Rhyme and Reason; literature timeline

Periods

The Old English Period

500 - 1066

Romans withdrew in 410 -> Germanic invaders ; Angles, Saxons, Jutes -> in 739 the Scandinavian attack began -> first they robbed, then they stayed -> vikings controlled the Danelaw -> 11th century; danish kings -> 1042 Edward the Confessor got the crown

The Middle English Period

1066 - 1500

1066 -> Edward the CConfessor died -> Harold Godwinson claimed the crown -> Duke William of Normady crossed the channe; -> battle of Hastings -> William the Conquer king ->french rule: feudal system ->upper circles spoke french, commoners English
-> 14th century English reestablished but changed:
* words from french
* Alliteration -> End rhyme (in literature)
* war -> more elegant; women! -> ballads and Romances, courtly love
* hero -> knight; had courage and manners (towards women) : Arthurian legends

The Renaissance

1500 - 1660

rebirth; renewed interes Roman & Greek culture
art an thought; humanist
collective attitude (group) -> individual attitude (self)
individual attitued -> art no longer anonymous + Reformation & rise of protestants
theocentric -> antropocentric (man-centred)
life on earth preperation for death -> enjoy before death
(memento mori) -> (carpe diem)
dogmatic believe; the church nows everything, they tell the truth -> critcal investigation; intelectual independence
intelectual independence -> printing press, galilei, experiments, SCIENCE!

Neoclassical period/augustan period/age of reason

1660 - 1800

classiccism; revivial of Greek/Latin literature and culture
prosperity
reason; common sense
utopia; perfect world
satire; ridicule (by the lower classes)

Romantic Period

1800 - 1830

industrial revolution; very poor or rich
lyrical ballads
imagination/subjective
elements; nature, supernatural,love, dissapointment, idealization, child and innocencce, exotic cultures

Victorian Age

1830 - 1900

Britain at height of its power
First industialized country
Big gap between rich and poor; child labour
reformals of society needed
religion questioned (origin of species by charles Darwin)
Age of the novel; adressed social wrongs (reform needed)

works

Beowulf

700

date unknown
orally passed
germanic poetry; no rhyme ...........................no rhythmical pattern ...........................line devided in 2 half lines; contained 2 stressed syllables ...........................2/3 of stressed syllables have Alliteration

Sir Patrick Spense

1300

date unknown
ballad
story; noblemen from Scotland go to Norway for the marriage of the kings Daughter to the Norwegian king. Quarells -> they want to take the duaghter back. They all die in a shipwreck

Geoffrey Chaucer; Canterbury Tales

1395

written between 1386–1395, unfinished (intent: 120 stories)
story; group of pilgrims on their way to visit Thomas Becket's grave, they hold a storytelling competition
general prologue and prologue per tale
characters have several dimensions
good insight in medieval society

Henry Howard; Consolation

1530

courtly love poetry
he is in love with a woman that doesn't love him back
a lot of imagery with weather conditions

Edmend Spenser; Amoretti, Sonnet LXXV

1570

momento mori
humble lover

John Donne; The Sun Rising

1590

metaphysical poetry; intelectual effort, reaction, equal 'we'
sun symbolizes time, he attacks it because now they need to do stuff
underlying conceit (ccomparison between 2 unlike things); he compares the bed to the world

William Shakespeare; Hamlet

1602

story; Hamlet (prince of Denmark) sees the ghost of his fater who tells him he did not die of a snake's bite, but was killed by Claudius, who has married his mother. is dad wants Halet to avenge him. He is in mental confusion -> monologue 'to be or not to be' in which he meditates on the subjects of life and death

Christopher Marlowe; The Tragical History of Dr Faustus

1604

monologues
Story; Dr Faustus has acquired all intelligence -> bored -> makes a deal with the devil; he gets 24 years of ulimited (magical) power in return for his soul

William Shakespeare; MacBeth

1606

fatal flaw; ambition
magic; 3 witches, ghost of Banquo
comic relief
violence & revenge
prohecy; Macbeth shall be King
villain; lady Macbeth
story; Scottish general Macbeth gets a prohecy that he will be king.Driven by ambition and his wife, he kills the king. Later he becomes paranoid and eventually he dies.

Sir John Suckling; Why So Pale and Wan

1638

cavelier poetry; makes fun of courtly love
asks why he is so quite. If talking doesn't make her happy, will being quite do it?

Daniel Defoe; Robinson Crusoe

1719

story; man strands on a deserted island
character; works hard, economical
style; produced as auto-biography/reality

Jonathan Swift; Gulliver's travels

1727

story; Lumel Gulliver travels to strange countries with giants and dwarfs
satire; ridicules society
judges on the abuse of power

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

1798

story; old sailer tells a wedding-guest about a disastrous voyage
supernatural

The Lyrical ballads

1798

often seen as beginning of Romantic period
by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
includes 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'

William Wordsworth; It is a Beauteous Evening Calm and Free

1807

nature, man & child innocence
personification
Wordsworth walks along the river with daughter (of a french woman) and enjoys the sunset

William Wordsworth; the Solitary Reaper