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Much of the first half of this period—prior to the seventh century, at least—had oral literature. Some works, such as Beowulf and those by period poets Caedmon and Cynewulf, are important. -
Literary history is the narrative of intelligible, significant connections between literary works, related to their composition. It includes the generic or thematic conventions or chains of signs that writers in that language create or borrow from other mediums of expression, earlier times or other languages.
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Middle English writings were religious in nature; however, from about 1350 onward, secular literature began to rise. This period is home to the likes of Chaucer, Thomas Malory, and Robert Henryson. -
This period is often subdivided into four parts, including:
1. Elizabethan Age (1558–1603) English drama
2. Jacobean Age (1603–1625) Reign of James I
3. Caroline Age (1625–1649) Reign of Charles I
4. Commonwealth Period (1649–1660) English Civil War and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy -
The Neoclassical period, the Age of Sensibility (sometimes referred to as the Age of Johnson) is also subdivided into ages, including The Restoration (1660–1700), The Augustan Age (1700–1745), and The Age of Sensibility (1745–1785). The Restoration period sees some response to the puritanical age, especially in the theater. Ideas such as neoclassicism, a critical and literary mode, and the Enlightenment, a particular worldview shared by many intellectuals, were championed during this age. -
Some claim it is 1785, immediately following the Age of Sensibility. Others say it began in 1789 with the start of the French Revolution, and still others believe that 1798, the publication year for William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s book Lyrical Ballads is its true beginning. -
The period has often been divided into “Early” (1832–1848), “Mid” (1848–1870) and “Late” (1870–1901) periods or into two phases, that of the Pre-Raphaelites (1848–1860) and that of Aestheticism and Decadence (1880–1901).This period is named for the reign of Queen Victoria, who ascended to the throne in 1837, and it lasts until her death in 1901. -
This period is named for King Edward VII and the era includes incredible classic novelists such as Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, and Henry James. -
The Georgian period usually refers to the reign of George V (1910–1936) but sometimes also includes the reigns of the four successive Georges from 1714–1830. Here, we refer to the former description as it applies chronologically and covers, for example, the Georgian poets, such as Ralph Hodgson, John Masefield, W.H. Davies, and Rupert Brooke. -
The modern period traditionally applies to works written after the start of World War I.Some of the most notable writers of this period include the novelists James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, and D.H. Lawrence.New Criticism also appeared at this time, led by the likes of Woolf, Eliot, William Empson, and others, which reinvigorated literary criticism in general. -
The postmodern period begins about the time that World War II ended. Poststructuralist literary theory and criticism developed during this time. Some notable writers of the period include Samuel Beckett, Joseph Heller, Anthony Burgess, John Fowles, Penelope M. Lively, and Iain Banks.