Unit 1. History of English Literature.

The Classical Period (1200 BCE - 455 CE)

1200 BCE

It is divided into four periods:
I. HOMERIC or HEROIC PERIOD (1200-800 BCE): Greek legends-Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey
II. CLASSICAL GREEK PERIOD (800-200 BCE): Greek writers Gorgias, Aesop, Plato -The Golden Age of Greece.
III. CLASSICAL ROMAN PERIOD: (200 BCE-455 CE): When Rome conquered Greece. Writers-Plataus, Terence, Ennius.
IV. PATRISTIC PERIOD (c. 70 CE-455 CE): Early Christian writer Saint Jerome first compiled the Bible. Literature from the Fathers of Christian church

The Medieval Period (455 CE-1485 CE)

455

It is divided into two periods:
I. THE OLD ENGLISH (ANGLO-SAXON) (428-1066 CE): The so-called "Dark Ages" (455 CE -799 CE) occured after Rome fell and barbarian tribes moved into Europe. Renaissance (800- 850 CE) emerged in Europe. In central Europe, include early medieval grammars, encyclopedias. In northern Europe, the setting of Viking sagas.
II. THE MIDDLE ENGLISH (c. 1066-1450 CE): This marks the end of the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy and the emergence of the Twelfth Century Renaissance

The Renaissance and Reformation (1485-1660 CE)

1485

The Renaissance took place in the late 15th, 16th, and early 17th century in Britain
It includes 5 different periods.
I. Early Tudor Period (1485-1558)
II. Elizabethan Period (1558-1603)
III. Jacobean Period (1603-1625)
IV. Caroline Age (1625-1649)
V. Commonwealth Period/Puritan Interregnum (1649-1660)

There was renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman art. Human beings were included in artwork, not only holy topics, new interest in science, the environment and philosophy.

The Enlightenment (Neoclassical) Period (1660-1790 CE)

1660

The Enlightenment Period includes 3 sub-periods:
1. The Restoration Period: British King restored the throne (c.1660-1700). Writers: John Locke, Thomas Hobbes,
2. The Augustan Age: Alexander Pope writer; influenced by Virgil and Horace literature. Writers: Addison, Steele, Voltaire
3. The Age of Johnson: shows movement towards the Romantic Period.
Many authors felt that humanity had a chance of liberty which influenced the French and American Revolutions.

The Romantic Period (1790-1830 CE)

1790

The romantic period is a applied to the first third of the nineteenth century. During this time, literature began to have strong contrast to the standard literary practice of the eighteenth century so emotions and feelings were given great value as well as the artists' experience with nature. Authors-William Blake, Robert Burns, Lord Byron, Honore de Balzac, Edgar Allen Poe, etc.

The Victorian Period and the 19th Century (1832-1901 CE)

1832

Literature during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901). It was preceded by Romanticism and followed by the Edwardian era (1901–1910). In the preceding Romantic period, poetry had been the dominant genre, it was the novel that was most important in the Victorian period. Charles Dickens (1812–1870) dominated the first part of Victoria's reign: The Pickwick Papers in 1836, and Our Mutual Friend in 1864 and 1865. Another writer was George Eliot's (1819–1880) and Thomas Hardy (1840–1928).

The Modern Period (1914-1945 CE)

1914

Its origins is in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in Europe and North America, and is characterized by a very self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing. Modernism is a reaction to the previous Victorian period and a clear break with tradition which was so important to Victorians. The horrors of the First World War raised questions about the rationality of the human mind. Modernist writers were influenced by such thinkers as Freud and Karl Marx.

Harlem Renaissance

1920

Harlem Renaissance was an African American cultural movement of the 1920s and early 1930s that was centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City. Harlem Renaissance is the name given to the time from the end of World War I and through the middle of the 1930s depression. Marks the rise of black writers such as Baldwin and Ellison. Realism is the dominant fashion, but the disillusionment with the World Wars lead to new experimentation.

The Postmodern Period (1945 - onward)

1945

Postmodernism is developed in the mid- to late 20th century across philosophy, the arts, architecture, and criticism, marking a departure from modernism.
T. S. Eliot, Morrison, Shaw, Beckett, Stoppard, Fowles, Calvino, Ginsberg, Pynchon. Other writers are Langston Hughes, Sandra Cisneros, and Zora Neal Hurston.
Postmodern works are seen as a response against dogmatic following of Enlightenment thinking and Modernist approaches to literature.

Magical Realism period (1955 and on)

1955

Magical realism is a style of fiction that paints a realistic view of the modern world while also adding magical elements. It is sometimes called fabulism, in reference to the conventions of fables, myths, and allegory. "Magical realism", refers to fiction with magic or the supernatural. It is considered a subgenre of fantasy.
Magical realism is associated with Latin American literature, including genre founders Gabriel García Márquez, Miguel Angel Asturias, Jorge Luis Borges, etc.