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This consists of medieval literature in the Anglo-Norman tongue, and also in French.The French epic appeared in England at an early date. [5] It is believed that the Chanson de Roland was sung at the Battle of Hastings, [6] and some Anglo-Norman manuscripts of Chansons de geste have survived to this day. [7]
Early Modern English as a literary medium was unfixed in structure and vocabulary in comparison to Greek, Hebrew and Latin, and was in a constant state of flux.When William Shakespeare began writing his plays, the English language was rapidly absorbing words from other languages due to wars, exploration, diplomacy and colonization.
Other Important playwrights whose careers began later in the century are: Caryl Churchill (Top Girls, 1982) and Alan Ayckbourn (Absurd Person Singular, 1972). An important new element in the world of British drama, from the beginnings of radio in the 1920s, was the commissioning of plays, or the adaption of existing plays, by BBC radio.
With the English Renaissance, literature in the Early Modern English style appeared. William Shakespeare, whose works include Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night's Dream, remains one of the most championed authors in English literature. [56] He is widely regarded as the greatest dramatist of all time. [57] [58]
[3] [4] Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment. It can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role. Literary criticism is one of the oldest academic disciplines, and is concerned with the literary merit or intellectual significance of specific texts.
The English grammar schools, like those on the continent, placed special emphasis on the trivium: grammar, logic, and rhetoric.Though rhetorical instruction was intended as preparation for careers in civil service such as law, the rhetorical canons of memory and delivery (pronuntiatio), gesture and voice, as well as exercises from the progymnasmata, such as the prosopopoeia, taught theatrical ...
Portrait of Samuel Richardson by Joseph Highmore. National Portrait Gallery, Westminster, England.. The English novel is an important part of English literature.This article mainly concerns novels, written in English, by novelists who were born or have spent a significant part of their lives in England, Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland (or any part of Ireland before 1922).
Geoffrey Hill (1932–2016) has been considered to be among the distinguished English poets of his generation, [149] [150] Charles Tomlinson (1927–2015) is another important English poet of an older generation, but "since his first publication in 1951, has built a career that has seen more notice in the international scene than in his native ...