HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

OLD ENGLISH

450

450AD - 1066 AD. "The Old English literature of the subjugated Saxons was leavened by the Latin and Anglo-Norman writings, eminently foreign in origin, in which the churchmen and the Norman conquerors expressed themselves. From this combination emerged a flexible and subtle linguistic instrument exploited by Geoffrey Chaucer and brought to supreme application by William Shakespeare. " Ex:

"The Venerable Bede, in his monastery at Jarrow, completes his history of the English church and people"

THE MIDDLE ENGLISH

1066

1066AD-1500AD "Because the Church and the concept of chivalry were dominant factors in the philosophy of the Middle Ages, these two ideas also figure prominently in medieval literature."Religious literature appeared in several genres:
devotional books
books of hours [collections of prayers and devotionals, often illuminated]"
sermons. Retrieved from: https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-british-literature/s01-middle-english-literature.html

REINASSANCE PERIOD

1500

1500-1600 "During the Renaissance the renewed interest in Classical learning and values had an important effect on English literature, as on all the arts; "EX: The first version of the English prayer book, or Book of Common Prayer, is published with text by Thomas Cranmer" Retrieved from: http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191737053.timeline.0001

ELIZABETHAN PERIOD

1558

1558-1603 "The Elizabethan age saw the flowering of poetry (the sonnet, the Spenserian stanza, dramatic blank verse), was a golden age of drama (especially for the plays of Shakespeare), and inspired a wide variety of splendid prose (from historical chronicles, versions of the Holy Scriptures, pamphlets, and literary criticism to the first English novels). " Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/art/Elizabethan-literature

JACOBEAN PERIOD

1603

1603-1625 "In literature, too, many themes and patterns were carried over from the preceding Elizabethan era. Though rich, Jacobean literature is often darkly questioning. William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies were written between about 1601 and 1607. Other Jacobean dramatic writers became preoccupied with the problem of evil: the plays of John Webster, John Marston, Thomas Middleton, and George Chapman induce all the terror of tragedy but little of its pity. "

CAROLINE PERIOD

1625

1625-1649 "The Caroline age is named after Charles I (1625-1649). Caroline is an adjective of Carolus, the Latin word for Charles. The age of Caroline is an age of poetry of three kinds or schools: Metaphysical, Cavalier and Puritan schools of poetry. Let‘s see the characteristics of Caroline Age. " Retrieved from: http://vijaychavan70.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-caroline-age.html

THE PURITAN PERIOD

1649

1649-1660 "Great literature could not be produced during this period. Milton was an exception. He was the greatest literary genius of this era. In his finest works he combines the moral and religious influences of Paritanism with the generous culture of the Renaissance. " Retrieved from: http://vijaychavan70.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-caroline-age.html

THE RESTORATION PERIOD

1660

1660-1700 "The term Restoration literature is often taken to mean the literature of those who belonged, or aspired to belong, to the restored court culture of Charles II’s reign—the “mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease,” as Alexander Pope later put it. Examples: The Act of Uniformity (1662) and the Test Act (1673)" Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-Restoration

THE AUGUSTAN PERIOD

1700

1700-1785 "The eighteenth century in English literature has been called the Augustan Age, the Neoclassical Age, and the Age of Reason. The term 'the Augustan Age' comes from the self-conscious imitation of the original Augustan writers, Virgil and Horace, by many of the writers of the period." Retrieved from: http://www.ruthnestvold.com/Augustan.htm

THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

1785

1785-1830 "As a term to cover the most distinctive writers who flourished in the last years of the 18th century and the first decades of the 19th, “Romantic” is indispensable but also a little misleading: there was no self-styled “Romantic movement”
Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/art/English-literature/The-Romantic-period

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD

1830

1830-1901" Most fundamentally of all, the rapid change that many writers interpreted as progress inspired in others a fierce nostalgia. Enthusiastic rediscoveries of ancient Greece, Elizabethan England, and, especially, the Middle Ages by writers, artists, architects, and designers made this age of change simultaneously an age of active and determined historicism."

THE MODERN PERIOD

1890

1890-1918 "Modern period in the English literature begins with the 20th century and remain till 1965. The period saw an abrupt break away from the old ways of interacting with the world. "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."

THE INTER-WAR PERIOD

1918

1918-1939 "The impact of World War I upon the Anglo-American Modernists has been noted. In addition the war brought a variety of responses from the more-traditionalist writers, predominantly poets, who saw action. Rupert Brooke caught the idealism of the opening months of the war (and died in service); Siegfried Sassoon and Ivor Gurney caught the mounting anger and sense of waste as the war continued" Retrieved from: https://www.timetoast.com/timelines/2365157/edit

MID 20TH CENTURY

1939

1939 -"It was in the 1960s that a shift in the nature of literary studies began which remains the context in which English Literature is taught in universities today."
APA (American Psychological Assoc.)
Cavanagh, D., Gillis, A., & Keown, M. (2014). The Edinburgh Introduction to Studying English Literature: Vol. 2nd ed. Edinburgh University Press.