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Originally an oral hymn composed by a cowherd named Caedmon, this is the earliest example of a poem written in English. It was recorded much later in writing by the learned monk Bede in his Ecclesiastical History. The poem is written in Latin in some extant copies and in Anglo-Saxon in a few others. In this poem’s 18 lines readers can find, even in translations, an example of the 4-beat line typical of Anglo-Saxon poetry, in which Beowulf is also written. -
This period started with the Norman Conquest in1066 and ended with the end of fifteenth century. There are two ages in this period. The span from 1066 to 1340 is called Anglos-Norman Period because the literature of that period was written mainly in Anglo-Norman, the French dialect spoken by the new ruling class of England. Authors and works John Wyclif (1324-84), the father of English prose: Translation of the Bible in English(prose) -
The Renaissance made a big impact on English Literature. This was manifested in the poetry of Wyatt and Surrey, who instituted and Anglicized, an italian verse form that has been very popular in English. Intricate Renaissance standards of love poetry were adopted.
Some of the greatest dramatists at the time were Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson. -
Neoclassical literature was written between 1660 and 1798. This time period is broken down into three parts: the Restoration period, the Augustan period, and the Age of Johnson.
Neoclassical literature is characterized by order, accuracy, and structure. In direct opposition to Renaissance attitudes, where man was seen as basically good, the Neoclassical writers portrayed man as inherently flawed.
They emphasized restraint, self-control, and common sense. -
This period emphasized emotions over thoughts and reason and highly valued individualism. Romantic writers of the age were “aware of a pervasive intellectual and imaginative climate, which some called ‘the spirit of the age.’ This spirit was linked to both the politics of the French Revolution and religious apocalypticism” (“The Romantic Period”). -
Victorian literature is the literature produced in the United Kingdom during the reign of Victoria (1837-1901). The so-called Victorian era is a very important cultural stage in the history of England and Europe.
The essential characteristics of that era are: an unquestionable concern for decency, with the consequent raising of moral standards. -
The Edwardian Period began in 1901 with Queen Victoria’s death. King Edward VII took the throne and reigned until his death in 1910. The remainder years are pre World War I.
Edwardian writers like Forster, Joseph Conrad, and H.G. Wells built upon the social conscience of Victorian era (1837-1901), writers such as Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte. Their epic Bildungsromans ‘Oliver Twist’ and ‘Jane Eyre’ probed at the disparity between social class, gender and family hierarchies. -
It was a time when architecture and culture in general flourished, especially literature, and in which a style and fashion was created that would go down in history under the name of Regency Style. With regard to social standards, etiquette underwent an exhaustive refinement, which reached most areas of life of the English noble and bourgeois classes. One of the writers who, unwittingly, has gone down in history as the official chronicler of that era through her works was Jane Austen. -
English literature of the modern age started with the initiation of the 20th century. The prominent feature of the literature during the modern age was that it opposed the general attitude towards life as shown in Victorian literature. -
T. S. Eliot, Morrison, Shaw, Beckett, Stoppard, Fowles, Calvino, Ginsberg, Pynchon, and other modern writers, poets, and playwrights experimented with metafiction and fragmented poetry. Multiculturalism led to an increasing canonization of non-Caucasian writers such as Langston Hughes, Sandra Cisneros, and Zora Neal Hurston.