English american literature

HUNG YEN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND EDUCATION
FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
*****

English
American
Literature
A coursebook
Compiled by : Nguyen Thi Bich Van, MA
Nguyen Thi Duyen, MA




To the Users
English American Literature is a course book complied for the 4th year students of the
Foreign Language Department, Hung Yen university of Technology and Education.
The book is not divided into units but there are class hours designed for the study of
each author and/or extract (s) in the syllabus. Both the English and American authors
whose works are selected in this course book are representatives of different trends in
the 19th and 20th centuries.
The book is structured with the learner-centered approach in view to give students more
time to work on the extracts and discuss the questions rather than listen to lectures. For
each author, there is a brief account of his/her life and literary career, as well as the
summary and introduction of the major work(s). Next is the extract(s) from these works.
There may be chapters from novels, short stories, and poems. After each extract, story or
poem, there are questions for discussion and analysis to help students better understand
the works and have their own comments on what they read. Finally, there is a
recommended reading list at the back of the book.

1

Syllabus
Target group: 4th year students, 7th term
Credit points: 03 in 12 weeks (recommended)
Course objectives:
After taking the course students will be able to:
-

read a literary work in original

-

analyze and comment on a literary work and/or an author

-

have a systematic knowledge of the development of English and American
Literature

-

understand English and American history, society and life in the 19th and 20th
centuries as reflected in literary works

-

see the differences between British and American English

Course contents

-

Give a brief introduction to the lives and literary careers of some outstanding
writers of English American literature

-

Introduce to students the examples of the main literary genes: fairy tales, short
story, novels and poetry.

-

Acquaint students with the writing styles of English and American writers and
the realistic values of their works.

-

Analyze the works/ extracts.

Course requirements
-

It is necessary that students prepare for all lessons at home (reading, translating
and analyzing the works/ extracts in the course book.

-

For further study, the class is to be divided into groups of 3 or 4 who will be
responsible for an oral presentation on either a given extract the one chosen by
the group themselves

-

All the oral presentations must be presented with slides and covers the following
issues: information about the authors (if they are not mentioned in the course
book), the summary, the translation, and the analysis.

- The students’ written home assignments will be assessed individually when each is
asked to write the lesson diary after each week lesson. That is, they will write about
what they have learnt in the past lesson in terms of contents, activities; what they like

2


about the lesson, what they don’t understand very much, etc. And it is necessary that
students not type but write in ink their diaries and hand them in for the lecturer’s
signature at the beginning of the next lesson.
Assessments:
Performance in the course will be measured on the basis of two written tests and one
oral presentation
- Classroom discussion and oral presentation : 15%
- Written diaries: 10%
- Mid- semester test: 25%
- End- of- semester test: 50%
Format of the tests:
Both the written tests (mid-term and end-of-term) cover the information about the
author, the summary and a literary analysis of some learnt extract

3

2.3. The adventures of Tom Sawyer – Chapter 12
3. O’Henry ( William Sydney Porter)

116
121

3.1 Biography.

121

3.2.One thousand dollars.

123

3.3.The last leaf

130

3.4 The gift of Magi

137

4. Earnest Hemingway

143

4.1. Biography

143

4.2. A Farewell to Arms – chapter 4

147

4.3. A Farewell to Arms – chapter 9

153

4.4.The man and the sea

167

5


PART I : ENGLISH LITERATURE
HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

1. Old English(450-1066)
The first works in English, written in Old English, appeared in the early Middle Ages
(the oldest surviving text is Cædmon's Hymn). The oral tradition was very strong in the
early English culture and most literary works were written to be performed. Epic poems
were thus very popular and many, including Beowulf, have survived to the present day
in the rich corpus of Anglo-Saxon literature that closely resemble today's Icelandic,
Norwegian, North Frisian and the Northumbrian and Scots English dialects of modern
English. Much Old English verse in the extant manuscripts is probably a "milder"
adaptation of the earlier Germanic war poems from the continent. When such poetry was
brought to England it was still being handed down orally from one generation to another,

and the constant presence of alliterative verse, or .consonant rhyme (today's newspaper
headlines and marketing abundantly use this technique such as in Big is Better) helped
the Anglo-Saxon people remember it. Such rhyme is a feature of Germanic languages
and is opposed to vocalic or end-rhyme of Romance languages. But the first written
literature dates to the early Christian monasteries founded by St. Augustine of
Canterbury and his disciples and it is reasonable to believe that it was somehow adapted
to suit to needs of Christian readers.

2. Middle English literature (1066-1500)
In the 12th century, a new form of English now known as Middle English evolved. This
is the earliest form of English literature which is comprehensible to modern readers and
listeners, albeit not easily. Middle English lasts up until the 1470s, when the Chancery
Standard, a form of London-based English, became widespread and the printing press
regularized the language. Middle English Bible translations, notably Wyclif's Bible,
helped to establish English as a literary language.
There are three main categories of Middle English Literature: Religious, Courtly love,
and Arthurian. William Langland's Piers Plowman is considered by many critics to be
one of the early great works of English literature along with Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (most likely by the Pearl Poet) during the Middle

6


Ages. It is also the first allusion to a literary tradition of the legendary English archer,
swordsman, and outlaw Robin Hood.
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, Chaucer is
widely credited as the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular
English language, rather than French or Latin. The Canterbury Tales was Chaucer's
magnum opus, and a towering achievement of Western culture. The first recorded

association of Valentine's Day with romantic love is in Chaucer's Parlement of Foules
1382.[1]
The multilingual audience for literature in the 14th century can be illustrated by the
example of John Gower, who wrote in Latin, Middle English and Anglo-Norman.
Among the many religious works are those in the Katherine Group and the writings of
Julian of Norwich and Richard Rolle.
Since at least the 14th century, poetry in English has been written in Ireland and by Irish
writers abroad. The earliest poem in English by a Welsh poet dates from about 1470.

3. The Renaissance (Early Modern) Period (1500-1600)
Following the introduction of a printing press into England by William Caxton in 1476,
vernacular literature flourished. The Reformation inspired the production of vernacular
liturgy which led to the Book of Common Prayer, a lasting influence on literary English
language. The poetry, drama, and prose produced under both Queen Elizabeth I and
King James I constitute what is today labelled as Early modern (or Renaissance).
The Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature, especially in the field of drama.
The Italian Renaissance had rediscovered the ancient Greek and Roman theatre, and this
was instrumental in the development of the new drama, which was then beginning to
evolve apart from the old mystery and miracle plays of the Middle Ages. The Italians
were particularly inspired by Seneca (a major tragic playwright and philosopher, the
tutor of Nero) and Plautus (its comic clichés, especially that of the boasting soldier had a
powerful influence on the Renaissance and after). However, the Italian tragedies
embraced a principle contrary to Seneca's ethics: showing blood and violence on the
stage. In Seneca's plays such scenes were only acted by the characters. But the English
playwrights were intrigued by Italian model: a conspicuous community of Italian actors

7


had settled in London and Giovanni Florio had brought much of the Italian language and

culture to England. It is also true that the Elizabethan Era was a very violent age and that
the high incidence of political assassinations in Renaissance Italy (embodied by Niccolò
Machiavelli's The Prince) did little to calm fears of popish plots. As a result,
representing that kind of violence on the stage was probably more cathartic for the
Elizabethan spectator. Following earlier Elizabethan plays such as Gorboduc by
Sackville & Norton and The Spanish Tragedy by Kyd that was to provide much material
for Hamlet, William Shakespeare stands out in this period as a poet and playwright as
yet unsurpassed. Shakespeare was not a man of letters by profession, and probably had
only some grammar school education. He was neither a lawyer, nor an aristocrat as the
"university wits" that had monopolised the English stage when he started writing. But he
was very gifted and incredibly versatile, and he surpassed "professionals" as Robert
Greene who mocked this "shake-scene" of low origins. Though most dramas met with
great success, it is in his later years (marked by the early reign of James I) that he wrote
what have been considered his greatest plays: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King
Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest, a tragicomedy that inscribes
within the main drama a brilliant pageant to the new king. Shakespeare also popularized
the English sonnet which made significant changes to Petrarch's model.
The sonnet was introduced into English by Thomas Wyatt in the early 16th century.
Poems intended to be set to music as songs, such as by Thomas Campion, became
popular as printed literature was disseminated more widely in households. See English
Madrigal School. Other important figures in Elizabethan theatre include Christopher
Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont. Had Marlowe (1564–
1593) not been stabbed at twenty-nine in a tavern brawl, says Anthony Burgess, he
might have rivalled, if not equalled Shakespeare himself for his poetic gifts. Remarkably,
he was born only a few weeks before Shakespeare and must have known him well.
Marlowe's subject matter, though, is different: it focuses more on the moral drama of the
renaissance man than any other thing. Marlowe was fascinated and terrified by the new
frontiers opened by modern science. Drawing on German lore, he introduced Dr.
Faustus to England, a scientist and magician who is obsessed by the thirst of knowledge
and the desire to push man's technological power to its limits. He acquires supernatural

gifts that even allow him to go back in time and wed Helen of Troy, but at the end of his

8


twenty-four years' covenant with the devil he has to surrender his soul to him. His dark
heroes may have something of Marlowe himself, whose death remains a mystery. He
was known for being an atheist, leading a lawless life, keeping many mistresses,
consorting with ruffians: living the 'high life' of London's underworld. But many suspect
that this might have been a cover-up for his activities as a secret agent for Elizabeth I,
hinting that the 'accidental stabbing' might have been a premeditated assassination by
the enemies of The Crown. Beaumont and Fletcher are less-known, but it is almost sure
that they helped Shakespeare write some of his best dramas, and were quite popular at
the time. It is also at this time that the city comedy genre develops. In the later 16th
century English poetry was characterised by elaboration of language and extensive
allusion to classical myths. The most important poets of this era include Edmund
Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney. Elizabeth herself, a product of Renaissance humanism,
produced occasional poems such as On Monsieur’s Departure.

4. The Neo-classical Period (1600-1785)
The Neo-classical Period in England covers almost 140 years after the Restoration
(1660). The authors such as John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addition, Jonathan
Swift, Oliver Gold Smith, Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke contributed to neoclassic
literature.
The literature of this period was considered to be an "art" that is a set of skills which
ought be perfected by practice. Neoclassical writers considered human beings as limited
agents who ought to set themselves only accessible goals. Many of the great writings of
the period was satirical, didactic and was often direct attack on on human "pride"
The term Augustan literature derives from authors of the 1720s and 1730s themselves,
who responded to a term that George I of England preferred for himself. While George I

meant the title to reflect his might, they instead saw in it a reflection of Ancient Rome's
transition from rough and ready literature to highly political and highly polished
literature. Because of the aptness of the metaphor, the period from 1689 – 1750 was
called "the Augustan Age" by critics throughout the 18th century (including Voltaire
and Oliver Goldsmith). The literature of the period is overtly political and thoroughly
aware of critical dictates for literature. It is an age of exuberance and scandal, of
enormous energy and inventiveness and outrage, that reflected an era when English,

9


To the Users
English American Literature is a course book complied for the 4th year students of the
Foreign Language Department, Hung Yen university of Technology and Education.
The book is not divided into units but there are class hours designed for the study of
each author and/or extract (s) in the syllabus. Both the English and American authors
whose works are selected in this course book are representatives of different trends in
the 19th and 20th centuries.
The book is structured with the learner-centered approach in view to give students more
time to work on the extracts and discuss the questions rather than listen to lectures. For
each author, there is a brief account of his/her life and literary career, as well as the
summary and introduction of the major work(s). Next is the extract(s) from these works.
There may be chapters from novels, short stories, and poems. After each extract, story or
poem, there are questions for discussion and analysis to help students better understand
the works and have their own comments on what they read. Finally, there is a
recommended reading list at the back of the book.

1

depopulation of the countryside as a result of the enclosures, or privatisation of pastures.
Most peasants poured into the city to work in the new factories.
This abrupt change is revealed by the change of meaning in five key words: industry
(once meaning "creativity"), democracy (once disparagingly used as "mob rule"), class
(from now also used with a social connotation), art (once just meaning "craft"), culture
(once only belonging to farming).
But the poor condition of workers, the new class-conflicts and the pollution of the
environment causes a reaction to urbanism and industrialisation prompting poets to
rediscover the beauty and value of nature. Mother earth is seen as the only source of
wisdom, the only solution to the ugliness caused by machines.
The superiority of nature and instinct over civilisation had been preached by Jean
Jacques Rousseau and his message was picked by almost all European poets. The first in
England were the Lake Poets, a small group of friends including William Wordsworth
and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. These early Romantic Poets brought a new emotionalism
and introspection, and their emergence is marked by the first romantic Manifesto in
English literature, the "Preface to the Lyrical Ballads". This collection was mostly
contributed by Wordsworth, although Coleridge must be credited for his long and
impressive Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a tragic ballad about the survival of one sailor
through a series of supernatural events on his voyage through the south seas which
involves the slaying of an albatross, the death of the rest of the crew, a visit from Death
and his mate, Life-in-Death, and the eventual redemption of the Mariner.
Coleridge and Wordsworth, however, understood romanticism in two entirely different
ways: while Coleridge sought to make the supernatural "real" (much like sci-fi movies
use special effects to make unlikely plots believable), Wordsworth sought to stir the
imagination of readers through his down-to-earth characters taken from real life, or the
beauty of the Lake District that largely inspired his production.
The "Second generation" of Romantic poets includes Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley
and John Keats. Byron, however, was still influenced by 18th-century satirists and was,
perhaps the least 'romantic' of the three. His amours with a number of prominent but
married ladies was also a way to voice his dissent on the hypocrisy of a high society that

was only apparently religious but in fact largely libertine, the same that had derided him

11


for being physically impaired. His first trip to Europe resulted in the first two cantos of
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a mock-heroic epic of a young man's adventures in Europe
but also a sharp satire against London society. Despite Childe Harold's success on his
return to England, accompanied by the publication of The Corsair his alleged incestuous
affair with his half-sister Augusta Leigh in 1816 actually forced him to leave England
for good and seek asylum on the continent. Here he joined Percy Bysshe Shelley, his
wife Mary, with his secretary John William Polidori on the shores of Lake Geneva
during the 'year without a summer' of 1816. Polidori's The Vampyre was published in
1819, creating the literary vampire genre. His short story was inspired by the life of
Lord Byron and his poem The Giaour.
One of Percy Shelley's most prominent works is the Ode to the West Wind. Despite his
apparent refusal to believe in God, this poem is considered a homage to pantheism, the
recognition of a spiritual presence in nature. Shelley's groundbreaking poem The
Masque of Anarchy calls for nonviolence in protest and political action. It is perhaps the
first modern statement of the principle of nonviolent protest. Mahatma Gandhi's passive
resistance was influenced and inspired by Shelley's verse, and Gandhi would often quote
the poem to vast audiences.
The plot for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is said to have come from a nightmare she had
during stormy nights on Lake Geneva in the company of Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and
John Polidori. Her idea of making a body with human parts stolen from different corpses
and then animating it with electricity was perhaps influenced by Alessandro Volta's
invention and Luigi Galvani's experiments with dead frogs. Frankenstein's chilling tale
also suggests modern organ transplants, tissue regeneration, reminding us of the moral
issues raised by today's medicine. But the creature of Frankenstein is incredibly
romantic as well. Although "the monster" is intelligent, good and loving, he is shunned

by everyone because of his ugliness and deformity, and the desperation and envy that
result from social exclusion turn him against the very man who created him.
John Keats did not share Byron's and Shelley's extremely revolutionary ideals, but his
cult of pantheism is as important as Shelley's. Keats was in love with the ancient stones
of the Parthenon that Lord Elgin had brought to England from Greece, also known as the
Elgin Marbles). Keats's great attention to art, especially in his Ode on a Grecian Urn is

12


quite new in romanticism, and it inspired Walter Pater's and then Oscar Wilde's belief in
the absolute value of art as independent from aesthetics.
Some rightly think that the most popular novelist of the era was Sir Walter Scott, whose
grand historical romances inspired a generation of painters, composers, and writers
throughout Europe. Scott's novel-writing career was launched in 1814 with Waverley,
often called the first historical novel, and was followed by Ivanhoe. His popularity in
England and further abroad did much to form the modern stereotype of Scottish culture.
Other novels by Scott which contributed to the image of him as a Scottish patriot
include Rob Roy.

6. The Victorian Period (1832-1901)
It was in the Victorian era (1837–1901) that the novel became the leading form of
literature in English. Most writers were now more concerned to meet the tastes of a large
middle class reading public than to please aristocratic patrons. The best known works of
the era include the emotionally powerful works of the Brontë sisters; the satire Vanity
Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray; the realist novels of George Eliot; and Anthony
Trollope's insightful portrayals of the lives of the landowning and professional classes.
Victorian poetry
The major poets of the Victorian era are Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) and Robert
Browning (1812-1889). Both are prolific and varied, and their work defies easy

classification. Tennyson makes extensive use of classical myth and Arthurian legend,
and has been praised for the beautiful and musical qualities of his writing.
Browning's chief interest is in people; he uses blank verse in writing dramatic
monologues in which the speaker achieves a kind of self-portraiture: his subjects are
both historical individuals (Fra Lippo Lippi, Andrea del Sarto) and representative types
or caricatures (Mr. Sludge the Medium).
Other Victorian poets of note include Browning's wife, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(1806-1861) and Christina Rossetti (1830-1894). Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
is notable for his use of what he calls "sprung rhythm"; as in Old English verse syllables
are not counted, but there is a pattern of stresses. Hopkins' work was not well-known
until very long after his death.

13


The Victorian novel
The rise of the popular novel
In the 19th century, adult literacy increases markedly: attempts to provide education by
the state, and self-help schemes are partly the cause and partly the result of the
popularity of the novel. Publication in instalments means that works are affordable for
people of modest means. The change in the reading public is reflected in a change in the
subjects of novels: the high bourgeois world of Austen gives way to an interest in
characters of humble origins. The great novelists write works which in some ways
transcend their own period, but which in detail very much explore the preoccupations of
their time.
Dickens and the Brontës
Certainly the greatest English novelist of the 19th century, and possibly of all time, is
Charles Dickens (1812-1870). The complexity of his best work, the variety of tone, the
use of irony and caricature create surface problems for the modern reader, who may not
readily persist in reading. But Great Expectations, Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend and

Little Dorrit are works with which every student should be acquainted.
Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) and her sisters Emily (1818-1848) and Anne (1820-1849)
are understandably linked together, but their work differs greatly. Charlotte is notable
for several good novels, among which her masterpiece is Jane Eyre, in which we see the
heroine, after much adversity, achieve happiness on her own terms. Emily Brontë's
Wüthering Heights is a strange work, which enjoys almost cult status. Its concerns are
more romantic, less contemporary than those of Jane Eyre - but its themes of obsessive
love and self-destructive passion have proved popular with the 20th century reader.
The beginnings of American literature
The early 19th century sees the emergence of American literature, with the stories of
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), the novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64), Herman
Melville (1819-91), and Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens; 1835-1910), and the
poetry of Walt Whitman (1819-92) and Emily Dickinson (1830-86). Notable works
include Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, Melville's Moby Dick, Twain's Huckleberry
Finn and Whitman's Leaves of Grass.

14


Later Victorian novelists
After the middle of the century, the novel, as a form, becomes firmly-established:
sensational or melodramatic "popular" writing is represented by Mrs. Henry Wood's
East Lynne (1861), but the best novelists achieved serious critical acclaim while
reaching a wide public, notable authors being Anthony Trollope (1815-82), Wilkie
Collins (1824-89), William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-63), George Eliot (Mary Ann
Evans; 1819-80) and Thomas Hardy (1840-1928). Among the best novels are Collins's
The Moonstone, Thackeray's Vanity Fair, Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, Adam Bede and
Middlemarch, and Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Return of the Native, Tess
of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure.

7. Early 20th Century Period (1900-1940)
Early 20th century poets
W.B. (William Butler) Yeats (1865-1939) is one of two figures who dominate modern
poetry, the other being T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot (1888-1965). Yeats was Irish; Eliot
was born in the USA but settled in England, and took UK citizenship in 1927. Yeats
uses conventional lyric forms, but explores the connection between modern themes and
classical and romantic ideas. Eliot uses elements of conventional forms, within an
unconventionally structured whole in his greatest works. Where Yeats is prolific as a
poet, Eliot's reputation largely rests on two long and complex works: The Waste Land
(1922) and Four Quartets (1943).
The work of these two has overshadowed the work of the best late Victorian, Edwardian
and Georgian poets, some of whom came to prominence during the First World War.
Among these are Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936), A.E. Housman (18591936), Edward Thomas (1878-1917), Rupert Brooke (1887-1915), Siegfried Sassoon
(1886-1967), Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) and Isaac Rosenberg (1890-1918). The most
celebrated modern American poet, is Robert Frost (1874-1963), who befriended Edward
Thomas before the war of 1914-1918.
Early modern writers
The late Victorian and early modern periods are spanned by two novelists of foreign
birth: the American Henry James (1843-1916) and the Pole Joseph Conrad (Josef

15


Korzeniowski; 1857-1924). James relates character to issues of culture and ethics, but
his style can be opaque; Conrad's narratives may resemble adventure stories in incident
and setting, but his real concern is with issues of character and morality. The best of
their work would include James's The Portrait of a Lady and Conrad's Heart of Darkness,
Nostromo and The Secret Agent.
Other notable writers of the early part of the century include George Bernard Shaw
(1856-1950), H.G. Wells (1866-1946), and E.M. Forster (1879-1970). Shaw was an

essay-writer, language scholar and critic, but is best-remembered as a playwright. Of his
many plays, the best-known is Pygmalion (even better known today in its form as the
musical My Fair Lady). Wells is celebrated as a popularizer of science, but his best
novels explore serious social and cultural themes, The History of Mr. Polly being
perhaps his masterpiece. Forster's novels include Howard's End, A Room with a View
and A Passage to India.
Joyce and Woolf
Where these writers show continuity with the Victorian tradition of the novel, more
radically modern writing is found in the novels of James Joyce (1882-1941), of Virginia
Woolf (1882-1941), and of D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930). Where Joyce and Woolf
challenge traditional narrative methods of viewpoint and structure, Lawrence is
concerned to explore human relationships more profoundly than his predecessors,
attempting to marry the insights of the new psychology with his own acute observation.
Working-class characters are presented as serious and dignified; their manners and
speech are not objects of ridicule.
Other notable novelists include George Orwell (1903-50), Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966),
Graham Greene (1904-1991) and the 1983 Nobel prize-winner, William Golding (19111993).
Poetry in the later 20th century
Between the two wars, a revival of romanticism in poetry is associated with the work of
W.H. (Wystan Hugh) Auden (1907-73), Louis MacNeice (1907-63) and Cecil DayLewis (1904-72). Auden seems to be a major figure on the poetic landscape, but is
almost too contemporary to see in perspective. The Welsh poet, Dylan Thomas (1914-

16


Syllabus
Target group: 4th year students, 7th term
Credit points: 03 in 12 weeks (recommended)
Course objectives:
After taking the course students will be able to:

-

read a literary work in original

-

analyze and comment on a literary work and/or an author

-

have a systematic knowledge of the development of English and American
Literature

-

understand English and American history, society and life in the 19th and 20th
centuries as reflected in literary works

-

see the differences between British and American English

Course contents
-

Give a brief introduction to the lives and literary careers of some outstanding
writers of English American literature

-

Introduce to students the examples of the main literary genes: fairy tales, short
story, novels and poetry.

-

Acquaint students with the writing styles of English and American writers and
the realistic values of their works.

-

Analyze the works/ extracts.

Course requirements
-

It is necessary that students prepare for all lessons at home (reading, translating
and analyzing the works/ extracts in the course book.

-

For further study, the class is to be divided into groups of 3 or 4 who will be
responsible for an oral presentation on either a given extract the one chosen by
the group themselves

-

All the oral presentations must be presented with slides and covers the following
issues: information about the authors (if they are not mentioned in the course
book), the summary, the translation, and the analysis.

- The students’ written home assignments will be assessed individually when each is
asked to write the lesson diary after each week lesson. That is, they will write about
what they have learnt in the past lesson in terms of contents, activities; what they like

2


OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900)
Oscar Wilde, one of the greatest literary showman of
the 19th century England, was born in Dublin on
October 16th, 1854.
Wilde's parents were successful Dublin intellectuals.
His father was Sir William Wilde, an important
surgeon. His mother, often known with her pen name
“Speranza”, was a writer for the radical newspaper
“The Nation”. Their son showed his intelligence early

by

becoming fluent in French and German. His childhood
was carefree and happy, but somehow influenced by
his mother. At university Wilde read Greats; he proved himself to be an outstanding
classicist, first at Dublin, then at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the
rising philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin.
He also profoundly explored Roman Catholicism, to which he would later convert on his
deathbed. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social
circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities:
he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States of America and Canada on
the new "English Renaissance in Art", and then returned to London where he worked
prolifically as a journalist. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress, and glittering

conversation, Wilde had become one of the most well-known personalities of his day. In
1882 he made lecture tours through the United States where he preached gospel of "Art
for Art's sake".
Under the influence of his teacher, John Ruskin, Wilde joined the Aesthetic Movement
and soon became the most sincere supporter of this movement. After graduating from
the university, Wilde turned his attention to writing, travelling and lecturing, and when
the Aesthetic movement became popular Oscar Wilde earned a reputation of being the
leader of the movement and as an apostle of beauty.
In 1884 Wilde married a pretty self-affected young woman, who duly bore him two
sons. Their London house, which Wilde proceeded to equip with nicely chosen modern
furniture became a citadel of advanced contemporary.

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The next ten years saw the appearance of all his major works. They included fairy tales:
"The Happy Prince" (1888), " A House of Pomegranates" (1891); stories: 'lord
Arthur Savile's Crime" (1891); the novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1391) and
several sparkling comedies: "Lady Windermere's Fan" (1891) brought him the
fashionable acclaim. It was followed by "A Woman of No Importance" and "The
importance of 3eing Earnest. Except for his last comedy "The Importance of Being
Earnest', all of his plays, though led with glittering veins of wit, are commonplace with
thought and structure.
Wilde also wrote poems, essays, reviews and political tracts, letters and occasional
pieces of every subject such as history, drama, paintings, etc. Some of these pieces were
serious, some satirical, the variety of these themes reflected a personality that never
could remain inactive.
At the height of his popularity and success, disaster overtook-the dramatist. Accused of
immorality he was condemned to two years' hard labour. He emerged from prison in
1397 a ruined and broken man. In 1898 be published his powerful poem "Ballad of

Reading Gaol" and he died in a Paris hotel in 1900.
Oscar Wilde's work reflected the emotional protest of an artist against social; conditions
in England at the end of the nineteenth century. Wilde understood that art could not
flourish under capitalism and he came to false conclusion that art was isolated from life,
that art was the only thing that really existed and was worth living for. Life only mirrored
art and beauty was the measure of all things, hence be desired to escape from all the
horrors of reality into the realm of beauty
Like most writers and poets, Wilde glorified natural beauty but at the same time he was
the admirer of artificial colours. In his work he compared blood to a ruby, the blue sky to a
sapphire, man's beauty to that of silver, gold, ivory and precious stones.
Though Oscar Wilde claimed the theory of extreme individualism, he often contradicted
himself. In his works, in his tales in particular, he glorified beauty, and not only the
beauty of the nature and artificial beauty but also the beauty of devoted love. He admired
unselfishness, kindness and generosity. ("The Nightingale and the Rose"). He showed
deep sympathy for the poor ("The Devoted Friend"). He despised egoism and greed
("The Selfish Giant').

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In his plays Wilde gave a realistic picture of contemporary society and exposed the
bourgeois world. His only novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" is considered his
masterpiece.

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THE HAPPY PRINCE
by Oscar Wilde
HIGH above the city, on a tall column, stood the statue of

the Happy Prince. He was gilded all over with thin leaves
of fine gold, for eyes he had two bright sapphires, and a
large red ruby glowed on his sword-hilt.
He was very much admired indeed. ‘He is as beautiful as a
weathercock,’ remarked one of the Town Councillors who
wished to gain a reputation for having artistic tastes; ‘only
not quite so useful,’ he added, fearing lest people should
think him unpractical, which he really was not.
‘Why can’t you be like the Happy Prince?’ asked a sensible mother of her little boy who
was crying for the moon. ‘The Happy Prince never dreams of crying for anything.’
‘I am glad there is some one in the world who is quite happy,’ muttered a disappointed
man as he gazed at the wonderful statue.
‘He looks just like an angel,’ said the Charity Children as they came out of the cathedral
in their bright scarlet cloaks, and their clean white pinafores.
‘How do you know?’ said the Mathematical Master, ‘you have never seen one.’
‘Ah! but we have, in our dreams,’ answered the children; and the Mathematical Master
frowned and looked very severe, for he did not approve of children dreaming.
One night there flew over the city a little Swallow. His friends had gone away to Egypt
six weeks before, but he had stayed behind, for he was in love with the most beautiful
Reed. He had met her early in the spring as he was flying down the river after a big
yellow moth, and had been so attracted by her slender waist that he had stopped to talk
to her.
‘Shall I love you?’ said the Swallow, who liked to come to the point at once, and the
Reed made him a low bow. So he flew round and round her, touching the water with his
wings, and making silver ripples. This was his courtship, and it lasted all through the
summer.

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about the lesson, what they don’t understand very much, etc. And it is necessary that
students not type but write in ink their diaries and hand them in for the lecturer’s
signature at the beginning of the next lesson.
Assessments:
Performance in the course will be measured on the basis of two written tests and one
oral presentation
- Classroom discussion and oral presentation : 15%
- Written diaries: 10%
- Mid- semester test: 25%
- End- of- semester test: 50%
Format of the tests:
Both the written tests (mid-term and end-of-term) cover the information about the
author, the summary and a literary analysis of some learnt extract

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