دانلود کتاب Seventeenth-century English literature

THE study of literature requires knowledge of contexts as
well as of texts. What kind of person wrote the poem, the
play, the novel, the essay? What forces acted upon them
as they wrote? What was the historical, the political, the
philosophical, the economic, the cultural background? Was
the writer accepting or rejecting the literary conventions of
the time, or developing them, or creating entirely new kinds
of literary expression? Are there interactions between
literature and the art, music or architecture of its period?
Was the writer affected by contemporaries or isolated?
Such questions stress the need for students to go beyond
the reading of set texts, to extend their knowledge by
developing a sense of chronology, o f action and reaction, and
of the varying relationships between writers and society.
Histories o f literature can encourage students to make
comparisons, can aid in understanding the purposes of
individual authors and in assessing the totality of their
achievements. Their development can be better understood
and appreciated with some knowledge of the background of
their time. And histories of literature, apart from their
valuable function as reference books, can demonstrate the
great wealth of writing in English that there is to be enjoyed.
They can guide the reader who wishes to explore it more
fully and to gain in the process deeper insights into the rich
diversity not only of literature but of human life itself.