I.

Ancient Literature and Medieval Literature (800 BC–1500 AD)

Literature created in the ancient period (800 BC–500 AD) was mostly influenced by Greco-Roman culture, which became the basis for the Western literature that we know

today. The intellectual and philosophical studies made by the Greeks and the Romans are the foundation of European literature.

The Greeks introduced all major kinds of literature: tragedy, comedy, epic, history, biography, prose narrative, lyric, and satire. The earliest forms of these were oral in nature.

The Romans also adapted the literary forms the Greeks produced.

Oral epics became material for Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, which expressed the values and imagination of the Western humanity and were also used by the Greeks as

models for conduct. The Iliad narrates the Trojan War and the siege of Troy; The Odyssey, which is a sequel to The Iliad, recounts the journey of Odysseus at the end of

the war. A common theme in Homer’s two epics is the quest for glory that is earned through a heroic battle. The Greeks called this kleos, which means “renown” or

“glory.”

Aside from Homer, major Greek writers during this period were Aesop, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, and Sophocles. Some of the major Roman writers of this period were Horace,

Virgil, and Ovid.

Medieval literature refers to works produced during the Middle Ages (500 AD–1500). This period marked the emergence of three dominant cultures: Christianity, Islam, and

the Germanic invaders.

Two characteristics of medieval literature are its focus on different religious beliefs and its concern on the use of physical force. Religious values were not universal, and some

traditions were in direct conflict with each other. For example, the epic poem Beowulf is a mix of Christianity and Germanic paganism.

The literature of this time also shows, for the most part, the lives of the aristocracy, who gained power through the use of the military. It also demonstrates the

inconsistencies of chivalry, problematizing personal bravery versus group needs, and the individual working out his or her destiny. These concerns are illustrated in

medieval works such as The Song of Roland and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

The literary forms dominant in this period are hymns, epic poems, elegies, ballads, and narrative poems.

The Middle Ages contributed significantly to literature its memorable characters: the eponymous Beowulf, Sir Gawain, Roland, Charlemagne, the lost souls of The Inferno, and

the pilgrims of The Canterbury Tales.

Below are some information about some works of medieval literature: a.  Beowulf

« Beowulf was set in Denmark, the land of Danes and Sweden, the land of Geats. It was a supernatural tale inspired by historical events. Beowulf, the hero of the story, was

described as having a hand grip equivalent to the strength of 30 men, which enabled him to slay monsters.

« Just like other heroic poems, Beowulf exhibited brutality, a common characteristic of its time when raids and bloody battles between tribes are a part of life. The characters

of Beowulf are pagans because it was set in fifth-century Scandinavia, a place that includes Sweden and Denmark. It was told orally by eighth-century Anglo-Saxons

until it was written down in the 12th century by an unknown English poet. By the time Beowulf was written down, Christianity was widespread because of the Norman

Conquest.

« The epic poem Beowulf is about its main character, Beowulf, who helped King Hrothgar of Danes in killing a demon named Grendel. Beowulf helped King Hrothgar because

his father owed the king a favor. During their hand-to-hand combat,

Beowulf succeeded in killing Grendel at the expense of his arm being ripped off.

« He then proceeds to kill Grendel’s mother who tried to avenge him. He jumps to a lake and finds the mother’s cave underneath it. He slays the monster using one of the

swords in its stash. Afterward, he goes home with his men and rules as King of the Geats for 50 years.

« Beowulf meets his match through a dragon that was woken by a thief. He faces the dragon with 11 warriors, along with the thief who guided them to the dragon’s lair. He

succeeds in killing the dragon but dies because of his wounds.

b.  La Chanson de Roland

« La Chanson de Roland is an Old French epic poem translated as The Song of Roland in English. The probable author of the poem was Turold, a Norman poet whose name

was introduced in the poem’s last line.

« The themes of medieval epics center on deeds or heroic figures. La Chanson de Roland is considered the earliest and greatest chanson de geste or French heroic poem.

« In the poem, Charles the Great (King of the Franks) and his army were marching through the passes of the Pyrenees. While on their journey, his rear guard captained by his

nephew named Roland, was attacked and decimated by the Basques inhabitants of the mountains, in the valley of Roncevaux. It is supposed that many popular songs

such as this sprang up about this disaster. The songs then depicted the ambush as a real battle.

« Its stanzas vary in length, and its lines make use of the repetition of the same vowel sounds, or assonance, in the middle of closely spaced words. Simple and full of splendor,

The Song of Roland stands as one of the greatest national poems in the world.

c.  Nibelungenlied

« The Nibelungenlied was a German epic poem, probably written in Austria during the early 13th century. The story has disparate elements because of its long history. Among

these elements are the word Nibelung, which was used as the name of Siegfried’s land and treasure in the first part and as an alternate name for the Burgundians in

the second part.

« It has themes of murder and revenge. The epic is divided into two parts. The first part revolves around the life and death of Prince Siegfried of the lower Rhine who fell in

love with Kriemhild, the Burgundian princess of Worms. The second part was about Kriemhild avenging Siegfried’s death. Their tragic destiny was revealed in

Kriemhild’s dream in her youth.

Renaissance means rebirth. The Renaissance period (1300–1600) was marked by the rebirth of the Greco-Roman literary tradition. Classical scholars, known as humanists,

revived and translated ancient texts. The humanists also used the Greek and Latin classics, along with traditional Christian thought, to teach people about human life.

Humanism, the belief that people could attain earthly perfection, was rampant among the intellectuals. The privileged people started touring other countries with the

intention of bringing back culture and ideologies from other parts of the world. Each country experienced its own kind of renaissance, or rebirth, a renewed passion

toward life and creative expression. The social divide caused by the feudal mode of living came to an unforeseen halt during this time and made the middle class

hopeful of what they could make of themselves. It was the time of optimism, for they believed that life was improving for the first time.

During the English Renaissance, one of the greatest struggles of artists and writers was the need to earn and sustain themselves through their craft. Talented and creative

individuals sustained themselves through the system of patronage. Patrons were people who lavished money and attention on artists who cater to their taste. One

example of this is William Shakespeare, who had Queen Elizabeth and King James I as his patrons as well as William Herbert, the Third Earl of Pembroke, among others.

The printing press is the greatest innovation of the Renaissance era, which resulted in a more cost- and time-efficient production of literature. This caused a higher percentage

of literacy among the masses. This innovation highly affected people’s attitude toward reading. Communal, individual, and silent reading became prominent among

people. Gradually, the oral tradition faded.

The age of Enlightenment (1600–1800) was a byproduct of the renaissance that birthed humanism. Thinking that they could be whatever they wanted to be, people proved it

through scientific and industrial progress. This period could be summed up as the celebration of different ideas. This made the cafés serve as the unofficial center of

this new movement, a place where people would read whatever literature available and debate about their needs and desires as a community or a population.

The Enlightenment was also the birthplace of many great thinkers who put their ideas into writing and made their thoughts available to historians of this century. The

rationalism and efforts toward social reform, utopian, and egalitarian society died down as fast as it emerged. Upheavals such as the French Revolution was a result of

the people’s idea that collectively the public can create change. It was the bloodshed in the French Revolution along with other upheavals that made people reevaluate

their ideas and started the end of the Enlightenment period. Here are examples of literary works during this period:

a.  Much Ado About Nothing

« This was considered as one of Shakespeare’s best comedies and was probably written between 1598 and 1599. It was first printed as a quarto or a booklet in 1600 and

reprinted in 1623 as a part of Shakespeare’s first folio. This play infused humor on serious topics like honor, shame, and court politics.

b.  Paradise Lost

« This is an epic poem about the Fall of Man, where John Milton, the writer, made Adam, Eve, Satan, and God his characters. It started with Satan’s realizing that he was in hell

and making his plan to spite God through Adam and Eve. The story went on as it was in the Bible. Satan tricked Eve into eating the fruit, and Adam also took a bite.

They got banished from paradise and had to endure suffering such as labor pains, sickness, and death.

« What made this epic different from the version in the Bible is that it discussed more about the motives behind the events that occurred in the Bible. He introduced

predestination, a belief that going to heaven is not achieved through good works or other things; rather it is decided before you were born. God’s foreknowledge was

also put into play. Despite knowing everything in this world, he still decided to place the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in paradise although he was aware that

Adam and Eve would disobey him.

« This epic stood out among its predecessors because of the fact that it was not about martial heroism. In this epic, there was no mortal hero to save a kingdom or win in a

war. For Milton, it was all about spiritual heroism or Christian heroism. Paradise Lost was characterized as an epic poem about patience because if only Adam and Eve

were patient enough, they would not have been thrown out of paradise. It might not be as exciting as battles, but for the Christian world, it is a turning point of their

history. The bigger effect is that aside from sin, death also entered the world.

c.  Gulliver’s Travels

« In this novel by Jonathan Swift, Gulliver traveled on four separate voyages and encountered different types of societies each time. Each journey is a metaphor for different

aspects of British society that the author wanted to criticize.

« Gulliver’s first voyage was to Lilliput. This journey narrated accounts of his life and his family. On his journey, his ship was wrecked, but he managed to swim to safety. He

was able to reach the shore of Lilliput where he was made a prisoner.

« He also had a journey to Brobdingnag. He encountered a great storm, leaving him onshore once again. This time, he was seized by a native who dragged him to a farmer’s

house where his adventures began.

« His third journey was to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan.

« His last journey started when he met the Houyhnhnms who represented an ideal rational existence and could well be a testament to Plato’s The Republic, which could well

be the dream of the people during this time.

III. Romanticism and Realism (1800–1920)

Romanticism is a literary movement against the aristocratic culture that started in the late 18th century. Romanticism uplifts the characters from humble backgrounds or the

common man and places importance on imagination and emotion. The works of early Romantics were seen as absurd and fantastic. It was the next generation of

romantics who will prove creativity and imagination can well blend with reality and composure. “For Novalis, imagination was able to restore the animistic feeling of

oneness with the universe that was destroyed by 200 years of mechanistic thinking and rational philosophizing.” (Travers 2001)

Poetry was prevalent during this time. It focused more on the individuality of a person more than society.
Realism, in contrast with romanticism, was the representation of reality. While romanticism beautifies the ugly, realism presents the truth with all its flaws. It strives to

present things as accurate and with the least subjectivity as possible. It greatly focused on the fidelity of facts.

Realism draws on the commonplace and the daily struggles of the common man. It focuses on documenting the real events and issues that happen to ordinary people. It also

makes people realize that ordinary life could also be meaningful. Realism focuses on groups of people in hopes to uncover who they really are and how others could

relate to them.

Traces of realism still exist today because people would like to read about other people who could well be their next-door neighbor or someone they work with. It still thrives

today because people want to know about the lives of characters who are relatable and realistic.

Here are some literary works written during this time:

a.  Debit and Credit

This German novel by Gustav Freytag was translated into almost all of the European languages. The novel celebrates the solid bourgeois qualities of the German

merchants as well as the relationships between the characters and their work. It tackles the great problem of the century, the interaction of modern industrialism in

the social life during that time.

b. “The World Is Too Much With Us”

Romanticism is characterized by the appreciation of nature, and this was presented by William Wordsworth in this poem. He wrote against the consumerism that came

with the industrial revolution during his time because earning and spending made people insensitive to the beauty of nature.

IV. Modernism and Postmodernism (1920–Present)

Modernism began in the early twentieth century through roughly 1965. This period was marked by sudden changes in man’s perspective of the world. The First World War

caused the formation of a new literary movement. There was a greater demand for all sorts of literature because of the higher literacy rate; however, it was quickly

supplied by the popular press. The refined intellectuals looked upon the new popular literature with scorn.

Modernism also challenged the prevailing order during its time but focused for the most part on experimentation and self-consciously breaking away from traditional forms.

The twentieth century brought about a cultural movement that not only questioned tradition but also suggested that knowledge, in fact, is constantly shifting and

changeable depending on who views it.

Various literary techniques were invented during this period: imagism, stream of consciousness, and the use of an unreliable narrator. Imagism refers to the literary

movement that focused on clarity and conciseness by using specific images. An example of this is Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro.” Stream of consciousness is a

technique in which a character’s thoughts and feelings are written in an uninterrupted flow (foregoing literary devices such as description and dialogue). A famous

example of this is Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. An unreliable narrator is a technique in point of view in which the speaker may or may not know that his or her

version of events is not entirely true. A contemporary example of this is Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day.

Postmodernism (1965–Present) shows a crisis of identity of the human being in ethnicity and sexuality, as well as the struggle for social and cultural acceptance in a

hypocritical society. Postmodern literary work does not pretend to be new and original; rather, it juxtaposes the old and the new to contextualize it in the readers’

minds.

Postmodernism is characterized by the use of paradox (self-contradictory statement), fragmentation (incompleteness whether in form or in content), and the unreliable

narrator. Following the atrocities committed in World War II, literature produced during this time also resisted the dogma of the traditions preceding it, particularly the

periods of Enlightenment and Modernism.

Postmodern writers tended to avoid “neat” endings and championed chance over craft. They also attempted to examine and blur the lines between high and low cultures.

Some

of the literary techniques frequently used during this time were pastiche (imitation and mixture of styles) and metafiction (self-aware fiction, either to parody or to depart

from literary conventions).

Here are some literary works written during this time:

a.  The Great Gatsby

« This novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald digs more into his characters than the plot. Character development plays a vital role in this novel. Symbolism and a fragmented way of

narrating are how the author eases the hard delivery of truths to the reader. The narrator, Nick, said, “I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled

by the inexhaustible variety of life.” This quote still resounds to the present day as it did at the time the novel was written. The lives of the characters are reflected in

that quote, and ironically, their life was full of a variety of repetitive things that exhausted them.

b.  Waiting for Godot

« This play by Samuel Beckett is about two hobos waiting for Godot by a sickly looking tree. The setting could best be interpreted as the place without Godot. It is also where

the hobos contemplated and argued about hanging themselves. The hobos could be viewed as a symbolism of the thieves by Jesus’ side on the cross as well as every

person in the world and Godot as a symbolism for God. Like a circle, the action of the play also presents something that keeps on going and is without an end. The

tragedy of the story is in the fact that the hobos are unable to wait for Godot and the fact that Godot will not arrive.

« The play is true to the postmodern style of incorporating past literary movements as well as other influences from popular culture such as red-nosed circus clowns,

traditional farce routines, and James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake.