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423
OLD ENGLISH
starts with the Germanic tradition of Anglo-Saxonsettlers. First long narrative poems
of English Literature were Beowulf and Widsit (first Epicpoems); Genesis, Exodus, The Wanderer, Wife’slament, Husband’s message, The battle of Maldon,etc. Use of alteration rather than a rhyming scheme. Some of the famous writers of old English literature were Cynewulf and Caedmon. -
1066
MIDDLE ENGLISH
Comprises of a diverse range of works as the population of England during this time was literate and a considerable portion was also bilingual and trilingual. Geoffrey Chaucer was renowned for his courtly love poetry including the famous“Canterbury Tales.” William Langland’s famous religious works include “Piers Plowman” (another popular genre, secular and religious prose. -
1482
RENAISSANCE
The English Renaissance was a cultural and artistic movement in England from the early 16th 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.
is subdivided into four periods. -
1558
ELIZABETHAN AGE
The Elizabethan age is the golden age of English drama. Includes figure such as Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser, Sir Walter Raleigh, and William Shakespeare. -
JACOBEAN AGE
The Jacobean Age or reign of James I. It includes the works ofJohn Donne, Shakespeare, Michael Drayton, John Webster, Elizabeth Cary, Ben Jonson, and Lady Mary Wroth, The KingJames translation of the Bible. -
CAROLINE AGE
The Caroline Age covers the reign of Charles I. John Milton, Robert Burton, and George Herbert are
notable figures. -
COMMOMWEALTH
The Commonwealth (between the end of the English Civil War and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy). Political writings from John Milton and Thomas Hobbes appeared.
Also prose writers appeared: Thomas Fuller, Abraham Cowley, and Andrew Marvell and published prolifically.
1790. -
ENLIGHTMENT PERIOD
John Dryden emerged as one of the prominent literary figures. He
wrote a famous heroic poem Astra Radix’.He wrote mock poems and essays on criticism. Oliver Goldsmith’s The traveler and the deserted village was highly popular. John Milton, a controversialist that wrote the famous Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes.Thomas Gray, William Blake, Robert Burns are other unavoidable names. Philosopher John Locke wrote many essays like ‘The EssayConcerning Human Understanding’. -
ROMANTIC PERIOD
Brought many interesting genres of prose fiction. individual thought and personal feeling. William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, brilliant poetry geniuses . The later Romantics were Shelley, Keats, Byron. The novels were written as a form of entertainment to the now literate public related to French Revolution. Gothic novel in prose fiction written by Horace Walpole, Matthew Lewis, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley. Includes the works of such juggernauts as Wordsworth. -
VICTORIN PERIOD
Named for the reign of Queen Victoria.Time of greatsocial, religious, intellectual, and economic issues,relatedto voting rights.Poets of this time include Robert andElizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, AlfredLord Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold, among others. ,prose fiction truly found its place under the auspices ofCharles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, ElizabethGaskell, George Eliot -
EDWARDIAN PERIOD
Is named for King Edward .it includes incredible classicnovelists such as Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford,Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, and Henry James;notable poets
as Alfred Noyes and
William Butler Yeats
; and dramatists
as James Barrie, George Bernard Shaw, and on Galsworthy. -
MODERN PERIOD
Refers to the reign of George. It covers the Georgian poets, such as Ralph Hodgson, John Masefield, W.H.Davies, and Rupert Brooke. considered to be the works of minor poets anthologized by Edward Marsh. The themes and subject matter tended to be rural or pastoral in nature, treated delicately and traditionally rather than with passion or with experimentation. -
POSTMODERN PERIOD
Begins about the time that World War II ended.Poststructuralist literary theory and criticism developed during this time. Include
writers as
Samuel Beckett
, Joseph Heller, Anthony Burgess, John Fowles, Penelope M. Lively, and Iain Banks.Rudyard Kipling is considered as one of the greatest writers in this century; his main works include Kim, Life’s handicap, apart from the significant book ‘the Jungle Book’. -
CONTEMPORARY PERIOD
Joanne Rowling is known for being the author of the Harry Potter series of books. In 1995 she finished the first volume of the magical saga of Harry Potter, although unfortunately, there were not many publishers who trusted her. For it to be published she had to wait about a year when she managed to convince the potential public of her as they were children, who seemed to be captivated by the world of magic.