Analysis of 20th Century English Literature Themes and Techniques

Essay on 20th Century English Literature May 3, 2011 British Literature II Defining Literary Techniques of 20th Century English Literature During the 20th Century, much advancement and change occurred throughout English Literature. All of the works we studied from this period were heavily influenced by current events in the world. The writers all examined the world around them and tried to express it through their writings. The three things that weave a common thread throughout all 20th Century English Literature are global warfare, radical artistic experimentation, and the effects of colonial expansion. The first point of global warfare is an easily identifiable and widespread one. All of the poetry we examined was centered around warfare and the effects of it on ...show more content... It also uses magical realism as another form of artistic experimentation. In "The Moment Before the Gun Went Off," the author Nadine Gordimer caught some flak for experimenting in her literature by writing it about racism rather than focusing on the more feminist issues of the day, as were the norm. She also wrote this story from several viewpoints, wanting to enable the reader to understand the full scope of apartheid. One more literary experiment she incorporated was foreshadowing the twist ending subtly throughout the entire story. Radical literary experimentation was a big part of 20th Century English Literature. Lastly, the colonial expansion theme is perhaps the easiest and broadest similarity to pick up on. Each story we studied is set in and has the culture of a foreign land. Usually this land was one from England's massive colonial empire, but not always. Take "The Day They Burned the Books" by Jean Rhys for example. This story being set in the Caribbean clearly shows a foreign setting. They way the natives rebel in the story also brings out the oppressive nature of colonialism and how they struggled against it. "Walker Brother's Cowboy" by Alice Munro is set in depression era Canada and shows how the people struggled with the effects of colonialism even during the Great Depression . The third defining feature is possibly the greatest one of 20th Century English Literature. In conclusion, the Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

18th Century Literature Essay 18th Century Literature The 18th century is a period of great literary works. The styles are different throughout the period, but the unity of the work is still present. Much of this period focused on public and general themes, until the Pre– Romantic era when literary works began to focus upon personal expression. 18th century literature can be broken down into three main parts: the Restoration, the Age of Pope, and Pre–Romantics. The literature of the Restoration period covers a time span from Charles's recovery of the throne to the years until the expulsion of James II in 1688 or until the death of John Dryden in 1700. The literature of the Restoration was characterized by ...show more content... This literary time period also included works from John Dryden, who used elegance and cleverness in his writings. This period ended about 1700, and enabled a new age of literature. In literary history, the first half of the 18th century is known as the Age of the Pope. In this age, the writers expressed views of the public and restrained from writing personal topics or expressions. In the Age of the Pope or the Neoclassical Age, most of the literary themes were of social, political, and moral life. The Rape of the Lock and Epigrams by Alexander Pope, and "A Modest Proposal" and Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift are some examples from the Age of Pope or the Neoclassical age. Most of the literary works in this period used satirical styles to express a concern in society. "Puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet–doux", from The Rape of the Lock shows an example of pathos a satirical device used in this age of literature. Jonathan Swift also uses satire in Gulliver's Travels to mock the Parliament, and in "Modest Proposal" he writes about eating children as a solution to a socioeconomic problem. After the writings, literature began to focus on private expressions rather than public thoughts and emotions. The Age of Johnson or the Pre– romantic era was shown in various ways. Characteristics of the age included ballads, a new taste for ruins, Gothic castles Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

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My Experience In Literature I remember some of the first books I read as a child, before being introduced to the massive variety of literature that can be found everywhere. I remember focusing on the images and drawings that the illustrators made which brought these stories to life. I remember most significantly the author, Kevin Henkes, and his different interpretations on dealing with solitude as a child. I remember relating to the mice which he created within the stories. I remember imagining myself within the books, hoping to join in on the endless adventures that the characters went on. I remember discovering my growing interest in reading. I have never been someone who could get into a book without at first knowing what I am jumping into. The idea of opening up a book, entering a world, not knowing what to expect, always deterred me. But, fictional reading to me, has always brought to me a sense of curiosity, for it pushes me to discover almost an entire new life through the eyes of another. All throughout my childhood, my parents encouraged me to read as much as possible, where there was never a time where we would not have a book checked out at the library near my house. We would sit within the children's section of the library and just read. Whether reading Roald Dahl or R.L. Stine, I was pulled into a whole nother world with each book that I read. It pushed me to imagine what I now see as impossible and almost pushed me out of the reality which I was living in at the time. I began my Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

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Essay on Romanticism In Literature Romanticism In Literature Romanticism in literature, began around 1750 and lasted until 1870. Different from the classical ways of Neoclassical Age(1660–1798), it relied on imagination, idealization of nature and freedom of thought and expression. Two men who influenced the era with their writings were William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge , both English poets of the time. Their edition of "Lyrical Ballads';, stressed the importance of feeling and imagination. Thus in romantic Literature the code was imagination over reason, emotion over logic, and finally intuition over science. All of these new ways discouraged and didn't tolerate the more classic way of literature. Other significant writers of the ...show more content... References to this can be found in "Ode to Evening'; by William Collins, and "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard '; by Thomas Gray . With the freedom that Romanticism brought came the broadening of the writers horizons. The Middle Ages became topic of many stories and settings. The nostalgia of more Gothic times put more exotic ideas into the author's minds. The supernatural became a substantial part of the literature. Outcomes of this new idea were "Lines Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey';, by Wordsworth, and "The Castle of Otranto';, written by Horace Walpole. The world of the supernatural and exoticness was reinforced by two main things. One was pure rebellion against the standards of the eighteenth–century rationalism, such as the structure of neoclassical society. The second was the rediscovery of folk tales and ballads, particularly the ones collected by Facob and Wilhelm Karl Grimm, also know as the Brothers Grimm. These gave an inspiration to write many of the pieces of a supernatural nature for the writers of the Romantic Age. The Romantic Age started to lose it's glitter by the middle of the nineteenth–century. Literature started to get serious again focusing on issues such as problems of religion and faith and politics of the English democracy. Now instead of journeying to mythical places through the reading people

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Defining Literature Essay The definition of literature has been discussed and argued over time and there is no precise answer to be given. Any reader or author can define literature as whatever they wish it to be defined as. This is more of an opinion of how one views certain pieces of work or writings and whether or not they feel that is actually literature or not. Literature is any type of creative writing such as fiction or poetry, for example. Literature is also any form of body of written works of language, which could be from the English era or even as far back as the Shakespearean or Elizabethan era. It is also work from a specific period or culture defining key elements or somehow relating to and/or expressing how it is exactly from that time. The ...show more content... In her poem, "Dylan" in lines 4 and 5, she writes, "Her hair was a halo of warm light / and color dripped off her tongue" (23). The reader can interpret just from those two lines the creativity and imagination not only in that one poem, but also in all poetry. The description of hair being a halo of warm light allows the reader to use his or her own imagination to perceive that image in whichever way they would like. Creative writing can be determined by many other things not only image or structure of how the poem is set into stanzas, but what is left up to the reader for interpretation. Jewel writes in "Cautious" in lines 23–29, "an open vessel / whose function it was / to be filled / until my consciousness / could return and / spit out / the bad seeds" (18). After reading these lines the reader can be left with different feelings and emotions that vary from disgust or simplicity. This is just another example of how poetry is creative writing. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, literature is defined as being the body of written works of a language, period, or culture. An author of any specific type of writing or works can include certain details pertaining to language or other details, which allow the reader to develop a sensory image of that specific period or culture. If the reader had no prior knowledge to the language, period, or culture of the writing he or she would be reading, upon reading and analyzing Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

The English Bildungsroman Essay The English Bildungsroman The novel has a strong tradition in English literature. In Great Britain, it can trace its roots back to Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe in 1719 (Kroll 23). Since then, the British novel has grown in popularity. It was especially popular in Victorian England. The type of novel that was particularly popular in Victorian England was the novel of youth. Many authors of the time were producing works focused on the journey from childhood to adulthood: Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre, George Eliot wrote The Mill on the Floss, and Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield and Great Expectations. All of these novels trace the growth of a child. In this respect, some of the most popular novels of the nineteenth ...show more content... Similarly, the Bildungsroman is characterized by the growth, education, and development of a character both in the world and ultimately within himself. The Bildungsroman is subcategorized into very specific types of the genre, most often found in German literature. There is the Entwicklungsroman, which can be defined as "a chronicle of a young man's general growth rather than his specific quest for self–culture" (Buckley 13). In other words, a story recounting a man's life rather than focusing on the inner changes that contribute to his maturity. Another form within German literature is the Erziehungsroman; this form is primarily concerned with the protagonist's actual educational process (Buckley 13). Again, the concern is not the overall development of the main character, but a specific aspect of that character's life. Finally, there is the Kunstlerroman. The root Kunstler translates as artist in English. Therefore, this is the development of the artist from childhood until his artistic maturity, focusing on the man as artist rather than the man in general. Dickens' David Copperfield and James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man are both examples of English Kunstlerroman, as the protagonists of both books are writers (Buckley 13). These categories, while strict within German literature, are more free within English literature . For the most part, it is (within English literature) a Get more content on StudyHub.Vip

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Essay On English Literature

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