TITULARIZARE + Definitivat Literature

The Jacobean Age)---> historical period

1. Shakespeare​ Humanism - literary movement
Historical context Themes, style

-The system of patronage Romeo and Juliet:

-printing invention ·​ ​tragedy
-the discovery of hundreds of Latin and ·​ ​dramatic tension, irony
Greek manuscripts from medieval time H​amlet:​The Renaissance (Elizabethan
-Platonic philosophy Age/Jaco
-rediscovered Greek and Roman classical ·​ ​suspense
philosophy
·​ ​soliloquy
-more and more become interested in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
drama, as noblemen and monarchs, such ·​ ​blank verse (iambic pentameters)
as ​Elizabeth I and James I​, develop a ·​ ​comedy
habit of going to see plays and due to the ·​ ​humour
increase in life standards, people have The Sonnets: 154 sonnets
more time and money to go to theatres -​ ​parody (in 130)
-The revolt against the Roman Catholic -pastiche
Church called the Reformation,the -Greek Mythology
foundation of the protestant churches -Love, marriage, sexual desire, rivality,
- the Act of Supremacy in 1534 by which emotional triangle, gender roles
Henry VIII became the Head of the Church
-revise the convention
of England, the closing of all the Macbeth
monasteries. ·​ ​onomatopoeia
-The publication of the first Bible in the ·​ ​tone
English language in 1539 and the Book of
·​ ​metaphor
Common Prayer in 1584. -Colonial
expansion in America and Asia, the war
between England and Spain for the control
of the seas.Sir Francis Drake sails around
the world, the destruction of the Spanish
Armada in 1588, colonial expansion in
America, the East India Company is set up.
The arts, particularly the theatre and poetry
flourished.
 Augustan Age/ The Enlightenment / The age of reason/ Neoclassicism
2. Daniel Defoe: Robinson Crusoe (​first English novel)
● -Neoclassical Period - literary movement
● -Enlightenment-social context
● -Augustan Age - historical context
● -circumstantial realism.
Historical context Themes, style

Robinson Crusoe's journey takes place Robinson Crusoe is a fictional autobiography

in the context of 17th century European written from a first-person point of view,
imperialism and colonialism, as different apparently written by an old man looking back
countries explored the Americas, on his life. The story also includes material
establishing colonies and exploiting from an incomplete diary, which is integrated
natives. into the novel.
Defoe admired many of Oliver Cromwell's RC can be viewed as a spiritual or religious
projects, especially the Navigation Acts, fable.Defoe was very concerned with religious
so it is not surprising that Crusoe is lost to
issues, and nearly became a Dissenter (
civilisation in 1659, the year Cromwell's nonconformist) minister.
son lost political power. Robinson Crusoe may be read as a novel that
is the product of the economic individualism of
The Neoclassical period, Augustan age- Puritanism.
historic events. Charles I dissolves It is also a narrative that clearly respects the
Parliament and rules alone. He reopens prescriptive realism that the novel was
Parliament which demands control on the supposed to entail.
army. Charles refusal led to Civil War. Loneliness​, a fundamental theme in the novel,
Charles I is executed and Cromwell sets can be regarded as a metaphor for a new type
about founding a Republic, the of human consciousness - the individual
Commonwealth. Under Charles II people robbed of the ties with his community.
came back to monarchy- the Restoration. Colonization​ is yet another essential theme in
The Glorious Revolution and the Bill of the novel. Even if the pattern of colonization
Rights. The outbreak of Plague in 1665 had existed in English literature
and the Great Fire of London in 1666 (Shakespeare’s ​The Tempest​), the novel
destroyed London. The establishment of endorsed the ideology of the time with regard
two parties, the Tory and the Whigs. The to England’s colonial expansion. The novel
seven years war bet England and France, advances the paradigm of the
Captain Cook discovers Australia. In 1776 colonizer/colonized (the redeemer, the
the American Declaration of educator,
Independence​. the illuminator vs. the savage, the brute, the
Other.
3. Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels
● -Neoclassical Period - literary movement
● -Enlightenment-social context
● -Augustan Age - historical context
● fantastic realism

Historical context Themes, style

-England in the 1720s -​The Individual Versus Society

-the Restoration
-the Glorious Revolution
-War of Spanish Succession
-​The Limits of Human Understanding
-​Might Versus Right
 
-Gulliver’s Travels is a fantastic account of a
series of travels is the vehicle for satirizing
familiar English institutions, such as religion,
politics and law.
4. John Keats Romantic period
*Endymion *Ode: e.g.
·​ ​Ode on a Grecian Urn
·​ ​Ode to a Nightingale ..etc.
Historical context Themes, style

Common Themes and Ideas

​George III’s reign, great
turbulences: wars with Napoleon,
French revolution, industrial
revolution.
0
● The natural process of ​transience​; life growing to maturity, and
then declining into death.
● Fragile nature of the human existence
● Use of personal experiences to stimulate a universal message

Paradoxical​ relationships
- Good and evil
http://lastromantics.weebly.
- Birth/Life and death
com/john-keats.html
- Mortality and immortality
- Dreams/visions and reality
- Immersion in passion and the desire to escape passion

● The association of love and pain

● Issues of identity
● Nature
● The contemplation of beauty
● Adoration for the Ancient World

● The inevitability of Death

Even before his diagnosis of terminal tuberculosis , Keats
focused on death.The end of lover’s embrace, the images
of an ancient urn , the reaping of a grain , all of these are
not just symbols of death, but instances of it.
● The contemplation of beauty
In his poetry, Keats proposed the contemplation of beauty
as a way of delaying the inevitability of death. Although we
must die eventually, we can choose to spend our time alive
in aesthetic revelry, looking at beautiful objects and
landscapes. Keats’s speakers ​contemplate urns​ (“​Ode on a
Grecian Urn​”), ​books​ (“​On First Looking into Chapman’s
Homer​” [1816], “​On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once
Again”​ [1818]), ​birds​ (“Ode to a Nightingale”), and ​stars
(“​Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art”​ [1819]).
5. S. T. Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner -Romantic period
Historical context Themes, style

​Themes
· The transformative power of the imagination
· The interplay of philosophy, religious piety and poetry
· Nature and the development of the individual
Motifs
· Conversation poems
· Delight in the natural world
· Prayer
Symbols
· The Sun
· The Moon
· Dreams and dreaming
· Childhood
· Innocence
· Happiness
· Evening/Night

6. Jane Austen: Pride and Prejudice -Romantic period

Historical context Themes, style

-The French Revolution and ​Themes:

Napoleonic Wars ● love/reputation (woman reputation)
-English Regency society ● class (social position/related to position)
● marriage/women economical freedom.
● pride & prejudice & tolerance
● Change and transformation
Motifs
:structures, contrast and literary devices that can
help us to develop are the major
themes:courtship,Journeys.
Narrative:
3rd pers omniscient Elizabeth’s point of view.
Indirect speech
Style
● Romanticism
● irony
Genre:
Comedy of manners
 -Victorian Period
7. Charles Dickens: Great Expectations
David Copperfield

Historical context Themes, style

Themes:
-a time of great change: Britain Ambition, desire of self -improv. Guilt, innocence,
became a major imperial power maturation, affection, loyalty, victim, victimization
-steam power
-first used to drive industries, ships, Narrative:
printing presses 1st person n
-poets and novelists: chronicle their
new exciting age Setting:
Mid 19th c Kent and London

Style​ ​His writing style is marked by a profuse linguistic

creativity.Satire, flourishing in his gift for caricature, is his
forte.
His literary style is also a mixture of ​fantasy​ and ​realism

8. Lewis Carroll : Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Victorian period

Historical context Themes, style

-a time of great change: Britain
became a major imperial power
-steam power
-first used to drive industries, ships,
printing presses
-poets and novelists: chronicle their
new exciting age
- Fairy tale; children’s fiction; satire; allegory;
- The narrator speaks in third person, though
occasionally in first and second person. The
narrative follows Alice around on her travels,
voicing her thoughts and feelings.
Themes:
Tragic inevitable loss of childhood innocence, life as a
meaningless puzzle
Setting:
Victorian era, England, Wonderland
Motifs:
dream, subversion, curious, nonsense, confusing
Narrative:
3rd pers. occasionally 1st and 2nd pers, anonymou
narrator
9. Thomas Hardy: Tess of the Urbervilles
-Victorian Period
Historical context
-a time of great change: Britain
became a major imperial power
-steam power
-first used to drive industries, ships,
printing presses
-poets and novelists: chronicle their
new exciting age
-The critical realism of the
nineteenth century drew to its end in
the works of Thomas Hardy. We call
Hardy’s works the Swan Song of
critical realism, for he is
undoubtedly the greatest
representative of that literary
movement.
Themes, style
- tragic novel
- TONE​ · Realistic, pessimistic.
- This is one of Hardy’s best-known and
best-constructed novels. It holds first place
among Hardy’s realistic writings as a vivid
protest against the urban social order and
civilization.
- It is the story of an innocent country girl
whose happiness is ruined by a tragic fate,
which has its origin in the social, economic,
political and moral conditions, in which she
must live.
- Considered a Victorian realist, Hardy examines
the social constraints on the lives of those living in
Victorian England​, and criticises those beliefs,
especially those relating to marriage, education
and religion, that limited people's lives and caused
unhappiness
- Fate or chance is another important
theme.Hardy's main characters often seem to be
held in fate's overwhelming grip.
10. G. B. Shaw: Caesar and Cleopatra
Historical context
​The Edwardian age was also seen as a
mediocre period of pleasure between the
great achievements of the preceding
Victorian age and the catastrophe of the
following war
​Below the upper class, the era was
marked by significant shifts in politics
among sections of society that had been
largely excluded from wielding power in
the past, such as common labourers.
Women became increasingly politicised
-Modern Period
11. James Joyce: Ulysses
Historical context
​Pygmalion ​- Edwardian Period
Themes, style
-anti romantic comedy
Style of writing
·​ ​device and techniques: irony, comedy,
parody, colloquial language
- Nobel prize-winning Irish playwright
- pygmalion =Cloaked in witty humour, Shaw examines
the superficiality of class behaviour and distinctions. ​It
was claimed by Shaw to be a didactic drama
about phonetics, and its antiheroic hero, ​Henry
Higgins​, is a phonetician, but the play is a
humane comedy about love and the English class
system.
Caesar and cleopatra =The play’s outstanding
success rests upon its treatment of Caesar as a
credible study in magnanimity and “original
morality” rather than as a superhuman hero on a
stage pedestal
Themes, style
​Ulysses​' ​stream-of-consciousness​ technique, careful
structuring, and experimental prose — full of ​puns​,
parodies​, and ​allusions​ — as well as its rich
characterisation​ and broad humour, made the book a
highly regarded novel in the ​modernist​ pantheon.
12.Virginia Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway

Historical context Themes, style

Themes:
-Jazz Age -society and class
-corruption -suffering repression
-Art Deco -memory and the past
-The flapper -madness
-the new modern era -isolation
WW1 -the lost generation after WW1
-stream of consciousness
-interior monologue
-fear of death

Motifs:
Time
Narrative
3rd pers omniscient n point of view

13. Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness; Lord Jim -Modern Period

Historical context Themes, style

​While it addresses the timeless struggle of man’s

self-deception and inner conflicts, influenced by
Conrad’s own sense of isolation from his past, the
story of Marlow’s journey into the Congo also exposes
the clashes, exploitation and barbarity between
European and African societies during 19th Century
colonial expansionism.
14. T. S. Eliot: Waste Land
-Modern Period both american (because it was born there, but lived in London)
Historical context Themes, style

-Postmodern Period

15. William Golding: Lord of the Flies ​-Contemporary Age

Historical context Themes, style

- ​Themes​:
● Civilisation vs. Barbarism
● loss of innocence
● Innate human evil
● good and evil
● reason and emotion
● moral & morality
Motifs:
● biblical parallels,
● natural beauty
● bullying of the weak by the strong
Narrative​:
anonymous 3rd person, omniscient, character’s
inner thoughts
Setting:
Near future,a deserted tropical island
16. Kurt Vonnegut- Slaughterhouse- Five (DEFINITIVAT)
American Romanticism
17. Edgar Ellan Poe - The Tell Tale Heart (DEFINITIVAT)
18. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter
- Dark Romanticism
-Transcendentalism??
Historical context
-The Transcendentalist Movement
-Abolitionism and Revolution
→ These in Hawthorne’s view were
episodes of threatening instability.
Abolitionism was the 19 c
movement to end slavery in the
United States
-The puritan Colonies
→ the novel was written in the
mid-19 c ,but it takes the mid-17 c
for the events it describes (1642-49)
Themes, style
- ​Hawthorne's novel is set in the early days of America 
-is very much concerned with exploring American 
identity 
-it's a h
​ istorical novel​: it's set in the early days of Puritan 
settlement of America. 
Symbol: ​red letter "A"  
Narrator:  
-the identity of the narrator is one of the most 
obvious problems. This difficulty is intentional. Use 
of ambiguity is both a central theme and a central 
technique of the novel 
Themes:
● Alienation
● Appearance vs reality
● Breaking society’s rules
● Individual vs society
● Change and transformation
● Ambiguity
● Guilt and innocence
Irony
Literary allusion
18. Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass ​ ​ -Romanticism -Transcendentalism
Historical context Themes, style

19. Emily Dickinson

● American Romanticism - Transcendentalism

Historical context Themes, style

Lincoln’s assassination Style: broken meter, unusual rhythmic patterns,

The Civil War assonance
A social and religious movement: -compact, forceful language characterized
“Great Revival” formally by long disruptive dashes, heavy iambic
meters and angular, imprecise rhymes.
 20. Herman Melville: Moby Dick

Historical context Themes, style

Themes:
● America in the Mid-19 c ● Individual vs nature
America was in a tumultuous period, ● God and Religion
establishing its national and international ● Good and Evil, Female and Masculine
identity at the time of Moby Dick was being ● Choices and Consequences
written. ● Appearance and Reality

Self -reliance Symbol:​ white whale --​is one of the most important
symbols in American literature (albino)

-epic style

-Realism naturalism
21. Mark Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Historical context Themes, style

-slavery Themes:
-reconstruction ● Freedom
-Minstrel Show ● Conscience
● Race and racism
Style
● Burlesque
-to critique the aristocratic pretensions of the King
and Duke, and the romantic fantasies of Tom
Sawyer
22: Henry James: The portrait of a Lady
Historical context Themes, style

Themes:
● American vs European character
→ this contrast is important, because most of its
characters are Americans who have been living in
Europe for varying periods of time
● Social and emotional maturation
→ Isabel’s social and emotional development is
thrown into high relief by James’ s contrast of
American and European natures

​Style​:
● Psychological realism

-Modernism
23: Eugene O'Neill: Mourning Becomes Electra
Historical context Themes, style
24: Ernest Hemingway: Short stories

Historical context Themes, style

Hemingway's style is more fun to read because of

Hemingway's ultimate simplicity and because he
used the same themes and the same style in all his
works.

25: F. S. Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

Historical context Themes, style

-The Jazz Age and the Roaring ​Themes​:

Twenties ● Culture Clash
The Jazz Age began soon after ● American Dream
WW1 and ended with the 1929 ● Appearance and Reality
stock market crash. Victorious, ● Moral Corruption
America experienced an economic
expansion. After the war they Style
pursued financial independence and ● Satire
a freer lifestyle. ● Light/Dark imagery
-New York City and the urban
-The Black Sox Fix of 1919
26: William Faulkner: Absalom, Absalom
Historical context :
The lose of the Civil War in the 19th
century had a profound impact on
the south. The region not only lost
the war but also their hall way of life.
The aristocratic structure of slavery
was destroyed. black people were
not at the rule of the white Society.
Only after 100 years black people
were legally free. The relationship of
the blacks to whites is depicted by
Faulkner in ​The Sound and the Fury
Reflect that social and economic
divide. The blacks in the novel are
servants. They are role is expanded
to that of a spiritual caretaker
The “lost” generation
A counterpoint to the bleakness
that followed 1929 stock market
crash and the depression In 1930
was the proliferation of the artistic
accomplishments. No other. was in
America to produce so many
Important works in literature music
and art. The disillusionment inspired
by the war lead many creative
artists to explore what it meant to be
American in the modern world and
what it meant to be human
a southern
novel,W.Faulkner/American author,
the novel is published în 1935.
-Modernism
Themes, style
The Sound and the Fury
Themes
Time-​ the central character of the four sections of
the novel cope time in a different way. In the first
section Benjy’s sense of time is defective. His
thoughts move from present to past without the
ability to grasp the real meaning of the events.
Benjy is free from time because he cannot
understand its impact in his feelings. Quentin
cannot accept the changes of his life that time
inevitably brings. His sense of loss over innocence
of his childhood love of Caddy is unbearable, that
is why he commits suicide. Jason, on the other
hand lives in time present, he reacts to events as
they occur, unlike Quentin who acts in past.
In the last section of the book, Dilsey represents
another view of time, a historical view. She
embraces all of her life experience and those of the
Compsons with a religious faith about the
timelessness of life.Her view most closely reflects
the author’s viewpoint on time.
Pride ​is the undoing of the compson family. Mr.
Compson turns to alcohol, Mrs Compson retreats
to her bed and self-pity. Quentin’s concern over the
family “honor” and how Caddy has shamed the
family lead him to kill himself. Jason is racked with
pride and jealousy. He feels he deserves better.
Love and passion
Natural and unnatural love among siblings, love
between sexes and Christina love are themes that
pervade ​The sound and the Fury​. Faulkner shows
the love the Compson brothers have for Caddy.
Benjy’s love is an innocent love for someone who
has shown him affection. Quentin’s love for his
sister is unnatural. He has incestuous feelings.
 ​ ostmodernism
P
27. John Fowles - The Magus; The French Lieutenant’s Woman
Historical context
Historical Context
Existentialism
Existentialism is a school of philosophical
and artistic attitudes that investigates the
nature of being. Its basic tenet is that
existence and experience rather than essence
should be emphasized. The beginnings of
existentialism can be traced to the
nineteenth-century Danish philosopher Sören
Kierkegaard and early twentieth-century
German
philosopher Martin Heidegger.
After World War II, existentialism reflected
on an absurd world devoid of a benevolent
creator/protector,
where humans must create meaning through
their actions and take sole responsibility for
their fates. This freedom and responsibility
can, however, cause an overwhelming sense
of dread. Existentialism has been expressed
as a dominant theme in the literary works of
Franz Kafka, Dostoevsky, Camus, Jean-Paul
Sartre, and Samuel Beckett.
The New Woman
In the last half of the nineteenth century,
cracks began to appear in the Victorians’
seemingly stable universe. In 1859, Charles
Darwin’s ​Origin of Species ​sparked debates
on religious ideology and the development of
the human. In 1867, Karl Marx published the
first volume of ​Das Kapital​, which would
challenge notions of class structures and their
economic underpinnings. Robert Huffaker
writes, “These eminent Victorians, steadily
and without any
violent action, helped to shatter the age in
which they lived—its faith, morality,
confidence.” During this period, feminist
thinkers contributed to the shattering of
traditional social mores as they began to
engage in a rigorous investigation of female
identity as it related to all aspects of a
woman’s life.
Themes, style, structure
John Fowles​ was born on March 31, 1926, in a
suburb of London. ​ was an English novelist of
international stature, critically positioned between
modernism​ and ​postmodernism​. His work
reflects the influence of ​Jean-Paul Sartre​ and
Albert Camus​, among others.
The story traces the relationship between a woman,
caught between the Victorian and modern ages, and a
man drawn to her independent spirit. Charles
Smithson, a young English gentleman, becomes
fascinated with Sarah Woodruff, a social outcast in
the coastal town of Lyme Regis, who is known as
“Tragedy,” or in a more pejorative sense as “the
French lieutenant’s woman.” Rumors suggest that she
gazes continually at the sea, waiting for the sailor
who seduced her to return. Charles eventually risks
his own social ostracism when he breaks off his
engagement to a perfectly respectable young woman
to pursue Sarah. Readers are never given a definite
conclusion to the story as they are left to choose
among three possible endings. Fowles’s innovative
narrative technique, which allows readers to become
an active part in the creation of his novel, provides
the framework for a fascinating story of passion, the
constraints of class, and the struggle for freedom.
Themes:
Social Constraints
Each character in the novel is constrained in some
way by Victorian society. Tina has never been
encouraged to explore her sexuality and so she is
afraid of any intimacy with Charles. As a result,
Charles gravitates to Sarah, who exhibits a more
sensual nature. Charles is caught up by his
comfortable position as an English gentleman, which
affords him the opportunity to leisurely dabble in his
scientific pursuits and to be in control of his romantic
relationships. Yet, he risks banishment from his class
if he loses his wealth or behaves in a socially
unacceptable way.
Sarah has faced social constraints throughout her life.
Born into the working class but educated as a lady,

The most radical thinkers supporting
feminism declared the institution of marriage
to be a form of slavery and thus
recommended its abolition. They rejected the
notion that motherhood should be the
ultimate goal of all women.
she fits into neither world. She becomes a social
pariah, however, when rumors surface that she has
been seduced by a French lieutenant and are
reinforced by her daily position on the Cobb, gazing
longingly out to sea.
Freedom
Tina never experiences freedom since she does not
allow this evolution. Her nature is not strong enough
to stand up to the conventions of her world and take a
more active part in the determination of her future.
She is ultimately controlled by Charles’ actions—his
proposal of marriage and later his breaking of their
engagement
From the beginning of the novel, Sarah resists the
restrictions of her age. She allows others to believe
that she has been seduced by her French lieutenant,
which pushes her outside the boundaries of
respectable society. Her search for independence
leads her to the bohemian Pre-Raphaelites in London.
She refuses to let others dictate her future,
deciding when and if she wants to enter into a
relationship with Charles
Style
The novel’s narrative is postmodern in that it focuses
on the self-conscious act of the author telling a story.
Fowles discards the traditional, omniscient,
Victorian narrator who knows everything about the
characters and shares this information with the
readers. The narrator in ​The French Lieutenant’s
Woman​, who identifies himself as the author,
breaks into the story continuously, providing
background information, but also confounding
readers’ expectations about narrative continuity and
clarity. He often moves back and forth in time. For
example, he interrupts his description of Lyme Regis
by mentioning Jane Austen’s use of the Cobb in her
novel ​Persuasion,​ which was written approximately
fifty years before ​The French Lieutenant’s Woman’​ s
setting date.
The novel’s narrative is postmodern in that it focuses
on the self-conscious act of the author telling a story.
Fowles discards the traditional, omniscient, Victorian
narrator who knows everything about the characters
and shares this information with the readers. The
narrator in ​The French Lieutenant’s Woman,​ who
identifies himself as the author,
breaks into the story continuously, providing
background information, but also confounding
readers’ expectations about narrative continuity and
clarity. He often moves back and forth in time.
For example, he interrupts his description of Lyme
Regis by mentioning Jane Austen’s use of the Cobb
in her novel ​Persuasion,​ which was written
approximately fifty years before ​The French
Lieutenant’s Woman’​ s setting date.
He also refuses to give us a clear portrait of Sarah,
who remains enigmatic throughout the novel. This
more modern narrative sensibility suggests that no
one can ever know anyone completely,
that some mystery always remains, and that
knowledge of others is based on individual
perceptions, not universal truths. As he continually
breaks into the narrative, identifying himself in the
role of storyteller, the narrator interrupts the reader’s
suspension of disbelief by continually calling
attention to the fictional nature of the tale. This
interruption is
heightened by the three endings he provides.
Structure
The first ending is a traditional Victorian conclusion.
Charles marries the sweetly conservative
Tina, deciding that she would provide him with more
stability and thus he would retain a secure position in
society. He would have risked social ostracism if he
had pursued Sarah. The narrator,
however, refuses to end in such a conventional way,
and so has Charles only imagine this ending. The
narrator reappears after he discards the first ending
just as Charles begins his search for Sarah. He sits
with a dozing Charles on the train, considering his
character’s fate and eventually constructing two
possible conclusions. The second ending offers a
more modern, albeit still romantic, conclusion, as
Charles and Sarah reunite. Refusing to end there, the
narrator reappears, this time as an impresario, sets his
watch back fifteen minutes, and constructs the final
ending, in which Charles is alone. The presentation of
these alternate endings forces the reader to recognize
the fictional nature of the work and also ultimately to
participate in its construction.