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Period: 450 to 1066
Old English
This era included heroic poetry, religious poetry, love poetry, personal poetry, Anglo- Saxon Chronicles, Anglo-Saxon Sermons and Riddles. One of the greatest examples of the heroic poetry includes "Beowulf" which author is anonymous. Christ and Satan is a religious poem consisting of 729 alliterative verse, contained in the Junius Manuscript. -
Period: 1066 to 1500
Middle English
This era was characterized by its impersonality which can be shown in the multiple poems with anonymous authors because there was more interest in the poem rathen than the poet. Other important characteristics include: religion, oral quality, courtly love, chivarly and love. One of the texts written in this era is The Art of Loving by Ovin, which refers to courtly love. -
Period: 1500 to
English Renaissance
This era was characterized by the reforms in the institutions, dominance of reason, man centred-society and the development of science. There are several well-known authors of the era but definitely one of the most heard and read would be Shakespeare with his iconic plays and tragedies such as Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and The Tragedy of King Lear. -
Period: to
Puritan Literature
This era of literature was characterized by symbolism, self examination, a plain style and betterment. One of the authors of this era was Anne Bradstreet whose book "The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America" was the first one published by a woman in USA and England -
Period: to
Restoration Age
This era was very impressive because it had 4 main characteristics:
a) Rise of Neo-Classicism
b) Imitation of the ancients
c) Realism
d) New Literary forms: Here we have the satire, poetry, drama and heroic couplet.
One example of a satire written in this era is Mac Flecknoe by John Dryden -
Period: to
18th Century Literature
This era also called Augustan and the Age of Reason was characterized by having the plain prose, the psychological novel and the poetry of the sublime. This era is also characterized by including the satire as a form of literature. During this period we have authors such as Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift and Samuel Johnson. -
Period: to
Romanticism
This period was characterized by: The glorification of nature, awareness and acceptance of emotions, celebration of artistic creativity and imagination, emphasis on aesthetic beauty, themes of solitude, focus on exoticism and history, spiritual and Supernatural elements, vivid sensory descriptions, use of personification, focus on the self and autobiography
Some examples of this period include Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe -
Period: to
Victorian
The literature in the Victorian age tended to come face to face with realism. Also, the Victorian literature asserted a moral purpose, and this was also the age of pessimism and confusion because of the influence of science. One of the authors that represent this period is Emily Brontë and her sister. This first is well known for her novel Wuthering Heights. -
Period: to
Modern Literature
This period was characterized by:
a) Individualism
b) Experimentation
c) Absurdity
d) Symbolism
e) Formalism
This era has well known authors including Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway and Frank Kafka, this las one famous for his novel The Metamorphosis -
Period: to
Postmodern literature
This era was born right afte World War II. This era was characterized by:
a) Embrace of randomness
b) Playfulness
c) Fragmentation
d) Megafiction
e) Intertextuality
There are several remarkable authors in this era including John Barth with his essay The Literary of Exhaustion, Samuel Beckett with his play Waiting for Godot, among others. -
Period: to
Contemporary Literature
This period is characterized by:
a) Personal point of view
b) Innovative narrative resources
c) Magical realism
d) The pressing issues
e) The influence of World War II
f) Fiction and Non-fiction superimposed
Even though, Gabriel Garcia Marquez was a colombian author he became very representative after winning The Nobel of Literature thanks to his novel 100 Years of Solitude. This book is a clear example of the magical realism.