History of English Literature

  • Period: 459 to 1066

    old english

    THE term ‘Old English’ was invented as a patriotic and philological convenience. The more familiar term ‘AngloSaxon’
    has a far older pedigree.
  • Period: 1066 to 1500

    Middle English

    is a broad subject, encompassing essentially all written works available in Europe and beyond during the Middle Ages
  • Period: 1500 to

    English Renaissance

    was a cultural and artistic movement in England dating from the late 15th century 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
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Renaissance
  • Period: to

    Puritan

    were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to "purify" the Church of England from its "Catholic" practices, maintaining that the Church of England was only partially reformed. Puritanism played a significant role in English history, especially during The Protectorate.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritans
  • Period: to

    Restoration Age

    written during the historical period commonly referred to as the English Restoration (1660–1689), which corresponds to the last years of the direct Stuart reign in England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. In general, the term is used to denote roughly homogeneous styles of literature that center on a celebration of or reaction to the restored court of Charles II.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_literature
  • Period: to

    18th Century

    European literature of the 18th century refers to literature (poetry, drama, satire, and novels) produced in Europe during this period. The 18th century saw the development of the modern novel as literary genre, in fact many candidates for the first novel in English date from this period, of which Daniel Defoe's 1719 Robinson Crusoe is probably the best known. .
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_century_in_literature
  • Period: to

    Romanticism

    Romanticism was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature, preferring the medieval rather than the classical. It was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution,the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalization of nature all components of modernity.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism
  • Period: to

    victorian

    is literature, mainly written in English, during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901) (the Victorian era). It was preceded by Romanticism and followed by the Edwardian era (1901–1910).
    While in the preceding Romantic period, poetry had been the dominant genre, it was the novel that was most important in the Victorian period.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_literature
  • Period: to

    modern Literature

    has its origins in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, mainly in Europe and North America, and is characterized by a very self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literary_modernism
  • Period: to

    Post modern

    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.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodern_literature
  • Period: to

    contemporary

    with its setting generally after World War II. Subgenres of contemporary literature include contemporary romance.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_literature