ĐỀ CƯƠNG ÔN TẬP MÔN VĂN HỌC ANH MỸ EHOU ĐẦY ĐỦ ĐÁP ÁN TẤT CẢ CÂU HỎI. What were the three periods of English Enlightenement in literature? Who were representatives of each period? Câu hỏi 1 Những điểm đặc biệt, tiêu biểu của nên văn họ. Câu 2: Điểm nổi bật của văn học Anh thế kỷ 20 Twentieth Century English Literature O’ Henry – The Great American short story writer American Literature 19 TH CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE Câu 3: Tìm hiểu thông tin về nhà văn William Shakespeare William Shakespeare (15641616) THE NEW LITERARY TREND AND ITS CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES
ĐỀ CƯƠNG ÔN TẬP MÔN VĂN HỌC ANH- MỸ What were the three periods of English Enlightenement in literature? Who were representatives of each period? Câu hỏi 1: Những điểm đặc biệt, tiêu biểu nên văn học Mỹ History of American Literature OVERVIEW During its early history, America was a series of British colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day United States Therefore, its literary tradition begins as linked to the broader tradition of English literature However, unique American characteristics and the breadth of its production usually now cause it to be considered a separate path and tradition Colonial Literature Some of the earliest forms of American literature were pamphlets and writings extolling the benefits of the colonies to both a European and colonist audience John Smith Captain John Smith could be considered the first American author with his works: A True Relation of Virginia (1608) The revolutionary period also contained Samuel Adams political writings, including those by colonist Samuel Adams Two key figures were Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac and The Benjamin Franklin Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin are esteemed works with their wit and influence toward the formation of a budding American identity Thomas Paine Early U.S Literature In the post-war period, The Federalist essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay represented a historical Alexander Hamilton discussion of government organization and republican values Thomas Jefferson's United States Declaration of Independence, his influence on the James Madison Constitution, and the mass of his letters have led to him being considered one of the most talented early American writers John Jay The first American novel is sometimes considered to be William Hill Brown's The Power of Sympathy (1789) Much of the early literature of the new nation struggled Thomas Jefferson to find a uniquely American voice European forms and styles were often transferred to new locales and critics often saw them as inferior W.H Brown Unique American Style With the War of 1812 and an increasing desire to produce uniquely American work, a number of key new literary figures appeared, perhaps most prominently Washington Irving Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe Irving, often considered the first writer to develop a unique American style (although James Fenimore this is debated) wrote humorous works Cooper in Salmagundi and the well-known satire A History of New York, by Diedrich Edgar Allan Poe Knickerbocker (1809) Anti-transcendental works from Melville (Moby-Dick), Hawthorne (Scarlet Letter), and Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher) all comprise the Dark Romanticism subgenre of Hawthorne literature popular during this time American 19th Century Poetry America's two greatest 19th-century poets could hardly have been more different in temperament and style Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was a working man, a traveler, a selfappointed nurse during the American Civil War (18611865), and a poetic innovator His magnum opus was Leaves of Grass, in which he uses a free-flowing verse and lines of irregular length to depict the all-inclusiveness of American democracy Taking that motif one step further, the poet equates the vast range of American experience with himself without being egotistical Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), on the other hand, lived the sheltered life of a genteel unmarried woman in small-town Amherst, Massachusetts Within its formal structure, her poetry is ingenious, witty, exquisitely wrought, and psychologically penetrating Her work was unconventional for its day, and little of it was published during her lifetime Many of her poems dwell on death, often with a mischievous twist Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Realism Mark Twain (the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835 1910 was the first major American writer to be born away from the East Coast - in the border state of Missouri His regional masterpieces were the memoir Life on the Mississippi and the novel Adventures of HuckleberryFinn Twain's style changed the way Americans write their language His characters speak like real people and sound distinctively American, using local dialects, newly invented words, and regional accents.HenryJames (18431916) confronted the Old WorldNew World dilemma by writing directly about it Among his more accessible works are the novellas Daisy Miller, about an enchanting American girl in Europe, and The Turn of the Screw, an enigmatic ghost story Mark Twain Henry James Turn of the Century At the beginning of the 20th century, American novelists were expanding fiction's social spectrum to encompass both high and low life and sometimes connected to the naturalist school of realism More directly political writings discussed social issues and power of corporations Some like Edward Bellamy in Looking Backward outlined other possible political and social frameworks Upton Sinclair, most famous for his meat-packing novel The Jungle, advocated socialism Henry Adams' literate autobiography, The Education of HenryAdams also depicted a stinging description of the education system and modern life Experimentation in style and form soon joined the new freedom in subject matter Edward Bellamy Upton Sinclair Henry Adams Turn of the Century American writers also expressed the disillusionment following upon the war The stories and novels of F Scott Fitzgerald (18961940) capture the restless, pleasurehungry, defiant mood of the 1920s Fitzgerald's characteristic theme, expressed poignantly in The Great Gatsby, is the tendency of youth's golden dreams to dissolve in failure and disappointment Depression era literature was blunt and direct in its social criticism John Steinbeck (1902-1968) His style was simple and evocative, winning him the favor of the readers but not of the critics The Grapes of Wrath, considered his masterpiece, is a strong, socially-oriented novel that tells the story of the Joads, a poor family from Oklahoma and their journey to California in search of a better life Scott Fritzgerald John Steinbeck Post-World War II The period in time from the end of World War II up until, roughly, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw to the publication of some of the most popular works in American history The poetry and fiction of the "Beat Generation," largely born of a circle of intellects formed in New York City around Columbia University and established more officially some time later in San Francisco, came of age The term, Beat, referred, all at the same time, to the countercultural rhythm of the Jazz scene, to a sense of rebellion regarding the conservative stress of post-war society, and to an interest in new forms of spiritual experience through drugs, alcohol, philosophy, and religion, and specifically through Zen Buddhism Regarding the war novel specifically, there was a literary explosion in America during the post-World War II era Some of the most well known of the works produced included Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (1948) Norman Mailer Câu 2: Điểm bật văn học Anh kỷ 20 Twentieth Century English Literature In the seventies of the 19th century most writers on social problems believed that science and science alone would finally sweep away all human misery and bring civilization to all Men of science were greatly admired They were invited to speak in public halls and express their opinions on all kinds of subjects Many of these scientists believed in positivism, and spread their demagogic ideas among the people But during the last decades of the 19th century doubts began to arise as to the faultless nature of European civilization People had awakened to the fact that scientific progress was increasing the wealth of the upper classes only They began to see that some human beings were born to riches for which they had not worked, while the majority was born to poverty from which there was no escape Philanthropy, never having been able to prevent poverty, now became a laughing stock Disillusionment led to pessimism and found its expression in a very pessimistic literature, the literature of the Decadence So the phrase “the End of the Century” meant not only the turn of the century: It also meant that a certain change had occurred in the more clearly-thinking minds It was the End of the Century that created writers who were interested in human society as a whole (Shaw, Galsworthy), and a new type of writer who was preoccupied with the future of mankind (Wells) The spirit of the time lasted till the First World War of 1914-1918 Some historical facts It was in the last decades of the century that new trade-unions sprang up, which workers, regardless of their qualifications, could join; even unskilled factory-hands were accepted It was now easier for the workers to help one another during strikes The trade-union officials were no longer representatives of the bourgeois liberal party: the leaders were real workers, such as Tom Mann, who later founded the British Communist Party The growing class-consciousness of the workers threw the upper class into a panic of fear In 1883 a group of independent socialists organized the Fabian Society These Socialists came from the middle class, but they wanted to improve the economic situation of the common people Many progressive-minded writers, such as Bernard Shaw, Herbert Wells and some Marxists, belonged at various times to the Fabian Society The Fabians thought that the fut~ depended on a careful scientific organization of society, which they hoped would lead the country to state capitalism They refused to recognize the ,class struggle as necessary for social progress English Fabian Socialism never became part of the actual workers' movement The activities of these Socialists are interesting, howeyer, from a 'historical point of view They investigated different systems of labour and made a thorough examination of the housing conditions in working-class districts, particularly in the East End of London with its factories and docks, which was the poorest part of the city Among the social investigators who began to walk the slums were young women from cultured families The diaries they left give a complete picture of how the workers lived Here are some of the notes The houses looked ready to fall, many of them out of the perpendicular Entire families were crowded into one room Most of the doors stood open all day as well as all night, and the passages and stairs sheltered many who were altogether homeless Here a mother would stand with her baby of'sit with it on the stairs, or companions would huddle together in cold weather Everywhere there was drunkenness, dirt and bad language Gambling was the chief amusement of the young men, and fights in the streets were common, ending at times even in murder Only a small number of dock workers had permanent work; the majority were casuals employed for one job only The casuals would walk to the docks early in the morning and wait at the entrances to the various wharves hoping for the chance that a foreman might need someone Whenever it happened that an extra man was wanted for some work on the wharf, there would be brutal fighting and struggle at the gates The houses looked ready to fall, many of them out of the perpendicular Entire families were crowded into one room Most of the doors stood open all day as well as all night, and the passages and stairs sheltered many who were altogether homeless Here a mother would stand with her baby of'sit with it on the stairs, or companions would huddle together in cold weather Everywhere there was drunkenness, dirt and bad language Gambling was the chief amusement of the young men, and fights in the streets were common, ending at times even in murder The workers who had permanent work stood on a higher social level On Sundays they would crowd into the parks and listen to various speakers Here an atheist would stand on a soap-box and explain that if there be a God he must be a monster to permit such misery as unemployment' Back to back with the atheist, facing another crowd, would be a man from a Christian association who would explain unemployment as God's punishment of unbelievers In the summer of 1889 a great dock strike broke out in London led by Tom Mann and other workers' leaders Meanwhile the British imperialists were fighting for colonial expansion and preparing for the Boer War in South Africa The name of Joseph Chamberlain appeared in the newspapers With a view to getting the support of the nation for his colonial policy, he said in his speeches that he was against individualism, he was for a united British Empire working collectively together Collectivism was a nice word to draw the attention of the masses away from class struggle He appealed to their 'pride of country', boasting that Britain was the richest country in the world and that every man would be sure of a good living if he and his fellow workers fought for the good of the Empire The idea that the British race was superior to all others was flattering, especially to the bourgeoisie It meant that they were supermen The imperialists came to power in 1895 Four Fars later the Boer War broke out Câu 3: Tìm hiểu thơng tin nhà văn William Shakespeare William Shakespeare (1564-1616) The great English playwright and poet William Shakespeare was William born on April 23, 1564 in the small town of Stratford-upon-Avon, about seventy-five miles from London Ile was the son of a tradesman When a boy he went to Stratford Grammar School where Latin and Greek were almost the only subjects Life itself, contact with people and his Shakespeare acquaintance with the rich English folklore gave him more than the (1564-1616) scholastic methods used at school In those days Stratford-upon-Avon was often visited by traveling groups of actors It is quite possible that Shakespeare saw some plays performed by such actors and was impressed by them Shakespeare lived in Stratford-upon-Avon until he was twenty-one By that time he was married and had three children At twenty-one he left Stratford-uponAvon for London where he joined a theatrical company and worked as an actor and a playwright In the late 90s a new theatre called The Globe was built on the bank of the Thames Shakespeare became one of its owners The people of the London liked it better than any other theatre It was in The Globe that most of Shakespeare's plays were staged at that time In 1613, Shakespeare left London and returned to his native town of Stratford-upon-Avon Three years later, on April 23, 1616, he died and was buried there Shakespeare is the author of poems, 37 plays and 154 sonnets His creative work is usually divided into three periods The first period that lasted from 1590 to 1600 was marked by the optimism so characteristic of all humanist literature It is best reflected in his brilliant comedies: The Comedies of Errors (1592), The Taming of the Shrew (1593), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1594), Love’s Labor’s Lost (1594), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595), Much Ado About Nothing (1598), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1599), As You Like It (1599), Twelfth Night; Or, What You Will (1600) The comedies describe the adventures of young men and women, their friendship and love, their search for happiness The scene is usually laid in some southern countries But one cannot help feeling that the comedies show the “Merry England” of Shakespeare’s time The comedies are usually based on some misunderstanding that creates comic situations They are full of fun But the laughter is not a mockery directed against the people and their vices Shakespeare never moralizes in his comedies He laughs with people, but not at them His comedies are filled with humanist love for people and the belief in the nobleness and kindness of human nature The historical chronicles form another group of plays written by Shakespeare in the first period They are: King Henry VI (part II) (1590), King Henry VI (part III) (1590), King Henry VI (part I) (1591), The Tragedy of King Richard II (1592), The Tragedy of King Richard II (1595), The Life and Death of King John (1596), King Henry IV (part I) (1597), King Henry IV (part II) (1597), The Life of King Henry V (1598) Historical Chronicles are plays written on subjects from national history Shakespeare’s chronicles cover a period of more than three hundred years of English history (from the rule of King John in the 12 th century up to the 16th century) However, the main subjects of the chronicles are not the lives and fates of Kings but history itself and the development of the country Like all humanists of his time Shakespeare believed a centralized monarchy to be an ideal form of state power He thought it would put an end to the struggle of feudal and would create conditions for the progress of the country One of the great achievements of Shakespeare was that in his chronicles he showed not only the kings, feudal, and churchmen, but the lower classes too The drama The Merchant of Venice and the two early tragedies Romeo and Juliet and Julius Caesar, also written in the 90s, show a change in the playwright's understanding of life, whose approach to reality becomes more pessimistic The main works written by Shakespeare during the second period (1601-1608) are his four great tragedies: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1601), Othello, the Moor of Venice (1604), King Lear (1605), Macbeth (1605) The tragedies reflect the deep, unsolvable contradictions of life, the falsehood, injustice and tyranny existing in society They show people whoperish in the struggle against Evil The tragedies, like the chronicles, are also based on real events but there is a considerable difference between the two genres The playwright raised great problems of Good and Evil in both But in the chronicles they are mostly linked with political themes-the question of the state and public life of the period described In the tragedies which are centered round the life of one man Shakespeare touched on the moral problems of universal significance - honesty, cruelty, kindness, love, vanity and others That is why his tragedies are of great interest to every new generation The plays of the third period (1609 - 1612) differ from everything written by Shakespeare before The playwright still touches upon important social and moral problems But now he suggests utopian solution to them He introduces romantic and fantastic elements, which have a decisive role in his plays Due to these peculiarities the works of this period - Cymbeline (1609), The Winter's Tale (1610) and The Tempest (1612) are called romantic dramas Geoffrey Chaucer - The founder of English realism Geoffrey Chaucer was the greatest writer of the 14th century He was born in London in the family of a wine merchant From the age of 18 he was connected with the Court of the King of England During his life he visited France and Italy several times In Italy he got with the works of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio What they wrote was full of new, optimistic ideas and love of life and had a great influence on his future works, the most important of which was the Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales The Canterbury Tales is collection of stories in verse told by people of different social standing Chaucer had planned 120 stories but wrote only 24, because death broke off his work The stories are described Short prologues to each story connect them into one work Canterbury Tales - 2003 The Prologue tells about a group of pilgrims, who were on their way to pray at the Cathedral of Canterbury One fine April evening these pilgrims met at London inn called the Tabard; the innkeeper was a jolly man, whose name was Harry Bailey There were twenty-eight pilgrims, men and women, and Chaucer himself there were thirty in all at the Inn O’ Henry – The Great American short story writer G Henry (1862 -1910) was born William Sydney Porter Before his name was changed he had been a bank office worker, cowboy, reporter, tramp, trying to find means of existence O Henry had a broad knowledge of the life of common people They are the main characters or his stories and their rates comprise those unusual and unexpected plots which never fail to surprise the reader O Henry was the master or surprise ending he literary heritage or O Henry contains two hundred and seventy-three short stories Most or them are filled with the writer's warm human sympathy for common American people: The Gift of the Magi, A Service of Love, The Cop and the Anthem An Unfinished Story, The Romance of a Busy Broker, The Last Leaf, While the Auto Waits, The Third Ingredient and many others The works of O' Henry reflected a specific period in the history or American literature: the turn of the 20th century O' Henry occupied all immediate position between the critical and the romantic tradition in American literature, which means that in his stories, realism and romanticism mingled O' Henry was both a realist and a romantic O' Henry was also an outstanding humorist who enriched American literature with a series of story-types: anecdote, the monologue, the dialogue, the grotesque, satirical and paradoxical; the adventure story, the psychological story, the parody, poems in prose, tales and sketches O' Henry was, however, most famous as a writer of city-life stories But O' Henry’s stories are not mere realistic sketches O Henry had both the craftsmanship of a writer and the compassion of a man As a writer he constructs a clever plot with an unforeseen and an unexpected climax suddenly released so that the reader is kept guessing till the last moment what the outcome is to be As a man he saw the drab surrounding and narrow circumstances which he described, but he lit them with sympathy and humor, and though in most of his stories humor seems to be predominant, yet the sympathy is always there, so the humor is warmed and enriched by its humanity The stories that follows, however, are examples of the reverse process There are more tears in it than laughter Yet laughter is implied, and one might say that because of it the tears are touched with a more tender compassion American Literature 19 TH CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE Historical background The colonization of the American Continent The discovery of the American Continents was made during the Renaissance times, and the first European colony in America was established in 1492 by Christopher Columbus who mistook the new continent for India This misunderstanding was a few years later cleared by the Florentine named Amerigo Vespucci who found that Christopher had made a mistake; the new continent was not India As a result, the new continent came to be called America after the name of its undoubted discoverer, America Within only a few decades after the discovery of America, European colonialists competed one another in laying claims to the new territories We are told that the native Americans met the first Europeans with hospitality and they were eager to trade' with the "palefaces" as they called the white men But this friendship did not last long Soon after their arrival as colonialists, the white men began either to plunder or to enslave the Indians, turning them into their worst victims The way the Indians were annihilated by the white men constitutes one of the darkest pages in the history of mankind The American War of Independence One of the most famous slogan of the age of global colonization was "The sun never sets on the British Empire" As recently as 1940, the British Empire was still great, covering much of Africa, India, Malaya, Hongkong, and other scattered territories in Asia and the Americas The Free West In the first half of the 19th century, the young American Republic strengthened its newly-won independence by expanding its territory westward and southward Nine new states were set up on the western lands, including Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia In 1803, the large territory of Louisiana was purchased by e American Government from Napoleon I and within the next decade, ten more states were formed, of which were Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma Later, after the Mexican War (18461848), the Southwestern part running from Texas to California was annexed to the territory of the United States The United States Government applied in the New world the Monroe Doctrine (raised by James Monroe, the fifth US president (1817-1825), The ideas of the Monroe Doctrine may be roughly summarized as "America for the Americans" is slogan meant that (1) foreign intervention into the internal affairs of the former colonies would be from then on not permitted since they had become part of the United States and that (2) future colonization of any part of North American continent would from then on be prohibited Anyone who wanted to settle in America was obliged to become American citizens The newly acquired lands in the West were an immense wilderness often referred to as the frontier lands or the free west, attracting more and more people to migrate to it Many planters from the South also went westward Slavery The institution of slavery throughout the world was often accompanied by the argument that the enslaved person was a member of an inferior race or tribe But the background of slavery lies elsewhere, in the greed of the slave-dealers and slave-users It goes without saying that slave-trade was once an enormously profitable business The Spanish used both Indian and African slaves in America, beginning in the 1500s In 1619, a Spanish ship carried a cargo of Africans to colonial Jamestown They were the first Africans that arrived in the region that became the United States Within several decades, slave-trade became widespread on a worldwide scale New laws adopted in Virginia by 1650 established that blacks arriving in new cargoes would be servants for life as would their children and their children's children During the 18th century a few voices in the Western world were raised against slavery England abolished the institution in 1773 During the American Revolution, many Americans came to oppose slavery because it was inconsistent with heir democratic ideals And during the 19th century, slavery was abolished 10 throughout the Americas However, racial discrimination was still a persistent phenomenon in American history up to early 20th century Literature 19th century American romanticism American literature began its history in the colonial Revolutionary period with accounts of discoveries and explorations in America that frequently display the characteristics of the Elizabethan literary style in England In the revolutionary period, there appeared several literary personalities who produced their works as tools to awaken American enthusiasm for independence and to make the revolution advance to success They were American enlighteners such as Thomas Jefferson (17431826), Thomas Paine (1737-1809) Phillip Freneau (1752-1832) In terms of style, their writings were lucid with the lucidity commonly found in all the works by enlighteners in England It might, therefore, be said that the history of American literature really began with the advent of romanticism in the 19th century Some critics explain the appearance of American romanticism as being closely attached to disappointment with the results of the Revolution The ideals of liberty, equality and pursuit of happiness for all were realized but only as a privilege for the few Poets and writers being repulsed by the dishonest practice of businessmen, turned to the "common men", romanticized them or sought beauty and happiness in the primitive life of American Indians Like English romanticism, American romanticism was a very complicated phenomenon It was not a definite system of particular attitudes towards man, nature and society Following are some of the most essential features of American romanticism They are found in the leading poets of the time Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), Walt Whitman (18191892) Libertarianism It is commonly acknowledged that many of the libertarian and abolitionistmovements in the late 18th century and early 19th century were engendered by he romantic philosophy based on the desire to be free of convention and tyranny and the new emphasis on the rights and dignity of the individual Longfellow wrote a great deal on slavery and the fate of the black Americans in his poetry In his poem The Slave's Dream, he describes a black slave who, being weary from his heavy work on a hot summer noon in a Southern plantation, falls asleep in the scorching sun, his hand still gasping his reaping hook His dream 11 takes him back to his native Africa where he meets his wife and children, and he himself sits upon a bold steed Suddenly this vision is rudely interrupted by the severe blow of a long whip And the raging overseer whips the slave to death In another poem The Negro in the Dismal Swamp Longfellow describes a typical scene in America in his days: the hunting down of a slave This poem reminds the reader very much of the world-famous novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe Nature Walt Whitman was also an impassioned abolitionist Whitman regards enslavement of Negroes as the worst of all the evils on earth, a degradation of man as man Basic to American romanticism as well as to romanticism elsewhere, England or the Continent, was the concern with nature Nature is shown in American romantic literature as it appears to the pioneers: both harsh and beautiful, with huge lakes , mighty rivers, giant redwood trees in Virgin forests, boundless plains, majestic mountains, and canyons with boiling springs and geysers of steam shooting up into the air These are the magnificent scenes peculiar to the West and the frontiersmen stand among such scenes as lovers/seekers of freedom who run away from the mercenary laws set down by the Judge to protect his business interests Such frontiersmen are found in The Leather Stocking Tales, especially in "The Pioneers, or the Sources of Susquehanna" by Fennimore Cooper A strong belief in the triumph of the good over the bad, of virtue over evil The writers of American romanticism understand life as a struggle between the good and the bad, and they insist that virtue should defeat evil In The Devil and Tom Walker, Washington Irving tells the story of a man who sells his soul to the devil The setting of the story is in the neighborhood of Boston Irving endowed the devil with all the characteristics of the American grabbers The devil wanted Tom's soul and in return Tom would get lots of treasure hidden in a swamp near Boston, thickly grown with gloomy pines Tom became rich and mighty but as he grew old, he began to regret the bargain he had made with the devil and set to think how to cheat him Though Tom was later cheated back by the devil and taken away to hell, but conscience had been awakened in him A strong tendency to emphasize on the importance of emotion over reasoning The writer approach to life was almost exclusively through emotions; this does not mean that American romantics reject the role of reason and k; the heart think in place of the mind, but it is only a peculiarity of their creative method This 12 characteristic feature is typical of Edgar Allan Poe The European poets of the time highly appreciated the harmony between idea and form achieved by Poe But his poem The Raven is commonly acknowledged as being vague and difficult to understand It tells about a young man's despondent feeling as he has lost his beloved His despondency grows steadily till it takes the shape of a black raven that flies into the room and perches on the marble bust of Pallas (In Greek mythology: the daughter of Zeus, goddess' of wisdom and warfare) The young man asks the bird its name and is told "Nevermore" The young man smiles at the answer and at the same time is surprised to find that "Nevermore" seems to be the very word he has in his subconscious mind and suits his melancholy mood Throughout the poem, the word "Nevermore" is repeated as the answer of the raven to the young man's question And the young man has to Patriotism Cooper and Poe were poets with great reputation in Europe Those who wrote with greater consciousness of European traditions included the Cambridge poets (Cambridge: the site of Harvard University) The best known member of this group is Longfellow globally famous as a poet with patriotic and cultural yearnings of the middle class Longfellow sought to dignify and elevate life in the New world Cooper's novel The Spy: A Tale of Neutral Ground is also imbued with patriotism In this novel, Harvey Birch, a peddler, is the Spy He is a patriot, and is ready to serve general Washington to the last but he pretends to serve the British so as to disguise his real aim to serve America This requires tremendous heroism and willpower Harvey Birch is despised by his own people; he is alone and friendless; he has no one to share the burden that is weighing heavily on his conscience because he has to keep the secret to himself all his life Harvey Birch is a literary memorial to an unknown patriot of whom the succeeding generations can have every right to be proud Early and Medieval English Literature ANGLO-SAXON PERIOD (5th - 10th centuries) During the first five centuries of our era and long before that Britain was inhabited by a people called Kelts, who lived in tribes Britain's history is considered to begin in the 5th century, when it was invaded from the Continent by the fighting tribes of Angles, Saxons and Jutes At the very end of the 5th century they settled in Britain and began to call themselves English (after the principal tribe of settlers, called Englisc) 13 Although we know very little of this period from literature some poems have nevertheless reached us In those early days songs called epics were created in many countries The epics tell about the most remarkable events of a people's history and the deeds of one or more heroic personages THE SONG OF BEOWULF The first masterpiece of English literature, the epic poem The Song of Beowulf describes the historical past of the land from which the Angles, Saxons and Jutes came They brought the subject over from the Continent when they invaded Britain, and it was made into a poem somewhere about the 7th century The story of Beowulf tells of the time when kings Hrothgar ruled the Danes Hrothgar built a great house for himself and his man It has a large hall with flat stones in the centre All the men slept in this hall There was a great feast when the hall was built During the feast the songs from the hall were heard by a monster His name was Grendel He looked like a man, but there was long black hair all over his body Grendel was very big and strong In fact, he was as strong as many men and he did not like men When he caught a man, he carried him to his home in the mountain and ate him there So he was also called the Man-Eater When all Hrothgar's men were asleep, Grendel appeared He seized thirty of the sleeping men, carried them away and ate them In the morning the king saw that not all his soldiers were in the castle “Grendel has been here." he thought When his men learned about it, many of them were afraid "We must watch and fight Grenfell." said the king So, when Grendel came again one night there was a very long fight But the hair of Grendel's big body was so long that the soldiers could not use their swords against him And so he killed some of the men and again ran away with them to the mountains and ate them Hrothgar could nothing The monster now came not only to the king's palace but to the houses of the people and killed them Twelve 14 long years passed, and the people in the land were very unhappy Hrothgar wanted to give Grendel gold to end the war between them But the monster did not take the gold There was no dinner at the king's castle now People were afraid to walk Beowulf - 2007 near the mountains: Grendel watched for them and caught and killed many of them Hrothgar had many strong and brave men but they did not know what to Grendel continued to kill and kill People of other countries heard about Grendel Beowulf, a great hero, who lived in Norway, also heard about the monster He told his men to build a good ship because he wanted to go to King Hrothgar and help him and his people When the ship was ready, Beowulf took fourteen of his bravest soldiers with him In two days they saw the mountains of Hrothgar's land When Beowulf and his men came to the castle, old Hrothgar sat alone in the big room He was very unhappy His men brought the guests to him "Here are men who have come from over the sea," they said "It seems they are friends This general - they call him Beowulf - is a very strong man." "1 knew Beowulf when he was a child," said Hrothgar "His good old father was a brave soldier We are very happy to see you, our dear guests.” "Hrothgar," Beowulf answered, "I am happy to see you too Stories about Grendel have come to me The bravest and the most clever of my people asked me to come to you because they know that I am strong And now I am ready, alone, to fight Grendel I have learnt that this monster fights without a sword So I'll fight with him without a sword, too.” “Grendel has killed many of my best soldiers," the king said "We are very unhappy about it I know you will kill the monster Stay here in my castle for the night Be brave and watch for Grendel." With these words King Hrothgar walked away Beowulf was received with great joy by Hrothgar, who gave a feast in his honour Then Grendel came from his mountains He could easily see the castle, bright with light He walked up to the door and opened it A terrible light like fire came from his eyes In the big room of the castle 15 Beowulf - 2007 he saw a group of sleeping soldiers and laughed aloud Beowulf watched him The monster killed a sleeping soldier who lay near the door He walked nearer to the table and saw Beowulf Suddenly Beowulf caught one arm of the monster with his hands Grendel felt that this man was as strong as many men He was afraid now He wanted to run away, but he could not free himself from Beowulf’s strong hands When Grendel and Beowulf began to fight, the castle seemed to jump up in the air and come down again Beowulf’s men struck Grendel from every side with their swords but it was all nothing to the great monster Grendel fought and fought but he could not free himself from Beowulfs hands At last Beowulf tore the arm out of Grendel's body Grendel cried aloud and ran away to his home in the mountains Again there was singing and joy in the hall the next night But late at night a still more terrible monster, a Water Witch, appeared She was Grendel's mother who had come to kill Beowulf but she did not find him and disappeared, carrying away one of the best of Hrothgar's men In the morning Beowulf together with Hrothgar and his men rode into the mountains where the monster lived They rode and rode and at last came to the monster's big castle Beowulf went into the castle alone In one of the rooms he saw a big sword on the wall He understood that it was a magic sword He quickly took it down and with that sword he killed the terrible monster He cut off his head and brought it to his friends The soldiers shouted with joy when they saw the great hero come out of the castle He carried the monster's head by the hair After a short rest they all rode back to the Hrothgar's castle The next day everybody came to the biggest room in Hrothgar's castle to celebrate the monster's death Beowulf put up the head and the arm of Grendel on the wall of the big room As the guests sat down at the table Hrothgar said: "Grendel has made the life of our people very unhappy Now you, Beowulf, the best of men have done what we could not You have become my son now We shall remember you always." Beowulf was very happy to hear such words At supper he sat near Hrothgar between the two sons of the king 16 Beowulf - 2007 Hrothgar gave many rich presents to Beowulf and his men: beautiful horses, gold and silver There was much music and singing far into the night There was peace in the land for the first time in many years Nobody was afraid and everybody slept well that night In two days Beowulf was ready to go back to his home country with his men with rich presents from Hrothgar There he became a king when his father died The second part of the poem tells us of Beowulf's deeds when he was king of Norway A fiery dragon was destroying his country Beowulf found the dragon's cave and a lot of treasures in it Beowulf saved his country - he killed the dragon but the monster wounded him with his fiery breath Beowulf died and his people buried him on a high cliff by the sea-shore Over his grave his men raised a mound and rode around it, singing a song of mourning Thus, the epic The Song of Beowulf, tells of some events from a people's history, sings the heroic deeds of a man, his courage and his desire of justice, his love for his people and self-sacrifice for the sake of his country The poem is a classic example of Anglo-Saxon poetry It has no rhyme, but each line has alliteration, which is a repetition, at close intervals, of the same consonant in words or syllables For example, the repetition of the sounds and Ifs in the following lines makes them musical and gives them rhythm: Then the baleful fiend its fire belched out, and bright home burned The blaze stood high and landfolk fighting Another interesting feature of the poem is the use of picture names that show the subject in a new light The unknown poet calls the sea a "sail-road'', or "saltstreams", the musical instruments "joy-wood", "glee-wood", etc These descriptive words, together with the subject, are called double metaphors THE NEW LITERARY TREND AND ITS CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES The ideas of Chartism attracted the attention of many progressive-minded people of the time Many prominent writers became aware of the social injustices around them and tried to picture them in their works Thus this period of fierce class struggle was mirrored in literature by the appearance of a new trend, that of 17 Critical Realism The greatest novelists of the age are Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell These writers used the novel as a means to protest against the evils in contemporary social and economic life and to picture the world in a realistic way Engels said that in his opinion Realism should depict typical characters in typical circumstances The critical realists introduced new characters into literature: they described the new social force in modern history - the working class They expressed deep sympathy for the working people; they described the unbearable conditions of their life and work; they voiced a passionate protest against exploitation and described their persistent struggle for their rights Hard Times by Charles Dickens and Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell are among the best works of 19th century Critical Realism in which the Chartist movement is described The greatness of these novelists lies not only in their truthful description of contemporary life, but also in their profound humanism Their sympathy lies with the ordinary labouring people They believed in the good qualities of the human heart 18