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1. What does the term “media” include?
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1. What does the term “media” include?
2. What is the reason why the British continue to buy and read newspapers in our internet age?
3. Which categories are the British newspapers divided into?
4. Do you know any names of the British newspapers or magazines (journals)?
5. What are the main British radio and television channels?
6. What is the BBC service?
7. What is Reuters?
F OLKLORE AND LITERATURE
The studies of the British culture cannot stand apart from the research of its important product – folklore. The folklore and folk customs of England developed over a long chain of centuries. Some ancient customs were passed from Celtic to Germanic generations and further. Invaders and settlers brought with them their own beliefs, which mixed with older traditions.
The main system of values, beliefs and traditions of British nations is mostly reflected in the ballads and fairy tales.
Although the subjects of ballads vary considerably, some major classes of the ballad can be distinguished— among them the historical and heroic such as Beowulf, King Arthur songs and Robin Hood cycle.
Beowulf is an Old anonymous English heroic epic poem. Its creation dates to between the 8th and the 11th century. It is long, as there are 3183 lines and devoted to brave and strong hero who fought for the good of his people, killing two monsters. Beowulf has been adapted a number of times in cinema, on the stage, and in books.
Another old recorded ballad in the English language is the legend devoted to King Arthur who was a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries. According to medieval histories he led the defense of celts against Saxon invaders. 
There is also the story of Round Table associated with King Arthur. In Arthurian legend King Arthur had a round table so that none of his knights, when seated at it, could claim precedence over the others.
Another ballad printed in the late 15th or early 16th centuries is devoted to “Robyn Hood". Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore, and, according to legend, was also a highly skilled archer, assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his “Merry Men”. Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes and lived in Sherwood forest.
Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the medieval period as the one who was fighting with the unscrupulous sheriff. Robbing the rich he gave everything to the poor He continues to be widely represented in modern literature, films and television.
The old ballads are a very valuable part of poetical literature. Ballads are a rich source of data connected with history, social life, feelings and values of the people living on the British Isle.
Like ballads English Fairy Tales circulated in England in oral form. One of the oldest printed fairy tales in England was Tom Thumb. In this fairytale a childless poor couple asked Magician Merlin to give them a son even if he were no bigger than his father’s thumb. Tom Thumb uncounted many adventures. The last of them was being eaten by a fish which was then caught for King Arthur’s table. Tom became a knight and when he died was mourned by the whole Arthur’s court.
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The English fairytales were mostly humorous ones, except for the more magical Three Heads in the Well. Later Victorian collectors found some other oral examples, including Tom Tit Tot and Cap o' Rushes from Suffolk, the Small-Tooth Dog from Derbyshire, and t he Rose Tree from Devon.
In the 18th century English fairy tales were published mainly by French Perrault. Selections from these were quickly translated and cheaply printed. Such fairy tales as Cinderella, Bluebeard, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Frog Prince, Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and The Little Mermaid were totally absorbed into English culture.
Literature.
British literature is so rich that it is absolutely impossible to describe its history and its main writers, poets and dramatists in any detail. Like many other world literatures English literature grew up from the rich and diverse folklore of the nations in this country. Rich narrative traditions of ballads, songs and tales come to us through literature, writings of English authors ranging from Chaucer, Shakespeare and Ben Johnson, to William Yeats, Burns and Bernard Shaw and John Milton.
Everyone in the childhood read Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1660-1731), Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), historical novels of Walter Scott, Oliver Twist and David Copperfield by one of the greatest English writers of the 19th century Charles Dickens (1812-1870).
The Bronte sisters were exceptional writers of poetry as well as fiction. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte are read and enjoyed even now.
Thomas Hardy ’s and Jane Austen ’s novels reflected different sides of English life of the 19th century. It was not easy for 19 century women writers to sell their books under their real names. Many of them used male pseudonyms: George Eliot (1819-1880) never used her real name which was Mary Ann Evans. Her books show a detailed picture of provincial Victorian society with humour and feeling.
A Scottish writer Robert Stevenson (180-94 ) wrote famous adventure novels, and an English novelist William Thackeray (1811-63) in his brilliant satire Vanity Fair became the master of great individuality.
Jerome, K. Jerome (1859-1927) wrote two humorous books, one of which T hree Men in a Boat is favourite with the Russian students.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) wrote a lot of poems, stories and tales, which children of all the countries still enjoy today. His stories about Mowglii and finest animal stories inspired American Walt Disney to create wonderful cartoon films. Kipling was the first English writer to be awarded with the Nobel Prize in 1907. An Irish-born author Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900) created novels, stories and plays, still staged in Russian theatres.
There were many wonderful poets in Britain. Romantic poets Baron and Shelly influenced the poetry of Alezander Pushkin.
Scottish poet Robert Burns ( 1759-1796 ) whom we know in wonderful translations by Marshak 
grew up on the folklore traditions of his land. R. Burns managed to combine in his simple poems tenderness, rich humour, lyric and love for freedom of the Scottish folklore heroes. His birthday is celebrated in Scotland as the national holiday and his statue and house in Dumfries are the places, visited by his numerous admirers.
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The 20th century gave a great number of talented British writers, poets and dramatists: poet Thomas Eliot (1888-1965), novelist and dramatist John Galsworthy (1867-1933 ), David Lawrence, satirist Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), Sean O’Keisi, Richard Oldington, novelist, dramatist and essayist John Priestly (1894-1984), Evelyn Waugh (1903-66), Graham Green (1904-91), Irish novelist James Joyce (1882-1941) and many others.
Joyce’s novel Ulysses started the development of modernist literature in Britain. In this novel and later in Einnegan’s Wake Joyce revolutionized the techniques of fiction – writing, introducing the “stream of consciousness, ” inventing words and experimenting with syntax. Virginia Woolf (1882-1941 ) in her novels also experimented with the stream-of-consciosness narrative technique.
An Irish playwright Sean O’Casey wrote a number of tragicomedies, blending realism with symbolism and poetry with vernacular speech.
The poetic writings of William Yeats (1865 - 1939), marked with the Nobel Prize in 1923, had a great influence on the development of the British poetry of the 20th century. All his books of verses were full of the Irish spirit, brilliant vigorous technique, the combination of western viewpoint with national philosophy and traditions.
The War of the World by H. Wells (1866-1946) became the first great works of science fiction.
William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) is considered to be the best short-story writer in English. Many of his stories, together with novels and plays have been dramatized and became very fashionable and successful. 
Agatha Christie, the world’s most successful and best-known detective writer, occupies a special place in British literature. During her long writing career she wrote over 83 books. Her detective novels were translated into every major language and tens of millions of her books were sold. Her little Belgian detective became as popular as Sherlock Homes by Arthur Conan Doyle. Poirot and her other detectives have also appeared in many of the popular films, radio programmers and stage plays, based on her books.
In the late 1950s J ohn Osborne, one of a group of so-called Angry Young Men, achieved fame as an author of tough realistic drama about working class life. Iris Murdoch gained an international reputation for her “psychological detective stories’. Sir Arthur Clarke created a number of science fiction books but probably became best known for his book A Space Odyssey which was made into an extremely popular film.
English literature influenced the literatures of America, Europe, Russia and many other world countries. It also gave rise to the young literatures of former British colonies. For example, Paul Scot’s novels show the last years of the British presence in India, Alan Paton, Jack Cope, Alex La Guma wrote about the racial relationships in South Africa. Chinua Achebe described the tribal life in Nigeria. Nadina Gordimer, a white author from South Africa, was rewarded with the Nobel Prize in 1991 as the greatest English writer of her time.
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