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Period: 450 to 1066
Old English (Anglo-Saxon) period (450-1066)
Germanic dialects, which were spoken approximately from the 4th century to the 12th century, and century to the 12th century, formed by the peoples: Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians. -
657
Caedmon.
Is considered the father of the Anglo-Saxon poetry, only one of his poems is preserved being the oldest text in English "hymn". -
731
Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum
Bede, was called the father of English history, thanks to his most famous work: (Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum). -
886
Alfred the Great.
The Anglo-Saxon king. He brought about the cultural renewal of the Anglo-Saxons by translating Latin writings into English. -
1000
Nowell Manuscript
It is a mixture of prose and poetry, famous because in this codex is found the famous poem 'Beowulf', considered the longest and most famous poem. -
Period: 1066 to 1500
Middle English period (1066-1500)
This period began when the Duke of Normandy defeated King Harold of Great Britain at the Battle of Hastings. During this time English underwent many changes and adopted a great variety of French words, the main characteristic being that it is a language difficult to define or delimit due to its rapid transition and linguistic variety. -
1360
Piers Plowman - William Langland.
William Langland. Is the author of the Vision of Piers Plowman (1360-1399) the poem was used as a rallying cry in the peasants' rebellion. -
1387
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer.
Geoffrey Chaucer. one of the world's greatest narrative poets, was the first to employ vernacular and syllabic meter masterfully.
His masterwork, The Canterbury Tales. -
1393
Confessio Amantis - John Gower.
John Gower (1330-1408): He was recognized as one of the fathers of English poetry. Among his works are the Mirour de l'Omme, the Vox Clamantis and the Confessio Amantis. -
1440
Invention of the printing press by Johannes Gutenberg.
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1485
The Death of Arthur - Thomas Malory.
Thomas Malory : The Death of Arthur (1485) is a great prose work. -
1500
Renaissance Literature
In literature there was the growth of the essay and satire and the first examples of the novel, a long prose narrative with realistic settings and three-dimensional characters. This period is subdivided into four parts: -
Period: 1500 to
The Renaissance (1500-1660)
The Renaissance signified the transition from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age; In this period there was a cultural movement that replaced theocentric thought with anthropocentrism, and thanks to changes in the arts, science, culture, politics, religion and philosophy, there was a new way of understanding and interpreting man, beauty, aesthetics and the world in general. -
1558
The Elizabethan Age (1558-1603)
The Elizabethan Age made room for the new without violating the form of the old order and allowed the new humanism to shape English literature, also called the golden age of English drama. -
Tamerlane the Great-Christopher Marlowe.
Christopher Marlowe: Considered the great predecessor of Shakespeare. -
The Faerie Queene - Edmund Spenser.
Edmund Spenser: Considered one of the best poets of the English language. -
Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare.
William Shakespeare: Was an English playwright, poet and actor, Shakespeare is considered the most important writer in the English language and one of the most famous of world literature some of his works are: Titus Andronicus (1594), Romeo and Juliet (1595), Julius Caesar (1599), Hamlet (1601), Troilus and Cressida (1602). -
The Jacobean Age (1603-1625)
Period of the visual and literary arts during the reign of James I of England. -
An Anatomy of the World - John Donne.
John Donne: An Anatomy of the World (1611) and Of the Progress of the Soul (1612) -
The Countess of Montgomery's Urania - Lady Mary Wroth
Lady Mary Wroth: The Countess of Montgomery's Urania (1621) - The earliest extant prose romance by an English woman. -
The Caroline Age (1625-1649)
This period occurs during the reign of Charles I who being knowledgeable in the fine arts, supported poets to create the art he longed for resulting in the emergence of the arrogant poets, who wrote to promote loyal principles in favor of the crown (political literature) and aimed to express joy in their writings celebrate beauty, love, nature, sensuality, drinking, good fellowship, honor and social life. -
A Game of Chess - Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton: A Game of Chess (1625), Middleton's masterpieces are two tragedies, Women Beware Women (1621 ?, published in 1657) and The Changeling (1622, with William Rowley ; published in 1653). -
L'Allegro e Il Penseroso
John Milton: L'Allegro e Il Penseroso (1631). -
tragedy Aglaura - Sir John Suckling.
Sir John Suckling: tragedy Aglaura (1638) and the comedy The Goblins (1638). -
Thomas Hobbes.
Thomas Hobbes: considered the theorist par excellence of political absolutism. His best known work is Leviathan (1651). -
Period: to
The Commonwealth Period.
Period when england became a republic called the commonwealth of england led by Oliver Cromwell. -
Andrew Marvell.
Andrew Marvell: An Horatian Ode to Cromwell's return from Ireland (1650), considered one of the greatest political poems. -
John Milton - When I Consider How My Light is Spent.
John Milton : minister of foreign languages (March 1649) When I Consider How My Light is Spent (1652) -
Period: to
The Neoclassical Period (1600-1785)
This period was marked by the enlightenment (era of logic and reason) and arose as a response against the baroque style of the time. Its purpose was to build a rational, moral, cultured and progressive society that would overcome ignorance. With literature, the aim was to learn and obtain teachings through stories. Among the literary themes were liberty, religious tolerance, opposition to monarchy, fraternity and the propagation of the importance of a secular state. -
The Restoration (1660-1700)
In this period the theaters regained value, exhibiting prose plays and giving space to genres such as comedy. The odes and pastorals became popular and the poetry, although it retakes the classical lines of the Greco-Latin authors, was based on satire. -
Astraea Redux - John Dryden:
John Dryden: English poet, literary critic and playwright. Astraea Redux (1660). -
The Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan:
John Bunyan: English Christian writer and preacher. The Pilgrim's Progress (1678-1684). -
The Age of Augustus (1700-1745).
In this era, literature becomes rational, realistic and moral; poetry with a sentimental cut develops, journalism, and fictional novels with autobiographical cuts and comedies remain popular. -
Essay on Criticism - Alexander Pope.
Alexander Pope: was the dominant figure of the so-called Augustan Poetry. Essay on Criticism (1711), The Stolen Curl (1712). -
Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe.
Daniel Defoe. English writer, journalist and pamphleteer known as the father of all English novelists and pioneer of the economic press. Robinson Crusoe (1719). -
The Age of Sensibility (1745-1785)
Known as the Age of Johnson, this period was characterized by balance, reason and intellect. Popular and folk literature gained space in the taste of readers and the works of William Shakespeare became popular and recognized. -
Samuel Johnson.
Samuel Johnson: poet, essayist, biographer, lexicographer has been described as the most distinguished man of letters in English history, A Dictionary of the English Language (between 1747 and 1755), The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759). -
Period: to
The Romantic Period (1785-1832)
Is based on the expression of subjectivity and creative freedom. people put feelings, imagination and experiences above reason, logic and science, focusing on rural and natural life and therefore the works were extremely personal giving rise to the mysterious and infinite world. there is also a minor period, called gothic era (between 1786-1800). -
Vathek-Gothic novel by William Beckford.
William Beckford: English novelist, art critic, travelogue writer, and politician. Vathek (1786) Gothic novel. -
Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft.
Mary Wollstonecraft: English writer and philosopher. Considered a leading figure of the modern world. Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). -
Wordsworth.
Wordsworth: one of the most important English Romantic poets, Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems (1798). -
Charles Lamb.
Charles Lamb: English essayist of Welsh descent, Pride's Cure, poetry, 1802. -
Period: to
The Victorian Period (1832-1901)
This period occurs during the reign of Alexandrina Victoria.
Literarily, it represents a change of style in a realistic sense, which was more in line with the mental attitude of the 18th century (the century of lights). In this period the novel appears in its maximum splendor (Golden Age of the English novel), from which many women novelists emerged. In addition, around 1860, the theater undergoes a healthy renewal. -
"Early" (1832-1848)
Queen Victoria ascends to the throne and English society begins to settle down after the Industrial Revolution and the shift towards interest in the present. -
Charlotte Brontë.
Charlotte Brontë: English novelist was considered one of the best romantic novelists, Jane Eyre (1847). -
"Middle" (1848-1870)
This period saw the emergence of the "domestic novel". -
George Eliot.
George Eliot: British writer. The Mill on the Floss (1860). -
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll: Anglican deacon, logician, mathematician, photographer, and British writer Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). -
"Late" (1870-1901).
A period of disenchantment and skepticism, of social protests. It culminates with the death of the Queen. -
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy: English novelist and poet, some of his works: Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge ( 1886), Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) y Jude the Obscure (1895). -
The Time Machine - H. G. Wells.
H. G. Wells: British writer and novelist, cited as the "father of science fiction" The Time Machine (1895). -
Period: to
The Edwardian period (1901-1914)
It is a short period, from King Edward VII who succeeded his mother (Queen Victoria) in 1901 until her death in 1910, although they continue with their period until the end of the First World War in 1918. It is an epoch of great changes and advances with interest in the present time where the literature was focused in the objectivism, the impersonality and the experimentation; arising in this period, great works of fiction. -
Man and Superman - George Bernard Shaw.
George Bernard Shaw: Irish playwright, critic and polemicist. Man and Superman (Man and Superman, 1902). -
Peter Pan - James Barrie.
James Barrie: British novelist and playwright. He is especially famous for having created the character of Peter Pan (1904). -
AC Bradley 's.
AC Bradley 's: English literary scholar Shakespearean Tragedy (1904) -
Joseph Conrad.
Joseph Conrad: Polish novelist who adopted English as his literary language. The Secret Agent (1907) -
Period: to
The Georgian Period (1910-1936).
This period takes place in the reign of George V (1910-1936). In this period the literature was taken in a traditional way, it was very different from the previous and later periods, therefore they are considered works of minor poets. -
The Everlasting Mercy - John Masefield.
John Masefield: English poet. The Everlasting Mercy (1911) -
The Bull by Ralph Hodgson.
Ralph Hodgson: He was one of the most "pastoral" Georgian poets.The Bull(1913). -
Rupert Brooke.
Rupert Brooke: English poet known for his idealistic sonnets on war. The soldier (1915). -
Leisure - WH Davies.
WH Davies: Welsh poet and writer, The main themes of his work are observations on the difficulties of life. Leisure (1916) -
Period: to
The Modern Period.
In this period, they were devastated by wars and unstable, and relied on themselves, giving way to experimentation in theme, style and form in narrative, verse and drama, in this period arose a new aesthetic production intertwining literature with painting being more daring; also revitalized literary criticism in general. -
Finnegans Wake - James Joyce.
James Joyce: Irish writer, acclaimed for his masterpiece, Ulysses (1922), and for his controversial later novel, Finnegans Wake (1939). -
Rebecca - David O. Selznick.
David O. Selznick: Film producer, screenwriter. known for: Gone with the Wind (1939 ), Rebecca ( 1940 ). -
Virginia Woolf.
Virginia Woolf: British writer, author of novels, short stories, plays and other literary works: Mrs. Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), Orlando: A Biography (1928), The Waves (1931), Between Acts (1941). -
Animal Farm - George Orwell.
George Orwell: British novelist, journalist, essayist and critic. Animal Farm (1945) and 1984 (1950). -
Doris Lessing.
Doris Lessing: British writer, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007. Her works, The Grass Sings (1950), The Golden Notebook (1962), Memoirs of a Survivor (1974). -
Period: to
The Postmodern Period (1950-2000)
This period arose as a rejection of modernism, of the current of enlightened reason, of naïve realism; putting sensibility above reason, it was based on the concept of difference as a productive mechanism. Postmodern authors identified themselves by traversing a diffuse boundary between fictional discourses and essays: they wrote fictions about literature and essays in the form of fiction. -
The Rachel Papers (1973).
Martin Amis: British novelist, The Rachel Papers (1973). -
Artificial Respiration.
Ricardo Piglia: Argentine writer and literary critic. His book, Artificial Respiration, from 1980. -
Diamela Eltit.
Diamela Eltit: Chilean writer. She was awarded the National Literature Prize. Lumpérica- appeared in (1983) -
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - J. K. Rowling.
Joanne Rowling: British writer, film producer and screenwriter. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, in (1997) -
The Contemporary Period (2000)
Contemporary literature is based on human diversity, character and emotion; it reflects current trends in life and culture and because these things often change, contemporary literature also changes. -
Zadie Smith.
Zadie Smith: British writer, novelist, essayist, and short story writer.(the future of English literature,) White Teeth (2000). -
The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.
Kate Morton: Australian novelist, The Forgotten Garden, 2008, The Lake House (2015), The Clockmaker's Daughter (2018). -
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins.
Suzanne Collins: American writer and screenwriter, The Hunger Games 2008 and Catching Fire 2009, Mockingjay 2010. -
Ken Follet.
Ken Follet: British writer of thrillers and historical novels. Notre Dame (2019).