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Author: Homer
Literary Period: late 7th early 8th century BC, Bronze Age
Connects to: The Iliad. Epic poems by Homer
Contribution to Literature: influenced the narrative styles, structure, and themes of literature -
Author: Sophocles
Literary Period: Golden Age of Ancient Greece
Contribution to Literature: cultural significance within literature -
Author: unknown, written in Anglo-Saxon Old English
Literary Period: 700-1000 AD
Connects to: The Odyssey, old European epic poem
Contribution to Literature: Known as the highest achievement of Old English literature, provides information on ancient Germanic culture -
Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
Literary Period: late Medieval/Anthology
Contribution to Literature: one of the first works to use blank verse poetry, gives insight to social classes of the 14th century -
Author: Thomas Moore
Literary Period: Dystopian/Allegorical
Connects to: Flatland. Both are tales of completely fictional worlds that share some unlikely similarities with our world. They teach us about our society using made-up lands and characters. Symbolism and allegories abound
Contribution to Literature: created its own style of fiction “Utopia fiction”, challenges human nature in a controlled environment, inspired dystopian texts -
Author: William Shakespeare
Literary Period: Elizabethan period
Connects to: West Side Story, a modern day retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Both books have to do with two warring groups, and a boy and girl from each group fall in love with each other.
Contribution to Literature: growing the English vocabulary, setting the standard for tragedies -
Author: William Shakespeare
Literary Period: Elizabethan
Connects to: A Man for All Season. both are somewhat accurate accounts of real historical figures and the events leading up to their deaths
Contribution to Literature: became one of the most remarkable tragedies of all time, adding words to the English language -
Author: William Shakespeare
Literary Period: Elizabethan
Contribution to Literature: first black hero to be presented in a work -
Author: William Shakespeare
Literary Period: Elizabethan
Contribution to Literature: set yet another standard for tragedies of the time period and to come, challenging moral constraints and human nature -
Author: John Milton
Literary Period: Puritanism
Connects to: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, gives advice to Puritans on how to live their lives according to their relationship with God
Contribution to Literature: became an inspiring source for Romantic poets such as Shelley -
Author: Jonathan Edwards
Literary Period: Puritanism
Connects to: The Crucible. The sermon and the book are based on the laws and expectations in Puritan society, and how Puritan beliefs play a role in their everyday lives.
Contribution to Literature: instilled fear and emphasized God’s wrath on sinners in Hell -
Author: Jane Austen
Literary Period: Victorian/Romantic
Connects to: Jane Eyre. Romantic tales of three women looking for love in the Victorian Era, but must face trials, competition, and uncertainty along the way.
Contribution to Literature: inroduced new styles of writing that utilized new literary devices, popularized that everyday lives can be interesting -
Author: Mary Shelley
Literary Period: Romantic/Gothic
Connects to: Poe stories. A Gothic novel involving supernatural elements, violence, and dark and gloomy settings.
Contribution to Literature: pioneered the fascination of the dead returning, fostered an interest in science, one of the most famous Gothic works of all time -
Author: Edgar Allen Poe
Literary Period: Gothic, Romantic
Connects to: Jane Eyre, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights. Gothic tales involving supernatural elements, violence, and dark and gloomy settings
Contribution to Literature: Poe was practically the father of the gothic genre, inspired the modern detective story -
Author: Emily Brontë
Literary Period: Victorian/Romantic
Connects to: Sense and Sensibility, Poe stories, Wuthering Heights. Romantic tales of three women looking for love in the Victorian Era, but must face trials, competition, and uncertainty along the way. Also a Gothic novel involving supernatural elements, violence, and dark and gloomy settings
Contribution to Literature: introduced the idea of the modern individual, changed the perception of women in society -
Author: Emily Bronte
Literary Period: Romatic/Gothic
Connects to: Jane Eyre, Poe stories. Romantic tales of women looking for love in the Victorian Era, but must face trials, competition, and uncertainty along the way. Also a Gothic novel involving supernatural elements, violence, and dark and gloomy settings
Contribution to Literature: created one of the first truly gothic novels, published by a woman -
Author: Charles Dickens
Literary Period: Bildungsroman
Connects to: My Antonia. Both bildungsromans, they follow the story of a young orphan boy who grows into an educated man over the course of the book. Jim and Pip each fall in love with a local girl, but do not end up with her in the end.
Contribution to Literature: explored themes of wealth and status in a work, indirectly wrote about the injustices during that time period -
Author: Edwin Abbott Abbott
Literary Period: Dystopian/Allegrorical
Connects to: Utopia. Both are tales of completely fictional worlds that share some unlikely similarities with our world. They teach us about our society using made-up lands and characters. Symbolism and allegories abound.
Contribution to Literature: inspired other dystopian style works, one of the best social satire works -
Author: Joseph Conrad
Literary Period: Roman à clef, Modernism
Connects to: Malcolm X and Beloved: deals with racism and the conflict between black and white people
Contribution to Literature: explores empirical issues, bringing awareness to the Congo -
Author: Willa Cather
Literary Period: American Frontier
Connects to: Great Expectations. Both bildungsromans, they follow the story of a young orphan boy who grows into an educated man over the course of the book. Jim and Pip each fall in love with a local girl, but do not end up with her in the end.
Contribution to Literature: the first author/work to bring attention to the lives of Americans in the West -
Author: Hermann Hesse
Literary Period: The Great Depression
Contribution to Literature: influenced spiritual works and finding true identity in oneself -
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Literary Period: The Jazz Age, Modernism
Contribution to Literature: explores universal themes such as a man’s struggle with fate, serves as a timeless work of literature -
Author: John Steinbeck
Literary Period: realism
Contribution to Literature: shows the darker side of the popular American Dream, teaches the value of friendship and compassion -
Author: George Orwell
Literary Period: Futuristic/Dystopian
Connects to: Fahrenheit 451. Both are futuristic novels based on the “what-if?” of WWII. What if more atomic bombs had been detonated? These novels describe a society in the near future that is controlled by a totalitarian state, and the world as we know it is in ruins.
Contribution to Literature: became a perfect example of a political and dystopian fiction, warned against totalitarianism -
Author: John Steinbeck
Literary Period: Biblical/Allegorical
Contribution to Literature: paved the way for other writers to make biblical allusions in works as well as tell stories while still holding ambiguity -
Author: Arthur Miller
Literary Period: McCarthyism, Puritanism
Connects to: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. The sermon and the book are based on the laws and expectations in Puritan society, and how Puritan beliefs play a role in their everyday lives.
Contribution to Literature: represents an important time in history and served as an allegory for McCarthyism -
Author: Ray Bradbury
Literary Period: Futuristic/Dystopian
Connects to: 1984. Both are futuristic novels based on the “what-if?” of WWII. What if more atomic bombs had been detonated? These novels describe a society in the near future that is controlled by a totalitarian state, and the world as we know it is in ruins.
Contribution to Literature: defended the importance of literature and standing against censorship -
Author: William Golding
Literary Period: Futuristic/Allegorical
Connects to: 1984- response to WWII
Contribution to Literature: tells the message that savagery us universal, serves as a literary response to Nazism and WWII -
Author: Elie Wiesel
Literary Period: Holocaust
Connects to: The Book Thief. Both take place during the Holocaust and show the horrors of what it was like to live in Germany during that time.
Contribution to Literature: expanded Holocaust literature and awareness, illustrates the wickedness of humanity -
Author: Arthur Laurents
Literary Period: Modernism
Connects to: Romeo and Juliet. It is a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Both books have to do with two warring groups, and a boy and girl from each group fall in love with each other. -
Author: John Knowles
Literary Period: World War II, Realism,
Contribution to Literature: brought awareness to post war adolescence -
Author: Robert Bolt
Literary Period: Reign of Henry VIII, England
Connects to: Julius Caesar. both are somewhat accurate accounts of real historical figures and the events leading up to their deaths
Contribution to Literature: popularizing standing up for personal beliefs -
Authors: Alex Haley and Malcom X
Literary Period: Reconstruction/Civil Rights, Racism
Connects to: both demonstrate the struggles of black people in America, from slavery to the Civil Rights movement. Connected to The House on Mango Street in showing the oppression faced by minorities in America
Contribution to Literature: The Civil Rights Movement -
Author: Sandra Cisneros
Literary Period: Bildungsroman, collection of short stories
Connects to: Malcolm X and Beloved: shows the oppression faced by minorities in America
Contributions to Literature: expanded American literature to include other ethnicities, inspired other latin writers -
Author: Jon Krakauer
Literary Period: Transcendentalism
Contribution to Literature: pushed the ideals of transcendentalism and inspired other transcendental works -
Author: Markus Zusak
Literary Period: Contemporary, World War II
Connects to: Night. Both take place during the Holocaust and show the horrors of what it was like to live in Germany during that time.
Contribution to Literature: connects to a wider audience, Holocaust awareness and literature