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Period: 650 to 1066
Anglo-Saxon
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1066
Content
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1066
Style and Genres
oral tradition of literature
poetry dominant genre
unique verse form
caesura
Alliteration
Repetition
Four-beat Rhythm -
1066
Effect
Christianity helps literacy to spread
Introduces Roman alphabet to Britain
Oral tradition helps unite diverse people and their myths -
1066
Historical Context
life centered around ancestral tribes or clans that ruled themselves.
At first the people were warriors from invading outlying areas:
angles, saxons, Jules and Danes
Later they were agricultural. -
1066
books and authors
Beowulf
The venerable Bede
Exeter Book -
Period: 1066 to 1485
The Middle English Period (Medieval)
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1485
Content
Plays that instruct the illiterate masses in morals and religion
Chivalric code of honor/ romances
Religious devotion -
1485
Historical Context
Crusades bring the development of a money economy for the first time in Britain
Traiding increases dramatically as a result of the crusades
William the conqueror crown king in 1066
Henry II crownded king in 1154 brings a judicial system, royal courts, juries and chivalry to britain -
1485
Effects
Church instructs its people through the morality and miracle plays
An illiterate population is able to hear and see the literate -
1485
Style/ Genres
Oral tradition continues
Folk ballads
Mystery and miracle plays
Morality plays
stock epithets
kennings
Frame stories -
1485
Key Literature and Authors
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Pearl
Domesday Book
Geoffrey Chaucer -
Period: 1485 to
The Renaissance
The elizabeth period: The reign of Elizabeth 1
Jacobean Period: He reign of James 1 of England -
Historical Context
- War of Roses ends in 1485 and political stability arrives
- Printing press helps stabilize English as a language and allows more people to read a variety of literature
- Economy changes from farm-based to one of international trade
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Style / Genres
POETRY
- The sonnet
- Metaphysical poetry
- Elaborate and unexpected metaphor called Conceits
DRAMA
- written in verse
- Support by royalty
- Tragedies, comedies, histories -
Content
World view shifts from religion and after life to one stressing the human life on earth
Popular theme development of human potential
popular theme: Many aspects of love explored
Unrequited Love
constant love
courtly love
love subject to change -
Key literature and Authors
William Shakespeare
Thomas Wyatt
Ben Jonson
Cavalier Poets
Metaphysical poets
John Donne
Christopher Marlowe
Andrew Marvell
Robert Herrick
Katherine Phillips -
Effects
- Commoners welcomed at some point play productions while conservatives try to close the theaters on grounds that they promote brazen behaviors
- Not all middle-class embrace the metaphysical poets and their abstract conceits
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Period: to
The Neoclassical Period