PREFACE

Thank to Almighty God who has given His bless to the writer for finishing the
English paper assignment entitled Definiton of literature. The writer also wish to express
this deep and sincere gratitude for those who have guided in completing this paper.
This English paper contains some techniques to read journal articles critically to improve on
ability in Literature comprehension.

Sukabumi, Februari 2016

Author

CHAPTER I
Rationale
England has a rich literature with a long history. This is an attempt to tell the story of
English literature from its beginnings to the present day. The history of English writing
begins very early in the Anglo-Saxons period and continues through the Renaissance, the
Augustan and Romantic periods to the Victorian age, the twentieth century, and down to the
present. It should be most useful right at the start of the course, or later as a resource for
exercises in revision, and to help you reflect on value judgments in literary criticism. It may
also be suitable for university students and the general reader who is interested in the history
of literature.
Literary history can be useful, and is increasingly necessary. Scholars specialize in
single fields, English teachers teach single works. Literature is a word with a qualitative
implication, not just a neutral term for writing in general. Without this implication and
without a belief on the part of the author that some qualities of literature are best appreciated
when it is presented in the order in which it appeared. There would be little point in a literary
history. This effort to put the most memorable English writing in an intelligible historical
perspective is offered as an aid to public understanding.

CHAPTER II
Discussions
A.

B.

What is history
According to Cambridge dictionary, history is:
a. (The study of or a record of) past events considered together, especially events of a
particular period, country or subject.
b. Something that happened or ended a long time ago and is not important now or a
person who is not important now, although they were in the past.
c. Something that has been done or experienced by a particular person or thing
repeatedly over a long period.
Old English
The earliest period of English Literature, is regarded as beginning with the
invasion of Britain by Germanic (Anglo-saxon) tribes in the fifth century AD and
lasting until theFrench invasion under William the conqueror in 1066. The true
beginning of literature in England, however, are to be found the Latin Middle Ages,
when monasteries were the main institutions that preserved classical culture.
The people to be called the English lived in a mosaic of small tribal kingdoms,
which gradually amalgamated. The threat of Danish began to unify a nation under
king Alfred of wessex. English literature which had flourished for four centuries, was
dethroned at the Norman conquest in 1066, and for generations it to well recorded
some generations it was not well recorded. After 1066 the English wrote in Latin, as
they had done before the conquest, but now also in French. Not very much English
writing survives from the hundred years following the conquest, but changes in the
language.
The first known English poet is Aldehlm (c. 640-709). King Alfred thought Aldehlm
unequalled in any age in his ability to compose poetry in his native tongue. The death
song is one of the rare vernacular poems extant in several copies. Its laconic
formulation is characteristic of Anglo-Saxon. In the five early English poets whose
names are known: Aldelhm, Bede, Caedmon,Alfred-two saints, a cowman and a king
and Cynewulf, who signed his poems but is otherwise unknown oral composition
was not meant to be written. A poem was a social act, like telling a story today, not a
thing which belonged to its former. In this period there were many literature that
developed, there were Northumbria and The dream of the Rood in the 1530 s in Henry
VIIIs of the monasteries may have been in old English. The artistic wealth of
Northumbria is known to us through Bede but also surviving illuminated books such
the Lindisfame Gospels and the Codex Aminatus, and some fine churches, crosses,
andreligious art. And there was Heroic poetry is early literature that commonly look
back to a heroic age: a period in the past when warriors were more heroic kings
were kings. The Christian heroism of The Dream of tile Rood redirected the old
pegan heroism which can be seen in fragments of Germanic heroic poetry . waldere,
an early poem, feature the heroics of walters defence of narrow place against his
enemies. Christian literature also represented in translation and liturgical adaptation.
Translation of the bible into English did not begin in the 14th century or the
16thcenturies: the Gospels, Psalms and other books were translated into English
3

throughout the old English period. Alfreds translation program had created a body of
discursive native prose . this was extended in the 10th century, after the renewal of
Benedictine monastic culture under archbishop dunstand, by new writing, clerical and
civil. Among the many manuscripts from this time are the four main poetry
manuscripts. There was however little new poetry after Maldon. Changes in the nature
of the language-notably the use of articles, pronouns and prepositions instead of final
inflections-made verse composition more difficult. The conquest of English by Danish
and then by Norman kings disrupted cultural activity, and changed the language of the
rulers. Latin remained the language of the church, but the hierarchy was largely
replaced by Normans, and English uses were done away with. William the conqueror
made his nephew Osmund the first bishop in the new see of Salisbury.
C.

Middle English Period

Literature in England in this period was not just in English and Latin but in
French as well, and developed in directions set largely in France. Epic and elegy gave
way to romance and lyric. English writing revived fully in English after 1360, and
flowered in the reign of Richard II (1372-99). It gained literary standard in London
English after 1425, and developed modern forms of verse, of prose and of drama. The
period began and ended with the unwelcome arrivals of twoconquerors: Normans in
1066, and the printing press in 1476. English literature survived the first conquest
with difficulty. Historians of English and of England agree that a period ends with the
15th century. When the first printed English book appeared in 1476, the phase
of Middle English (ME) was virtually over: the language had assumed its
modern form, except in spelling. As printing and Protestantism established
themselves, the manuscripts in whichvernacular writing survived, outdated and
possibly suspect, were neglected. By 1700 some manuscripts were being used as
firelighters or worse; Alexander Pope refers to the martyrdom of jakes and fire
(jakes: lavatory). Survival was chancy: some of Chaucers works have been lost,
and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was not printed until 1839.Even if much more
had survived, the story would be neither simple nor clear. Literature survived in three
languages: Latin lived alongside Norman French and an English which was a welter
of dialects, spoken rather than written.
The Conquest of England in 1066 by William of Normandy displaced English
as the medium of literature, for the language of the new rulers was French.
William the Conqueror tried to learn English, but gave up; Saxons dealing with him
had to learn French, and French was the language of the court and the law for
three centuries.Literature in English suffered a severe disruption in 1066. Classical
Old English verse died out, reviving later in a very different form, but prose
continued: sermons were still written in English and The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle was
kept up in monasteries. When the new writing appeared, it was in an English which
had become very different from that of the 11th century.
Middle English writing blossomed in the late 14th century, and developed a
literaryself-consciousness. turn back to the French conquest of English. Within two
generations of the arrival of this romance language came new literary forms and
the humanism of the 12th-century Renaissance, when first Norman and then Gothic
churches arose in England. Poems were about knights, and then about knights and
ladies. For the 12th and 13th centuries a history of English writing has to discard
its English monocle, for writing in the Anglo-Norman kingdom of England was
largely in Latin and French. After 1100 is often characterized as a change from epic
4

to romance. William Is minstrel Taillefer is said to have led the Normans ashore at
Hastings declaiming the Chanson de Roland. This chanson de geste (song of deeds)
relates the deeds of Roland and Oliver, two of the twelve peers of the emperor
Charlemagne, who die resisting a Saracen ambush in the Pyrenees. Roland scorns to
summon the aid of Charlemagne until all his foes are dead. Having seen some of the
effects of the submersion of English by French, and before approaching the flowering
of English poetry in the reign of Richard II (1372-98), we should look at institutions
and mental habits which shaped this new Englishliterature. Foremost of these is the
Church. Modern literature is largely concerned with secular life and written by lay
people. But for a thousand years, the thought, culture and art of Europe were
promoted by the Church. From the 12th century, intellectual initiative began to pass
from these schools to universities. At universities in Paris or Oxford (founded c.1167),
the teachings of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church were modified by new
learning. There was in the 12th century a revival of classical learning and a new
systematic thinking about God, man, civil society and the universe: a Renaissance. At
the 12th century School of Chartres, France, this learning and philosophy were
humanist valuing human life in itself as well as as a preparation for heavenly life.
The literature which was developing in this period is lyric, English prose, epic and
romance.
D.

The English renaissance

In the 19th century Jules Michelet extended his idea of renaissance from the
Italian 15thcentury, the Quattrocento, to a general cultural renewal in western Europe
beginning earlier. Michelets idea has proved very popular with historians.
The Renaissance spread from 15th-century Italy to France,
Spain and beyond.The Northern Renaissance was, except in the Low Countries, more
intellectual than artistic; it was set back by the Reformation . The art of the
Italian Renaissance is today better known than its literature. The High Renaissance
trio of Leonardo da Vinci,Michaelangelo Buonarotti and Raffaello Sanzio (Raphael)
typify its characteristics: Leonardo was a painter, an anatomist, a scientist
and inventor; Michaelangelo a sculptor, an architect, a painter and a poet; and
Raphaels paintings in the Vatican gave classic form to the long flowering of Italian
art. literature changed less than art and architecture, although the content of all three
remained Christian. Celebrated icons of the High Renaissance are Michaelangelos
gigantic David in Florence, his central design for St Peters Basilica in Rome, and its
Sistine Chapel. In Italy the Renaissance had intellectual origins, drawing on the study
of Plato (c.427-348 BC) and his followers. It also found civicexpression in the
Florence of the Medici and the Rome of Leo X (Pope 1513-21), as well as many
smaller city-states. In 1564, the year of Michaelangelos death and Shakespeares
birth, the Italian Renaissance was over, but the English Renaissance had hardly begun.
The protestant Reformation had a tremendous influence on the social, political, and
economic structure of Europe in the sixteenth century. The Tudor royal line began
with Henry VII who was crowned in 1485. His son Henry VIIIs reign, which began
in 1509, spanned several successful wars and six marriages. In 1530, Henry VIII
broke with the Catholic Church and established the Church of England (THE
Anglican Church), creating long-lasting conflicts among religious factions. Henrys
daughter, Elizabeth, came to the throne in 1558. She turned England into a great sea
5

power capable of defeating the feared Spanish Armada. Elizabeth also supported a
flourishing period o cultural achievement.
When Elizabeth I died in 1603. The throne passed peacefully to her cousin
James, king of Scotland and a member of the Stuart family. Unfortunately, Jamess
domineering approach provoked disputes with Parliament, conflicts that ultimately
lost.
Jamess son and successor, Charles I, understood the people even less. His
conflicts with Parliament finally led to a civil war. In 1649, Charles lost both his
throne and his life. England soon became a commonwealth ruled by Oliver Cromwell,
an iron-willed Puritan. Cromwell achieved his goals of creating a stable government
and ensuring toleration for Puritans. After his death in 1658, Parliament reconvened
and, in 1660, invited Charles Stuart, son of Charles I, to become king. The monarchy
was restored.
England was bombarded with broadsheets and pamphlets that advertise the
delights of a new life in the America colonies. They usually neglected to mention
the hardships and hazards that accompanied it. After Henry VIII broke away from the
Catholic Church; the Book of Common Prayer replaced the Latin missal. Because it
was written in English instead of Latin, the book allowed people to read the prayers
for themselves. New English versions of the Bible, including the King James Bible of
1611, also allowed people to gain a better understanding of the Christian faith. The
Compleat Angler, by Izaak Walton (1653), combined practical information about
fishing with quotations, songs, folklore, and descriptions of an idyllic rural life.
The chapbook was popular form of literature in the sixteenth century. Its
content ranged from songs, poems, and fairy tales to ghost
stories and tales of travel. Chapbooks were usually only sixteenth or thirty-two pages
long.
Two major groups of poets appeared during the Renaissance, metaphysical
and Cavalier. Metaphysical poets wrote highly intellectual poems characterized by
complex thought, paradox, natural rhythms, harsh language and, especially,
the conceit, or a comparison between two very unlike things. The best known of the
metaphysical poets was John Donne.
The Cavalier poets were English gentlemen who were supports of King
Charles I. Their poetry, primarily about such dashing subjects as love, war, and honor,
was influenced by the poetry of their predecessors Ben Jonson and John Donne. The
most famous of the Cavalier poets was Sir John Suckling.
E.

The 17th Century

The 17th century is divided into two by the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642
and the temporary overthrow of the monarchy. With the return of Charles II as King in
1660, new models of poetry and drama came in from France, where the court had
been in exile. In James Is reign, high ideals had combined with daring wit
and language, but the religious and political extremism of the mid- century broke that
combination. Restoration prose, verse, and stage comedy were marked by worldly
scepticism and, in Rochester, acynical wit worlds away from the evangelicalism of
Bunyan. When Miltons Paradise Lostcame out in 1667, its grandeur spoke of
a vanished heroic world. The representative career of Dryden moves from the
metaphysical poetry of Donne to a new Augustanconsensus.

The most influential figure in shaping the immediate future course of English
drama was Ben Jonson. His carefully plotted comedies, satirizing with inimitable
verve and imagination various departures from the norm of good sense and
moderation, are written in a more sober and careful style than are those of most
Elizabethan and early 17th-century dramatists. Those qualities, indeed, define the
character of most later Restoration comedy. The best of Jonson's comedies
are Volpone (1606) and The Alchemist (1610). Professing themselves his disciples,
the dramatists Francis Beaumont and John Fletchercollaborated on a number of socalled tragicomedies (for example, Philaster, 1610?) in which morally dubious
situations, surprising reversals of fortune, and sentimentality combine with hollow
rhetoric.
The outstanding prose works of the Renaissance are not so numerous as those of later
ages, but the great translation of the Bible, called the King James Bible, or Authorized
Version, published in 1611, is significant because it was the culmination of two
centuries of effort to produce the best English translation of the original texts, and
also because its vocabulary, imagery, and rhythms have influenced writers of English
in all lands ever since. Similarly sonorous and stately is the prose of Sir Thomas
Browne, the physician and semiscientific investigator. His reduction of worldly
phenomena to symbols of mystical truth is best seen in Religio Medici (Religion of a
Doctor), probably written in 1635.
F.

The restoration and the 18th century

For the people of England, King Charles IIs parade marked the
beginning of a new era-one free from Cromwell and his oppressive mandates. The
new king, fond of pomp and ceremony, set the tone for a nation ready to make up for
years of austere living.
The glorious revolution after his coronation, Charles II worked with
Parliament to restore peace and order to the nation. Upon Charless death in 1685, his
brother James II took the throne. Unfortunately, James proved so unpopular that
Parliament asked Charless daughter Mary and her Dutch Protestant husband William
to replace James in 1688. William and Mary took the throne in what was called
Glorious Revolution because it occurred without bloodshed. The new king and
queen affirmed the 1689 Bill of Rights, which allowed the propertied classes to rule
through an elected Parliament. However, not a democracy, England now had a
representatives government.
After the death of Mary and William, Anne, the younger daughter of James II,
took the throne. She would be the last of the Stuarts to rule England. To prevent any
Roman Catholic Stuarts from reigning in the future, Parliament passed the Act of
Settlement, which provided that the throne should go next to James Is Protestant
relations. In 1707, the Act of Union was passed, and Scotland joined in England to
form the kingdom of Great Britain. When Queen Anne died leaving no heir to the
throne, her nearest Protestant relative, George Augustus, succeed her. King George I
came from Hanover, Germany, and never learned the English language. He took little
interest of England and lost popularity because of his turbulent private life. His son
George II was equally unpopular. George III, however, was born and educated an
Englishman. The political arena was not the only area of activity in Great Britain in
the eighteenth century. The industrial revolution brought it lasting changes in
manufacturing, the economy, and society in general. People began to migrate from
7

their rural farms to urban communities to find jobs in factories. New class distinction
emerged. Those who owned factories or controlled production were called
capitalists and were considered to be in a higher social class than workers.
The first English newspaper was developed at the beginning of the seventh
century, but was heavily censored during both King Charles Is reign and Cromwell
era. With the restoration of King Charles II, however, restrictions on the press were
gradually phased out, and English publishers enjoyed considerable freedom. Their
only restriction was to refrain was to refrain from criticizing the government.
People enjoyed reading about the latest developments in art, literature, and science,
and British periodicals provided updates on these topics. The Tattler and The
Spectator, two popular periodicals of the time, delighted readers with a mixture of
current events and social gossip.
In 1719 Daniel DeFoes Robinson Crusoe, which tells the tale of shipwrecked
man, was published to enormous success. It is over whelming popularity encouraged
the publication of other novels. Five authors there are DeFoe, Samuel Richardson,
Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne and Tobias Smollett, they wrote the first of the
classic English novels. Personal diaries were in style, and people used them to record
the details of their daily lives-from major events to the latest gossip. Today, Samuel
Pepys, Fanny Burney, and John Evelyn are famous for their journal, which provides
fascinating accounts of Britain during this time period. Between the Renaissance and
eighteenth century, a major change to took place in literature. Many authors switched
from writing poetry to writing prose. This era, known as the Age of Reason, brought a
simpler form literature marked by reason and good taste. No longer were authors
writing gushing, imaginative love poems. Rather, authors such as John Locke and
David Hume wrote great philosophical treatises on rational thought.
One of the most renowned works of the time was Edward Gibbons The
History of the Decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbons work emphasized
rational thinking and encouraged people to replace emotions with logical thought.
Eighteenth-century writers took pride in looking at the world around them
with a sharp eye, and writing about what they saw with a sharp pen. Wit, or
cleverness, was prized in conversation and in writing. Humorous, harsh, or
pretentious, wit was every were. In the mocking poetry of Alexander Pope, in the
biting satire of Jonathan Swift, and in the definitions in Samuel Johnsons A
Dictionary of the English Language. Two modes of satire emerged during this
periods: Horatian, in which the author mildly pokes fun at a subject, and Juvenalian,
in which the author mercilessly criticizes certain practice or characters. Artist, too,
especially William Hogarth, produced witty, satirical drawings that ridiculed the
politics, manners, and celebrities of the day.
By the end of the century, writers and readers had begun to feel that they had
sacrificed heart and soul for wit. They turned to their emotions, and the Age of reason
in literature came to an end.
G.

The romantic period

George III George III ruled Britain for more than fifty years. The first monarch
from the House of Hanover to be born in Great Britain, King George showed great
concern for his subject, if not great prowess as a ruler. During the course of his long
reign, King George lost the American colonies and suffered from bouts of dementia.

Still, he was a kind, frugal family man whose sense of private duty and public
morality made him popular with his subjects.
In 1783 George III named the youthful William Pitt prime minister of Britain.
At this time, Britain was on the brink of war with France, and Pitt was prepared with
strategies. As the French Revolution turned into a full-scale war, Pitt organized
several coalitions of countries against France, leading eventually to the defeat of
Frances leader, Napoleon, in 1814.
The Regent George IV in 1811 George III was officially declared insane at the
age of seventy-three. His son was made regent, or stand-in ruler. In place of mentally
incompetent monarch, Britain now had an extravagant and thoughtless ruler. In 1820
his father died, and the prince regent became King George IV, a man who lived
lavishly and paid little attention to his suffering subjects for the duration of his reign.
William IV George IV died in 1830 and was succeeded by his more liberal brother,
William IV. Williams major contribution to his reign was his passage of the Reform
Bill 1932, which extended the right to vote to members of the middle class and some
artisans. The bill encouraged political party organization and began to weaken the
monarchys grip on politics.
The population of Great Britain was quickly rising owing to several factors:
fewer people were dying of infectious diseases such as smallpox, and more people
were marrying at a young age and producing large families. The agricultural way of
life continued to decline as people poured into industrial towns in search of work.
Uncontrolled urban growth produced dreadful living conditions, stirring the poet
Shelley to write, Hell is a city much like London. The rich grew richer and the poor
grew poorer, while middle-class customs and values, especially an emphasis on
money making, came to dominate the society Editors and publishers catered to the
growing middle class, tailoring publications to suit the publics tastes. The Edinburgh
Review, providing critical essays and literary pieces, became extremely popular, and
contributors such as Thomas Babington Macaulay gained literary fame through it.
Satirical works continued to entertain the public. Artist George Cruikshank
caricatured social life in drawings he created for Pierce Egans 1821 book Life in
London; or The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend
Corinthian Tom In their Rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis. The book,
which chronicles two characters exiting lives in London, was a best-seller The
Gentlemans Magazine was the first periodical to contain the word magazine. Each
edition included a wide variety of entertaining material from political debates to
poems. The magazine served as a model for later American periodicals.
Essays many writers expressed their opinions, feelings, and personalities in
informal essays. William Hazlitt, Charles Lamb, and others voiced their thoughts on
politics, philosophy, literature, and popular culture, while reformers exposed societys
ills and proposed remedies. About London, The people of England were dazzled by
London. Both professional and novice writers penned letters, memoirs, and diary
entries describing Londons mixture of social classes, constant activity, and
entertaining theater. Out of the smoke of the French revolution and the Industrial
Revolution emerged an approach to writing characterized by emotion over reason. In
this Romantic Age, the individual person was valued over society, imagination was
valued over logic, and the natural was valued over the artificial. Romantics found
inspiration in nature, folk art, the past, and their passions. William Wordsworth and
Samuel Taylor Coleridge were two of the most important romantic poets. Wordsworth
created simple poems about common people in ordinary settings. Coleridge, on the
9

other hand, explored exotics and supernatural themes. The Romantics watched as
cities grew, industry prospered, and farming life declined. In an effort to reclaim
nature, the Romantics made it a central force in their lives and their literature. Nature
was celebrated as a source of delight, an image of love, and a model of moral
perfection. To the Romantics, nature provided the pattern on which to base their
creative lives. At the same time, libertarianism, or an emphasis on individual rights,
became popular. The Romantics rejected the authoritarian themes of the previous
period and asserted individual freedoms in their writings. To them, nature and
libertarianism went hand in hand.
H.

The Victorian age

Victoria was crowned queen in 1837, at the age of eighteen, and went to rule
more than sixty years- the longest reign in British history. In 1840 she married her
German cousin Albert, whom she adored. Victoria eventually bore nine children,
while Albert assumed an extensive role in influencing the governing of the country.
Royal observers commented that for all intents and purposes he was king.
To escape hectic London, Albert design Balmoral Castle in Scotland and a
royal residence on the Isle of Wight. The family made frequent retreats to these homes
was they could enjoy a simpler life that brought them closer to lives of their
increasingly middle-class subjects.
In 1861 Prince Albert died of typhoid fever; the inconsolable queen went into
deep mourning, which lasted virtually the rest of her life. She attempted to govern her
country as her beloved Albert would have wished. But eventually she withdrew to
Balmoral and become remote figure. Victorias minister and subjects disapproved of
her distant manner and began to talk of abolishing the monarchy. By the time of her
death in 1901, however, Victoria had reached the peak of her popularity, especially
among the middle classes that had risen and prospered during her reign.The Victorian
age encompassed years of unprecedented economic, technological, and political
expansion and dramatic social change. In 1901 Victorias eldest son took the throne as
Edward VII. The Victorian age was over, and the modern age had begun.
Victorians enjoyed reading in a variety of genres. Historical fiction gripped readers, as
did the mystery novel. English science fiction vividly portrayed the deep split
between a Victorian mans public and private lives. Founded by Henry Mayhew and
Ebenezer Landells, Punch magazine amused Victorians with satiric commentaries and
clever drawings. The magazine has enjoyed more than 150 years of success despite
often being banned in Europe.
In December of 1855, Thomas Macaulay published the third and fourth
volumes of his History of England. They were a huge success, selling 26,500 copies
in the first ten weeks. The fifth and final volume appeared in 1861. Macaulay had
fulfilled his dream of writing a work of history that was as popular as a fashionable
novel. The social codes governing middle class life found expression in ever-growing
numbers of etiquette books and deportment guides. One such book, entitled Office
Staff Practices, listed a strict code of behavior for employees, including no talking
during business hours.
Theater, as one critic has pointed out, was to Victorian England what
television is to us today. Like television, Victorian theater drew a huge audience with
a spectacular staging of farces and melodramas, and, like television, most of what it
offered was artistically undistinguished. By the 1890s, however, Oscar Wilde and
10

George Bernard Shaw were turning out plays that rank with the masterpieces of any
age.
I.

J.

Modernism
These modern writers are often called modernists. The word modernism is
aconvenience term, for the -ism of the new is hard to define; it therefore appears in
this text without a capital letter. Although the present had begun - before 1914 - to
feel more than usually different from the past, there were no agreed principles for an
artistic programme. Rather, the old ways would not do any more. Behind this cultural
shift were changes in society, politics and technology, and slackening family, local
and religious ties. As the value for the human person fostered by Christianity and
continuing in liberal humanism weakened, Marx, Freud and Nietzsche, the fathers of
modern atheism, were read. But these general factors do not point to an obvious
formulation which fits these writers as a group. Ambitious, they broke with prevailing
formal conventions. Modern Art,meaning the painting of Picasso, the music of
Stravinsky and the poetry of Eliot, soon became a historical label. The application of
the term "modern," of course, varies with the passage of time, but it is frequently
applied specifically to the literature written since the beginning of World War I in
1914. This period has been marked by persistent and multidimensional experiments in
subject matter, form, and style, and has produced major achievements in all the
literary genres. Among the notable writers are the poets W. B. Yeats, Wilfred Owen, T.
S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, Robert Graves, Dylan Thomas, and Seamus Heaney; the
novelists Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, D. H. Lawrence, Dorothy Richardson, Virginia
Woolf, . . Forster, Aldous Huxley, Graham Greene, Doris Lessing, and Nadine
Gordimer; the dramatists G. . Shaw, Sean O'Casey, Noel Coward, Samuel Beckett,
Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, Brendan Behan, Frank McGuinness, and Tom
Stoppard. The modern age was also an important era for literary criticism; among the
innovative English critics were T. S. Eliot, I. A. Richards, Virginia Woolf, E R.
Leavis, and William Empson. This entry has followed what has been the widespread
practice of including under "English literature" writers in the English language from
all the British Isles. A number of the authors listed above, were in fact natives of
Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Of the Modern Period especially it can be said that
much of the greatest "English" literature was written by the Irish writers Yeats, Shaw,
Joyce, O'Casey, Beckett, Iris Murdoch, and Seamus Heaney. And in recent decades,
some of the most notable literary achievements in the English language have been
written by natives of recently liberated English colonies (who are often referred to as
"postcolonial authors")/ including the South Africans Doris Lessing, Nadine
Gordimer, and Athol Fugard; the West Indians V. S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott; the
Nigerians Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka; and the Indian novelists R. K. Narayan
and Salman Rushdie. See postcolonial studies. The Postmodern Period is a name
sometimes applied to the era after World War II (1939-45).
Postmodernism
AS Hornby defines Postmodernism as:
a style and movement in art, architecture, literature, etc. in the late
20thCentury that reacts against modern styles, e.g. by mixing features from traditional
and modern styles. In addition, the term postmodernism, according to MH
Abraham, is often applied to the literature and art after World War II (1939-45), when
the effects on Western morale of the first war were greatly exacerbated by the
11

experience of Nazi totalitarianism and mass extermination, the threat of total

destruction by the atomic bomb, the progressive devastation of the natural
environment, and the ominous fact of overpopulation. Base on the two views above,
then we may draw a definition of postmodernism. It can be defined as a period,
roughly after World War II, i.e. from 1939-1945, and it appears after (as the reacts
against) the modern styles, that its features have any mixes and combinations of the
traditional and modern styles.
Postmodernism involves not only a continuation, sometimes carried to an
extreme, of the counter traditional experiments of modernism, but also diverse
attempts to break away from modernist forms which had, inevitably, become in their
turn conventional, as well as to overthrow the elitism of modernist "high art" by
recourse to the models of "mass culture" in film, television, newspaper cartoons, and
popular music. Many of the works of postmodern literatureby Jorge Luis Borges,
Samuel Beckett, Vladimir Nabokov, Thomas Pynchon, Roland Barthes, and many
othersso blend literary genres, cultural and stylistic levels, the serious and the
playful, that they resist classification according to traditional literary rubrics. And
these literary anomalies are paralleled in other arts by phenomena like pop art, op art,
the musical compositions of John Cage, and the films of Jean-Luc Godard and other
directors. An undertaking in some postmodernist writingsprominently in Samuel
Beckett and other authors of the literature of the absurdis to subvert the foundations
of our accepted modes of thought and experience so as to reveal the meaninglessness
of existence and the underlying "abyss," or "void," or "nothingness" on which any
supposed security is conceived to be precariously suspended. Postmodernism in
literature and the arts has parallels with the movement known as post structuralism in
linguistic and literary theory; poststructuralists undertake to subvert the foundations of
language in order to show that its seeming meaningfulness dissipates, for a rigorous
inquirer, into a play of conflicting indeterminacies, or else to show that all forms of
cultural discourse are manifestations of the ideology, or of the relations and
constructions of power, in contemporary society.

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CHAPTER III
A. Conclusions
We need to study literature from the basic level because it will help us to know
about any kinds of literature especially in English. Literary history will be useful for
us to know about the development of English literature since old English until present
time. It was known that there are five period in English literature development. Old
English, middle English, renaissance, modern and post modern

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