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450
The Old English period (anglo-saxon period) (450-1660)
Anglo-Saxon term comes from two tribes: the Angles and the Saxons. In a great part of the first half of this period was a oral literature; also, a lot of the prose in this period was a translation of other things or legal, religious among others things.
Authors: Caedmond, Cynewulf.
Works: Beowulf, The Venerable Bede, The material of the Eddas. -
1066
Middle English Period (1066-1500)
In this period, the transition about life in England was vast, because the language, culture and lifestyle change becoming as a form of "modern" English. A lot of the writings in this period was about religion, but this change because from 1350 onward secular literature increase.
Authors: Chaucer, Thomas Malory and Robert Henryson.
Works: "Piers Plowman" y "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight". -
1500
The Renaissance (1500–1660)
This period is subdivided into four parts. In Elizabethan age was the age of golden English drama. Jacobean age was called like that because James I and the bible was translated. In Caroline age was the reign of Charles I. At least, Commonwealth period was where English civil war end and the restoration of Stuart Monarchy happens , then, the theaters were closed.
Authors: Shakespeare, William Shakespeare, John Milton, Andrew Marvell.
Works: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet -
The Neoclassical Period (1600–1785)
This period is subdivided into three parts.
In the restoration age comedy and satire became popular in the theaters.
In the Augustan age the imitation of Augustans and sometimes the parallels became popular. Also, the stereotypical female role was changing.
The sensibility age was when ideas as neoclassicism, critical and literary were shared, and the intellectuals' different worldview was shared.
Authors: Lady Wortley, William Congreve, Edmund Burke
Works: Paradise Lost, Gulliver's travels
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The Romantic Period (1785–1832)
About the beginning of this period there is a lot of debated, but the real beginning of this is the publication year of the "Lyrical Ballads".
This period ended wit the passage of the Reform of Bill and Sir Walter Scott's death. American literature has its own romantic period, but frequently the term "romanticism" is refereed to British literature. Also, this has a minor period, the Gothic era.
Authors: William Blake, Mary Wollstonecraft, Matthew Lewis
Works: Pride and Prejudice, The Last Leaf -
The Victorian Period (1832–1901)
This period was called like this because of the reign of Queen Victoria, in which were a lot of economic, religious, etc., issues. This period is divided into parts "early", "mid" and "late" or into two phases too.
Also, this period constantly is in a contention for which is the most popular English literature period.
Then, prose fiction found its place.
Authors: Charles Dickens, Christina Rossetti, Frank Baum
Works: "The time machine", "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" -
The Edwardian Period (1901–1914)
This period was called like this because of King Edward VII, and it went between Victoria's death and upsurge of World Ward I. This period has many incredible novel, poems and theater performances.
Authors: Joseph Conrad, Henry James, John Galsworthy
Works: Anne of Green Gables, The History of Mr. Polly -
The Georgian Period (1910–1936)
This period is refers to the reign of George V, but sometimes to reign of Georges to 1714-1830.
The Georgian poetry is considered as the works of minors authors anthologized by Edward Marsh. The themes were rural an delicate.
Authors: Virginia Woolf, Frank Harris, Rupert Brooke
Works: 1914 and other poems, Mrs Dalloway, My life and Loves -
The Modern Period (1914–?)
This period starts after the beginning of World War I. The features are bold experimentation with theme, style and form encircle narrative, verse and drama.
In this era, the criticism appeared. Also, it's difficult to say when this period ended because the postmodernism development after it.
Authors: Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, Robert Graves
Works: Gone with the Wind, For Whom the Bell Tolls -
The Postmodern Period (1945–?)
This period begins when World War II ended. Some say that the period ended in 1990, but isn't that because is too early for it. Also, poststructuralist literary theory and criticism were evolved.
Authors: Samuel Beckett, Penelope M. Lively, Maya Angelou
Works: I know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Narnia in The Lion