History of English Literature

Old English Period 450 to 1066 Epic poem "Beowulf"

750

Anglo saxon poetry reflected the transitions from traditional pagan beliefs to Christian ideas, and the struggle to blend the two into a nwe worldview

Middle English Period 1066 to 1500

1066

Known as the language of Geoffrey Chaucer, gave way to modern English during the middle ages. Works fequently of a religiously didactic content. The Cantebury Tales" by Chaucer

English Renaissance Period 1500 to 1660

1500

It has three periods: Elizabeth 1558 to 1603,Jacobean Period 1603 to 1625,Carolina Period 1625 to 1653.Texts for public performance( plays, masques) books of poetry. Book of common Prayer published by Thomas Cranmer

Puritan Period 1653 to 1660

1653

1653 Izaac Walton published "The compleat Angler"

Restoration Period 1660 to 1700

1660

Charles II restored the Monarchy. Jhon Milton wrote Paradise Lost.

18th century 1700 to 1798

1750

This century divided into 2 periods: Augustan literature and
Age of Sensibility. Begins in English Literature, claming comparison with the equivalent flowering under Augustus Caesar. Thomas Paine published "Age of Reason"

Romanticism Period 1798-1837.

1798

Authors who write about life, love and nature. Authors found the world to be dessapointing and had a melancholy bent to their works. Elevation of the common man (folklore, myth). Walter Scott (Ivanhoe)

Victoriam Period 1837-1901

1837

Named for the reign of Queen Victoria, Britan's longest reigning monarch . "Leaves of grass" Walt Whitman

Modern Literture xx century 1901 t 1940

1901

Modernists were concerned with the uncertainly and complexity of the postwar world and were heavily influenced by sigmundFreud ideas about sexuality and the unconscious. H:G, Wells published in 1910 the History of Mr Polly

Post Moderns 1940 to 2000

1940

Rowling J.K, "Harry Potter and the Philophoser's Stone"

Contemporary

2000

Present Literature. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman