21st revyu

• European Literature


  The literature written in the context of Western culture in the languages of Europe, as several geographically or historically related languages
• Indo-European Languages


  • Greek- Celtic
  • GreekCelticc
  • Latin- Romance languages
  • LatinRomance languagesce languages
  • Germanic- Finnish
  • GermanicFinnish
  • Baltic Slavic- Hungarian
  • BalticSlavic- Hungarian- Hungarian
  • SlavicHungarianian
• Ancient Literature


  • The use of clay tablets and papyrus paper scrolls paved the way for the writing of the Holy Scriptures which is very much influential in European literature
  • Songs, poems, fables, anecdotes, and parables were all invented during this period
• Influential Works of Ancient Literature

  • The Epic of Gilgamesh -the worlds oldest epic
  • Iliad and Odyssey- epic of Greece
  • Aeneid- epic of Rome
• Medieval Literature


  • The Fall of the Roman Empire marked the beginning of the Medieval or Middle Ages
  • The use of vellum (goat skin paper), parchment (sheep skin paper), and wooden tablets covered in green or black wax to fashion books which are more durable than scrolls became widespread
• Popular books during Medieval Literature


  • Beowulf- Anglo-Saxon tradition
  • Divine Comedy- Dante Aligheri
• Renaissance Literature


  • This period marked the reawakening of a new spirit of intellectual and artistic inquiry, which was the dominant feature of this political, religious, and philosophical phenomenon, was essentially a revival of the spirit of ancient Greece and Rome
  • Scholars searched for and translated lost ancient texts, whose dissemination was much helped by developments in printing in Europe from about 1450
  • Written short stories, novellas and tales were born in this period
• Influential people during Renaissance Literature

  • Johannes Gutenberg- movable printing press
  • Martin Luther- reformation of Europe
• 17th Century Literature


  • The 17th century was a period of unceasing disturbance and violent storms, no less in literature than in politics and society
  • This includes the ascertainment of the grounds and relations of knowledge, faith, reason, and authority in religion, metaphysics, ethics, politics, economics, and natural science. Hence, this period is also known as Age of Reason
• Influential Works of 17th Century Literature

  • The Tragedies of William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Macbeth, Anthony and Cleopatra)
• 18th Century Literature


  • The 18th century was marked by two main impulses: reason and passion
  • The cultivation of the feelings stimulated philanthropy, exaltation of personal relationships, religious fervor, and the cult of sentiment, or sensibility
  • The rational impulse fostered satire, argument, wit, plain prose. The other inspired the psychological novel and the poetry of the sublime
• World-class masterpieces during 18th Century Literature

  • Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
  • Poems of Scottish Dialect by Robert Burns
  • An Essay on Understanding by Alexander Pope
• 19th Century Literature


  • The 19th century was one of the most vital and interesting periods of all
  • Influences that had their origins or were in development in this period – Romanticism, Symbolism, Realism
• Literary Giants of 19th Century Literature


  • William Wordsworth - Lyrical Ballads
  • Jane Austen - Sense and Sensibility
  • Guy de Maupassant - The Diamond Necklace
  • John Keats - Ode to Psyche
• 20th Century Literature

  • Features an interest in the unconscious and the irrational was reflected in their work and that of others of about this time
  • In the 1930s these qualities of 20th-century thought were not abandoned but, rather, were expanded into a political context, as writers divided into those supporting political commitment in their writing and those reacting conservatively against such a domination of art by politics
• Famous works during 20th Century Literature

  • Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes
  • James Joyce - Ulyses
  • Virginia Woolf - Mrs. Dalloway