21st

• Periods of Anglo-American Literature

  • Ancient Times
  • Medieval Times
  • Renaissance Period
  • Age of Enlightenment
  • Romantic-Realistic Period
  • Realistic Period
  • Contemporary to Modern Literature
• Ancient Times


  • Lit. was spread orally
  • "Beowulf" (famous epic during ancient times)
  • Themes: Religious/Biblical
  • Poets: Caedmon and Cynewulf
• Medieval Times


  • From fall of western roman empire to renaissance period
  • Works written in modern english
  • Vernacular literature (written in the language of common people)
  • Genres: Heroic Tales & Romances
  • Authors: Thomas Malory & Geoffrey Chaucer
• Thomas Malory


  Wrote "Le Morte D'Arthur" (Themes: Chivalry, Honor, Love)
• Geoffrey Chaucer


  • English Poet, Author, & Civil Servant
  • "Father of English Literature"
  • Greatest poet during the Medieval times
  • "The Canterbury Tales" (collections of moral and humorous stories told by a diverse group of people)
• Renaissance Period


  • Renaissance = French for 'rebirth'
  • 13th to 15th century
  • Themes: Religious, Practical, Historical
  • Authors: William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh, Christopher Marlowe
  • Poems: Lyrical & Pastoral
• William Shakespeare


  • English Playwright, Poet, Author
  • "Greatest Writer in the English Language"
  • "World's Pre-Eminent Dramatist"
  • 37 Plays & 154 Sonnets
• Lyrical Poetry


  Expresses personal sentiments
• Pastoral Poetry


  About shepherding and the simplicity of life in the country

  Poets: Sir Walter Raleigh & Christopher Marlowe
• Age of Enlightenment


  • Authors: John Milton & John Driden
  • Comedy of Manners: Comedy that satirizes a specific group in society, usually the upper class
  • Satire: Questions and criticizes societal norms; Uses wit and humor to attack issues
  • Satirists: Jonathan Swift & Alexander Pope
• John Milton


  • English Poet, Polemicist (ppl who like to debate on controversial topics), Civil Servant
  • "Paradise Lost" (1667 epic poem)
• John Driden


  • English Poet, literary Critic, Translator, Playwright
  • Appointed as England's 1st Poet Laureate in 1668
  • "Absalom and Achitophel" (Story of king David's son and his false friend)
• Romantic - Realistic Period


  • Writers focused on the expansion of imagination that gave way to free forms of expression
  • Ex genre: Gothic Fiction (fear, horror, death, gloom, & romantic elements; nature, individuality, & high emotion)
  • Gothic Fiction Writers: Mary Shelley, Ann Radcliffe, & Edgar Allan Poe
• Mary Shelley


  Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

  "Frankenstein" (modern Prometheus)
• Ann Radcliffe


  • The most representative of English Gothic novelists
  • Pioneer in developing the "Literature of Terror"
  • "The Mysteries of Udolpho"
• Edgar Allan Poe


  • American writer, poet, editor, author, & lit. critic
  • "The Cask of Amontillado"
• Realistic Period


  • Native American writers/authors
  • Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)
• Charles Dickens


  "Oliver Twist"
• Charlotte Brontë


  "Jane Eyre"
• Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)


  • "The Father of American Literature" (-William Faulkner), "Greatest Humorist the United States has produced"
  • "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"
• Modern to Contemporary Literature


  • 1900s to present
  • Late 19th century modern period to 1960's before WW2
  • Commentaries on social injustices & selfishness of upper class society
  • Aftermath of WW2 ushered in an age of rapid development in science and technology
  • Authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Stearns Elliot, Robert Lee Frost
• Francis Scott Fitzgerald


  • American novelist, essayist, & short story writer
  • 4 novels, 150 short stories
  • "The Great Gatsby" (the great American novel)
• Thomas Stearns Elliot


  • Poet, essayist, publisher, playwright, lit. critic, editor
  • "Leader of the Modernist Movement in Poetry"
  • Created a new way of making poems (Modern Poetry)
  • "The Wasteland"
• Robert Lee Frost


  • American poet
  • 1st work initially published in England before America
  • "The Road not Taken"
• Oral traditions in Southeast Asian literature

  • Riddles
  • Puns
  • Proverbs
  • Legends
  • Stories of origin
  • Myths
• Forms of "printing/writing"

  • Etching on palm leaf or bamboo
  • Writing on animal skin
  • Etching on hammered sheets of metal
• Southeast Asia

  "Land of Gold" (due to vast resources serving as a meeting point for early Indian, Chinese, Arab, and Persian traders)
• Vietnamese literature is linked to the country's ongoing political struggles
• North Vietnam's former President Ho Chi Minh's declaration that the writer should be a soldier for the communist cause
• Resistance against French and American forces set the tone for a good deal of modern Vietnamese literature
• "The New Poetry" movement in 1932


  Reaction against the strict style of Chinese T'ang poetry; more open expression and elastic prose style
• Types of Vietnamese literature

  • Courtly romances (prior to French influence)
  • Romantic
  • Socialist
  • Realist
  • Scholarly
• Malaysia

  Malay + Sia (Greek suffix)
• Malaysia is the 42nd most populated country, multi-ethnic & multi-religious, one of the wealthiest and most developed countries in Southeast Asia
• Malaysian government

  Federal Constitutional Monarchy
• Localized literary styles in Malaysian literature

  • Hikayat (grand stories that contain elements of chronicles, romance, and epic heroism)
  • Syair (four-line poetic verses of a proverbial nature, often used to tell stories or convey moral lessons)
  • Pantun (four-line poetic verses of a proverbial nature, often used in courtship)
• Main languages in Malaysia

  • Malay
  • English
  • Tamil
  • Chinese
• "Hikayat Raja-Raja Pasai"


  "Chronicles of the Kings of Pasai", one of the earliest works in Malay; 14th century, dealt with the first Malay-Islamic kingdom of Samudera Pasai
• Mera Silu (protagonist)


  Meets Muhammad in a dream, and the knowledge of Islam is magically transmitted to him via an exchange of saliva
• "Sejarah Melayu"


  • Malai (mountains) + ur (city lands)
  • matters of foreign relations
  • works of literature read by Malay warriors before they went into battle
  • only available account of the history of the Malay Sultanate
  • also known as "Malay Annals"