BRITISH AND U.S.A.

LITERATURE
I. ELIZABETHAN ERA (Sec. 16)
1. William Shakespeare (1564-1616): UK
The Sonnets - (1599)
Romeo and Juliet - (1591-1595)
Hamlet (1599-1601)
Macbeth (1603 -1607)
A Midsummer Nights Dream (1596)
II. AUGUSTAN ERA (Neocalassical, ENLIGHTENMENT) ( (first half of 18th century))
2. Daniel Defoe (1659-1731): UK
Robinson Crusoe 1719 (fiction, adventures literature, religion, british
empirialism, civilizing, providence, rise of bougeoisie from the middle-class
individuals, rise of capitalism, realism)
3. Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): UK (Anglo-Irish satirist, writer)
Gullivers Travels 1726- satire of human nature and a parody of travellers
tales, fantasy. Style is clear, pointed, precise. Human allegory, even a dystopia.
III. ROMANTICISM (second half of 18th century)
4. John Keats (1795-1821): UK (English Romantic poet)
Ode on a Grecian Urn 1819 (a world of pastoral innocence, )
5. S. T. Coleridge (1772-1834): UK (English poet, literary critic, philosopher)
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner 1797 (imagery, symbols, religion)
6. Jane Austen (1775-1817): UK (English novelist)
Pride and Prejudice 1813 (romantic fiction, class, womans marriage, realism)
IV. BRITISH REALISM (VICTORIANISM) (early 19th century - 1837-1901)
Realism (British) vs. Romance (USA), the era of the British Empire(1/3 of the world, rise
of bourgeosie and education of middle-class people, realism, manners and morals, clearcut characters, the good are rewarded, the villains are punished, heros, industrialization.
7. Charles Dickens (1812-1870): UK (English novelist, social realism+romace)
Great Expectations 1860 (picaresque plot leads to bildungsroman, development of a
single character, Pip). Psychological realism with a complex vision of society. Psychic
growth, spiritual transformation.

David Coperfield 1850 (the most auto-biographical, child labor, schools, debtors
prison, highly colored characters (social types). Style: descriptive, realistic.

8. Lewis Caroll (1832-1898): UK (author, mathematician, logician, photographer and deacon)

Alices Adventures in Wonderland 1865 Literature for children (fantasy world,
fantasy genre) Themes: Growing up (Motifs of Identity and Curiosity), Size
change, Death (final stage of growth), Games &Learning the rules.

9. Thomas Hardy (1840-1928): UK (English novelist and poet, second generation)

(realism, naturalism, pessimism, calvinist).
Tess of the DUberville 1891 (realism, romance, naturalism)
the shortcomings of his society, hypocritical nature of conventional morality, social
stereotypes, deplorable implications of Industrialisation. Fate, Men dominating women
V. AMERICAN LITERATURE - ROMANTICISM (19th century)
AMERICAN NOVELRomance, puritanism, symbolism, fantasy and sentimentality, psychological
and moral nature. 3 1. Puritanism 2. Abolitionism 3. Transcedentalism- self-reliance Emerson, a
revolt against the puritann inheritance

10. Natanael Hawthorne (1804-1864): USA (American novelist and short-story writer)

The Scarlet Letter-1850 (independence, Civil War, transcendentalism, dark

romanticism, puritan in-heritage, impact on Melville, Romance, symbolism, fantasy
and sentimentality, psychological and moral nature.

11. Herman Melville (1819-1891) USA (a national literature and romantic individualism)

Moby Dick USA-1851 Criticism of American civilization for its cruelty aboard
naval vessels ans its intolerant imposition of western civilization upon noble
savages, calvinist.Tragic Hero, Symbolism.

POETRY - Romanticism
12. Walt Whitman: (1818-1892) (Humanist, transcendentalism and realism, free verse)
Leaves of Grass 1885 ouvert sexuality, free verse with a cadence based on the Bible.
Themes: Democracy as a way of life, The cycle of growth and death, The beauty of the
individual,
13. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) (romantic, representative for renaissance and 19th
century American individualism, self-reliance)She numberd her poems, no titles. She
writes often about anguish, despair, suffering, fear, denial, loss, grief, death.
VI. REALISM USA (Sec. Half of 19th century)
14. Mark Twain: (1835-1910)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - 1883 - Civil war, real American speech, a
satire of the American South in the 19th century, adventures book, picareque novel,
Themes: Racism and Slavery, Intellectual and Moral education (bildungsroman),
Growing up, The hypocrizy of civilized society Motifs: Childhood
15. Henry James: (1843-1916) - (born in USA, lived in UK) trans-atlantic Literature,
international themes, psichological realism and naturalism.
The Portrait of a Lady 1881 - Existentialist novel, Stream of conciuosness
technique. Themes: Personal freedom, responsibility (towards her husband), betrayal.
VIII. MODERNISM (XXth century, between the two World Wars)
BRITISH MODERNISM
16. Joseph Conrad: (1857-1954)- Polish born English novelist. Anti-heroic characters
Heart of Darkness (1898) 1902 exposes dark side of the European colonization,
Congo River, Cent. Africa. Story within a story. Themes: 1. The hypocrisy of
Imperialism, 2. Madness as a result of imperialism, 3. The Absurdity of Evil, Horror.

Lord Jim 1900 Moral ambiguity (The Romantic Ideal and the Victorian
mentality are put face to face). Marlow wonders if Jim acted according to
outdated Romantic ideals instead of taking a more Victorian line of conduct.

17. James Joyce: (1882-1941) IRISH, Dublin

Ulysses - (1918-1920) 1922 A landmark in novel development, modern fiction,
complex and multilayered realism, mythology, stream of conciousness techn.
18. G.B.Shaw: (1856-1950) IRISH, protestant, ardent socialist, drama. Nobel & Oscar,
wrote "discussion plays"
Caesar and Cleopatra - 1901- Shaw sees Roman ocupation of Egipt as similar to
British ocupation during his time. Themes: 1. Struggle between Reason and
Emotion, 2. The conflict between Eastern (passion) and Western (stoic duty,
imperialism) culture 3. The definition of Honor (Caesar and Cleopatras death,
suicide)
Pygmalion 1913 tale on gender, class, and phonetics, reflects Shaw's own love life,
myth of Pygmalion (by Ovid) and the statue, unconventional ambiguity, humour, comedy.
19. Virginia Wolf (1882-1941) inovative novelist, wanted to create a type of literature
specific for women
Mrs. Dolaway - 1925 Reply to Ulysses (17 hours) Style: Stream of
conciousness technique, indirect discourse. Themes: 1. Communication vs. privacy 2.
Desillusionment with the British Empire (after the Firs World Wars atrocities in England)
3. The fear of death (Carissa and Peter) 4. The threat of Opression (social constraints for
Clarissa and Septimus, English social system is opressive)
20. T.S. Eliot: (1888-1965) NOBEL Born in USA, moved to UK My mind may be
American, but my heart is British. Helped by Ezra Pund. A devenit CRESTIN
Waste Land 1922 - The fragmentation and alienation characteristic of modern culture,
making use of these fragments to create a new kind of poetry. The Waste Land portrays
rape, prostitution, a conversation about abortion, and other incidences of non-reproductive
sexuality.
Themes: 1. The damaged psych of humanity (after 1st warld war, emasculinisation),
2. The Power of Literary History, 3. The changing nature of the gender roles (right to vote,
to work, to smoke in public)
AMERICAN MODERNISM

(Sec XX) U.S.A. - first half 20th cent.

21. F.S.Fitzgerald; - (1896-1940)

The Great Gatsby - 1925 - The novel takes place following the First World War.
American society enjoyed prosperity during the "roaring" 1920s (Jass Age). Prohibition,
Fun-driven life style in New-York, a cover for a terrifying moral emptiness, grotesque and
damaging. Technique: Delay character revelation. Themes: 1. The decline of the
American dream 2. The hollowness (imorality) of the upper class.
22. Ernest Hemingway: (1899-1961) Pulitzer and Nobel Prize Illionois, went to Italy
during the war, formulated a code of a masculine behaviour based on dignity under
adversity, grace under presure. Alcoholism, divorces, chronic depression and suicide.
Style: Economy (organizare) and understatement (modestie). Existentialism.
Short Stories he is autobiographical; he uses the objective technique, the
narrator is only an eyewitness. His protagonists=stoic males who manifest grace
under pressure. He rendered a realistic portrayal of the inter-war period with its
disillusionment and disintegration of old values. Written in a simple but

unconventional style, with the problems of war, violence and death as their
themes, his novels present a symbolic interpretation of life. He has a place among
the writers of `the lost generation', along with Faulkner, Fitzgerald, John Dos, Ezra
Pound, James Joyce. Realist in his writings.
23. Eugene ONeill: (1888-1953) a playwright morality plays and experimented with the
tragic form (Tragedies).
Mourning Becomes Electra - 1931 Tragedy, Psychological Drama, Placed after the
Civil War (1865-1866) Modern psychology, Freudian impact, Gothic features,
Themes: 1. Oedipus 2. Fate, Repetition and substitution 3. The double/the rival
4. The law of the father; Symbol: The Manon house, As a Greek Temple, Crypt
24. William Faulkner: USA (1897-1962) Nobel interested in moral themes, stream-ofconciousness technique.
Absalom! Absalom 1936 moral crises that led to the sel-destruction of the South
allegorizes Southern history; the title itself is an allusion to a wayward son fighting the empire his
father built. Themes: 1. Race 2. Memory 3. History (of South, Civil War) 4. The South 5.
Narration 6. Design (Sutpens design for his dynasty. 7. Haunted House
IX. POST-MODERNISM (Contemporary Age) - UK
25. William Golding: (1914 1993) Nobel and Booker Prize Allusions to classical
literature, mythology and Christian Symbolism,
Lord of the Flies - 1954 -Dealt with an unsuccessful struggle against barbarism
and war, thus showing the moral ambiguity and fragility of civilization. It has
also been said that it is an allegory of World War II.
GENRE Allegory; adventure story; castaway fiction; loss-of-innocence fiction.
TONE: Dark; violent; pessimistic; tragic; unsparing
Freuds theory of ego: the id=Jack (unconscious, instinctual needs and desires), the
ego= Ralph (the conscious, rational mind), and the superego=Piggy (the sense of
conscience and morality). Still others maintained that Golding wrote the novel as a
criticism of the political and social institutions of the West. Ultimately, there is some
validity to each of these different readings and interpretations of Lord of the Flies.
Themes: 1. Civilization vs. Savagery 2. The loss of innocence 3. Innate human evil
Motifs: 1. Biblical Parallels, 2. natural beauty, 3. the bullying of the weak bu the strong.
British and American Literature
1. Renaissance (early 16th cent - early 17th cent) - Shakespeare
2. The Augustan Age (first half of 18th century) - Defoe and Swift
3. The Romantic Age (second half of 18th cent) - Keats, Coleridge, Austen
4. Victorian Age (early 19th century - 1837-1901) - Thomas Hardy, Ch. Dickens, L. Caroll
5. Modernism (early 20th century): J. Conrad, J. Joyce, V. Woolf, G.B. Shaw, T.S. Eliot
6. American Literature (second half 19th century - first half 20th cent)
- Romanticism: N. Hawthorne, H. Melville, E. Dickinson, W. Witman
- Realism: M. Twain, Henry James
- Modernism: F.S. Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, E. ONeil, W. Faulkner
7. Post modernism, Contemporary age W. Golding Lord of the flies