The document discusses different views on defining literature and outlines the major periods of English literature. It begins by examining how the definition of literature has changed over time based on evolving social norms and perspectives. It then provides an overview of some key periods in the development of English literature, including the Old English period, Middle English period, Renaissance period, and others. For each period, it highlights some of the major literary works produced and their defining characteristics, as well as how literary styles progressed from one era to the next due to various historical and cultural influences.

1. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
1
1 What is Literature?
“Literature is the question minus the answer”
(Roland Barthes, New York Times, 1978)
As a concept in need of clarification and definition, “literature” received great
attention from philosophers, literary critics and theorists, and men of letters. Since
the time of Greeks, for example, we find philosophers like Plato and Aristotle
contemplate the nature of literary writing (albeit in its dramatic form). What
complicates matters is that views of what might be considered literary in one age
changes drastically in another. The philosophical writing of Plato, for instance,
condemns poetry as an unhealthy and ultimately corrupting genre. But ever since
then, many philosophers and literary scholars defended the status of poetry. Another
paramount example is literary critics’ rejection of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick
(1851), a novel written by a nineteenth-century American writer about the hunting
of wales and the heroism of one unheroic man, Captain Ahab. Currently, this same
novel is studied and researched as a masterpiece that no writer can surpass. In our
Arabic culture, one can think of how the Mu'allaqāt were not well-known during the
time they were actually composed by their authors, but later decades witnessed the
transformation of these poems into a hallmark of poetic perfection which later poets
strove to emulate and imitate. So, before defining “literature,” it seems that we need
criteria (or a set of norms) that will help us identify a work as literary. The different
judgments on the nature of literature stem from the fact that such norms or standards

2. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
2
are not well fixed. Therefore, a unified definition for literature cannot be found and
we have to be content with different views and philosophies that attempt to explain
the nature of literature.
In this lecture, we are going to review some of these views and ideas.
Our main aim would be to consider the possibility of developing our
own interpretation of literature which is based on these various
perspectives we are going to discuss.
One of the fundamental philosophical works written about the nature of
literature is Jean-Paul Sartre’s (1905-1980) What is Literature? (1947), which
investigates the nature of literary writing and how it is very much connected to
language and words. Sartre draws a line between poetry and other types of literature.
According to him, poems are like paintings: a faithful, and concise representation of
the world as is without being affected by language. Why? Because poetry is not
intended to provide the reader with information about the world. Literary prose,
alternatively, invests in and controls the richness and diversity of language to
communicate information. The words of a prose work “designate, demonstrate,
order, refuse, interpolate, beg, insult, persuade, insinuate.” Sartre concludes that
whereas the poet is outside language, the prose writer composes from within
language itself. He insists as well that literature (poetry or prose) cannot be extricated
from history or society. It is a product of its time and culture. We can say then that
Sartre’s definition of literature is based on the intricate relation between literature,
language, history and society. What decides a work to be literary is these qualities
together as found in a poem or a piece of prose.

3. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
3
Concepts of what is literature change over time. What may be considered
ordinary and not worthy of comment in one time period may be considered literary
genius in another. Initial reviews of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights in 1847 were
less than spectacular, however, Wuthering Heightsis now considered one of the
greatest literary achievements of all time. The same can be said for Herman
Melville's Moby-Dick(1851).
Literature then, is a form of demarcation, however fuzzy, based on the premise
that all texts are not created equal. Some have or are given more value than others.
Most forays into the question of “what is literature” go into how literature works
with the reader, rather than how the author set about writing it. It is the reception,
rather than the writing, which is the object of enquiry. Largely, what we call
“literature” is often a subjective value judgment, and naturally, value judgments, like
literary tastes, will change.
Etymologically, literature has to do with letters, the written as
opposed to the spoken word, though not everything that is written
down is literature.
There is also general agreement that literature foregrounds language, and uses it in
artistic ways. Terry Eagleton goes some way towards a definition of literature and
its relationship to language: “Literature transforms and intensifies ordinary
language, deviates systematically from everyday speech”.
The common definition of literature, particularly for university courses, is that it
covers the major genres of poetry, drama, and novel/fiction. The term also implies

4. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
4
literary quality and distinction. This is a fairly basic view of literature because, as
mentioned in the introduction, the meaning of the term has undergone changes, and
will no doubt continue to do so.
In exploring ideas about what literature is, it is useful to look at some of the
things that literature does. Literature is something that reflects society, makes us
think about ourselves and our society, allows us to enjoy language and beauty, it can
be didactic, and it reflects on “the human condition”. It both reflects ideology and
changes ideology, just like it follows generic conventions as well as changing them.
The first significant thing is the essentially artistic quality of all literature.
All art is the expression of life in forms of truth and beauty; or rather, it is the
reflection of some truth and beauty which are in the world, but which remain
unnoticed until brought to our attention by some sensitive human soul.
In the broadest sense, perhaps, literature means simply the written records of
the race, including all its history and sciences, as well as its poems and novels; in the
narrower sense literature is the artistic record of life, and most of our writing is
excluded from it, just as the mass of our buildings, mere shelters from storm and
from cold, are excluded from architecture. A history or a work of science may be
and sometimes is literature, but only as we forget the subject-matter and the
presentation of facts in the simple beauty of its expression.
The second quality of literature is its suggestiveness, its appeal to our
emotions and imagination rather than to our intellect. It is not so much what it says
as what it awakens in us that constitutes its charm.

5. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
5
The third characteristic of literature, arising directly from the other two, is its
permanence. The world does not live by bread alone. Notwithstanding its hurry and
bustle and apparent absorption in material things, it does not willingly let any
beautiful thing perish. This is even more true of its songs than of its painting and
sculpture; though permanence is a quality we should hardly expect in the present
deluge of books and magazines pouring day and night and to know him, the man of
any age, we must search deeper than his history. History records his deeds, his
outward acts largely; but every great act springs from an ideal, and to understand
this we must read his literature, where we find his ideals recorded.
When we read a history of the Anglo-Saxons, for instance, we learn that they
were sea rovers, pirates, explorers, great eaters and drinkers; and we know
something of their hovels and habits, and the lands which they harried and
plundered. All that is interesting; but it does not tell us what most we want to know
about these old ancestors,--not only what they did, but what they thought and felt;
how they looked on life and death; what they loved, what they feared, and what they
reverenced in God and man. Then we turn from history to the literature which they
themselves produced, and instantly we become acquainted. These hardy people were
not simply fighters and freebooters; they were men like ourselves; their emotions
awaken instant response in the souls of their descendants.
It is so with any age or people. To understand them we must read not simply
their history, which records their deeds, but their literature, which records the dreams
that made their deeds possible. So Aristotle was profoundly right when he said that
"poetry is more serious and philosophical than history"; and Goethe, when he
explained literature as "the humanization of the whole world."

6. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
6
Importance of Literature. It is a curious and prevalent opinion that literature, like
all art, is a mere play of imagination, pleasing enough, like a new novel, but without
any serious or practical importance. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
Literature preserves the ideals of a people; and ideals--love, faith, duty, friendship,
freedom, reverence--are the part of human life most worthy of preservation. The
Greeks were a marvelous people; yet of all their mighty works we cherish only a few
ideals,--ideals of beauty in perishable stone, and ideals of truth in imperishable prose
and poetry.
Summary
We are now ready, if not to define, at least to understand a little more clearly the
object of our present study. Literature is the expression of life in words of truth and
beauty; it is the written record of man's spirit, of his thoughts, emotions, aspirations;
it is the history, and the only history, of the human soul. It is characterized by its
artistic, its suggestive, its permanent qualities. Its two tests are its universal interest
and its personal style. Its object, aside from the delight it gives us, is to know man,
that is, the soul of man rather than his actions; and since it preserves to the race the
ideals upon which all our civilization is founded, it is one of the most important and
delightful subjects that can occupy the human mind.

7. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
7
2 Literary Periods and Movements
2. 1. Introduction
When literary scholars discuss the development of literature, they often do so after
classifying literary works into groups which fit under umbrella terms like “literary
Periods” or “Literary Movements”. This classification became the identifying
feature of almost all historical surveys written about literature up to date. One thing
that we have to consider, nevertheless: Some literary periods overlap and certain
movements give birth to other movements so that a clear-cut distinction between
successive eras or concurrent movements is not possible.
However, we must acknowledge that historical and social change affect the
evolution of literature. Therefore, such classifications are not just categories
invented by literary scholars. They are real historical and social manifestations
which influenced a group of writers who identified with these developments and saw
them as outlets for self-expression rather than mere pre-determined molds which
shape their literary voices.
2. 2. What are we going to do in this lecture?
Tracing the development of English literature throughout the ages cannot be done
in a few pages. Therefore, we are going to construct an outline for those literary
periods; focusing on the main literary developments which took place. We will
mention the major literary figures, discuss their contribution, and sum up the literary

8. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
8
trends that characterized the era. Sometimes, we will refer to other literatures
(European, Eastern..etc,) that might have contributed to the development of English
literature, but we will do so only in passing.
2. 3. Key Terms and Concepts
a. English literature:
English literature denotes literature which is written in English by authors who are
not necessarily British. So, we might speak of Indian, American, or French authors
who write poetry, fiction, or drama in English. And later in this course, we are going
to study some of these English works that are written by non-English men of letters.
But, in this lecture, we are only going to concentrate on the development of English
literature that is written by British authors.
b. Literary Periods and Movements:
The term refers to groupings of literary works which share among themselves certain
features or literary aspects, styles, themes, or conventions which differentiate them
from other works produced during a previous or a later era. Therefore, when we
speak about the Renaissance Age, for example, we expect that most of the literary
works produced during that era, share particular philosophes or ideas, which we
might not find in the literature of other ages. The poets of the Romantic Movement
(18th
C.), to cite another example, write a different type of poetry from that written
by the Imagist poets (20th
C.). We can refer to an example from our culture which
might illustrate this point further: Poetry written during the pre-Islamic era is
characterized by certain stylistic and thematic features which we do not find in
modern Arabic poetry. Just try to compare two poems written by Tarffa Ibn Al-Abd

9. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
9
and Nizar Qabani.
We have to remember that literary works are individual creations which
represent the writer’s vision of himself and the world, so you should not expect that
all the literary aspects of an age or a movement can be present in all works written
by every author who lived during a particular era, or claimed to belong to a specific
movement. That being said, it is fair to say that variations, and differences abound.
The concept of “literary periods/movements” works best, I think, with distant
literary eras: like in the case of the Renaissance age and the Twentieth century, where
prominent distinctions can be identified and described adequately.
- OLD ENGLISH PERIOD:
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.
During the Old English Period, written literature began to develop from oral
tradition, and in the eighth century poetry written in the vernacular Anglo-Saxon
(also known as Old English) appeared. One of the most well-known eighth 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 themes were Caedmon
and Cynewulf.
- MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD:
This period produced literature which was written in the four and a half centuries
between the Norman Conquest of 1066 and about 1500, when the standard literary

10. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
10
language, derived from the dialect of the London area, became recognizable as
"modern English."
Prior to the second half of the fourteenth century, vernacular literature consisted
primarily of religious writings. The second half of the fourteenth century produced
the first great age of secular literature. 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.
- THE RENAISSANCE:
While the English Renaissnace began with the ascent of the House of Tudor to
the English throne in 1485, the English Literary Renaissance began with English
humanists such as Sir Thomas More and Sir Thomas Wyatt.
In addition, the English Literary Renaissance consists of four subsets: The
Elizabethan Age, the Jacobean Age, the Caroline Age, and the Commonwealth
Period (which is also known as the Puritan Interregnum).
The Elizabethan Age of English Literature 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
Spenser, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Ben Jonson.
The Jacobean Age of English Literature coincides with the reign of James I,
1603 - 1625. During this time the literature became sophisticated, sombre, and

11. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
11
conscious of social abuse and rivalry. The Jacobean Age produced rich prose and
drama as well as the King James translation of the Bible. Shakespeare and Jonson
wrote during the Jacobean Age, as well as John Donne, Francis Bacon, and Thomas
Middleton.
The Caroline Age of English Literature coincides with the reign of Charles I,
1625 - 1649. The writers of this age wrote with refinement and elegance. This era
produced a circle of poets known as the "Cavalier Poets" and the dramatists of this
age were the last to write in the Elizabethan tradition.
The Commonwealth Period, also known as the Puritan Interregnum, of
English Literature includes the literature produced during the time of Puritan leader
Oliver Cromwell. This period produced the political writings of John Milton,
Thomas Hobbes' political treatise Leviathan, and the prose of Andrew Marvell. In
September of 1642, the Puritans closed theatres on moral and religious grounds. For
the next eighteen years the theatres remained closed, accounting for the lack of
drama produced during this time period.
- NEOCLASSICAL PERIOD:
The Neoclassical Period of English literature (1660 - 1785) was much
influenced by contemporary French literature, which was in the midst of its greatest
age. The literature of this time is known for its use of philosophy, reason, skepticism,
wit, and refinement. The Neoclassical Period also marks the first great age of
English literary criticism.

12. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
12
Much like the English Literary Renaissance, the Neoclassical Period can be
divided into three subsets: the Restoration, the Augustan Age, and the Age of
Sensibility.
The Restoration, 1660 - 1700, is marked by the restoration of the monarchy
and the triumph of reason and tolerance over religious and political passion. The
Restoration produced an abundance of prose and poetry and the distinctive comedy
of manners known as Restoration comedy. It was during the Restoration that John
Milton published Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Other major writers of the
era include John Dryden, John Wilmot 2nd
Earl of Rochester, and John Locke.
The English Augustan Age derives its name from the brilliant literary period
of Vergil and Ovid under the Roman emperor Augustus (27 B.C. - A.D. 14). In
English literature, the Augustan Age, 1700 - 1745, refers to literature with the
predominant characteristics of refinement, clarity, elegance, and balance of
judgement. Well-known writers of the Augustan Age include Jonathan Swift,
Alexander Pope, and Daniel Defoe. A significant contribution of this time period
included the release of the first English novels by Defoe, and the "novel of
character," Pamela, by Samuel Richardson in 1740.
During the Age of Sensibility, literature reflected the worldview of
Enlightenment and began to emphasize instict and feeling, rather than judgment and
restraint. A growing sympathy for the Middle Ages during the Age of Sensibility
sparked an interest in medieval ballads and folk literature. Another name for this
period is the Age of Johnson because the dominant authors of this period were
Samuel Johnson and his literary and intellectual circle. This period also produced

13. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
13
some of the greatest early novels of the English language, including Richardson's
Clarissa (1748) and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749).
- ROMANTICISM:
The Romantic Period of English literature began in the late 18th
century and
lasted until approximately 1832. In general, Romantic literature can be characterized
by its personal nature, its stong use of feeling, its abundant use of symbolism, and
its exploration of nature and the supernatural. In addition, the writings of the
Romantics were considered innovative based on their belief that literature should be
spontaneous, imaginative, personal, and free. The Romantic Period produced a
wealth of authors including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Jane
Austen, and Lord Byron.
It was during the Romantic Period that Gothic literature was born. Traits of
Gothic literature are dark and gloomy settings and characters and situations that are
fantasic, grotesque, wild, savage, mysterious, and often melodramatic. Two of the
most famous Gothic novelists are Anne Radcliffe and Mary Shelley.
- VICTORIANISM:
The Victorian Period of English literature began with the accession of Queen
Victoria to the throne in 1837, and lasted until her death in 1901. Because the
Victorian Period of English literature spans over six decades, the year 1870 is often
used to divide the era into "early Victorian" and "late Victorian." In general,
Victorian literature deals with the issues and problems of the day. Some
contemporary issues that the Victorians dealt with include the social, economic,

14. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
14
religious, and intellectual issues and problems surrounding the Industrial
Revolution, growing class tensions, the early feminist movement, pressures toward
political and social reform, and the impact of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution
on philosophy and religion. Some of the most recognized authors of the Victorian
era include Alfred Lord Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, her husband Robert,
Matthew Arnold, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Thomas
Hardy.
- EDWARDIAN PERIOD:
It is named for King Edward VII and spans the time from Queen Victoria's death
(1901) to the beginning of World War I (1914). During this time, the British Empire
was at its height and the wealthy lived lives of materialistic luxury. However, four
fifths of the English population lived in squalor. The writings of the Edwardian
Period reflect and comment on these social conditions. For example, writers such
as George Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells attacked social injustice and the selfishness
of the upper classes. Other writers of the time include William Butler Yeats, Joseph
Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, Henry James, and E.M. Forster.
- GEORGIAN PERIOD:
It refers to the period of British Literature that is named for the reign of George V
(1910-36). Many writers of the Edwardian Period continued to write during the
Georgian Period. This era also produced a group of poets known as the Georgian
poets. These writers, now regarded as minor poets, were publihed in four anthologies
entitled Georgian Poetry, published by Edward Marsh between 1912 and 1922.

15. Lecture Notes Composite File
Al-Malki, Noora
2014
LANE 341
15
Georgian poetry tends to focus on rural subject matter and is traditional in technique
and form.
- MODERNISM:
The Modern Period applies to British literature written since the beginning of
World War I in 1914. The authors of the Modern Period have experimented with
subject matter, form, and style and have produced achievements in all literary
genres. Poets of the period include Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, and Seamus
Heaney. Novelists include James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf.
Dramatists include Noel Coward and Samuel Beckett.
Following World War II (1939-1945), the Postmodern Period of British Literature
developed. Postmodernism blends literary genres and styles and attempts to break
free of modernist forms.
While the British literary scene at the turn of the new millenium is crowded and
varied, the authors still fall into the categories of modernism and postmodernism.
However, with the passage of time the Modern era may be reorganized and
expanded.