21st Literature

• The depiction of technology and its influence on human relationships is a prevalent theme in 21st century literature.
• Grendel: Also known as the monster or Beowulf monster
• St. Augustine: A figure who went to England in 597 AD and founded schools and monasteries
• Religious and Secular Poems of English Literature: A categorization of poems based on their nature
• Beowulf: The hero and main character of this epic poem
• Morgan le Fay: A powerful sorceress and half-sister of King Arthur
• Gringolet: Gawain's horse
• Old English Literature: Encompasses Anglo-Saxon written and spoken works from what is now the United Kingdom
• Old English Poetry: Formulaic and uses kenning, a type of figurative language
• Green Knight: A mysterious visitor to Camelot with a huge stature and green complexion
• King Arthur: The king of Camelot in the story
• "The Station of the Metro": A two-line poem that creates a visualization in the reader's mind
• "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" Characters: Sir Gawain - The story's protagonist and one of Arthur's most loyal knights
• Danish King Hrothgar: King of the Danes before Beowulf
• "The Dream of the Rood": The earliest dream poem and one of the greatest religious poems in the English language
• Queen Guinevere: Arthur's wife
• "The World Is Too Much With Us": A poem written against consumerism during the Industrial Revolution
• Wiglaf: The trusty sidekick to Beowulf
• Grendel's Mother: Mother of Grendel and a far more powerful monster
• Bertilak's wife: Attempts to seduce Gawain during his stay at the castle
• Middle English: A period in the development of the English language
• "Waiting for Godot": A play about two hobos waiting for Godot by a sickly-looking tree
• Venerable Bede: A monk who wrote the ecclesiastical history of England
• Alfred the Great: A king who unified the Anglo-Saxons and brought literacy to the people
• "Paradise Lost": An epic poem about the Fall of Man
• European Literature: literature written in the context of Western culture
• Countries from Europe: G G R R F S S I N
• 8 European Literary Periods: Ancient Literature, Medieval Period, Renaissance, The Age of Enlightenment/Enlightenment Period, Romanticism, Realism, Modernism, Post-modernism.
• Literary Techniques during the Modernism Period: imagisim, Stream of consciousness, an unreliable narrator.
• Ancient Literature- The intellectual and philosophical studies made by the Greeks and the Romans.
• Medieval Period- marked the emergence of three dominant cultures: Christianity, Islam, and the Germanic invaders.
• Renaissance- It is characterized by the adoption of a humanist philosophy and the recovery of classical Antiquity.
• The Age of Enlightenment/Enlightenment Period - It was also the birthplace of many great thinkers who put their ideas into writing and made their thoughts available to historians of this century.
• Romanticism- started in the 18th Century which uplifts the characters from humble backgrounds or the common man and places importance on imagination and emotion.
• Realism- It presents the truth with all its flaws. It strives to present things as accurately and with the least subjectivity as possible.
• Modernism- This period was marked by sudden changes in man’s perspective of the world.
• Post-modernism- Literary work from this period does not pretend to be new and original; rather, it

  juxtaposes the old and the new to contextualize it in the readers’ minds.
• Characteristics of postmodern texts include: paradox or self-contradictory statement, fragmentation or incompleteness whether in form or in content,  the unreliable narrator.
• 2 patrons who helped William Shakespeare who lavished money and attention on Literature: Queen Elizabeth and King James I
• 5 Greek Writers: Homer Aesop, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and Sophocles