A1B20 - Presentation of Class: Main Objectives Difference between Lecture Class and Tutorials Grading and Exams CC students: 50% in-class work (written and oral) 50% final exam (on both classes) Exam has two parts (during last two tutorials)

Main Texts: 1. A1B20 Class Booklet 2. John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Penguin Classics Edition

(Have it read by November 21st!) Suggested reading / sources:

3 manuals written by Françoise Grellet & published by Hachette Supérieur:

A Handbook of Literary Terms : Introduction au vocabulaire littéraire anglais (Grellet) An Introduction to English Literature: From Philip Sidney to Graham Swift (Grellet & M-H Valentin) An Introduction to American Literature “Time Present and Time Past” (Grellet)

Web sites: http://a1b20.webs.com http://a1b20slides.webs.com

Online Introduction to Poetics & Literary Terms (on http://a1b20.webs.com)

LESSON 1

The Age of Shakespeare: ‘All the world’s a stage’

-William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the ‘Bard’

-works & language pervade English language and culture today (literature, journalism, pop music & everyday life)

-‘The Age of Shakespeare’ spans the English Renaissance, a period of fundamental social changes, ‘the Elizabethan period’ & ‘the Jacobean period’

-Elizabeth I (1533-1603), reign from 1558 to 1603, & James I (1566-1625), reign 1603-1625.

-Monarchs played a key role in shaping culture (esp. Elizabeth)

I. The Age of Shakespeare

1. Shakespeare’s Predecessors & Contemporaries:

a. Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586)

-one of the Elizabethan Age's most prominent figures

(humanist, courtier & diplomat; famous as poet,

courtier and soldier)

-Astrophil and Stella (1581, pub. 1591)- 1st ‘sonnet sequence’ of period-

-Petrarchian – sincere & direct, less playful & more concise than WS

-expressing love for Penelope Devereaux, daughter of the Earl of Essex;

-would launch the ‘sonnet sequence’ of the 1590’s)

-The Defence of Poesy (1581, pub. 1595)

-essay defending poetry & art in response to Gosson’s Puritanical The

School of Abuse, accusations of immorality

-The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia (1580, pub. 1590)

- a pastoral romance, early use dialogue & themes of chivalry,

shipwrecks, imprisonment, rescue, etc).

b. Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

-English poet and Poet Laureate

-controversial figure due to zeal for destruction of Irish

culture and colonization of Ireland, yet one of the premier

craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy.

-translated Petrach’s sonnets early on and followed the tradition.

-his Amoretti collection – the despair of a neglected lover & happiness when mistress (Elizabeth Boyle) accepts his hand. Peaceful & plaintive love poems.

-best known for The Faerie Queene (pub. 1590-1596 in 6 volumes)

-epic poem he spent most of his life working on

-fantastical allegory (chars represent ideals such as holiness,

temperance, patriotism)

-celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I (appears as Gloriana, the

sum of all virtues).

c. Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

-English dramatist, poet, and translator of

the Elizabethan era.

-Often seen as cruel, intemperate rebel and atheist.

-early member of “University Wits” from Cambridge/Oxford who started writing drama to make a living (Kyd & WS & Ben Jonson all later joined this circle).

-foremost Elizabethan tragedian before William Shakespeare, he is known for his magnificent blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his own untimely death (age 29).

-heroes always yield to temptation & pay for it, destroyed by Satan.

-Tamburlaine (1590) early play produced – story of the rise & fall of a ruthless conqueror

-Most famous work: The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1592)

(English version of legend (cf. Goethe) with harsh ending & no deus ex

machina)

d. Ben Jonson (1572-1637)

-English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor

-contemporary of William Shakespeare & best known for his satirical plays, esp. Volpone, or The Fox (1606) and The Alchemist (1610), which are considered his best, and also wrote lyric poems. -in 1590’s a young actor & budding playwright

-early works showcased Elizabethan belief in the 4 HUMOURS (sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic) – all mixed in us in different degrees but one prevailing). So characters often flat unchanging ‘types’ or caricatures, as in his first play Every Man in His Humour (1598).

-later plays have strong moral & often attacks swindlers & manipulators; also started trend for ‘realistic plays’ about ordinary people (WS tended to go for famous figures)

-man of little formal education but of vast reading and appetite for controversy -unparalleled breadth of influence on Jacobean and Caroline playwrights and poets.

2. The Elizabethan Age

-period of Elizabeth’s reign (1558-1603)

-consolidation of change & transformation, from medieval culture shaped by the Church of Rome, to a culture centred on the Crown

-process had started with Elizabeth’s father, Henry VIII (1529-39), who undertook the Reformation of the Church in England.

-With Elizabeth, Church of England even stronger national, Protestant institution headed by the monarch.

-hence, literature of her reign was centred on the Crown, and often on the Queen herself.

3. The English language and Elizabethan poetry

-Elizabethan English (developed during reign of Elizabeth I, late 16th century) --language plays marks transition from Middle to Modern English

-last stage in 3-step process of evolution of the English language

1. Old English, from 1st Germanic settlements in Celtic Britain in 5th century to Norman invasion, 1066.

2. Middle English, developed under influence of French and Latin (after the Norman conquest) up to the 16th century.

3. Modern English resulted from the cultural influences of the Renaissance, source of our contemporary English.

-parallel evolution in genres and forms of writing:

-First generation Elizabethan writers (1580s): poets at Court like Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586), or Edmund Spenser (c. 1552-1599)

-Elizabethan poetry & the ‘sonnet sequence’ of the 1590’s: search for rational structure to express emotions…

-late 1590s & early 1600s: rise of Shakespearean drama

4. Elizabethan drama: synthesis between the ideals of Humanism and popular forms of entertainment

*resulted from encounter between 2 forms of culture (Court & folk pastimes)

a. aristocracy played key role in consolidating Crown’s power & in development of Renaissance culture in England.

-Renaissance aimed at defining a new, humanist culture (= emphasizing the human figure and reason), under influence of Greek & Roman models, and in contrast with the religious culture of the Middle Ages.

-Allegorical & comic plays performed for the 16th century nobility had developed from medieval morality plays.

b. at same time, popular forms of entertainment, such as singing, dancing and miming, often connected to seasonal festivities and pagan rituals, continued to exist in England, especially in the countryside

-‘folkplays’ went to country but also cities & had vital influence on the comedies of Shakespeare and his predecessors

-public in city more inclined to listen than to read, so importance of speech & appeal of drama

-drama followed popular taste, not classical instructions & could mix tragedy & comedy

-Thus combined influence of national traditions

-audience plays as mixed as plays themselves.

-public playhouse was a compact amphitheater (such as the Globe, of octagonal shape).

-main stage a large rather bare platform (setting imagined by public or indicated by actors).

-encouraged a theatre of eloquence—focused on words, not elaborate staging—& intended for a varied public.

5. Political & intellectual unrest in Jacobean period (after 1603)

-literature flourished more under Elizabeth I than under James I

-rise of Puritanism and fundamentalism (no authority outside Bible)

-monarch’s religious /moral authority in question

-gentry was divided:

-those linked to Court

-new merchant class tied to Puritan-minded city people

-criticism of outrageous royal spending & corruption

-disappointment about science & human intellect

-literature (esp. drama) reflected these developments through

-satire (criticizing moral & social behaviour with humour)

-tragedy (focusing on philosophical problem of humanism)

e.g., Ben Jonson’s satires on social climbing & immoral ambition, greed & hypocrisy (Volpone)

A1B20 – The Age of Shakespeare (continued) Elizabethan drama: (main points we’ve seen)

-promoted the ideals of Humanism

-centered around the Queen

-warned against dangers of usurping power or rebelling

-a combination of popular forms of entertainment

Nobles / the Court: highbrow allegory, morality plays and poetry

Folk Pastimes: pagan rituals, seasonal festivals, traveling performers & folkplays, jugglers, mimes, dancers

-easily combined tragedy & comedy as well

-the importance of language

-public more inclined to listen than to read (appeal of drama)

-no stage-sets, so everything represented through speech

-audience at plays as mixed as plays themselves,

intended for a mixed audience

II. William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

-born in April 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon

(nickname: ‘the Sweet Swan of Avon’

or ‘the Bard’)

-father a glover

-married Anne Hathaway, had 3 children.

-little known about beginning of career, life

-made a name on London literary scene as leading member of London acting company (at Globe Theatre from 1599, and the Blackfriars in winter from 1608).

Poetry

-author of two long narrative poems

(‘Venus and Adonis,’ 1593, ‘The Rape of Lucrecia,’ 1594),

and of 154 sonnets

-sonnet : short lyric poem of 14 lines, usually deals with the contradictions of love, its pleasures & difficulties, or with themes of friendship, time or morality.

-very successful with form; left his mark with ‘Shakespearean sonnet’ (3 quatrains and a final rhyming couplet)

-in many ways, his sonnets were parodies of the popular form

-booklet includes Sonnet 60 as well as a sonnet that is part of the tragedy Romeo and Juliet

Drama

-skillful poet; his plays had greatest & most lasting influence

-back then, plays performed & not ‘published’;

only half of scripts in print during lifetime

-First collection (‘the first folio’) published posthumously in 1623

-thus, dates and order of plays hard to establish, & doubts raised about authorship 200 years later

-but 37 plays are attributed to him, that can be divided into 4 groups:

history plays (beginning & middle of career)

comedies (beginning and middle of career)

tragedies (the ‘sombre period’)

romantic tragi-comedies (‘the period of appeasement’)

1. The Histories (1590-1599): e.g., Richard III (1591-1592) -History plays a common genre in 16th c. -main themes: -Tudor (Henry VIII & Elizabeth I) political thought -rebellion to be feared -order & divine authority needed to be preserved -dangers of greed for power and of royal misgovernment

-history plays: two tetralogies (= series of four plays):

Henry VI part 1, part 2 & part 3 (1591-1592) and Richard III (1593)

Richard II (1595), Henry IV part 1 (1597) & part 2 (1598), and Henry V (1599)

-He returned to history play with his last play, Henry VIII (1613)

-in booklet: Richard III, focusing on the cruel, ambitious, treacherous Duke of Gloucester, murderer and usurper of the crown.

2. The Comedies: e.g., A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595)

-same period as history plays

-explored various subgenres, e.g…

the farce (The Taming of the Shrew, 1594),

the fairy comedy (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1596),

the romantic comedy (Twelfth Night, 1602)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream [booklet p. 8]:

-story of two pairs of young lovers.

-blends realism with a fanciful / fairy-like atmosphere

-mixes and contrasts magical world of fairies in the woods

& the Athenian court where patriarchal order is the law

3. The Tragedies (1600-1608): e.g., Julius Caesar (1599), Macbeth (1605)

-darkest tragedies written during Jacobean period

-explored personal consciousness through various heroes

-already in Julius Caesar (1599), examined cleavage between society and individual greatness.

-in Macbeth (1606), explored how overwhelming passion and ambition leads to loss of morals and to self-destruction [both in the booklet].

-most famous tragedy, Hamlet (1603), focuses on troubled prince trying to avenge king’s murder & right a terrible wrong…

4. The Last Plays—Romantic Tragi-comedies (1608-1616):

-mix tragedy & comedy, and use elements of fantasy, improbability, love, adventure, the marvellous.

-Pericles (1607-1609), Cymbeline (1609), The Winter’s Tale (1610-1611), & The Tempest (1611) [booklet p. 12].

-common point: deal with reconciliation & righting of wrongs, reflecting the playwright’s reconciliation with humanity.

They start from evil, division, lack of harmony, and end with reunion and forgiveness.

-In The Tempest, both the forces of good and evil are at work, through the opposition between the spiritual (Ariel) and the savage (Caliban). But the play ends in harmony, when evil turns into experience, and a certain calmness is recovered.