English language literature
English literature is all literature written in the English language, regardless of the origin of its authors. Under this denomination works written in Old English, Medieval English, Modern English and Contemporary English are gathered, as well as those written in the dialectal varieties that the current language has around the world.
Middle Ages
Anglo-Saxon Literature
The first words in English, written in an Anglo-Saxon dialect known as Old English, appeared in the early Middle Ages. The oldest known text is the hymn of Caedmon. At that time, the oral tradition was very important and a large part of the literary works were written in order to be represented. Epic poems became very popular and some, like Beowulf, have survived to this day.
This language is closely related to the present-day Norwegian language and the Icelandic language, so the Anglo-Saxon verses were probably an adaptation of the early Viking and Germanic war poems that arrived from the continent. When this poetry reached England, it was still passed down orally from generation to generation; the constant presence of alliterative verses, or consonant rhymes, helped the Anglo-Saxons to remember it easily.
The first written literature appears at the time when St. Augustine of Canterbury founded the early Christian monasteries; the language was adapted to the needs of Christian readers. Even without their bloodiest lines, Viking war poems were bloodthirsty: there was always a sense of imminent danger in the narratives. Sooner or later everything had an end. When William the Conqueror made England part of the Norman kingdom (in 1066), Old English poetry continued to be read and use of the language spread.
Post-Norman Conquest Literature
It was not until the early XVI, when Albion became independent and its relations with France became more distant, the time when the language began to change. While the Normans were assimilated into their own culture, French penetrated the lower social classes, changing an important part of the Old English grammar and vocabulary. Although it did not become a Romance language, Chaucer's English is closer to the language of today than it was to the language spoken in England a century earlier.
In the late medieval period (1200-1500), the ideals of courtly love reached England and authors began to write romances, both in verse and prose. Themes related to King Arthur and his court were especially popular. The poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight shows much of the characteristics of the literature of this era: set in the time of the legendary Arthur, the work emphasizes the behavior of the knights with religious overtones. At that time, mystery plays were performed in towns and cities to celebrate the main festivities; Less formal performances with religious themes were also performed.
The first great English author, Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), wrote in medieval English. His most famous work is the Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories in disparate genres told by a group of pilgrims traveling to Canterbury. Although Chaucer is an English author, his work was inspired by the changes and developments taking place in Europe, especially Italy. The Canterbury Tales are clearly indebted to Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron. The Renaissance was making its way in England.
Renaissance
In 1476, William Caxton introduced the printing press to England. From that moment, vernacular literature began to flourish. The Protestant Reformation inspired the production of its own liturgy that led to the Book of Common Prayer, a key influence on English-language literature. The poetry, drama and prose written during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I constitute what is now called the 'English Renaissance'.
During this period, literature is characterized by a special interest in human behavior as the main theme of the works, partly influenced by Italian humanism. Whereas medieval English literature drew on religious themes, during the Renaissance writers turned to more secular themes.
Elizabethan Literature
The Elizabethan Era witnessed the flowering of literature, especially drama: producing the so-called Elizabethan theater. The Italian Renaissance rediscovered the classics of the Greek and Roman theater that began to displace the mystical themes treated in the works written during the Middle Ages. The Italians were especially influenced by Seneca and Plautus. English writers took an interest in Italian works; some companies of actors settled in London and another Italian, Giovanni Florio, was in charge during this time of taking part of the Italian culture and language to England.
During this period the writer William Shakespeare made his appearance. Without being a man of letters and with an education that is believed to have been limited, Shakespeare became one of the most versatile writers of the moment who was able to shake the foundations of the English scene. His last works, written during the early reign of James I, are considered by critics to be his most masterful compositions: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra and The Tempest. Shakespeare also popularized the English sonnets, which marked a profound change from Petrarch's model.
Thomas Wyatt introduced the sonnet to England in the early XVI. Poems written to be set to music, such as those written by Thomas Campion, became popular and printed literature began to find its way into many homes. Within the theater of the Elizabethan era, it is necessary to highlight writers such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker and Francis Beaumont. Marlowe, who was born just a few weeks before Shakespeare, was both fascinated and terrified by the new frontiers that modern science was opening up, which inspired him to write The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. which is about a scientist obsessed with knowledge and who wishes to push man's technological powers to the most extreme limits. After obtaining supernatural powers, the protagonist of the work manages to travel back in time and marry Helen of Troy but ends his days selling his soul to the devil.
At the end of the XVI, English poetry was characterized by elaborate language and allusions to the themes of the classical mythology. Notable poets of the period include Edmund Spenser and Philip Sidney.
Jacobite Literature
After Shakespeare's death, the poet and playwright Ben Jonson became the foremost figure in literature. However, Jonson's aesthetic was more reminiscent of the Middle Ages than Tudor: his characters incorporate the theory of the four humors. According to this medical theory, differences in human behavior stem from the predominance of one of the four humors in the body (blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile); these humors correspond to the four elements of the universe: air, water, fire and earth. Jonson displayed these differences to a point where he came to create prototypes that corresponded to each of the prevailing moods; Shakespeare, on the other hand, had already abandoned this classical theory to make way for modern psychology.
Writers who followed Johnson's style include John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont who, though not as talented as Shakespeare, wrote a brilliant comedy, The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1613), a parody of the middle class, especially those nouveau riche who pretend to have great literary taste when in reality they know very little about literature.
Another style of theater that became very popular during the Jacobin era was revenge plays, popularized by John Webster and Thomas Kyd. George Chapman also wrote a couple of tragedies of this style, although he is especially remembered for the translation that he made of Homer's works, which were of great influence on English literature; They even inspired John Keats to write some of his most outstanding poems.
The King James Bible, one of the most important translation projects in English history, began in 1604 and was not completed until 1611. It represents the culmination of the tradition of translating the Bible into English. It started with the work of William Tyndale. The work became the standard Bible for the Church of England and is considered by some to be one of the greatest works of literature of all time. This project was led by King James I himself who supervised the work of 47 scholars. Although other, more precise English translations have been made, the King James Bible continues to stand out for its aesthetics, since its meter was made in such a way that it tried to imitate the Hebrew verse of the original version. In historiography, the great work of Richard Knolles, The General History of the Turks, published in 1603, in an ornate style very characteristic of the time, and highly reputed throughout the history of history, stood out. English literature.
In addition to Shakespeare, who rose to prominence in the early 1600s, the major poets of the turn of the century include John Donne and other metaphysical poets. Influenced by the Baroque, and taking Christian mysticism and eroticism as central themes, the metaphysical poets used "non-poetic" to achieve a surprise effect on the reader. For example, in one of John Donne's sonnets, the point of a compass represents two lovers; the woman, who is at home waiting, is the center. The furthest point from her is her lover who is sailing away from her. But the greater the distance, the closer the upper union between the points of the compass: distance makes love stronger.
In addition to metaphysical poets, the XVII is famous for its baroque poetry. This poetry is similar to the artistic style of the same name: elevated, epic and religious. Many of the poets who cultivated this style had a special Catholic sensibility and wrote their poetry to support the Catholic Counter-Reformation; they were intended to create a feeling of supremacy and mysticism that would turn Protestant readers back to Catholicism.
Charles I and Oliver Cromwell
The turbulent period of the mid-XVII century, during the reign of Charles I, the subsequent Commonwealth and Protectorate, was witness to the birth of political literature. The pamphlets written by sympathizers of each of the factions that organized during the civil war ranged from viscerally written personal attacks to various forms of propaganda to schemes seeking a way to reform the nation. Thomas Hobbes's work Leviathan is one of the most prominent works in British political philosophy. This period also witnessed the birth of the 'new books', forerunners of newspapers, with journalists such as Henry Muddiman, Marchamont Needham or John Birkenhead representing the points of view of the various parties to the conflict. The continued arrests of the authors and the removal of their works, led to the creation of the idea of "licensing". The work Areopagitica , a political pamphlet by John Milton, was written precisely to oppose the idea of licence, and is considered one of the most eloquent defenses of press freedom ever written.
The forced retirement of royalist officers after the execution of Charles I benefited Izaac Walton as it allowed him to work on his work The Compleat Angler. First published in 1653, the book, apparently a fishing guide, is much more than that: it is a true treatise on life, free time and pleasure. The two most prominent poets of Oliver Cromwell's period were Andrew Marvell and John Milton; both produced works praising the new government, as evidenced in Marvell's An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland. Despite their republican beliefs, they managed to get away with the Restoration of Carlos II after which Milton wrote some of his most outstanding poems in which political messages were camouflaged as allegory. Thomas Browne was another of the outstanding writers of the time; he wrote on scientific, religious, medical and esoteric subjects.
Restoration Literature
Restoration literature includes such disparate works as John Milton's Paradise Lost, John Wilmot's Sodom, William Wycherley's comedy The Wife of the Field or The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan.
Censorship and radical moralism during Cromwell's puritanical regime caused a rupture in literary culture; during the Restoration, all literary forms experienced a renaissance. During the interregnum, the royalist forces of the court of Carlos I were in exile together with the future Carlos II. The nobility that traveled with Carlos spent nearly a decade in the middle of the European stages. Carlos himself dedicated part of his time to attend various performances in France and developed a special taste for Spanish comedies.
The most prominent poetic form was satire. In general, the satires were published anonymously to avoid serious problems for the author, such as the "defamation law", or the wrath of the nobles who were criticized. John Dryden, for example, was in the crosshairs of the nobility for being suspected of being the author of Satire on Mankind . As a consequence of this anonymity, many of these poems remained unpublished and remain totally unknown works.
During this period, prose was dominated by Christian writings, although it was also at this time that two genres that dominated later periods began: fiction and journalism. Religious themes were often mixed with political and economic ones, just as economic and political writings introduced religious aspects. Thomas Sprat wrote in 1667 History of the Royal Society of London and showed, in a single document, the goals of empirical science. John Locke wrote numerous of his philosophical works during the Restoration. Locke's empiricism was an attempt to understand the bases of human knowledge, looking for the way that allowed making the right decisions. These scientific methods led Locke to write his work Treatises on Government which later inspired thinkers of the American Revolutionary War. Like Thomas Hobbes, Locke emphasized the plastic nature of the social contract. For a time when the absolute monarchy was considered overthrown, attempts at democracy were beginning, and a limited monarchy had been restored, an answer could only be found by laying a flexible foundation for the new government.
The Restoration tempered strident sectarian writing, though radicalism persisted. Puritan authors such as John Milton were forced to leave public life, and Quaker or Anabaptist authors who had directly participated in the regicide of Charles I were partially censored. Violent writings were sent underground and some of those who had served during the interregnum toned down their political positions. The support that John Bunyan received was greater than that of other religious authors of the time. His work Pilgrim's Progress is an allegory of personal salvation and a guide for Christian living. Instead of focusing on divine retribution, Bunyan wrote about how an individual can sanctify his life by keeping away from temptations of body and soul. The book is written in a direct style and shows the influence of both drama and biography, as well as the allegorical tradition already shown by Edmund Spenser.