Literary Forms, Genres, and Medieval Literary Traditions
Literary Language and Genres: Forms and Structures
The Artistic Use of Language: Oral and Written
Literary language encompasses both oral and written forms, employing distinct methods for presenting text.
Prose vs. Verse: Fundamental Textual Structures
Prose: Continuous Flow and Syntactic Repetition
- Continuous Form: Text flows without line breaks based on metrical patterns.
- Syntactic Repetition: Ideas are often reinforced through repeated syntactic structures.
- Closeness to Spoken Language: Generally considered
Literary Devices & Genres: Definitions and Examples
Understanding Literary Devices and Genres
Common Literary Devices
- Alliteration: Combines certain sounds repeatedly along a line.
- Autology: Explanation of thinking using the same thinking.
- Anaphora: Repeats one or more words at the beginning of each verse.
- Anadiplosis: Repeats the word that ended a verse at the beginning of the next.
- Asyndeton: Suppression of conjunctions or links.
- Antithesis: Contrasts two opposite ideas or thoughts.
- Apostrophe: An exclamation or question addressed with vehemence to an
Understanding Keats’s La Belle Dame sans Merci
John Keats’s “La Belle Dame sans Merci”
John Keats: A Romantic Poet’s Life
John Keats (1795–1821) was a prominent English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets and also part of The Cockney School, alongside Leigh Hunt. The early deaths of his father, mother, and brother gave him a premonition of his own early demise from tuberculosis. This profound awareness led to a heightened interest in literature as an escape from the realities and tragedies
Read MoreBritish Society Transformed: Women, Reformation, and Enlightenment
Women’s Changing Role in Post-War Britain (1945-1970s)
After the Second World War, Britain underwent a significant social and cultural transformation. The role of women changed dramatically, influenced by several factors:
- The post-war ‘baby boom’
- Rising divorce rates and the beginning of new sexual openness
- Cinema sex symbols defining a ‘third war’ for women
During the 1960s, the women’s movement successfully campaigned for new rights. In 1967, the Family Planning Act made oral contraceptives available
Read MoreEnglish Renaissance Literature: Poetry, Drama, and Prose
Renaissance Poetry: Innovators and Styles
The two greatest innovators of the new, rich style of Renaissance poetry in the last quarter of the 16th century were Sir Philip Sidney and Edmund Spenser, both humanistically educated Elizabethan courtiers.
Sidney, universally recognized as the model Renaissance nobleman, outwardly polished as well as inwardly conscientious, inaugurated the vogue of the sonnet cycle in his Astrophel and Stella (written 1582?; published 1591). In this work, in the elaborate
Read MoreFrom Tudors to Stuarts: England’s Shifting Power and Conflicts
Mary, Queen of Scots: A Claim to the English Throne
Mary Stuart, also known as Mary, Queen of Scots, held a significant claim to the English throne. As the granddaughter of Henry VII through her grandmother Margaret, who married a Scottish king, Mary possessed Tudor blood. This made her a potential successor to Queen Elizabeth I, especially if Elizabeth died without an heir. However, Mary’s staunch Catholicism presented a major challenge in Protestant England.
In 1568, following a military defeat,
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