BS

Eng
History of English lish
Literature

Study Guide
Course Code: 9053

Department of English
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY
 HISTORY OF ENGLISH
LITERATURE STUDY GUIDE

BS

Course Code: 9053 Units: 1-9

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
(FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES)
ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY, ISLAMABAD

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 (All Rights are Reserved with the Publisher)

Publisher ........................................ Allama Iqbal Open

.. University
Printer ............................................. AIOU Printing Press, H-8,
. Islamabad
Quantity .......................................... 5000
.
Price .................................................
Rs.

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 COURSE TEAM

Chairman Course Team: Dr. Malik Ajmal Gulzar

Course Development Dr. Malik Ajmal Gulzar

Coordinator:

Writers: Ms. Ambrina

Qayyum Ms. Farah
Saeed
Reviews: Dr. Malik Ajmal Gulzar
Dr. Rashida Imran
Dr. Lubna Umar

Editor: Humera Ejaz

Layout: Asrar ul Haque Malik

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 Introduction to the Course
Dear Students,
This study guide on the course of History of English Literature is developed to
familiarize you with the literary development of different genres in various
periods of the English Literature. These periods and/or eras range from the Old
English Period (450 -1066) to the Post Victorian or Modern Era (1901 Onwards)
and a reflection of these numerous literary movements of these eras can be traced
out from several perspectives and angles on English Literature. The detail of
almost all the literary developments during the above-mentioned eras has been
focused upon throughout this study guide.

However, it is important to mention here that our intention was to cover the
numerous expansions in the literary genres till the twentieth century, though it was
desirable to include also the twenty first century literary development. Yet, as a
matter of fact, it is more desirable at BS Level that you must be familiarized with
only the fundamental vital literary movements and schools of thoughts playing the
pivotal role as the literary foundation. The English Literature, therefore, created in
all the eras was unique for the specific characteristic features of direction,
precision, truthfulness, content and form for the purpose of enlightening the social
aspects and powerful resolutions. Hence, the English Literature is representative
mainly of these eras, in which it has been produced. For example, the Renaissance
Literature (sixteenth to the mid seventeenth century), the Neo-Classical Literature
(eighteenth century) and the Romantic Literature (nineteenth century) are unique
as far as respective learning revival, realism, the imaginative focus and human
dignity were concerned.

Concisely, it is to provide you with a complete understanding of the various

influences of the era on the literary works of the different eras. Generally, the
English Literature was inclined toward the established system of moralistic and
religious values, beliefs and social ethics which impacted all the renowned literary
writers of the different eras/periods. Nevertheless, Dear Students, this course can
only be fully beneficial to you in its true sense, if you go through it completely
and attempt all the exercises assigned to you at the end of each unit. At the end,
we want to make it clear that it is not a course in English Literature itself, so the
individual literary works are not discussed in detail rather it is just a course about
historical references of the English Literature of the varied literary eras.

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 Objectives of the Course
Please go through the study guide completely in order to comprehend the English
Literature progression within different centuries. After reading this a complete
course, you will be able to:
 to discern a comprehensive chronological evolution of the development of
English literature;
 to know the varied influences of historical, political, socio-cultural events as
well as that of philosophical and literary elements on literature;
 to recognize different literary genres, their evolution and developmental
stages throughout all the literary periods;
 to enlist the poets who wrote in Old, Classical, Romantic and Modern
English;
 to identify the characteristics of poetry and prose (drama, novel and essay)
produced in all the literary periods from old to modern eras;
 to demonstrate the effects of French literature on English poetry and prose;
 to enlist various types of Middle English poetry popular among the masses;
 to introduce the main contribution of great literary writers like John Gower,
William Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, John Keats, Virginia Woolf and Joseph
Conrad in the prose and poetic developments in the respective literary
periods;
 to explain the development in the Neo-Classical Poetry with special
reference to the poetic art of Alexander Pope as well as to his literary
masterpieces of English Literature;
 to delineate the term “Victorian” in the history of English Literature;
 to identify the major conflicts inherent in the Victorian Era and assess how
they exert an impact on the Victorian Literature;
 to identify the different eras of history of English Literature with special
reference to their main literary writers;
 to narrate three phases in the twentieth century English Literature with
special focus on development in three genres of drama, novel and poetry;
and
 to recognize and explain the literary characteristics and main themes of the
Old, Classical, Romantic, Victorian and Modern Literature.

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 CONTENTS

Unit 1: Old English Literature............................................................................1

Unit 2: Middle English Literature ....................................................................15

Unit 3: English Literature during the Sixteenth Century .................................37

Unit 4: William Shakespeare ...........................................................................63

Unit 5: English Literature in the Seventeenth Century ....................................87

Unit 6: The Neo-Classical Period (1660-1785) .............................................115

Unit 7: the romantic Era (1798-1832)............................................................133

Unit 8: The Victorian or the Post-romantic Era (1832-1901) ........................157

Unit 9: The 20th Century English Literature ..................................................183