UNIVERSITY OF MAIDUGURI
Maiduguri, Nigeria
CENTRE FOR DISTANCE LEARNING
ARTS
ENG 112:
ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
Published
UNIT: 3
2006©
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form, by
mimeograph or any other means without prior permission in writing from the
University of Maiduguri.
This text forms part of the learning package for the academic programme of the
Centre for Distance Learning, University of Maiduguri.
Further enquiries should be directed to the:
Coordinator
Centre for Distance Learning
University of Maiduguri
P. M. B. 1069
Maiduguri, Nigeria.
This text is being published by the authority of the Senate, University of
Maiduguri, Maiduguri – Nigeria.
ISBN:
978-8133-45-2
ii
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
PREFACE
This study unit has been prepared for learners so that they can do most of the
study on their own. The structure of the study unit is different from that of
conventional textbooks. The course writers have made efforts to make the study
material rich enough but learners need to do some extra reading for further
enrichment of the knowledge required.
The learners are expected to make best use of library facilities and where feasible,
use the Internet. References are provided to guide the selection of reading
materials required.
The University expresses its profound gratitude to our course writers and editors
for making this possible. Their efforts will no doubt help in improving access to
University education.
Professor J. D. Amin
Vice-Chancellor
iii
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
HOW TO STUDY THE UNIT
You are welcome to this study Unit. The unit is arranged to simplify your
study. In each topic of the unit, we have introduction, objectives, in-text,
summary and self-assessment exercise.
The study unit should take 6-8 hours to complete. Tutors will be available
at designated contact centers for tutorials. The center expects you to plan your
work well. Should you wish to read further you could supplement the study with
more information from the list of references and suggested readings available in
the study unit.
PRACTICE EXERCISES/TESTS
1. Self-Assessment Exercises (SAES)
This is provided at the end of each topic. The exercise can help you to
assess whether or not you have actually studied and understood the topic.
Solutions to the exercises are provided at the end of the study unit for you to
assess yourself.
2. Tutor-Marked Assignment (TMA)
This is provided at the end of the study Unit. It is a form of examination
type questions for you to answer and send to the center. You are expected to work
on your own in responding to the assignments. The TMA forms part of your
continuous assessment (C.A.) scores, which will be marked and returned to you.
In addition, you will also write an end of Semester Examination, which will be
added to your TMA scores.
Finally, the center wishes you success as you go through the different units
of your study.
iv
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
English 112 offers an in depth treatment of English Literary genres with
reference to the close study of a play, novel and a selection of poems. The course
is a broad survey of the development of English Literature from its earliest
origins to modern times. The course also deals with the major movements in
English Literature. Selected texts from poetry, drama and novel representing the
various movements will be studied.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
1
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
ENG 112:
UNIT: 3
ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNITS: 3
T A B L E O F C O N T E N TS
PAGES
PREFACE
-
-
-
-
-
-
HOW TO STUDY THE UNIT -
-
-
-
-
iv
-
-
1
INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE
-
TOPIC 1: DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF LITERATURE
TOPIC 2: ENGLISH LITERATURE
-
-
-
TOPIC 3: MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (1)
iii
3
-
- 8
- 11
TOPIC 4: MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (2) - 14
TOPIC 5: MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (3) - 18
TOPIC 6: MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (4) - 23
TOPIC 7: POETRY
-
-
-
-
-
-
TOPIC 8: ANALYSIS OF POEMS -
-
-
-
- 30
TOPIC 9: DRAMA
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 26
- 43
TOPIC 10: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AS A DRAMATIST - 48
TOPIC 11: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (1) -
-
- 52
TOPIC 12: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (2) -
-
- 56
TOPIC 13: THE NOVEL
-
-
-
- 67
-
-
-
-
TOPIC 14: GEORGE ORWELL’S ANIMAL FARM
- 62
SOLUTION TO EXERCISES
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
2
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
T O P I C 1:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
1.0
TOPIC: DEFINITION AND SCOPE OF LITERATURE -
3
1.1
INTRODUCTION
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
4
1.2
OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
4
1.3
IN-TEXT
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
4
1.3.1 DEFINITIONS OF LITERATURE
-
-
-
4
1.3.2 SCOPE OF LITERATURE
-
-
-
-
5
1.3.3 GENRES IN LITERATURE
-
-
-
-
6
1.3.4 FOLK LITERATURE
-
-
-
-
-
6
1.4
SUMMARY -
-
-
-
-
6
1.5
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
-
-
-
-
6
1.6
REFERENCES
-
-
-
-
-
-
7
1.7
SUGGESTED READING -
-
-
-
-
7
-
-
-
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
3
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
1.0 TOPIC: DEFINITION OF LITERATURE
1.1
INTRODUCTION
Literature, a body of oral and written works is as old as man’s
existence on earth. This lecture will discuss the growth and development of
literature.
1.2 OBJECTIVES
By the end of this topic you should be able to:
i.
Define Literature.
ii.
Discuss the growth of literature.
1.3
IN-TEXT
1.3.1 LITERATURE DEFINED
The word literature is derived from the Latin littera, “a letter of the
alphabet”. Literature is first and foremost mankind’s entire body of
writing, after that it is the body of writing belonging to a given language or
people, and then it is individual pieces of writing. Literature therefore can
be considered as a body of written works. The name is often applied to
those imaginative works of poetry and prose distinguished by the
intentions of their authors and the excellence of their execution. Literature
may be classified according to a variety of systems, including language,
national origin, historical period, genre, and subject matter.
Definitions of the word literature tend to be circular. The Concise
Oxford Dictionary says it is “writings whose value lies in the beauty of
form or emotional effect”. The 19th century critic Walter Pater referred to
“the matter of imaginative or artistic literature as a transcript not of mere
fact, but of fact in its infinitely varied forms”.
To use the word writing when describing literature is misleading, for
one may speak of “oral literature” or “the literature of preliterate peoples”.
The art of literature therefore cannot be reducible to the words on the
pages; they are there because of the craft of writing. As an art, literature is
the organization of words to give pleasure; through them it elevates and
transforms experience; through them it functions in society as a continuing
symbolic criticism of values.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
4
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
1.3.2 SCOPE OF LITERATURE
Literature, we know now is a form of human expression. But not
everything all the world’s classic surveys of history can stand as noble
examples of the art of literature. But most historical works and studies
today are not written primarily with literary excellence in mind, though
they may possess it, by accident. The essay was once written deliberately
as a piece of literature, its subject matter was of comparatively minor
importance. Today most essays are written as expository, informative
journalism.
Some personal documents (autobiographies, diaries, memoirs, and
letters) rank among the world’s greatest literature. Some of these
documents are in a highly polished literary style, others, couched in
privately evolved language, acquire their stand as literature because of
their cogency, insight and depth.
Many works of philosophy are classed as literature. The Dialogues
of Plato (4th century BC) are written with great narrative skill and in the
finest prose; the Meditations of the 2nd century Roman emperor Marcus
Auricles are a collection of apparently random thoughts, and the Greek in
which they are written is eccentric. Yet both are classed as literature, while
the speculations of other philosophers, ancient and modern, are not.
Certain scientific works endured as literature, long after their scientific
content has been outdated. This is particularly true of book of natural
history, where the element of personal observation is of special
importance.
Oratory, the art of persuasion, was long considered a great literary
art. The oratory of the African, the American Indian, and the Indian are
famous, while in classical Greek, Polyamnia was the muse sacred to poetry
and oratory. Rome’s great orator Cicero was to have a decisive influence
on the development of English prose style. Today, however, oratory is
more usually thought as a craft than as an art. Most critics would not
admit advertising copywriting, purely commercial fiction, or cinema and
television scripts as accepted forms of literary expression, although others
would hotly dispute their exclusion. The test in individual cases would
seem to be one of enduring satisfaction and, of course truth. Indeed, it
becomes more and more difficult to categorize literature for in modern
civilization words are everywhere. Man now is subjected to a continuous
flood of communication. But in modern times, very little writing, almost
by accident achieve an aesthetic satisfaction, a depth and relevance that
entitle it to stand with other examples of the art of literature.
1.3.3 GENRES: (FRENCH KIND OR SORT)
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
5
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Genre is a distinctive type or category of literary composition, such
as the epic, tragedy, comedy, novel and short story.
Despite critics’ attempts to systemize the art of literature, such
categories retain a degree of flexibility. Hybrid forms such as tragicomedy
and prose poem are in existence. Critics however, have invented a variety
of systems for treating literature as a collection of genres. Often these
genres are artificial, invented after a fact with the aim of making literature
less sprawling.
1.3.4 FOLK LITERATURE
In preliterate societies oral literature was widely shared; it saturated
the society and was as much a part of living as food, clothing, shelter, or
religion. In older societies, the minstrel might be a courtier of the king or
chieftain, and the poet who composed liturgies might be a priest. But the
oral performance itself was accessible to the whole community. As society
evolved its various social layers, or classes, on “elite” literature began to be
distinguishable from the “folk” literature of the people. With the invention
of writing this separation was accelerated until finally literature was being
experienced individually by the elite (reading a book), while folklore and
folk song were experienced orally and more or less collectively by the
illiterate common people.
1.4
SUMMARY
Literature is an all-encompassing art, which includes Poetry, Prose,
Drama, History, Philosophy, Oratory and Folk literature. It may be
described as an imaginative representation of events, through which people
project life in a society. Literature may be described as the imaginative
representation of events through which people project life in a society.
Literature is as old as man’s existence on earth. Oral literature of ancient
times paved the way for written forms of literature.
1.5
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISES
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
1.6
Define literature and trace briefly the origin of literature.
How will you define genre?
What are the main genres of literature?
Differentiate the characteristic features of folk literature and
elite literature.
What is Oratory? Explain briefly.
REFERENCE
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
6
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Charles Roland & Long N. Michael (1991) Teaching Literature.
Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers. Longman Group
UK Limited.
Kennedy J.K. (1973) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry
and Drama. Boston. Little, Brown and Company.
Kermode, Frank & Hollander John (1973) The Oxford Anthology of
English Literature Volumes 1 & 2. New York, Oxford University
Press.
1.7
SUGGESTED READING
Kennedy J.K. (1973) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry
and Drama. Boston. Little, Brown and Company.
Charles Roland & Long N. Michael (1991) Teaching Literature
Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers. Longman group UK
Limited.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
7
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
T O P I C 2:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
2.0
TOPIC:
ENGLISH LITERATURE
-
-
-
- 8
2.1
INTRODUCTION
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 9
2.2
OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 9
2.3
IN-TEXT
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 9
2.3.1 THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
-
-
- 9
2.3.2 ENGLISH LITERATURE DEFINED
-
-
-
- 9
2.4
SUMMARY -
-
-
-
-
-
- 9
2.5
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE -
-
-
-
- 9
2.6
REFERENCES
2.7
SUGGESTED READING
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 10
-
-
-
-
-
-
- 10
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
8
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
2.0
TOPIC: ENGLISH LITERATURE
2.1
INTRODUCTION
UNIT: 3
English literature is the body of all oral and written works produced
in British Isles. This lecture will deal with the growth and development of
English literature.
2.2
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this topic you should be able to:
i. Define English Literature.
ii. Name and describe the various ages or movements in
English literature.
2.3
IN-TEXT
2.3.1 THE ORIGIN OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
English Literature is the body of works produced in the English
language by inhabitants of the British Isles from the 7th century to the
present day
2.3.2 ENGLISH LITERATURE DEFINED
English literature is traditionally divided into Old English, Middle
English, Renaissance and Elizabethan, Jacobean, Restoration, 18th
century, Romantic, Victorian and Modern periods. Literary traditions
often overflow such categories, however, diverse approaches have always
coexisted. Old English and to a lesser extent, Middle English appear to the
modern reader to be foreign languages.
2.4
SUMMARY
English Literature is the body of works produced in the English
language by inhabitants of the British Isles from the 7th century to the
present day. English literature is traditionally divided into Old English,
Middle English, Renaissance and Elizabethan, Jacobean, Restoration, 18th
century, Romantic, Victorian and Modern periods.
2.5 SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
Define and distinguish the various divisions of English
Literature.
2.6 REFERENCE
Kennedy J.K. (1973) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction,
Poetry and Drama. Boston. Little, Brown and Company.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
9
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
2.7 SUGGESTED READING
Charles Roland & Long N. Michael (1991) Teaching Literature
Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers. Longman group UK
Limited.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
10
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
T O P I C 3:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
3.0
TOPIC: MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (1) 11
3.1
INTRODUCTION -
-
-
-
-
-
12
3.2
OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
12
3.3
IN-TEXT
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
12
-
-
-
-
-
-
12
3.3.2 MIDDLE ENGLISH
-
-
-
-
-
12
3.4
SUMMARY -
-
-
-
-
13
3.5
SELF –ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
-
-
-
-
13
3.6
REFERENCE
-
-
-
-
-
-
13
3.7
SUGGESTED READING -
-
-
-
-
13
-
3.3.1 OLD ENGLISH
-
-
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
11
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
3.0 TOPIC:
3.1
UNIT: 3
MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (1)
INTRODUCTION
This lecture will take the students through the main movements or
the various ages of English literature.
3.2
OBJECTIVES
By the end of this topic you should be able to
i.
Define the main movements of English Literature.
ii.
Describe the characteristic traits of the main movements of
English Literature.
3.3
IN-TEXT
3.3.1 THE OLD ENGLISH PERIOD
The Angles, Saxons and Jutes who invaded Britain in the 5th and 6th
centuries brought with them the common Germanic metric, but the earliest
oral poetry probably used for magic, and short narratives, little more
survive. In the 7th century Caedmon, an illiterate Northumbarian cowherd,
composed a hymn is praise of the creation Caedmon legitimized the native
verse form by adopting it to Christian themes. Others following his
example gave England a body of vernacular poetry unparalleled in Europe
before the end of millennium.
Old English is the first recorded English literature. Manuscripts
from about AD 1000 contain the best-known Old English work, Beowulf, a
heroic poem written about 6 00 to 750. Such poems were originally
written to be sung, and the subject-matter was generally religious or
heroic. In prose there were plain-narrative historical chronicles such as
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
3.3.2 MIDDLE ENGLISH OR THE MEDIEVAL AGE
Middle English began with the Norman conquest of 1066. This
brought both the French language, which in time combined with the
Germanic Anglo-Saxon to form the basis of modern English, and a French
literary influence. The Arthurian style became the central myth for English
literature, as seen in works such as Sir Gawayne and the Greene Knight,
an example of the alliterative revival of the 14th century, and Sir Thomas
Mallory’s MorteDarthur. Geoffrey Chaucer, master of the complex
narrative and sometimes considered as the first modern English writer,
occupies the central position in Middle English literature. He combined
the classical epic and European philosophical influence in his Troilus and
Criseyde, but also gave the vernacular a solid basis in his comic
Canterbury Tales.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
12
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
3.4 SUMMARY
Old English is the first recorded English literature. Manuscripts from
about AD 1000 contain the best-known Old English work, Beowulf, a heroic
poem written about 6 00 to 750.The Angles, Saxons and Jutes who invaded
Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries brought with them the common Germanic
metric, probably used for magic and short narratives. Middle English began
with the Norman conquest of 1066. This brought both the French
language, which in time combined with the Germanic Anglo-Saxon to form
the basis of modern English. Geoffrey Chaucer, master of the complex
narrative and sometimes considered as the first modern English writer,
occupies the central position in Middle English literature. His Troilus and
Criseyde is a combination of the classical epic and European philosophy.
He also gave the vernacular a solid basis in his Canterbury Tales.
3.5 SELF–ASSESSMENTEXERCISE
1. Distinguish between Old English and Middle English.
3.6 REFERENCE
Kennedy J.K. (1973) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction,
Poetry and Drama. Boston. Little, Brown and Company.
3.7 SUGGESTED READING
Charles Roland & Long N. Michael (1991) Teaching Literature
Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers. Longman group UK
Limited.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
13
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
T O P I C 4:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
4.0 TOPIC: MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (2) 14
4.1
INTRODUCTION -
-
-
-
-
-
15
4.2
OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
15
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
15
-
-
-
-
-
15
4.3.2 THE METAPHYSICAL PERIOD
-
-
-
15
4.3.3 THE RESTORATION PERIOD -
-
-
16
4.4
SUMMARY -
-
-
-
-
16
4.5
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
-
-
-
-
17
4.6
REFERENCES
-
-
-
-
-
-
17
4.7
SUGGESTED READINGS
-
-
-
-
-
17
4.3 IN-TEXT
-
4.3.1 THE RENAISSANCE
-
-
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
14
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
4.0
4.1
UNIT: 3
TOPIC: MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (2)
INTRODUCTION
Three very important ages, the ages of the Renaissance,
Metaphysical and Restoration will be discussed in this lecture.
4.2
OBJECTIVES
By the end of the topic you should be able
i.
Describe a few important features of the three movements
studied.
4.3
IN-TEXT
4.3.1 THE RENAISSANCE
The European Renaissance filtered into England by the 16th century
and led to the questioning of the religious beliefs and assumptions of the
Middle Ages. Literature began to look back beyond the medieval period to
the classics for inspiration, and Neo-Platonism, through Edmund
Spenser’s The Faerie Queen and The Shepard’s Calendar. Lyrical courtly
poetry, became the dominant in Sir Philip Sidney’s Defense of Poesies (the
beginning of English literature criticism), in Frances Bacon’s prose essays,
and particularly in the plays of William Shakespeare. As the central figure
of the English Renaissance, Shakespeare expresses both its conflicts and its
glorious energy and provides the basis for its reputation as the golden age
of English Literature and of English drama in particular. Shakespeare’s
immediate forbearer, Christopher Marlowe, established the use of blank
verse in plays centering on the tragic ambitions of strong personalities.
4.3.2 METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT
The accession of James I in 1603 was accompanied with great strife,
and this produced a strain of cynicism manifested in the revenge tragedies
of John Webster and the comedies of Ben Jonson and Francis Beaumont.
There also emerged at this time the intellectual passion of Metaphysical
poetry, with John Donne at its centre, containing the conflict between love,
religion and the individual. Robert Herrick and other Cavalier poets, in
contrast wrote elegant and playful love lyrics. The English Civil Wars and
Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan regime led to the closure of all English theaters
in 1642. The dominant literary figure was John Milton, and his influential
religious epic Paradise Lost (1667) provided a link between the Puritan era
and the restoration of the monarchy.
4.3.3 THE RESTORATION AGE
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
15
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
The return of Charles II in 1660 to the country ushered in the
Restoration period. It was characterized by the witty mannered comedies
of William Congreve, the satirical poetry of Andrew Marvell, and the heroic
drama and poetry of John Dryden. The diary and biography forms
emerged
as useful genres in the works of Samuel Pepys and Izaak Walton, and John
Bunyan wrote The Pilgrims Progress (1678), a popular Christian allegory.
4.4
SUMMARY
The European Renaissance filtered into England by the 16th century
and led to the questioning of the religious beliefs and assumptions of the
Middle Ages. Literature began to look back beyond the medieval period to
the classics for inspiration. Lyrical courtly poetry became the dominant in
Sir Philip Sidney’s Defense of Poesies criticism, in Frances Bacon’s prose
essays, and particularly in the plays of William Shakespeare. Shakespeare,
as the central figure of the English Renaissance, expresses both its conflicts
and its glorious energy that provide the basis for its reputation as the
golden age of English Literature. Shakespeare’s immediate forbearer,
Christopher Marlowe, established the use of blank verse in plays. The
accession of James I in 1603 was accompanied with great strife, and this
manifested in the revenge tragedies of John Webster and the comedies of
Ben Jonson and Francis Beaumont. There also emerged at this time the
intellectual passion of Metaphysical poetry, with John Donne at its centre,
containing the conflict between love, religion and the individual. The
return of Charles II in 1660 to the country ushered in the Restoration
period. It was characterized by the witty mannered comedies of William
Congreve, the satirical poetry of Andrew Marvell, the heroic drama and
poetry of John Dryden, and John Bunyan’s The Pilgrims Progress (1678), a
popular Christian allegory.
4.5 SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
Describe briefly the characteristic features and some
exponents of the following periods:
a)
The Renaissance
b)
The Metaphysical
c)
The Restoration
4.6 REFERENCE
Kennedy J.K. (1973) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction,
Poetry and Drama. Boston. Little, Brown and Company.
4.7 SUGGESTED READING
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
16
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Charles Roland & Long N. Michael (1991) Teaching Literature
Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers. Longman group UK
Limited.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
17
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
T O P I C 5:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
5.0
TOPIC: MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (3) 18
5.1
INTRODUCTION -
-
-
-
-
-
19
5.2
OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
19
5.3
IN-TEXT
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
19
-
-
-
-
-
19
19
5.3.1
-
AUGUSTAN AGE
5.3.2
THE ROMANTIC AGE
-
-
-
-
5.3.3
THE VICTORIAN AGE -
-
-
20
-
-
-
21
5.4
SUMMARY -
-
5.5
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
-
-
-
-
21
5.6
REFERENCE
-
-
-
-
-
-
21
5.7
SUGGESTED READING -
-
-
-
-
22
-
-
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
-
18
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
5.0
TOPIC: MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (4)
5.1
INTRODUCTION
UNIT: 3
The 18th century witnessed the rise of two major literary movements.
We will closely study these movements in this topic.
5.2
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this topic you should be able to:
i.
Explain the two major literary movements
ii.
Describe the Augustan Age
iii.
Describe the Romantic Age
5.3
IN-TEXT
5.3.1 THE AUGUSTAN OR NEOCLASSICAL AGE
The 18th century witnessed the rise of two major literary movements.
The first movement was the Augustan Age, or Neoclassical period,
exemplified by the satires of Alexander Pope, the prophesizing and allegory
of Jonathan Swift (perhaps the greatest satirist in the English language),
and the criticism of Samuel Johnson. Journalism and the prose essay
flourished, both influencing and being natural by this movement as seen in
Joseph Addison’s periodical The Spectator. Respect for rules, high
standard of intellectual quality, emphasis on a set poetical style, emergence
of the heroic cuplete and treatment of turn life, formed some of the themes.
Of great importance was the rise of the novel as an independent literary
form in the works of Daniel Defoe, Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding,
and Tobias Smollett. The novelist playwright Oliver Goldsmith, the
playwright Richard B. Sheridan, and Johnson’s biographer, James Boswell,
brought a close to the Augustan-Age late in the century.
5.3.2
THE ROMANTIC AGE OR ROMANTICISM
Romanticism was the second literary movement to appear in the 18th
century. It was in part a reaction against the elitism and self imposed
classical limitation of the Augustans. Romanticism was a revolt against
authority, tradition and conventions, whether political, social, religious or
literary. Thus, return to nature, simple life, individuality, variety and the
return of the typical mode of expression, characterized this movement.
Romanticism began with William Blake’s poetry of rebellion against
convention and a new concept of imagination as a creative force. William
Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were central to the movement,
producing a manifesto of Romantic beliefs in the preface to their joint
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
19
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Lyrical Ballads (1798). The poets concentrated on the redeeming power of
nature and the destruction influence of increasing industrialization. The
second generation of English Romanticism include John Keats, whose
vivid, serious lyrics trace beauty and its passing, Percy Bysshe Shelley,
whose works combine lyricism with political radicalism; and Lord Bryon,
who invented the romantic anti-hero in his ironic verse satires.
5.3.3 THE VICTORIAN AGE
The 19th century also known as the Victorian age was the great age of
the English novel. Early in the century this form gathered strength in the
fantasies of the Gothic novel and in the critical insight into polite society
that was shown by Jane Austen’s novels. The historical novel was
established by Sir Walter Scott in the 1820s. Charles Dickens, the greatest
of English novelist, put his comic genius at the service of exploring the ills
of society and the vagaries of human nature. Following Dickens were
George Eliot’s portrayals of 19th century society and its moral dilemmas
William Thackery’s ironic studies of society, and Anthony Trollops
depiction of contemporary manners and more. Thomas Hardy marked the
end of the Victorian era, and the beginning of Modernism, in his
agnosticism and determinism. The two most significant figures in
Victorian Poetry were Robert Browning, who created psychological
portraits in poems called dramatic monologues, and Lord Alfred Tennyson,
who explored at the intellectual and religious problems of the time in his
verse. Other notable Victorian figures were the essayist Mathew Arnold
and such poets as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Charles Swinburne. The turn
of the century saw the revival of English drama of Oscar Wild and George
Bernard Shaw, together with a new group of novelists, among who were
H.G. Wells, Joseph Conrad, Arnold Bennett, John Galsworthy, E.M.
Forster, and W. Somerset Maugham.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
20
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
5.4
UNIT: 3
SUMMARY
The 18th century witnessed the rise of two major literary movements.
The first movement was the Augustan Age, or Neoclassical period,
exemplified by the satires of Alexander Pope, the allegory of Jonathan
Swift, and the criticism of Samuel Johnson. Respect for rules, high
standard of intellectual quality, emphasis on a set poetical style, emergence
of the heroic couplet and treatment of turn life, formed some of the themes.
Of great importance was the rise of the novel in the works of Daniel Defoe,
Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Tobias Smollett Oliver Goldsmith,
Richard B. Sheridan, and James Boswell, brought a close to the AugustanAge. Romanticism was the second literary movement to appear in the 18th
century. It was in part a reaction against the elitism and self imposed
classical limitation of the Augustans. Romanticism was a revolt against
authority, tradition and conventions, whether political, social, religious or
literary. Thus, return to nature, simple . life, individuality, variety and the
return of the typical mode of expression, characterized this movement.
William Blake, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were
central to the movement. Others include John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley
and Lord Bryon. The 19th century also known as the Victorian age was the
great age of the English novel. Early in the century this form gathered
strength in the fantasies of the Gothic novel and in the critical insight into
polite society that was shown by Jane Austen’s novels. Sir Walter Scott,
Charles Dickens, George Eliot and William Thackery explored the ills of
society and the vagaries of human nature. Thomas Hardy marked the end
of the Victorian era, and the beginning of Modernism.
5.5
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
Describe briefly the following movements:
a) The Augustan
b) The Romantic
c) The Victorian
5.6 REFERENCE
Kennedy J.K. (1973) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction,
Poetry and Drama. Boston. Little, Brown and Company.
5.7 SUGGESTED READING
Charles Roland & Long N. Michael (1991) Teaching Literature
Longman Handbooks for Language Teachers. Longman group UK
Limited.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
21
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
T O P I C 6:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
6.0
TOPIC: MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE (4) 23
6.1
INTRODUCTION -
-
-
-
-
-
24
6.2
OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
24
6.3
IN-TEXT
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
24
6.3.1
-
MODERN AGE
6.4
SUMMARY -
6.5
-
-
-
-
24
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
-
-
-
-
6.6
REFERENCE
-
-
-
25
6.7
SUGGESTED RESADING -
-
-
-
-
- -
-
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
-
24
-
25
25
22
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
6.0
TOPIC: MOVEMENTS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE
6.1
INTRODUCTION
UNIT: 3
The distinctive depressive mood of the Modern age grew from the
disillusionment and cynicism that followed World War I.
6.3
IN-TEXT
6.3.1 THE MODERN AGE
The distinctive depressive mood of the Modern age grew from the
disillusionment and cynicism that followed World War I. It appeared
notably as a sense of life’s bleakness in the poetry of T.S.Eliot. Writers also
became increasingly self-conscious about literary form and language, as is
evident in the novels of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Other figures, in
particular the poet W.H. Auden, turned to expressing left-wing political
idealism in their work peripheral to the Modernist movement were D.H.
Lawrence, whose novels examine the complexities of sexuality and the
relationships between men and women, and the Irish poet W.B. Yeats,
whose works moved from Symbolism to Modernism are characterized by a
wide variety of styles and movements. Drama branched out from carefully
crafted and conventional plays to an emotionally raw kitchen-sink drama
with Samuel Beckett’s The Theater of the Absurd. Poetry showed strong
regional roots as well as deep receptivity to the way the contemporary
world. These preoccupations are imaginatively present in the work of Ted
Hughes, and Seamus Heaney, Fictions included the allegorical novel of
William Golding, the satirical novels of Kingsley Amis. A major
development toward the end of the century was the postmodern novel,
which made conscious use of such devices as myth, fairy tale and fantasy.
6.4
SUMMARY
A distinctive depressive mood of the Modern age grew from the
disillusionment and cynicism that followed World War I. A sense of life’s
bleakness is found in the poetry of T.S.Eliot. Writers also became
increasingly self-conscious about literary form and language, as is evident
in the novels of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. Other figures, in
particular the poet W.H. Auden, turned to expressing left-wing political
idealism in their work peripheral to the Modernist movement were D.H.
Lawrence, whose novels examine the complexities of sexuality and the
relationships between men and women, and the Irish poet W.B. Yeats,
whose works moved from Symbolism to Modernism are characterized by a
wide variety of styles and movements. Poetry showed strong regional roots
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
23
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
as well as deep receptivity to the way the contemporary world. The
postmodern novel made conscious use of myth, fairy tale and fantasy.
6.5 SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
What is Modern literature?
6.6 REFERENCE
Kermode, Frank & Hollander John (1973) The Oxford Anthology of
English Literature Volumes 1 & 2. Oxford University Press. New
York.
Ray, J. R.(1972) English Literature: An Introduction to Foreign
Readers. Macmillan London.
Kirk, K. L.(1979) Interpreting Literature. New York.
Holt,
Richart,Winston.
Lewis A. (1963) Introduction To Literature- Poems. New York. Holt,
R. Winston.
Mayhead, Robert (1965) Understanding Literature. Cambridge
University Press London.
Nazeer, Azeez (1974) The Study of Literature. Baba Press. Madras.
6.7
SUGGESTED READING
Mayhead, Robert (1965) Understanding Literature. Cambridge
University Press London.
Nazeer, Azeez (1974) The Study of Literature. Baba Press. Madras.
Ray, J. R.(1972) English Literature: An Introduction to Foreign
Readers. Macmillan London.
T O P I C 7:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
24
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
PAGES
7.0
TOPIC: POETRY -
-
-
-
-
-
-
7.1
INTRODUCTION -
-
-
-
-
-
27
7.2
OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
27
7.3
IN-TEXT
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
27
7.3.1
CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH POETRY
27
7.3.2
ATTEMPTS TO DEFINE POETRY
7.4
SUMMARY
7.5
-
-
-
-
-
28
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
-
-
-
-
28
7.6
REFERENCE
-
-
-
-
-
-
29
7.7
SUGGESTED READING -
-
-
-
-
29
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
-
28
-
-
-
-
26
25
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
7.0 TOPIC: THE STUDY OF POETRY
7.1
INTRODUCTION
The oldest and the most intense genres of literature is poetry. This
lecture will discuss the origin and the varied definitions of poetry.
7.2
OBJECTIVES:
And the end of this lecture you should be able to:
i.
State a few definitions of poetry
ii.
Describe the characteristics of poetry
7.3
IN-TEXT
7.3.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH POETRY
For the purpose of this study we shall divide English Literature into
three major genres, Poetry, Prose (to include Novel/Short story) and
Drama. Each of these genres will be delineated with appropriate
examples. We start with the oldest of human expression – Poetry.
Poetry:
Poetry is an ancient form of expression of man’s numerous feelings.
Even before the development of writing, primitive societies seem to have
achieved poetic rendering of their religious, historical and cultural
awareness, and have transmitted them to the next generation in hymns, in
contentious and narrative forms.
The characteristics emotional content of English poetry, like all
poetry finds expression through a variety of techniques, from direct
description to highly personalized symbolism. One of the most accent and
universal of these techniques is the use of metaphor and simile to alter and
expand the reading imaginative apprehension through explicit or implicit
comparison. Thus many involve an appeal to sense experience, especially
visual sensation, or to emotional experience or cultural and historical
awareness. Thus by conjuring up pictures or images and by conjuring
different kinds of imaginative associations, the poet elicits in others
something of his own feeling and consciousness.
Poetry encompasses many modes narrative, dramatic, aphoristic,
celebratory, satiric, disruptive, didactic, personal, and in some African
forms abusive. Within a single work the poet may move from one mode to
another, preserving the overall unity of the formal pattern. The formal
patterns available to the poet are varied in English poetry, the formal unit
may be the single unrhymed line (as in blank verse), the rhymed couplet,
the rhymed stanza of four lines or more, or more complex rhyming
patterns such as the fourteen line sonnet.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
26
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
In the 19th and 20th centuries Western poetry has responded more to
the expressive possibilities of poetic idiom and convention in different
traditions. Some poets have experimented with reviving or adopting the
subject matter and the verse form of other times and places. For other
poets it has been important to break with tradition and emotion and
attempt a studied informality of manner, an approximation of relaxed
rhymes and colloquial vocabulary of ordinary speech, and ‘prosaic’
imagery.
7.3.2 ATTEMPTS TO DEFINE POETRY
Trying to define poetry has been an age-old elusive exercise. Many
critics and poets themselves have tried to pen in poetry with an universally
acceptable definition with little success.
To Ben Jonson poetry speaketh somewhat above a mortal mouth
Coleridge posited poetry simply to be. The best words in the best
order.
Wordsworth’s undying definition of poetry is found in the Preface to
the Lyrical Ballads. According to Wordsworth poetry is the spontaneous
overflow of powerful feelings; it takes origin from emotions recollected in
tranquility.
Shelley writes of poetry in A Defence of Poetry, that poetry awakens
and enlarges the mind by a thousand un-apprehended combinations of
though…enlarges the circumference of the imagination.
And to Robert Frost all poetry should start with delight and end with
wisdom.
7.4
SUMMARY
From the foregoing varied definitions, it is clear to deuce that
describing poetry, is a less complicated a task than defining poetry. Simply
put poetry can be said to be a rhythmical composition of words expressing
an attitude designed to surprise and delight, and thereby arouse an
emotional response from readers.
7.5
SELF -ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1. Define poetry
2. What are the characteristics of English poetry?
7.6 REFERENCE
Kermode, Frank & Hollander John (1973) The Oxford Anthology of
English Literature Volumes 1 & 2. Oxford University Press. New
York.
Ray, J. R.(1972) English Literature: An Introduction to Foreign
Readers. Macmillan London.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
27
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Kirk, K. L.(1979) Interpreting Literature. New York.
Holt,
Richart,Winston.
Lewis A. (1963) Introduction To Literature- Poems. New York. Holt,
R. Winston.
Mayhead, Robert (1965) Understanding Literature. Cambridge
University Press London.
Nazeer, Azeez (1974) The Study of Literature. Baba Press. Madras.
7.7
SUGGESTED READING
Mayhead, Robert (1965) Understanding Literature. Cambridge
University Press London.
Nazeer, Azeez (1974) The Study of Literature. Baba Press. Madras.
Ray, J. R.(1972) English Literature: An Introduction to Foreign
Readers. Macmillan London.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
28
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
T O P I C 8:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
8.0
8.1
8.2
8.3
TOPIC: ANALYSIS OF POEMS
INTRODUCTION OBJECTIVES
IN-TEXT 8.3.1 POEM 1
8.3.1.1
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISES
8.3.2 POEM 2
8.3.2.1 SIR THOMAS WYATT SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISES
8.3.3 POEM 3
8.3.3.1 JOHN DONNE
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISES
8.3.4 POEM 4
8.3.4.1
SHAKESPEARE SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISES
8.3.5 POEM 5
8.3.5.1
WILLIAM BLAKE
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISES
8.3.6 POEM 6
8.3.6.1 PERCY BYSSHE SHELLY
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
8.3.7 POEM 7
8.3.7.1
JOHN KEATS
SELF –ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
8.3.8 POEM 8
8.3.8.1
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
SELF –ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
8.3.9 POEM 9
8.3.9.1
ALFRED LORD TENNYSON
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
8.3.10 POEM 10 8.3.10.1
THOMAS HARDY
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
8.3.11 POEM 11
8.3.11.1
WILLIAM BUTTLER YEATS
SELF – ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 8.3.12 POEM 12 -
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
-
32
-
32
32
32
32
33
-
33
-
34
34
-
-
34
34
-
-
35
35
-
36
-
36
39
39
40
40
-
40
-
30
37
37
40
41
41
41
29
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
8.3.12.1
D. H. LAWRENCE
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
8.3.13 POEM 13 8.3.13.1
WALTER DE LA MARE
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
UNIT: 3
-
-
42
42
41
30
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
8.0 TOPIC: ANALYSIS OF POEMS
8.1 INTRODUCTION:
Analysis of poems to discern the thematic inferences and the use of
poetic devices are essential aspects to the study of poetry. The following
exercises would help do the same.
8.2 OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lecture you should be able to:
i.
Write the themes of the various poems
ii.
Identify the poetic devices used in the poems
iii.
Identify the ages each poem/poet belongs to
iv
Write a poem or two your own
8.3 IN-TEXT:
8.3.1
POEM 1
8.3.1.1 GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1340-1400)
Read the following poems and answer briefly, the question that
follow:
… The cock doth craw, the day doth daw
a
The channerin’ worm doth chide
b
Gin we be missed out of our place
c
Sair pain we maun abide’
a
The above extract is from Chaucer’s’ poem Wife of Ushers Well. The
above lines are written in what can be termed Old English. The summary
of the above lines could be rewritten roughly in modern English as follows:
The cock crows, the day has dawned. The channerin, worm does scold, so
we will not be missed from our place before dawn breaks.
The meaning of the above lines if read as a whole, gives us a picture,
of dawn, and the need to return before dawn breaks completely.
SELF - ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1 What is Chaucer’s English called?
2 Could you name another poet of the same age?
3 Attempt a paraphrase in your own words.
8.3.2
POEM 2
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
31
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
8.3.2.1 SIR THOMAS WYATT (1503-1542)
With Serving Still
With serving still a
This have I won b
For my good will a
To be undone; b
And for redress c
Of all my pain, d
Disdainfulness, c
I have again d
And for reward e
Of all my smart f
To, thus unheard e
I must depart! f
Wherefore all ye g
That after shall h
By fortune be g
As I a m, thrall, h
Example take
What I have won,
Thus for her sake
To be undone!
SELF – ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
2.
Read the poem carefully and summarize in your words the
subject matter of the poem
Complete the rhyme scheme in the poem.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
32
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
8.3.3
8.3.3.1
UNIT: 3
POEM 3
JOHN DONNE (1572-16310)
“Batter My Heart, Three Personed God, for You”
Batter my heart three- personed God, for you.
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to man.
That I may rise and stand, O’erthrow me, and bend
I’ like or unsurped town to another day,
Labor to admit You, but oh! To no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captivated, and proves weak or untrue
Yet dearly I love You, and would loved fair,
But an betrothed unto Your enemy;
Divorce me, untie me or break that knot again;
Take me to you, imprison, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Not ever chaste, except You ravish me.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.To what movement do you think Donne belongs to?
2. Explain the seeming contradiction in the last line.
3. Sum up your own words the message of Donne’s, poem.
8.3.4
POEM 4
8.3.4.1 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)
“Shall I Compare thee to a Summers Day?”
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate
Rough winds do shake the darlings buds of play
And summer’s least hath all too short a date
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often in his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometimes declare,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possessions of that fair thou ow’st
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
2.
3.
Who is the poem addressed to?
What kind of a poem is it?
What are the last two lines of the poem called?
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
33
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
8.3.5
POEM 5
8.3.5.1 WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827)
“The Chimney Sweeper”
When my mother died I was very young
And my father sold me white yet my tongue
Could scarcely cry ‘weep!’ ‘weep! ‘weep! ‘weep!’
So your chiming I sweep, and in soot I sleep
There is little Tom Dacre, who cried when his head
That curled like a lambs’ back, was shaved so I said
”Hush, Tom! Never mind it, for when your heads’ bare
You know that the soot cannot spoil your white hair”
And so he was quiet, and that very night
As Tom was asleep, he had such a sight!
That thousands of sweepers, Dick, Joe, Ned and Jack
Were all of them locked up in coffins of black,
And by come an Angel who had a bright key,
And he opened the coffins and set them all free;
Then down a green plain leaping, laughing, they run
And wash in a river, and shine in the sun,
Then naked and white, all their bags left behind
They rise upon clouds and sport in the wind
And the Angel told Tom, if he’d be a good boy,
He’d have God for his Father, and never want joy,
And so Tom woke, and we rose in the dark,
And got with our bags and our brushes to work,
Though the morning was cold, Tom happy and warm
So if all do their duty they need not fear harm.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
2.
3.
What does Blake’s poem reveal about the conditions of London?
What moral does the above poem teach?
What is the mood of the poem?
8.3.6
POEM 6
8.3.6.1 PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822)
Ozimandias*
I meet a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, shattered visage his, whose frown,
And wrinkled up, and sneer of cold command;
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
34
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Tell that its sculptor who well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped as these life less things,
The hand that mocked them and heart that fed,
And as the pedestal these words appear,
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings,
Look on ye works, ye Mighty, and despair!,
Nothing beside remains Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The love and level sands stretch far away.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
2.
3.
What is theme of the poem?
What moral does the poet wish to convey through this poem?
Give a title of your own to the poem.
*Ozymandias was a tyrant king in ancient Egypt.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
35
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
8.3.7
UNIT: 3
POEM 7
8.3.7.1 JOHN KEATS (1795-1821)
“La Belle Dans Sans Merci”
O what can act thee, knight at arms
Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
And no birds sing,
O what can oil thee, night at arms,
So haggard and so woe-be gone?
The squirrel’s granary is full
And the harvest’s done
I see a lily on thy brow
With anguish moist and fever dew,
And on thy check a fading rose
Fast withereth too
I met a lady in the meads,
Full beautiful-a faerys’ child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light
And her eyes were wild
“I made a garland for her head,
and bracelets too, and fragrant zones,
She looked at me as she did love,
And made sweet moan
“I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
A faerys’ song
“She found me root of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew
And sure in language strange she said
“I love thee true!”
“She took me to her elfin grot,
And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild-wild eyes
With kisses four
And there she lulled me asleep
And there I dreamed- ah!I woe betide
The latest dream I ever dreamed
On the cold hill’s side
“I saw pale kings and princes too,
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
36
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Pale warriors, death pale were they all,
They cried-“La Belle Dane sans Merci
Hath thee in thrall!”
I saw their starved lips in the gloom,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I woke and found me here,
On the cold will’s side,
“And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake
And no bids sing”
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
2.
3.
There are two contrasting images? Can you describe them?
What do we get to know about the beautiful lady in the poem?
What kind of a poem is this? An epic, a ballad, a sonnet, a lyric
etc?
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
37
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
8.3.8
8.3.8.1
UNIT: 3
POEM 8
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (177-1850)
“I wondered Lonely As a cloud or The Daffodils”
I wondered lonely as a cloud
That floats to O’er vales and hills
When all at once I saw a crowd
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending way,
Along the margin of a boy;
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance,
The waves beside them danced in glee,
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company
I gazed and gazed-but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought;
For oft on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood
They flash upon that in ward eye
Which is the bless of solitude,
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
2.
3.
What is the poet talking about in his poem?
Pick out at least three items that are part of nature, mentioned in
the poem
What poetic age do you think the poet belongs to?
*Daffodil- a beautiful flower, that grows, especially in the Lake
Districts of Yorkshire in England, where the poet lived.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
38
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
8.3.9
POEM 9
8.3.9.1 ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809-1892)
“The Eagle”
He clasps the crag with crooked hands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands,
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls,
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
2.
The poet makes use of a number of figures of speech .Can you
identify (a) Personification (b) Smile
To what age does the poet belong?
8.3.10 POEM 10
8.3.10.1
THOMAS HARDY (1840-1928)
At A Hasty Wedding
If hours be years the twain are best,
For now they solace swift desire
By bonds of every bond the best
If hours be years. The twain are blest
Do eastern stars slope never west,
Nor pallid ashes follow fire
If hours be years the twain are blest
For now they solace swift desire.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1. What is the subject matter of the poem?
2. Why is the image of fire that dies to “pallid ashes” especially
appropriate?
3. Identify the use of refrain in the above poem
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
39
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
8.3.11 POEM 11
8.3.11.1
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS (1865-1939)
I had a chair at every hearth
When no one turned to see
With “Look at that old fellow there,
And who may he be?
And therefore do I wander on,
And road-side trees keep running
Ah, wherefore merman ye
As in the old days long gone by,
Green oak and poplar tree
The well known faces are all gone,
And the fret is on me
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
2.
3.
What is the protagonist in the poem lamenting about?
What could the theme of this poem be?
What is the tone in the Poem?
8.3.12 POEM 12
8.3.12.1
D.H. LAWRENCE (1885-1930)
Piano
Softly, in the dust, a woman is singing to me
Taking me back down the vistas of years, till I see
A child sitting under a piano, in the boom of the
tingling strings
And pressing the small, poised feet of a mother who
smiles as she sings
In spite of myself, the insidious mastery of song
Betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong
To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter
outside
And hymns in the cozy parlor, the tinkling piano
our guide
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamor
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for
the past
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
2.
What is the poet reminiscing about in this poem?
Is the tone of the poem Happy? Gloomy? Dreamy? Sad?
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
40
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
3.
UNIT: 3
What key role does the phrase ‘Taking me back down the vistas of
years’ play in the understanding of the poet?
8.3.13 POEM 13
8.3.13.1
WALTER DELA MARE (18733-1956)
Clouded with sound
The cold winds blow,
And shrill on leafless bough
The robin with its burning breast
Alone sings now
The rayless sun,
Days’ journey done,
Sheds its last ebbing light
On fields in leagues of beauty spread
Unearthly white
Thick draws the dark,
And spark by spark
The frost-fires kindle, and soon
Over that sea of frozen foam
Floats the white moon.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
2.
3.
Note:
Spring Summer Autumn Winter -
Give an appropriate title to the above poem
What images does the poet paint in the poem?
What part of the year is the poet describing?
The English weather is divided into:
February – April – when plants spring up
May – July warm and beautiful
August – October – trees and plants shed their leaves and
fruits ripen
November – January –cold with snow and ice - end of the
year.
TOPIC 9:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
9.0
TOPIC: DRAMA
-
-
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
-
-
-
-
-
43
41
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
9.1
INTRODUCTION -
-
-
-
-
-
44
9.2
OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
44
9.3
IN-TEXT
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
44
9.3.1 WHAT IS DRAMA?
-
-
-
-
-
44
-
-
44
45
-
9.3.2 THE ORIGIN GROWTH OF DRAMA
9.3.3 COMPONENTS OF DRAMA
-
-
-
-
9.3.4 PLOT -
-
-
-
-
46
9.3.5 CHARACTERIZATION -
-
-
-
46
9.4
SUMMARY -
-
-
-
46
9.5
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
-
-
-
-
46
9.6
REFERNECE
-
-
-
-
-
46
9.7
SUGESSTED READING
-
-
-
-
-
47
-
-
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
-
42
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
9.0
TOPIC: THE STUDY OF DRAMA
9.1
INTRODUCTION:
UNIT: 3
Drama is another important aspect of English literature. This lecture
will discuss briefly the origin, growth and development of this genre of
literature.
9.2
OBJECTIVES
At the end of this topic you should be able to:
i.
Define drama
ii.
Enumerate the components of drama
iii. Identify the various kinds of drama
9.3
9.3.1
IN-TEXT:
DRAMA
WHAT IS DRAMA?
Drama means “action”, or “deed”. It takes its root from Greek dran,
“to do”. Drama is used as a synonym for plays; but the word has several
meanings. Sometimes it refers to a single play, or to the work of a
playwright or dramatist; or perhaps to a body of plays written in a
particular time or place (Elizabethan drama, French drama of the
seventeenth century). Or Drama simply means a series of events that elicit
high excitement.
Most plays, whether seen in a theater or in print, employ some
conventions: customary methods of presenting an action, usual and
recognizable devices that an audience is will to aspect.
One reason for the long survival of the plays of Sophocles and
Shakespeare, may be that generation of plays goes have enjoyed actively
exerting their imagination. A tradition definition of drama has been an
illusion of life.
9.3.2 THE ORIGIN AND GROWTH OF DRAMA
Drama of some form is found in almost every society, primitive and
civilized, and has served a wide variety of functions in the community.
They are for example, records of a sacred drama in Egypt 2000 years
before Christ, and Thespis in the 20th century BC in ancient Greece is
accorded the distinction of being known as the first playwright.
Some plays embraced nearly the whole community in a specifically
religious celebration, as when the Greek males came together to honour
their gods; or when the annual Feast of Corpus Christy was celebrated with
the great medieval Christian cycles.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
43
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Drama may also serve a sore directly didactic purpose, as did the
morality plays of the later Middle Ages, and some 19th century melodramas
and the 20th century plays of George Bernard Shaw
9.3.3 KINDS OF DRAMA
Drama can divided into comedy, tragedy and tragic comedy.
Comedy: A comedy is a humorous drama dealing with ordinary events
and behaviours of people for the purpose of amusement. In most cases
characters are exaggerated and the drama usually ends happily, with the
protagonist almost always solving the problem.
Tragedy: A tragedy is a serious drama or novel that ends sadly, especially
with the death of the main character or characters.
In the drama of the English Renaissance, the importance of
dramatic writing established many plays as texts. The drama that is most
meaningful and pertinent to its society is that which arises from its and is
not imposed upon it. In the tragedies Shakespeare wrote for the Elizabeth
Theater, and thus aimed at aimed at satisfying deep communal needs,
while meeting a whole range of individual interests present in the society.
Tragicomedy is a literary work mostly in drama that combines the
serious elements of tragedy and the light heartedness of comedy.
Shakespeare’s The Merchant Of Venice and Romeo and Juliet can be
considered as some examples of tragicomedies If the trick about the
shedding of blood was omitted and Shylock allowed to “have his merry
bond”, the former play might easily have become a tragedy; and despite the
number of deaths in the latter play it is considered a tragicomedy as a
reconciliation between the two feuding families finally occurs.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
44
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
9.3.4 COMPONENTS OF DRAMA
The two main components of drama are plot and characterization.
9.3.4.1 Plot
A plot is a dramatic structure, the organic relationship between
incidents or episodes in the story; the way in which the events of the story
are organized; the causes and effects of incidents in a story and how they
are related to one another.
To Aristotle a plot should have unity. It should imitate one action
and the whole, the structural union of the parts being such that, if any one
them is displaced or removed, the whole will he disjointed and
disturbed.(Emeaba, 1987 :56).
9.3.4.2 CHARACTERIZATION
Characterization is the creation, description and portrayal of the
persons represented in the work of art like Drama, Novel etc. It is also the
way an author reveals the peculiar qualities of his characters.
9.4
SUMMARY
Drama simply means a series of events that elicit excitement. The
main components of drama are plot, and characterization.
The three main kinds of drama are comedy, tragedy and tragicomedy.
9.5
SELF –ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1. Define drama.
2. What are the components of drama?
3. What are the various kinds of drama you have studied?
9.6
REFERNECE
Aogbofa Seinde (1981)
Press (Nig) Ltd.
Literary Approaches. Omolayo Standard
Kirk, K.L.( 1979) Interpreting Literature. New York. Holt,
Richart,Winston.
Mayhead, Robert (1965)
University Press London.
9.7
Understanding Literature. Cambridge
SUGESSTED READINGS
Kirk, K.L.(1979) Interpreting Literature. New York.
Richart,Winston.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
Holt,
45
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Kennedy J.K. (1973) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry
and Drama. Little, Brown and Company. Boston.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
46
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
T O P I C 10:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
10.0 TOPIC: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AS A DRAMATIST 48
10.1
INTRODUCTION -
-
-
-
-
-
49
10.2 OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
49
10.3 IN-TEXT
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
49
10.3.1
THE AGE OF SHAKESPEARE -
-
49
10.3.2
CATEGORIES OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS
-
10.4 SUMMARY -
-
-
-
-
50
10.5 SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
-
-
-
-
50
10.6 REFERENCE
50
-
-
-
50
-
-
-
-
-
-
10.7 SUGGESTED READING -
-
-
-
-
51
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
47
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
10.0 TOPIC: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AS A DRAMATIST
10.1 INTRODUCTION:
William Shakespeare one the world’s greatest dramatist of all times.
In this lecture we would discuss one of his dramas as a representation of
good English drama.
10.2 OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the topic you should be able to ;
i. Identify the characteristics of a play
ii.
Identify a typical Shakespearean play
10.3
IN-TEXT
10.3.1 LIFE AND WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE
William Shakespeare, also called Bard of Avon, an English poet,
dramatist, and actor, often called the English national poet and considered
by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time, occupies a position unique
in world literature. Shakespeare’s plays, written in the late 16th and early
17th centuries, are even now performed and read more often and in more
countries than ever before.
Shakespeare was born on 23rd April1964 in Stratford – upon -Avon
in London, to John and Mary Shakespeare. At the age of sixteen he left
school and became an apprentice to his father. He married Anne Hathaway
and they had three Daughters , Susanna, Hamnet and Judith (the only
daughter who survived). In !594Shakespeare was with a group of actors
called The Lord Chamberlain’s Men. The Globe Theater was opened in
1599 and Shakespeare’s plays were performed there and in other London
theaters such as the Swan and the Blackfriars Theater. He died on 23rd
April 1616, and was buried in the church in which, fifty- two years earlier
he had been christened.
Shakespeare’s early plays were principally histories and comedies.
The early comedies share the popular and romantic forms used by the
university wits but outplayed with elements of elegant courtly revel and a
sophisticated consciousness of comedy’s fragility and artifice. All the
comedies share a belief in the positive, health giving powers of play, but
none is completely innocent of doubts about the limits that encroach upon
the comic space, and in the four plays that approach tragic comedy, The
Merchant of Venice (1576-7) Much Ado About Nothing (1598-99), All’s
Well that Ends Well (1602-3), and Measure for Measure (1606), festivity is
in direct collision with the constraints of normality, with time, business,
law, human indifference treachery, and selfishness. The factors that were
present in Shakespeare’s society, are still prevalent in contemporary
society, and therefore it would not be out of place to take one of
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
48
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Shakespeare’s tragic comedies The Merchant of Venice for study and
analysis of plot construction, characterization and poetic devices used in
the play.
Shakespeare’s plays can be broadly divided into Comedies such as,
Comedy of Errors, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It,
Twelfth Night, Tempest etc. Tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet, Julius
Caesar, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello etc.
and History plays such as Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VIII,
King John, Richard II, Richard III etc. and a number Sonnets.
Shakespeare’s merits has survived translation into other languages and
into other cultures remote from that of Elizabeth England, which makes its
study relevant today.
10.4
SUMMARY
William Shakespeare, also called Bard of Avon, an English poet,
dramatist, and actor, often called the English national poet and considered
by many to be the greatest dramatist of all time, occupies a position unique
in world literature. Shakespeare’s plays, written in the late 16th and early
17th centuries, are even now performed in more countries than ever before.
Shakespeare’s plays can be broadly divided into Comedies such as,
Comedy of Errors, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It,
Twelfth Night, Tempest etc. Tragedies such as Romeo and Juliet, Julius
Caesar, Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra, Othello etc.
and History plays such as Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI, Henry VIII,
King John, Richard II, Richard III etc. and a number Sonnets.
10.5 SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1. Trace briefly the life and works of William Shakespeare.
10.6
REFERENCE
Aogbofa Seinde (1981)
Press (Nig) Ltd.
Literary Approaches. Omolayo Standard
Kirk, K.L.( 1979) Interpreting Literature. New York. Holt,
Richart,Winston.
Mayhead, Robert (1965)
University Press London.
10.7
Understanding Literature. Cambridge
SUGESSTED READINGS
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
49
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
Kirk, K.L.(1979) Interpreting Literature. New York.
Richart,Winston.
UNIT: 3
Holt,
Kennedy J.K. (1973) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry
and Drama. Little, Brown and Company. Boston.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
50
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
T O P I C 11:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
11.0
TOPIC: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (1) -
-
52
11.1
INTRODUCTION -
-
-
-
-
-
53
11.2
OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
53
11.3
IN-TEXT
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
53
11.3.1
HISTORICAL AND INTELLECTUAL BACKGROUND
OF THE PLAY
11.3.2
-
-
53
A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PLAY -
11.4
SUMMARY -
11.5
-
-
-
-
54
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
-
-
-
-
54
11.6
REFERENCE
-
-
-
-
-
-
55
11.7
SUGGESTED READING -
-
-
-
-
55
-
-
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
-
54
51
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
11.0 TOPIC: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (1)
11.1 INTRODUCTION :
One of Shakespeare’s popular comedy The Merchant of Venice will be
studied in line with its historical background and the plot.
11.2
OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the topic you should be able to
i.
Describe the historical background and the story line of the
play.
11,3 IN-TEXT
11.3.1
THE HISTORICAL AND INTELLECTUAL BACKGROUND OF THE PLAY
Shakespeare lived at a time when social idea and social structures
established in the Middle Ages still informed man’s thoughts and
behaviour. But slowly the economic and social orders were disturbed by
the rise of capitalism, by the redistribution of monastic lands, by the
expansion of education and by the influx of new wealth from discovery of
new lands around the globe. Therefore an inter play of new and old ideas
was typical of that time.
The Merchant Venice was written towards the end of the sixteenth
century. Shakespeare wrote his plays for the people of his own age, and
knew he had to please a mixture of types of audiences. Queen Elizabeth
made herself the head of the Church of England, and dealt both the Roman
Catholics and the Jews cruelly. Drama in England before Shakespeare was
popular, and theaters had already open and became popular in London.
As is the case in many of Shakespeare’s plays the source of the story
is of Italian origin. Traces of Christopher Marlowe’s play The Jew of Malta
and the English version of Gesta Romanorum (Acts of the Romans) can
also be noted.
The play affirms truth, good order, and generosity; they are shapely
and complicated like a dance or like a game of chess. Yet at the general
resolution all does not end in complete harmony. But his greatness lies in
making the stories immediate by knitting them together and presenting
them alive as the stage. Even when events cannot be presented on the
stage, such as the secret journey made by Portia and Nerissa from Belmont
to Venice, is explained with clarity and briefly. This is due to Shakespeare’s
unequalled skill in arranging materials for his plots.
11.3.2 A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PLAY
Antonio, the hero of the play, is wealthy, charming and is
surrounded by loving friends. He is especially kind to his friend Bassanio,
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
52
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
who was in love with a wealthy lady Portia.Bassanio is in need of money to
marry Portia, and requests Antonio for a loan. Unfortunately all Antonio’s
ships at sea, and so he goes to a Jewish money lender Shylock to borrow
money as Bassanio’s behalf, which almost caused his own near-demise at
the hands of Shylock, when he enter into what Shylock calls a “merry
bond” by which if the bond is not paid back within the stipulated time,
Shylock is to take a pound of Antonio’s flesh, from any part of his body.
Though Antonio is inexplicably restless and worrisome he has the charm of
a melancholic character, which adds to the tragic beauty of his character.
11.4
SUMMARY
Shakespeare lived at a time when social ideas and social structures
established in the Middle Ages still informed man’s thoughts and
behaviour. Soon the economic and social orders were disturbed by the rise
of capitalism. Therefore an inter play of new and old ideas was typical of
that time. Shakespeare wrote his plays for the people of his own age, and
knew he had to please a mixture of types of audiences. The Merchant
Venice was written towards the end of the sixteenth century. As is the case
in many of Shakespeare’s plays the source of the story is of Italian origin.
The play affirms truth, good order and generosity. Yet, at the general
resolution all does not end in complete harmony. But greatness lies in
making the stories immediate by knitting them together and presenting
them alive on the stage.
11.5
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
11.6
Write a brief summary of the play
REFERNECE
Kirk, K.L.( 1979) Interpreting Literature. New York. Holt,
Richart,Winston.
11.7
SUGESSTED READINGS
Kennedy J.K. (1973) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry
and Drama. Little, Brown and Company. Boston.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
53
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
UNIT: 3
54
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
T O P I C 12:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
12.0 TOPIC: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (2) -
-
56
12.1
INTRODUCTION -
-
-
-
-
-
57
12.2 OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
57
12.3 IN-TEXT
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
57
-
-
-
-
57
12.3.2 CHARACTERIZATION IN THE PLAY
-
57
-
12.3.1 PLOT OF THE PLAY
12.3.2.1
SHYLOCK -
-
-
-
-
58
12.3.2.2
PORTIA
-
-
-
-
58
12.3.2.3
BASSANIO
-
-
-
-
58
12.3.2.4
ANTONIO -
-
-
-
-
59
12.3.2.5
JESSICA
-
-
-
-
59
12.3.2.6
LANCELOT GOBBO
-
-
-
60
12.3.3 THE LANGUAGE OF THE PLAY
-
-
60
-
-
-
60
12.5 SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE - -
-
-
60
12.6 REFERENCES
12.4 SUMMARY -
12.7
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
SUGGESTED READING -
-
-
-
-
61
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
61
55
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
12.0 TOPIC: THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (2)
12.1
INTRODUCTION
One of Shakespeare’s popular comedy The Merchant of Venice will be
studied in line with its plot.
12.2
OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the topic you should be able to
ii.
Describe the the story line of the play.
12.3 IN-TEXT
12.3.1
PLOT OF THE PLAY
In The Merchant of Venice, most of the unresolved elements in the
comedy are concentrated in the person of Shylock, a Jew who attempts to
use justice to enforce a terrible, murderous revenge on Antonio, the
Christian merchant, but is foiled by Portia, who disguised as a lawyer,
turns the tables on the Jew by a legal quibble and has him at the mercy of
the court. This strange tale is realized with exceptionally credible detail.
Shylock is a moneylender, like many in Shakespeare’s London, and a Jew
of pride and deep religious instincts. The Christians treat him with
contempt and distrust and when one of them causes his daughter to elope
and steals his money and jewelry, he suffers with an intensity equaled only
by that of his murderous hatred of all Christians.
Perhaps the most extraordinary achievement of this comedy in
which change in mood is so rapid, which is so funny and yet sometimes
dangerous and sad, which deals both with fantasy and eloquence, is that
the recurrent moments of life like feeling are so expressed in words or
action that an audience shares in the very moment of discovery. Much less
light hearted than Shakespeare’s other comedies, the work is a serious
study of love and marriage and the abuse of wealth.
12.3.2 CHARACTERIZATION IN THE PLAY
The next step in understanding Shakespeare is an appreciation of
individual characters.
Antonio, the wealthy merchant of Venice invested in foreign
ventures, and Shylock, a Jewish moneylender can be
considered the central characters of the play. Others include
Portia the heiress, Bassanio, Portia’s husband and Antonio’s
friend, Jessica, Shylock’s daughter who elopes with a Christian
Lorenzo, and Portia’s maid Nerissa.
12.3.2.1
ANTONIO
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
56
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Is a wealthy Venetian merchant in Shakespeare’s play The Merchant
of Venice. He is the hero of the play who is charming, wealthy and
extremely generous. He is seen surrounded with loving friends but is
portrayed worrisome. He is willing to risk his life for his friend Bassanio,
when he his friend needed a loan to woo the heiress Portia. He is one of
Shakespeare’s best-loved characters.
12.3.2.2
SHYLOCK
Shylock is a Jew and a moneylender by profession. It is to him that
Bassanio goes when he needed to borrow money for his trip to Belmont.
He openly expresses his hatred of Antonio as a Christian and as a merchant
who lends money, without charging interest on it, and also for the
contempt with which, Antonio has treated him. He agrees to lend the
money on the condition that, if the money is not paid back on time,
Antonio will forfeit a pound of his flesh. Shylock rages more over the less
of the riches Jessica has taken with her than over his daughter elopes with
her Christian lover, Lorenzo.
Shylock is proud and has deep religious instincts, despite his baser
tracts. Although clearly portrayed as a vengeful villain for insisting on his
rightful payment of Antonio’s debt to him, Shakespeare does not paint him
completely black. He carries on with his money lending business, which
the Christians in Shakespeare’s England considered wicked, but one that
they could not do without. Shylock’s actions could be partly attributed to
the way he himself was mistreated by the Christian’s. It’s even a Christian
that causes his daughter to elope and steal his money and jewels. He is
faithful to his race, but suffers much insult because of it. Though
Shakespeare intended him to be villain, there are places where he very
nearly wins our sympathy.
12.3.2.3
PORTIA
Portia is a rich business of Belmont. She is spirited young woman,
whose dead father has ordered he to choose a worthy husband from among
several men, though the lottery of the caskets, that all her suitors must be
submitted to. This makes her unhappy until she meets Bassanio, with
whom she falls in love with, and is extremely happy when he chooses the
right casket. Her relationship to Bassanio is one of the plays’ important
sub plots.
In the course of the play she disguises herself as a man, and serves as
Antonio’s lawyer against the rightful claims of Shylock. Her wit is seen
when she makes a plan to save her husband’s friend Antonio, when she
learns money will not serve the purpose.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
57
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
She cleverly persuades Bellario the lawyer of Padua, to let her pursue
the case, instead of him. With borrowed robes of the lawyer along with her
maid disguised as the lawyer’s clerk she sets forth to Venice. When she
realize Shylock was determined to keep to the ‘merry bond’ she at first
pleads for mercy, and when Shylock refuses, she rises, his hope by asking
him to bring the surgeon. But with a twist of ingenuity orders the surgeon
to cut his pound of flesh without shedding a single drop of blood. This foils
Shylock’s evil desire and he is forced to resign to fate, and forfeit his prized
debt. Her wit not only saves Antonio from imminent death, but also ruins
Shylock, as he is to loose both his life and property because, as an outsider
plotting to kill a Vatican is against the law and is punishable by death.
Portia is seen to have a rare sense of humour. This is noticed when
she wins Antonio’s case, disguised as a lawyer requests Bassanio’s wedding
ring. And when Bassanio not knowing it his wife in the guise of the lawyer,
is persuaded by Antonio to give the ring, she rushes home, changes out of
her lawyer robes and demands the bewildered Bassanio her ring in
pretentious anger. Shakespeare makes his readers to both love and admire
her for her charm and intelligence.
12.3.2.4
BASSANIO
Bassanio, like Portia is lovable, but unlike her, is overtly impatient.
Although a bit of a squanderer, he is very humane and endearing. He is a
very close friend to Antonio, who goes to the extent of being prepared to
forfeit a pound of flesh if the money he borrowed from the Jew could not
be returned on time. Bassanio could be considered a foil to the strong,
steadfast and loveable Portia.
12.3.2.5
JESSICA
The daughter of Shylock chooses a Christian husband and her
consequent rejection of her Jewish father and faith places her in contrast to
Portia, who is subservient to the wishes of her dead father. Jessica’s theft
of what would have been her dowry is sometimes seen as a questionable act
and further evidences of the plays anti-Semitism nature. One might say
Shakespeare meant her to be a symbol of love’s triumphs over greed.
Among the play’s several notable secondary characters is Lancelot
Gobbo, who at the beginning of the play is in the service of Shylock but
later decides to serve Bassanio instead. He acts the part of a purring
clownish servant of a type that is common in Shakespeare’s plays.
12.3.3 THE LANGUAGE OF THE PLAY
The English of the Elizabeth age, which Shakespeare, belonged to
was different from contemporary English spoken today. Therefore a
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
58
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
number of words and forms, however, are characteristic of Shakespeare’s
English occurs so often in the play.
Shakespeare as a poet, like all poets, employed a language in many
unusual and poetic ways and thus most of his writings are more in verse
than prose. On opening a work of Shakespeare, a reader, is captivated by a
few lines of verses or a sentence or one complex, glittering or telling word.
Shakespeare’s supreme mastery of words, images of sound, rhythm, metre,
texture and lyricism that abound in his play The Merchant of Venice
continue to yield their secretes to only an imaginative exploration.
12.4
SUMMARY
The Merchant of Venice is a tragicomedy with a well knit plot and
characterization. Though written in Shakespearean English when
understood expresses the mood, beliefs and mores of Elizabethan England.
The major and minor characters play their respective roles effectively and
the language used is representative of its age.
Note: Students are advised to procure the New Swan Shakespeare series
of The Merchant of Venice; before they can successfully answer the
following questions.
12.5
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1.
2
3.
4.
5.
To which age did Shakespeare belong?
Under what category can you enlist his play The Merchant of
Venice?
Would you consider the punishment meted to Shylock
commensurate with his crime?
Can The Merchant of Venice be said to be a play, is a study of
love, marriage and abuse of wealth?
Write brief character assessment on any three of the
following characters:
i
Antonio
ii
Bassanio
iii
Portia
iv
Shylock
v
Gratiano
vi
Lorenzo
vii
Jessica
viii
Nerissa
ix
Lancelot Gobbo
x
Tubal
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
59
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
12.6
UNIT: 3
REFERENCE
Alexander, Peter (1965) Collin’s Complete Works of William
Shakespeare. Chand & Company (Ptv) Ltd. N.Delhi.
Lott, Bernard (2000) The Merchant Of Venice
Shakespeare. London. Longman Group Ltd.
Understanding
Mayhead, Robert (1965)
University Press London
12.7
.New
Literature.
Swan
Cambridge
SUGESSTED READING
Alexander, Peter (1965)
Collin’s Complete Works of William
Shakespeare. Chand & Company (Ptv) Ltd. N.Delhi.
Lott, Bernard (2000) The Merchant Of Venice. New Swan Shakespeare.
London. Longman Group Ltd.
T O P I C 13:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
13.0 TOPIC: THE NOVEL
-
-
-
-
-
-
13.1
-
-
-
-
-
63
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
63
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
63
-
-
-
63
-
-
63
13.3.3 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NOVEL
-
64
13.3.4 THE SHORT STORY
-
65
INTRODUCTION -
13.2 OBJECTIVE
13.3 IN-TEXT
13.3.1
-
THE RISE OF THE NOVEL
13.3.2 WHAT IS A NOVEL?
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
-
-
-
62
60
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
13.3.5 ALLEGORY, FABLE AND MYTH
13.4 SUMMARY 13.5
-
-
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
13.6 REFERENCE
13.7
-
-
-
65
-
-
-
65
-
-
-
-
65
66
-
-
-
-
-
-
SUGESSTED READING -
-
-
-
-
66
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
61
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
13.0
UNIT: 3
TOPIC: THE NOVEL
13.1 INTRODUCTION:
The next English genre to be studied is the English Novel. The novel is
a genre of fiction, which represents various aspects of human life in written
form. It also directs and instructs as well. In this lecture we will discuss the
growth and development of the English Novel.
13.2 OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this topic, you should be able to:
i.
State the characteristic features of a novel
ii.
Trace the development of the English novel
iii.
Differentiate between a short story and a novel.
iv.
Define allegory, fable, myth
13.3 IN-TEXT
13.3.1 THE NOVEL
What is a Novel?
The novel is a genre of fiction, and fiction may be defined as the art
or craft of continuing, through the written word, represent actions of
human life that instruct or direct or both.
A novel is an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a
certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experiences
usually through a connected sequence of events involving a group of
persons in a specific setting.
The term novel is the contracted form of the Italian word novella
meaning new. The novella was a kind of enlarged anecdote like those to be
found in the 14th century Italian classics. But, if the insubstantiality of the
content matches its brevity, it is termed a novelette.
13.3.2 THE DEVELOPMENT THE ENGLISH NOVEL
Early in the 19th century the novel gathered strength in the fantasies
of the Gothic novel and in the critical insight into the polite society that was
shown by Jane Austen’s masterpieces such as, Sense and Sensibility, Pride
and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, North anger Abbey and
Persuasion.
The English historical novel was established by the greatest of all
English novelists, Sir Walter Scott and Charles Dickens used his comic
genius to explore the ills of society and the vagaries of human nature.
Following Dickens were George Eliot’s portrayals of 19th century society
and its moral dilemmas, William Thackeray’s ironic studies of society and
Anthony Trollop’s depiction of contemporary manners and morals.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
62
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Thomas Hardy marked the end of the Victorian era and led the novel to the
threshold of Modernism. The turn of the century saw a new crop of
novelists, among them being H.G. Wells, Joseph Comrade, Arnold Bennett,
E.M. Foster and W. Somerset Maugham.
The novelists, George Orwell and Graham Greene emerged in the
1930s. The many models of fictions include the allegorical novels of
William Golding, the social comedies of Barbara Pym, and the satirical
novels of Kings Amis. A major development towards the end of the century
was the Postmodern novel, which makes conscious use of such devices of
myth, fairy table and fantasy.
13.3.3 SHORT STORY
The short story is a fictional prose narrative that is shorter than a
novel and deals with only few characters. The short story is usually
concerned with a single effect conveyed in only one or a few significant
episodes or scenes. The form encourages economy of setting and concise
narrative; character is disclosed in action and dramatic encounter but is
seldom fully developed.
Before the 19th century the short story was not generally regarded as
a distinct literary form. But although it was considered uniquely modern
genre, the short prose fiction is nearly as old as language itself. Through
out history man has enjoyed various types of brief narratives; anecdote,
allegories, fairy tales, myths and legends, even though these forms are not
termed short story, they make up a large part of the milieu from which the
modern short story emerged.
Some of English literature’s most distinguished practitioners in the
th
20 century Henry James and Joseph Conrad and of recent V.S. Naipaul
and Salman Rushdie who may be termed Postmodern novelists are of
foreign origin. In the latter half of the 20th century writings in English or
English dialects by recent settlers in Britain, such as Afro-Caribbean’s,
Africans, the Indian sub-continent and East Asia started to emerge on the
English literary scene.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
63
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
13.3 4 ALLEGORY:
An allegory is a story or description, which has meanings other than
what is presented at the surface level. i.e. the story and characters are
understood as they appear but at a deeper level, they represent other things
and meanings. It could also be considered as an extended metaphor.
13.3.5 FABLE:
A fable is a story in prose or verse in which inanimate objects or
animals act roles of human beings to point out a moral truth. George
Orwell’s Animal Farm is such fable.
13.3.6 MYTH:
Myth is a symbolic narrative, usually of unknown origin and at least
partly traditional, that relates to actual events and that is especially
associated with religious belief. Myths are specific accounts of god or
superhuman beings involved in extraordinary events or circumstances in a
time unspecified but which is understood as existing apart from ordinary
human experience. The term mythology denotes both the study of myths
and the body of myths belonging to a particular religious tradition.
13.4
SUMMARY
The novel is a genre of fiction. It is of considerable length expressing
human experiences and at times instructing its readers in an anecdotal
form the dos and don’ts of the society. The 19th century saw the flowering of
the novel. Some of the greatest novelists of this age include Charles
Dickens and Sir Walter Scott, and of more recent T.S.Eliot and D.H.
Lawrence. The short story is of recent origin and as its name suggests is
shorter in length and content. Allegory, fable and myth are some of the
literary devices used by the writers in their creative outputs.
13.5
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1
2
2
3
What is a novel?
Trace the growth and development of the novel.
What are the characteristics of a short story?
Summarize briefly a fable of your choice.
13. 6 REFERNECE
Carlson, Robert G. (1967) American Literature: Themes and Writers.
McGraw Hill Book Company New York
Kennedy J.K. (1973) Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and
Drama. Little, Brown and Company. Boston.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
64
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
Serralien Jan & Serrailien Ann (1983) Animal Farm The New Mill
Series. Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. Ibadan.
13.7 SUGESSTED READING
Serralien Jan & Serrailien Ann (1983) Animal Farm The New Mill
Series. Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. Ibadan.
Ray,J.R.(1972) English Literature: An Introduction to Foreign
Readers. Macmillan London.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
65
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
T O P I C 14:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
14.0 TOPIC: GEORGE ORWELL’S ANIMAL FARM
-
-
14.1
INTRODUCTION -
-
-
-
-
-
68
67
14.2 OBJECTIVES
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
68
14.3 IN-TEXT
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
68
14.3.1 GEORGE ORWELL AS A WRITER
-
68
14.3.2
PLOT OF THE NOVEL -
-
-
-
68
14.3.3
TOTALITARIANISM, IN THE ANIMAL
-
69
-
70
70
-
FARM
14.3.4
-
-
-
-
ANIMAL FARM AS AN ALLEGORICAL
SATIRE
14.3.5
-
-
-
-
-
THE USE OF IRONY IN THE ANIMAL
FARM
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
71
14.5 SELF –ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
-
-
-
-
71
14.6 REFERENCE
72
14.4 SUMMARY -
14.7
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
SUGGESTED READING -
-
-
-
-
72
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
66
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
14.0
UNIT: 3
TOPIC: GEORGE ORWELL’S ANIMAL FARM
14.1 INTRODUCTION:
For the purpose of our study, we will consider George Orwell’s
novelette Animal Farm.
14.2 OBJECTIVES:
By the end of this topic you should be able to :
i. Write out the plot of the novel
ii. Explain the use of allegory in the novel
iii. State any other literary devices used in the novel
iv. Write briefly on the theme of the play
14.3
IN-TEXT
14.3.1 GEORGE ORWELL AS A WRITER
George Orwell was born in 1903, Kotihari, Bengal, India and died on
January 1950 in London. George Orwell is the pseudonym of Eric
Arthur Blair.
Orwell’s revulsion against imperialism led not only to his personal
rejection of the bourgeois life-style but to a political reorientation as well.
Immediately after returning from Burma he called himself an anarchist
and continued to do so for several years, during the 1930’s however, he
began to consider himself a socialist, though he was too libertarian in his
thinking, but later declared himself a communist. His change in name
corresponded to a profound shift in Orwell’s life-style, in which he changed
from a pillar of the British imperial establishment into a literary and
political rebel.
Orwell’s first socialist book was an original and unorthodox political
treaties entitled The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). It begins by describing
his experiences when he went to live among the destitute and unemployed
miners of northern England sharing and observing their lives; it ends in a
series of sharp criticisms of existing socialist movements. It combines
humorous reporting with a tone of generous anger that was to characterize
Orwell’s subsequent writing.
2nd
14.3.2 PLOT OF THE NOVEL
In 1944 Orwell finished Animal Farm, a political fable based on the
story of the Russian Revolution and its betrayal by Joseph Stalin. In this
book a group of barnyard animals overthrow and chase off their
exploitative human masters and set up an egalitarian society of their own.
Eventually the animals intelligent and power-loving leaders, the pigs,
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
67
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
subvert the revolution and a dictatorship whose bondage is even more
oppressive and heartless than that of their former human masters. Their
motto changing from ‘All Animals are Equal’ to “All animals are equal, but
some are more equal than others”.
Led by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, the animals drive out
Farmer Jones the owner of the farm along with wife Mrs. Jones and set up
an Animal Republic in which all animals, big or small are to be free and
equal. They painted out ‘Manor Farm’ and in its place painted ‘ANIMAL
FARM’. After this they painted not the Ten Commandments mankind is
guided by, but reduced the principals according to Animalism to seven
commandments, of which the seventh was the most binding. It read, “All
animals are equal”. But the potential saviours of the race turn out to be as
greedy, vain and far more ruthlessly oppressive than those they considered
the tyrants, Mr. & Mrs. Jones in particular and man as the whole.
The last paragraph of the novel sums up the author’s bitter
disappointment with the complete collapse of the communist system, he
had great belief in. The natures outside looked from pig to man, and from
man to pig, and from pig to man again, but already it was impossible to say
which was which.
With clear-cut style and good humour this modern master piece has
an enduring universal appeal. There also is evidently the novel a powerful
and story satire on communism gone wrong. Besides, irony, there are
instances of symbolism, philosophy, undertones of religion, superstition
and even traces of baser attributes such as thuggary and hooliganism.
14.3.3 TOTALITARIANISM IN ANIMAL FARM
In the writing the novel Animal Farm, Orwell had in mind the rise of
totalitarianism and contemporary development in science and technology,
which in most cases is misused. Orwell in the Animal Farm uses an
allegorical form to expose the evils of revolution and totalitarianism,
particularly of Russia.
But the author does not propagate capitalist
ideology; neither does he decry communist ideology. Rejoicing in violence,
Totalitarianism is hostile to all forms of universalism and disarmament.
The most striking feature of Totalitarianism is its theory that action is more
important than thought. ‘Action’ in this context meaning the use of
violence to any extent.
In the revolution of Animal Farm Snowball and Napoleon personify
“thought” and “action”. The former (Snowball) is dedicated to revolution
for the betterment of all; while the latter (Napoleon) is wholly committed
to seizing power and keeping it.
Another feature of Totalitarianism treated in Animal Farm is the
policy of “propaganda by deed” meaning, the indiscriminate acts of
violence the government is prone to in order to show the world the extent
of power it has over its subjects. The public executions ordered for
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
68
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
instance, by Napoleon, of some animals considered rebels, indicates the
implementation of the policy of totalitarian governments.
14.3.4 ANIMAL FARM AS AN ALLEGORICAL SATIRE
The pigs, old Major, Snowball and Napoleon, parallel Lenin, Trotsky
and Stalin and the enemies of Animal Farm, Pinch field and Fox wood,
represent the forces of Fascism and Capitalism. The allegoric theme in
Animal Farm is of the power relationship among people in a Totalitarian
society.
Human qualities are made animal – like showing that
Totalitarianism brings out the worst in human relationships.
Animal Farm is not only an allegorical satire as the Soviet Union’s
betrayal of socialism, but is also an attack on prevented intellectuals in
politics, who once they acquire power become oppressors and betrayers of
those whose welfare they pretend to cherish.
Religious orthodoxy is also satirized in the portrayal of focuses the
raven, who was totally disliked before the revolution, because of his
laziness, and shy mature, final solace later in his tales of sugar candy
mountain, where all sad animals find their final respite.
Orwell through his movement Animal Farm express complete
disillusionment concerning the efficacy of revolution.
14.3.5 THE USE OF IRONY IN THE ANIMAL FARM
There is also a great deal of irony in the Animal Farm. The leader of
the revolution Old Major, convinced them to revolt, saying that only a
revolution can free them the animals from bondage by mans. He
emphasized the need for perfect unity and comradeship among themselves
in their fight against humans. He played on their animal senses, by
recounting all the cruelties that each one of them have suffered due to
man’s insensitivity, and inconsideration towards their well being.
But as soon as they swore comradeship and unity and changed the
name of the farm and drew their own seven commandments, their unity
began to crumble.
A number of unfortunate incidents occur, and they start suspecting,
and blaming each other. Soon anarchy, dictatorship and treachery, and all
the things they said they were fighting against, started to rear their ugly
heads. This led to insecurity; suspicion and dissatisfaction amongst the
animals. Soon the pigs that inspired the revolution against human
oppression ironically became oppressors themselves. The height of irony
in the novel is seen when the animals, especially the pigs, who out stead the
humans as evil doers, not only started to associate with humans in
neighbouring farms, but also started to dress and behave as if they were
humans themselves. Pigs going about in coats, eating on the table and
playing cards, indeed accentuate the tragic irony, than comedy in the novel.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
69
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
The main characters in the novel include Mr. & Mrs. Jones the
owner of Man or Farm and the animals there in. The revolutionary
animals are Old Major-Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer are pigs (the
ring leaders of the revolution).The other animals on the farm include, the
dogs - Bluebell, James and Pitcher, the horses Boxer, Mollie and Clover,
the white goat Muriel, Benjamin the donkey, and Moses the raven.
14.4 SUMMARY
George Orwell’s Animal Farm is a political fable. It is an allegorical
satire on the Soviet Union’s betrayal of Socialism. The writer who was a
one-time rebel himself soon realized that any extreme form of rulership
does not benefit the common man it claims to protect. Orwell advocates
peaceful democratic rule against violent revolution, which is more
destructive than constructive.
NOTE:
Students are advised to buy the novel Animal Farm by George
Orwell, for better understanding, and appreciation of the text.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
70
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
14.5 SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
What kind of a novel is Animal Farm?
What do you think the poet is opposed to that he makes clear in
the novels
3.
Would you consider the novel to be allegorical in form? State
your reasons.
4.
Write a brief notes on any three of the following:
a)
Napoleon
b)
Squealer
c)
Boxer
d)
The dogs
e)
The Chickens.
14.6 REFERNECE
Carlson, Robert G. (1967) American Literature: Themes and Writers.
McGraw Hill Book Company New York
1.
2.
Serralien Jan & Serrailien Ann (1983) Animal Farm The New Mill
Series. Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. Ibadan.
14.7 SUGESSTED READING
Serralien Jan & Serrailien Ann (1983) Animal Farm The New Mill
Series. Heinemann Educational Books Ltd. Ibadan.
Ray,J.R.(1972) English Literature: An Introduction to Foreign
Readers. Macmillan London.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
71
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
SOLUTIONS TO EXERCISES
TOPIC 1
1.
2.
3.
4
Literature may be classified according to a variety
of systems, including language, national origin,
historical period, genre, and subject matter. The
word literature is derived from the Latin littera, “a
letter of the alphabet”. Literature is first and
foremost mankind’s entire body of writing,
Oral literature of ancient times paved the way for
written forms of literature. But not everything can
stand as noble examples of the art of literature.
Most historical works and studies today are not
written primarily with literary excellence in mind,
though they may possess it, by accident. The
essay was once written deliberately as a piece of
literature, where in its subject matter was of
comparatively minor importance. Some personal
documents (autobiographies, diaries, memoirs,
and letters) rank among the world’s greatest
literature. Many works of philosophy are classed
as literature. The Dialogues of Plato (4th century
BC) are written with great narrative skill and in
the finest prose. Certain scientific works endured
as literature, long after their scientific content has
been outdated.
Genre is a distinctive type or category of literary
composition, such as the epic, tragedy, comedy,
novel and short story.
Poetry, Prose and Drama.
Oral literature was wide spread in preliterate
societies. It saturated the society and was as much
a part of living as food, clothing, shelter, or
religion. In older societies, the minstrel might be
a courtier of the king or chieftain, and the poet
who composed liturgies might be a priest. But the
oral performance itself was accessible to the
whole community. As society evolved its various
social layers, or classes, on “elite” literature began
to be distinguishable from the “folk” literature of
the people. With the invention of writing this
separation was accelerated until finally literature
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
72
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
was being experienced individually by the elite
(reading a book), while folklore and folk song
were experienced orally and more or less
collectively by the illiterate common people.
5.
Oratory, the art of persuasion, was long
considered a great literary art. The oratory of the
African, the American Indian, and the Indian are
famous, while in classical Greek, Polyamnia was
the muse sacred to poetry and oratory. Rome’s
great orator Cicero was to have a decisive
influence on the development of English prose
style. Today, however, oratory is more usually
thought as a craft than as an art.
TOPIC 2
1.
English Literature is the body of works produced in the
English language by inhabitants of the British Isles from
the 7th century to the present day. English literature can
be divided into Old English, Middle English,
Renaissance and Elizabethan, Jacobean, Restoration,
18th century, Romantic, Victorian and Modern periods.
1.
Old English is the first recorded English literature. Manuscripts
TOPIC 3
from about AD 1000 contain the best-known Old English work.
Beowulf, a heroic poem was written about 6 00 to 750.
-The
Angles, Saxons and Jutes who invaded Britain in the 5th and 6th
centuries brought with them the common Germanic metric.
Middle English began with the Norman conquest of
1066. This brought both the French language, which in
time combined with the Germanic Anglo-Saxon to form
the basis of modern English.
TOPIC 4
THE RENAISSANCE
The Renaissance filtered into England from Europe by the 16th
century and led to the questioning of the religious beliefs and
assumptions of the Middle Ages. Literature began to look back
beyond the medieval period to the classics for inspiration, and NeoPlatonism. Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queen and The Shepard’s
Calendar, lyrical courtly poetry of Sir Philip Sidney, Defense of
Poesies, Frances Bacon’s prose essays, and particularly the plays of
William Shakespeare greatly influenced the literature of this age. As
the central figure of the English Renaissance, Shakespeare expresses
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
73
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
both its conflicts and its glorious energy and provides the basis for its
reputation as the golden age of English Literature and of English
drama in particular. Christopher Marlowe, Shakespeare’s immediate
forbearer, established the use of blank verse in plays.
METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT
The accession of James I in 1603 was accompanied with great strife,
and this produced a strain of cynicism manifested in the revenge
tragedies of John Webster and the comedies of Ben Jonson and
Francis Beaumont. There also emerged at this time the intellectual
passion of Metaphysical poetry, with John Donne at its centre,
containing the conflict between love, religion and the individual.
The dominant literary figure was John Milton, and his influential
religious epic Paradise Lost (1667) provided a link between the
Puritan era and the restoration of the monarchy.
THE RESTORATION AGE
The return of Charles II in 1660 to the country ushered in the
Restoration period. It was characterized by the witty mannered
comedies of William Congreve, the satirical poetry of Andrew
Marvell, the heroic drama and poetry of John Dryden and a popular
Christian allegory by John Bunyan titled The Pilgrims Progress.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
74
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
TOPIC 5
1.
A distinctive depressive mood of the Modern age grew
from the disillusionment and cynicism that followed
World War I. A sense of life’s bleakness is found in the
poetry of T. S. Eliot. Writers also became increasingly
self-conscious about literary form and language, as is
evident in the novels of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
Other figures such as W.H. Auden, turned to expressing
left-wing political idealism in their work peripheral to
the Modernist movement were D.H. Lawrence, whose
novels examine the complexities of sexuality and the
relationships between men and women, and the Irish
poet W.B. Yeats, whose works moved from Symbolism
to Modernism. Poetry showed strong regional roots as
well as deep receptivity to the way the contemporary
world. The postmodern novel made conscious use of
myth, fairy tale and fantasy.
1.
Trying to define poetry has been an age-old elusive
exercise. Many critics and poets themselves have tried
to pen in poetry with an universally acceptable
definition with little success. Poetry is an ancient form
of expression of man’s numerous feelings. Even before
the development of writing, primitive societies seem to
have achieved poetic rendering of their religious,
historical and cultural awareness, and have transmitted
them to the next generation in hymns, in contentious
and narrative forms. Simply put poetry can be said to be
a rhythmical composition of words expressing an
attitude designed to surprise and delight, and thereby
arouse an emotional response from readers.
2.
The characteristic content of English poetry, like all
poetry finds expression through a variety of techniques,
from direct description to highly personalized
symbolism. The formal patterns available to the poet are
varied in English poetry. It may encompass the
narrative, dramatic, aphoristic, celebratory, satiric,
disruptive, didactic, personal, and in some African
forms abusive. Within a single work the poet may move
from one mode to another, preserving the overall unity
of the formal pattern.
TOPIC 6
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
75
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
TOPIC 7
Poem 1
1.
2.
3.
Poem 2
1
2.
Poem 3
1.
2.
3.
Old English.
Edmund Spenser.
The cock crows, the day has dawned. The channerin
worm scolds, so we will not be missed from our place
before dawn breaks.
The protagonist is speaking of unrequited love and
warns his fellow beings against blind love.
i b I b.
The Metaphysical poets
Not ever chaste, except You ravish me.
One cannot remain chaste when ravished. The words
chaste and ravish are used to indicate a paradoxical
situation.
The poet persona in the poem seems to be pleading with
god to protect him from falling into evil ways.
Poem 4
1. To the poet’s lady love.
2. A Shakespearean sonnet.
3. A heroic couplet wherein the last two lines that conclude a
sonnet have the same rhyme scheme. Eg. g g
Poem 5
1.
2.
3.
Poem 6
1.
2.
3.
Poem 7
1.
The poem reveals the squalor and poverty in which a
large majority of the poor in London lived in.
Only hard work and patience will lead to success.
Encouraging and hopeful.
The transient nature of man’s life on earth.
Pride goes before a fall.
Vanity , Pride ,etc.
A cold and lonely hillside is contrasted with a warm and
cosy cave.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
76
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
2.
3.
UNIT: 3
It seems to be a spirit that has charmed the lonely
wanderer.
A ballad.
Poem 8
1. The poet is talking about a bed of daffodils growing by the
lake side.
2. cloud, vales, hills, daffodils, lake, trees, breeze etc.
3. The Romantic Age.
Poem 9
1.
2.
Poem 10
1.
2.
3.
(a) Personification : crooked hands, wrinkled sea.
(b) Simile : like a thunderbolt.
The Victorian Age.
Poet persona seems to express some form of regret after
what it seems a hasting wedding.
The words “pallid ashes” are significant in the poem as
they express the protagonist’s burning feelings of love
that seems to have changed into pale cold ashes.
If hours be years the twain are best,
-----------------------------------------If hours be years the twain are best,
Poem 11
1. the protagonist is lamenting on days gone by.
2. It is important to lead a useful life if, we desire to have a
loving and peaceful end.
3. The tone expresses regret and loneliness.
Poem 12
1.
2.
3.
Poem 13
1.
2.
3.
The poet is reminiscing his happy childhood days.
The line acts as a flashback as the poet goes down
memory lane.
No.
Winter, A Winter’s Night, Moonlight etc.
Images of cold and darkness are contrasted with the
warmth of forest fires which bring both light and
warmth.
It could symbolize old age , hope or a ray of hope in
darkness.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
77
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
TOPIC 8
UNIT: 3
DRAMA
1.
2.
3.
Drama means “action”, or “deed”. It takes its root
from Greek dran, “to do”. Drama is used as a
synonym for plays. Drama simply means a series
of events that elicit high excitement.
The main components of drama are plot, and
characterization.
The three main kinds of drama are comedy,
tragedy and tragicomedy.
TOPIC 9
1.
William Shakespeare was born on 23rd April1964 in
Stratford – upon -Avon in London, to John and Mary
Shakespeare. . At the age of sixteen he left school and
became an apprentice to his father. In 1594 Shakespeare
was with a group of actors called The Lord
Chamberlain’s Men. The Globe Theater was opened in
1599 and Shakespeare’s plays were performed there and
in other London theaters such as the Swan and the
Blackfriars Theater. Shakespeare’s early plays were
principally histories and comedies. The early comedies
share the popular and romantic forms used by the
university wits but outplayed with elements of elegant
courtly revel and a sophisticated consciousness of
comedy’s fragility and artifice. Shakespeare’s plays can
be broadly divided into Comedies such as, Comedy of
Errors, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Midsummer Night’s
Dream, Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing,
As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Tempest etc. Tragedies
such as Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, King
Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello etc. and
History plays such as Henry IV, Henry V, Henry VI,
Henry VIII, King John, Richard II, Richard III etc. and
a number Sonnets. Shakespeare, also called Bard of
Avon, an English poet, dramatist, and actor, often called
the English national poet and considered by many to be
the greatest dramatist of all time, occupies a position
unique in world literature.
1.
Antonio, the hero of the play, is wealthy, charming and
is surrounded by loving friends. He is especially kind to
his friend Bassanio, who was in love with a wealthy lady
Portia. Bassanio is in need of money to marry Portia,
TOPIC 10
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
78
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
and requests Antonio for a loan. Unfortunately all
Antonio’s ships at sea, and so he goes to a Jewish money
lender Shylock to borrow money as Bassanio’s behalf,
which almost caused his own near-demise at the hands
of Shylock, when he enter into what Shylock calls a
“merry bond” by which if the bond is not paid back
within the stipulated time, Shylock is to take a pound of
Antonio’s flesh, from any part of his body. Though
Antonio is inexplicably restless and worrisome he has
the charm of a melancholic character, which adds to the
tragic beauty of his character.
TOPIC 11
1.
2.
3.
4
The Renaissance.
A comedy.
No
Yes.
1.
The novel is a genre of fiction, and fiction may be
defined as the art or craft of continuing, through the
written word, represent actions of human life that
instruct or direct or both. A novel is an invented prose
narrative of considerable length and a certain
complexity that deals imaginatively with human
experiences usually through a connected sequence of
events involving a group of persons in a specific setting.
The term novel is the contracted form of the Italian
word novella meaning new.
Early in the 19th century the novel gathered strength in
the fantasies of the Gothic novel and in the critical
insight into the polite society The English historical
novel was established by Sir Walter Scott and Charles
Dickens used his comic genius to explore the ills of
society and the vagaries of human nature. The novelists,
George Orwell and Graham Greene emerged in the
1930s.
The short story is a fictional prose narrative that is
shorter than a novel and deals with only few characters.
The short story is usually concerned with a single effect
conveyed in only one or a few significant episodes or
scenes. Although it was considered uniquely modern
TOPIC12
2.
3.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
79
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
genre, the short prose fiction is nearly as old as language
itself.
TOPIC 13
1.
2.
3.
Orwell’s revulsion against imperialism led not
only to his personal rejection of the bourgeois lifestyle but to a political reorientation as well.
Animal Farm, a political fable based on the story
of the Russian Revolution and its betrayal by
Joseph Stalin.
Yes. The allegoric theme in Animal Farm is of the
power relationship among people in a Totalitarian
society. Human qualities are made animal – like
showing that Totalitarianism brings out the worst
in human relationships. Animal Farm is not only
an allegorical satire as the Soviet Union’s betrayal
of socialism, but is also an attack on prevented
intellectuals in politics, who once they acquire
power become oppressors and betrayers of those
whose welfare they pretend to cherish.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
80
ENG 112 – ENGLISH LITERARY GENRES
UNIT: 3
TUTOR – MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Write briefly on the origin and scope of literature.
Explain briefly the various movements in English Literature.
Define drama and state the characteristic features of the
various kinds of drama.
William Shakespeare’s play The Merchant Of Venice is more a
play of intrigues rather than revenge. Expatiate.
George Orwell’s Animal Farm can be considered as an
allegorical satire. Explain.
CDL, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri
81