English Literature

Old English (450 - 1066)

450

Characteristics: It was a language of inflection with a lot of freedom in its syntax, unlike today's English.

Middle English (1066 - 1500)

1066

Characteristics: He had significant changes in his grammar, pronunciation and spelling.

English Renaissance (1500 - 1660)

1500

Characteristics: This period was influenced by scientific exploration and by thinkers such as Ovid and Aristotle. Representatives: Shakespeare, Marlowe, Ben Jonson among others.

Neoclassical Period (England 1660 – 1785 America 1750 - 1800)

1660

Characteristics: The writing was well structured; the emotion was controlled and emphasized the quality as ingenuity. Representatives: America (Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison), England (John Locke, John Milton, Jonathon Swift).

Romantic Period (England 1785 – 1830 America 1800 - 1860)

1785

Characteristics: This period is characterized by an emphasis on intuition, idealism, individuality, intuition, imagination and nature.
Representatives: America (Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, James Cooper, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell), England (William Blake, Robert Burns, Samuel Taylor, Sir Walter Scott, William Wordsworth).

Victorian Period (England 1832 - 1901)

1832

Characteristics: In general, he focused on realistic portraits of ordinary people, sometimes to promote social changes. Representatives: Charles Dickens, George Elliot, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson, Alfred among others.

Realistic Period (America 1860 - 1914)

1860

Characteristics: This period emphasized common and ornithological places, as well as naturalism and hyper realism. Representatives: Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Theodore Dreiser, Jack London, Stephen Crane.

Edwardian Period (England 1901 - 1914)

1901

Characteristics: It was characterized by its distinction between popular fiction and popular literature. Representatives: A.C. Bradley, George Bernard Shaw, Joseph Conrad, E.M. Foster, H.G. Wells.