english literature classics

english literature classics

Revisiting English Literature Classics: A Comprehensive Analysis

1. Introduction to English Literature Classics

Further, she discusses the transformation, in translation, of literary classics into model texts and possible contradictions between these model texts and the cultural models of students who read them today. Students’ cultural models can be assumed to be different if they are learning English in order to break away from the position of the hegemonized and attain the privilege of speaking through the dominant culture, on the one hand, or whether they are learning the language to increase their future power to communicate in a global scenario always on the lookout for new models. Another question she raises is whether those classic works are of interest to her students, at the same time indicating a direction for pedagogical research in the area.

Several aspects of teaching English literature in an English as a second/foreign language context have drawn more or less attention in the literature. Among those is the issue of which works, among the classics, should be included in the syllabus of Literature and Language Teaching Methodology courses and why. Kramsch claims that the British or American literary canon continues to be the dominant reference point because the classics of English literature are seen as model texts that need to be taught and are respected as authorities for knowledge and history.

2. Key Themes and Motifs in English Literature Classics

B) Odyssey – The Odyssey, also attributed to Homer and consisting of 24 books, tells the stories of Odysseus, a hero of the Trojan War who is trying to get back home from Troy to Ithaca but has great difficulty in doing so. While the son Telemachus and loyal wife Penelope anxiously await his return, the obstacles standing in Odysseus’ path seem insurmountable. In this lengthy poem, the hero, since he is favored by the gods, could live happily in peace and abundance with his kin mingling with the gods themselves when he has luck. It is a poem about Greek national identity and the identification of an individual with his nation. The journey of Telemachus around the country is similar to the journey of Odysseus around the Mediterranean, so this hero’s journey is summed up in the long journey back home. Both mythical kings of great valor and naval trade and commerce are central to this Odyssey.

A) Iliad – Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it features a large cast of well-known characters such as Achilles, Hector, Paris, and Agamemnon. The Iliad is paired with the Odyssey as one of the two epic poems that are attributed to Homer. It is divided into 24 books and was used in ancient Greece as a school book. Both gods as well as legendary human characters participated in the great events. In these epic poems, a man can make a name for himself in the battlefield, in the audience chamber, and by fighting for his woman. Themes explored in the Iliad include honor, integrity, status, reputation, kinship, grief, disgrace, and powerlessness.

3. Influential Authors and Their Impact on English Literature

The Bible. Beginning with the “official” English language translated Bible completed by 1611, it is this work which has had the single greatest influence over English literature. Forget air travel, moon landings, computers, Colonel Sanders and Star Trek. The Bible is English’s most important contribution to civilization, and English literature’s crowning achievement. The King James Bible was authorized to provide a holy and spiritual sound standard English edition, which was to be read in churches and so set a standard of English and godliness. Writer, speaker or hilarious back to- to America prohibit a shot made during the nineteenth century derived the foundation of its morality and language from the King James. In addition, it provided great material for writers, from polemicist to lyricist, through its epic battles between the Christian minority and the Roman Empire or the Jewish Warlord and the Roman legions. Allusions to biblical lore in literature are widespread, deep, impressive, and manifold, and a lexical presence in English of sixty to seventy percent.

John Milton, George Eliot, Voltaire, Agatha Christie, Goethe, Denise Levertov. What do these people have in common? They are all authors who had a significant impact or influence over English literature. Many are still read and studied today, while others only lurk somewhere in literary history. A great piece of literature does much to the English language. Whether it is coining brand new words or arranging current ones in new fashions, literature shapes our daily speech patterns. Without literature, there would be no grammar, no standard dialect, and vocabulary would be limited to names of everyday objects. In earlier days, “kept” varieties of English were usually not the standard, but ordinary plebeian language of everyday life; it was in literature that the standard was formed. Reading the great classic authors and knowing the stories, and all the works of art, film, fine bits of wit and humor that sprang forth from them assists us in deciphering a flow of constant allusions and references.

4. Reception and Legacy of English Literature Classics

The second part of our inquiry, adaptation of the eighteenth-century novel into diverse formats, is more of a straightforward exercise than the creation of the historical and biographical context we need. In this instance, we can simply read the biographical accounts and contemporaneous satirical depictions of the novels and consider the treatises that psychoanalyze their female characters. These are relatively straightforward and readily accomplished tasks. But we face difficult constraints in actually doing this, as we must consult a vast number of tremors, texts, and cultural documents consisting of little more than titles, authors’ names, dates, typeface, form, and exiguous hyperbolic blurbs.

Victorian poets placed older poetry into a religious and moral context, and they, in turn, were considered for the clarity and healthfulness of their poetry. Indeed, Tennyson has numerous quotations from earlier works on which he based post-Victorian plays. In the Old Testament, at once the most popular and the least considered section of the Bible, there are numerous lines that formed the basis for Tennyson’s lady characters. Even Chaucer was usually not insensible of the views of an earlier author; he cited Boccaccio repeatedly, and some of the editing laws of the time permitted him to preserve his work and thus deliver enocous models to later generations that would validate their preferences by showing that they were widely praised in the generation that possessed fewer examples of good writerly endeavor.

i) Donning of the status of a literary classic by a work of literature in due course of time. ii) Adaptation of an English literature classic into diverse literary genres and media formats. iii) Critical reception of an English literature classic.

The reception and legacy of English literature classics occur in many key ways, which can be conveniently analyzed under three important heads:

5. Conclusion: The Enduring Significance of English Literature Classics

In this essay, which is no more nor less than an exorcism of the ghost of classic literature past by appreciating them and honoring the enduring tone and inspiration of classic English literary works, we have built together the scaffolding of the literary works under appreciation and admiration, just so we can live behind the manuscript and prepare for a spectacle the distinguished globe of the literary world, which has been a replica of classic creativity and joy and the most enduring and significant of classic dramatists and poets. This scaffold proceeds with the assumption that the literary works under appreciation do have and will continue to enjoy a quality to which readers in this literature possess the secret or the rather esoteric key. These readers who have always remained spellbound by their awe-inspiring beauty and noble subject matters are verily the undersigned. And though the essays of this nature may only serve a vague desire for order, they will also still possess a classical authority. The pursuit of this authority and high art, without our presuming literature and individuals are one, is undoubtedly our humble task enterprise.

The scope of English literature is like an unbelievable vastness. It is most impossible to confine or limit it in this single piece of scholarly endeavor. It is also as wide, generous, and truly global in its reach as the old British Empire was worldwide and never resting in the rough long march to political dominion. It is marked everywhere by contradictions and powerful tensions. But behind its disputes and wrangles, the study of English literature has proved time and time again that the enduring human significance of some of the most classic and canonical works it contains is not in doubt.