A brief history of English literature Navigation Home page Contents ForumMaximize Search CommentMail me Author IntroductionLiterary formsOld English, Middle English and ChaucerTudor lyric poetryRenaissance dramaMetaphysical poetryEpic poetryRestoration comedyProse fiction and the novelRomanticism Victorian poetry The Victorian novel Modern literature Writers outside mainstream movements Literature and culture Recent and future trends Evaluating literature Add to this page Introduction This study guide is intended for GCE Advanced and Advanced Supplementary (A2 and AS) level students in the UK, who are taking exams or modules in English literature. It should be most useful right at the start of the course, or later as a resource for exercises in revision, and to help you reflect on value judgements in literary criticism. It may also be suitable for university students and the general reader who is interested in the history of literature. This guide reflects a view of literature which is sometimes described ascanonical, and sometimes as aDead White European Maleview. That is, I have not especially sought to express my own value judgements but to reflect those which are commonly found in printed guides by judges whose views command more respect than mine. I hope that students who visit this pagewilltake issue with the summary comments here, or discuss them with their peers. But young readers will not thank teachers for leaving them in the dark about established critical opinion or the canon of English literature. (If you doubt that thereisa canon, look at the degree course structure for English literature in a selection of our most prestigious universities.) Students who recognize that they have little or no sense of English literary culture have often asked me to suggest texts for them to study - this guide may help them in this process. This is NOT a tutorial, in the sense of a close reading of any text. And it is not very interesting to read from start to finish. I hope, rather, that it will be used as a point of reference or way in to literature for beginners. You will soon see if it is not for you. Back to top And while I have made a selection from the many authors who deserve study, I have throughout presented them in a chronogical sequence. At the end I consider briefly questions of genre and literary value. I have not attempted to record the achivements of writers in other languages, though these include some of the greatest and most influential writers of all time, such asDante Alighieri, Leo Tolstoy, Franz KafkaandBertolt Brecht. Happily, examiners of Advanced level literature have allowed students, in recent years, to study these foreign authors, in translation, in independent extended literary studies.
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