A Contrast Study between Outstanding Academic and Non-Academic Writers from middle Ages to the End of 19th Century in the United Kingdom

摘要

English literature has been leading the world literature and a lot of world-famous literary giants in UK, such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Joyce and so on, have made great contribution to human civilization. It is worth exploring whether this flourishing phenomena is related to the higher education. The paper will interpret the relationship between the outstanding writers and the high education from the medieval to the 19th century in UK. The outstanding writers will be divided into two groups, One group consists of the academic writers who once studied in university and got at least BA, such as Milton, Wordsworth, and Scott. Another group is non-academic writers who did not go to university or who once studied in a university but without any degrees, such as Shakespeare, Dickens, Shelley, etc.. The contrast of two groups will be done according to their achievements and their influence on the world literature. The analysis has found out that higher education in UK did influence the development of English literature, but it is not the key factor because the achievements and influence in the group of non-academic writers tower above that of academic writers during these ages.