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Flashcards by ethgar_172, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by ethgar_172
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| Question | Answer |
| END VII Century BEGINNING VIII Century | Beowulf Beowulf is the longest and greatest surviving Anglo-Saxon poem. The setting of the epic is the sixth century in what is now known as Denmark and southwestern Sweden. The poem opens with a brief genealogy of the Scylding (Dane) royal dynasty, named after a mythic hero, Scyld Scefing, who reached the tribe's shores as a castaway babe on a ship loaded with treasure. Scyld's funeral is a memorable early ritual in the work, but focus soon shifts to the reign of his great-grandson, Hrothgar, whose successful rule is symbolized by a magnificent central mead-hall called Heorot. |
| King Arthur & The Knights of the Round Table XIV Century The Round Table is King Arthur's famed table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his Knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status. The table was first described in 1155 by Wace, who relied on previous depictions of Arthur's fabulous retinue. The symbolism of the Round Table developed over time; by the close of the 12th century it had come to represent the chivalric order associated with Arthur's court, the Knights of the Round Table. | Sir Gawain and The Green Knight It is one of the best known Arthurian stories, and is of a type known as the "beheading game". The Green Knight is interpreted by some as a representation of the Green Man of folklore and by others as an allusion to Christ. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel, it draws on Welsh, Irish and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important poem in the romance genre, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess, and it remains popular to this day in modern English renderings from J. R. R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage and others. |
| Geoffrey Chaucer 1343 - 1400 Author, poet, philosopher,bureaucrat, diplomat. Born in London in 1343, Died October 25th 1400. He fought for England in the Hundred Years' War Known as the father of English vernacular literature. Is the first poet to be buried in Westminster Abbey's Poets Corner. | The Canterbury Tales =collection of over 20 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century, (during the time of the Hundred Years' War). Broken into parts: The Prologue, and then tales told by each character. Each character's tale is started with an introduction to the character's story, followed by their story, and then an epilogue, which wraps the story up. The character's tell the other character's the theme they will be addressing, and then the conclusion they can draw from that theme. Morality is a major theme present in these tales. |
| Christopher Marlowe 1564-1593 Was a playwright, poet and a translator from Britain. Worked and published during the Elizabethan Era. He caused a lot of controversy during and after his lifetime. Is considered to be the most popular playwright of the Elizabethan Era (next to Shakespeare). He was a free thinker and atheist, that did not make life easy for him in the time of Renaissance. He was even arrested and courted for his interests in new technologies and atheism. He worked as a kind of agent for the government and the Queen Elizabeth I. | Dido Queen of Carthage The story of the play focuses on Dido's life and tells us an intense dramatic tale and her fanatical love to Aeneas'. Aeneas' betrayal of her and her eventual suicide on his departure for Italy. Dido may be based on a historical figure. She may be a legendary figure symbolising the founding of Carthage. Dido is also called Elissa. Elissa it seems is the Greek version of the Canaanite name Elishat, which would be Dido's actual name. Elishat was daughter of the King of Tyre, and sister to Pumayyaton (Pygmalion). |
| William Shakespeare 1564-1616 He was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. He was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of around 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and a few other verses, of which the authorship of some is uncertain. Shakespeare's first plays were written in the conventional style of the day. The poetry depends on extended, sometimes elaborate metaphors and conceits, and the language is often rhetorical. | The raw material that Shakespeare appropriated in writing Hamlet is the story of a Danish prince whose uncle murders the prince’s father, marries his mother, and claims the throne. The prince pretends to be feeble-minded to throw his uncle off guard, then manages to kill his uncle in revenge. Shakespeare changed the emphasis of this story entirely, making his Hamlet a philosophically minded prince who delays taking action because his knowledge of his uncle’s crime is so uncertain. Shakespeare went far beyond making uncertainty a personal quirk of Hamlet’s, introducing a number of important ambiguities into the play that even the audience cannot resolve with certainty. |
| John Milton 1608-1679 John Milton was an English poet, regarded by many critics as the "greatest English author", best known for his epic poem ``Paradise lost``. Milton used BLANK VERSE, also known as ``Miltonic verse`` because of its later wide usage in poetry by many poets inspired by Milton. ( characteristics of blank verse). He also introduced some new stylistic elements such as grandiloquence of voice and vision, bombastic verse ,peculiar diction and phraseology. Lack of rhyme is also very much present .Milton regarded this as his personal freedom-in contrast with rigid heroic couplet- examples of these in presented extracts. | This is one of the most famous Milton`s works- blank verse epic poem, which Milton composed and dictated as a blind man to his assistants. It has been argued that the poem reflects his own political despair at the failure of Revolution, but also ultimately believes in optimism and human potential. Milton often presents England, as an nation akin to the Old Testament Israel, and shows its leader, Oliver Cromwell, as a latter-day Moses. This is also a poem about civil war –Satan raises war in Heaven by leading the third of the angels against God- like the English people had the courage to execute King Charles. |
| Samuel Johnson 1709-1784 Was a poet, writer, lexicographer, and biographer. He was described as "the best-read man" most of his education came from readings. Johnson grew up in a bookstore his father owned. Attended Lichfield Grammar School where he learned Latin & Greek. Johnson excelled in his studies and was promoted to advance education. “What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.” | The Dictionary contains illustrative quotations after the definitions showing the words in action. Johnson used definitions and examples of words used by the finest authors like; Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden, and Pope. The Dictionary was Johnson's most personal work. He also included several entries of; History, Politics, Biology, Tables of Logarithm and Medicine. The Dictionary was completed on 1755. |
| William Blake 1757-1827 William Blake was an English poet, printer print maker. He was head of old England romantic poems who was not recognized during his lifetime for his work it was right before he passed away that he had gotten a small fan base. His prophetic poetry has been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". | The Tyger The poem begins with the speaker asking a fearsome tiger what kind of divine being could have created it: “What immortal hand or eye/ Could frame they fearful symmetry?” Each subsequent stanza contains further questions, all of which refine this first one. From what part of the cosmos could the tiger’s fiery eyes have come, and who would have dared to handle that fire? What sort of physical presence, and what kind of dark craftsmanship, would have been required to “twist the sinews” of the tiger’s heart? The speaker wonders how, once that horrible heart “began to beat,” its creator would have had the courage to continue the job. |
| Lord Byron 1770-1850 Lord Byron, was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement. Among Byron's best-known works are the lengthy narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage and the short lyric She Walks in Beauty. He is regarded as one of the greatest British poets and remains widely read and influential. Love for cousin Margret inspired him to start poetry. One of the leaders of poetic revolution who created the Romantic Hero "Byronic Hero" defiant, melancholy, haunted by secret guilt some say it was a reflection of him. | This poem was written about his cousin, one of his many love affairs. Stanza One Byron is talking about how everything dims compared to his cousins beauty. The beauty of her eyes over powers heaven or any gorgeous day. Stanza Two If one small thing was changed about her, like the shade of her hair, she wouldn't be the perfection she is. Also, it is saying that her thoughts are lucky to be inside her pure mind. Stanza Three He is talking about her smile, how perfect it is on her face. Then, he is saying that she is completely innocent. |
| Charles John Huffam Dickens 1812-1870 Charles Dickens was an English writer and Social critic. Following his father’s imprisonment, Charles Dickens was forced to leave school to work at a boot-blacking factory.It was the best he could do to help support his family. He felt abandoned and betrayed by the adults who were supposed to take care of him. These sentiments became a recurring theme in his writing. Much to his relief, Dickens was permitted to go back to school when his father received a family inheritance and used it to pay off his debts. | Oliver Twist One of the main themes in this book is Poverty. Dickens really enlarges this theme throughout the book. -Another theme would be crime. Novels about crime were very popular at that time. -Also, the most important theme in this book would be mistaken identity. One of the messages Dickens writes about is social injustice. Oliver's workshop is one of the examples of social injustice because Oliver and other orphans are treated poorly. They dont have enoough food to grow and some of them are very unhealthy and dirty. Mr. Bumble, the one incharge of the workhouse in which Oliver was raised, treats a lot of the orphans badly. |
| Charles Lutwidge Dodgson 1832-1898 Lewis Carroll was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman, and photographer. Photographed children in every possible costume and situation, ultimately making nude studies of them. Just before his 66th birthday, Lewis Carroll caught a severe case of influenza, which led to pneumonia , and he died on January 14, 1898. Known for using: literary nonsense, word play, fantasy, and logic Classics: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking-Glass Poems: The Hunting of the Snark Jabberwocky | Carroll plays with linguistic conventions in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, making use of puns and playing on multiple meanings of words throughout the text. Carroll invents words and expressions and develops new meanings for words. Alice’s exclamation “Curious and curiouser!” suggests that both her surroundings and the language she uses to describe them expand beyond expectation and convention. Anything is possible in Wonderland, and Carroll’s manipulation of language reflects this sense of unlimited possibility. Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. |
| William Morris 1834-1896 Known for creating wallpaper and textile designs. His themes and inpiration included medievalism and nature and his designs are all old fashioned and traditional. His target market were superior wealthy, upper class people in the 1860's Morris & Co 1861 The Arts and Crafts Movement he led in England spread worldwide | Strawberry Thief is one of William Morris' well known textile designs.He succeeded in creating this piece on his second attempt in 1881. It has a repeating pattern and is the subject of thrushes that Morris found stealing fruit in his garden. It was made on one of Morris & Co's most expensive cottons but the price did not put any customers off. It was created for curtains or loose covers on furniture. |
| END OF XIX CENTURY Robert Louis Stevenson 1850-1894 He worked on several genres, he wrote novels, short stories, poetry, travel writings, as well as plays, biography and he also composed music for flageolet. Stevenson traveled often, and his global wanderings lent themselves well to his brand of fiction. Stevenson developed a desire to write early in life, having no interest in the family business of lighthouse engineering. He was often abroad, usually for health reasons, and his journeys led to some of his early literary works. | The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde This story is about the lawyer, John Utterson who investigates the strange occurrence between his friend Dr. Jekyll and the evil, Edward Hyde. This book is one of his best sellers and he wrote this book in six weeks which is really a short period to write a book. |
| Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde 1854-1900 Wilde established himself as a leading proponent of the aesthetic movement, a theory of art and literature that emphasized the pursuit of beauty for its own sake, rather than to promote any political or social viewpoint. Traveled through most of England to promote aestheticism, and toured the US to spread the movement. Wrote stories, poems, and plays that had to deal with the physical beauty of things, materialism, and his thoughts on pleasure. Was presumed to be homosexual by many sources, stated to have had an intimate relationship with Alfred Douglas. | Oscar Wilde’s sole novel The Picture of Dorian Gray remains to this day a classic example of Gothic horror. While initially rejected by a morally-rigid Victorian England, the novel has lived on and been elevated so that it, as well as Oscar Wilde himself, have become mainstays of the English canon. We celebrate Wilde and his work, and mourn the injustices he suffered in his life. While many called this novel obscene, the opposite is true. As Wilde put it, while the work presented moral issues it never demonstrated a morality itself. Instead, Wilde's goal was to depict and not to judge. |
| Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle KStJ 1859-1930 He was a Scottish writer and physician, most noted for his fictional stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. He is also known for writing the fictional adventures of a second character he invented, Professor Challenger, and for popularising the mystery of the Mary Celeste. He was a prolific writer whose other works include fantasy and science fiction stories, plays, romances, poetry, non-fiction and historical novels. | Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh Medical School. A London-based "consulting detective" whose abilities border on the fantastic, Holmes is known for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to adopt almost any disguise and his use of forensic science to solve difficult cases. Holmes, who first appeared in print in 1887, was featured in four novels and 56 short stories. |
| Virginia Woolf 1882-1941 First professional writing was for the Times Literary Supplement. First published novel was The Voyage Out (1915).Considered one of the leading modernists and innovator of the English language. She played with the psychological and emotional motives of her characters. Had a reputation as an anti-Semite, non-Christian, and both she and her husband feared the oncoming fascism of the 1930s. | Orlando (1928) Parodic account of Virginia's homosexual affair with Vita Sackville-West. Follows a nobleman as he lives through three centuries without aging, as well as changing gender Considered by Vita's son Nigel Nicholson to be "the longest and most charming love letter in literature." The book describes the adventures of a poet who changes gender from man to woman as they travel through time and meets the key figures of English literary history. Considered a feminist classic, the book has been written about extensively by scholars of women's writing and gender and transgender studies. |
| James Augustine Aloysius Joyce 1882-1941 James Joyce has been praised as innovative, influential, and brilliant, among other things. Although he traveled a lot after college, his novels did not leave the setting of Dublin. James says this is because “For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal.” He believes that understanding this one particular place gives him a connection to those around the world because many struggles and joys of life are universal. | Ulysses chronicles the peripatetic appointments and encounters of Leopold Bloom in Dublin in the course of an ordinary day, 16 June 1904. Ulysses is the Latinised name of Odysseus, the hero of Homer's epic poem Odyssey, and the novel establishes a series of parallels between its characters and events and those of the poem . Ulysses is approximately 265,000 words in length, uses a lexicon of 30,030 words (including proper names, plurals and various verb tenses), and is divided into eighteen episodes. Since publication, the book has attracted controversy and scrutiny, ranging from early obscenity trials to protracted textual "Joyce Wars". |
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