British Literature

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Question English Answer English
In BEOWULF (Anglo-Saxon epic) we can find traces of different sources. Name them.
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Scandinavian legends, Christian, Greco-Roman myths, Pagan elements.
Scandinavian history, myths and legends in Beowulf:
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female monsters, motif of swords made by giants and blood, proper names and blood ties.
Christian elements in Beowulf
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hope for death, God decides about victory, using capital leters while writing about God, Lord, Father and the metaphor - heaven's candle - SUN.
Greco-Roman mythology in Beowulf:
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he's like Hercules - fights with a big monster and chops off its head, Grendel's mother is like Amazon, presence of MAZE - labyrinth (it's forest)<- Minotaur, Theseus myth, Beowulf's mission is rather spiritual than material.
Pagan elements in Beowulf:
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superhuman personifications - he's depicted as a super hero, the dragon is a powerful creature - common enemy in most pagan stories
Geoffrey Chauser - Canterbury Tales. What is GENERAL PROLOGUE about?
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It begins with description of beautiful Spring (April). Lots of pilgrimages make they journey to the shrine of Thomas Becket. These people are from different classes - the language is the only thing they have in common. Gathered in Tabbard Inn before the pilgrimage they decide to tell stories - everybody has to tell 2 stories on to way to Canterbury and 2 on the way back. Host of inn is going to choose the best story. Chauser is one of pilgimages - with him there are 30 people.
Short summary of Hamlet by W. Shakespeare
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Hamlet was the Prince of Denmark who was devastated by his father's death. Meanwhile, he has a relationship with a girl named Ophelia, but they can never marry because she is not of royal blood. Hamlet sees the ghost of his father, who tells him that his uncle, Claudius poisoned him and that is how he died. Hamlet is enraged and seeks revenge on Claudius, who married Hamlets' mother in order to get at the crown, which rightfully belonged to Hamlet. One night, Hamlet is talking with his mother wh
Shakespeare's sonnets are a collection of 154 sonnets, dealing with themes such as the passage of time, love, beauty and mortality, first published in a 1609 quarto entitled SHAKE-SPEARES SONNETS. What do you know about their structure?
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The sonnets are almost all constructed from three four-line stanzas (called quatrains) and a final couplet. 14 lines - three quatrains + couplet. a b a b c d c d e f e f g g (Italian is devided in
His sonnets were probably written in 1590. They were published in 1609. Tell me, dear student! what are William's sonnets about?
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1-17 - procreational sonnets. written to Mr. Henry Wriothesley. - Earl of Southampton. 18-126 - to a young man (a Fair Youth) 127-152 - About a Dark Lady - love to a woman
Comedies W.S
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Taming of the Shrew. Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Measure for Measure, A Comedy of Errors, Two Gentemen of Verona, The Tempest
Historical plays W.S. https://www.facebook.com/groups/390191484363805/390981820951438/#
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Richard III, King John, Henry IV, Henry V
Tragedies W.S.
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Romeo and Juliet, Antony & Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Titus Andronicus, Timon of Athens
Three main features of Donne's poetry:
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1. concise (ścisłe) expression 2. eliptical grammar - doesn't obey the rules of accuracy 3. deliberate roughness of versification (poet manipulates verses)
DISCORDIA CONCORS (Donne)
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jedność przeciwieństw
wit-and-conceit - dowcip i koncept, CONCEIT -
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- a comparison whose ingenuity is more striking than justness - a comparison discovering likeness in things unlike - a suggestion of likeness where the conscience of unlikeness remains strongly present - such a device was often used as the organizing principle of the whole poems construction - poet frequently uses highly-esoteric knowlegde
Where can we meet conceit? In whose works?
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John Donne "Elegy XIX - To his mistress going to bed". There is an elegy about man who wants to coax (encourage to have sex with him) a young girl and areas of reference are for example military, pastoral poetry, monarchy, religion, geographical discoveries, misticism, medicine.
Shakespearan tradegy is
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a story of human actions producing exceptional calamity (disaster) and ending in the death of a person of high-estate
Shakespearian tradegy. Features:
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-> abnormal conditions like madness, somnabulism - sleep walking -> presence of supernatural elements like ghosts, witches -> important role played by chance or accident
The revenge play or revenge tragedy is a form of tragedy which was extremely popular in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras
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The best-known of these are Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy and William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Similarities here are: ghost appearances, play in the play, motif of revenge.
John Donne's Sonnets. Short description.
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1 - fear, uncertainty, dissapointment, bodily pleasures as sins. Sins make body heavier, the law of gravity, iron heart - cold, hard because of sins. Hope of the end. 2 - arguments why God should feel responsible for the human beings, he is God's servant, Satan has no right to have people because they belong to God, contrast between passivity & activity 10 - the purpose is to overcome fear. death is domesticated, compared to sleeping, not independent, sympathy is not empathy. paradoxe - death is
Features of Robinson Crusoe: MIMETIC
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Alexaner Selkirk's story, Hictorical background, presence of pirats, slaves, APHRA BEHN "Cronooko", conflict with Spain, chronological - city of York, London, immigration to Brazil as a promise of better life, extra components - real maps, title page says that it is an autobiography (Robinson - author, Defoe - editor), full of details
Features of Robinson Cruzoe. ALLEGORIC:
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the Island - is not a paradise but it is purgatory where you have to wait and work hard, based on biblical story PRODIGAL SON, relation between Friday and Robinson - slave vs. master
The Older Generation Poets:
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- William Wordsworth - Samuel Taylor Colridge 1798 - Lyrical ballads 1800 - second edition of LB
Essay 'Preface to Lyrical Ballads' 1800 was at the beginning og LYRICAL BALLADS II, it was written by William Wordworth. It is
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- romantic manifesto, attention to ordinary people using common, vulgar language - dealing with "natural" rather than cosmopolitan man, closer to the nature - poetry is spontaneous overflow of a powerful feelings, emotions are most important not the intellect - poetry is the world of the truth and the poet is like a prophet who knows many things
ballad -
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a poetic form closest to music with clear rhythm, related to folk culture, poetic expressions, relatively long, divided into stanzas with rhymes, vulgar vocabulary,
Poetic Laureate
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honorous prize, poet appointed by a rulling monarch whose duty is to commemorate in his poetry the important event in monarchy's life. William Wordworth - 1843, the first was John Dryden (restoration 1660-1700), present is Carol Ann Duffy.
Wordworth vs. Coleridge
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W - poetry is for everybody, common knowledge, subject have to be accesible for anybody regardless of the position. he's realist, the natural C - lowering a diction makes that poet has small vocabulary, subject matter that is specialized, abandons the subject of nature - he takes up nonexistent setting, relies on imagination for poetic inspiration. he's the preternatural - supranatural "Kubla Khan"
Shakespeare vs. Donne
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S - love is unchangeable, still, lasting forever, time can only affect beauty but not love, true feeling lasts even beyond the grave. Sonet 116 (love-north star); C - love is parasitic (pasożyt) creature, marriage and love are very mortal, fickle nature of marriage, Elegy XIX - sex, not love
Shelley vs. Keats
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Sh - nature as a supreme metaphor for beauty, creativity and expression, imaginative description for nature and unique metaphors, inspired by pure and lofty idealism - revolution, erotism, religion. politically active. K - loves nature for its sensual appealing, it's his instict, nature plays vital role in the understanding of his aesthetic achievements, neither rebel not Utopian dreamer. Traditionalist.
Percy Bysshe Shelley as a political poet (poetry of the appeal)
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attracked criticism and controvercy, very critical of political situation, "Ode to the West Wind" is is encouragment to revolution and change (1820), he is aristocrat but wants to speak on behalf of people from lower estates - it's hypocrisy.
The Young Generation
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Percy Byshe Shelley (important poem- In Memorian) John Keats
Victorian poetry (without political backgroud, not having traditions of changing history, beautiful views). Two major trends:
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- medievalism - looking for and finding inspiration in the art and literature of Middle Ages ("Lady of Shallot" Shelley) /The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood/ - hellenism - AURORA LEIGH, consciously written feminine poem, Robert Browning - poet of masses
BILDUNGSROMAN
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novel of apprenticeship, process of growing up and development of the character of childhood to being adult - gaining experience, values. At the end the protagonist is mature person. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
novel of manners
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The novel of manners is a literary genre that deals with aspects of behavior, language, customs and values characteristic of a particular class of people in a specific historical context. The genre emerged during the final decades of the 18th century. The novel of manners often shows a conflict between individual aspirations or desires and the accepted social codes of behaviour. There is a vital relationship between manners, social behaviour and character. e.g. Sense and Sensibility from the not
Sense - sensible Sensibility - sensitive
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Marianne - freely expresses her emotions, reads poetry, plays the piano, interests in art, likes going for a walks, close to nature, pretends Elinor - doesn't show emotions, stick to the rules, extremely responsible, she's 19, behaves as a head of the family
GEORGE GORDON BYRON - a great national hero until today
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Childe Harold's Pilgrimage - 1812-1818 - digressive poem; Don Juan - neoclassical rather than romantic he was digressive poet.
byronic hero -
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a new kind of hero - alienated, separated, disillusioned with love, experienc eed, has romantic features, charismatic, strong passion and ideals, has internal conflict, arrogant and cynical, self-destructive

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