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450
Old English 450-1066
Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language spoken between England and southern Scotland between approximately 450 and 1066. In grammar, ancient English had much more inflection because there were upper and lower case terminations for nouns, more word endings and number systems of complicated pronouns, several adjective endings contrary to current English. Example: The most popular is the epic poem "Beowulf". -
1066
Middle english 1066 – 1500
The Latin alphabet replaced writing characteristic of ancient English, giving rise to new spellings, phonemes, and diphthongs inherited from French. English acquired much lexicon from the Norman dialect of French and the declines of ancient English began to disappear, becoming a more analytical language. English is approximately 50% Germanic (English and Scandinavian) and 50% Romance (French and Latin). Example: The Canterbury Tales, 24 stories by Geoffrey Chaucer, ca. 1380 -
1500
English renaissance 1500 – 1660
William Caxton introduced the printing press, from that moment on, literature began to flourish. The poetry, drama, and prose that was written during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I constitute the English Renaissance. authors such as Edmund Spenser, William Shakespeare, Thomas Wyatt, and others, the main legacy of the period was the English theater of the Renaissance. Example William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, wrote plays and sonnets, including Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and King Lear -
Puritan 1653 – 1660
The Puritans were a religious collective who invented their identity through the word. This body of literature is a unique example of rhetorical self-definition. they believed that their special role in history had been preordained in the Bible, as occupants of a privileged place in God's plan for nature and humanity. Example of a Puritan story of William Bradford's Plymouth Plantation -
Restoration age 1660- 1700
The Restoration advanced sectarian writings, although radicalism persisted. The most prominent poetic form was satire. The satire are published anonymously to avoid serious problems for the author. During this period, the prose was dominated by Christian writings although it was also at this time when two genres began that dominated later periods: fiction and journalism. Example The lost paradise of John Milton. -
18th century 1700 – 1798
This period is famous for its essays and satirical and the appearance of the novel and its precursors. The decades that ended the 18th century and opened the 19th marked the beginning of the British romantic period. The literature of this century concerns the whole of textual productions, written culture, letters and sciences. Example The Spectator, a newspaper of great influence, written by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. -
Romanticism 1798 – 1837
This period produced authors who wrote about life, love and nature. Many of these authors found that the world was disappointing and had a melancholy inclined towards their works. Example Wordsworth prologue Lyric Ballads 1800-1802 -
Victorian 1837 – 1901
It represents a change of style in a realistic sense. Victorian writers consider the truth as one of the essential motives of literary creation, they care about stylistic perfection and the formal organization of the work of art. Brilliant in poetry and rich in thought, the Victorian is a period in the novel appears in its maximum splendor, respectively of the genres of adventure, police and horror. Example Oscar Wilde the portrait of Dorian Gray -
Modern literature 1901 – 1940
Modernist English literature includes sometimes disturbing themes of death and disappointment and pioneered new literary forms. The modernist current was directly influenced by experimentalism and the different continental artistic avant-gardes. Modernist writers have in common the rejection of their immediate inheritance and realistic representation. In poetry, many readers couldn't read and understand modernist texts. Example "Sonatina" by Rubén Darío. -
Post moderns 1940 – 2000
It is characterized by the dependence of narrative techniques such as fragmentation, paradox and the unreliable narrator; Postmodern works are seen as a reaction against the thinking of the Enlightenment and modernist approaches to literature, also affected to celebrate chance about the trade, and employ metafiction. Example the Quijote by Miguel de Cervantes. -
Contemporany 2000
It is characterized because it recreates a fictional character, fantasy, and mystery, based on the facts of real life. Also, technological and industrial innovations allow increasing the number of publications of the works, the concepts of free press and freedom of expression are established. It is also attracted to new genres, such as comic or cyberpunk (a subgenre of science fiction). Example the comic.
