Literature refers to a written work, especially one considered to have a longer durable arty merit. Literature is one of the best methods to educate society on social, economic, cultural, and political life issues. There are various forms of literature genres. A literature genre refers to a particular category of literary composition determined by the literature method, tone used, the depth of content, and sometimes the length. Literature has three branches which are prose, poetry, and drama. Historically, these branches were considered quite different from each other. However, in contemporary society, they are presented in various combined forms. Literature differs across cultures.

For this reason, in most cases, Literature is named after the place of its origin or practice. For instance, British Literature is Literature from the United Kingdom, while African Literature is Literature written and exercised in Africa. Different kinds of Literature have various ambiguities in their composition or practice. The purpose of this paper is to examine British Literature and critic its features accordingly.

When we refer to British Literature, we mean Literature associated with the United Kingdom, Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. It also includes pieces of Literature from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  So far, the most significant percentage of British Literature is written in the English language, which is making it develop into a global phenomenon because it was the primary  language used in the former colonies of Great Britain. Besides, British literature stories also entail other writings such as Anglo-Norman, Anglo-Saxon, Cornish, Guernesiasis, Jerriais, Latin, Manx, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, among many others (Zhang, 215).

The Northern Ireland literature includes writings presented in English, Irish, and Ulster Scots. The Irish writers have contributed a lot towards the development of Literature in England and Scotland. British Literature is marked by special characteristics that make it unique. These characteristics are as described below: First, British Literature uses the English language. This language has more words than most languages that exist. Besides, most of these languages originate from various works of Literature across the entire globe. This aspect makes the English language to be rich in words and vocabularies with slightly varying. Connotations. Shakespeare is one of the greatest legends who used the English language comprehensively to build excellent Literature. Other writers like Herman Melville chose the English language because it contains a massive profundity of vocabulary.

Second, British Literature spins around a handful of major themes, with most of them shared with Western Literature. The most frequent stories identified used "overcoming the monster," "rags to riches," "the quest," "Voyage and Return," and "boy meets girl." Almost every story narrated in English carries the central theme (Zhang, 217).  Sometimes, other two articles, such as comedy and tragedy, are occasionally included, but they can further be broken down into happy or unhappy ending.

The third is influences. Like most European Literature and a large part of the Middle East, English Literature has been influenced by the Christian and Greco­ Roman traditions. Lastly is utopianism. This concept is not new to English Literature. It simply refers to the search for a perfect land in life. This theme can be traced back to Plato's republic but was revolutionized by Thomas Moore in the 1600s upon writing the Utopia (Bernard & Catherine, 54). Since that utopias and dystopias have commonly been used to drive English Literature, they concentrate more on fantasy and science fiction genres. British Literature consists of Old, Middle, and Modern English works, each representing a different period. The Old literature works were composed between 450 and 1066. Beowulf is considered to among the oldest British literature work. The Middle literature works were written between 1066 and 1485. This period started when William the conqueror brought together all the factions in England, especially the Normans and the Saxons. It is during this era that the Doomsday Book was introduced. Some of the best examples of literature works done during this time are The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer and Le Marte d'Arthur written by Thomas Malory (Bernard & Catherine, 54).

On  the  other  hand,  the  modern   English  era  comprises  all  Literature  works composed by British authors at the start of the 16th  century onward. The Middle English era is further classified into the Renaissance period, which lasted from 1500 to 1660. This period is remembered for Shakespeare’s work.  Besides, during this season, sonnets and demonstrative British poetry methods were realized, like the ones written by Wyatt and Edmund Spenser. The other periods that arose during Modern English Literature are:

• Restoration age, marked by John Locke
• The Romantic period was marked by the works of Sir Walter Scott and John Keats.
• The Victorian period was marked by the results of Alfred Lord Tennyson and Jane Austen.

When we refer to British Literature, we mean Literature associated with the United Kingdom, Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands. It also includes works of Literature from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. So far, the most significant percentage of British Literature is written in the English language, which is making it develop into a global phenomenon because it was the primary language used in the former colonies of Great Britain (Zhang, 219). Besides, British literature stories also entail other writings such as Anglo-Norman, Anglo-Saxon, Cornish, Guernesiasis, Jerriais, Latin, Manx, Scots, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, among many others. The Northern Ireland literature includes writings presented in English, Irish, and Ulster Scots. The Irish writers have contributed a lot towards the development of Literature in England and Scotland.

The primary purpose of any literature is to help us understand people, society, events, and cultural practices. Considering British Literature, there are many ways we can challenge it. First, the nature of British identity has changed over time. The island that houses England, Scotland and Wales has been identified as Britain since Roman Pliny the Elder. Since the Anglo-Saxon invasion, English was adopted as the national language, which started between 25 to 79 AD. However, before this time, the inhabitants used to speaks several Celtic languages (Strakhov & Alexander, 470). The idea is that English is a mixture of different native languages. Therefore it does not portray a clear cultural understanding of the United Kingdom. We cannot trace the cultural practices through British Literature because it represents a mixture of cultural identities.

Moreover, during the late medieval Literature (1066 to 1500), some of the British literary works were written in Latin. This portrays that the British culture was not rich enough in words to blend in with their Literature. Therefore, it is not authenticated to say the British Literature reflects the United Kingdom people since there is a mixture of languages and cultures during the English language formation. It is, therefore, possible that the people of Great Britain are cherishing strange Literature that is not theirs. Besides, Great Britain took advantage of their colonial prowess to control their colonies with their culture.

In  most  colonies  of  Britain,  people  adopted  their  culture,  language,  and policies in administration. Good Literature focuses on the study of a specific community and their lifestyle. Taking British Literature, we cannot substantiate their authentic culture since it has been mixed up with other cultures worldwide.  The English language, which is used to portray the British culture, has also borrowed words from  other languages  making it very complex to accurately  know  about the United Kingdom's native way of life. Furthermore, during the bible translations, religious scholars influenced British Literature by a significant percentage. Since the Bible was originally written in Greek and Hebrew language, there is a high likelihood that the Bible translation process and Christianity changed Great Britain's people's original values. They, therefore, acquired some traits of Hebrews and Greeks. This means that we cannot term British Literature to be a perfect reflector of the British people because we cannot quantify the extent to which the religious scholars and bible translators influenced their culture.

However, British Literature is the romantic period.  This period occurred between 1798 and 1832. It was one of the significant social changes within the territory of England. It was caused by the relocation of the country and the quick expansion of the congested industrial cities. From the naming of this period, we expect to encounter some romance instances, as the name suggests, but that is not the case. What we are presented with is a different scenario that does not reflect the ideal purpose of Literature. This period focused on works like glorifying nature, creation of awareness and emotion acceptance, the celebration of artistic creativity and imagination, among others. Even the term Romanticism is derived from French, meaning there was an exchange of cultural identities. The romanticism era portrays a great irony since it contains more works about other identities in the surrounding. Still, it does not focus on men's livelihood, which should be Literature’s primary focus. Therefore, we can conclude that the romanticism era is just an example of how British Literature is inconsistent in portraying Literature's ideal purpose.

In conclusion, Literature refers to the art of using written work considered to having durable merit. There are many ways we can explain British Literature. The most effective way is by tracing its historical evolution, and it came to gain its popularity. The main challenge we can pose to this Literature is its inconsistency in depicting people's life, culture, and events. Besides, it also borrows many words from other native languages hence distorting its originality, which makes it lose the actual function of the work of Literature.