Literary periods By william laird Period: 500 to 1500 Medieval Period Period: 1500 to 1670 The Renaissance Period: 1700 to 1800 Enlightenment Period: 1798 to 1870 Romantic Period Period: 1820 to 1920 Realism Period Period: 1830 to 1860 Transcendental movment Period: 1830 to 1860 Transcendental Movment Period: 1837 to 1901 Victorian Period Period: 1850 to 2018 Existentialism Period: 1870 to 1920 Naturalism Period: 1903 to 1964 The Bloomsbury Group Period: 1910 to 1965 Modernism Period: 1945 to 1965 The beat Generation Period: 1965 to 2018 Post modernism