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Reading List Page
Below is a list of writings, literary movements and significant historical events from the sixteenth century to the present day (have a look at the timeline for information on literary in medieval and Anglo-Saxon England). I will add to this page regularly, taking us both forwards and backwards! Do also take a look at the timeline page for some further information.
Whichever English subject you choose, both have an extremely strong focus on widening your literary knowledge and experience. You should begin reading from different areas within English and American Literature and even consider widening your knowledge by reading some Russian and French literature. You will be issued with a reading log at the start of the course and will need to regularly update this to reflect your widening understanding of literature.
Do let me know if you discover something that you feel ought to be added (I could not put everything on at first!) or if you find a fascination with some of the wonderful literature below: past students have found a love for writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Thomas Hardy, or even found areas that they feel they would like to specialise in at university.
16th - 17th Century
Writers:
You already have background knowledge on Shakespeare and Elizabethan/Jacobean England; however, if you are feeling rusty, there are plenty of places to research, e.g. see biographical websites such as: the Stratford-upon-Avon site, or Brandeis. Then explore how the historical, social and cultural context impacted upon his work and how the a literary tradition is reflected within it. Don’t forget, he was not the only dramatist of the time: Webster and Jonson also features as major playwrights of this period.
John Donne and other metaphysical poets.
Milton – Puritan influences strong
The second half of the century is typified in some ways by Restoration dramatists such as Wycherley and Congreve in a reaction against the Puritan era.
Social/historical/cultural context:
Change from Tudors to Stuarts/Elizabethan to Jacobean.
Development of Britain’s interests abroad
Puritanism/Civil War/ Cromwell/ Restoration of the Monarchy (1660)
18th Century
Writers:
Defoe, Fielding – this was a period in which the novel rose in stature.
Drama - Sheridan
Pre-Romantics (poets) – Blake
Early Romantics (poets) – Wordsworth, Coleridge
Social/historical/cultural context:
Protestants & Catholics/ ‘Glorious Revolution’ - Wilkipedia info or BBC info
The Enlightenment. The Royal Society. Exploration & Scientific discoveries (Newton, Leibnitz, etc)
Crime/Punishment/the justice system/Transportation
Transport developments (canals, bridges, roads, railways)
19th Century
For all Victorian Literature and its social, historical and cultural context, I recommend the Victorian Web; however, I’ve also listed other sites below where applicable. You will also find your own.
Writers:
This is very much the age of the novel: – Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, the Brontë sisters, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Mark Twain (U.S.) Nathaniel Hawthorne (U.S) Rudyard Kipling
Poets –Byron, Shelley, Keats, Robert & Elizabeth Browning, Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, Matthew Arnold, Thomas Hardy.
Drama – Oscar Wilde,
Other points to consider:
Queen Victoria the 'Victorian Age'
Defeat of Napoleon (1815)
Transport (see above)
Abolition of Slavery / American Civil War
Early- mid 20th Century
Novelists: – HG Wells, DH Lawrence, James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, Henry James (US), Virginia Woolf, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Aldous Huxley, F. Scott Fitzgerald (US) John Steinbeck (US), George Orwell, Alan Paton
Poets: – Robert Frost (US), T.S. Eliot,
Sassoon, Owen, Brooke, Rosenberg
Dramatists: Shaw, Noel Coward, Tennessee Williams (US),
Empire (Africa, India, etc) and especially the decline of the Empire; also see Imperialism and Colonialism
Tensions in Europe
The effect of two world wars on women’s right to vote and the changing role of women
The Depression & Wall Street Crash
Rise of Fascism ; Hitler’s Germany
The start of the disintegration of British Empire and the beginning of India and Pakistan as we know them now (Ghandi)
The ‘50s and ‘60s
Kitchen Sink Drama (British Theatre)
Rock and Roll. Youth Culture. Rebellion. Beatniks
Novelists – JD Salinger (US), Alan Sillitoe, Harper Lee (Mockingbird) (USA), Heller (Catch22) ( USA ) Muriel Spark
poets – Ginsberg (US) ‘Beat Poets’ , Ted Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Philip Larkin, John Betjeman
Drama – Pinter, Delaney, Arthur Miller (US), John Osborne (Look Back in Anger), a rise of working class literature’ Peter Schaffer, Robert Bolt
Communist Threat & McCarthyism in the US
Civil Rights & Racial Awareness (esp. in USA ) (then watch for the rise of black literary figures & works)
Kennedy Era (USA )
Ban the bomb
Vietnam
Era of Protest
The ‘70s
Novels & Polemical writing – Germaine Greer, Angela Carter, VS Naipaul
Drama – Stoppard, Ayckbourn
Computer technology
Belfast ‘troubles’
Cambodia (Killing Fields & Khmer Rouge)
Continuing conflict in Middle East
Investigative journalism (Watergate)
The ‘80s
Writers:
Novelists: Angela Carter, Margaret Atwood, Jim Crace The Gift of Stones – influenced by the changes in Birmingham’s engineering fortunes, David Lodge Nice Work (the story of industrialist Vic Wilcox and his unlikely relationship with marxist, feminist and post-structuralist academic Dr Robyn Penrose).
Poets:
Rise of individualism
The ‘90s
Have a look at the novels winning the Booker prize in this decade
Writers: Will Self,
Poets: Simon Armitage
Growth in new communications and technology – mobile phones, home computers etc.
The 21st Century
Consider the cultural, social and historical context of your own time upon novels, poems and plays produced within the last few years. How does 9/11 affect literature - for instance, Ian McEwan’s Saturday?
Our perceptions of any text containing the twin towers has changed radically – read this article on how the world changed, or take a look at this news site. The events you can remember (even if only just) will help to shape literature, just as the world wars, the cold war, the Napoleonic wars, the civil war shaped literature in the past.
Hope you enjoy browsing!