A Brief History of British and American Literature

№83 

Кафедра русского и иностранного языков и литературы 

М.С. Алехина 

А BRIEF HISTORY OF BRITISH 
AND AMERICAN LITERATURE 

Учебно-методическое пособие 

для студентов специальности 620100 

Рекомендовано редакционно-издательским 
советом института 

МОСКВА 2002 

УДК811.111 
А49 

А49 
М.С. Алехина. Brief History of British and American Literature: 
Учеб.-метод. пособие - М.: МИСиС, 2002. - 165 с. 

Цель пособия - формирование представлений об основных явлениях и 
логике развития литературного процесса в Великобритании и США. Даны 
образцы анализа художественных произведений, сведения об эпохе и 
эстетических принципах развития литературы на разных этапах. 

Предназначено для студентов отделения лингвистики, обучающихся 
по направлению 620100 "Лингвистика и межкультурная коммуникация", а 
также изучающих курс "История литературы Великобритании и США". 

© Московский государственный 
институт стали и сплавов 
(Технологаческий университет) 
(МИСиС), 2002 

СОДЕРЖАНИЕ 

Foreword 
4 

Parti 
5 

Introduction 
5 

Chapter I. Beowulf and Old English Literature. The Age of Chaucer . 7 
Chapter II. English Renaissance 
17 

Chapter III. Elizabethan Epoch. The Age of Reason 
34 

Chapter IV. The Victorians 
49 

Chapter V. English Literary Fairy Tale 
62 

Chapter VL The Birth of the Modern Novel 
68 

Chapter VII. British Literature Between Two World Wars 
77 

Chapter VIII. British Literature after World War II 
82 

Chapter IX. British Women Writers 
93 

Chapter IX. Recent British Literature 
101 

Part II 
108 

Chapter L The Beginning 
108 

Chapter II. Romanticism in American Literature 
111 

Chapter IIL American Humour 
123 

Chapter IV. Critical Realism and Naturalism 
126 

Chapter V. American Literature of the 1920- 1930-s 
133 

Chapter VI. American Literature of the 1950-1970-s 
139 

Chapter VIL The American Theatre 
144 

Conclusion 
150 

Bibliography 
151 

Appendix 
152 

Цели выполнения курсовой работы 
152 

Структура и содержание курсовой работы 
153 

Основные этапы выполнения курсовой работы 
154 

Оформление курсовой работы 
154 

Приложения 
155 

Приложение 1. Образец титульного листа 
155 

Приложение 2. Некоторые особенности пунктуации библиографии.. 156 
Приложение 3. Примерные темы курсовых работ 
157 

Приложение 4. Список дополнительной литературы 
159 

Приложение 5. Список обязательной литературы 
161 

FOREWORD 

A Brief History of British and American Literature has been 
complied with the purpose of giving a general comprehension of the main 
literary movements in British and American literature and the outstanding 
writers, poets and dramatists of these movements. For that some works of 
British and American literary criticism have been used. This book gives 
the traditional view on the development of literary process in these 
countries. The order of arrangement is mainly chronological. Each period 
is preceded by the political and historical background of that century, 
which had an impact on literary development. In Chapter I some literary 
terms are given for the further analysis of literary texts. 

In the end of each chapter there are questions for discussion. 
While answering them the students should be able to define the main 
theme of a literary work, its composition, genre forms, give characteristics 
of the heroes, analyze the language and symbols. If several genre forms 
are mingled in a work of fiction, the students should explain the logic of 
their interaction. 

It is difficuh to give a broader picture of literary development 
within a limited space, so students should read additional literature on the 
subject. A list of some additional critical literature is given in the end of 
this book. 

Appendix also includes the themes of course-papers and the way 
to write and present them. 

M.S. Alyokhina 

4 

PARTI 

Introduction 

This work is intended to introduce the students to English and 
American literature as a whole and to acquaint them with what is the 
generally accepted view of the writers and periods under discussion. 

Each chapter will consider historical development of the time 
under consideration and its reflection in literature of that time in the form 
of literary movements - common tendencies in literary activities of a 
group of writers belonging to the same epoch and having more or less 
definite social and political principles and artistic methods of their work. 
Method is a way of refiecting reality, a writer's attitude to reality. 

Before introducing the main topics it is necessary to get the main 
ideas of what literary process or the structure of a literary work mean. 
This is the domain of theory of literature. 

A category of literary works distinguished with the respect to 
purpose, form, style, etc. is called genre. In describing the kinds of 
literary works the following traditional genres are mentioned: the lyric (a 
lyric poem, ballad, ode, epitaph, elegy); the epic (novel, romance, story, 
short story, fable, fairy tale); the dramatic (tiagedy, drama, comedy). Each 
literary movement has its typical genres, as well as their specific features. 

A novel is a prose narrative of sufficient length to fill one or more 
volumes portraying characters and actions representative of real hfe in a 
continuous plot. In the process of its development there appeared various 
kinds of the novel (detective, adventurous, historical, of manners, 
psychological, etc.). In fact novels rarely exist in their pure form. More 
often different elements are intermingled. 

A tale (a novelette) is a piece of prose fiction longer than a story 
but shorter than a novel and having the construction of a novel. 

A short story is a relatively brief prose story, usually characterized by 
uniformity of tone and dramatic intensity, and having as a plot a single action. 

A poem is a short metiical piece of writing inspired by deep 
feeling or desire to communicate an experience. It can also be a 
composition in verse, either in blank verse (a poetic measure of ten 
syllables normally accented on the even-numbered syllables- iambic 
pentameter - without terminal rhyme characteristic of English dramatic 

5 

and epic poetry) or rhymed, characterized by imagination and poetic 
diction(the choice of words, the mode of expression in poetry). 

Each author has his style - a distinctive manner of expression of 
thought, peculiar to him. Thus style may be terse or diffuse, exphcit or 
vague, simple or rhetorical, light or ponderous, etc. Each school or period 
also has its own style, like Byronic or Impressionist style. 

Subject is a matter of a literary work to be dealt with; the basic 
theme, which the writer is going to defend or attack in his works. 

Composition of any literary work is presupposed by its genre. It 
combines the elements of a literary form according to the main idea of this 
work. Composition of the works of Ancient times or Classicism is static, and it 
embodies the idea of strength and stability. On the contrary, composition of the 
works of Romantic authors is loose to show imperfection of human nature. A 
very important part of a literary work is its opening - the beginning of action 
development (lago decides to start an intrigue against Othello), or compUcation 
of a conflict (the meeting of Romeo and Julia at a ball; the device of bringing 
Laertes and Hamlet together for a duel). Culmination (climax) is the highest 
point of an action in a literary work, when the heroes manifest at the best their 
aims and inner "selves". In the works of larger forms, like novel or poem, 
which usually have a plot (the main sequence of events) and subplot(s) two or 
more culminations are possible. Subplot accompanies and often parallels the 
main action in a novel or play (e.g. in King Lear it is the life story of 
Gloucester). Climax is followed by denouement (ending) - the unwnding of 
the action: the events in a literary work immediately following the climax and 
bringing an action to an end. Tragedies end with catastrophe - the flnal event 
in a play, usually of a calamitous or disastrous nature (the murder of 
Desdemona in Othello). 

Every literary work has its protagonist(s) - the chief character(s) in a 
literary composition, on whom the action centers, as well as secondary 
characters. A character is analyzed by his actions, portrait (it often shows an 
author's attitude to him), direct characteristics, psychological analysis (the inner 
world: thoughts, feelings and emotions), artistic details (the description of 
surrounding reality; the details reflecting generalization are calld symbols). 

The characters can be lyrical (when an author reflects only the feelings 
and not actions or events from the life of a character); dramatic (met 
principally in drama; when an author uses the device of self-characterization) 
and epic (a narrator describes the characters, actions, appearance, surroundings, 
relationship with other heroes). The characters can be combined into groups of 
characters, and their interraction helps to describe each of them, and to 
understand the main idea of a Avriting. 

6 

Chapter I 

Beowulf and Old English Literature. 
The Age of Chaucer 

Epic and elegy are the chief Old English styles. Epic is a kind of 
narrative poem in which a heroic theme is treated in elevated style. Epic 
celebrates the achievements of one or more heroic personages of history 
or tradition. Elegy is a song of lamentation for the dead. 

The only substantial epic that survives is Beowulf. It contains 
some passages of excellent elegy that makes us suppose that the Old 
English elegies have survived from larger, lost epics. After Beowulf t\iQ 
only other fragments of Old English epic are a fifty line fragment of 
Finnsburgh and two fragments (32 and 31 lines) of Waldhere, but these 
are not considered to be very important from the literary point of view. 
And Beowulf antedates by several centuries any substantial piece of 
secular literature in other European vernaculars, like Chanson de Roland, 
Nibelungtnlied or the Icelandic sagas. 

Beowulf is to English what Odyssey an Iliad are to the Greek 
language and literature, or The Word of the Campaign of Igor to the 
Russian language and literature. The oldest piece of vernacular literature 
of any substance not only in England but the whole of Europe, it renders 
the true spirit of the northern Heroic Age. We cannot compare it with 
similar epics composed at that time, since no others have survived. The 
preservation of the Beowulf-manuscript itself was a matter of mere 
chance. The language and spelling could have become completely 
unintelligible a mere two hundred years after ft was written. But the poem 
was already several centuries old when this only surviving copy was 
made, and close examination of the text suggests that it was copied 
several times in different parts of the country. And that the poem was 
highly regarded in literary circles is suggested by the fact that ft seems to 
have been imttated in parts by certain writers of both poetty and prose. 

The historical events, which can be externally confirmed, all 
cluster around the years 490 - 525. Beowulf vfas originally composed in a 
northern or midland dialect, but the linguistic origin of the poem is not of 
much importance. Moreover, the scribe could shghtly misunderstand what 
was being said or he himself used a different dialect from that of the 
original. 

7 

The poem may combine four tales of different origin, but brought 
together for poetic purposes. Beowulf versus Grendel and Beowulf versus 
Grendel's mother are two distinct but related stories. Then there is a long 
account of Beowulf s return, and the tale of his final battle. We may 
presume that the bulk of the story-material- the semi-historical or 
mythical lays out of which the author composed his poem- came to 
England from across the North Sea some time during the second half of 
the sixth century, that is, by the end of the Migration Age proper. The 
archaeological evidence suggests that by the end of the sixth century no 
very sfrong cultural links were maintained with Scandinavia. So probably 
the Beowulf-poet's story-materials were intioduced just as the last strong 
ties with the Baltic were being abandoned. 

Given a date some time in the eighth century, almost any part of 
Anglo-Saxon England would have provided a cultural context appropriate 
to the composition of such a poem. But in view of what seems to have 
been the original Anglian complexion of the dialect, it would be 
preferable to look to the midland or northern kingdoms with their 
sophisticated aristocratic pations of the arts like King Aldfrith, would 
certainly have supplied a fitting miheu for the poem. The discovery at 
Sutton Hoo in Suffolk of the magnificent memorial to the great bretwalda, 
Redwald, whose fiineral in 625 A.D. bore such a remarkable similarity to 
that described in the preface to Beowulf, presents a sfrong case for 
composition in East Anglia. Redwald's forbears included people 
mentioned in the poem, and he may even have recognized kinship with 
Beowulf himself On the other hand the political, economic and cultural 
dominance of Mercia from the middle of the eighth century makes the 
west midlands an almost equally attiactive candidate. 

The sole surviving text oi Beowulf is found in a late tenth-century 
manuscript. Some time during the early seventeenth century, probably 
when in the possession of Sfr Robert Cotton, the manuscript was bound up 
with an originally quite distinct twelfth-century copy of miscellaneous 
Old English prose. But the manuscript proper is itself a composite 
volume. It begins with three short prose works: a legendary account of the 
dog-headed saint Christopher (the first two-thirds missing), an iUusfrated 
Wonders of the East and a ttanslation of the Latin Letter of Alexander to 
Aristotie describing his adventures in the East. Each of these deals in 
various ways with monsters, and perhaps they were brought together with 
5eowM//on that account. 

It might seem sfrange that the first great piece of English literature 
deals not with England, or Enghshmen at all. The hero is a Geat, living 

8 

somewhere in central Sweden, who is involved in adventures first in 
Denmark and later in his own country. But the lengthy catalogues of 
poetic allusions offered in Dear and Widsith show that the early Enghsh 
minstrel derived his topics, from almost any part of Germanic Europe. His 
heroes may have been Burgundians, Goths, Franks, or men from a host of 
less known tribes. Most of the historical characters referred to in Beowulf 
are well-known figures from Migration times when the Germanic tribes of 
northern Europe began their great journeys south and west, land-taking, 
forming new kingdoms out of what had been the Roman Empire, and 
laying the foundations for medieval and modem Europe. The AngloSaxons recognized themselves part of this movement, and long preserved 
detailed tiaditions respecting their origins - much as European immigrants 
to modem America often preserve quite precise oral information as to 
their antecedents. Anglo-Saxon kings like Alfred who fraced their 
genealogies back to the Gods, did so via various continental heroes, 
including some mentioned in Beowulf: Scyld, Scef and Heremod. 

Scholars usually divide the poem into eleven "chapters", but if we 
start following the plot according to the chapters, the composition falls 
apart. The titie itself by which the poem is known is merely a name of 
convenience. As usual with Old English literature, there is no titie page, 
no intioductory material, and the only preface takes the form of an 
exordium dealing with the death and burial of Scyld Scefmg, which at 
first sight seems to have little to do with the main text. This poem 
corresponds with none of the genres or kinds into which we are 
accustomed to divide modern or classical hterature, and any attempt to 
judge ft by classical crtteria fails. Equally, as it has been mentioned above, 
we lack any comparative material. 

The poem starts with the fiineral ceremony of Scyld Scefmg, the 
Danish king. Then we know about the reign of Scyld's son and grandson 
(another Beowulf). After that we meet King Hrothgar who builds a great 
festive hall called Heorot, lives in peace and happiness, but the monster 
Grendel, porttayed as Cain's offspring, attacks him at night, eats up as 
many as thirty kings in a single dinner and rains Hrothgar. After a dozen 
years Beowulf (the hero of the poem). King of the Geats with his fourteen 
good friends arrives in Denmark, meets Hrothgar, a close friend of 
Beowulf s grandfather and vows to defeat Grendel or die. Heorot is left to 
him and his companions. When everybody falls asleep, Beowulf fights 
against Grendel without a sword and defeats him, pulling off Grendel's 
arm. The monster, mortally wounded, fiees, and Beowulf shows off the 
tom arm and is rewarded by Hrothgar and his wife. But then Grendel's 

9 

mother, a more dangerous and formidable monster arrives and steals chief 
of the King's councilors. Beowulf follows her, kills her in her underwater 
cave, cuts off dead Grendel's head and brings it to Hrothgar's palace as a 
grim trophy. By the time Beowulf comes back his friends have despaired 
of his survival. He is again rewarded for his heroic deed and leaves 
Hrothgar for home. 

Here we can compare this part of the poem with a European 
folktale The Bear's Son Tale in which the young hero sets out on a series 
of adventures accompanied by several companions. He successfiiUy 
combats a supernatural creature haunting a house, whom several others 
have failed to withstand, usually because they had fallen asleep. In the 
course of the struggle he commonly wrenches a limb off the monster. 
Later he is guided by bloodstained tracks to its lair, underground and 
sometimes under water also. The hero descends by means of a rope. He 
finds there his former enemy either wounded or dead, and also a female of 
the species, whom he overcomes with the aid of a magic sword which is 
found in the lair. Finally, his comrades on the surface, who were to have 
hauled him up by the rope, abandon the hero, either treacherously or 
because they think him dead. Nevertheless he manages to return, bringing 
with him a piece of the dead monster and occasionally the sword with 
which it was overcome, and is acclaimed victorious. 

Scandinavian versions in particular, although found in their 
recorded form only from the fourteenth century, seem to preserve certain 
features of this folk tale in a relatively pristine form. It is clear from 
several versions that the marauding monsters are in fact tioUs - that is, the 
living dead, who, because of some unhappiness in their lives or in the 
manner of their deaths, walk abroad in the dark at night creating havoc 
wherever they go. Being creatures of darkness, they are upset by any kind 
of light - which if shone in their eyes, causes them to lose their hideous 
sfrength, and so enables a hero to deal with them permanently. This is 
usually effected by cutting off their heads, although the feat is properly 
achieved only with the aid of a magic sword, since ttoUs are normally 
invulnerable to ordinary human weapons. 

In addition to providing a general paradigm, comparison with 
certain of these Old Norse versions occasionally helps show how the 
Beowulf-poet has handled his received materials. For example, in Grettis 
Saga we can recognise a protagonist whose chief actions and fiinctions are 
in principle identical with those of Beowulf At different times in the 
course of a very eclectic tale, the hero Grettir is shown confronting three 
quite discrete monsters. First Grettir defeats and slays a male froU 

10 

haunting a lonely farmstead by night. He feigns sleep until the monster's 
approach, and then there follows a battle in which much of the hall is 
destroyed in a manner very reminiscent of Beowulf s confrontation with 
Grendel at Heorot. The hero succeeds because he is able to take advantage 
of a moment of weakness on the part of the troll when the moon comes 
out from behind the clouds and shines in its eyes. Later, after much 
intervening matter, the hero plans to confront another froU, this time a 
female, haunting a different farmstead. On this occasion the fight goes 
harder, the she-froU dragging him towards her lair behind a waterfall; but 
the hero manages to draw a knife and hack off one of the monster's arms, 
whereupon she disappears dead down the ravine. Rather arbifrarily, 
Grettir is then made to seek out the underwater lair as the resuh of 
disbelief in his exploits. He descends by means of a rope, leaving a friend 
at the surface. He finds not the monster, but a third ogre, and it is the 
destruction of this third monster which bloodies the water so that his 
waiting friend thinks the worst and thereupon leaves. 

But Beowulf is very far from being simply an unqualified English 
version of the Scandinavian Bear's Son tale. Even at the level of simple 
narrative, the Beowulf-poet has contrived to produce something more 
highly wrought, more impelling and significant. The tone of the Icelandic 
sagas is very different: matter-of-fact and casual even when the most 
striking crises are at hand. And their setting is different; no great hall of 
Heorot, centte of the nation state, upon the survival of which so much 
depends - but small yeoman farmers being attacked in their lonely fields 
by night, their lives depending on themselves alone, with no dramatic or 
fragic consequences. They are ruled by heroic ideals, just as Beowulf is, 
but the net effect is personal rather than communal, individual rather than 
universal. 

Back to the plot, Beowulf returns home, hands over to his king all 
the gifts he has got for his heroic deeds and gets a part of the kingdom. 
Some time later he ascends to the throne because his king and the king's 
son perish. Beowulf becomes a great ruler for the next fifty years, but then 
comes a fire-spitting dragon to desfroy him and his land. Beowulf 
manages to kill the dragon with a knife, but himself is mortally wounded. 
The poem concludes with an account of mourning and the proclamation of 
the King's virtues. 

No one could pretend that we read Beowulf for a its plot. The 
poet's style is by no means turgid in ttself, but continual comment, 
allusion and digression defract from what "plot" there is. In any case, if 
the poet's primary concern had been heroic narrative, there are curious 

11