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Period: 1 CE to 499
Old English
https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191737053.timeline.0001
HistoriWorld, H. W. (2012). English literature. Oxford Reference. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191737053.timeline.0001 -
250
Old English
The fact that it is very difficult to find more texts from the same period or earlier is due to the fact that the knowledge was mainly taught and applied orally. The possibility of writing was reserved for great nobles and clergy, who had access to learning the language, the majority of the people being illiterate. -
Period: 500 to 1500
Premodern or medieval period
Medieval English literature collects all the works that were available in Europe during the Middle Ages. The literature of this time was dominated by religious writings, which included poetry, theology, and the lives of the saints, but secular works and scientific works were also produced. That is to say, works of all kinds were produced, from the totally sacred to the completely profane. -
731
The Venerable Bede
Complete his history of the English church and village -
800
Beowulf, the first great work of Germanic literature
Mix the legends of Scandinavia with the experience of Angles and Saxons in England -
950
The Eddas
The Eddas material, which is taking shape in Iceland, comes from earlier sources in Norway, Great Britain, and Burgundy. -
1469
Morte d'Arthur
In jail somewhere in England, he compiles Morte d'Arthur, an English account of the French tales of King Arthur. -
Period: 1501 to
Early modern or Renaissance era
The "English Renaissance" is the term used to describe the artistic and cultural movement that existed in England from the 16th to the mid-17th century. It is associated with the Pan-European Renaissance that originated in Italy in the 14th century. This time in English cultural history is also known as "The Time of Shakespeare" or "The Elizabethan era", referring to the most important author and monarch of the time. -
1524
William Tyndale
He plans to translate the Bible into English -
1549
Thomas Cranmer
The first version of the English prayer book, or Common Prayer Book, is published with text by Thomas Cranmer. -
1567
New Testament
The Book of Common Prayer and the New Testament are published in Welsh, followed by the complete Bible in 1588. -
Santiago I
He Commissions the authorized version of the Bible, which is completed by forty-seven scholars in seven years. -
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Shakespeare's Sonnets, written ten years earlier, are published -
A Description of New England
John Smith publishes A Description of New England, an account of his exploration of the region in 1614 -
thirty-six Shakespearean plays
John Heminge and Henry Condell publish thirty-six Shakespearean plays on the first folio -
Essay about Human Understanding
John Locke publishes his Essay about Human Understanding, arguing that all knowledge is based on experience -
Period: to
18 TH CENTURY
This particular period is devided in two: the Augustan literature from 1700 to 1750. The Augustan Age begins in English literature, claiming comparison with the equivalent flowering under Augustus Caesar. And the age of sensibility from 1750 to 1798. -
the first English novel
Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, with its detailed realism, can be seen as the first English novel -
Gulliver's Travels
Jonathan Swift sends his hero on a series of satirical journeys in Gulliver's Travels -
Dictionary of the English language
Samuel Johnson publishes his masterful Dictionary of the English language -
fall of the Roman Empire
The English historian Edward Gibbon, sitting among the ruins of Rome, conceived the idea of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. -
Age of Reason
Thomas Paine publishes his Age of Reason, an attack on mainstream Christianity -
Period: to
ROMANTICISM
When we find romantic country. English poets Wordsworth and Coleridge jointly publish Lyrical Ballads, a milestone in the Romantic movement. Walter Scott publishes The Lay of the Last Minstrel, the long romantic poem that first brings him fame. -
The Need for Atheism
Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from Oxford University for circulating a pamphlet entitled The Need for Atheism -
the theory of evolution in The Origin of Species
Charles Darwin presents the theory of evolution in The Origin of Species, the result of 20 years of research. -
The Bulgarian Horrors
William Gladstone's pamphlet The Bulgarian Horrors, protesting the massacre of the Turks, sells 200,000 copies in a month. -
'art for art's sake'
The Aesthetic Movement and 'art for art's sake', attitudes personified primarily by Whistler and Wilde, are mocked and satirized in Britain. -
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes appears in Conan Doyle's first novel, A Study in Scarlet -
National Literary Society
WB Yeats founds the National Literary Society in Dublin, with Douglas Hyde as its first president -
Period: to
MODERN LITERATURE
American-born poet Thomas Stearns Eliot crosses the Atlantic to England, making it his home for the rest of his life -
Saint Joan
Bernard Shaw Saint Joan's work has its world premiere in New York -
Conquistador
American poet Archibald MacLeish publishes a narrative epic, Conquistador, about the conquest of Mexico -
Period: to
POST MODERNISM
English author Nancy Mitford has her first success with the novel The Pursuit of Love. The poems forming Ted Hughes's Birthday Letters describe his relationship with Sylvia Plath. -
Michael Holroyd
English biographer Michael Holroyd completes his life in two volumes by Lytton Strachey -
Birdsong
English novelist Sebastian Faulks publishes Birdsong, partly set in the trenches of World War I. -
Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials
The Amber Spyglass completes Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials
