British Literature
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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING TAY DO UNIVERSITY Faculty of English Linguistics and Literature BRITISH LITERATURE Compiled by: Phan Thị Minh Uyên 2016 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest appreciation to Dr. Tran Cong Luan, the Principle of Tay Do University and my vice dean, M.A Nguyen Thi Diem Thuy the faculty of of English Linguistics and Literature to give me the great opportunity to compose this material. I especially thanks and gratitude to my committee for their continued support and encouragement: Dr. Nguyen Buu Huan, Dr. Thai Cong Dan, for their highly comments and advice. I also wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to my teaching staff, especially M.A Dang Thi Bao Dung, who assisted me in this course preparation. My completion of this project could not have been accomplished without the support of my dear students who studied the English courses III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII. Their encouragement inspired me to complete this course package. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Acknowledgement Preface Chapter One: The history of Literature 6 A. The definition of literature 6 B. History of literature 7 C. British literature types 14 Chapter Two: Poems 21 Daffodilsby William Wordsworth 23 Lines written in early springby William Wordsworth 24 A red red roseby Robert Burns 28 The fleaby John Donne 31 The sun risingby John Donne 35 The broken heartby John Donne 39 When I was one and twentyby A.E Housman 41 On the idle hill of summerby A.E Housman 42 The lake of innisfreeby William Butler Yeats 44 Never give all the heartby William Butler Yeats 45 When you are oldby William Butler Yeats 46 The sorrow of loveby William Butler Yeats 47 The passionate shepherdto his loveby Christopher Marlowe 50 A nymph reply to the shepherdby Sir Walter Raleigh 52 The lamb and the tigerby William Blake 54 Chapter Three: Plays and short stories HamletbyWilliam Shakespeare 65 Romeo andJulietby William Shakespeare 68 Pride and prejudiceby Jane Austen 73 Sense and sensibilityby Jane Austen 77 Bleak houseby Charles Dickens 84 Mr. Know allby William Somerset Maugham 87 The duchess and jewellerby Virginia Woolf 94 3 The legacyby Virginia Woolf 100 Eveline by James Joyce 107 The rocking horse winnerby David Herbert Lawrence 112 The open windowby Hector Hugh Munro (Saki) 126 The mouse by Hector Hugh Munro (Saki) 129 Frankensteinby Mary Shelly 134 Wuthering heightsby Emily Bronte 138 A shocking accidenceby Graham Greene 146 Chapter Four: Further reading 151 Neverby H.E. Bates 151 My loveday’s little outingby Evelyn Waugh 154 Arabyby James Joyce 159 Flight by Doris Lessing 164 The pearl of loveby H.G Wells 168 The Good Copby Magnus Mills 172 REFERENCES 176 4 Preface The short story is often described as one of the most satisfying literary genres, both to read and to write. This courseis expected to encourage students to identify how these stories ‘work’ by considering classic examples which, in each class, illustrate a particular aspect of short story composition. An exchange of ideas and responses between students and tutor enable the student to then put into practice what they have observed in a series of writing challenges, designed to extend their writing skills in this most exciting and challenging genres. Given the nature of creative writing, it is important that applicants’ use of English is sufficiently fluent to be able to understand in English nuances of meaning and have a familiarize themselves the structure and grammar of English. Aims of the course: to introduce students to the art of short story writing; to foster an understanding of various subgenres of the short story, through guided reading and interpretive commentary; and to encourage and guide students’ own experiments with the form through practical writing exercises and Discussion questions. Course content overview: This course will begin with an introduction of what makes a short story - apart from its length - a distinct genre, introducing the elements which combine to produce the short story’s unique effect. Each week will focus on a particular short story (with reference to others) by one of the genre’s key exponents, to illustrate developments and variations in the genre. The story will also be used to demonstrate a technical aspect of short story writing. Students will discover how writers achieve certain effects and be encouraged to appropriate and experiment with these techniques in their own original writing. 5 Chapter One: The history of literature Objectives By the end of this chapter, students will be able to recognize what literature is, and the history of British literature with various types. A. The definition of literature Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means “acquaintance with letters” (from Latinlitteraletter), and therefore the academic study of literature is known as letters (as in the phrase “Arts and Letters”). In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and nonfiction. People may perceive a difference between “literature” and some popular forms of written work. The terms “literary fiction“ and“literary merit“ serve to distinguish between individual works. Critics may exclude works from the classification “literature”, for example, on the grounds of a poor standard of grammar and syntax, of an unbelievable or disjointed story-line, or of inconsistent or unconvincing characters. Genre fiction (for example: romance, crime, or science fiction) may also become excluded from consideration as “literature”. Literature is a term used to describe written or spoken material. Broadly speaking, “literature” is used to describe anything from creative writing to more technical or scientific works, but the term is most commonly used to refer to works of the creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction. Literature represents a language or a people: culture and tradition. But, literature is more important than just a historical or cultural artifact. Literature introduces us to new worlds of experience. We learn about books and literature; we enjoy the comedies and the tragedies of poems, stories, and plays; and we may even grow and evolve through our literary journey with books. Ultimately, we may discover meaning in literature by looking at what the author says and how he/she says it. We may interpret the author’s message. In academic circles, this decoding of the text is often carried out through the use of literary theory, using a mythological, sociological, psychological, historical, or other approach. Whatever critical paradigm we use to discuss and analyze literature, there is still an artistic quality to the works. Literature is important to us because it speaks to us, it is universal, and it affects us. Even when it is ugly, literature is beautiful.English literature is the literature written in the English 6 language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; Joseph Conrad was born in Poland, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, V.S. Naipaul was born in Trinidad, Vladimir Nabokov was Russian. In other words, English literature is as diverse as the varieties and dialects of English spoken around the world. In academia, the term often labels departments and programmes practicing English studies in secondary and tertiary educational systems. Despite the variety of authors of English literature, works of William Shakespeare remain paramount throughout the English-speaking world. This short British literary introduction primarily deals with literature from Britain written in English, some notable works listed. For literature from specific English-speaking regions, literature has a history, and this connects with cultural history more widely. Prose narratives were written in the 16th century, but the novel as we know it could not arise, in the absence of a literate public. The popular and very contemporary medium for narrative in the 16th century is the theatre. The earliest novels reflect a bourgeois view of the world because this is the world of the authors and their readers (working people are depicted, but patronizingly, not from inside knowledge). The growth of literacy in the Victorian era leads to enormous diversification in the subjects and settings of the novel. B. History of British literature (Excerpt from old book bindings at the Merton College library) One of the earliest known literary works is the SumerianEpic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem dated around 2100 B.C., which deals with themes of heroism, friendship, loss, and the quest for eternal life. Different historical periods have emphasized various characteristics of literature. Early works often had an overt or covert religious or didactic purpose. Moralizing or prescriptive literature stems from such sources. The exotic nature of romance flourished from the Middle Ages onwards, whereas the Age of Reason manufactured nationalistic epics 7 and philosophical tracts. Romanticism emphasized the popular folk literature and emotive involvement, but gave way in the 19th-century West to a phase of realism and naturalism, investigations into what is real. The 20th century brought demands for symbolism or psychological insight in the delineation and development of character. Anglo-Saxon Literature (450-1100) is primarily limited to works from the West Saxon region of England. Although few writings survived, those that have reveal a people who reveled in manipulating their language and whose