FESTIVITY AND CULTURAL REFLECTION: THE CONCEPT OF HOLIDAYS IN ENGLISH LITERARY TEXTS
Keywords:
holidays in English literature, festivity and culture, medieval pilgrimage, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Renaissance holiday traditions, Enlightenment satire, Romantic rural festivals, Wordsworth, Victorian Christmas, Dickens, Gaskell, Hardy, modernist memory, symbolic function, narrative function, psychological function, social critique, aesthetic role, cultural transformation, tradition and modernityAbstract
This article explores the representation of holidays in English literary texts across different historical periods, examining their symbolic, social, psychological, and narrative functions. Holidays, whether religious, seasonal, or civic, frequently emerge in literature as pivotal motifs through which authors convey themes of renewal, identity, cultural tradition, and social critique. From the ritualized pageantry of medieval pilgrimages to Dickensian Christmas morality tales and modern critiques of consumerism, festive moments in English literature serve both aesthetic and ideological purposes. By investigating the functions of holidays in the works of Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Austen, Woolf, and others, this article argues that holidays in English literature not only reflect cultural traditions but also actively participate in shaping literary meaning and collective imagination.
References
1. Bakhtin, M. Rabelais and His World. Indiana University Press, 1984.
2. Chaucer, G. The Canterbury Tales. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Oxford University Press, 1987.
3. Dickens, C. A Christmas Carol. Chapman & Hall, 1843.
4. Fielding, H. Tom Jones. 1749.
5. Hardy, T. Under the Greenwood Tree. Macmillan, 1872.
6. Orwell, G. Essays. Penguin Classics, 2000.
7. Shakespeare, W. Twelfth Night. Ed. Roger Warren. Oxford University Press, 1994.
8. Sterne, L. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. 1760–67.
9. Waugh, E. A Handful of Dust. Chapman & Hall, 1934.
10. Woolf, V. To the Lighthouse. Hogarth Press, 1927.
11. Wordsworth, W. Selected Poems. Penguin Classics, 1994.
