Допущено Міністерством освіти України Рішення Колегії Міністерства освіти України від 27.09.95 Протокол 9/6-18

Навчальний посібник «Англійська література» складається з восьми розділів і «Словника літературних термінів».

Дається критичний аналіз творів письменників, характерис­тика головних персонажів, наводяться уривки з творів.

Для розвитку мовних здібностей пропонуються різноманітні вправи, тести, теми для класного обговорення.

Посібник пройшов випробування згідно вимог педагогічно­го експерименту «9 клас школи — 6 курс вузу», який про­водиться Міністерством освіти України на базі КПІ та ліцею «Інтелект» м. Києва. Посібник пропонується учням старших класів середньої школи з поглибленим вивченням англійської мови. Також посібник може бути використаний для роботи в загальноосвітніх школах.

Introduction

English literature consists of the poetry, prose, and drama writ­ten in the English language by authors in England, Scotland, and Wales since 1707, the three countries have been politically united under the name of Great Britain. Each of the countries but especially England, has produced outstanding writers.

English literature is a rich literature. It includes masterpieces in many literary forms, particularly the novel, the short story, epic and lyric poetry, the essay, literary criticism, and drama. English literature is also one of the oldest national literatures in the Western world. English authors wrote important literary works as early as the A.D. 700s.

English authors have always been deeply interested in political and social conditions of their times. In their works they have described, criticized, and commented on the society in which they lived. This book traces the development of English literature from its earliest period to the present. The dates given for each period of the development of the literature are approximate. Dates given in any scheme, therefore, must be regarded as suggestive only, even when they reflect some definite facts, as 1660 (the Restoration of the Stuarts) and 1798 (the publication of "Lyrical Ballads"). And the names of periods may be chosen on very different principles. One is naming a period for its greatest or most representative author: Age of Chaucer, Age of Spencer, etc. Another is to coin an adjective from the name of the ailer or the ruling dynasty (such as Tudor). Or pure chronology or names of centuries may be preferred: Fifteenth-Century Literature, Eighteenth-Century literature, etc. Or descrip­tive titles designed to indicate prevailing attitudes or dominant fash­ions or "schools" of literature may be used: Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Age of Reason. Logically, some single principle should control in any given scheme, but such consistency is seldom found.

The table that follows gives the scheme used in this book. Sketches of the periods listed in this table are given in the book as well.

Periods of English Literature

* 428-1100 Old English Period

1J00—1485 Middle English Period

1485—1660 Renaissance Period

1660—1798 Neoclassic Period

1798—1870 Romantic Period

1870—1914 Realistic Period

1914—1965 Modern or Modernist Period

1965—Post Modernist or Contemporary Period

■ THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD

428—1100 . . л ^^rr it u\

, During the Л.Дсл400опА SftQS. Фгеле Яе,гт^^ЙЇ^о^хФі? г fL fvlJM&doms^T^ ,

C*ao£LMj ^^НЙ^ІiSl"P4fervfed"4is CTftPcnief literary language of England until about "1100. In 597; Saint Augustine of Canterbury converted the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. English literature began through combined! influence of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the Christian church.—* Old English poetry. Many Old English poems glorified the real or imaginary hero and tried to teach the-values of bravery and gen­erosity. Poets used alliteration (words that begin with the same sound) and Icennings (elaborate descriptive phrases): They also used internal rhyme, in which a word within a line rhymes with a word at the end of the line.

The first English poet known by name is Caedmon, who lived during the 600s. His only authentic surviving work is "Hymn", a nine-line poem that praises God. About the same time, Saint Aldhelm, an English bishop, wrote poems in Latin and Old English. However only his Latin verses have survived.

The first major work of English literature is the epic poem "Beowulf". One or more unknown authors wrote it in the 700s. The poem tells about the adventures of a brave hero named Beowulf.

After about 750, poetry flourished in Northumbria, an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the north. There, poets wrote verses about the lives and hardships of saints. The leading Northumbrian poet was Cynewulf. Several works are attributed to him, including the religious poems "The Fates of the Apostles", "Elene" and "Jи liana''. Old English prose. Most prose writers wrote in Latin until the late 800s, when Alfred the Great became King of Wessex in southwest* era England. Alfred translated or ordered the translatiQn of several

works from Latin into Old English. One of the most important of these works was the "Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation " (731) by a monk known as the Venerable Bede. This work is the first history of the English people and a valuable source of information about English life from the late 500s to 731. A monk named Aelfric wrote a series of homilies (short moral essays) in Old English dur­ing the 990s. From about 892 to 1154, a number of authors con­tributed to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", a record of current events in England.

BEOWULF

A general summary

"Beowulf" is the most famous and the longest sur­viving poem in Old English, written in the West Saxon dialect. It probably developed orally and achieved its present form during the 8th century in Mercia or Northumberland. The setting is southern Scandinavia in the age of migration of -the 5th and 6th centuries, and poem has no reference to Britain. It is an epic recording of the great deeds of the heroic warrior Beowulf in his youth and maturity.

A-brave young man, Beowulf, goes to help Hrothgar, King of the Danes. Hrothgar is in trouble. His great hall, called Heorot, is visit­ed at night by a terrible creature, Grendei, which lives in a lake and comes to kill and eat Hrothgar's men. One night Beowulf waits secret­ly this thing, attacks it, and in a fierce fight pulls its arm off. Grendei manages to reach the lake again, but dies there. Then its mother comes to the hall in search of revenge, and the attacks begin again. Beowulf follows her to the bottom of the lake and kills her there.

ASSIGNMENT

Read the extmct from "Beowulf"and study the Commentary.