History of English Literature

Old Literature 810 - 1100

810

Old Literature: People communicated the poems and literary works orally during the period under consideration. Writing was not given much importance.
The Anglo-Saxons : they were made up of three tribes who came to England through the North Sea route – the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. The Anglo-Saxon age comprises about 600 years.
Norman Conquest: Invasion of the Normans in England in the year 1066.

Middle Ages 1100 - 1500

1100

Middle Ages:
Geoffrey Chaucer: He is known as the father-figure in English literature. His greatest works:The Canterbury Tales, The House of Fame etc. Medieval theatre included Mysteries, Miracle and Morality plays:
(A) Miracle plays – They are also known as Saints play as they present a real or fictitious account of their life.
(B) Morality Plays – In morality plays, the protagonist of the play generally meets various moral attributes through personification. 

Renassaince 1500 - 1660

1500

Renassaince:
The word Renaissance implies the rebirth of culture and learning. This age is one of the most important in the History of English Literature. .
Factors that influenced:
* Printing press
* The plague in England
Wllian Shakespeare: He made the English vocabulary damn rich.  He also came up with a genre called, ‘Tragi-Comedy’ His famous plays are Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice. etc.

Neo-Classical Age 1660 - 1798

1660

It is merged with the two words ‘Neo’ and ‘Classical’. Neo implies ‘new’ and classical denotes the ‘Roman and Greek classics’.
This age is divided into three parts:
1. Restoration Period:
Monarchy was restored in England.
John Dryden,: eroic couplet 
2. Augustan Literature : Roman Empire age.
Virgil, Horace, Poe and Dryden
3. Age of Sensibility: Richard Brinsley and Oliver Goldsmith

19th Century Literature

1800

The 19th-century literature is merged with three ages. They are:
1. Romanticism (1798-1837):
John Keats, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Thomas Grey etc
2. Victorian Age (1837-1901):
Democracy, feminism, unionization of workers, Marxism, socialism etc
3. Edwardian Age (1901-1910):
H.G Wells, Beatrix Potter, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Edith Nesbit 

English Literatura since 1901

1901

Modernism (1901-1939) –Literature from various parts of the world started spreading. New writers were tried to impersonate the glory of British writers. Women at the time were suppressed in the literary sense. They were not allowed to write freely.
Post-Modernism (1940-21st Century) – In post-modernism, basically the history of English Literature of 5 geo-locations are being studied. They are – African, Australian, Canadian, Caribbean and Indian Literature.