English Society Research Articles

STUDIES OF ENGLISH TOWNS DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY VI IN BRITISH HISTORIOGRAPHY

The relevance of the research is determined by the increased interest, as well as revision of approaches to the study of medieval towns. The purpose of the study is to identify the main features in the study of English towns during the reign of Henry VI in British historiography. Materials and methods. The research uses such historical methods as historical-genetic, historical-comparative, retrospective, historical-biographical ones, as well as the principle of historicism. Thanks to the use of these methods, the works of English-speaking historians related to the problem of the development of English towns in the specified time period were processed. For the first time, the author specifically refers to the research by British scientists of English towns during the reign of Henry VI – a time characterized by great social tension, many conflicts and fewer sources than the previous and subsequent periods. Study results. Henry VI was less popular than other kings of England in the XV century. He was considered to be a weak ruler, a “madman on the throne” and one of the most unhappy kings. At this, towns that play an important role in the socio-political and economic development of the state were developing in England during his reign. The article examines the research of British historians concerning the towns of the era of Henry VI. The author examines how approaches to assessing the reign of the king and the history of English towns of this time have changed using the example of the works of British scientists. In particular, the classical works of F. Maitland, J.M. Trevelyan, as well as the works of modern researchers, for example, R.A. Griffiths. Special attention is paid to the relationship between an English late medieval town and the royal power, and the evolution of British scientists views – from “antiquaries” to modern researchers – on the history of towns in general and on the peculiarities of urban development in the era of Henry VI in particular is considered. Conclusions. Towns played an important role in all areas of the English society. The royal government showed great interest in towns as participants in the internal political, economic and social processes in England in the middle of the XV century. According to the results of the study, it was found that, despite an increasing interest in the study of a medieval town in the English-language historiography, at the moment it can be stated that there is still insufficient knowledge on the development of a town during the reign of King Henry VI.

“That Would Be Undemocratic”: Individuality and Educational Differentiation in C. S. Lewis’s “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” (1961)

This essay surveys C. S. Lewis’s statement and critique of British education as found in “Screwtape Proposes a Toast” (Lewis, 1961) and other works within his oeuvre. In this short story, Lewis elaborates on the state of education in postwar English society through the eyes of his protagonist: a demon. In distilling Lewis’s Christian philosophy of education, the essay explores individuality, differentiation, and various correlated themes in juxtaposition to extant literature on twentieth-century educational reform. Having the educational impact of Christian tenets as the common denominator, the essay concludes with individuality and differentiation standing at the core of Christian education.

CLASS AND CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS ACCORDING TO E. P. THOMPSON

ABSTRACTIn this article, I extract a theory of class from E. P. Thompson's historical works of the 1960s and 1970s, focusing especially on his 1963 magnum opus The Making of the English Working Class, the articles later collected in the 1991 volume Customs in Common: Studies in Traditional Popular Culture, and the essays “The Peculiarities of the English” and “Eighteenth‐Century English Society: Class Struggle without Class?” In the first section, I argue, following Ellen Meiksins Wood, that Thompson developed a genuinely historical materialist theory of class formation as a “structured process” that moves from class struggle to class consciousness, a theory that complicates the frequent description of Thompson as a “voluntarist.” In the second section, I take a more critical position toward Thompson's understanding of class, discussing a tension between this notion of class as structured process and his numerous invocations of class as a form of “lived experience” whose diversity and unpredictability exceed theorization. This tension aside, Thompson claims that, in the case of the nineteenth‐century English working class, to which he dedicated so much research, lived experience coincided with the more general structured process he posits. In the third section, therefore, I more fully elaborate on this specific process of class formation as Thompson portrays it, identifying and discussing three intertwined threads: (1) a movement from a past‐oriented defense of traditional institutions to a future‐oriented demand for reforms, (2) the development of oppositional, class‐specific pedagogical institutions and practices, and (3) the creation of a distinct class culture (which Thompson closely aligns with the achievement of class consciousness) that is aware both of itself and of its antagonism with other classes.

Samuel Butler: A Rebel of the Victorian Age

Samuel Butler is, according to George Bernard Shaw, the greatest English satirist in the latter half of the nineteenth century. This paper intends to demonstrate the social function of literature by probing into Samuel Butler’s moral and ethical values. His works are a challenge against the Victorian values as well as a miniature representation of the Victorian society. As a rebel against the Victorian society Butler attacks many of its vested interests and accepted ideas. In almost all his books the shallow inconsistencies and dubious values of the English society are mercilessly exposed. The paper is an attempt to explore Butler’s treatment of the pernicious aspects of the Victorian family, religion, science and education in order to send some social message that Samuel Butler’s works may bring to the world today.

Connecting Historic Graffiti to Past Parishes and Beliefs

Historic graffiti offer new and interesting insights into late medieval and early modern English society. This paper will show the value of studying these inscriptions by discussing two churches constructed in the late medieval period in Suffolk, England, with drawings of two figures that potentially represent the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. These drawings are similar and yet quite different in their quality and execution, and they possibly relate to lost medieval imagery within the building. These images may also have been created in response to various iconoclastic movements that occurred as part of the Reformation as well as after it. This paper seeks to encourage further study on the relationship between historic graffiti and local history by observing the connection between the late medieval parish churches of Lidgate and Stradishall and their respective figural drawings by suggesting that graffiti serve a larger purpose than idle drawing or doodling and instead are valuable pieces of evidence about parish life and values.

Excavation of Hushed Voices: A Spatio-temporal Imaginary Discourse on Socio-ethics in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day

The concept of the ‘Great Chain of Being’, which influences the narrative style of the Renaissance Period of English Literature, depicts the hierarchical state of the old English Society. Suggestively, it’s a society driven by class/status and its attendant structures of inequality, discrimination and oppression. Hence, literary narratives of this period revolve round the travails of Kings and nobles, while subjecting the common men to the background. Subsequently, the esoteric state of the society, which was usually captured from the third person point of view, helps to question the place of truth in these literary narratives, as they could be liken to glossary reports from spectators, devoid of participant’ direct contribution(s). However, with the writing(s) of Kazuo Ishiguro, an Asian-British, there comes a direct feel of participant’s contribution in his narratives as he deconstructs the style of the old traditional English narratives in his novel, The Remains of the Day. Consequently, with the application of the first-person point of view in his novel, readers could explore the socio-cultural dispositions of every society and individual within the purview of ethics, politics and development. In furtherance, this study gives a historicized spatial alternate or temporal reality of an Old English society system - a system anchored on classism, professionalism and superficial orderliness devoid of ‘social interactions’ and freedom, especially for the workmen or common men. The emergence of an American Lord after the death of the English Lord gives a contrastive alternative pattern against that of the English. Hence, this alternate reflection of the American presence further deconstructs every long-held tradition in Darlington’s Hall as the author reveals that perceptions are influenced by cultural ingenuity which borders on the socio-cultural/socio-political formation of every society and individuals.

Taxonomizing Goblins from Folklore to Fiction

During the medieval and early modern periods, folkloric goblins were often presented as multifaceted creatures with unclear origins and as nebulous markers of the preternatural. Beginning in the 1800s, however, authors crafted new interpretations of these creatures that appropriated folkloric traditions to create a distinct kind of fictional goblin. The works of George MacDonald (d. 1905) and J. R. R. Tolkien (d. 1973) were essential to this process. MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin (1872) fuses folklore with Darwinian evolutionary thought to present goblins as antagonistic, troglodytic schemers who devolved from humans. MacDonald’s ideas were influential on Tolkien, as he characterizes goblins as a corrupted and evil ‘race’—descriptions that utilize racialized language common in early twentieth-century England. Tolkien and MacDonald thus flattened folkloric goblins in their own works such that they became an entirely different (and specific) kind of fictional monster that reflected contemporary trends in English society.

Football and Racism in Roy Williams’ Sing Yer Heart out for the Lads

Roy Williams is one of the outstanding contemporary black British playwrights. His plays deal with issues of race, racism, nationalism, masculinity, working-class identities, sport, and intergenerational relationships. Through his plays, Williams tries to provoke his audience to a very essential issue which is that black people are part of the English society. He is against racism. He finds that sport is not far from racism therefore, he decides to write his Sports Plays. In these plays Williams depicts how the black players are treated by the white as if they are not English.

Analysing Speech in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice based on Gender

Pride and Prejudice, a classic novel by Jane Austen, portrays the social and linguistic differences in the speech of men and women in 19th Century England. This paper attempts to explore how language is used as a tool for representation of gender identity, social standing and power dynamics within the characters in the novel. This exploration is done by closely examining conversations and interactions among characters. It studies the differences between the ways the male and female characters use language to navigate their relationships, assert power and deal with social expectations. The syntactic structures, the choice of words, politeness strategies and speech acts are examined to study the interplay between language and gender that Austen brings out in her famed novel. The speech patterns are also involved in studying the gendered expectations and the societal norms, and how they are affected by speech. The paper contributes to the deeper understanding of the use of language based on gender differences and sheds light on the complexities of gender performance and expressions within the Regency-era English society. It gives the readers an insight into the way the author’s portrayal of speech reflects the gender dynamics throughout the novel.

АННА БОЛЕЙН – РЕФОРМАТОРКА ЧИ ПОЛІТИЧНА ГРАВЧИНЯ?

English society of the first half of the 16th century underwent many changes in political, cultural and, most importantly, in religious life. The reign of Henry VIII was marked by a decline in the popularity of the papacy among ordinary citizens, which led to a crisis and a break with Rome. From the moment Anne Boleyn arrived at the royal palace of Henry VIII in 1522, she began to play a key role in religious change in England. Some sources confirm her active involvement of the king in reading controversial works that would shake his attitude towards the Pope and the Catholic Church. Different researchers trace different motives for her activity, debating whether it was a religious or rather a political move. The purpose of the article is to understand and determine the level of activity of Anne Boleyn in the religious sphere of life, to trace her role and motives in the formation of a new religious belief in England. Accordingly, the following main tasks arise. Firstly, to analyze the source base of Anne’s contemporaries and scientific works, which reveal the research achievements of our time. Secondly, to investigate the dynamics of the development of the reformation movement in England, to determine the reasons and prerequisites for the church reform in order to understand the level of influence of Anne Boleyn in the decision-making by the king.

„Obcy” kraj, „inne” społeczeństwo. XVII-wieczna Anglia w relacjach podróżniczych mieszkańców Rzeczypospolitej – wyobrażenia a rzeczywistość.

Travel in the modern period played an important role in shaping the geographical horizon and creating perceptions of ‘foreign’ countries and ‘other’ peoples. ‘Curiosity’ was the basic impulse to embark on a journey to ‘foreign’ countries. It stimulated the development of knowledge, inspired, and encouraged meticulous observation of the surrounding reality. The aim of the article is to reconstruct sympathies and prejudices towards English society and the image of England existing in the consciousness of Old Polish voyagers. The source base of the article consists of printed and manuscript accounts of journeys and ambassadorial missions, as well as instructions written down by parents or guardians. The accounts contain rich and intriguing descriptions, which are a testimony to the confrontation of imagination with reality. The source material presents a diverse image of the English people. Accounts by Old Polish travelers are dominated by remarks related to the religious aspect. Descriptions of the prevailing religion were emotionally charged and constituted a manifestation of the feelings and religious beliefs of Catholics as well as dissenters. The image of the heretic Englishman is a stereotype firmly rooted in the Old Polish mentality. The resulting image of England has its roots in reality, but also in subjective opinions, impressions, sympathies as well as in myths and stereotypes functioning in the Sarmatian consciousness.

The Two-Faced Mirror: The Aristotelian-Hegelian Structure of The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

For centuries, classical Greek drama was considered, by playwrights and theorists alike, the greatest influence on the structure of the dramatic text. One of its main features, for example, was the law of three units. Elaborated by Aristotle, the prescriptions oriented the plays to take place in a single place, within twenty-four hours, and exhibit a continuous plot, with a beginning, middle, and end. However, for thinkers such as Hegel, modern drama needed new approaches. In his writings, the German philosopher postulated that modern drama should exhibit narrative speed, and a certain dynamic quality, aligned with the internal and external conflicts of the characters. This article aims at analyzing the way in which Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), balanced both Aristotle and Hegel’s views by engendering a modern text with classical roots, while simultaneously embedding a comedy satirizing the customs of English society.

Mystical and Archetypal Journeys in Leila Aboulela’s Bird Summons

This article aims at exploring the significance of intertwining the mystical and the archetypal journey structures in Leila Aboulela’s novel, Bird Summons (2019). It highlights the author’s indebtedness to Islamic Sufi tradition and shows how she appropriates Farid ud-din Attar’s mystical pilgrimage of the seven valleys to a postmodern context where three Arab-British female characters attain spiritual transcendence. On the other hand, the article employs Joseph Campbell’s structure of the archetypal journey narratives to explicate the relationship between the narrative structure and the author’s chief thematic concerns. Campbell’s seventeen stages of the “Monomyth,” or the “hero’s journey,” illuminate Aboulela’s proficient projection of the characters’ spiritual quest in their physical movement from the city into the forest. England performs a cultural contact zone which entices the protagonists to overcome their identity crises caused by traumatic experiences, acute sense of displacement, and nostalgia. The success of their physical journey to Lady Evelyn Cobbold’s grave functions as an allegory for the redemptive impact of spirituality which ultimately empowers them to become more functional individuals and to integrate into English society. The study concludes that Aboulela’s deliberate fusion of Islamic journey structure with a Western one attests to the author’s belief in the universality of Islam and the possibility of religious tolerance and intercultural coexistence.

Evolutionary Science, Empire, and Disenchantment in May Kendall’s That Very Mab

Abstract One of the more remarkable satires of English society and thought of the 1880s came in the guise of a fairy story, That Very Mab (1885), in which the eponymous fairy queen is driven out of Samoa by imperialists and on her return to England finds it overrun by evolutionists and the proponents of modern material progress. Written by the satirist and popular Punch contributor May Kendall, That Very Mab excoriates Victorian England by satirizing its passion for explanatory frameworks, including scientific materialism, philistinism, nihilism, novel metaphysics, evolutionary progress, and imperialism, all subjects that Kendall also attacked in her comic verse (published between 1885 and 1894). Kendall has recently received critical attention for her satiric poems about evolutionary science, materialism, and modern disenchantment. While That Very Mab’s satiric concerns in many ways dovetail with those of these poems, the wider scope of its fantastic narrative allows Kendall to enact a more sustained assault on the concept of empire and its justifications from evolutionary anthropology. Highly skeptical of teleologies that promote a belief in the evolutionary progress of humankind, her fairy fantasy links evolutionary anthropology to the dishonest blandishments, corruption, and violence of imperial adventures.

“A Serious House on Serious Earth It Is…” (Commentary on the Poem “Church Going” by Ph. Larkin).

The article analyzes one of the most popular works of the British poet Philip Larkin. The poem “Church Going” expressed the processes that took place in English society in the post-war period. Many English people broke up with religion and stopped visiting church. But such a refusal was followed by some losses. Certain of the former believers felt disagreeable themselves after leaving church. Larkin tries to find out what qualities of church had attracted people, what they had gotten there and what can replace church in the future when it ceases to exist as a social institution. In addition to the content study, the article pays attention to stylistic analysis and analysis of the elements of poetic form.

Stage, Street, Garden, or Parlour: The Ubiquitous Popular Songs of Late Georgian England

ABSTRACT This article explores the ubiquity of popular songs across print traditions, performance venues, and social classes in England during the late Georgian era. It examines the formatting and presentation of an eighteenth-century chapbook, contextualizing it within contemporaneous print cultures before exploring how the songs in this item of cheap literature relate to music from English comic operas, pleasure garden entertainments, and domestic spaces. Through this case study, the article aims to illuminate a compelling era of English song before the “elite” became exclusive of the “popular,” when songs moved fluidly between social contexts and print traditions and were heard, known, and performed by multiple classes of English society.

Гиперболизация в современных английских художественных текстах

The aim of the paper is to identify in a systematized manner various means and ways of expressing hyperbolization in the speech of characters in modern English literary texts. The research is novel in that it is the first to systematize a variety of hyperbolic means in English-language fiction that allow achieving a certain emotional impact on the addressee. The paper analyzes the contexts of the use of exaggeration in the speech of 25 characters in the works of modern English writers: India Knight’s “Comfort and Joy” (2010), Sophie Kinsella’s “Finding Audrey” (2015) and “Love Your Life” (2020), and for the first time summarizes hyperbolic ways of expression in the maxims of modern English society. The study examines such hyperbolic means as hyperbole, hyperbolic metaphor, metonymy, irony, antihyperbole, meiosis and litotes. The results of the study showed that the hyperbolic ways contribute to the creation of a colorful image, comic effect, as well as an emotional and manipulative impact on the reader. The analyzed material revealed the existence of lexical, grammatical and stylistic ways of expressing hyperbolization, which are actively used in the speech of modern native speakers.

The Middle Ages’ Influence on Women’s Role in Romantic Poetry

Women in the medieval period suffered from abuse and inequality. The pressure on women was so noticeable that they were treated as a marginal component of society in all aspects, an important one of which is the literary aspect. The literary role of women has largely disappeared from the European society in general and the English one in particular. Therefore, women, at every stage, struggled to show themselves amid these great pressures; their struggle led them to reach and succeed in the feminist movement. They attempted to counter the stereotypical image of the medieval women being helpless and subservient in the warrior societies depicted in Old English texts and the evil shrews responsible for men’s failings in Middle English texts. Their new adapted literary role focuses on showing their strength, intelligence, agency in society, and the extent of women’s impact on society and its change, despite the fact that this change came in secret. This study sheds some light on the women’s role in the literary social movement by critically examining the relevant literary works through which the role and effectiveness of women are revealed. This study contributes to dispelling some of the myths surrounding the perspectives assumed about women by providing greater clarity for their cultural and historical settings. Also, this study offers a feminist reading to the female characters in the selected works which clearly illustrates women’s role and the impact of feminist literature on English literature and English society at that period using the famous old legendary epic in English literature, Beowulf.

The Virginia Venture: American Colonization and English Society, 1580–1660 by Misha Ewen (review)

The Virginia Venture: American Colonization and English Society, 1580–1660 by Misha Ewen (review)

A Psychoanalytic Liberal Feminist Analysis of George Moore's "Esther Waters"

In the nineteenth-century English society, the public sphere is associated with rationality and man whereas the private sphere is identified with morality and woman. Being deprived of education and professions, women are given the roles of wife and mother. Liberal feminism emphasizes the equality of woman with man in legal and social life. In this sense, the standpoints of Mary Wollstonecraft, Harriet Taylor, and John Stuart Mill for women’s position are expressed. The analysis of the unconscious is important for examining the oppression that women are subjected to in patriarchal society. Thus the views of important psychoanalysts such as Sigmund Freud, Carl G. Jung, and Jacques Lacan are explained. This study examines women’s position in George Moore’s "Esther Waters" in terms of education and marriage with a psychoanalytic liberal feminist approach. Esther has an extramarital sex, has an illegitimate child and struggles financially for her son as a fallen woman. In this study, no matter how Esther tries to draw a libertarian and ‘New Woman’ profile, the patriarchal society in which she lives does not allow her to be liberated and she continues her life by being forced to marry.