Chronological Overview of English Literature

  • Period: 450 to 1066

    Old English (Anglo-Saxon Period)

    • The two first long narrative poems were Beowulf and Widsith.
    • Beowulf is considered the first English epic poem.
    • Some famous writers of old English were Cynewulf and Caedmon
  • Period: 1066 to 1500

    The medieval English Literature

    -The population of England during this time was literate; most of them were bilingual or trilingual.
    - Geoffrey Chaucer is the highest-regarded poet from 1342 to 1400.
    - The most esteemed works include morality plays, miracle plays, and interludes.
  • Period: 1500 to

    Renaissance

    -Thomas Wyatt introduced Sonnets to Great Britain.
    - The Earl of Surrey brought the use of blank verse which was used by writers like Shakespeare, Christopher Marlow, John Milton, etc.
    - The Elizabethan Age represents the brilliant century also known as the Golden Age.
    -The golden age brought intellectual and religious revolutions.
    - The poet Spenser with his Shapaheardes Calander got highly popular.
    -Shakespeare with Hamlet represents the ideals of the renaissance and the disillusion.
  • Period: to

    Neoclassical

    • The restoration age brought the reflection of the political conflict of the late 17th century. -John Dryden raises as one of the literary figures of this age with his poem Astra Radix and Mac Flecknoe. -Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes were written by John Milton. William Blake is also acclaimed.
  • Period: to

    Romantic

    The major political writers of this time were Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, and Robert Harley.
    -Novels were introduced to the world during mid 18th and late 18th century.
    - Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe experimented with the prose narrative.
    - Jane Austen's second novels to be published was Pride and Prejudice. (1797)
    -William Blake, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge were brilliant poets of this era.
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    Victorian

    -Frank Baum introduces to children to Oz in his book the wonderful wizard of Oz.
    -Ebenezer Scrooge creates his way in A Christmas Carol.
  • Period: to

    Edwardian

    -H.G Wells publishes the history of Mr Polly.
    -Lucy Maud Montgomery's first novel "Anne of green gables" makes her rich and famous.
    - This period of time was known because of the luxury.
    - Writers expanded upon these themes by satirising the discrimination inherent in Victorian ideas towards different classes and foreign cultures.
  • Period: to

    Georgian

    • Georgian poetry today is typically considered to be the works of minor poets anthologized by Edward Marsh
    • Virginia Woolf Publishes her Novel Mrs. Dalloway. -Frank Harris publishes the fourth and final volume of My Life And Loves
  • Period: to

    Modern

    -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, D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Dorothy Richardson, Graham Greene, E.M. Forster, and Doris Lessin.
    - Ernest Hemingway publishes the novel For Whom The Bell Tolls, set in the Spanish War.
  • Period: to

    Postmodern and contemporary period

    -J.k Rowling's Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone was released in 1997.
    -The postmodern period begins about the time that World War II ended.
    - Some notable writers of the period include Samuel Beckett, Joseph Heller, Anthony Burgess, John Fowles, Penelope M. Lively, and Iain Banks.