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400
Old English Literature: 5th – 14th Century
The history of English Literature starts with the Germanic tradition of Anglo-Saxon settlers were the first long narrative poems in history such as Beowulf, Widsith that were highly narrative poems, Beowulf was important in the first English Epic poem, Caedmon, considered the first Old English Christian poet.
This period used dialects as Northumbrian Kentish West Saxon, Mercian. -
Period: 450 to 1066
Old English Literature
Some works produced during the Old English Literature include Genesis, Exodus, The Wanderer, Wife’s lament, Husband’s message, The battle of Maldon, etc. Other famous writers of old English literature were Cynewulf and Caedmon.
Cynewulf woks: The Fates of the Apostles, Juliana, Elene, and Christ II.
Caedmon works: Line poem known as Cædmon’s Hymn. -
1066
Medieval Literature
It is also known as Medieval English Literature that comprises a diverse range of works many of them were religious such as William Langland’s religious works including “Piers Plowman” which was secular and religious prose. -
Period: 1066 to 1500
Middle English Literature
During this era, some works also include morality, miracle plays, and interludes. Miracle plays were taken from the Bible and Everyman’ was a noted Morality play of the time. This period is home to the likes of Chaucer, Thomas Malory, and Robert Henryson. -
1500
The Renaissance
This period is divided into four parts, including the Elizabethan Age, the Jacobean Age, the Caroline Age, called the Golden Age, and the Commonwealth Period (1649–1660). -
Period: 1500 to
The Renaissance (1500–1660)
Some of its noteworthy figures include Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser, Sir Walter Raleigh, and, of course, William Shakespeare, the translation of the Bible also appeared during the Jacobean Age, Finally, the Commonwealth Period was the period between the end of the English Civil War. -
The Neoclassical Period
It is subdivided into ages, including The Restoration which reflected the political conflict, John Dryden was one of the prominent literary figures of this age, he wrote a famous heroic poem, ‘Astra Radix’, and was also known for ‘Mac Flecknoe’. The Augustan Age was the time of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift and even drew parallels between themselves The Age of Sensibility was the time of Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon, Hester Lynch Thrale, James Boswell, and, of course, Samuel Johnson. -
Period: to
The Neoclassical Period (1600–1785)
Another writer for Restoration Literature was John Milton, who wrote the famous Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes, The eminent philosopher of this era was John Locke who wrote many essays like ‘The Essay Concerning Human Understanding’ and most of his works delved deeper into the unraveling the workings of the civil society as well as debate and explorations on the human intelligence. (Edu, 2020) -
The Romantic Period
For this period experimented with the forms of poetry such as prose fiction, the key feature of the poetry was laid on individual thought and personal feeling, The novels of this era were written as a form of entertainment to the now literate public. -
Period: to
The Romantic Period (1785–1832)
Poetry geniuses of this era were William Blake, William Wordsworth, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge their works were rooted in nature, love, romance as well as contemporary thought. Matthew Lewis, Anne Radcliffe, and William Beckford were writers of the minor period called the Gothic era (between 1786–1800) -
The Victorian Period (1832–1901)
The Victorian period was the most popular, influential, and prolific period in all of English literature It was a time of great social, religious, intellectual, and economic issues, which expanded voting rights. -
Period: to
The Victorian Period
Poets of this time include Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold, among others. Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and Walter Pater were advancing the essay form at this time, other love poems of Elizabeth and Robert Browning, Lord Alfred Tennyson's sweeping saga of Camelot entitled "Idylls of the King," -
The Edwardian Period (1901–1914)
This period was between Victoria’s death and the outbreak of World War where there were incredible classic novelists such as Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, and Henry James and notable poets such as Alfred Noyes and William Butler Yeats; and dramatists such as James Barrie. The writers explored class differences, such as in E.M Forester’s work, experimented with old styles of satire, narrative poetry, and ballads, as well as enjoying the possibilities of realism -
The Georgian Period (1910–1936)
It was the time of four successive Georges and covers Georgian poets, such as Ralph Hodgson, John Masefield, W.H. Davies, and Rupert Brooke that was considered to be the works of minor poets, where the themes and subject matter tended to be rural or pastoral in nature, treated delicately and traditionally rather than with passion. The poem works were After the house by Rupert Brooke, the poem "Leisure" by W:H Davies,Reynard The Fox by John mesefield. -
The Modern Period (1914–?)
This period was after the start of World War encompassing works written narrative, verse, and drama, Some notable writers this period were the novelists James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Dorothy Richardson, Graham Greene, E.M. Forster, and Doris Lessing; the poets W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, their famous works were Heart of Darkness, Blast: Review of the Great English Vortex, T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land, Ulysses, Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse. -
The Postmodern Period (1945–?)
This period began when World War II ended, Poststructuralist literary theory and criticism developed during this time, Some notable writers of the period include Samuel Beckett, Joseph Heller, Anthony Burgess, John Fowles, Penelope M. Lively, and Iain Banks, some prominent contributions to the 20th-century literature were EM Foster’s ‘A Passage to India’, H.G Wells, The Time Machine, The Invisible Man, First Man on the Moon’ etc. The most popular Malos Dies, Malloy, Catch.