Chronological overview of English literature

By Juliet Muñoz Gironza
  • 450

    Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (450–1066)

    Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (450–1066)
    Much of the first half of this period—prior to the seventh century, at least—had oral literature. A lot of the prose during this time was a translation of something else or otherwise legal, medical, or religious in nature.
    The most famous literary work of this period is a fragment of the epic poem Beowulf and those by period poets Caedmon and Cynewulf, are important too.
  • 1066

    Middle English Period (1066–1500)

    Middle English Period (1066–1500)
    Anglo-Saxon rules are systematically broken down and compromised by the various influences of the Viking invasions, the Norman conquest (1066) and of course Latin, which was the language of the church.
    This period is home to the likes of Chaucer, Thomas Malory, and Robert Henryson. Notable works include "Piers Plowman" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."
  • 1500

    The Renaissance (1500–1660)/ THE 16TH CENTURY

    The Renaissance (1500–1660)/ THE 16TH CENTURY
    This period is often subdivided into four parts, including the Elizabethan Age (1558–1603), the Jacobean Age (1603–1625), the Caroline Age (1625–1649), and the Commonwealth Period (1649–1660).
    some of the most important works and authors in this period are:
    UTOPIA – Sir Thomas More (1516)
    DR. FAUSTUS – Christopher Marlowe (1590s)
    FAERIE QUEENE – Edmund Spenser (1596)
    The Defense of Poesy Michael Drayton
    Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth.

  • The Neoclassical Period (1600–1785)

    The Neoclassical Period (1600–1785)
    Subdivided into ages, including:
    The Restoration (1660–1700): William Congreve, John Dryden, Samuel Butler, Aphra Behn, John Bunyan, and John Locke.
    The Augustan Age (1700–1745): Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Daniel Defoe.
    The Age of Sensibility (1745–1785): Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon, Hester Lynch Thrale, James Boswell, Samuel Johnson, Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Tobias Smollett, Laurence Sterne, William Cowper and Thomas Percy.

  • 17th-Century British Literature

    17th-Century British Literature
    Marked a shift from an age of faith to an age of reason. Literature represents the turbulence in society, religion, and the monarchy of this period.
    One of the featured authors is William Shakespeare, other prominent authors of this period include John Donne, famous for his "Holy Sonnets," including the line, "Death, be not proud," and John Milton, the blind poet who wrote the allegorical epic "Paradise Lost."

  • The Romantic Period (1785–1832)

    The Romantic Period (1785–1832)
    When it comes to romanticism, it refers to this great and diverse era of British literature, perhaps the most popular and well-known of all literary eras. This ends with the passage of the Reform Bill (which marked the Victorian era) and with the death of Sir Walter Scott.
    Authors: Wordsworth,Coleridge, William Blake,Lord Byron, John Keats, Charles Lamb, Mary Wollstonecraft, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas De Quincey, Jane Austen and Mary Shelley, Matthew Lewis, Anne Radcliffe and William Beckford

  • The Victorian Period (1832–1901)

    The Victorian Period (1832–1901)
    Divided into "Early" (1832-1848), "Middle" (1848-1870) and "Late" (1870-1901) periods or into two phases, that of the Pre-Raphaelites (1848-1860). and that of Aesthetics and decadence (1880-1901).
    Authors: Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Walter Pater, Charles Dickens, Charlotte, Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Anthony Trollope,T homas Hardy, William Makepeace Thackeray and Samuel Butler.

  • The Edwardian Period (1901–1914)

    The Edwardian Period (1901–1914)
    It is named after King Edward VII and covers the period between Victoria's death and the outbreak of World War I. In this period, a large number of novels and short stories and a significant distinction between "intellectual" literature and popular fiction emerged.
    Authors: Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox stand out. Ford, Rudyard Kipling, HG Wells, and Henry James, notable poets such as Alfred Noyes and William Butler Yeats; and playwrights like James Barrie, George Bernard Shaw, and John Galsworthy.

  • The Georgian Period (1910–1936)

    The Georgian Period (1910–1936)
    The Georgian period generally refers to the reign of George V (1910-1936), but sometimes it also includes the reigns of the four successive Georges from 1714-1830.
    Georgian poetry today is typically considered the works of minor poets anthologized by Edward Marsh.
    Authors: Ralph Hodgson, John Masefield, WH Davies, Rupert Brooke and Edward Marsh.

  • The Modern Period (1914–1945)

    The Modern Period (1914–1945)
    Bold experimentation with subject matter, style, and form, encompassing narrative, verse, and drama.
    Opposed the general attitude towards life as shown in Victorian literature
    Authors:
    James Joyce – Ulises
    Virginia Woolf – Mrs. Dalloway
    D.H. Lawrence – Sons and Lovers
    Graham Greene – Brighton Rock
    E.M. Forster – A Passage to India
    Thomas Stearns Eliot - Murder in the Cathedral
    George Bernard Shaw - Profession of Mrs. Warrant
    John Galaworthy - The Property Man

  • The Postmodern Period (1945–Present)

    The Postmodern Period (1945–Present)
    Postmodern works are seen as a response against the dogmatic pursuit of Enlightenment thought and modernist approaches to literature.
    Authors:
    Samuel Beckett - Waiting for Godot (play)
    Joseph Heller - Catch-22
    Anthony Burgess - Time for a Tiger
    John Fowles - The Collector
    Penelope M. Lively - Astercote
    Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory