Elizabethan Age
Elizabethan Age (1558-1603) Introduction According to M.H. Abrams, Elizabethan Age in the history of Britain refers to “the period of the reign of Elizabeth I” from 1558 to 1603. However, the term “Elizabethan,” is often...
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Geoffrey Chaucer – Biography
Geoffrey Chaucer Chaucer, I confess, is a rough Diamond; and must first be polish’d e’er he shines. —John Dryden Life and Works Geoffrey Chaucer was born around 1340 into a distinguished commercial family....
Symbolist Movement
Symbolist Movement In a significant work by Arthur Symons, titled “The Symbolist Movement in Literature” (1899), he characterized the movement as a reaction against realism and naturalism and as an attempt to “spiritualize literature.”...
Le Morte d’Arthur
Le Morte d’Arthur Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur is a medieval prose work that chronicles the legendary tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. The work revolves around the...
Surrealism
Surrealism Surrealism promised to free the mind, of rational control, by exposing the subconscious mind of man…. These philosophical forerunners of the Absurd movement preached a new psychology based on combining the dreaming state...
Theatre of the Absurd
Introduction The Theatre of the Absurd was a short-lived yet significant theatrical movement, centred in Paris in the 1950’s. The beginning of “absurdism” lie in Avant-garde (Avant-garde refer to such works of art that...
A Defence of Poetry
A Defence of Poetry A Defence of Poetry is the most famous work of prose by P.B. Shelley (1792-1822). It was written in 1821 as a reaction to his friend Thomas Love Peacock’s treatise...
Preface to Shakespeare
Preface to Shakespeare By Dr. Samuel Johnson Introduction Samuel Johnson’s Preface to Shakespeare (1765) stands as a timeless piece of literary criticism where he transcends his political, personal, religious, and literary biases to objectively...
The Study of Poetry by Matthew Arnold
The Study of Poetry by Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold as a Critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) is the greatest name among the Victorian critics who was a poet-turned critic. He started his literary career...