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1200 BCE
I. The Classical Period (1200 BCE-455 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.
Classical Greek Period (800-200 BCE): The ancient Greeks pioneered, developed, and in fact, named many familiar genre of World literature: epic, lyric, and pastoral poetry, tragic and comic drama, prose history, philosophy, and the novel. -
Period: 200 to 455
I. The Classical Period (1200 BCE-455 BCE)
Classical Roman Period (200 BCE-455 BCE) before common era: The Roman Republic was traditionally founded in 509 BCE, but it is limited in size until later. Playwrights of this time include Plautus and Terence.
Patristic Period (c.70 CE-455 CE): Saint Jerome first compiled the bible Christianity spread across europe, Roman empire suffered it dying convulsions Barbarians attacked rome and the city fell to them completely -
455
II. The Medieval Period (455 CE-1485 CE)
The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (423-1066 CE): “Dark Ages”
Important poems: Beowulf, The Wanderer, The Seafarer, The Carolingian Renaissance (800- 850 CE) emerged in Europe. In central Europe, texts include early medieval grammars, encyclopedias, etc. In northern Europe, this time period marks the setting of Viking sagas -
Period: 1066 to 1450
II. The Medieval Period (455 CE-1485 CE)
The Middle English Period (c.1066-1450 CE): French chivalric romances
works by: Chrétien de Troyes, French fables, Marie de France and Jean de Meun, spread in popularity. Abelard and other humanists produced great scholastic and theological works.
Late or "High" Medieval Period (c. 1200-1485 CE) Writers include Italian and French authors like Boccaccio, Petrarch, Dante, and Christine de Pisan. -
1485
III. The Renaissance and Reformation (1485-1660 CE)
Early Tudor Period(1485-1558): witnessed the establishment of the Tudor dynasty and the upheavals of the English Reformation. The Tudors continue to fascinate and the figure of Henry VIII is instantly recognizable to large numbers of people.
Elizabethan Period(1558-1603): The term, “Elizabethan Era” refers to the English history of Queen Elizabeth. Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history and it's been widely romanticized in books, movies, plays, and TV series. -
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III. The Renaissance and Reformation (1485-1660 CE)
Jacobean Period (1603-1625):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):The term is derived from Carolus, the Latin for Charles. Its general features characterized by civil war, rise of Puritanism, lack of spirit of unity, of intellectual spirit and decline of drama. -
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III. The Renaissance and Reformation (1485-1660 CE)
Commonwealth Period / Puritan Interregnum (1649-1660): A fundamental part of this epoch is the Puritan Revolution which opposed to the influence of the Catholic Church in the country. -
IV. The Enlightenment (Neoclassical) Period (1660-1790 CE)
Restoration Period (1660-1700): Marks the British king’s restoration to the throne. Classical influences on poetry and drama. Sample writers include JohnDryden, JohnLocke, Sir William Temple, etc. important books: Aureng-zebe, The Country Wife and The Plain Dealer. The Augustan Age (1700-1750): Marked by the imitation of Virgil and Horace literature in English letters. first Satirical writers ; Addison, Steele, Swift, etc. Important books: the major works, Il poeta e il principe, etc. -
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IV. The Enlightenment (Neoclassical) Period (1660-1790 CE)
The Age of Johnson (1750-1790): marks transition toward the upcoming Romanticism
Colonial Period in America
Major writers; Dr. Samuel Johnson, Boswell, Edward Gibbon, Robert Burns, etc.
Important books: The decline and Fall of the Roman Empire -
V. The Romantic Period (1790-1830 CE)
Romantic poets & Gothic writings: Romantic poets, deals with nature, imagination, and individuality. Some important writers were Jane Austen and Blake.
Gothic writers, deals with horror and mystery and suspense. Some important writers were Poe and Hawthorne. -
VI. The Victorian Period and the 19th Century (1832-1901 CE)
Sentimental Novels & Intellectual Movements like Aestheticism and the Decadence:
Includes sentimental novels The end of the Victorian Period is marked by the intellectual movements of Aestheticism and "the Decadence" in the writings of Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. British writers include Elizabeth Browning, Alfred Lord Tennyson, M Arnold, Robert Browning, Charles Dickens, and the Brontë sisters. Important books include Jane Eyre, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Dracula, Clockwork Angel. -
VII. The Modern Period (1914-1945 CE)
Modernist Writers, Realism, etc: That is characterized by a rejection of the traditional forms of writing in favor of bold experimentation in both poetry and prose. -
VIII. The Postmodern Period (1945 – onward)
Metafiction,Multiculturalism,Magic Poetry: Postmodern writers began to experiment with more meta elements in their novels and short stories, drawing attention to their work's artifice and reminding readers that the author isn't an authority figure.
Metafiction and fragmented poetry writers: Morrison, Shaw, Beckett, Fowles, Ginsberg, Pynchon.
Multiculturalism writers: Langston Hughes, S Cisneros, Zora Hurston.
Magic realists writers: Gabriel García, Alejo Carpentier, G Grass, and Salman Rushdie -
The contemporary period (2000 - present)
contemporary literature is writing completed after 1940. Works of contemporary literature reflect a society's social and/or political viewpoints, shown through realistic characters, connections to current events and socioeconomic messages