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Period: 300 to
History of English Literature
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410
410 OLD ENGLISH (450-1066) "BEOWULF"
POETRY
The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who invaded Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries brought with them the common Germanic metre; but of their earliest oral poetry, probably used for panegyric, magic, and short narrative, little or none survives. For nearly a century after the conversion of King Aethelberht I of Kent to Christianity about 600, there is no evidence that the English wrote poetry in their own language. -
597
PROSE 597
Prose
The earliest English prose work, the law code of King Aethelberht I of Kent, was written within a few years of the arrival in England (597) of St. Augustine of Canterbury. Other 7th- and 8th-century prose, similarly practical in character, includes more laws, wills, and charters. According to Cuthbert, who was a monk at Jarrow, Bede at the time of his death had just finished a translation of the Gospel of St. John, though this does not survive. -
1066
1066 MIDDLE ENGLISH (1066-1500)
Poetry
The Norman Conquest worked no immediate transformation on either the language or the literature of the English. Older poetry continued to be copied during the last half of the 11th century; two poems of the early 12th century—“Durham,” which praises that city’s cathedral and its relics, and “Instructions for Christians,” a didactic piece—show that correct alliterative verse could be composed well after 1066. -
1200
PROSE 1200
Old English prose texts were copied for more than a century after the Norman Conquest; the homilies of Aelfric were especially popular, and King Alfred’s translations of Boethius and Augustine survive only in 12th-century manuscripts. In the early 13th century an anonymous worker at Worcester supplied glosses to certain words in a number of Old English manuscripts, which demonstrates that by this time the older language was beginning to pose difficulties for readers. -
1550
1550 ENGLISH RENAISSANCE (1500-1660)
Style poetic, novelist, essayists, satirists. Also, It is famous by its baroque poetry, epic and religious.
It was influence by Aristoteles. We find three periods:
Elizabethan period (1558-1603) - Poetry-Drama
Actors: William Shakespeare, Francis Bacon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6TM-Gf-4xU
Jacobean Period (1603-1625) - Poetry-Prose
Actors: Ben Jonson, John Donne, Robert Herrick
Caroline Period (1625-1660)
Poetry -
1653 Puritan Age( 1653-1660)
Clash between Catholicism and Protestantism
Its literary expression is the sermon and study of the Bible.
They closed the theatres. This happened during the civil war.
Main actor John Milton, who was poet, mathematician and musician, also he was blind and wrote the epic poet “Paradise Lost”
Anne Bradstreet first woman in America to achieve distinction as a poet. -
1660 Restoration Period (1660-1700)
It is the age of reason. The art reflected the universal commonality of human nature.
Written should be well structured, emotion controlled and qualities like wit. Theatres re-opened in 1660 came back to life.
The style was drama and poetry, bawdy and cynical. Also, restoration drama and social comedy. William Wycherley “The old Bachelor”
Daniel Defoe (England) “Robinson Crusoe”
Benjamin Franklin (American) “Poor Richard´s Almanack autobiography” -
1700 The Augustan Age (1700-1750)
Style: lyric and gothic poetry, prose, narrative and romantic novels.
the poetry was an imitation of human life, an rationalism.
There were rise of novels.
Important writers: Alexander Pope “An Essay on Man”, Daniel Defoe (A True), Henry fielding “Tom Jones- movie”, “The Tragedy of Tragedies”. -
1750 Age of Sensibility (1750-1798) "Songs of Innocence" William Blake
Style was sentimentalism in reaction to the rationalism of the Augustan Age.
Actors: Dr. Samuel Johnson “Dictionary of the English Language”
William Blake “Songs of Innocence” -
1798 Romantic Period (1798-1860)
Style: Life, Love and Nature.
Romantic poetry and romantic novel. The history was influence by the psychology.
Style: individual, intuition, imagination, idealism. The actors were romantics wrote about life, love and nature. This period was famous by novels.
Mystery and the supernatural, folklore, myth.
William Wordsworth “Lyric Ballads” (England)
Lord Byron “Don Juan” (England)
James Russell Lowell “The first Snowfall” (American)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zYNn0JVEAs -
1832 Victorian Period (1832-1901)
Style: narrative, humor and irony practicing the criticism social.
It was the period Britain´s longest reigning monarch of Queen Victoria. It was a stability and prosperity period an Industrial Revolution. -
1860 Realistic Period (1860-1914) "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" Marck Twain
Style: Naturalism and hyper-realism because the man was simply a higher order animal in comparison with other animals.
It was against to romantic values.
Mark Twain “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
Theodore Dreiser “Sister Carrie”
Jack London “To Build a Fire” “The Jungle” -
1901 Edwardian Period (1901_1914)
Named by the king Edward. In this period began the Modern Literature and break with tradition. There are distinction between literature and popular fiction.
The catastrophes of the world wars shaken the moral and spiritual life. Introduced innovations as stream of consciousness, the unreliable narrator, and stories drove by psychology than by external plot.
Actors: Joseph Conrad “Heart of Darkness”
E.M.Forster "A Passage to India" -
1901 Modern Literature (1901-1940)
Style: science fiction, Stream of consciousness novel, War Poetry, psychological novels, symbolist novels, mysticism.
Introduced innovations as stream of consciousness, the unreliable narrator, and stories drove by psychology than by external plot. Actors:
H. G Wells “War of the Worlds”.
D.H Lawrence “El amante de Lady Chatterley”
A.C Bradley “Shakespearean Tragedy”
Virginia Wolf “La señora Dalloway”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnavAfBajU0 -
1940 Post Moderns (1940-2000)
Genres: Post- modern novel, Political and social poetry and drama, Drama of the absurd, Post-colonial and feminist poetry, Prose and Drama. The monarch Queen Elizabeth II.
Phillip Roth “American Pastoral”
Brian Friel “Wonderful Tennessee”
Tom Stoppard “Jumpers”
Ian McEwan “ On Chesil Beach”
https://study.com/academy/lesson/postmodernism-in-literature-definition-lesson-quiz.html -
2000 Contemporary (2000)
The writers express the reality and current events, so the contemporary age began after the World War II.
Some features are the appearance and disappear of the characters. Also, it´s influenced for the technology.
It´s a period that reflect the social, political and cultural viewpoints of the people through realistic characters.
Toni Morrison “Beloved”
Barbara Kingsolver “The poisonwood Bible”
Wendell Berry “What are people for”
