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1200 BCE
HOMERIC OR HEROIC PERIOD (1200-800) BCE
Greek legends are passed along orally, including Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey. This is a chaotic period of warrior-princes, wandering sea-traders, and fierce pirates. -
Period: 1200 BCE to 455
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
The classical period was a golden age for literature and the arts, take it from Shmoop. The big writers from this period include all those Greek and Roman guys who wrote epics, like Homer of the Iliad and Odyssey fame, and the Roman poet Virgil who wrote the Aeneid. The Greek philosophers Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle called this period home, as did Greek dramatists like Euripides and Aristophanes. As for poets, Horace and Ovid were two of the most influential. -
800 BCE
CLASSICAL GREEK PERIOD (800-200 BCE)
The Greeks were a passionate people, and this zeal can be seen in their literature. They had a rich history of both war and peace, leaving an indelible imprint on the culture and people. -
200 BCE
Classical Roman Period (200 BCE-455 BCE)
The rule of Augustus and the early part of the Roman Empire is considered as the golden age of Roman Literature. -
455
Patristic Period (c.70 CE-455 CE)
Body of literature that comprises those works (excluding the New Testament) written by Christians before the 8th century. It refers to the works of the Church Fathers. Most patristic literature is in Greek or Latin, but much survives in Syriac and other Middle Eastern languages -
Period: 455 to 1485
The Medieval Period (455 CE-1485 CE)
Medieval literature is defined broadly as any work written in Latin or the vernacular between c. 455-1485 CE, including philosophy, religious treatises, legal texts, as well as works of the imagination -
1066
The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (423-1066 CE)
We could say that Anglo-Saxon is the language that was spoken in the south of the United Kingdom, from the 7th to the 12th century AD. C.
Authors and topics
-Beowulf.
-Caedmon.
-Cynewulf.
These works include genres such as epic poetry, hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles, and riddles. In total, there are about 400 surviving manuscripts from the time. -
1450
The Middle English Period (c.1066-1450 CE)
The Middle English period sees a great transition in the language, culture and way of life of England and results in what we can recognize today as a form of "modern" English.
This period is home to such characters as Chaucer, Thomas Malory, and Robert Henryson. Notable works include "Piers Plowman" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". -
1485
Early Tudor Period (1485-1558)
Before the accession of Henry VII Wiclif's Bible, Langland's Piers Plowman, the works of Chaucer himself, and the Morte d'Arthur of Mallory, were the only works in the English tongue which could in any sense be held to rank as classics. In the reigns of Edward IV and of Henry VII the intellectual movement was at last beginning to take hold of the English. -
Period: 1485 to
The Renaissance and Reformation (1485-1660 CE)
This Renaissance era in England (also known as the Early Modern Period), from about 1485-1660, is freighted with famous writers and treasured texts. Spenser, Marlowe, Jonson, Milton, Donne, and the incomparable William Shakespeare are just a few names that appear on the Renaissance Writer Roll of Honor. -
1558
Elizabethan Period (1558-1603)
probably the most splendid age in the history of English literature, during which such writers as Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser, Roger Ascham, Richard Hooker, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare flourished -
Jacobean Period(1603-1625)
body of works written during the reign of James I of England (1603–1625). The successor to Elizabethan literature, Jacobean literature was often dark in mood, questioning the stability of the social order; some of William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies may date from the beginning of the period, and other dramatists, including John Webster, were often preoccupied with the problem of evil. -
Caroline Age (1625-1649)
its general features characterised by civil war, rise of Puritanism, lack of spirit of unity, dominance of intellectual spirit and decline of drama -
Commonwealth Period/ Puritan Interregnum(1649-1660)
is a literary epoch influenced by the English historical context between 1649 and 1660. A fundamental part of this epoch is the Puritan Revolution which opposed to the influence of the Catholic Church in the country. -
Restoration Period (1660-1700)
is the English literature written during the historical period commonly referred to as the English Restoration , which corresponds to the last years of Stuart reign in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In general, the term is used to denote roughly homogenous styles of literature that centre on a celebration of or reaction to the restored court of Charles II. -
Period: to
The Enlightenment (Neoclassical) Period (1660-1790 CE)
refers to the increased influence of Classical literature upon these centuries. The Neoclassical Period is also called the "Enlightenment" due to the increased reverence for logic and disdain for superstition. -
The Augustan Age (1700-1750)
This was an age of new prose forms such as periodicals, criminal biographies, travelogues, political allegories and romantic tales. The predominance of satire is an important literary characteristic of this age. -
The Age of Johnson (1750-1790)
The Age of Johnson in respect of its poetry is an age of modernism, transition, and innovation. Classical poetry was the product of the intelligence and was deficient in emotion and imagination. It was town poetry. It was lacking romantic spirit. -
The Romantic Period (1790-1830 CE)
Romantic poets wrote about nature, imagination, and individuality in England. Some Romantics include Coleridge, Blake, Keats, and Shelley in Britain and Johann von Goethe in Germany -
The Victorian Period and the 19th Century (1832-1901 CE)
Characterized by a class-based society, a growing number of people able to vote, a growing state and economy, and Britain’s status as the most powerful empire in the world.During the Victorian period, Britain was a powerful nation with a rich culture. It had a stable government, a growing state, and an expanding franchise. -
The Modern Period (1914-1945 CE)
The modern period is traditionally applied to works written after the start of the First World War. Common characteristics include bold experimentation with subject, style, and form, spanning narrative, verse, and drama. Words from WB Yeats, “Things are falling apart; the center cannot stand, ”they are often mentioned when describing the basic principle or“ feeling ”of modernist concerns. -
the lost generation (1918-1940)
In literature, the "Lost Generation" refers to a group of writers and poets who were men and women of this period. All were American, but several members emigrated to Europe. The most famous members were Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and T. S. -
Post-modernism (1945-present)
postmodernism, also spelled post-modernism, in Western philosophy, a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power
