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1200 BCE
Homeric or Heroic Period
Period full of chaos and characters such as warrior princes, wandering marine merchants and fierce pirates.
Greek legends were transmitted orally.
The two most famous legends are Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey. -
Period: 1200 BCE to 449
CLASSICAL PERIOD
European literature mainly represented by Greek and Roman literature.
Directly related to the development of European civilization. -
800 BCE
Classical Greek Period
It includes the Golden Age of Greece (499-400BCE)
It is the period in which the City-State and early democracy become more sophisticated.
In Athens the best of philosophy, poetry, drama or architecture is produced.
Some of the main Greek philosophers, writers and dramatists of this era are Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Euripides and Aesop. -
200 BCE
Classical Roman Period
After the conquest of Greece, the Republic of Rome is founded (509 BCE) and within the playwrights of this era, Plauto and Terence can be mentioned.
During the Roman Imperial period (monarchial empire under Caesar Augustus in 27 CE) philosophers can be found as Marcus Aurelius and Lucretius, rhetoricians as Cicero and Quintilian or writers as Ovid, Horace, and Virgil. -
70
Patristic Period
Christianity spread throughout Europe and St. Jerome first compiled the Bible.
Rome falls completely to the barbarians in 445 CE.
Among the first Christian writers, Saint Jerome, Saint Cyprian, Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine can be mentioned. -
Period: 449 to 1066
OLD ENGLISH (ANGLO-SAXON) PERIOD
The Anglo-Saxon term comes from two Germanic tribes (Anglo and Saxons)
This period of literature starts during the invasion of Celtic England around 450 and ended in 1066 when Norman France conquered England.
Among the cultural aspects that are reflected in the literature of this era are faith in destiny, belief in pagan worlds, admiration for heroic warriors, religious faith and moral instruction.
Christianity helps spread literacy while poetry began as an oral art being the dominant genre. -
700
Beowulf
The most famous example of Old English literature is the anonymous epic "Beowulf", which was originally a spoken poem passed through generations of Anglo-Saxon people and which consists in a series of adventure tales about a people called the Geats and an embattled hero named Beowulf. -
1000
Genres
Anglo-Saxon poetry reflected the transition from traditional pagan beliefs to Christian ideas, and the struggle to mix both in a new worldview.
Within this era, in addition to epic poetry, other genres such as hagiography, sermons, Bible translations, legal works, chronicles and riddles, among others, can be found. -
Period: 1066 to 1485
MEDIEVAL PERIOD (MIDDLE ENGLISH)
At this stage modern English was given way and it was possible to instruct the illiterate masses in morals and religion.
In literature, topics such as the knight's honor, romances and religious devotion were discussed, although the oral tradition continues and medieval romances, like the tales of King Arthur, were popular. -
1476
Literary Work
"The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer is the most famous literary work.
Other writers such as Chaucer, Thomas Malory and Robert Henryson can be mentioned, and works like "Piers Plowman" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". -
Period: 1485 to
THE RENAISSANCE
English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement.
It is known as the "Elizabethan period" or "the age of Shakespeare".
The dominants forms of the English Renaissance were literature and music.
In this period the worldview changes from religion to human life on earth, to the development of human potential.
The printing press helps to stabilize English as a language -
1500
Ages
This period is usually subdivided into four parts: the Elizabethan age (1558-1603), the Jacobean age (1603-1625), the Carolina age (1625-1649) and the Commonwealth period (1649-1660). -
1558
Elizabethan Period
The Elizabethan era was the golden age of English drama.
William Shakespeare is the best-known author of this age.
Other notable authors of this era are Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser and Sir Walter Raleigh.
Also, the English theater scene, both in private presentations for the court and the nobility and for a wide audience in the theaters, was very important. -
17th Century
It is said that at this time paganism captured the court and puritanism dominated the country.
The works and poems of William Shakespeare have a prominent place, these are divided into: comedies, tragedies and stories.
Other important authors of this period are: John Milton, known for his epic poem "Paradise Lost,", John Bunyan, author of “Pilgrim's Progress” and John Donne, famous for his "Holy Sonnets," including the line "Death, don't be proud". -
Ages
This period is subdivided into ages: The Restoration (1660–1700), The Augustan Age (1700–1745), and The Age of Sensibility (1745–1785).
Novel authors of this era: Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift and Henry Fielding.
Authors of essays: Samuel Johnson, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. -
Period: to
THE RESTORATION (THE NEOCLASSICAL PERIOD)
The term 'Restoration' refers to more or less homogeneous styles of literature that focus on the celebration or reaction to the restored court of Charles II.
The term "Neoclassical" refers to a greater influence of classical literature in these centuries.
This period is also called the "Enlightenment" for being focused on reason and logic while rejecting superstition.
Famous for its essayists and satirists and for the appearance of the novel. -
Period: to
ROMANTICISM
it is a complex artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in western Europe, and which was a reaction against the social and political norms of the aristocracy of the Enlightenment and the scientific rationalization of nature.
It was mainly represented by the visual arts, music and literature.
Poets wrote about nature, imagination, emotions and individuality in England. -
Authors
Within this period, we can find important authors such as: William Blake, Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Jane Austen, Thomas De Quincey, Mary Wollstonecraft or Mary Shelley, among others. -
Period: to
THE VICTORIAN PERIOD AND THE 19th CENTURY
It is named for the reign of Queen Victoria (1837).
It marks the transition between the writers of the romantic period and the literature of 20th century.
During the 19th century, the novel became the main form of English literature.
Some authors of this era are: Alfred Lord Tennyson, Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, among others. -
Period: to
MODERN PERIOD
The term traditionally applies to works written after the start of World War I.
It is a movement characterized by stylistic experimentation and the questioning of traditional values and heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud's ideas about sexuality and the unconscious.
It was expressed through genres such as verse, narrative and drama.
Among the main authors of this era we find: Dylan Thomas, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, Bernard Shaw and Aldous Huxley. -
Characteristics
Open Form
Metanarrative
Discontinuous narrative
Fragmentation
Juxtaposition
Multiple narrative points of view
Free verse
Disillusionment
Breakdown of social norms and cultural guarantees
Free indirect discourse
Overwhelming technological changes of the twentieth century
Stream of consciousness -
Period: to
POSTMODERN PERIOD
It begins approximately when World War II ended.
It can be considered a continuation of the defended experimentation by writers of the modernist period as well as a reaction against the ideas of the Enlightenment implicit in modernist literature.
It is not an organized movement with leaders or central figures therefore, it is harder to say if it is over or when it will end.
Some authors of this era are: Samuel Beckett, T. S. Eliot, Toni Morrison, John Fowles or Joseph Heller, among many others. -
Characteristics
Irony
Metafiction
Playfulness
Black humor
Pastiche: to combine, or "paste" together, multiple elements
Temporal distortion
Technoculture
Hyperreality
