), whose father was Italian, was a royal tutor of languages at the court of James I and a possible friend and influence of William Shakespeare, had brought much of the Italian language and culture with him to England. He was also Montaigne's translator into English. Early Elizabethan plays include Gorboduc (1561), by Sackville and Norton, and Thomas Kyd's (1558-1594) revenge tragedy The Spanish Tragedy (1592). Highly popular and influential in its day, The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in the theater of English literature, the revenge play or revenge tragedy. Jane Lumley (1537-1578) was the first person to translate Euripides into English. Her translation of Iphigenia in Aulis is the first known dramatic work by a woman in English.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) stands out in this period as a hitherto unsurpassed poet and playwright. Shakespeare wrote plays in a variety of genres, including histories, tragedies, comedies, and late romances or tragicomedies. Works written in the Elizabethan era include the comedy Twelfth Night, the tragedy Hamlet, and the story Henry IV, Part 1.
Jacobean Period: 1603-1625
- Theatre
Shakespeare's career continued during the reign of King James I, and in the early 17th century century, he wrote the so-called "problem plays ", such as Measure for Measure, as well as several of his best-known tragedies, such as King Lear and Antony and Cleopatra . The plots of Shakespeare's tragedies often revolve around mistakes or fatal flaws, which upset the order and destroy the hero and his loved ones. In his final period, Shakespeare turned to romance or tragicomedy and completed four major works, including The Tempest. Less somber than the tragedies, these four plays are graver in tone than the comedies of the 1590s, but end with reconciliation and forgiveness of potentially tragic mistakes.
Other important figures of Elizabethan and Jacobean theater include Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593), Thomas Dekker (c. 1572-1632), John Fletcher (1579-1625), and Francis Beaumont (1584-1616). Marlowe's theme is different from Shakespeare's, as he focuses more on the moral drama of Renaissance man. His work Doctor Faustus (c. 1592), is about a scientist and magician who sells his soul to the devil. Beaumont and Fletcher are less well known, but they may have helped Shakespeare write some of his best drama and were popular at the time. Beaumont's comedy, The Knight with the Burning Mortar (1607), satirizes the rising middle class and especially the nouveau riche.
After Shakespeare's death, the poet and playwright Ben Jonson (1572-1637) was the leading literary figure of the Jacobean era. Jonson's aesthetic dates back to the Middle Ages, and his characters embody the theory of humors, based on contemporary medical theory, though common types of Latin literature were equally influenced. Jonson's major works include Volpone (1605 or 1606) and Bartholomew Fair (1614).
A popular style of theater in Jacobean times was the revenge play, which had been popularized earlier by Thomas Kyd (1558–94) and further developed by John Webster (1578–1632) in the XVII. Webster's most famous works are The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1613). Other revenge tragedies include The Changeling written by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley.
- Poetry
Shakespeare also popularized the English sonnet, which made significant changes to Petrarch's model. A collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passing of time, love, beauty, and mortality, was first published in a quarter of 1609.
In addition to Shakespeare, the major poets of the early 17th century included the metaphysical poets John Donne (1572-1631) and George Herbert (1593-1633). Influenced by the Continental Baroque, and taking as its theme both Christian mysticism and eroticism, Donne's metaphysical poetry uses unconventional or "unpoetic" figures, such as a compass or a mosquito, to surprise effect.
George Chapman (? 1559-? 1634) was a successful playwright best remembered for his 1616 translation of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey into English verse. This was the first complete translation of these poems into the English language and had a profound influence on English literature.
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The philosopher Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) wrote the utopian novel New Atlantis and coined the phrase "Knowledge is power ". 1638 The Man in the Moone, by Francis Godwin, recounts an imaginary journey to the moon and is now considered the first work of science fiction in English literature.
In the Reformation, the translation of the liturgy and the Bible into vernacular languages provided new literary models. The Book of Common Prayer (1549) and the authorized King James Version of the Bible have been highly influential. The King James Bible, one of the largest translation projects in English history up to that time, was begun in 1604 and completed in 1611. It continued the tradition of translating the Bible into English from the original languages that began with the William Tyndale's work. (Previous English translations had been based on the Vulgate.) It became the standard Bible of the Church of England, and is considered by some to be one of the greatest literary works of all time.
Late Renaissance: 1625-1660
Metaphysical poets continued to write in this period. Both John Donne and George Herbert died after 1625, but there was a second generation of metaphysical poets: Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), Thomas Traherne (1636 or 1637-1674), and Henry Vaughan (1622-1695). His style was witty, with metaphysical conceits: implausible or unusual similes or metaphors, such as Marvell's comparison of the soul to a dewdrop; or Donne's description of the effects of absence on lovers to the action of a couple. of compasses.
Another important group of poets at this time were the Cavalier poets. They were an important group of writers, coming from the classes that supported King Charles I during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639-1651). (King Charles reigned from 1625 and was executed in 1649.) The best known of these poets are Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Thomas Carew, and Sir John Suckling. They "were not a formal group, but they were all influenced" by Ben Jonson. Most of the Cavalier poets were courtiers, with notable exceptions. For example, Robert Herrick was not a courtier, but his style marks him as a cavalier poet. The arrogant works make use of classical allegories and allusions, and are influenced by the Latin authors Horace, Cicero, and Ovid.
John Milton (1608–74) is one of the greatest English poets, writing at a time of religious change and political turmoil. He is generally considered the last great poet of the English Renaissance, although his main epic poems were written in the Restoration period, including Paradise Lost (1671). Among them are L'Allegro, 1631; Il Penseroso, 1634; Comus (a mask), 1638; and Lycidas, (1638). His last important works are Paradise Regained, 1671 and Samson Agonistes, 1671. Milton's works reflect deep personal convictions, a passion for freedom and self-determination, and the problems urgent issues and the political turbulence of his time. Writing in English, Latin and Italian, he achieved international renown during his lifetime, and his celebrated Areopagitica (1644), written to condemn pre-publication censorship, ranks among the most influential and impassioned defenses of the history of freedom of expression and freedom of the press. In William Hayley's 1796 biography of him he called him the "greatest English author," and he is still widely regarded as "one of the greatest writers in the English language." 3. 4;.
Thomas Urquhart (1611-1660) translated Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel into English, and this work has been described as 'the greatest Scots translation since the "Aeneads" by Gavin Douglas.
The Restoration: 1660-1700
Theater
The Restoration of the monarchy in 1660 relaunched literature, both in celebration of and in reaction to the king's new worldly and playful court. Theaters in England reopened after being closed during Oliver Cromwell's protectorate, Puritanism lost its momentum and the bawdy "Restoration comedy" it became a recognizable genre. Restoration comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. In addition, women were allowed to perform on stage for the first time.
The Restoration of the monarchy in Ireland allowed Ogilby to resume his position as Master of the Revels and open the first Theater Royal in Dublin in 1662 in Smock Alley. In 1662 Katherine Philips went to Dublin, where she completed a translation of Pierre Corneille's The Death of Pompey, produced with great success in 1663 at the Smock Alley Theatre, and printed in the same year, both in Dublin and London. Although dramas had been translated or written by other women, Pompey's translation of her broke new ground as the first rhymed version of a French tragedy into English and the first English-language play written by a woman to be performed on a professional stage. Aphra Behn (one of the writers nicknamed 'The Righteous Triumvirate of Wit') was a prolific playwright and one of the first English professional writers. The greatest dramatic success of hers was The Rover (1677).
Poetry
The depiction of the character Willmore in Behn's The Rover and the witty, poetry-reciting rake Dorimant in George Etherege's The Man of Mode (1676) are seen as a satire of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647-1680), an English libertine poet and Restoration court wit. He was described by his contemporary Andrew Marvell as "the greatest English satirist," and is generally considered the greatest poet and the most learned of Restoration wits. The poem "A satyr against reason and humanity" it is a Hobbesian critique of rationalism. Rochester's poetic work varies widely in form, genre, and content. He was part of a "mob of handwriting gentlemen" who continued to produce his poetry in manuscript, rather than in publication. As a consequence, some of Rochester's work deals with current concerns, from satires of courtly affairs in libels, to parodies of the styles of his contemporaries, such as Sir Charles Scroope. He is also noted for his improvisation, Voltaire, who referred to Rochester as "the man of genius, the great poet," admired his satire for its "energy, and fire & # 34; and translated some lines into French to "show the brilliance of imagination that only his lordship could boast";
John Dryden (1631-1700) was an English poet, literary critic, translator and dramatist who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such an extent that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Dryden's era. He established the heroic couplet as a standard form of English poetry by writing successful satires, religious pieces, fables, epigrams, compliments, prologues, and plays with it; he also introduced the Alexandrian and the triplet into the form. In his poems, translations, and reviews, he established a suitable poetic diction for the heroic couplet. Dryden's greatest achievements were in satirical verse in works such as MacFlecknoe (1682). W.H. Audensese referred to him as "the master of the middle style" which was a model for his contemporaries and for much of the 18th century. his death was evident from the elegies he inspired. Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was greatly influenced by Dryden, and often borrowed from him; Other writers of the 18th century were equally influenced by Dryden and Pope.
Although Ben Jonson had been Poet Laureate to James I in England, this was not then a formal office and the formal title of Poet Laureate, as a royal office, was first conferred by letters patent to John Dryden in 1670. The position later became a regular British institution.
Prose
Diarists John Evelyn (1620-1706) and Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) described everyday London life and the cultural scene of the day. His works are among the most important primary sources for the Restoration period in England and consist of eyewitness accounts of many great events, such as the Great Plague of London (1644–5) and the Great Fire of London (1666)..
The publication of The Pilgrim's Progress (Part I: 1678; 1684), established the Puritan preacher John Bunyan (1628–88) as a notable writer. Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory for personal salvation and a guide to Christian living. Bunyan writes about how the individual can overcome temptations of mind and body that threaten damnation. The book is written in a simple narrative and shows the influence of both drama and biography, and yet it also shows an awareness of the great allegorical tradition found in Edmund Spenser.
18th century
The Age of Augustus: 1701-1750
The late 17th and early 18th century (1689-1750) in English literature is known as the Era of Augustus. Writers of this time "greatly admired their Roman counterparts, imitated their works and often drew parallels between" the contemporary world and the time of the Roman Emperor Augustus (27 AD - 14 BC). Some of the major writers of this period were the Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), William Congreve, (1670 -1729), Joseph Addison (1672-1719), Richard Steele(1672-1729), Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Henry Fielding (1707-1754), Samuel Johnson (1709-1784).
1707: Birth of Great Britain
The Union of the Parliaments of Scotland and England in 1707 to form a single Kingdom of Great Britain and the creation of a joint state by the Acts of Union had little impact either on the literature of England or on the national consciousness among english writers. The situation in Scotland was different: the desire to maintain a cultural identity while taking advantage of the English literary market and the standard English literary language led to what Scottish writers have described as the "invention of British literature". English writers, if they considered Britain at all, tended to assume that it was simply England at large; Scottish writers were more clearly aware of the new state as a "cultural amalgam comprising something more than England". "Rule Britannia!" by James Thomson is an example of Scotland's defense of this new national and literary identity. With the invention of British literature came the development of early British novels, in contrast to the 18th century English novel, who continued to deal with England and English concerns rather than explore the changing political, social and literary environment. Tobias Smollett (1721-1771) was a Scottish pioneer of the British novel, who explored the biases inherent in the new social structure of the country through comic picaresque novels. His The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) is the first major novel written in English to have a Scotsman as its hero, and the multinational voices represented in the narrative confront anti-Scottish sentiment, and it was published only two years after the Battle of Culloden. The Humphry Clinker Expedition (1771) brings together characters from the extremes of Britain to question how cultural and linguistic differences can be accommodated within the new British identity and influenced Charles Dickens. Richard Cumberland wrote patriotic comedies depicting characters taken from the "outskirts of the empire". His most popular work, & # 34;The West Indian & # 34; (1771) was performed in North America and the West Indies.
Prose, including the novel
In prose, the first part of the period was overshadowed by the development of the essay in English. Joseph Addison and Richard Steele's The Spectator established the form of the British newspaper essay, inventing the pose of the distant observer of human life who can ponder the world without advocating any specific change in it. However, this was also the time when the English novel, which first emerged at the Restoration, became a major art form. Daniel Defoe went from journalism and writing criminal lives for the press to writing fictional criminal lives with Roxana and Moll Flanders.
In general, it is considered that the birth of the English novel occurs with the works Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722), by Defoe despite that John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1678) and Aphra Behn's Orinoco (1688) (1688) are also contenders. ="font-variant:small-caps;text-transform:lowercase">XVIII are Samuel Richardson (1689-1761), author of the epistolary novels Pamela or Virtue Rewards (1740) and Clarissa (1747-1748); Henry Fielding (1707-1754), who wrote Joseph Andrews (1742) and The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749).
If Addison and Steele dominated one type of prose, Jonathan Swift, author of the satire Gulliver's Travels, dominated another. In A Modest Proposal and Drapier Letters, Swift grudgingly defended the Irish people from the depredations of colonialism. This led to riots and arrests, but Swift, while not loving Irish Roman Catholics, was outraged by the abuses he saw.
English editorial cartoonist and pictorial satirist William Hogarth (1697-1764) is credited for pioneering Western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraits to series of comic book-like images called "Modern Moral Subjects." Much of his work satirizes contemporary politics and mores.
Theater
Although the recorded history of Irish theater began at least in 1601, the first prominent Irish playwrights were William Congreve (1670-1729), one of the most interesting writers of Restoration comedies and author of The Way of the World (1700) and the playwright, George Farquhar (? 1677-1707), The Recruiting Officer (1706). (Restoration Comedy refers to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710. Comedy of manners is used as a synonym for Restoration comedy.)
18th century Anglo-Irish theater also includes Charles Macklin (? 1699–1797) and Arthur Murphy (1727– 1805).
The era of Augustan drama ended with censorship established by the 1737 Theater License Act. After 1737, authors with strong political or philosophical arguments no longer turned to the stage as a means of earning a living, and novels began to have dramatic structures involving only normal human beings, as the stage closed for serious authors. Before the Licensing Act of 1737, the theater was the first choice for most inventive writers. Then it was the novel.
Poetry
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The foremost poet of the age is Alexander Pope (1688-1744), whose major works include: The Rape of the Lock (1712; enlarged 1714); a translation of the Iliad (1715-20); a translation of the Odyssey (1725–26); The Dunciad (1728; 1743). Since his death, Pope has been in a constant state of reassessment. His high artifice, his strict prosody, and at times the sheer cruelty of his satire were mocked by romantic poets, and it was not until the 1930s that his reputation was revived. Pope is now considered the dominant poetic voice of his century, a paragon of prosodic elegance, biting wit, and an enduring and exacting moral force.[61]The Rape of the Lock and The Dunciad are masterpieces of the feigned-epic genre. [62]
It was during this time that the poet James Thomson (1700-48) produced his melancholy The Seasons (1728-1730) and Edward Young (1681-1765) wrote his poem Night-Thoughts (1742).
Roots of Romanticism: 1750-1798
The second half of the 18th century is sometimes called the "Johnson Age", in reference to Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), often known as Dr. Johnson, an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. Johnson has been described as "possibly the most distinguished man of letters in the history of England". After nine years of work, Johnson published in 1755 the " Dictionary of the English Language"; which had a far-reaching effect on modern English and has been described as "one of the greatest achievements of scholarship". Through works such as the "Dictionary, his edition of Shakespeare and his Lives of the Poets in particular, helped to invent what we now call English Literature".
This period of the 18th century saw the rise of three major Irish authors, Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774), Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) and Laurence Sterne (1713-1768). Goldsmith settled in London in 1756, where he published the novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), a pastoral poem The Deserted Village (1770) and two plays, The Good-Natur'd Man 1768 and She Stoops to Conquer 1773. Sheridan was born in Dublin, but his family moved to England in the 1750s. His first The play, The Rivals 1775, was performed at Covent Garden and was an instant success. He became the most important London playwright of the late 18th century with plays such as School for Scandal and Criticism. Sterne published his famous novel Tristram Shandy in parts between 1759 and 1767.
The sentimental novel or novel of sensitivity is a genre that developed during the second half of the 18th century. [67] Among the most famous sentimental novels in English are Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), Oliver Goldsmith's ' s The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), and Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy (1759-1767). [68]
Another novel genre also developed in this period. In 1778, Frances Burney (1752-1840) wrote Evelina, one of the first novels on manners. [69] In fact, Fanny Burney's novels "were enjoyed and admired by Jane Austen." [70]
The Graveyard Poets were a series of pre-Romantic English poets, writing in the 1740s and later, whose works are characterized by somber musings on mortality, "skulls and coffins, epitaphs and worms" in the context of the cemetery. [71] To this was added, by later writers, a feeling for the "sublime" and the sinister, and an interest in Old English poetic forms and popular poetry. [72] They are often considered the forerunners of the Gothic genre. [73] Poets include; Thomas Gray (1716-1771), Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard (1751); [74] William Cowper (1731-1800); Christopher Smart (1722-1771); Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770); Robert Blair (1699-1746); [75] and Edward Young (1683-1765), The complaint or nocturnal thoughts about life, death and immortality (1742-1745). [76]
Other precursors of romanticism are the poets James Thomson (1700-48) and James Macpherson (1736-1796), the Gothic novel and the novel of sensibility. [77]
Gothic fiction also heralded romanticism, in works such as Horace Walpole's 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto. The Gothic fiction genre combines elements of horror and romance. A pioneering Gothic novelist was Ann Radcliffe, author of The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794). The Monk (1796), by Matthew Lewis, is another notable early work in the gothic and horror genres.
James Macpherson (1736-1796) was the first Scottish poet to gain an international reputation. Claiming to have found poetry written by the ancient bard Ossian, he published translations that gained international popularity, being heralded as a Celtic equivalent to the classical epics. Both Robert Burns (1759-1796) and Walter Scott (1771-1832) were greatly influenced by the Ossian cycle. [78] [79]
Robert Burns (1759-1796) was a pioneer of the Romantic movement and, after his death, became a cultural icon in Scotland. Among Burns's poems and songs that remain well known throughout the world are "Auld Lang Syne"; . 4; A red, red rose "; . 4; A man is a man for an 'it'; . 4; To a mouse "; . 4; Tam o 'Shanter " and " Ae Fond Kiss ".
UK Authors
- Peter Ackroyd
- Douglas Adams
- J. K. Rowling
- J. R. R. Tolkien
- Arthur Conan Doyle
- Beatrix Potter
- Charles Dickens
- Mary Shelley
- Jane Austen
- Roald Dahl