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Period: 449 to 1066
Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period
The term Anglo-Saxon comes from two Germanic tribes: the Angles and the Saxons. Much of the first half of this period—prior to the seventh century, at least—had oral literature. A lot of the prose during this time was a translation of something else or otherwise legal, medical, or religious in nature. -
1066
Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period
Examples:
*The dragon (Beowulf)
*Himno de Caedmon (Caedmon)
* The Phoenix (Cynewulf) -
Period: 1066 to 1500
Middle English Period
The Middle English period sees a huge transition in the language, culture, and lifestyle of England and results in what we can recognize today as a form of “modern” English. Much of the Middle English writings were religious in nature; however, from about 1350 onward, secular literature began to rise. -
1500
Middle English Period
Examples:
*La muerte de Arturo (Thomas Malory)
*The Canterbury Tales (Geoffrey Chaucer)
*The Testament of Cresseid (Robert Henryson) -
1501
The Renaissance
This period is often subdivided into four parts, including the Elizabethan Age (1558–1603), the Jacobean Age (1603–1625), the Caroline Age (1625–1649), and the Commonwealth Period (1649–1660). -
Period: 1558 to
The Elizabethan Age
The Elizabethan Age was the golden age of English drama.
Examples:
*The Comedy of Errors, (William Shakespeare)
*The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (Christopher Marlowe)
*Edmund Spenser (The Faerie Queene) -
Period: to
The Jacobean Age
s named for the reign of James I. The King James translation of the Bible also appeared during the Jacobean Age.
Examples:
*An Anatomy of the World (John Donne)
*The Battle of Agincourt (Michael Drayton)
* Anything for a Quiet Life (John Webster) -
Period: to
The Caroline Age
The age of Caroline is an age of poetry of three kinds or schools: Metaphysical, Cavalier, and Puritan schools of poetry.
Examples:
*Paradise Lost (John Milton)
*The Anatomy of Melancholy (Robert Burton)
*The Temple (George Herbert) -
Period: to
Commonwealth Period
It was so named for the period between the end of the English Civil War and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy.
Examples:
*Heavie Punishment (Thomas Fuller)
*Tragicall History of Piramus and Thisbe (Abraham Cowley)
*To His Coy Mistress (Andrew Marvell) -
The Neoclassical Period
The Neoclassical period is also subdivided into ages, including The Restoration (1660–1700), The Augustan Age (1700–1745), and The Age of Sensibility (1745–1785). -
Period: to
The Restoration
Restoration comedies (comedies of manner) developed during this time under the talent of playwrights like William Congreve and John Dryden.
Examples:
* The Old Bachelor, (William Congreve)
* The Wild Gallant ( John Dryden)
*On the Origin of Species (Samuel Butler) -
Period: to
The Augustan Age
It was a literary epoch that featured the rapid development of the novel, an explosion in satire, the mutation of drama from political satire into melodrama, and evolution toward the poetry of personal exploration.
Examples:
*Palace on the Water (Lady Mary Wortley Montagu)
*Robinson Crusoe (Daniel Defoe)
*Drapier's Letters (Jonathan Swift) -
Period: to
The Age of Sensibility
Ideas such as neoclassicism, a critical and literary mode, and the Enlightenment, a particular worldview shared by many intellectuals, were championed during this age.
Example:
*Anecdotes of the Late Samuel Johnson (Hester Lynch Thrale)
*Life of Johnson (James Boswell)
*The Rose (William Cowper) -
Period: to
The Romantic Period
American literature has its own Romantic period, but typically when one speaks of Romanticism, one is referring to this great and diverse age of British literature, perhaps the most popular and well-known of all literary ages.
Examples:
*A Poison Tree. (William Blake)
*Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (Lord Byron)
* Pride and Prejudice ( Jane Austen) -
Period: to
The Gothic age
Gothic literature is a genre that emerged as one of the eeriest forms of Dark Romanticism in the late 1700s, a literary genre that emerged as a part of the larger Romanticism movement.
Examples:
*The Monk (Matthew Lewis)
*On the Supernatural in Poetry (Anne Radcliffe)
*Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters (William Beckford) -
Period: to
The Victorian Period
The Victorian period is in strong contention with the Romantic period for being the most popular, influential, and prolific period in all of English (and world) literature. -
The Victorian Period
Examples
*Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)
*The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy)
*Erewhon Revisited (Samuel Butler) -
Period: to
The Edwardian Period
This period is named for King Edward VII and covers the period between Victoria’s death and the outbreak of World War I. Although a short period (and a short reign for Edward VII) -
The Edwardian Period
Examples:
*Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad)
*The Nature of a Crime (Ford Madox Ford)
* The Portrait of a Lady (Henry James) -
Period: to
The Georgian Period
Georgian poetry today is typically 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. -
The Modern Period
Examples:
*Top Girls (Caryl Churchill)
* The Unnamable (Samuel Beckett)
* The Room (Harold Pinter) -
Period: to
The Modern Period
The modern period traditionally applies to works written after the start of World War I. Common features include bold experimentation with subject matter, style, and form, encompassing narrative, verse, and drama. -
The Georgian Period
Examples:
*The Skylark (Ralph Hodgson)
*The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (W.H. Davies)
* Westminster Gazette (Rupert Brooke.) -
Period: to
The Postmodern Period
Literature from the Modern and Postmodern periods responds to the quickly changing modern world-wars, technology, society, etc. It also shows that stories about human joy and struggle come from all around the world. -
The Postmodern Period
Examples:
*Something Happened (Joseph Heller)
*The Magus (John Fowles)
* The Wasp Factory (Iain Banks)