Literary Periods By philbanno Period: 1550 to 1660 Renaissance Period: 1685 to 1815 Enlightenment Period: 1800 to 1850 Romanticism Period: 1800 to 1900 Naturalism Period: 1820 to 1830 Transcendentalism Period: 1837 to 1901 Victorian Literature Period: 1848 to 1856 Realism Period: 1870 to 1950 Existentialism Period: 1880 to 1920 Modernism Period: 1901 to 1914 Bloomsbury Group Period: 1950 to 1960 Beat Generation