The beginnings of English literature

History of literature

The meaning of literature (literary studies & a place of children literature)

1. Literature as distinct from the other arts.

2. The expressive means of literary art

3. Division of literature into kinds & genres

4. Ways of approaching a work of literature/ Branches of literary studies.

5. the (dis)advantages of the historical approach.

1. There are words that are difficult to define. “Literature” is one of them.

ü Literature is not a handcraft. It’s a transmission of the feeling the artist has experienced. (Lev Tolstoj)

ü It’s one of the functions of literature to turn truths into truths. (Chesterton)

ü To turn events into the ideas is the function of literature (Santayana)

ü Literature always anticipates life; it does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose. (Wilde)

ü To write literature is to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before (Faulkner)

Literature relies upon a word, which is the fundamental of any ideas.

It’s the most significant difference between the literature & any other kind of art.

ü Literature is sharing of experience & it helps the human being to broaden the necessary limited individual experience.

All the definitions define literature as a kind of art that relies upon the word as the main means of expressing the experience of individual characters. Literature does so because the word differs from all the other means of expression, because it can reach any sphere. Literature deals with the images & image is the main instrument of literary expression.

Literature may be about anything in the world. The matter what it’s about – it’s about the human being. It’s always the attitude of human beings towards thing that is being described.

L relies upon many types of relationships, which may be described as the components of its creative trends.

WRITER

READER THE WORK OF LITERATURE

It’s quite natural to suppose that the writer is related to the work of literature & through it to the reader. These are natural relations. But in the process of writing the writer is influenced by the reader, because he is writing for a certain reader. So the reader influences the writer.

Having written or in the process of creating a work of literature the writer has to take into consideration the laws of a certain genre, the laws of image development. The development of image has its own topic, so it influences the writer. Moreover the life the book has after having been written is different from what the writer wanted it to have, so it influences the writer. As the reader may he reaction to the work of literature may change through time – it influences the work of art. It’s the objective reality that serves as the background of the relationships.

Written literature is only a part. Folklore & other manifestations of literature have influenced it a great deal. Writing has brought literature many new qualities, but still as the manifestation of the work of literature, it has lost some of its natural qualities.

e.g. immediacy (the immediate influence it had upon the listener, because of the facial expression, gestures, melody, intonation)/ Instead of that writers try to use different means to make their writing more expressive. Through writing literature has acquired immortality & it can be, so to say, transferred in time & space.

There are 3 kinds of literature

1. epic

2. lyric

3. drama

1. An epic is characterized by the action that should be entire; the character should be distinguished & episodes should easily arise from the main fable. But the main thing is that it renders life as something that happened to the characters or the author in the past & the author deals with it as with some clear-cut period of time.

Novel, long story, short story, essay

2. A lyric is a poem directly expressing the poet’s own thoughts & emotions. The direct appeal is the main that distinguishes a lyric from the epic.

Ballad, ode, elegy, sonnet etc.

3. Drama is letting one’s character to speak without any interference of the author.

Drama, tragedy, comedy, family chronicle

The main approaches to literature

Every individual ha his/her own approach to literature. It depends upon experience, attitude to life, community individual lives in, upon his/her desires.

Literature is a reflection of life – it’s bewildering as life itself.

1) The majority of people go to the book for the plot – they like to read about events. Such people like detective stories (sequence of events that leads one to anticipate the development of the plot).

2) Others go for the character – some of the human features that describe characters have fascination for us.

3) We can go to a book for an exhibition of manners.

We may approach the literature with none of these in our mind.

Sometimes we come to understand that literature is an instrument of your mind & heart. In this one people go to literature to learn about the psychology of other human being, to learn about what makes people like or dislike some things. Showing the psychology of people is the main function of literature. It makes people understand what makes people behave in this or that way.

Historical approach to literature is not a science. If a work of a scientist may become better, because the other scientist has investigated the same problem & written reports about it. The work of literature does not undergo such metamorphosis. The words of B. Shaw will never make the words of Shakespeare update. The work of literature will never become less interesting to the reader only because it was written several centuries ago. The work of literature remains fresh & keeps its quality because in it people can find their own experience, attitudes.

There are cases when th writer is disregarded by his contemporaries, when the works of the writer come to the reader of the next century as revelation. The situation may become (in)favorable. The writer never writes for any social reform – it’s not his aim.

The first approach of any work of literature is the approach to fiction as to narrative (the succession of events given by the author to explain what happened to this or that character). Still criticism of a work of art from this prospective should not take only the number of events the story contains, but also who the story-teller is: the author, one of the characters, especially chosen to give his reminiscences, the mixture of the 1^st two ways of telling the story or there may be several characters telling the story from different perspectives.

Events may be given in a chronological or logical way. The 2^nd approach deals with a work of literature as an exhibition of character. In this respect the work of art from the point of view of interrelations that exist & develop between & among the characters. We criticize the book from the perspective “what kind of individual every character was, what was his/her attitude, what were his/her ideals, how he tried to achieve his goals, etc.” We should regard book as a gallery of characters, every character being distinct from the other ones. Why is the character unique?

The 3^rd approach: we can approach a book from the perspective of its being the exhibition of manners. We criticize it from the point of view of society, which is described, & from the point of view of cultural background, against which is the society described.

The 4^th approach: we can approach a book from the point of view of its being a vehicle of a certain philosophy of life.

The 5^th approach is a biographical approach. Many people prefer it. What influenced the author? What were his ideas? What shaped his outlook? How were his ideas changed in the course of time? How is all this reflected in his works?

The 6^th approach is aesthetic. This is the approach that deals with the author’s style that should be viewed:

1. as a set of devices the author uses to produce an impact on the reader
2. the personal style of the author

The most important approach to literary criticism is the personal style (how different he is from the other authors, his contemporaries, predecessors, or followers). Here we resort to the 7^th approach – comparative kind of criticism.

The history of literature is a subject that deals with our attitude to the fiction of the past & present, which becomes actual for us, because of the actuality of the problem itself.

The beginnings of English literature

English has been the medium of many languages: USA, the literature of many former dominions of British Empire. The history of every literature of these colonies has passed several stages. At first it was colonial tradition dependent on models & language of British Literature, & then an independent literature exploiting its native, original themes & being original not only in themes but in manner with the language of it’s own.

The literature of the former dominions & colonies, though it’s written in English does not belong to the stock of the English literature. Though English has been the medium for many Indian writers 7 for the writers who had practiced English literature in colonies, English literature is not of those who had lived on the British Isles. Irish, Scots & Welsh have a lack of literature of their own (Show, Joice, Wilde – Irish, Burns – Scottish, Thomas – Welsh).

Many writers have used English as the medium of their legends; especially the stories about King Arthur have inspired English authors. It’s not unjust to accept as English literature everything that was written in that speech within the British Isles. In spite of differences in culture all those nations have common background & their historic development shows that they are very close relatives.

The power of English to absorb alien characteristics & qualities & yet to remain itself is perhaps the strongest characteristic of English language & literature. Linguistically in the choice of themes the English are great borrowers, but these debts have strengthened rather than weakened national genius. The writers of British Isles have accepted freely all the best that the continent offered. But the peculiarities of their national achievement in no time bcos English has always been alleged to the national customs & a genius can gain much in contact with the achievement of other countries.

R. Burns claimed to be an exclusively Scottish writer, but the facts deny it. He is read as in English poetry as in the poetry of his won country. It was English literature that gave him inspiration. In fact he really wrote some poems with the trace of Scottish influence. He created language of his own: if he used one language he wouldn’t create such an effect.

Anglo-Saxon period

BC100 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100

C

A 43 Roman Occupation 410/449 Anglo-saxon period 1066

E

S Norman conquest

A

R

King

Arthur

I Danish invasion

N

V

A

S 597 Christianity

I

O

N Beowulf (?)

Alfred

Bede The Great

Caedmon (?)

Many histories of English literature begin with Chaucer (1400) & these histories describe Chaucer as the father of English literature & at a modest reckoning these mere 7 centuries of English literature before Chaucer & indeed as many centuries have been after him. Why did not Beowulf produce impression upon the literature critics & a population of Great Britain is very much reluctant to read the great epic – language creates difficulty, but there are many translations. English literature showed a great interest for an individual, & if we start to analyze the pilgrims of Chaucer’s “Canterbury tales” – all of them show probably the 1^st psychological monologue in English literature. This was the 1^st study of individual’s mind. The same interest of an individual has led to the great popularity of the novel in Great Britain. The novel as a genre started in 18^th century &become very popular among the English. The English were always interested in the characters & in spite of the fact that every individual writer has his own manner, the characters of every work were very prominent. In a way we can consider English literature popular because it represents national character.

The tribes that came in England in 5^th century brought no literature, but it does not mean absence of writing, as they used runes. The use of these signs appears to be greatly restricted, it did not extend beyond the proverbs or magic formulas (upon sword), or ornaments. Still they have songs, legends – unwritten – they were preserved in memories of minstrels. One of the oldest songs we possess is the song of Widsith.

Every line is divided into 2 parts by a graphical gap. The 1^st part is usually supplied with the most important information, the 2^nd is meant to comment upon it. The song represents string of names, lands, people, & the form does not reflect the language. Still we do not know the music & this might be the most important element, as it is in libretto or opera, where words are rather primitive, if you hear them without music.

E.g. Widsith spoke unlocked the words

He of all men of the tribes over earth

We should consider the issue concerning a certain kind of division that may become helpful when one starts discussing literature. In many books of literary criticism English literature is divided into several periods:

ü The Medieval period (11-15^th centuries)

ü The period of the Renaissance (2^nd part of 16^th c.)

ü

ü The period of Reformation (the rest of 17^th c)

ü The epoch of Enlightenment (18^th c)

ü Romanticism 19^th

ü Realism century

ü 20^th century – lots of trends

As to the 20^th century we cannot be certain about the periods, because the critics have not provided necessary data to divide the century into periods. Every European country has its own trends.

The division of literature into periods is less or more settles & we can rely upon any book of literary criticism, but the issue of attributing this or that book to English literature is not so clear & in many cases it’s debatable. The case is that not all books written in English belong to English literature.

The Medieval Period

1000 1100 1300 1400 1500

Norman Comquest Plantage

1066 Norman rule 1154net rule 1399

1215 Lancaster rule1461

Magna Carta York rule1465

Representative

Parlament

Crusades Wars with Scotland 100-year war Wars of roses

Feudalism Chivalry Flourishes Feudalism

Growth of towns

1110 English & Scottish balads

Early miracle balads Cycles of miracle plays acted by Guilds

Romances in verse & prose Morality plays

1470 – Mallory

1313-1400 – Langland

1340-1400 – Chaucer

We should speak about 3 factors which influenced English literature.

Christianitywith its preaching of Christian love & moral improvement & the ideology of Christianity that gave rise to a multitude of legends, homilies (бытие святого), sacred & scriptural poems.

The ideals of Feudalism gave rise to knighthood rituals & consequently to songs of minstrels & gleemen.

New class appeared – Bourgeoisie

Influence of the French culture

12^th -14^th centuries signify the formation of the English language & nation. This period is fully reflected in the works of Langland & Chaucer.

Christianity was an important factor in shaping of the medieval outlook. Christianity which substituted paganism in the ancient world spread quickly throughout Europe. As there was a period of decay, no law, the rich lived depraved life, Christianity with its idealism & its sermon of brotherhood & equity could serve as an outlet for the suffering & deprived. Christian community (consolidated by the enthusiasm of its members) developed into an organization with strict laws & definite rules. In the 3^rd century Christianity reached a new stage, the importance of this stage is great. There was a formation of a new class – Clergy. It was important & great force as it interpreted God for people & they could translate peoples’ needs in fact. More over clergy was a great economical force. The German tribes who invaded the Empire did not know how to cultivate the land & the church was the only organization which could teach them how to do it. The monasteries were excellent farms, schools which protected science & art. In fact church made arts for its particular purposes. Still the medieval scholar did not look for the new facts, his task was to interpret ideas given by church & those who challenged these ideas were punished by inquisition. Church has no serious rival. It taught people to think in terms of a really conclusive end. Acc. To church God was sovereign disposer of all things, & the sovereign judge of all men. The ascetic was one of the central heroes of medieval art.

Feudal hierarchy

God

King (the owner of all land)

Duke

Count

Baron

Knight

Vassal

Fundamental to feudalism was getting the land from the king. Each of the vassals in the ceremony of homage undertook to serve as a lord & the lord in return promised his protection. So big vassals created lesser vassals.

Society was divided into nobility, clergy & peasantry which in its turn were divided into serfs & yeomen (free).

The lord could take the land back after the death of his vassal.

Magna Carta – was the 1^st document of freedom & democracy. It was signed by Richard the Lion Heart.

Feudalism gave rise to knighthood. A knight was a man of noble birth, usually mounted man, at arms, serving the King, or other superior in return for a grant of land. System of chivalry meant that before becoming a knight man of noble birth was supposed to go through several stages.

- Stage of a page

- Squire

- Dubbed knight

He was bound to chivalry conduct – courage, courtesy, & defense of the deprived.

Representatives of the bourgeoisie knights came to be satirized.

Great Britain contained of several kingdoms: Northumbria (angles), Mercia (angles), Wessex (Saxons), Wales, Essex, East Anglia (angles), Brittany (Saxons), Kent (yutes), Sussex (Saxons), Scotland (Scots, Picts, Celts), and Cornwall (Britons).

The glory of the beginning of the English literature belongs rather to the north than to the south – it belongs to angles rather than to Saxons. At the beginning of the 7^th century Northumbria gained a position of superior. 617 – Edwin becomes the king & Britons, Mercians, Eastanglicans, Westsaxons submitted to him. There was time of peace that resulted in the development of literature & arts. In 1685 political supremacy of Northumbria passed away forever & for 2 more centuries the spiritual & intellectual forces that worked in Northumbria made it a centre from which the light of learning streamed over Western Europe.

In the monasteries Jarrow spend his great days Bede Venerabilis. Benedict – the founder of the monastery traveled to Rome 4 or 5 times & brought books, pictures & other works of art & he brought teachers with him – the best ones.

Bede is a proficient translator from Latin, Greek, & Hebrew. He is famous being a teacher. Among his numerous works one can find explanations & commentaries to the Bible, chronology, astrology, books of poetry & rhetoric. His favorite subject “Ecclesiastical history of English People” – it’s about introduction of Christianity into England.

E.g.

Before the need journey

No one is ever

In thought more wise

Than he hath need to consider

Ere his going hence

What to his soul

Of good & evil

After death day

Doomed will be (Bede)

Caedmon Hymn:

Now we must praise Heaven-keeper’s Warden

The Maker’s mind and his mood thought

The work of the glory father as he of every wonder

Eternal lord formed the beginning

The first shaped for earth’s children

Heaven for roof holy shape

The mid earth mankind Warden

Eternal lord afterward produced

For men the earth the rules Almighty.

This hymn has all the characteristic features of medieval English verse: alliteration, abrupt lines more like interjections, the absence of connecting particles, periphrasis (repetition of the same idea in various phrases). 8 lines here are about God & God’s might, 3 lines about God’s making the earth, 3 lines about the earth itself. The structure is very much symmetrical & the refrains give it a jazzy quality.

In 1655 a volume of Saxon poetry was published. It was believed to be the work of Caedmon from its agreement with Bede’s description. Some scholars consider this book to be written by several authors. The book consists of 5 parts:

1. Creation of the man

2. The fall of the man & angels

3. Later history to the death of Abraham

4. History of Daniel

5. Descend of Christ into Hell

Beowulf

Beowulf gives us much information about medieval civilization as such.

Names : Beowulf,

Hrodgar (king)

Heorot (palace)

Grendel (monster)

Wealdeo (queen)

1731 – The manuscript was destroyed in fire.

The poem consists of 2 parts:

1. The youthful hero Beowulf kills 2 hateful man-devouring monsters.

2. Beowulf kills the dragon of the sea, but he’s wounded & dies.

The book in its early form belongs to very pagan times & possibly symbolizes constant struggle between man & the sea. The poem we know is a work of a Christian poet of the 8^th or 10^th century. By & by Beowulf & its characters appear to symbolize Christ gaining salvation for his people by his own death & descending into hell. Monsters represent the forces of evil. The whole poem represents the eternal struggle between forces of goodness & evil.

Summary:

Hrodgar built Heorot. People feasted there daily. That was hateful for Grendel & in the night he came 7 devoured 30 people. These affairs appeared till no man dared to sleep in Heorot. Young Beowulf with 14 companions came over the sea to fight with a monster. At night Beowulf was left to sleep in the hall. Grendel came to the palace & killed one man. Beowulf seized the monster & fought with him. Beowulf tore one of the monsters hands 7 Grendel fled home to die. Fest & gifts were given to Beowulf. The queen gave Beowulf a ring, a mantel to wear. When the feast was over everybody went to sleep. Grendel’s mother came to revenge her son. She slaughtered one of the king’s friends. Beowulf determines to find & kill the monster at the bottom o the lake. He dives into the water. In the gloomy cave he finds the monster & fights with him. At last with the help of the magic sword he cuts off her head. In the 2^nd part Beowulf is the king & he gives his life to save his people from a terrible dragon. His people mourn for him 7 they build on a sea-cliff a mound high & broad to be seen by sailors.

The 2 parts are not written in isolation. Glorifying the hero & culture is a typical picture of Germanic heroic age, the memory of which the English cherished as their own. English poet pictures a society, pagan, but strongly colored by Christian ideas. Christ-like Beowulf fights the embodiment of evil & in the end lays his life for the people. The 2 parts balance each other.

The poet painted a vast canvas of heroic deeds, a picture in which he glorified the past, but he never forgot to glorify his culture. He gives a spiritualized picture. In this respect “Beowulf” serves a purpose not unlike Virgil’s “Eneide”. Every poem glorifies the past, which belongs to the heritage of people. Virgil glorifies the pagan Greece; the heroic past of Gothic people was glorified in “Beowulf”. He gave us the society which depended on & was colored by Christian ideas, but still was pagan & heroic.

In the 2^nd part the main hero is made as Christ-like as the setting would permit. He fights mostly against the embodiment of evil. Some scholars think that the English poet knew “Eneide” & was influenced by it in composing his own poem. But more striking is the originality of “Beowulf” as far as the structure of the poem is concerned.

Every work of beauty is symmetry. If it’s asymmetrical, but a work of beauty, it presupposes the symmetry the reader should recreate. The 2 parts of “Beowulf” are balanced. The symmetry is not only a characteristic of each of the parts, but it gives us 2 ages – the old age & the young age of youth. These two ages are united by the heroic quality of life.

The greater part of the Saxon literature is anonymous. Of all writers no one can be identified with certainty. It’s doubted that Caedmon is the name of man & not rather a name suggestive of a scriptural character of his works. The difficulty increased by the fact that Northumbrian literature perished with the invasion of the Danes (preserved in a later west-Saxon form).

About 1050 Leofric gave to his cathedral library a gift of books. Among them there was 1^st large English book about various things “in lay wise wrought”, certain religious poems: “A dialogue between the virgin Mary & Joseph”, “Song of the three children”, “The last judgment”, “The Phoenix”, “The dream of the Rood”.

Cynewulf was a poet of the later part of the 8^th century. Some critics suppose that he lived from 750 to 825. Cynewulf’s works are marked as classic:

Thus I old & ready to leave my dying body, wove my word-crafh wonderously fashioned it, bondered sometimes, & siffed my thoughts fine in the deep night-time. About the Rood I knew not aright fill wisdom unveiled through its glorious might a wider knowledge to my heart’s thought.