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450
Old English Period (450-1066)
This period of literature dates back to the anglo-saxon invasion of Celtic England circa 450. The era ends in 1066, when Norman France, under William, conquered England. Much of the first half of this period, prior to the seventh century, at least, had oral literature. A lot of the prose during this time was a translation of something else or legal, medical, or religious in nature; however, some works, such as "Beowulf," and those by period poets Caedmon and Cynewulf, are important. -
1066
Middle English Period (1066–1500)
The Middle English period sees a huge transition in the language, culture, and lifestyle of England. much of the Middle English writings were religious in nature; however, from about 1350 onward, secular literature began to rise. Thomas Malory, and Robert Henryson. Notable works include "Piers Plowman" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." -
1500
The Renaissance (1500–1660)
This period is often subdivided into four parts, including the Elizabethan Age (1558–1603), the Jacobean Age (1603–1625), the Caroline Age (1625–1649), and the Commonwealth Period (1649–1660). Some of their most important representatives are:John Donne(Holy Sonnets), William Shakespeare(Hamlet), Michael Drayton, John Webster, Elizabeth Cary, Ben Jonson, Lady Mary Wroth, John Milton(Paradise Lost), Robert Burton, and George Herbert Fuller, Abraham Cowley. -
The Neoclassical Period (1600–1785)
The Neoclassical period is also subdivided into ages, including The Restoration (1660–1700)withcomedies and satires developed by William Congreve and John Dryden, The Augustan Age (1700–1745) represented by Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, and The Age of Sensibility (1745–1785) presenting a critical and literary mode, and the Enlightenment, a particular worldview shared by many intellectuals such as Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon, Hester Lynch Thrale, James Boswell, and, of course, Samuel Johnson -
The Romantic Period (1785–1832)
Considered the most popular and well-known of all literary ages.Some believe that started in 1798, the publication year for William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s book "Lyrical Ballads," and ended with the passage of the Reform Bill and with the death of Sir Walter Scott This era includes the works of Wordsworth, Coleridge, William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Charles Lamb, Mary Wollstonecraft, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Jane Austen(pride and prejudice), and Mary Shelley(Frankestein) -
The Victorian Period (1832–1901)
It's named for the reign of Queen Victoria and is the most popular, influential, and prolific period in all of English (and world) literature. Poets of this time include Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, among others.The Prose fiction found its place with Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Lord Alfred Tennyson's sweeping saga of Camelot "Idylls of the King," and Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." -
The Modern Period (1901-1940)
In this period common features include bold experimentation with subject matter, style, and form, encompassing narrative, verse, and drama.New Criticism also appeared at this time, led by Woolf, Eliot, William Empson, and others, who all dealt with sometimes disturbing themes of death and disillusionment and . Some of the most notable writers include the novelists James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, and Doris Lessing; the poets W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, -
The Postmodern Period (1940-2000)
Many believe it is a direct response to modernism. Some say the period ended about 1990, but it is likely too soon to declare this period closed. Poststructuralist literary theory and criticism developed during this time. Some notable writers of the period include Samuel Beckett, Joseph Heller, Anthony Burgess, John Fowles, Penelope M. Lively, and Iain Banks. -
Contemporary perios (2000-nowadays)
Refers to all the Literature of the XXI century. "Beloved" by Toni Morrison is a classic piece of contemporary literature.
