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1. Periods of EL

2. Medieval literature

3. Anglo-Saxon literature

4. Anglo-Norman literature

1. Periods:

E.L. Can be divided into several periods:

• Medieval period - the period of medieval ages 5-15 cent. It can be subdivided into: *Anglo-Saxon period (5-11 cent.); *Anglo-Norman period (11-14 cent. ); * Preparation of Renaissance (14-15 cent. )

• Renaissance (16th century)

• The period of of English Bourgeois revolution and restavration of monarchy (the second half of the 17 century)

• The period of enlightenment (18 cent. )

• The period of Romantism (1st. Part of the 19 cent. )

• The period of critical realism (2nd half of 19th cent)

• The period of modern literature (the beginning of the 20th century till nowadays)

2. The Period of Medieval literature

At the beginning of our ear the British isles were inhabitant by celts, brittons, Gaels. In the first century AD they were inhabitant by Romans and Britain became the part of the Great Roman Empire. After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century AD the Britain was invaded by Angles, Saxons, Jutes. They came from the continent and they gave the island its name: Anglia

To the end of the 6th century they occupied the whole territory of British Isles.

And their languages laid the foundation of the English language and their literature was the beginning of English one.

3. Anglo- Saxon literature

EL propper begins in the 5th century. It is characterized by its oral nature. And it's represented mostly by songs and legends.

The first great work Anglo-Saxon literature is considered to be: "The Song of Beowulf". This song was composed in the 6th century, but only in the 8th century it was written down.

"Beowulf" tells of a hero of Geats (imaginary tribe) who twice performed his heroic deeds to save people oppressed by supernatural forces. In his youth he performed his first deed in what is now called Danemark. He killed men-eating monster Grendel being unarmed. After that Gremdel's gigantic mother tried to kill Beowulf but he won the struggle by means of the magic sword. Later in his old age after ruling for fifty years as a king of Geats he fought for the 3rd time. It was a dragon which had been eating his people. He successeded in this battle again but died from wounds.

The text contains 3182 lines. It is told in a dignified manner and the descriptions are full of different types of retardation. For example: the description of the attack on Finburg hall.

The style of the poem carries the major elements of epic narration (e.g. a lot of compound nouns and phrases and a lot of verbal stereotypes also called kennings).

England was converted to Christianity in the 7th century AD. With Christianity here appeared a new type of literature: religious poems. One poet of the period is widely known nowadays Cædmon. He was a monk in a dual monastery Whitby. His poems were inspired by the first book of the bible which contained the narration of the world's creation and primeval history. His verses were based on epithets, parallel constructions, interruptions and repetitions.

In christian poetry there was also another type of literature: stories about the saints. They were composed by the person whose name was Cynewulf who lived at the beginning of the 9th century. He is supposed to be the author of two books. The first and major book "The fates of the Apostels" recording of the ends of the lives of the twelve disciples. And the second one which is called "Juliana". It is a story of a girl who was arrested as a Christian, tortured, tempted by the evil and finally crowded with the martyr's death.

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All the literature mentioned above was written in poetical form. Later in the 10 th century two prosaic writers appeared. They were King Alfred The Great and Bede the Reverent.

King Alfred played a significant role in recognition of the role of vernacular literature (literature written in native language). He encouraged the process of translation of Latin works into Anglo-Saxon. They were basically tales of diabolic temptations, miracles and visions.

*The so-called "Anglo-Saxon chronicle" was compiled during Alfred's rule and covered a period of english history from the period of Julius Ceasar up to 1154.

*In order to transmit a recognized legal system to future generations he put together earlier law codes supplementing them by biblical commandments and by additions of his own.

*The third thing he did was the translation of major works of Augustine (a roman priest who came to England to christianize the people).

Bede the Reverent was interested in a wide variety of subjects. His most ambitious effort was to recreate classical learning for the use of Anglo-Saxon schools. "Echlasiastical history of the English nations" is his major work and it was completed in 731. This work is of great value for our knowledge of the course of political history of Anglo-Saxon England.

4. Anglo-Norman period of English literature

In 1066 the Normans defeated Anglo-Saxons in the Battle of Hastings. Since that time the Norman conquest began. The Normans were of Scandinavian origin, but 3 centuries before they conquered Britain they had conquered Normandy (the northern part of France). During these 3 centuries they assimilated French culture, habits and language. So when they came to the British Isles they brought with them French language, culture, laws and administration. It resulted in the situation when feudal system of England was completely submitted by French barones. It happened that the rulers and the ruled spoke different languages. The French nobility spoke French. The lower classes of the society spoke Anglo-Saxon. French language became the official language of England, of court, administration and law in particular. It is important to mention that religious people continued to use Latin language for their religious purposes. Three languages were widely used in the course of history.

Accordingly to the number of languages there were three types of literature at that time:

1. Romances (were written in French). The most common plot of any romance was the heroic serving of a knight to his lady (who is most usually a wife of another person). The most prominent romances were telling about the King Authur and his knights of the round table. The most prominent work of this period is called "the Romans of the Rose"

2. Vernacular literature (folklore). It was written in Anglo-Saxon. Those stories were in most cases short satirical stories about clever common people who could easily deceive clergy and knights.

3. Religious literature was written in Latin. It told different stories on the basis of the bible.

The preparation of Reneissance

It was the period when London became the center of the country. And the process of centralization was completed London dialect became the central dialect of the country and the majority of people began to speak this exact dialect. The greatest role in the development of the english language was played by Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) his name and creative activity are connected with the formation of the national English language. He is also considered to be a forerunner of the Renaissance in the English literature. At first his creative activity was influenced by French literature that is why the first period is called the French. His earliest poems were imitations of French romances. French poetry taught him rhyme and rhythm. The second period is Italian. At that time Italy was the first country where the Bourgeoisie triumphed over feudalism. Italian literature was at its height. It opened to Chaucer a new world of art.

To this period belong:

A) The House of Fame (a didactic poem)

B) The Parliament of Fowles (an allegorical poem satirizing the english parliament)

C) The Legend of Good Women ( a dream poem in which 9famous women are described)

The third period is the English. The most prominent work of the period is "Canterbury tales". This is a series of stories written in verse, the major frame work is Pilgrimage to Canterbury. In general prologue 30 men and women from all ranks of society are described. We see a brave and honest two nuns and three priests a fat monk who loved hunting and a good dinner. A cheby student of Oxford, a wife of a rich merchant etc. including Chaucer himself and the host of some London inn. Host proposed a plan where each pilgrim was to tell four stories during the pilgrimage to Canterbery. The person who would tell the best story would get a nutritious dinner for free.

The peculiarities of the tales:

• They sum up all types of stories that existed in the middle ages ( the knight tells a romance, the nun tells the story of a saint, the miller tells a funny story, the priest tells a didactic tale)

• Various ranks of society are observed by the author without any discrimination or preference.

• The tales written in a new literary language. Therefore Chaucer is considered to be the father of the English language.

• The main characters are not described as simply being good or bad but every character is treated as a representative of a certain class and profession. So they instantly became typical of their class.

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Among other prominent writers of the period were a poet William Llangland and John Wycliffe.

W. Llangland (1332-1400) was a priest who spoke against rich churchmen. He believed in the grace of hardworking. He is famous for his allegorical poem "piers the Plowman". The poem is performed a form of a dream, human qualities such as virture are real people in the poem. Some of the. Are young maidens such as

There are many themes in the poem, the major of which is the hard life of common people. In his poem Llangland attacks all the evils of the church and class society usual for that time. The poem is remembered for it helped the people to concentrate their minds on the nessecity to fight for their rights.

John Wycliffe (1320-1384) was also a priest. He denied the church's right to be rich and appealed to the authorities to reform the corrupted catholic church. Wycliffe's views can be called the first step towards the materialistic ideas in England. He is remembered by the people for him debated high questions of government in the common tongue ( common eng). He developed the English mind and helped the ideas of Renaissance to become popular and widely spread.