European Literature

A Report of Group 1
 Objective
• Identify the characteristics of European
literature;
• Distinguish the differences between works of
literature from different literary periods; and
• Demonstrate understanding of the evolution
of European literature.
 Ancient Literature (800 BC–500
AD)
• mostly influenced by Greco-Roman culture
• The Greeks introduced all major kinds of
literature: tragedy, comedy, epic, history,
biography, prose narrative, lyric, and satire. The
earliest forms of these were oral in nature.
• The Romans also adapted the literary forms the
Greeks produced.
 Ancient Literature (800 BC–500
AD)
• Oral epics became material for
Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey,
which expressed the values and
imagination of the Western
humanity and were also used by the
Greeks as models for conduct.
 Medieval Literature (500 AD–1500).
• Middle Ages (500 AD–1500).
• emergence of three dominant cultures:
Christianity, Islam, and the Germanic invaders.
• The literature of this time also shows, for the
most part, the lives of the aristocracy, who
gained power through the use of the military.
 Medieval Literature (500 AD–1500).

• It also demonstrates the inconsistencies

of chivalry, problematizing personal
bravery versus group needs, and the
individual working out his or her destiny.
• The famous works are Beowulf, The Song
of Roland and Nibelungenlied
 Renaissance Literature (1300–1600)
• marked by the rebirth of the Greco-Roman
literary tradition.
• Classical scholars, known as humanists,
revived and translated ancient texts. The
humanists also used the Greek and Latin
classics, along with traditional Christian
thought, to teach people about human life.
 Renaissance Literature (1300–1600)

• The printing press is the greatest

innovation of the Renaissance era
• During the English Renaissance, one of
the greatest struggles of artists and
writers was the need to earn and sustain
themselves through their craft.
 Renaissance Literature (1300–1600)

• The Greatest Writer of

this Period is William
Shakespeare
 Enlightenment Literature (1600–1800)

• byproduct of the renaissance that

birthed humanism. Thinking that they
could be whatever they wanted to be.
• the birthplace of many great thinkers
who put their ideas into writing and
made their thoughts available to
historians of this century.
 Enlightenment Literature (1600–1800)

• The famous works were  

Much Ado About
Nothing, Paradise Lost
and Gulliver’s Travels
Romanticism and Realism Literature (1800–1920)

• Romanticism is a literary movement against

the aristocratic culture that started in the late
18th century.
• Romanticism uplifts the characters from
humble backgrounds or the common man and
places importance on imagination and
emotion
Romanticism and Realism Literature (1800–1920)

• Poetry was prevalent during this time. It

focused more on the individuality of a
person more than society.
• Realism, in contrast with romanticism,
was the representation of reality
Romanticism and Realism Literature (1800–1920)

• The famous works were

Debit and Credit and
“The World Is Too Much
With Us”
 Modernism And Postmodernism Literature (1920-
Present)
• Modernism also challenged the prevailing
order during its time but focused for the most
part on experimentation and self-consciously
breaking away from traditional forms.
• Various literary techniques: imagism, stream
of consciousness, and the use of an unreliable
narrator.
 Modernism And Postmodernism Literature (1920-
Present)
• Postmodernism (1965–Present) shows a crisis of
identity of the human being in ethnicity and
sexuality, as well as the struggle for social and
cultural acceptance in a hypocritical society.
• characterized by the use of paradox (self-
contradictory statement), fragmentation
(incompleteness whether in form or in content),
and the unreliable narrator.
 Modernism And Postmodernism Literature (1920-
Present)

• The Great Gatsby and

Waiting for Godot are
some of the examples.