english department 2011

1. British literature - timelineBritish literature - timeline
Old English literature
Medieval English literature
Renaissance and Reformation
Revolution literature of 17th century
English literature of 18th century - Classicism
Romantic literature
Victorian literature
Modernism (20th century literature)

2. Literature – warm upLiterature – warm up
What is literature influenced by?
What literature genres do you
know?
What is fiction and non-fiction?
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3. Literature – warm upLiterature – warm up
What is literature influenced by?
- historical, political, social features of the
period – war, social pressure and injustice,
moral degradation, uncertain future…
What literature genres do you know?
- poetry, prose, drama
What is fiction and non-fiction?
- Fiction – an invented story made up by the
author´s imagination

4. Literature – warm upLiterature – warm up
What is fiction and non-fiction?
- Fiction –
- Non-fiction –

5. Literature – warm upLiterature – warm up
What is fiction and non-fiction?
- Fiction – an invented story made up by
the author´s imagination – novels, tales,
romances, novellas, short stories,
whodunits, adventure stories, spy stories,
thrillers, police novels
- Non-fiction – literature of fact –
biography, autobiography, travel books,
history books, diaries, textbooks,
memoirs

6. Literature warm- upLiterature warm- up
What type of books children like?
- fairy tales, stories, fables, children´s
rhymes, juvenile literature
Are books better than films?
Are books better than the Internet?

7. Literature warm-upLiterature warm-up
Match the authors and the period:
Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer, Austen, Wilde, Christie,
Defoe, Shaw, Orwell, Boewolf
 Old English literature
 Medieval English literature
 Renaissance and Reformation
 Revolution literature of 17th century
 English literature of 18th century - Classicism
 Romantic literature
 Victorian literature
 Modernism (20th century literature)

8. Literature warm upLiterature warm up
Match the authors with their titles
1) Shakespeare a) Pygmalion
2) Geoffrey Chaucer b) Robinson Crusoe
3) Daniel Defoe c) The Importance of
Being Earnest
4) Charles Dickensd) Oliver Twist
5) Jane Austen e) The Midsummernight´s Dream
6) Oscar Wilde f) the Cantenbury Tales
7) G.B. Shaw g) Pride and Prejudice

9. Old English literatureOld English literature
(700-1100)(700-1100)
Beowulf [beiouwulf]
 the oldest English literary work from
the Anglo-Saxon period.
 It was written by an unknown
(anonymus) poet probably in the
8th century.
 It‘s an epic poem of heroes and
myths. The events are set entirely in
Denmark and Sweden.
 The poem provides a picture of old
Germanic life. It is written in
alliterative verse.
Legends of King Arthur and the
Knights of the Round Table

10. Medieval English literatureMedieval English literature
(1100 – 1500)(1100 – 1500)
John Wycliffe (1320 – 1384)
 a professor from Oxford university
 translated the whole Bible into English
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340 – 1400)
 the father of English poetry
 The Canterbury Tales - his famous work
 it´s an unfinished collection of comic and moral stories told by a group of pilgrims
(poutníci) while travelling from London to the grave of Thomas Beckett at
Canterbury
 the tales are full of gossip (drby) and are often rude

11. Renaissance and ReformationRenaissance and Reformation
(1500 – 1600)(1500 – 1600)
Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)
 the greatest philosopher of that time
 Utopia - famous book, it describes an imaginary island with perfectly
organized society.
William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616)
 the world’s greatest playwright in England
 was born in Stratford upon Avon
 he wrote historical plays about the kings of England ( Henry IV, Richard
II…), comedies (A Midsummer Night´s Dream …) and tragedies
(Hamlet, Macbeth …)
 he is also known as a poet for his 154 poems,The Sonnets.
They start by giving advice to a young man about marriage.

12. Revolution literature of 17th centuryRevolution literature of 17th century
(1600 – 1700)(1600 – 1700)
John Milton (1608 – 1674)
 his life is connected with the Civil War in England at that time. He wanted
to punish a king who was a tyran.
 His famous epic poem Paradise Lost deals with (vypráví o ) the worst
side of human life.

13. English literature of18th centuryEnglish literature of18th century
Classicism (1700 – 1800)Classicism (1700 – 1800)
 „the novel“ was born
Daniel Defoe (1660 - 1731)
 a politician, traveller and journalist
 Robinson Crusoe - his famous work about a castaway (trosečník) on a deserted
island
Jonathan Swift (1667 -1745)
 a sharp critic, he wrote satirical prose
 he criticized politics in England, kingdom, corruption, armies, bad polititians
 Gulliver Travels - an allegory of Lemuel Gulliver´s travelling through imaginary
countries (Lilliputians, the land of Giants, the flying island of Laputa,…).

14. Henry Fielding (1707 -1754)
 a journalist and lawyer
 Tom Jones - a realistic novel about a lot of adventures of a foundling
(nalezenec) Tom. He is a fine, strong and carefree character.
 Fielding shows that Tom´s true love was in the end more important than his
lifestyle.

15. Romantic literatureRomantic literature(1780 – 1832)(1780 – 1832)
Romantics of the Lake School
 a group of poets settled in the Lake District:
 William Wordsworth, Samuel T. Coleridge
Lord George Gordon Byron (1788 – 1824)
 a poet, the author of Childe Harold´s Pilgrimage
Sir Walter Scott (1771 -1832)
 a Scottish novelist and poet
 he took inspiration from folk, ballads and Scottish history
 „historical“ novels: Waverly, Rob Roy, Ivanhoe,…

16. Jane Austen (1775 -1817)
 she wrote „domestic novels“ dealing with family life
 her best-known novels are: Pride a Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility
 the novels deal with social life of the upper classes
Mary Shelley (1797 -1851)
 wrote a novel Frankenstein
Brontë sisters
 Charlotte (1816 -1855) is famous for her love novel Jane Eyre
 Emily (1818 -1848) wrote love novel Wuthering Heights

17. Victorian literatureVictorian literature
(1832 – 1901)(1832 – 1901)
Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870)
 a representative of critical realism
 he described the life of poor people in England in the 19th century.
 he used humour in his novels too. He often uses his own experience from his
childhood .
The novels are set in London.
 novels: David Copperfield, The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist,…
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811 – 1863)
 novel Vanity Fair – discribes a vivid picture of early 19th century
society

18. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 -1894)
 romantic adventurous stories: Treasure Island , Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde …
Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900)
 writer, dramatist, poet born in Dublin
 he is a representative of English decadence and symbolism
 he wrote novels: novel The picture of Dorian Gray
fairy-tale The Happy Prince
comedies An ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Ernest
Rudyard Kipling (1865 – 1936)
 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907
 the best known are The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book
- vivid stories of life in India, for children

19. Modernism (20th century literature)Modernism (20th century literature)
„experimental novels“:
 Virginia Woolf (1882 -1941) – a woman writer, novel To the Lighthouse
 James Joyce (1882 -1941) - wrote short stories The Dubliners
novel Ulysses
detective stories:
 Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 – 1930)
- he brought the figure of Sherlock Holmes into English literature:
The Hound of the Baskervilles
 Agatha Christie
- she gave life to the figure of Belgian-born detective Hercule Poirot and
Ms Jane Marple
sci-fi stories:
 H.G.Wells (1866 – 1946) – The War of the Worlds, Time machine

20. John Galsworthy (1867 – 1933)
 the Nobel Prize for literature in 1907
 Forsyte Saga – about the Forsytes which is an upper-class family
George Orwell (1903 – 1950)
 born in India
 a political allegory Animal Farm
- satire of the politics of the Soviet Union
William Golding
 the Nobel Prize for literature
 novel Lord of the Flies – he fights against negative powers in people

21. 20th century drama20th century drama
G.B.Shaw (1856 -1950)
 the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925
 Anglo-Irish dramatist, he criticized the false morals of the society
 his play Pygmalion (a film musical „My Fair Lady“)
„Angry young men“ = a group of young writers who hated social system:
 John Osborne - drama Look Back in Anger
- famous for the concept of „kitchen sink drama“ ,set in ordinary
interiors
 Kingsley Amis - novel Lucky Jim (describes a rebellious spirit
at university)
„Absurd drama“ (in the 1950s) - there is almost no action nor plot:
 Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot - two people are waiting
for Godot who has no identity, so the whole work is full of absurd
nihilism.