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Period: 450 to 1066
Anglo-Saxon Period
The Anglo-Saxons were comprised of people from Germanic tribes who migrated to Great Britain from continental Europe; they inhabited the island from 450-1066.
The Anglo-Saxon period includes the creation of an English nation, with many of the aspects that survive today, including regional government of shires and hundreds. -
Period: 1066 to 1500
Middle English Period
The Middle English period begins some time after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 (The Battle of Hastings); the language can safely be called “Middle” by the year 1300. While difficult to read for modern speakers of English, one can usually make something of a Middle English text without formal linguistic study, though there are subtleties of grammar and vocabulary that repay close linguistic attention. -
1500
The Renaissance
The English Renaissance begins with the rise of the Tudor dynasty (1485-1603) and reaches its cultural peak during the 45-year reign of the last Tudor monarch, the charismatic Elizabeth I (1558-1603)
The Renaissance ends firmly when these tensions are transformed into a distinctly different period of revolutionary change and a succession of events that shake the nation: the series of civil wars between parliamentarians and royalists, the execution of Charles I. -
Neoclassical Period
Neoclassicism was a movement that was born between 1660 and 1785. Neoclassicism began after the Renaissance and focused primarily on placing the individual in society.
It was a style based on the classical structures of Roman and Greek writers. Neoclassicism was a unique style with its own themes and works.
The Neoclassical period can be broken down into three general eras: the Restoration Period, the Augustan Period, and the Age of Johnson. -
The Romantic Period
The Romantic Period began roughly around 1798 and lasted until 1832. The political and economic atmosphere at the time heavily influenced this period, with many writers finding inspiration from the French Revolution.
Robert Burns is considered the pioneer of the Romantic Movement.
William Blake was one of the earliest Romantic Period writers. Blake believed in spiritual and political freedom and often wrote about these themes in his works. -
The Victorian Age
The Victorian period of literature roughly coincides with the years that Queen Victoria ruled Great Britain and its Empire. The period is known as a time of primitive and conservative moral values, Victorians perceived their world as rapidly changing. Religious faith was divided into evangelical and even atheistic beliefs.
Poetry was one of the most popular genres of the Victorian age. The Romantic poets, particularly William Wordsworth;The Victorians experimented with narrative poetry. -
The Edwardian Period
The Edwardian era corresponds to the reign of King Edward VII in Great Britain, whose short-lived governance (1901-1910) followed Victoria's long reign and preceded the modern House of Windsor in England. The "Edwardian" style broadly encompasses the years of 1901 through to 1919. -
The Georgian Period
The Georgian period refers to the reign of George V (1910-1936), it also includes the reigns of the four successive Georges, from 1714 to 1830. Georgian poets such as Ralph Hodgson, John Masefield, W.H. Davies, and Rupert Brooke are covered. Current Georgian poetry is often regarded as the works of the minor poets anthologized by Edward Marsh. The themes and subject matter tended to be rural or pastoral in nature, treated with delicacy and tradition rather than with passion or experimentation -
The Modern Period: Early 20th century
The modern history of English literature began with the beginning of the 20th century. Rudyard Kipling is considered as one of the greatest writers in this century. He was born in India and then moved to Lahore and was a supporter of colonization. Modernism, however, refers to the artistic movement of late 19th and early 20th centuries that arose from the widespread changes that swept the world during that period. -
Period: to
The Postmodern Period: Mid-20th century
Postmodernism is a late 20th-century movement in philosophy and literary theory that generally questions the basic assumptions of Western philosophy in the modern period (roughly, the 17th century through the 19th century).
Postmodern literature is a literary movement that eschews absolute meaning and instead emphasizes play, fragmentation, metafiction, and intertextuality.