What is the meaning of English literature

1700s and 1800s

This is the era that saw the rise of neoclassicists such as Pope. It also saw the rise of popular writers such as Johnson, romantics like Wordsworth, Shelley and Wollstonecraft and women writers such as Jane Austen. Afterwards, in the 1830s during the Victorian era, the rise of writers like Eliot, Dickens, and Bronte sisters was witnessed.

There were poets such as Hopkins, Rossetti, and Housman who taught literature classes alongside writers like Carlyle, Ruskin, and Macaulay. Some of the popular books written during this era include 'Gulliver's Travels' and 'Robinson Crusoe' written by Jonathan Swift and Daniel Dafoe respectively.

The 1900s and the Present

This period is marked by the rise of Irish authors Joyce, Yeats, and Beckett. Other authors who are studied in English literature include Woolf, Orwell, and Huxley. After World War I and World War II, English literature was more focused on the social and aesthetic facets of communities and less on politics. Some of the authors studied from this period include Lessing, Murdoch, Heaney, Graves and L. Frank. The legendary "The Wizard of Oz" was written in 1990 and is widely studied in English literature.

Though many authors have come up in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, authors from the Elizabethan era and their work are still studied in literature today.

English Literature at its Core

English literature refers to the study of texts from the 1100s to the modern day texts. When studying English literature, students are taught to analyze a multitude of texts and write using different available styles. While literature refers to plays, novels, and poems, the term is contested as different forms of communication come up every day giving rise to various forms of contemporary literature.

Due to the emergency of new forms of communication, literature can be said to be 'writing with merit.' Other types of texts that have come up with the new age writing include screenplays, song lyrics, nonfiction, blogs and other forms of literary work online. Even with the emergence of new forms of literature, most of the English literature programs study ancient literary texts. Texts examined in these programs include poetry, prose fiction, and drama.

Studying Literature and Reading Literature

The history of literature is rich to the point that movies have been produced to show the life of literary icons such as Shakespeare. You can choose to study literature for pleasure and enjoy the exciting stories of how literature was developed, or you can study English literature in college where you will be taught to read and analyze different texts, study different writing styles.

There are different types of English literature based on origin. The field is divided into British literature, American literature, and World literature. In other instances, you will study literature as oral or written literature.

When studying literature, students will be needed to choose the field they enjoy most such as creative writing or drama or poetry. While studying English literature in college, you will get a deeper understanding of texts that you would when reading solo.

Why Study English Literature?

Students of English literature can dissect any work for a deeper meaning. In literature, there are different career paths including teaching, journalism, lecturing with many opportunities in law, business, and education. Graduates can also use their skills to pursue careers in advertising and marketing. Graduates can turn to creative writing and become novelists, poets, songwriters, and screenwriters among others.

If you are looking for English literature homework answers, you can easily find them online.