Foreign literature. 19th century

English literature has a number of specific features that are generated by the unique culture, social and political development of the country. This is in the 19th century. determined the problems of literature and the forms that it took. The novelists of England, and it is the novel that is primarily developing at this stage, did not look for their heroes among bankers, aristocrats, or those who sought to make a career, as in France - their heroes also became small property owners, as in J. Eliot's ("The Mill") on the Floss"), and even workers, like E. Gaskell ("Mary Barton") or Charles Dickens ("Hard Times").
But social protest in English literature, unlike French literature, manifests itself differently. The year 1641, when the king was executed and a constitutional monarchy was created, changed the country's political system. The topic of violent regime change is absent in English literature, since no new Dantons or Cromwells arise, although the extremism of hungry workers sometimes leads to attempts on the lives of those in power. For English political life become current problems unemployment and electoral reform, “Corn Laws” that create hunger for the poor and wealth for the estate owners. The poetry of the Chartists carries rebellious sentiments. One of the first places in this series is occupied by the poems of T. Goode, in particular, those quoted in the introductory chapter; The poems of K. J. Rossetti are dedicated to the difficult situation of the workers.
Judicial reform, like the reform of the education system, turns out to be especially relevant for English society. As E. Sayo wrote: “Until 1832 in England, it never occurred to anyone to organize a state system of royal education.” The theme of school, like the theme of personality education, has become one of the central ones in English literature. The genre of “novel of education” developed especially intensively in England.
Discoveries in the field of science give birth new type thinking. “Fundamentals of Geology” (1830-1833) by Charles Lyell, as well as “Rudiments of Creation” (1844) by R. Chambers, testified to the continuity of development of the animal and plant world. Charles Darwin's book “The Origin of Species by natural selection"(1859) made a revolution in the consciousness of not only the British, because its conclusions contradicted the Bible.
The teachings of economists I. Bentham, D. Mill, J. S. Mill, J. B. Say aimed to explain the laws of social life.
A. Smith was the first to draw attention to the fact that the basis of a country’s well-being is not reserves of money, but the products of human labor. The question of the working person became on the agenda. They solved it in different ways, sometimes under the influence of the socialists A. C. Saint-Simon and C. Fourier. Of particular importance were the works of Robert Owen (1771 - 1858), who in his work “ A New Look on society, or Experiments on the principles of education of human character" (1813-1816), based on the belief in the possibility of improvement human personality, assumed that the rich would come to the aid of the poor and create conditions that could destroy such a sharp division of classes.
The desire of the oppressed masses to achieve a change in their situation leads to the drawing up of the Charter. The English word charter gave its name to the political movement of workers in the first half of the century. The charter was written with the participation of Owen's followers, and the peak of Chartism was 1848. It was then that the confrontation between rich and poor sometimes takes on particularly acute forms: in the novel Mary Barton, the strikers decide to kill the owner. The extreme tension of the situation is reflected in Dickens's novel Hard Times. The literature of England at this stage included unemployment and workhouses (“Oliver Twist” by Dickens), nicknamed prisons for the poor (vagrants were forcibly placed there, and vagrancy was punishable by law - remember poor Joe from “Bleak House”!), schools where children were beaten , but they don’t teach, and if they teach, it’s something that is very far from life (“Nicholas Nickleby” by Dickens, “Jane Eyre” by Charles Bronte).
The problems of unemployment and hunger gave rise to the problem of overpopulation and excess labor. Priest T.R. Malthus, with the most noble intentions, came to the conclusion about the need to reduce the birth rate in the families of the poor, and suggested that those who could not get work in their homeland move to the colonies. However, his ideas were met with indignation by most of society (The Bells and Bleak House by Charles Dickens).
One more feature of English life should be noted, without which the style of English realism will not be fully understood. The 19th century is the century of discoveries by archaeologists who reconstructed the past based on the objects they discovered, first of all G. Schliemann. Troy and Babylon received their rebirth in this century. Attention to the material world first acquired special significance in the work of W. Scott, but the novels of the period under study (primarily Charles Dickens) are unthinkable without descriptions of the space in which the heroes live: it becomes a means of characterizing a person.
The period from 1837 to 1902 in England is called Victorian, because during these long years Queen Victoria ruled the country. Victorian literature was distinguished by its desire to safely resolve conflicts, although in the works themselves life situations remained extremely tense; Victorianism is characterized by a belief in the inviolability of moral laws.
Origins realism XIX V. should be sought in the works of writers of the previous century. The works of G. Fielding “The History of Jonathan Wilde the Great” and “The History of Tom Jones, Foundling” reproduced real pictures of everyday life and made one see the hidden ulcers of the world. The comic beginning of his work was primarily developed by Dickens, as well as by E. Trollope. “The Journey of Humphrey Clinker” by T. Smollett, where the comic scenes are no less significant, opened up the possibility of polyphony, and therefore polysemy, requiring the reader’s reflection, because the narration is from the perspective of several characters created a “volume” of the picture, depriving it of moral monolinearity.
The psychologism of S. Richardson's novels is developed in the works of J. Austen, and then by S. Bronte, J. Eliot, E. Trollope, the late Dickens and Thackeray. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the influence of the social orientation of the novels of W. Godwin, who depicted the life of people from the very bottom of society.
V. Scott, who drew attention to the connections of the individual with his time, considered it necessary to convey the character of the character by describing the environment around him objective world, also laid the foundations for the next stage of English literature. Romantic literature, using complex philosophical symbolism (S.T. Coleridge, P.B. Shelley), revealed the ideas of the work more deeply. Romantic contrasts, unusual situations and characters also had a noticeable impact on the literature of the 1830-1860s.
One of the features of English literature is that among its writers there are many talented women: the Bronte sisters, J. Eliot, E. Gaskell. This creates a specific tone, manifested in special attention to female psychology, family and family relations, where the theme of love, its joys, mistakes and sacrifices occupies a significant place, although the most acute social contradictions attract the attention of women writers no less than men.
Connections between the creative consciousness of writers and artists in England in the 1830s - 1860s. help to more fully imagine the life of the country.
They go through a number of significant stages that reveal the evolution of art, subject to changes in public interests.
John Constable (1776-1837) in the 1830s is looking for new ways: he depicts the Salisbury Cathedral from different points, anticipating the discoveries of the Impressionists.
William Turner (1775-1851), not without the influence of the industrial revolution of the mid-century, creates the painting “Rain, Steam and Speed” (1844), introducing a steam locomotive rushing across a bridge into a landscape with blurred forms. Previously, only ships could appear in his paintings.
Man and his spiritual life back in the 18th century. found their embodiment in portraiture. Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) and Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) preserved the spiritual image of the English of that time in their canvases. At the end of the century, Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) entered the ranks of the most famous portrait masters, who developed the traditions of his famous predecessors and experienced some influence of romanticism: the faces of the English in his paintings help to understand the life of the country at the turn of the century.
William Hogarth (1697-1764) was a master of caricature. The broken lines in his paintings convey the lack of harmony in the life of society and the tragic essence of the existence of an individual. His tradition was developed by Thomas Rowlandson (1756 - 1827) and James Gillray (1757-1815). Without taking into account this trend in English art, it is difficult to imagine the illustrators of Dickens's novels (J. Cruikshank, first of all), and even the satirical figures created by the writer himself.
Novels by English writers introduce the reader to the world of ordinary people, which is why genre painting is of particular interest. The painting by David Wilkie (1785 - 1841) “The First Earrings” (1835) is devoid of social content: an elderly lady with glasses pierces the ear of a pretty young girl. The girl is scared and at the same time she understands that this is already an entry into such a tempting “adult” life.
Purpose genre painting was seen to satisfy the needs of the philistines and bourgeois, but it conveys that everyday life that became the content of the works of English realists.
Within the framework of Victorianism, the so-called “medieval revival” is developing, which is essentially associated with post-romanticism. But unlike the art of romanticism at this stage, the Middle Ages, while remaining an ideal time, because they were seen as the basis of spirituality, are also perceived as the period of the highest development of art, filled with a high spirit. The early Renaissance, pre-Raphael, seems to be free from canons, and Raphael is recognized as the pinnacle of the Renaissance - his followers see only the use of his discoveries. The “Medieval Revival” was reflected in painting and poetry.
The most significant phenomenon in art was the emergence of the Pre-Raphaelite group. In 1848, students of the Royal Academy of Arts, the youngest of whom was 19 and the eldest 21, abandoned the canons of the Academy and founded their union. It included seven people: they were no strangers to mysticism, and the number seven acquired a special meaning for them. The name of the union is associated with the name of Raphael Santi (1483 - 1520), but Sandro Botticelli (1444-1510), the author of the Annunciation, was among those who, according to the Pre-Raphaelites, created true masterpieces. They were especially close to the ideas early Renaissance about “the anthropomorphic nature of the world around man” and “the cosmic nature of man in the original, Greek meaning of this word, that is, his divine beauty as an expression of the absolute harmony of external and internal, bodily and spiritual, beautiful and good”1. Petrarch's idea that “love is an all-encompassing, pure, youthful feeling that naturally and very humanly idealizes a woman” became one of the postulates of the Pre-Raphaelites.
William Holman Hunt (1827 - 1910) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 - 1882) were the inspiration for the movement. In their work, the Pre-Raphaelites wanted to convey the truth of feelings, individual movements of the soul.
Following Constable in some ways, the Pre-Raphaelites believed that every bush, every leaf, no matter how far it was located from the foreground of the picture, should be painted with extreme precision. They looked for opportunities to capture an unusual play of light in paintings, they tried to convey everything on their canvases. bright colors life, so they sometimes turned to the exoticism of the East, to the times of chivalry. But the Pre-Raphaelites faced not only purely artistic tasks: they were convinced that art should awaken high feelings, educate a person. Therefore, in their paintings there were often biblical scenes or open moralizing in genre scenes. Allegory and symbol, as in the early Renaissance, created the deep meanings of works.
The Pre-Raphaelites first made their presence known at the exhibition of 1849. The first paintings by John Everett Millais (182^-1896) and W. H. Hunt, largely thematically related to romanticism, were received calmly. The scandal arose after the appearance of Milles’s paintings “Christ in parental home"and Rossetti's "Annunciation"


(both 1850). The artists were accused of simplifying and reducing the pathos of the Gospel text. The painting by Milles depicts the workshop of the carpenter Joseph, with a tool in his dirty hands, he leaned over his work table, under which there were shavings lying, and little Jesus in a nightgown, with a sleepy face, fell to Mary, tenderly, humanly, kissing his barely awakened child . “The Annunciation” introduces the viewer to a poor house, where Mary sits on a bed covered with a simple white sheet in a nightgown, and an angel brings her the news of her chosen one. The girl’s face shows fear and self-absorption. This is not a canonical image of the Virgin Mary, but a picture from the life of an ordinary person to whom his unusual path is revealed. Even Charles Dickens was outraged by such a simplification of biblical stories. Only the intercession of the most prominent and authoritative critic D. Ruskin made society see the significance of art of a new type.
The exhibition of 1852, which featured paintings by Hunt “The Hired Shepherd” and Milles “Ophelia,” forced recognition of the emergence of a new movement in painting.
"The Hired Shepherd" (1851) by Hunt opens the series genre paintings Pre-Raphaelites, in which edification is conveyed with almost allegorical clarity. In the painting “Shame Awakened” (1853), he depicts a young man lounging in a chair and a woman, frightened and alarmed, who breaks free from his embrace. On the carpet, a black cat is about to catch a bird, a dirty glove is lying nearby, and on the wall you can see part of a painting with the title “Woman Caught in Adultery.” Both works have a bright festive color. Thus, in the painting “Awakened Shame,” all the details, right down to the cuff button on a man’s sleeve or the hairs of a cat’s whiskers, are drawn out extremely clearly. The picture is overloaded with pieces of furniture that help to understand the social status of the characters and the nature of their interests.

PREFACE

This textbook is intended for students of the humanities faculties of pedagogical universities and for students of English literature in the faculties of foreign languages. It presents the main phenomena of the history of English literature from its origins in the early Middle Ages to the present. The development of one of the richest literatures in the world is traced, which gave humanity Chaucer, Shakespeare, Defoe, Swift, Byron, Dickens, Shaw and many other wonderful novelists, playwrights and poets. The work of each of them is associated with a certain era, reflects the characteristics of their time, conveys the thoughts, feelings and aspirations of their contemporaries. But, becoming the property of national culture, great works of art do not lose their significance for subsequent eras. Their value is eternal.

English literature is an integral part of world culture. The best traditions of English art have enriched world literature; The works of the masters of English prose and poetry, translated into many languages, won recognition far beyond the borders of England.

The acquaintance of Russian readers with Shakespeare and Defoe, Byron and Dickens has its own history. Their work, like the legacy of many other English writers, has long enjoyed recognition and love in Russia. Shakespeare's tragedies were played by the greatest actors of the Russian theater; Belinsky wrote about English realism, comparing it with the Gogolian trend in Russian literature; Byron's poetry attracted Pushkin; L. Tolstoy admired Dickens's novels. In turn, Russian literature, its brilliant writers Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov influenced the work of many English writers.

The literature of England has gone through a long and complex path of development; it is connected with the history of the country and its people, it conveys the peculiarities of the English national character. Its originality was manifested in medieval poetry, in the poems of Chaucer, in the bold flight of thought of Thomas More, in the comedies and tragedies of Shakespeare; it was reflected in the satire of Swift, in the comic epics of Fielding, in the rebellious spirit of the romantic poetry of Byron, in the paradoxes of Shaw and the humor of Dickens.

The following main periods are distinguished in the history of English literature: the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 17th century, the Enlightenment of the 18th century, the 19th century, the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, the 20th century. (periods 1918-1945 and 1945-1990s).

In its main points, the periodization of English literature corresponds to the periodization of the literary process of other European countries (France, Germany, Italy, etc.). However, the historical development of England is characterized by some features related to the fact that the bourgeois revolution occurred in England in the middle of the 17th century, i.e. much earlier than in France. The development of capitalism proceeded at a faster pace in England. England has become a kind of classical country of capitalist relations with all their inherent contradictions, which also affected the nature of its literary development.

English literature developed in Great Britain. Its origins originate in the oral folk poetry of the tribes that inhabited the British Isles. The original inhabitants of these lands - the Celts - were under Roman rule (I-V centuries), then were attacked by the Anglo-Saxons (5th century), who, in turn, in the 11th century. were conquered by the descendants of the Scandinavian Vikings - the Normans. The language of the Anglo-Saxon tribes was subject to Celtic, Latin and Scandinavian influences. The mixture of different ethnic principles determined the originality of the literature of the early Middle Ages.

The formation of the English nation and national literary language took place in the 14th century. The establishment of literary English is associated with the activities of Chaucer, whose work marked the transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. His “Canterbury Tales” is an important stage in the development of English literature; The process of formation of English realism with Chaucer’s inherent skill in depicting characters, humor, and satirical ridicule of social vices originates in them. During the Renaissance, English literature is characterized by the intensive development of philosophical thought, especially clearly represented in the works of Bacon, the founder of English materialism, and in More's Utopia, which proclaimed the possibility of a society without private property. More made important contributions to the development socialist ideas and laid the foundation for the utopian novel of modern times.

Renaissance English poetry, distinguished by its diversity of genres, reached a high level. In the work of the humanist poets Wyeth, Surry, Sidney and Spencer, the art of the sonnet, allegorical and pastoral poem, and elegy reached great heights. The sonnet form developed by Sidney was adopted by Shakespeare, and the “Spenserian stanza” became the property of the poetry of the romantics - Byron and Shelley. In the context of the national upsurge of the Renaissance, English theater and drama were flourishing. Green, Kyd, and Marlowe prepared the dramatic art of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's global significance lies in the realism and nationalism of his work. A humanist writer whose works were the pinnacle of English poetry and dramaturgy of the Renaissance, Shakespeare conveyed the movement of history, the turning point character and tragic contradictions of his time, addressed the most pressing political problems, and created unforgettably bright, multifaceted characters of the heroes. The problem of “man and history” became the main one in his work. Shakespeare's legacy is an ever-living and inexhaustible source of thoughts, plots, and images for writers of subsequent generations. The Shakespearean tradition - the tradition of realism and nationalism - is immortal. She largely determined the development of drama, lyrics and the novel of modern times.

The bourgeois revolution of the 17th century played an important role in the history of England and the development of literature. The humanistic ideals of the Renaissance came into conflict with the inhumane essence of the bourgeois order. And yet they continued their life in the works of writers who reflected the rise of the people's liberation movement and the intensification of the class struggle. The focus of the socio-political, aesthetic and ethical ideas of this turbulent era was the work of Milton - the largest public figure, poet and thinker of the 17th century. His works reflected the events of the English bourgeois revolution and the mood of the masses. Milton's poetry is a link between the cultural traditions of the Renaissance and the educational thought of the 18th century. The images of rebellious tyrant fighters he created laid the foundations of a new tradition, continued by the English romantics XIX century- Byron and Shelley.

Milton's poems and lyrics, Bunyan's allegorical stories, Donne's poems, treatises, religious and political sermons, the first experiments in English literary criticism, belonging to Dryden - all of this together constitutes a unique genre system of English literature of the 17th century.

XVIII century - this is the age of Enlightenment, the age of the industrial revolution, important achievements in technology and science. Enlightenment became widespread in European countries; it was an advanced ideological movement associated with the liberation struggle aimed at replacing feudalism with capitalist forms of relations. The Enlighteners believed in the power of reason and subjected it to critical judgment of the existing order.

In the conditions of England, where the bourgeois revolution occurred earlier than in other countries (with the exception of the Netherlands), the 18th century. became a period of strengthening of the bourgeois order. The uniqueness of the literature of the era is connected with this. The ideas and culture of the Enlightenment originated here earlier than on the continent, and the contradictions of the Enlightenment ideology became more pronounced, which is fully explained by the inconsistency of bourgeois reality with the ideal of a harmonious society. Literary trends of the 18th century. - classicism (the poetry of Pope), educational realism (the pinnacle of which is the work of Fielding), sentimentalism, which developed as a reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment (Thomson, Jung, Gray, Goldsmith, Stern). The genre forms of literature of the English Enlightenment are diverse: pamphlet, essay, farce, comedy, bourgeois drama, “ballad opera”, poem, elegy. The leading genre is the novel, represented in its various modifications in the works of Defoe, Swift, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett, Goldsmith, Stern.

The traditions of the educational novel continued their life in the works of English critical realists of the 19th century. -Dickens and Thackeray; Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" marked the beginning of the development of "Robinsonades" in world literature; Stern's psychologism became a school of excellence for novelists of subsequent generations. At the turn of the XVIII-XIX centuries. A new direction is being formed in English literature - romanticism.

The peculiarities of the socio-political life of England determined the existence of the romantic movement for a longer period than in other European countries. Its beginning is associated with the pre-romanticism of the 18th century, the final stage dates back to the end of the 19th century. The heyday of romanticism, which emerged as a special movement under the influence of the French bourgeois revolution of 1789-1794, occurred in late XVIII - early XIX V.

The originality of the romantic movement is determined by the transitional nature of the era, the replacement of feudal society by bourgeois society, which was not accepted and condemned by the romantics. Romanticism in England with particular force reflected the alienation of personality, the fragmentation of consciousness and psychology of an individual living in a period of transitional and unstable times, full of tragic contradictions, an intense struggle between the new and the old. In romantic art, there was a desire to depict the individual as valuable in itself, living with his own bright inner world.

The transitional and preparatory stage in the formation of romanticism as a reaction to the Enlightenment was pre-romanticism, represented in England by the work of such writers and poets as Godwin, Chatterton, Radcliffe, Walpole, Blake. The pre-romanticists contrasted the rationalistic aesthetics of classicism with the emotional principle, the sensitivity of the sentimentalists with the mystery and enigma of passions; They are characterized by an interest in folklore.

The formation of the aesthetic views and principles of the English romantics is determined both by the peculiarities of their contemporary reality and by the nature of their attitude to the philosophical and aesthetic concepts of the Enlightenment. The optimistic ideas of the enlighteners, their belief in the possibility of social improvement in accordance with the laws of reason, were critically revised by the romantics. The views of enlighteners on human nature: the romantics were not satisfied with the rational-materialistic interpretation of man and his existence. They emphasized the emotional principle in a person, not the mind, but the imagination, the contradictions inherent in the inner world of a person, constant intense quests, the rebellion of the spirit, combined with aspiration to the ideal and a sense of irony, an understanding of the impossibility of achieving it.

The work of the English romantics is influenced by the national tradition of fantastic-utopian, allegorical and symbolic depiction of life, the tradition of a special dramatic disclosure of lyrical themes. At the same time, educational ideas are also strong (in Byron, Scott, Hazlitt).

The Romantics were united in their desire to pave the way for new art. However, sharp aesthetic polemics never ceased between writers of different ideological and political orientations. Ideological and philosophical disagreements and differences gave rise to several movements within romanticism. In English romanticism, the boundaries between movements were very clearly defined. In the literature of England of the Romantic era, the “Lake School” (“Leucists”), to which Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey belonged, stood out; revolutionary romantics - Byron and Shelley; London romantics - Keate, Lamb, Hazlitt. The combination of romanticism with pronounced features of realism is characteristic of the work of Scott, the creator of the historical novel.

The genre system of romanticism is characterized mainly by a variety of poetic forms (lyric poems, lyric-epic and satirical poems, philosophical poems, novels in verse, etc.). A significant contribution to the development of the novel was the work of Scott, whose historicism played an important role in the formation of the realistic novel of the 19th century. In the 30-40s. XIX century Critical realism is established as the leading trend in English literature. It reaches its heyday during the period of the highest rise of the Chartist movement - in the second half of the 40s.

Critical realism is formed on the basis of the cultural achievements of previous eras, absorbs the traditions of educational realism and romanticism; At the same time, the development of realism was marked by the emergence of a new aesthetics, new principles for the depiction of man and reality. The most important object artistic image a person becomes in his connection with the specific historical conditions of existence. Personality is shown in its conditioning by the social environment. Social determinism, which has become a fundamental principle for critical realists, is combined with historicism as a specific system that helps to reveal the patterns of phenomena in reality. In English art, the movement towards establishing relationships between the individual and society began long before the 19th century. However, only in the 19th century. Dickens and Thackeray, Bronte and Gaskell were able to show their heroes as organically included in the social structure of contemporary England.

In the history of England mid-19th V. - a period of intense social and ideological struggle. At this time, a galaxy of Chartist poets and publicists (Jones, Linton, Garney and others) appeared in England. Chartist literature adopted and continued the traditions of democratic art of the 18th century. (Godwin, Paine), revolutionary poetry and journalism of the romantics (Byron, Shelley). The innovation of Chartist literature was manifested in the creation of the image of a proletarian fighter.

In the second half of the 19th century. New trends emerged in the literary process in England. In the works of J. Eliot, and later in the works of Meredith, Butler and Hardy, new principles for creating character, depiction inner world person. Satirical sharpness and journalistic passion are replaced by closer attention to the sphere of the spiritual life of the heroes, through the prism of which the conflicts of reality are revealed. The peculiarities of the literature of this period were manifested in the process of its psychologization, in the dramatization of the novel, the intensification of its tragic beginning and bitter irony.

At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. The literary process in England is characterized by the intensity and complexity of its development. Aesthetic subjectivism is defended by Pater, who influenced Oscar Wilde; “literature of action” is represented by Kipling; the socialist ideal is proclaimed by Morris; the traditions of the realistic novel are refracted in the works of Bennett and Galsworthy.

First World War 1914-1918 marked the beginning of a new period in history and literature. The flourishing of English modernism is associated with the activities of Joyce, Eliot, Woolf and Lawrence. Their work revealed new artistic thinking, a new artistic language. During the period between the two world wars, writers of the older generation continued their creative path - Shaw, Wells, Galsworthy, Forster. In the 20th century and especially intensely after the Second World War, the British Empire was going through a period of its collapse. The national liberation struggle of the peoples of colonial and dependent countries changed the position of Great Britain on the world stage. It lost its position as a colonial power, which could not but have a significant impact on the restructuring of the national self-awareness of the British, stimulating the desire to realize the novelty of the current situation in the world and within the country and its “English essence.”

Hopes associated with the end of the war gave way to disappointment; unsettlement younger generation evoked moods of criticism, irritation, nostalgia, and deep dissatisfaction. The galaxy of “angry young writers” is a characteristic phenomenon in the literary life of post-war England in the 50s. In the 60-70s. The attention of many writers was attracted by the problem of the effectiveness of scientific and technological achievements for the destinies of mankind. Developing in conditions of aggravated social and racial contradictions, the labor and student movements, literature could not help but react to the instability of the emerging situation. The process of searching for a unifying “national idea” begins. Deindustrialization gave rise to a return to the dream of a “merry old England”, opposed to the cult of technicization, which did not live up to the hopes placed on it.

IN genre system English literature modern era the leading place, as in previous eras, belongs to the novel. The modern novel exhibits various and at the same time interconnected features genre typology(epic and dramatic novel, panoramic and metaphorical, lyrical and documentary, intensive and extensive, centripetal and centrifugal, objective and subjective). The attraction to dramatic and tragic structure is combined in it with a satirical beginning. The form of the epic cycle develops. The largest English novelists in modern English literature are Green, Waugh, Snow, Golding, Murdoch, Spark, Fowles. Among playwrights, Osborne, Bond and Pinter gained wide fame; Poets include Robert Graves and Dylan Thomas.

SUBJECTS OF REPORTS

Literature of Great Britain

I. The Middle Ages in England

"Beowulf" as a medieval monument heroic epic. The plot of Beowulf. Pagan and Christian motives in the poem. Time in Beowulf. Main themes. Alliterative verse in Beowulf. Kennings.

Late Middle Ages in England. J. Chaucer and his “Canterbury Tales”. Compositional construction. "The Canterbury Tales" as an encyclopedia of the morals of English medieval society. Pilgrimage motive. Genre originality of The Canterbury Tales. The Chaucerian Tradition in English Literature.

The novel “Le Morte d'Arthur” by T. Malory. Historical prototype and historical chronicles. Depiction of chivalry in the novel. Topic of the Round Table. Holy Grail Cup. The conflict between Lancelot and Gawain is like a struggle between two worldviews. Mythological motives in the novel "Le Morte d'Arthur".

II. Revival in England

Features of the Renaissance in England. The difference between Renaissance humanism and bourgeois humanism of the 18th century. J. Colet and the Oxford Humanist Circle.

K. Marlowe and his tragedy “The History of Doctor Faustus” (or the tragedy “Tamerlane the Great”). Aesthetics of Marlowe. The theme of limitlessness human knowledge in Faust. Marlowe's innovations in the interpretation of: a) Faust and b) hell (compared to the folk novel). Dramatic exposition in Faust. Compositional structure of “Faust” and medieval morality.

W. Shakespeare. Biography. Theater and intellectual life London. Periodization of creativity.

Historical chronicles. "Richard III". Richard as a "Titan of the Renaissance" Duality in Richard's portrayal: back side titanism. "Richard III" as a monodrama. Shakespeare and Pushkin (“The Stone Guest” and “Boris Godunov”).

Tragedy "Hamlet". Hamlet and Macbeth: Antagonists. Hamlet and Elsinore: attitude to power. Hamlet is on the verge of two worlds. Hamlet: participation in the unreal (Shadow of Hamlet's father). Ophelia's problem.

The tragedy "Macbeth". Macbeth and Richard III. The other world in Macbeth: three prophetic witches. Macbeth and Hamlet. Shakespearean hierarchy: participation in the otherworldly. The tragedy of Macbeth: a hero overcome by evil. Leitmotif images.

Comedy. general characteristics. Mainstream comedy plot. Comedy hero. Comedy love affair. The difference between Shakespeare's comedies and the Spanish "cloak and sword" comedies (Lope de Vega) and from the comedies of French classicism (Molière). "Dream in summer night": parallelism of love stories. Love metamorphoses. Pastoral context. The motive of friendship. The image of Falstaff in the works of Shakespeare. Falstaffian background. "The Merry Wives of Windsor": Falstaff in love.

III. English literature of the 17th century

English poetry of the 17th century: the work of metaphysicians and gentlemen. J. Donn and B. Johnson.

J. Milton and his poem “ Lost heaven" Milton's verse and Shakespeare's verse. "Paradise Lost" as a Christian epic. Milton's polemics with Calvinism. Main theme. Images of God and Satan.

Literature of the Restoration era. "The Pilgrim's Progress" by J. Bunyan. "Hudibras" by S. Butler.

Classicism in England in the second half of the 17th century. “An Essay on Dramatic Poetry” by J. Dryden. "Heroic Plays" by J. Dryden.

Comedy writers of the Restoration period: J. Etheridge, W. Wycherley and W. Congreve. General characteristics of comedies. Problems of comedy: life in aristocratic London. Typology of heroes. The difference between the heroes of Etheridge and Wycherley from the heroes of Cogreave. “Double game” and “This is what they do in the world” by W. Congreve: characteristics of a secular society.

IV. English literature of the 18th century

Age of Enlightenment. Formation of educational trends in English literature. Main features early period the Age of Enlightenment in England. Characteristic features of English philosophical thought of the Enlightenment.

General characteristics of English classicism of the 18th century. “The Stealing of a Lock” by A. Pop. Satirical trends in journalism by D. Addison and R. Steele.

English educational novel. Formation of the genre. “Novel-chatter” with the reader. Typology of the English educational novel. Three stages in the development of the English educational novel.

The first stage in the development of the English educational novel: Defoe and Swift. J. Swift. Periodization of creativity. Early Swift: pamphlets “The Battle of the Books” and “The Tale of the Barrel.” The artistic merits of Swift's journalism. Swift's importance as a satirical poet. The novel "Gulliver's Travels" as a satirical summary of Swift's contemporary England. Genre originality of Gulliver's Travels. The evolution of the image of Gulliver. The realistic basis of Swift's fiction. Features of Swift's aesthetics. Swift's predecessors. Swiftian tradition in world literature.

D. Defoe. Defoe's path: from journalism to novel. General characteristics of Defoe's novels. Genre of the novel "Robinson Crusoe". The originality of Defoe's artistic method. The significance of the adventurous element in the composition of Defoe’s novels (“Moll Flanders” and “Roxana”). Features of Defoe's style. The cult of labor in Robinson Crusoe. Robinsonade. Defoe and the Russian reader. Defoe and Tolstoy.

The second stage of the English educational novel:C. Richardson, G. Fielding and T. Smollett. The development of the realistic direction in the English educational novel (G. Fielding and T. Smollett). Various trends in the English educational novel (S. Richardson, G. Fielding, T. Smollett).

S. Richardson is the creator of the epistolary family and everyday novel. The evolution of novel structure: from “Pamela” to “Clarissa Garlow”. Richardson's innovation. Psychological development of characters. The role of the emotional principle in Richardson's novels.

G. Fielding. Periodization of creativity. Continuation of Swift's satirical tradition in the early Fielding (“The History of Jonathan Wilde”). Fielding's satirical dramaturgy.

Fielding's Controversy with Richardson (The History of Joseph Andrews). "The Story of Tom Jones, Foundling": a comic epic and a novel of education. Tom Jones image. Revealing the character of the main character in contradictions and development. Jones and Blifil. The principle of plot construction. Aesthetic views Fielding. The meaning of humor in Fielding's aesthetics

T. Smollett. The novels The Adventures of Humphrey Clinker, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle and The Adventures of Roderick Random. Development and deepening of the means of satire. The significance of the journalistic element in his novels. Features of sentimentalism in the late work of Smollett (“The Adventures of Humphrey Clinker”). The significance of Smollett’s work in the development of the English realistic novel. Smollett and Fielding: differences in aesthetic views.

The third stage in the development of the English educational novel. The work of L. Stern and the aesthetics of sentimentalism. The influence of D. Hume's philosophy on the formation of Stern's creative method. Novel "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman." Features of L. Stern's creative method. Author in the novel Tristram Shandy. Time in the novel Tristram Shandy. Features of the composition and style of Stern's novels. A depiction of a person's inner life. Stern's innovation.

The significance of Stern's work for the 20th century novel.

English sentimentalism. The poetics of sentimentalism (“An Essay on the Original Writings” of E. Jung): a dispute with the rationalistic and classicist tendencies of the early English Enlightenment.

Lyric poetry of sentimentalism: T. Gray, D. Thomson, E. Jung, J. Crabb. Features of sentimentalist poetry. Contrasting the early “pre-feudal” Middle Ages with modernity. Elements of psychologism in the lyrics of sentimentalists. Nature theme.

“The Songs of Ossian” by D. Macpherson: stylization as a feature of Macpherson’s artistic style.

O. Goldsmith. Poetry of Goldsmith. Novel "The Vicar of Wakefield". Goldsmith's patriarchal ideals.

Sheridan's satirical comedy "The School for Scandal". The problem of the comic. Byron on Sheridan.

Pre-romanticism. G. Walpole and S. Lewis. Poetics of the Gothic novel. The novel “The Italian” by A. Radcliffe.

Features of pre-romanticism in the poetry of W. Blake and R. Burns. The folklore basis of Burns's lyrics. Scottish motives of Burns's poetry. The genre diversity of his poetry. Burns' poetic language.

The poetry of W. Blake and its place in the history of English poetry.

V. English literature of the 19th century: Romanticism

Social novel by W. Godwin (“Caleb Williams”). Gothic elements in the novel. The influence of W. Godwin's ideas on the creativity of English writers of the 19th century V.

The first stage of English romanticism. Poets of the “Lake School” (W. Wordsworth, R. Southey). Preface to “Lyrical Ballads” by W. Wordsworth and the aesthetic manifesto of the “Lake School”. General and different in the aesthetic views of W. Wordsworth and. Innovative features of the poetry of the “Leukists”.

Coleridge and German philosophy. The irrational principle in poetry (“The Tale of the Ancient Mariner”). Ballads of R. Southey. Southie in translation. The evolution of the creativity of the “Leukist” poets. Pushkin about the work of the poets of the “Lake School”. Byron on the “Leucists” (“Don Juan”).

The second stage of English romanticism. The evolution of the creative method of the romantics. J. G. Byron Periodization of creativity. Aesthetic views of early Byron, his attitude to classicism. Byron's criticism of modern English literature ("English Bards and Scottish Reviewers"). Lyric-epic poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage": genre originality, romantic hero, relationship between the hero, the author and the lyrical character, artistic and political significance.

"Eastern Poems" by Byron 1813–1816. (“Corsair”, “The Giaour”, “Lara”, “The Bride of Abydos”, “The Siege of Corinth”, “Parisina”). The image of a rebel hero: the problem of romantic individualism. The contrast between Childe Harold's contemplation and the rebellious spirit of the heroes of "oriental poems". The hero's relationship with the environment. Compositional and stylistic features.

The Byronic hero and Byronism: gloomy pessimism, individualism, a certain type of behavior and attitude towards life, longing for an unclear ideal.

Byron's Political Poetry 1812–1816 "Jewish Melodies".

Dramatic philosophical poem "Manfred". The crisis of Byron's individualistic worldview in 1816–1817. Strengthening revolutionary trends in creativity. Features of Byron's late work. The evolution of aesthetic views. Ideological, political and artistic significance of the mystery "Cain". The image of Cain the rebel.

The poem “Don Juan”: a new hero, the influence of the environment on the formation of the hero’s character, a wide coverage of countries and events. The difference between Byron's Don Juan and the traditional seducer. A satire on English reality. Features of composition and verse. “Don Juan” by J. G. Byron and “Eugene Onegin”: differences in genres, characters, dynamics of events.

The place of J. G. Byron in the history of English literature.

The influence of W. Godwin on the formation of Shelley’s worldview. Shelley’s aesthetics (treatise “Defense of Poetry”, prefaces to “Prometheus Unbound” and “The Rise of Islam”; the artist’s task is to create the ideal of beauty; poetry as a source of inspiration and beauty for the reader). Poem "Queen Mab". Romantic poems "Prometheus Unbound" and "The Rise of Islam". The nature of Shelley's imagery (a fusion of the real and the fantastic). Shelley the lyricist. Shelley's Political Lyrics 1819–1820 Features of Shelley's philosophical lyrics. Shelley's pantheism. Pictures of nature and symbolic cosmic images. Strengthening realistic tendencies in Shelley’s work (the tragedy “Cenci”).

Poetry of D. Keats. The artistic originality of Keats's poetic manner.

W. Scott Small literary form (ballads). Narrative poems “Maiden of the Lake”, “Song of the Last Minstrel”. The place of Scott's ballads and narrative poems in the development of English romantic poetry. Scott and Coleridge. Scott and Byron.

The genesis of W. Scott's historical novel. Scott's historicism (the relationship between two traditions and cultures, moral meaning stories). Aesthetic views of Scott the novelist. Poetics of the historical novel by W. Scott (narration, description, portrait, dialogue). Scott's "Scottish" novels (Waverley, Rob Roy). Novels of the medieval cycle: “Ivanhoe”, “Quentin Dorward”. Novels about the English bourgeois revolution: “The Puritans”, “Woodstock”. The problem of V. Scott's artistic method. The significance of W. Scott’s work for the development of the European novel tradition.

The crisis of English romanticism in the second half of the 1820s.

VI. English Literature of the 19th Century: Victorian Era

Typology of genres. Victorian novel. Periodization. The evolution of the Victorian novel: the difference between the poetics of the early Victorians and the later Victorians.

The significance of W. Scott’s creative method for the development of the English Victorian novel. The influence of W. Godwin's social novel on the work of Charles Dickens.

Roman J. Osten. The artistic originality of J. Austen's method: narrow social range, depth of psychological characteristics. The influence of J. Austen's work on the Victorian novel.

Charles Dickens is the largest representative of English critical realism. Periodization of the work of Charles Dickens.

Characteristics of the first period (1833–1841). "Sketches of Bose". "Notes Pickwick Club»: compositional structure, function of humor. Artistic originality of the author's style early Dickens. Deepening social issues in the novel "Oliver Twist". Controversy with the Newgate novel.

The second period of creativity (1842–1848). Dickens's Travels to the USA: American Notes and Martin Chuzzlewit. “Christmas Stories”: the predominance of romantic elements in the description of the characters. Dickens' polemic with bourgeois philosophers (Malthus and Bentham). The novel Dombey and Son is a masterpiece of the second period, its significance in the creative development of Dickens the satirist. Specifics of the tragic perception of the world.

The third period in Dickens's work (1848–1859). The novel "David Copperfield": a subtle reproduction of the psychology of a child. Three educational systems (Murdstone, Creakle, Betsy Trotwood). Image of Uriah Hippus. Dickens's social novels of the early 1850s: Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Hard Times. “Bleak House”: two storylines (litigation in the Chancery Court; the mystery of Lady Dedlock).

The fourth stage in Dickens's work (1860s). The novel “Great Expectations”: the collapse of illusions. The nature of Dickens's realism in his later novels. “Our Mutual Friend”, “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”: complex intrigue, painful manifestations of the human psyche. The significance of Dickens's work for world literature.

Creation. The works of early Thackeray: the satirical stories “Notes of Yellowplush”, “Hoggart’s Diamond” and parody novels “Katerina”, “Barry Lyndon”. Thackeray's polemic with the authors of The Silver Fork and the Newgate novel. The Book of Snobs is a satire on English society. Criticism of English bourgeois culture. The novel “Vanity Fair” is a masterpiece. Problems of the novel. Composition of the novel. Peculiarities of typification in the novel. Emilia Sedley and Rebecca Sharp: a novel without a hero. Thackeray is a master of realistic satire. and E. Trollope. The evolution of Thackeray's work in the 1850s. Novel "Newcomes". The originality of Thackeray's late satire. Historical novels"Henry Esmond" and "The Virginians".

E. Gaskell and her social novel"Mary Barton." Evolution of E. Gaskell towards the psychological novel in the 1850s. (“Wives and Daughters”). The novel “Cranford”: humor E. Gaskell.

S. Bronte and her novel “Jane Eyre”. Problems of the novel. Image of Saint John. Romantic imagery in the novel. S. Bronte's novels “Villette” and “Shirley”.

E. Bronte. Poetry of E. Bronte: transparency and musicality of verse, semantic capacity, philosophy. Theme of the poems. “Wuthering Heights” by E. Bronte is a masterpiece of English literature. Problems of the novel. Two narrators in the novel. Mystical intonations in the novel. Romantic imagery in the novel.

A. Bronte and her novel “Agnes Gray”. New heroine A. Bronte. A. Bronte's place in English literature.

English poetry 1830–1850s Poetry of A. Tennyson. "In memoriam" and "Idylls". The poetic evolution of R. Browning. The philosophical depth of R. Browning's lyrics. Poetry E. Browning.

The development of the Victorian novel in the 1850–1860s: the influence of the ideas of positivism, naturalism, discoveries in natural science. The Work of J. Eliot: Scenes of English provincial life. J. Eliot's innovations in the novel genre. The first period in the work of J. Eliot (“The Mill on the Floss”, “Siles Marner”). Second period (“Middlemarch”, “Daniel Deronda”).

The works of E. Trollope. "Barchester Chronicles". The novel “Barchester Towers”: genre originality, composition, characteristics of the main characters. Description of the clerical environment. E. Trollope is a master of satire.

VII. From the Victorian era to the 20th century. Naturalism. Decadence. Neo-romanticism

Formation of naturalism in the late 1850s. Aesthetic features. Positivism is the philosophical basis of English naturalism (J. S. Mill, G. Spencer, O. Comte). Two schools of English naturalism: artistic originality, distinctive features, common philosophical basis.

Aesthetics of T. Hardy. Problems of T. Hardy's novels. Novels about Wessex: “novels of character and environment” (“Tess of the d’Urbervilles”, “Jude the Obscure”, “The Mayor of Casterbridge”). Ideological and artistic problems of T. Hardy’s novel “Tess of the D’Urbervilles”: conflict, heroes. Poetry of T. Hardy: main themes, features of poetic language.

English aestheticism. “Essays on the History of the Renaissance” by W. Pater. Ruskin's aesthetics. Pre-Raphaelite poetry. . K. Rosetti. W. Morris and E. Swinburne at an early stage of creativity.

General characteristics of decadence. Almanac “Yellow Book” and “Savoy” magazine. Decadence and modernism.

The works of O. Wilde. O. Wilde about art and the artist. Ideological and artistic problems of O. Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray”. Plays by O. Wilde " Ideal husband", "The Importance of Being Earnest" and "Salome". “Aphorisms” by O. Wilde.

Neo-romanticism(, R. Kipling, J. Conrad, A. Conan-Doyle). Specialization of novel genres. New hero.

Creation. Features of the aesthetic system.

Problems of the science fiction story “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”

The works of A. Conan Doyle. A. Conan Doyle's development of the traditions of the detective genre. Sherlock Holmes and Dupin.

Neo-romantic features of R. Kipling's work. Aesthetics of R. Kipling. Kipling's hero: a neo-romantic model of behavior. Kipling's soldier theme ("Tommy Atkins", "Denny Deaver", "Mandalay"). Idea of ​​Empire: "The White Man's Burden." The theme "East - West" in Kipling's works. Features of Kipling's poetic language. Modernists about the “Kipling phenomenon”.

VIII. Literature of Great Britain. XX century

“Theater of Ideas” by B. Shaw. B. Shaw and G. Ibsen: “The Quintessence of Ibsenism.” B. Shaw and B. Brecht: the alienation effect. B. Shaw and L. Pirandello. The genre of the drama is “extravagance” (“Bitter, but true”). "Pygmalion": problematics. Fabianism B. Shaw.

The rise of decadent trends in English literature before and after the First World War. The stories of V. Wolfe “Mrs. Dalloway” and “The Lighthouse” and the School of “stream of consciousness”. Freudism and decadent schools. Surrealism. J. Joyce, the significance of his work for the development of modernism. "Ulysses" by J. Joyce: the problem of method, "stream of consciousness", elements of satire in the novel. Late Joyce: the destruction of art on the path of formalism (“Finnegans Wake”). Creation.

Eliot's essays (“Tradition and Individual Talent,” “The Metaphysical Poets”). Eliot on Romanticism. Eliot on tradition: the past as a continuing fact of the present. Early Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (themes of the poem, imagery, parody and irony; Prufrock - hero and antihero; tragic ending). “The Waste Land” (problems and structure of the poem; imagery; mythological, Old Testament and literary allusions; myth as a way of organizing material). Eliot's influence on English and American poetic traditions.

Poetry of the “Oxfordians” (W. Auden), its inconsistency.

Writers of “Angry Youth”: The Plays of J. Osborne. The nature of the realism of the “angry”.

The works of G. Green, the novels “The Quiet American”, “Travels with Auntie”, “Comedians”.

Existentialist novel by A. Murdoch. Parable novel by W. Golding. Reflection of the crisis of modern English bourgeois culture in the works of J. Fowles, M. Spark, M. Drabble and others.

Literature of the USA

I. Early American Romanticism

Specifics of early American romanticism. The work of V. Irving. Romantic poeticization of patriarchal America in his works (“Rip van Winkle”, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, “The Mysterious Ship”). "The History of New York": Irving's Literary Hoax. V. Irving is a mediator between the cultures of the Old and New Worlds. The originality of W. Irving's romantic poetics.

The works of F. Cooper. Criticism of bourgeois America in the novels of F. Cooper (“Spy”, “Pioneers”). The theme of the frontier in the works of F. Cooper. Originality creative manner F. Cooper: elements of romantic aesthetics in his novels.

Pentalogy about Leather Stocking. Rejection of bourgeois America, opposition to the world of profit of the natural man (the image of Natty Bumppo). An epic beginning in the novels of F. Cooper.

II. Second stage of American romanticism

By. Periodization of creativity. Poe and Byron. Style originality poetry by E. A. Poe. Synesthesia of poetic images. The main themes of the lyrics. E. A. Poe on poetry. Poe's essay "The Philosophy of Composition."

Collection of stories “Grotesques and Arabesques”: typology of short stories by E. A. Poe. The artistic world of Poe's stories. Space and time in Poe's stories. The originality of the creative method. E. A. Poe and Russian Symbolists.

Transcendentalists. Attitude towards America. Transcendentalist concept of the world. Moral and philosophical utopia of transcendentalism.

Transcendentalists and.

Emerson and his moral and philosophical essays "The Young American", "The Oversoul" and "Self-Trust". Emerson's doctrine of "self-confidence." Emerson's nonconformism and American society. W. Thoreau, his novel “Walden, or Life in the Woods.” The originality of W. Thoreau's creative method.

The works of N. Hawthorne. N. Hawthorne's polemic with the transcendentalists (novel “Blythedale”). Novels by N. Hawthorne (collections “Twice Told Stories”, “Mosses of the Old Manor”). N. Hawthorne's stories for children (“Book of Wonders”, “Tanglewood Tales”). Romantic criticism of bourgeois America. Hawthorne the Moralist and Master of Allegory. A study of Puritan consciousness in the novel “The Scarlet Letter”. Sin as a source of spiritual rebirth of the individual. The novel “The House of the Seven Gables”: a study of ancestral guilt. The problem of aristocracy. The originality of N. Hawthorne's creative method. G. James about Hawthorne's characters.

The works of G. Melville. The novel "Moby Dick": genre originality, problems, language of the novel (Bible and Shakespeare). Captain Ahab and Ishmael: two types of romantic consciousness. Characteristics of the main character: heroic and villainous in Captain Ahab. Moby Dick as the embodiment of world evil. Philosophical symbolism in the novel. The originality of G. Melville's creative method.

Creativity of G. Longfellow. The epic “The Song of Hiawatha”: images of the main characters, poetic language, poetic meter. Folklore basis of the Song of Hiawatha. The theme of nature in Longfellow's poetry. The originality of G. Longfellow's creative method.

The works of W. Whitman. Features of W. Whitman's poetic system. Main topics and poetic images. Vers libre. Poetic dictionary. “Leaves of Grass” by W. Whitman: problematics, poetic language. Innovation by W. Whitman. The tradition of W. Whitman in the poetry of the 20th century.

III. Literature of the USA. XX century

The works of E. Pound. Imagist poets (, M. Moore,).

(“Spoon River Anthology”), K. Sandberg (“Poems about Chicago”): the tradition of W. Whitman in the 20th century.

Poetry of R. Frost. Theme of the poems. Synthesis of the Anglo-American poetic tradition (J. Donne, W. Wordsworth) in the works of R. Frost. R. Frost and US poetry.

Short stories by S. Andersen, the inconsistency of the method, the character of the hero. Andersen's influence on the development of the short story genre.

and the "age of jazz". Novels "The Great Gatsby" and "Tender is the Night". Novels.

E. Hemingway's novels, the art of subtext. E. Hemingway as a writer of the “lost generation” (“A Farewell to Arms!”). Spanish theme. The genre of the novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls” is a way of revealing the theme of war. "To have and not to have." Ideological and stylistic originality of the late E. Hemingway (“The Old Man and the Sea”, “Across the River, in the Shade of the Trees”).

O'Neill's dramaturgy. “Plastic Theater” by T. Williams, L. Hellman.

Prose by J. Salinger. Problems of the novel “The Catcher in the Rye”; ethical maximalism of the protagonist. Features of Salinger's author's style. Salinger and the “counterculture” of the 1960s.

The novel “Gerzag” by S. Bellow: the drama of an intellectual hero and spiritual shepherd in modern America. Irony in the novel: Moses Gerzag as a hero and antihero.

“The American Dream” by N. Mailer: a novel about a modern hero. Interpretation of the concept " dream" The hero's dreams as a way of getting rid of the shackles of morality. The hero's self-irony as overcoming the craving for intellectual philosophizing. A modern hero on the path of spiritual rebirth.

The works of T. Capote. The story “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”: issues, characteristics of the main character. The novel "In Perfect Cold Blood": a parable about modern America. Features of the “non-fiction novel” genre.

Confessional lyrics of the 1960s: R. Lowell, S. Plath. The life of a poet as material for understanding modernity. R. Lowell: meditative lyricism, a combination of confessionality and autobiography with historical and philosophical reflections. R. Lowell about the poet as a prophet and teacher of the nation.

The literary movement of the “beatniks”: existentialist and naturalistic tendencies in their work (J. Kerouac and others). The development of realism in the 1960–1970s: novels by Cheever, Styron and others. Warren’s novel “All the King’s Men.” T. Morrison's novel “Beloved.”

LIST OF LITERARY SOURCES

History of English literature through the first thirdXIXcentury

1. Beowulf

2. J. Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales (General Prologue. The Knight's Tale. The Miller's (or Majordomo's) Tale. The Tale of Sir Topas. The Monastery Chaplain's Tale. The Student's Tale)

3. T. Mallory. Death of Arthur

4. F. Sidney. Astrophil and Stella

5. E. Spencer. Sonnets ( Amoretti)

6. K. Marlowe. Faust (or Tamerlane the Great)

7. W. Shakespeare. Sonnets. Chronicles (Richard III). Tragedies (Hamlet. Macbeth). Comedy (A Midsummer Night's Dream)

8. J. Donn. Sacred Sonnets. Lyrics ( Annunciation. Air and Angels)

9. J. Herbert. Sonnets The Temple

10. E. Marvell. Poems

11. J. Milton. Lost heaven. Paradise Regained

12. D. Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. Moll Flanders. Roxana

13. J. Swift. Tale of a barrel. Gulliver's Travels

14. G. Fielding. The Story of Tom Jones, Foundling

15. T. Smollett. The Journey of Humphrey Clinker. The Adventures of Rodrick Random. The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle

16. O. Goldsmith. Poems. Wakefield priest

17. L. Stern. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. A sentimental journey through France and Italy

18. W. Godwin. Caleb Williams

19. W. Blake. Lyrics

20. W. Wordsworth. Lyrics (Yellow Daffodils. Tintern Abbey. Yew Tree. Sonnet Written on Westminster Bridge)

21. . The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

22. R. Southey. Ballads

23. J. G. Byron. Lyrics. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. Gyaur. Corsair. Cain. Manfred. Bronze Age. Don Juan. English bards and Scottish columnists

24. . Lyrics. The Rise of Islam. Prometheus Freed. Defense of poetry. Cenci

25. D. Keats. Lyrics (Ode to a Greek Vase. Autumn. Grasshopper and Cricket. Sonnet about a sonnet)

26. T. Moore. Irish melodies. Lyrics (At sea. Young singer. Evening bells)

27. W. Scott. Ivanhoe. Rob Roy. Quentin Dorward. Waverley. Puritans

Literature of Great BritainXIX– beginningXXcentury

1. J. Osten. Pride and Prejudice. Mansfield Park. Emma

2. C. Dickens. Notes of the Pickwick Club. Oliver Twist. Dombey and son. Christmas stories. Cold house. David Copperfield. Great Expectations

3. . Vanity Fair. Book of snobs. The Story of Henry Esmond

4. E. Trollope. Barchester Towers

5. J. Eliot. Middlemarch. Mill on the Floss

6. S. Bronte. Jane Eyre. Willet. Shirley

7. E. Bronte. Lyrics. Wuthering Heights

8. E. Gaskell. Mary Barton. Cranford

9. J. Meredith. Egoist

10. T. Hardy. Lyrics. Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Mayor of Casterbridge

eleven. . Lyrics. Treasure Island. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

12. O. Wilde. The Picture of Dorian Grey. Plays. Fairy tales

13. R. Kipling. Poems (Danny Deaver. Tommy Atkins. Mandalay. The Ballad of East and West). Stories

Literature of the USAXIX– beginningXXcentury

1. W. Irving. History of New York. Rip Van Winkle. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ghost Groom

2. F. Cooper. Spy. St. John's wort. The Last of the Mohicans. Pioneers. Prairie

3. E. A. Po. Lyrics (Raven. Annabel Lee. Ulalum. Bells). Novels (The Stolen Letter. The Descent to Maelstrom. The Gold Bug. The Fall of the House of Usher. Murder on the Rue Morgue. The Mystery of Marie Roger)

4. N. Hawthorne. Scarlet Letter. The House of the Seven Gables (one novel to choose from). Novellas (Tales Twice Told, Mosses of the Old Manor)

5. . Walden, or Life in the Woods

6. G. Longfellow. Song of Hiawatha

7. G. Melville. Moby Dick

8. W. Whitman. grass leaves

9. E. Dickinson. Lyrics

10. M. Twain. Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Yankees at King Arthur's Court

11. F. Bret Harte. Stories (The Happiness of the Roaring Camp)

12. O. Henry. Stories

The selection includes the most famous works English writers. These are British novels, detective stories and stories popular with readers around the world. We didn't stop at one genre or time. There is science fiction, fantasy, humorous stories, dystopias, children's adventures and other masterpieces from the Middle Ages to the present. The books are different, but they have something in common. All of them made a tangible contribution to the development of world literature and art, reflecting the national characteristics of the inhabitants of Great Britain.

Famous English writers

Let's not forget about Iris Murdoch, John le Carre, JK Rowling, Ian McEwan, Joanne Harris, Julian Barnes and other talented contemporary English writers. Another shining example gifted author - Kazuo Ishiguro. In 2017 this famous British writer of Japanese origin received Nobel Prize on literature. The selection includes his novel about touching love and a sense of duty, “The Remains of the Day.” Add and read. And then be sure to watch the excellent film adaptation - starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson - “At the End of the Day” (dir. James Ivory, 1993).

Literary awards and film adaptations

These works are a treasure trove of inspiration for directors, producers, and screenwriters. It’s hard to imagine that if Bernard Shaw had not written the play “Pygmalion,” we would not have seen the stunning transformation of Audrey Hepburn from an illiterate flower girl into a sophisticated aristocrat. We are talking about the film “My Fair Lady” (dir. George Cukor, 1964).

From modern books and their successful film adaptations, pay attention to The Long Fall. Nick Hornby wrote an ironic novel about the relationship between good human communication and the desire to live. The film of the same name with Pierce Brosnan and Toni Collette (dir. Pascal Chomel, 2013) turned out to be soulful and life-affirming.

Geographical information

The selection of English writers and their works was impressive - more than 70 books. This is a real book challenge! Add the books you like and immerse yourself in a slightly prim, but so elegant world!