Complete Humorous Guide to the World Literature for It Students

Complete Humorous Guide to the World Literature for It Students Being an IT student comes with a lot of perks, I am sure. I bet that you can solve complex math equations, build databases, troubleshoot code, something great like that I am sure, however, I bet that this has little application in the social world. Literature makes up much of our popular culture, and you dont want to be the one in the group who looks confused at the utterance of a literary reference, you big phony. See, I bet you missed what I did there. But there is hope for you yet! Because you clicked on this post, I am sure you have an interest in the subject, and to be honest, that is the most important step into gaining knowledge. At the end of this post you will be an expert on the world of literature. I will walk you through the periods of the world of lit so you can make references that will even make a turtle neck toting, brandy sipping, English major envious. l want to note that each of these periods that I will go over, are not exclusive. They often overlap, or even merge in most cases. The idea here is to give you an understanding on the meaning behind these different periods. Maybe you will see one that catches your fancy and you can check out some books from the genre. Who knows! I can see that you are ready to get to the point. Lets dive in! These are the major periodsof the lit world:Renaissance literature, The Enlightenment, Romanticism, Transcendentalism, Realism, Modernism, Bloomsbury Group, Existentialism, and the Beat Generation. Renaissance Literature Before this period, it was all bad- think dungeons, the black death (bring out your dead!), tyrannous rule, repressed citizens- I mean just reading that makes me a bit depressed. And this went on for HUNDREDS of years. Luckily, the Renaissance period came about and shook up the world. If the dark ages were a sickly and malformed hunchback chained in a forgotten dungeon, the Renaissance period was a group of women with flowers in their hair prancing in a field. To give you some time perspective, this took place between the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. And as the Dark Ages (yes that was a real thing) ended, the gloomy world was filled with optimism, artistry, and hope. The dominant forms of literature of this period were poetry and the drama. This drama is much better than the soap opera your aunt watches at noon, I am talking about Shakespeare here. Works during the Renaissance period were focused on the individual and perfecting the human, as we know it. These works of art still inspire us today. Unfortunately, this ever upward attitude of the period could not go on forever, and violence once again came about the world. Order was in need, and it led to the next literary period. The Enlightenment The Enlightenment was a major step forward for human civilization and took a more logical approach to the world, instead of the artful hippy-ness of the Renaissance period this period birthed the modern scientific method. Now I know that you lT students can relate to this one! To set the scene, at this time anything that went against the doctrinal religious leaders, was a big no-no. You could be put in jail or have your life ended, serious business. It wasnt until people like Newton, the father of physics, and Francis Bacon (not the food) came along and started to build the scientific method from the ground up that things started to change. Through data, observation, and confirming hypotheses, the rulers were slowly won over, and put away the guillotines. The enlightenment celebrated ideas, and made it so you and I could express our scientific ideas, without risk of persecution. Also, with all of these ideas floating around it led to a surge of literacy among the public and gave those not in power a voice. Power to the people! [cta id=498] Romanticism Turn down the lights, and light some candles because it is about to get.. Wait Wrong kind of Romantic Sadly, maybe happily this literary period isnt all about romance and love stories (sorry all of you Twilight fans). This literary period was mostly concerned with the individual over society, and works of literature focused on character building, and analyzing the imagination and consciousness. Where The Enlightenment was all about logic, this again is a flip into another, less concrete, way of thinking. A novel that is the poster child of this period is the Scarlet Letter, which is often seen as one of the greatest literary works of our time. If you want to try something a little darker, try Edgar Allen Poe, he was one of the first to perfect the horror genre and is a must-read to those who want to become familiar with literature. lf dark isnt your thing, Walt Whitman wrote some great poetry that was not only artful, but descriptive of the times like a vivid documentary. Transcendentalism Sometimes there are facts; something can be observed and written down in order to understand it. Other times, the answer may not be easily understood by the senses alone and you need to look within. Sounds a bit hokey, but that is all what this literary period is about. Sometimes it is important to get back to your roots, and get in touch with what is truly important. That is exactly what Ralph Waldo Emerson did, who was a largely influential force in the Transcendentalist movement. Emerson built a cabin with his own land, next to Walden Pond. He wanted to get in touch with nature, and spend his time living off of the land.Maybe you cant (or dont want to) live in the woods and survive off of the land for several years, and meditate, so luckily he wrote the books Walden and Life in the Woods where he speaks about these ideas, and lays the groundwork for environmental activism, and social justice. Realism It is about to get real! No really. Realism is all about painting a picture with words and bringing the reader directly into the moment. The influence of this period is seen widespread in current novels and poetry. An author of Realist works would be almost like a journalist and write down every detail of a story. But these authors wouldnt just write down what you could discern from the outside perspective, it looked inside the characters minds, and through internal monologue, placed you directly inside of the characters heads. Mark Twain is one of the great American authors who falls into this literary period. The works of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn really put you into the moment of the times and are both great reads. Realism fell apart because it actually didnt keep it real enough. It went too deep into the minds of the characters and the story plots themselves fell apart. That is when keeping it real goes wrong.