Literature in English: Middle Ages to Present
prof. Elisabeth Bekers
,Literature in English: Middle Ages to Present 25-26
0. Literature?
Red thread
- Literature reflects human values, emotions, the Zeitgeist: offering insights into
the cultural and intellectual life of any period
- Defining literature is difficult >< it generally requires a combination of artistic
merit and human interest → not all written texts are literature + some literature is
oral
- The literary canon (list of “great works”) is not fixed → shaped by consensus,
power, and cultural change → leading to major canon controversies and
revisions, especially in the 20th century
- Literary prizes (Nobel, Booker, Pulitzer, Women’s Prize) influence canon
formation by identifying and promoting significant contemporary writers
- English literature today must be understood as global and historically
contextual, not limited to Britain nor defined solely by the canon
0.1 The Significance of Literature
Although literature is sometimes considered “useless,” it is never valueless
→ importance lies in its ability to express and preserve the values, debates, and
intellectual climate (Zeitgeist) of a given period
Key points
- Literature reflects cultural values, beliefs, and conflicts of its era
- Percy B. Shelley: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”
→ writers shape how societies think, feel, and behave
- Civilisations are remembered largely through their writers and artists (e.g., Ancient
Greece through Homer)
- Reading/writing literature raises human life “above the animal level” (Burgess)
- Writers produce excitement in readers' minds by allowing them to discover something
new about reality
- Writers appeal to emotion and intellect through artistic use of language; scientists
mostly appeal to intellect
1
,Literature in English: Middle Ages to Present 25-26
0.2 What Is Literature? (Definition Problems)
Etymology:
Latin littera = “letter of the alphabet.” ! but:
- Not all written texts are literature
- Not all literature is written (e.g., oral traditions like Beowulf before transcription)
- orature = orally transmitted literature
Defining Literature:
There is no universal definition
Scholarly view (Alexander, 2013):
- a work’s value lies in its combination of literary art and human interest:
→ purely artistic >< irrelevant writing “dies”
→ interesting but unartistic writing isn’t literature
⇒ Literature = literary/artistic merit + human interest
Dictionary view (New Oxford Dictionary):
- Literature = “written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic
merit.”
How do we determine “artistic merit”?
- No objective method exists
- Shortcut: the canon = the collection of works traditionally considered “great” or
influential
0.3 The canon
Definitions
- Layman’s definition: “A list of literary works permanently established as being of the
highest quality.”
→ problem: nothing is permanently established; taste changes
- Academic definitions:
1. Narrow use: canon of an author → works genuinely written by them
(e.g., Shakespeare canon)
2. General literary canon: authors/works regarded by tradition or consensus as
major or great
Originally, the word canon referred to the authorised books of the Bible
Key issues:
Canon is not fixed → it is dynamic, shaped by:
- changing literary tastes
- new movements
- shifting political and cultural perspectives
2
, Literature in English: Middle Ages to Present 25-26
0.4 The Canon Controversy
From the second half of the 20th century → scholars increasingly criticised the canon as:
- a product of power structures, reflecting the tastes of the dominant social groups
- an instrument that centralises some voices and marginalises others (women, Black
authors, postcolonial writers, working-class voices)
Movements influencing the debate → feminism, ethnic studies, postcolonialism, civil rights...
→ controversy Bob Dylan - Nobel Prize of Literature 2016
Canon Revisions & Alternative Canons:
- more female and Black authors included
- entire anthologies dedicated to alternative traditions (e.g., British women’s writing,
Scottish literature)
→ examples of Revision:
- Norton Anthology (Major Authors):
- 1st edition: 0 women >< 9th edition: 27 women
- Aphra Behn was “rediscovered” thanks to Virginia Woolf
- The Brontë sisters were excluded in Leavis’s The Great Tradition (1948)
- Olaudah Equiano only added to the Norton Anthology in the early 1990s
Canonisation takes time:
- J. M. Coetzee won Nobel Prize (2003) >< not included in major anthologies until later
- Zadie Smith entered the Norton anthology only in 2013, despite early success (2000)
Prizes help:
- shape public and academic perception of “significant” writers
- promote sales
- accelerate canonisation
Nobel Prize for awarded to an author for Booker Prize since 2014: best novel
Literature their entire oeuvre; written in English and
living authors; world published in UK / Ireland
literature
Pulitzer Prize for novel written in English Women's Prize for full-length novel written
Fiction by a US author Fiction in English; women's
writing from across the
world
English literature ≠ all literature written in English
- English literature traditionally suggests the literature of England/Britain
>< Literature(s) in English = literature written in English across the world, including
postcolonial, non-European, diasporic, etc. traditions
→ without this global presence, late 20th and early 21st-century “English” fiction
would be “thin and impoverished.”
Canon vs Literary history
→ the canon alone is too narrow to represent literary history → literary history should:
- contextualise texts politically, socially, economically, culturally
- explain why certain works are considered representative of their eras
3
prof. Elisabeth Bekers
,Literature in English: Middle Ages to Present 25-26
0. Literature?
Red thread
- Literature reflects human values, emotions, the Zeitgeist: offering insights into
the cultural and intellectual life of any period
- Defining literature is difficult >< it generally requires a combination of artistic
merit and human interest → not all written texts are literature + some literature is
oral
- The literary canon (list of “great works”) is not fixed → shaped by consensus,
power, and cultural change → leading to major canon controversies and
revisions, especially in the 20th century
- Literary prizes (Nobel, Booker, Pulitzer, Women’s Prize) influence canon
formation by identifying and promoting significant contemporary writers
- English literature today must be understood as global and historically
contextual, not limited to Britain nor defined solely by the canon
0.1 The Significance of Literature
Although literature is sometimes considered “useless,” it is never valueless
→ importance lies in its ability to express and preserve the values, debates, and
intellectual climate (Zeitgeist) of a given period
Key points
- Literature reflects cultural values, beliefs, and conflicts of its era
- Percy B. Shelley: “Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.”
→ writers shape how societies think, feel, and behave
- Civilisations are remembered largely through their writers and artists (e.g., Ancient
Greece through Homer)
- Reading/writing literature raises human life “above the animal level” (Burgess)
- Writers produce excitement in readers' minds by allowing them to discover something
new about reality
- Writers appeal to emotion and intellect through artistic use of language; scientists
mostly appeal to intellect
1
,Literature in English: Middle Ages to Present 25-26
0.2 What Is Literature? (Definition Problems)
Etymology:
Latin littera = “letter of the alphabet.” ! but:
- Not all written texts are literature
- Not all literature is written (e.g., oral traditions like Beowulf before transcription)
- orature = orally transmitted literature
Defining Literature:
There is no universal definition
Scholarly view (Alexander, 2013):
- a work’s value lies in its combination of literary art and human interest:
→ purely artistic >< irrelevant writing “dies”
→ interesting but unartistic writing isn’t literature
⇒ Literature = literary/artistic merit + human interest
Dictionary view (New Oxford Dictionary):
- Literature = “written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic
merit.”
How do we determine “artistic merit”?
- No objective method exists
- Shortcut: the canon = the collection of works traditionally considered “great” or
influential
0.3 The canon
Definitions
- Layman’s definition: “A list of literary works permanently established as being of the
highest quality.”
→ problem: nothing is permanently established; taste changes
- Academic definitions:
1. Narrow use: canon of an author → works genuinely written by them
(e.g., Shakespeare canon)
2. General literary canon: authors/works regarded by tradition or consensus as
major or great
Originally, the word canon referred to the authorised books of the Bible
Key issues:
Canon is not fixed → it is dynamic, shaped by:
- changing literary tastes
- new movements
- shifting political and cultural perspectives
2
, Literature in English: Middle Ages to Present 25-26
0.4 The Canon Controversy
From the second half of the 20th century → scholars increasingly criticised the canon as:
- a product of power structures, reflecting the tastes of the dominant social groups
- an instrument that centralises some voices and marginalises others (women, Black
authors, postcolonial writers, working-class voices)
Movements influencing the debate → feminism, ethnic studies, postcolonialism, civil rights...
→ controversy Bob Dylan - Nobel Prize of Literature 2016
Canon Revisions & Alternative Canons:
- more female and Black authors included
- entire anthologies dedicated to alternative traditions (e.g., British women’s writing,
Scottish literature)
→ examples of Revision:
- Norton Anthology (Major Authors):
- 1st edition: 0 women >< 9th edition: 27 women
- Aphra Behn was “rediscovered” thanks to Virginia Woolf
- The Brontë sisters were excluded in Leavis’s The Great Tradition (1948)
- Olaudah Equiano only added to the Norton Anthology in the early 1990s
Canonisation takes time:
- J. M. Coetzee won Nobel Prize (2003) >< not included in major anthologies until later
- Zadie Smith entered the Norton anthology only in 2013, despite early success (2000)
Prizes help:
- shape public and academic perception of “significant” writers
- promote sales
- accelerate canonisation
Nobel Prize for awarded to an author for Booker Prize since 2014: best novel
Literature their entire oeuvre; written in English and
living authors; world published in UK / Ireland
literature
Pulitzer Prize for novel written in English Women's Prize for full-length novel written
Fiction by a US author Fiction in English; women's
writing from across the
world
English literature ≠ all literature written in English
- English literature traditionally suggests the literature of England/Britain
>< Literature(s) in English = literature written in English across the world, including
postcolonial, non-European, diasporic, etc. traditions
→ without this global presence, late 20th and early 21st-century “English” fiction
would be “thin and impoverished.”
Canon vs Literary history
→ the canon alone is too narrow to represent literary history → literary history should:
- contextualise texts politically, socially, economically, culturally
- explain why certain works are considered representative of their eras
3
