Unit 2: The Anglo-Saxon Period

Characteristics:
The first literature of the Anglo-Saxons was poetry rather than prose.
It was not written, but rather recited or sung.
It had 5 characteristics:
The love of freedom
Responsiveness to nature, especially in her sterner moods
Strong religious convictions and a belief in Wyrd, or Fate
Reverence for womanhood
A devotion to glory as the ruling motive in every warriors life

Unit 3: The Medieval Period
The Pearl Poet
An unknown author
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
It was a medieval romance: a form of writing based primarily on the adventures of
various knights and often abounding in the supernatural
Sir Gawain had to go and look for Green Knight and find a Green Chapel
Geoffrey Chaucer
Absorbed much of the Italian influence
The Canterbury Tales
It is an exemplum
It is his masterpiece
Thomas Malory
Morte Darthur
An outstanding monument in English literature



Unit 4: The Elizabethan Period
Thomas More
Utopia
The word means no place, which suggests that no ideal society exists.
The work takes the form of a report givenby a travelor who has returned from
visiting an ideal society
John Foxe
The Book of Martyrs
He became popular for it
Edmund Spenser
The Faerie Queene
It is an allegory
Characters:
Queen Gloriana which represents glory (Queen Elizabeth)
Dragon: represents error/ sin in the Roman Church
Sir Walter Raleigh
Most famous work: History of the World
William Shakespeare
The greatest writer of all time because of his effective portrayal of human nature
and the universality of his themes
Share holder of a theater: The Globe
Main works: Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, etc.
Francis Bacon
Essays was the first essay in English literature
Essay: usually a work of moderate length in which the writer tries to develop his
own thoughts on some subject