The Influences of British Literature on People Over the Ages Essay

The Influences of British Literature on People Over the Ages - Essay ExampleThis essay discusses that British literature is considered to exist of literature from the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The mass of this literature and the earliest as well were compose in the English language, but thither is withal separate literature in Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Jerriais, Dgernesiais, and other languages. Irish writers have also played an important part in the development of the English-language literature. It was in the late medieval period (1200-1500) when the ideals of courtly love began to enter England, which therefore began the writings of the same topic. English drama was especially popular at this time, and unity of the most profound dramatic literature writers, who is also in fact considered to be Englands first great writer, Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400), wrote in Middle English. Chaucer is the author of The Canterbury Tales, whi ch is comfortably one of the most respected and notorious works of British literature of all time. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories, two of which were written in prose, the rest of which was written in verse. Some of the tales are original and some are not, and the themes of the tales vary as well. The characteristics of the ecumenic topics range anywhere from courtly love to avarice with the general genre ideas ranging from romance and Breton lai to sermon and fabliau.... the greatest contribution that this work made to English literature was in popularizing the literary use of the vernacular language. (Wikipedia, 2006). This, considered to be Chaucers masterpiece, was created during Chaucers final period, and considered also to be one of the most brilliant works in all literature. Briefly, it is a poem which introduces a group of pilgrims journeying from London to the shrine of St. doubting Thomas a Becket at Canterbury. To help pass the time they decide to tell s tories, and together the pilgrims represent a wide cross section of 14th speed of light English life. The Renaissance period followed the middle ages, and it was during this time period that vernacular literature truly flourished. The difference in the literature of this era was that of its religiousness, as the majority of the works which were composed during this period were produced under Queen Elizabeth I and King James I the literature of the Renaissance period has been noted for its interest in the human being as a worthy subject. In other talking to, the transformation of both English language and literature in this period commode be seen to move away from the medieval Middle English literature period in that it was more recognizably modern Elizabethan literature by the use of religion. This period is also characterized by the influence of the classics, especially in literature. The Renaissance truly embraced literature, and the study of their classical poets led not only to their passageway into English but also the adaptation of their verse forms and systems of poetic metre. An illustration of the linguistic explosion caused by the Renaissance is the addition of more than 10,000 new words to the language in a short space of time, mainly from Latin. (Tiscali,