American and British Literature
план-конспект урока английского языка (11 класс) по теме

1. From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance.

2. The End of the Middle Ages.
3. Renascence and Reformation
4. Prose and Poetry from Sir Thomas North to Michael Drayton.
5. The Drama to 1642.
6. Cavalier and Puritan.
7. The Age of Dryden.
8. From Steele and Addison to Pope and Swift.
9.  The Age of Johnson.
10. The Period of the French Revolution.
11. The Romantic Revival.
12. The Victorian Age.

American

13. Colonial and Revolutionary Literature .
14. Early National Literature.
15. Later National Literature. 

British Literature refers to literature associated with the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. By far the largest part of British literature is written in the English language, but there are bodies of written works in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Jèrriais, Guernésiais and other languages. Northern Ireland has a literary tradition in English, Ulster Scots and Irish. Irish writers have also played an important part in the development of English-language literature. Literature in the Celtic languages of the islands is the oldest surviving vernacular literature in Europe. The Welsh literary tradition stretches from the 6th century to the 21st century. The oldest Welsh literature does not belong to the territory we know as Wales today, but rather to northern England and southern Scotland. But though it is dated to be from the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries, it has survived only in 13th- and 14th-century manuscript copies. The earliest form of English literature developed after the settlement of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes in England after the withdrawal of the Romans and is known as Old English or Anglo-Saxon. The earliest form of English literature developed after the settlement of the Saxons and other Germanic tribes in England after the withdrawal of the Romans and is known as Old English or Anglo-Saxon is Beowulf. Following the Norman Conquest of 1066, the development of Anglo-Norman literature in the Anglo-Norman realm introduced literary trends from Continental Europe such as the chanson de geste. The most significant Middle English author was Geoffrey Chaucer who was active in the late 14th century. Often regarded as the father of English literature. The English Renaissance dated from the early 16th century to the early 17th century when the sonnet form and other Italian literary influences arrived in English literature. The sonnet was introduced into English by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century. English Renaissance theatre was among the most important literary achievements of the English Renaissance. William Shakespeare, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language, wrote over 35 plays in several genres, including tragedy, comedy and history. When America was discovered there were many emigrants who brought their history, language, customs and traditions with themselves. The religious disputes that prompted settlement in America were also topics of early writing. A journal written by John Winthrop, The History of New England, discussed the religious foundations of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Edward Winslow also recorded a diary of the first years after the Mayflower's arrival. Other religiously influenced writers included Increase Mather and William Bradford, author of the journal published as a History of Plymouth Plantation, 1620–47. Puritan poetry was highly religious in nature, and one of the earliest books of poetry published was the Bay Psalm Book, a set of translations of the biblical Psalms. Of the second generation of New England settlers, Cotton Mather stands out as a theologian and historian, who wrote the history of the colonies with a view to God's activity in their midst and to connecting the Puritan leaders with the great heroes of the Christian faith.  Although America and Great Britain are separated by an ocean, they are connected at the pen, so to speak. The similarities in their literature are more numerous than their differences. This is partly due to their common heritage, America having originally been a colony of England. Even beyond that, though, the literature of both countries was influenced by some of the same factors.  One such factor was the Industrial Revolution. The influence of that revolution upon both countries was significant. Authors of the era on both shores capitalized upon the horrors of the Industrial Revolution, largely to the exclusion of its rather substantial benefits. In England, books specifically detailing the miserable aspects of factory work abounded. Some of the evils that ensued from the revolution, such as child labor and the impersonal greed of the upper classes, were prominently featured. These novels were so heart-rending that they eventually resulted in many changes in the factory environment based on human rights issues as well as fostering an appreciation for democracy.  A bit later, a similar revolution occurred in America and was likewise reflected in the literature of the day. What had been a rural society was becoming an urban society due to industrial innovations, and many of the same ills depicted in England's revolution became a theme in American literature. It seemed to be struggling against inner demons, and was often cast as archetypes that represented man wrestling with the evil within or with the problems of the ages. The difference between these two aspects of romanticism might be related to the different situations of the two countries at the time. England was a long-established country with a settled community life on its way out of years of oppression with hope for the future, while America was still a new country in the throes of unsettled government and uncertain prospects. American novelists were still living in the midst of revolution in a country that was for all intents and purposes a vast wilderness, and a society where the familiar class lines and comfortable traditions they had in England no longer existed. The main characters in American romantic novels tended to be haunted loners in ominous situations. Some of the novels were really horror stories, and many novels were filled with heavy symbolic imagery that was intended to convey a philosophy or indirect statement of purpose. Although gothic novels in both countries had a tendency toward horror, mystery, and the supernatural, there was an absence of romance in American romantic novels, unlike the gothic.   

American literature is the written or literary work produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States. During its early history, America was a series of British colonies on the eastern coast of the present-day United States. Therefore, its literary tradition begins as linked to the broader tradition of English literature.  However, unique American characteristics and the breadth of its production usually now cause it to be considered a separate path and tradition.  Owing to the large immigration to Boston in the 1630s, the high articulation of Puritan cultural ideals, and the early establishment of a college and a printing press in Cambridge, the New England colonies have often been regarded as the center of early American literature. However, the first European settlements in North America had been founded elsewhere many years earlier. Towns older than Boston include the Spanish settlements at Saint Augustine and Santa Fe, the Dutch settlements at Albany and New Amsterdam, as well as the English colony of Jamestown in present-day Virginia. During the colonial period, the printing press was active in many areas, from Cambridge and Boston to New York, Philadelphia, and Annapolis.  If we compare the beginning of the novel in both countries, novels appeared at the end of the 16th century but it was in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that the nation’s first novels were published in America. These fictions were too lengthy to be printed as manuscript or public reading. Publishers took a chance on these works in hopes they would become steady sellers and need to be reprinted. This was a good bet as literacy rates soared in this period among both men and women. To make my story short I must say that this theme is endless, we can write more and more but it’ better to read more and more British and American Literature.

                                             Literature:

1. Robert DeMaria (2001). British Literature: An Anthology. Blackwell Publishing.                                                                                                                   2.  Schweitzer, Ivy. “Review.” Early American Literature. March 2010.