Brief Summary
This video provides a comprehensive overview of literary movements, aiming to secure 20+ marks in exams. It covers various periods from the Renaissance to Post-Modernism, detailing movements, key figures, and their works. The lecture emphasizes understanding the context, key features, and significance of each movement, ensuring viewers can tackle related questions effectively.
- Covers literary movements from the Renaissance to Post-Modernism.
- Highlights key figures, their works, and the characteristics of each movement.
- Aims to provide a comprehensive understanding to secure high marks in exams.
Intro
The lecture is about to begin, focusing on literary movements and their significance. The session aims to help viewers secure at least 20 marks in their exams. The instructor assures that this session will be unique and comprehensive, covering all essential details and facts related to literary movements. The lecture will cover a wide range of literary movements, providing a detailed understanding of each.
Renaissance Age: Movements and Key Aspects
The Renaissance age is broken down into several movements, including Scottish Chaucerians, University Wits, Comedies of Humors, Masques, Sons of Ben, Metaphysical Poets, and Cavalier Poets. The instructor plans to cover each movement thoroughly to ensure no detail is missed. Many students may not be aware of the numerous movements within the Renaissance age, but this session aims to provide clarity and understanding.
Scottish Chaucerians: 15th-Century Poets Inspired by Chaucer
The Scottish Chaucerians were a group of 15th-century Scottish poets deeply inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer, the Father of English Literature. They adopted his themes, poetic forms like rhyme royal, and narrative techniques. Key features of this movement include the imitation of Chaucer, the use of rhyme royal stanzas, a blend of courtly and moral allegory, and the dream vision form. Prominent members include James I of Scotland, Robert Henryson, William Dunbar, Gavin Douglas, and Blind Harry.
Scottish Chaucerians: Names and Influence
The Scottish Chaucerian movement was also known as the "Poets of the 15th Century" and "Imitators of Chaucer," often called "Makars" (poets in Scotland). Chaucer's birth was between 1340 and 1400, and he is known as the Father of English Literature and Father of English Poetry. Chaucer died on October 25, 1400, under mysterious circumstances, with theories ranging from murder by political enemies to death by stroke, plague, or poison.
Scottish Chaucerians: 15th Century Era
The 15th century was an unproductive period due to Chaucer's death and the War of the Roses. However, positive developments included the invention of the printing press in 1450 by Gutenberg and its introduction to England in 1477 by Caxton, who published Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales." Scottish writers imitated Chaucer by adopting allegorical works, eclogues, pastoral poetry, and satirical descriptions. They also used dream visions, moral fables, and rhyme royal.
Scottish Chaucerians: James I of Scotland
James I of Scotland, a member of the Scottish Chaucerians, is known for his work "The Kingis Quair" (The King's Book), a love allegory and semi-autobiographical work dedicated to Lady Jane Beaufort. The poem uses rhyme royal (ababbcc) and was influenced by Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde." Robert Henryson, another member, is considered the most intellectual of the Scottish Chaucerians and wrote "The Testament of Cresseid," a feminist sequel to Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde."
Scottish Chaucerians: William Dunbar and Gavin Douglas
William Dunbar, considered the greatest Scottish poet before Robert Burns, served in the court of James IV. His key work is "Lament for the Makaris." Gavin Douglas, a clergyman, poet, and translator, is known for his translation of Virgil's "Aeneid" into Scots. The significance of the Scottish Chaucerian movement lies in its role as a bridge between medieval and Renaissance literature in Scotland, helping to elevate the status of Scots as a literary language.
English Chaucerians: Imitators in England
English Chaucerians were writers in England who admired and imitated Chaucer, similar to the Scottish Chaucerians in Scotland. Key members include Thomas Hoccleve, John Lydgate, and Stephen Hawes. Thomas Hoccleve is known for "The Regiment of Princes," based on Chaucer's "Confessio Amantis."
University Wits: Shaping English Renaissance Drama
The University Wits were scholars and dramatists from Oxford and Cambridge who significantly shaped English Renaissance drama. They are also known as the "Teachers of Shakespeare." Key members include Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Nashe, Robert Greene (from Cambridge), John Lyly, Thomas Lodge, and George Peele (from Oxford), with Thomas Kyd as an exception, not from either university.
University Wits: Key Figures and Works
The University Wits were active in the late 16th century, particularly during the 1580s and 1590s. Christopher Marlowe introduced blank verse, and Ben Jonson referred to his lines as "mighty lines." Marlowe's notable works include "Tamburlaine the Great," "Doctor Faustus," "The Jew of Malta," and "Edward II." Robert Greene, a prose writer, playwright, and poet, famously criticized Shakespeare, calling him an "upstart crow."
University Wits: Robert Green and Key Features
Robert Greene criticized William Shakespeare, accusing him of stealing ideas and imitating university-educated playwrights. Key features of the University Wits' works include satire, classical allusions, complex language, long, swelling speeches, experimentation with form, playful wit, and exploration of human emotions.
University Wits: John Lyly and Thomas Kyd
John Lyly is known for euphuistic prose and court comedies, including "Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit" and "Euphues and His England." Thomas Kyd, not affiliated with Oxford or Cambridge, is famous for "The Spanish Tragedy," a major influence on Shakespeare's "Hamlet."
Comedy of Humors: Balancing Bodily Fluids for Laughter
Comedy of Humors, popularized by Ben Jonson, is based on the medical theory that bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) determine personality. Characters exhibit dominant traits based on these fluids, creating comedic situations. Ben Jonson used this theory to create satirical characters reflecting societal norms and human follies.
Comedy of Humors: Key Features and Playwrights
Key features of Comedy of Humors include character-driven comedy, satirical tones, realistic urban settings, and witty language. Ben Jonson's notable works in this genre include "Every Man in His Humour," "Every Man Out of His Humour," "Volpone," "The Alchemist," and "Epicoene, or the Silent Woman." Other playwrights in this genre include George Chapman, John Marston, Thomas Dekker, and Thomas Middleton.
Comedy of Humors: Characteristics and Key Elements
Key characteristics of Comedy of Humors include intense realism, didactic and satirical moralism, wit, and adherence to the three classical unities. While early comic works used elements of Comedy of Humors, Ben Jonson popularized the genre. Key elements include character-driven comedy, satirical tone, realistic urban setting, and witty language.
The Masque: Elaborate Court Entertainment
The Masque was an elaborate court entertainment form from the late 16th to mid-17th century, flourishing during the Jacobean and Caroline eras under James I and Charles I. It combined poetry, music, dance, acting, and elaborate spectacle, performed by nobles and royalty for royal occasions like weddings, visits, and festivals.
The Masque: Key Features and Participants
Key features of the Masque include mythological and allegorical themes, characters personifying virtues, and plots resolving with order triumphing over chaos. It also featured music, dance, and limited audiences of royalty and aristocrats. Participants included professional actors, musicians, Queen Anne of Denmark, and Charles I of England.
The Masque: Origin and Characteristics
The Masque originated in Italy and flourished in England, especially during the reign of James I. Key characteristics included elaborate costumes, stage designs by Inigo Jones, music, dance, poetry, drama, and audience participation. Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones collaborated on many masques, with Jones designing the stages.
The Masque: Ben Johnson and John Milton
Ben Jonson's notable masques include "The Masque of Blackness," "The Masque of Beauty," "Oberon, the Fairy Prince," and "The Masque of Queens." John Milton's "Comus" is a significant masque known for its Platonic virtue and classical imagery.
Sons of Ben: Followers of Ben Jonson
The Sons of Ben were a group of Royalist poets and playwrights who admired, emulated, and followed Ben Jonson. They gathered in taverns like the Apollo Room at the Devil Tavern in London, where Jonson himself held court. The term refers to both Jonson's ideology and his disciples.
Sons of Ben: Characteristics and Members
The characteristics of the Sons of Ben include classical influences, emphasis on form and structure, wit, urbanity, realism, and satire. Key members include Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Sir John Suckling, and Thomas Carew. Robert Herrick is considered the most famous disciple in poetry.
Metaphysical Poets: Blending Intellect and Emotion
Metaphysical Poets, active in the late 16th to mid-17th century, wrote deep, thoughtful, and complex poetry, blending emotion with intellect. They used unusual comparisons known as conceits to express love, religion, and philosophy. The term "metaphysical" was first used critically by John Dryden and later popularized by Dr. Samuel Johnson.
Metaphysical Poets: Key Features and Figures
Key features of Metaphysical poetry include unusual comparisons (conceits), platonic love themes, colloquial language, paradox, irony, and excessive use of literary devices. The poets, educated at Oxford University, often wrote concise poems. Key figures include John Donne (considered the Father of Metaphysical Poetry), George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, Henry Vaughan, Richard Crashaw, and Abraham Cowley.
Metaphysical Poets: John Donne and Key Traits
John Donne, the Father of Metaphysical Poetry, combined sensuality and spirituality in his works. Key traits of Metaphysical poetry include platonic love, colloquial language, paradox, irony, and conceits. The term "metaphysical" combines "meta" (beyond) and "physical" (physical), indicating a focus beyond the physical world.
Cavalier Poets: Celebrating Courtly Life and Loyalty
Cavalier Poets, active in the mid-17th century during the reign of Charles I, were English lyric poets who supported the king during the English Civil War. They celebrated courtly life, honor, loyalty, love, and pleasure, writing in a graceful, witty, and polished style. Unlike Metaphysical Poets, they avoided deep philosophical complexity, favoring clarity and smooth lyricism.
Cavalier Poets: Key Features and Members
Key features of Cavalier poetry include Royalist ideology, loyalty to Charles I, carpe diem themes, elegance, and classical influences. Key members include Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Sir John Suckling, and Thomas Carew. Robert Herrick's "Hesperides" is a notable work, and Richard Lovelace is known for poems written from prison, such as "To Althea, from Prison."
Enlightenment Age: Commedia dell'Arte and Beyond
The Enlightenment Age includes movements like Commedia dell'Arte, Kit-Cat Club, Scriblerus Club, Graveyard Poets, and Transitional Poets. Commedia dell'Arte, originating in Italy, is a form of improvised masked theater featuring professional comedians known for their spontaneity.
Commedia dell'Arte: Professional Comedy and Key Features
Commedia dell'Arte, also known as "Comedy of the Profession" or "Comedy of the Art," features professional comedians who are spontaneous and skilled in improvisation. Key features include improvised acting, stock characters, masked performers (except for young lovers), and performances in streets and public squares.
Commedia dell'Arte: Key Elements and Characters
Key elements of Commedia dell'Arte include physical comedy (slapstick), stock characters (masters, lovers, and servants), and the use of masks to define character identities. The movement originated in Italy and spread across Europe.
Kit-Cat Club: Political and Literary Gatherings
The Kit-Cat Club was an informal gathering of Whig politicians, writers, poets, and intellectuals in London for social, political, and literary conversations. The club took its name from pastry cook Christopher Catling, nicknamed Kit Kat, whose mutton pies were popular.
Kit-Cat Club: Key Features and Members
Key features of the Kit-Cat Club included its Whig political orientation, support for Augustan literature, and patronage of writers and artists. Key members included Joseph Addison, Richard Steele, William Congreve, and John Vanbrugh. Richard Steele founded "The Tatler," and Addison and Steele contributed to "The Spectator."
Scriblerus Club: Satirizing False Scholars
The Scriblerus Club, active from 1714 to 1745, was a satirical literary group in England that mocked fake scholars and bad books. They created a fictional character, Martinus Scriblerus, to satirize these targets. Key members included Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, John Arbuthnot, and John Gay.
Scriblerus Club: Key Works and Targets
Key works associated with the Scriblerus Club include Pope's "The Dunciad" and "An Essay on Criticism," which targeted ignorant critics. Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" and "A Modest Proposal" also reflect the club's satirical aims.
Graveyard Poets: Meditations on Death and Mortality
Graveyard Poets, active in the early to mid-18th century, focused on themes of death, mortality, and the afterlife. Also known as "Churchyard Poets," "Il Penseroso Poets," and "Tombstone Poets," they acted as a transition between the Augustan and Romantic ages.
Graveyard Poets: Themes and Key Figures
The themes of Graveyard Poets include death, melancholy, and the supernatural. Key figures include Thomas Gray, Edward Young, Robert Blair, and James Hervey. Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is a famous poem from this movement.
Transitional Poets: Bridging the Augustan and Romantic Eras
Transitional Poets, active in the mid-to-late 18th century, bridged the gap between the Augustan Age and Romanticism. They blended Augustan clarity with Romantic emotion, focusing on nature and melancholy. Key figures include Thomas Gray, William Cowper, and James Thomson.
Romantic Era: Lake Poets and Their Focus on Nature
The Romantic Era includes movements like Lake Poets, Satanic School of Poetry, and Cockney School of Poetry. The Lake Poets, active in the early 19th century, lived and wrote in the Lake District of Northwest England. They focused on nature, personal feelings, imagination, and childhood.
Romantic Era: Lake Poets and Their Key Members
Key members of the Lake Poets include William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey. Other associated members include Dorothy Wordsworth, Thomas De Quincey, and Charles Lamb. The term "Lake Poets" was coined by Francis Jeffrey in the "Edinburgh Review," criticizing their focus on personal feelings.
Romantic Era: Satanic School of Poetry and Lord Byron
The Satanic School of Poetry was a term coined by Robert Southey to criticize Lord Byron and other poets he deemed morally dangerous, rebellious, and anti-Christian. Lord Byron, known for his Byronic heroes, was a central figure.
Romantic Era: Cockney School of Poetry and Its Critics
The Cockney School of Poetry referred to a group of London-based lower-middle-class Romantic poets. The term was used mockingly by "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine," criticizing their social class, politics, and poetic style. Key members included Leigh Hunt, John Keats, and William Hazlitt.
Romantic Era: Blackwood's Magazine and Its Targets
Blackwood's Magazine, a conservative journal, was critical of the Cockney School of Poetry. John Gibson Lockhart, a key member of the magazine, used derogatory terms to describe Leigh Hunt and criticized Keats' "Endymion."
Romantic Era: Dark Romanticism and Its Themes
Dark Romanticism, emerging in America in the mid-19th century, focused on the dark side of human nature, including sin, guilt, madness, and death. It featured gothic elements and a belief in the power of evil. Key figures include Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickinson.
Romantic Era: Transcendentalism and Its Key Figures
Transcendentalism, also emerging in America, emphasized the goodness of human nature, self-reliance, intuition, and spiritual truth beyond material reality. Key figures include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and Walt Whitman.
Victorian Era: Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Its Aims
The Victorian Era includes movements like the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Aestheticism, and Fire Side Poets. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded in 1848, aimed to reform art and literature by returning to the spirituality, detail, and simplicity of art before Raphael.
Victorian Era: Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Key Members
Key members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood include Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, and John Everett Millais. Christina Rossetti and William Morris were also associated with the movement. The Pre-Raphaelites sought to emulate the art and literature of the pre-Raphael era, emphasizing beauty, love, and spirituality.
Victorian Era: Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and Key Works
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was both a painter and a poet. Christina Rossetti, his sister, is known for her poem "Goblin Market." The Pre-Raphaelite movement is also known as the "Bad Boys of Victorian Britain."
Victorian Era: Aestheticism and Its Core Values
Aestheticism, a movement in Victorian England, believed in "Art for Art's Sake," emphasizing beauty and pleasure over moral or political correctness. It rejected the moral seriousness of Victorian literature and the Industrial Age, focusing on sensory pleasure and refined taste.
Victorian Era: Aestheticism and Key Figures
Key figures of Aestheticism include Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. Walter Pater, a philosopher and critic, emphasized "Art for Art's Sake" and aestheticism. Oscar Wilde's notable works include "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and "The Importance of Being Earnest."
Victorian Era: Aestheticism and Key Elements
The term "Aestheticism" was coined by Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten. Key elements include intense realism, didactic and satirical moralism, and adherence to the three unities.
Victorian Era: Fire Side Poets and Their Themes
Fire Side Poets, also called School Room Poets, were popular American poets known for writing moral, sentimental, and patriotic poetry suitable for family reading. They promoted family values, faith, and nature.
Victorian Era: Fire Side Poets and Key Members
Key members of the Fire Side Poets include Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, and William Cullen Bryant. Their poems were commonly memorized and recited in schoolrooms and homes.
Victorian Era: Oxford Movement and Its Aims
The Oxford Movement, also known as the Tractarian Movement, was a religious revival within the Church of England aiming to restore Catholic traditions and rituals to Anglicanism. It was led by Oxford University students and involved writing tracts and pamphlets to promote religious awareness.
Victorian Era: Oxford Movement and Key Figures
Key figures in the Oxford Movement include John Henry Newman, Edward Bouverie Pusey, and John Keble. The movement sought to blend spiritual devotion with literary expression.
Victorian Era: Realism and Its Focus on Everyday Life
Realism, a 19th-century literary movement, focused on the accurate depiction of everyday life and ordinary experiences without romantic idealization. It emphasized character over plot and used vernacular language.
Victorian Era: Realism and Key Figures
Key figures in Realism include Honoré de Balzac, Gustave Flaubert, and Stendhal (France); Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russia); George Eliot, Charles Dickens, and William Makepeace Thackeray (England); and William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James (America).
Victorian Era: Realism and Key Elements
Realism rejects Romanticism and focuses on everyday chores. Key elements include intense realism, didactic and satirical moralism, and adherence to the three unities.
Victorian Era: Impressionism and Its Focus on Subjective Experience
Impressionism, emerging in France alongside Impressionist painting, seeks to capture momentary sensory impressions rather than objective accounts. It focuses on subjective experiences, fragmented perceptions, and ambiguous meanings.
Victorian Era: Impressionism and Key Elements
Key elements of Impressionism include visible brush strokes, unblended colors, natural light, and an unfinished look. It emphasizes the sensory experience over objective reality.
Modern Era: Rhymers' Club and Its Aims
The Rhymers' Club was a small group of London-based poets formed in 1890. It was an informal gathering of young, often decadent and symbolist poets who met to read, write, and publish poetry together.
Modern Era: Rhymers' Club and Key Members
Key members of the Rhymers' Club include W.B. Yeats and Ernest Rhys. The club aimed to share and discuss poetry, promote artistic refinement, and oppose Victorian moralism.
Modern Era: Irish Dramatic Movement and Its Goals
The Irish Dramatic Movement aimed to revive Irish culture, promote Irish drama, and fight British cultural influence. It sought to promote national identity and pride, with the Abbey Theatre as its center.
Modern Era: Irish Dramatic Movement and Key Figures
Key figures in the Irish Dramatic Movement include W.B. Yeats, Lady Augusta Gregory, and J.M. Synge. The movement aimed to showcase real Irish life, especially rural life, on stage.
Modern Era: Auden Group and Its Left-Wing Politics
The Auden Group, active from 1930 to the early 1940s, was a group of young British poets and writers influenced by left-wing politics, Marxism, and Freudian concepts. They reacted against Victorian sentimentality and Georgian poetry, dealing with political, social, and psychological issues.
Modern Era: Auden Group and Key Members
Key members of the Auden Group include W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender, C. Day-Lewis, and Louis MacNeice. W.H. Auden was a central and influential figure in the group.
Modern Era: Georgian Poets and Their Focus on Nature
Georgian Poets, active from 1910 to 1936, were British poets who published their works during the reign of King George V. They aimed to make poetry more accessible, focusing on nature and rural life.
Modern Era: Harlem Renaissance and Its Celebration of Black Identity
The Harlem Renaissance, a major African American cultural and literary movement, celebrated Black identity, heritage, and artistic expression. It was centered in Harlem, New York City, and flourished after World War I.
Modern Era: Harlem Renaissance and Key Figures
Key figures in the Harlem Renaissance include Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, and Claude McKay. The movement focused on racial identity, social injustice, and African roots.
Modern Era: War Poets and Their Realistic Portrayal of War
War Poets, mostly British, wrote about World War I, capturing the horrors and realities of war. They rejected glorified and patriotic war poetry, using vivid imagery and a bitter tone.
Modern Era: War Poets and Key Members
Key members of the War Poets include Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Rupert Brooke. Their works often contrasted early patriotic idealism with later disillusionment and despair.
Modern Era: Lost Generation and Its Disillusionment
The Lost Generation refers to a group of American and European writers who came of age during or just after World War I. They expressed disillusionment, aimlessness, and moral loss experienced by their generation.
Modern Era: Lost Generation and Key Figures
Key figures of the Lost Generation include Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein. Their works often reflected a sense of moral loss and disillusionment.
Modern Era: Bloomsbury Group and Its Progressive Ideas
The Bloomsbury Group was an informal circle of English writers, intellectuals, and artists who lived and worked in or around Bloomsbury, London. They were known for their progressive ideas, literature, art, and feminism.
Modern Era: Bloomsbury Group and Key Members
Key members of the Bloomsbury Group include Leonard Woolf and Virginia Woolf. Virginia Woolf is a significant figure in literature, known for her works such as "Mrs. Dalloway" and "To the Lighthouse."
Post-Modern Era: Existentialism and Its Focus on Individual Existence
Existentialism, appearing in the 20th century, emphasizes individual existence, freedom, and choice. It explores the meaning or lack of meaning in life and the chaotic nature of the universe.
Post-Modern Era: Existentialism and Key Figures
Key figures in Existentialism include Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Albert Camus. Their works often portray characters confronting feelings of alienation and absurdity.
Post-Modern Era: Angry Young Men Movement and Its Rebellion
The Angry Young Men Movement, originating from John Osborne's "Look Back in Anger," was a label for rebellious post-war British writers who challenged the status quo. They focused on class conflict
