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Period: 450 to 1066
Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period
This period started with the invasion of Celtic England by the year 450 having two tribes: the Angles and the Saxons (along with the Jute tribe). It ended in 1066 with the conquest of England under Norman France. -
600
Oral literature
The main dominance of literature was oral. There were also several translations for legal, medical, or religious content. Despite the lack of independent literature, authors such as Beowulf, Caedmon and Cynewulf contributed with important works. -
680
Cædmon's Hymn
This short hymn is attributed to Cædmon (the earliest English poet whose name is known) and it is considered the oldest surviving poem in English. -
Period: 1066 to 1500
Middle English Period
After the Norman Conquest, England had a big transition in language, culture, and lifestyle. The era extends to around 1500. -
1200
The Brut publication
English poetry remained on this period. For instance, The Brut (c. 1200) was one of the most remarkable English poems of the 12th century. It was written in English at a time when the language was nearly eclipsed by French and Latin as a literary language. -
1350
Secular literature
Secular literature arised about 1350 onward. This term refers to any literature which is not rooted in religious beliefs, practices and traditions. -
1477
First printed book
William Caxton brought printing from Germany and Flanders to England. The first printed book was Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers, which appeared on November 18, 1477. Caston himself showed the first page from his printing press to King Edward IV. Such achievement made books available to a growing audience. Literature and ideas began to spread rapidly among the country. -
Period: 1500 to
The Renaissance
This period is also called by critics and literary historians as the “Early Modern” period, but the most historically familiar term is “Renaissance.” This period is 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). -
1558
The Elizabeth Age (1558 - 1603)
It was the golden age of English drama. The most notable authors were: Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser, Sir Walter Raleigh, and, of course, William Shakespeare. -
Hamlet
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or simply Hamlet, by the renowned English writer William Shakespeare was published in 1602. Hamlet is the longest piece of Shakespeare and one of the most influential in English literature. -
The Jacobean Age (1603 - 1625)
This period is named for the reign of James I. The most notable authors were: John Donne, Shakespeare, Michael Drayton, John Webster, Elizabeth Cary, Ben Jonson, and Lady Mary Wroth. -
King James Bible
Published on 1611, King James Bible (or Authorized Version in U.K.) had an enormous impact on later English translations of the biblical text and English literature in general. -
The Caroline Age (1625 - 1649)
This period covers the reign of Charles I (“Carolus”). Its notable figures were: John Milton, Robert Burton, and George Herbert. -
The Commonwealth period (1649 - 1660)
It was named for the period between the end of the English Civil War and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy. Political writing arised with the help of authors such as John Milton and Thomas Hobbes and, prose writers such as Thomas Fuller, Abraham Cowley, and Andrew Marvell were recognized as well. -
The Restoration period (1660 - 1700)
This period had some responde to the puritanical age, especially in the theater. Restoration comedies developed during this time under playwrights like William Congreve and John Dryden. Satire also became popular with the help of authors like Samuel Butler. Other notable writers of the age include Aphra Behn, John Bunyan, and John Locke. -
Period: to
The Neoclassical Period
The Neoclassical period is subdivided into three ages: The Restoration (1660–1700), The Augustan Age (1700–1745), and The Age of Sensibility (1745–1785). -
The Augustan Age (1700 - 1745)
This period had a new way of thinking mainly caracterized for the desire to overcome old superstitions, accepting rational methods as superior to the traditional.Other common terms used for this period are the ‘’Age of Reason’’ or ‘’Enlightenment’’.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Daniel Defoe were popular authors. -
The Age of Sensibility (1745 - 1785)
This period (also called the Age of Johnson) had notable authors like Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon, Hester Lynch Thrale, James Boswell, and, of course, Samuel Johnson. Several new ideas were spread such as neoclassicism, a critical and literary mode, and the Enlightenment. There were remarkable Novelists like Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Tobias Smollett, and Laurence Sterne as well as the poets William Cowper and Thomas Percy. -
A Dictionary of the English Language
Between 1747 and 1755, Samuel Johnson composed one of his best known works: A Dictionary of the English Language. This author was one of the most important literary figures in England: poet, essayist, biographer, and lexicographer. He is considered by many to be the best literary critic in the English language. Johnson is the second most quoted author in the English language after Shakespeare. -
The Social Contract
In 1762, Jean-Jacques Rousseau declared in his best-known work 'The Social Contract' that ‘man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains' which showed the dissatisfaction of intellectuals during this period due the restrictions and transgressions of the current establishment. -
Period: to
The Romantic Period
The beggining of this period is often debated. Some claim it is 1785, after the Age of Sensibility. Others clam it was in 1789 following the start of French Revolution. The time period ends with the passage of the Reform Bill and with the death of Sir Walter Scott. This period includes authors as Wordsworth, Coleridge, William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Charles Lamb, Mary Wollstonecraft, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas De Quincey, Jane Austen, and Mary Shelley. -
The Gothic Era (1786 - 1800)
The Gothic Era developed during the Romantic period in Britain. In addition to the most common "Goth" elements such as dark and picturesque scenery, startling and melodramatic narrative devices, the writers from this era like Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Lewis, and Charles Brockden Brown employed supernatural elements, touches of romance, well-known historical characters, and travel and adventure narratives to entertain their readers. -
Period: to
The Victorian Period (1832 - 1901)
This period is named after Queen Victoria, who ascended to the throne in 1837, and it lasts until her death in 1901. There were great social, religious, intellectual, and economic changes contained in the passage of the Reform Bill, which expanded voting right. The period has often been divided into “Early” (1832–1848), “Mid” (1848–1870) and “Late” (1870–1901). -
Poetry
Poetry was one of the most popular genres of the Victorian period. The auhtors experimented with narrative poetry, which tells a story to its audience, including Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh (1856), an entire novel written in verse. -
Period: to
The Edwardian Period (1901–1914)
This is a short period is named for King Edward VII. It covers the period between Queen Victoria’s death and the outbreak of World War I. -
Novels and literary criticism
Although the Edwardian period was short, the era includes incredible classic novelists such as Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, and Henry James. Among the most famous works of literary criticism was A. C. Bradley‘s Shakespearean Tragedy (1904). -
Period: to
The Georgian Period
The Georgian period refers to the reign of George V (1910–1936) which covers Georgian poets such as Ralph Hodgson, John Masefield, W.H. Davies, and Rupert Brooke. -
Georgian Poetry
The term refers to a series of anthologies that showed the work of a school of English poetry that established itself during the Georgian period. The group includes poets such as Edmund Blunden, Rupert Brooke, Robert Graves, D. H. Lawrence, Walter de la Mare, Siegfried Sassoon and John Drinkwater. -
Period: to
The Modern Period (1914 - ?)
This period applies to works written after the start of World War I and shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century. -
Modern novel
The fiction during the Modern Periodshifted from the focus of man in his social circle to man as an isolated individual. 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 Lessing; the poets W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Seamus Heaney, Wilfred Owens, Dylan Thomas, and Robert Graves. -
New Criticism
New Criticism also appeared at the Modern Period, proposing an "internal" reading of the text (close reading), which pays particular attention to its ambiguities and internal contradictions. It was led by the likes of Woolf, Eliot, William Empson, and others. It is difficult to state the final stage of modernism, even though postmodernism has developed after this period, but the genre remains ongoing. -
Period: to
The Postmodern Period (1945–?)
The postmodern period begins about the time that World War II ended. It is believed that this period developed as a direct response to modernism. -
Poststructuralist literary theory
Poststructuralist literary theory and criticism developed during this time, including writers like Samuel Beckett, Joseph Heller, Anthony Burgess, John Fowles, Penelope M. Lively, and Iain Banks.