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Period: 450 to 1066
Old English literature
Old English literature, also called Anglo-Saxon literature, literature written in Old English 650 A.c. 1100 A.C. -
650
Beowulf
Beowulf is the oldest surviving Germanic epic and the longest Old English poem; it was likely composed between 700 and 750 -
1066
GEOFFREY CHAUCER
Chaucer was not particularly known for his poetry when he was alive—even though we now think of him as the go-to poet of medieval England. Instead, what made him popular among his peers and honored by the royal court was his life as a dedicated civil servant -
Period: 1066 to 1500
Middle English
The event that began the transition from Old English to Middle English was the Norman Conquest of 1066, when William the Conqueror (Duke of Normandy and, later, William I of England) invaded the island of Britain from his home base in northern France. After Norman Conquest (1066), Anglo-French became the language of highest social class and Anglo-Saxon (that later developed into Middle English) became the language of lower classes. -
1500
English Renaissance Literature Writers
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was the greatest writer of the era born in 1564. He was an actor and a poet but is best known for his plays. He also wrote tragedies and comedies, and Shakespeare became one of the most well-known playwrights in England.
The major literary figures in the English Renaissance include:
Francis Bacon
Francis Beaumont
George Chapman
Thomas Dekker
John Donne
John Fletcher -
Period: 1500 to
The English Renaissance
The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginning in Italy in the late 14th century -
Puritan Age Literature Themes
The common themes include religious and political idealism. There is also an insistence on practicalism and pragmatism of day to day life.
The religious discourse emphasizes the concept of predestination and inevitability of sin and a strong sense of guilt and shame.
There is heavy usage of symbolism, especially, from the religious scripture. -
Period: to
Puritan Period.
Puritanism literature meant a religious focus and a simple style of writing;Puritan authors approached writing from a personal point of view, with many of their writings coming in the form of journals, diaries, and day-to-day experiences.
Puritan literature also relied on specific genres. Taking into account the first-person narrative and religious focus, most Puritan literature took the form of a sermon, poem, letter, or historical narrative -
The Restoration
The Restoration was characterized by a break with the past and it introduced innovations. The most representative poet was Ben Johnson who put the bases of the artistic movement of Neo Classicism. The true spirit of Restoration was satiric; the theatre had a renovation, also the actors roles were defined; in fact the male characters were played by men and female roles by women. -
Period: to
THE RESTORATION AGE
This period is known as the Restoration period or the Age of Dryden because monarchy was restored in England. Dryden was the representative writer of this period. The restoration of King Charles II in 1660 marks the beginning of a new era both in the life and the literature of England as he was defeated by the French and came back to England and became the King. Charles II demanded that English poetry and drama should follow the style of French writers -
Romanticism
Romanticism focuses on the emotional side of human nature, individualism, the beauty of the natural world and the simplicity of common people. Romantic authors value sentimental, heartfelt feelings and emotional experiences over historical and scientific facts. -
Period: to
The Romanticism period.
At the turn of the century, fired by ideas of personal and political liberty and of the energy and sublimity of the natural world, artists and intellectuals sought to break the bonds of 18th-century convention. Although the works of Jean Jacques Rousseau and William Godwin had great influence, the French Revolution and its aftermath had the strongest impact of all. In England initial support for the Revolution was primarily utopian and idealist. -
Characteristics of Victorian novels
Victorian novels tend to be idealized portraits of difficult lives in which hard work, perseverance, love and luck win out in the end. They were usually inclined towards being of improving nature with a central moral lesson at heart. While this formula was the basis for much of earlier Victorian fiction, the situation became more complex as the century progressed. -
Period: to
Victorian Era
The literature of the Victorian age (1837-1901) entered a new period after the romantic revival. The literature of this era was preceded by romanticism and was followed by modernism or realism. Hence, it can also be called a fusion of romantic and realist style of writing. Though the Victorian Age produced two great poets Alfred Lord Tennyson and Robert Browning, the age is also remarkable for the excellence of its prose. -
Period: to
Modern literature.
This period was marked by sudden and unexpected breaks with traditional ways of viewing and interacting with the world. Experimentation and individualism became virtues, where in the past they were often heartily discouraged. Modernism was set in motion, in one sense, through a series of cultural shocks. The first of these great shocks was the Great War, which ravaged Europe from 1914 through 1918, known now as World War One -
Post-Modern literature
Postmodern literature is a form of literature which is marked, both stylistically and ideologically, by a reliance on such literary conventions as fragmentation, paradox, unreliable narrators, often unrealistic and downright impossible plots, games, parody, paranoia, dark humor.
Postmodern literaturevoften rejects the boundaries between 'high' and 'low' forms of art and literature, as well as the distinctions between different genres and forms of writing and storytelling -
Period: to
Post-modern literature
Post-modern literature is literature characterized by reliance on narrative techniques such as fragmentation, paradox, and the unreliable narrator; and is often (though not exclusively) defined as a style or a trend which emerged in the post–World War II era. Postmodern works are seen as a response against dogmatic following of Enlightenment thinking and Modernist approaches to literature. -
Famous Modernist writers
A short list of some of famous Modernist writers Samuel Beckett, James Joyce, Joseph Conrad, T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, E.E. Cummings, Sylvia Plath, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Butler Yeats, Ezra Pound, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, and Gertrude Stein. -
Contemporary literature
Reflect a society's social or political viewpoints, shown through realistic characters, connections to current events and socioeconomic messages. The writers are looking for trends that illuminate societal strengths and weaknesses to remind society of lessons they should learn and questions they should ask. So when we think of contemporary literature, we cannot simply look at a few themes or settings. Since society changes over time, so do the content and messages of this writing.
