ABM

ANGLO OR ENGLISH LITERATURE

Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to the Angles, England, the English people,
or the English language, such as in the term Anglo-Saxon language. It is often used
alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British Isles descent in The Americas,
New Zealand and Australia.
Anglo is a Late Latin prefix used to denote English. The word is derived from
Anglia, the Latin name for England, and still the modern name of its eastern region.
Anglia and England both mean land of the Angles, a Germanic people originating in
the German peninsula of Angein.

LITERARY PERIODS OF ANGLO LITERATURE

1. Old English/Anglo-Saxons Literature (450-1100)
The Old English Period or the Anglo- Saxon Period refers to the literature produced
from the invasion of Celtic England by Germanic tribes in the first half of the fifth
century to the conquest of England in 1066 by William the Conqueror.
Written literature begun to develop from oral traditions. This period encompasses
literature written in Old English in Anglo-Saxon England. One of the most well-known
eight century Old English pieces of literature is Beowulf, a great Germanic epic poem.
Two poets of the Old English Period who wrote on biblical and religious theme were
Caedmon and Cynewulf.
 GENRE/STYLE: Epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, bible translation, chronicles.

2. Middle English Literature (1100-1500)

Consist of literature produced in the four and a half centuries between the Norman
Conquest of 1066 and about 1500, when the standard literary language, derived from
the dialect of London area, became recognizable as “Modern English”. The most
widely known of these writings are Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales, the
anonymous “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, and Thomas Malory’s “Morte
d’Arthur”.
In this period, religious literature continued to enjoy popularity and Hagiography
were written, adopted and translated.
 GENRES/STYLE: Romance; Bible Translations

3. English Renaissance (1500-1660)

The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating
from the late 15th and early 16th centuries to the 17th century. (Rise of English
theatrical drama).
3.1 Elizabethan Age
This period coincides with the reign of Elizabeth I, 1558 -1603, during this
time, medieval tradition was blended with Renaissance optimism. Lyric
poetry, prose, and drama were the major styles of literature that flowered
during the Elizabethan Age. Some important writers of the Elizabethan Age
include: William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spencer, Sir
Walter Raleigh and Ben Jonson.
 3.2 Jacobean Age
The literature of this era are body or written works written during the reign of
James I of England (1603-1625) The successor to Elizabethan Literature,
Jacobean literature was often dark in mood, questioning the stability of the
social order. Some of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies may date
from the beginning of the period.

 Romeo and Juliet

 Antony and Cleopatra
 Hamlet
 Macbeth

The era’s monumental prose achievement was the King James Version of the
Bible (1611)

 GENRE/STYLE: Vernacular Literature, comedy, tragedy. Lyric poetry, prose, and

drama

4. Modern Period
English literary modernism developed out of general sense of disillusionment with
Victorian era attitudes of certainty, conservatism, and belief in the idea of objective
truth.

 GENRE/STYLE: Modernist novels using the stream of consciousness technique,

Science Fiction.

HUMSS

AMERICAN LITERATURE
American literature is the literature written or produced in the Area of the United
States and its preceding colonies. During its early history, Americas was a series of
British Colonies on the eastern cost of the present day United States. The literary
tradition begins as linked to broader tradition of English literature. Unique American
characteristics and the breadth of its production usually now cause it to be considered
a separate path and tradition.
The Literary Periods in American Literature
1. Puritan/Colonial (1650-1750)
Instructive and reinforces authority of the Bible and church. Spans the time
between the founding of the first settlement at Jamestown to the outbreak of
Revolution. Centered on religious, practical, or historical themes.
 GENRES/STYLE: Sermons, diaries, personal narratives (written in plain style)
Example:
“A Narrative of the Captivity” by Rowlandson and Edward’s “Sinners in the
Hands of an Angry God”

2. Revolutionary/ Age of Reason (1750-1800)

 Patriotism grows; instills pride, create common agreement about issues, National
Mission and the American character. Greatest documents of American History were
authored.
 GENRES/STYLE: Political pamphlets, travel writing, persuasive writing.
Example:
Poor Richard’s Almanac, The Declaration of Independence,
3. Early National
The beginning of literature that could be truly identified as “American”. The
writers of this period wrote in English style, but the setting, themes and characters
were authentically American. Three of the most recognized writers of this time are
Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe.

4. Romanticism/American Renaissance/ Age of Transcendentalism (1828-

1865)
The writers of this period produced works of originality and excellence that helped
shape the ideas, ideals and literary aims of many American writers.
Value feeling and intuition over reasoning, journey away from corruption of
civilization and limits of rational thought towards the integrity of nature and freedom
of the imagination. Some of the famous writers of this period include: Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson.
 GENRE/STYLE: Character sketches, slave narratives, poetry and short stories.

5. Age of Realism (1855-1900, Period of Civil War and Postwar Period)

Following the Civil War, American Literature entered into the Realistic Period.
The major form of literature produced in this era was realistic fiction. Unlike romantic
fiction, realistic fiction aims to represent life as it really is and make reader believe
that the characters actually might exist and the situations might actually happen. The
Major writers of the Realistic Period include Mark Twain, Henry James, Bret Harte, and
Kate Chopin.
 Social realism: Aims to change a specific social problem.
 Aesthetic realism: Art that insists on detailing that world as one sees it.
 GENRE/STYLE: Novels, short stories, realistic fiction and objective narrative

6. The Moderns
Between 1914 and 1939, American Literature entered into a phase which is
referred to as “The Beginning of Modern Literature.” Like the British counterparts,
the American Modernist experimented with subject matter, form, and style and
produced achievements in all literary genres. Some well-known American
Modernist Poets includes: Robert Frost, William Carlos Williams, and EE Cummings.
Include among American Prose Writers are Edith Wharton, Sinclair Lewis, and
William Cather.

This era focuses on the following themes/idea:

 In pursuit of the American Dream
 Admiration for America as land of Eden
 Optimism and importance of individual.

 GENRE/STYLE: Novel, Plays, Poetry, Use of interior monologue and stream of

consciousness.
7. Harlem Renaissance
Allusions to African American spirituals; Uses structure of blues songs in poetry
(repetition). Superficial stereotypes reveled to be complex characters.

 GENRE/STYLE: Gave birth to “gospel music” Blues and jazz transmitted across
America via radio and phonographs.

8. Post Modernism (1950 to Present)

Erodes distinctions between classes of people; Insist values are not permanent
but only “local” or “historical”, Mixing of fantasy with non-fiction; blur lines of
reality for readers; Usually humorless.

 GENRE/STYLE: Narratives, meta-fiction, and magic realism.

Edgar Allan Poe

An American short-story writer, poet, critic, and editor

who is famous for his cultivation of mystery and macabre.
He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in
the United States and American literature as a whole, and
he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of short
story.

Is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, first published

in the November 1846. The story, set in an unnamed Italian City
at carnival time in an unspecified year, is about a man taking
fatal revenge on his friend who, he believes, has insulted him.