Important periods in the history of english literature

English literature Periods

By Julian Carita
  • 450

    Old English Period

    Old English Period
    the anglo Saxon were one of the Germanic tribes that invaded England around the year 450. They spoke what is known as Old English. It includes genres such as : Epic poetry , Sermons, Chronicles, Riddles, Bible translations. The history of these people is reflected in the rich literature of such period. One of the most representative literary works is Beowuful, other pieces are : King Arthur and his knights of the round table, Sir Gawain and green knight, The wanderer, The Seafarer.
  • 1066

    Middle English period

    Middle English period
    the culture, the language, and lifestyle suffer a considerable transformation, and the outcome of such events determined what is known as a form of "Modern English".In this period, most of the writings were religious. Some of the most representative authors of this era are Thomas Malory and Robert Henryson but GeoffreyChauser was the prominent one "The father of English Poerty" . Notables works include "Piers Plowman" and "Sir Gawain and the green knight".
  • Period: 1500 to

    Renaissance Period

    It comprises several ages.
    Elizabeth period "the golden age of English drama" (1558 - 16603): Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare
    jacobean Period (1603 -1625): Elizabeth Cary, Ben Jonson
    The Caroline period (1625 - 1629): Jhon Milton, Robert Burton
    Commonwealth period (1649-1660): Thomas Fuller, Abraham Cowley

  • The Neoclassical period

    The Neoclassical period
    It is characterized by order, accuracy, and structure. the Neoclassical writers portrayed man as inherently flawed. They emphasized restraint, self-control, and common sense. In this period, conservatism flourishes in literature.
    Popular literature: Parody, essays, fables, letters.
    Representative authors: John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, and Samuel Johnson.
    Literary works: Swift's A Modest Proposal, Pope's "Ode on Solitude," or Dryden's Marriage a-la-mode.

  • The Georgian period

    The Georgian period
    Georgian literature caused a huge impact on society then and still continues in the 21st century. Also known as Augustan literature, this fiction became very popular, historical fiction garnered the attention of the readers.
    Representative works and their authors :
    Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift and Don Quixote
    Daniel Defoe for Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, A Journal of the Plague Year, and Roxanne
    Alexander Pope , translated the Iliad (1715–20) and the Odyssey (1725–26).

  • The Romantic period.

    The Romantic period.
    All literary work included subjectivity and an emphasis on individuality, freedom from rules as well as emotion, and imagination are considered as the focal points of romanticism. Devotion for love, beauty, and fascination with the past.
    Representative Authors: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and John Keats, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman.
    Literary works: The Lay of the Last Minstrel, the long Rime of the Ancient Mariner,

  • The Victorian Period

    The Victorian Period
    This period is the most influential, popular, and prolific all of English literature. The Victorian era was the great age of the English novel, realistic, crowded with characters, and long. It was the ideal form to describe contemporary life and to entertain the middle class.
    Representative Authors:
    Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy.
    Literary works:
    Under the Greenwood Tree (1872).
    Wuthering Heights (1847).
    Vanity Fair (1848)
    Oliver Twist (1837–39).

  • Modern period.

    Modern period.
    During this period , a number of literary trends of the modern period such as dadaism, stream of consciousness, futurism, cubism, expressionism and imagism emerged.
    David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930) – Sons and Lovers
    James Joyce (1882- 1941) Ulysses
    Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888- 1965) Murder in the Cathedral
    George Bernard Shaw (1856- 1950) Mrs. Warrant’ Profession
    William Butler Yeats (1865- 1939) The Land of Heart’s Desire
    John Galaworthy (1867- 1933) The Man of Property

  • Post- Modern period.

    Post- Modern period.
    Literature from this period deliberately uses a mixture of conventional style and one of its ideas included reconceptualizations of soicety and history.
    Representative Authors: Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, Truman Capote and Thomas Pynchon.
    Literary works: Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Lost in the Funhouse and Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth, Gravity's Rainbow, V., and Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon,