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500 BCE
Old Literature
-People communicated the poems and literary works orally during the period.
-The Anglo-Saxons were made up of three tribes who came to England
through the North Sea route - the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes.
-Norman Conquest: Invasion of the Normans in England in the year 1066. -
1100
Middle English literature
-The most respected and famed writer was Geoffrey Chaucer. He is known as the father-figure in English literature.
-The English literature prospered at a distinguished rate. Chaucer
introduced the Iambic Pentameter.
-Medieval theatre included Mysteries, Miracle and Morality plays. We will be discussing the Miracle and Morality plays only because these two are the ones which are widely discussed upon. -
1500
English Renaissance
-This age is one of the most important in the History of English Literature.
- Introduction of the printing press.
- The 'plague' in England has passed and the hundred years' wars were over.
- The famous writer William Shakespeare. -
Period: 1558 to
Elizabethan Era
-This era was the period of new ideas and new thinking. Various other works like fine arts endured support and assistance from the Queen.
- It was an age of poetry. Moreover, the theatre became central to the Elizabethan era. During that era, drama shifted from religious to secular. -
Period: to
Jacobian Era
-He was famous for his unconventional and metaphysical style of poetry.
-The two primary contribution of this age in English literature
is the Revenge play and Metaphysical poetry.
-There was the wide popularity of metaphysical poetry. The term
'metaphysical poetry'. -
Period: to
Caroline Era
-During that time, a civil war was fought between the
supporters of the king.
-George Herbert, Henry Vaughan was writers of that era. -
Period: to
Puritan Age
- The age is named 'Puritan Age' because of the Puritan dominance in England for the first time. -The Puritan age starts with Charles I beheaded and Oliver Cromwell into the rule.
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Neo-Classical Age
-The word 'Neo-Classical' is merged with the two words 'Neo' and 'Classical'. Neo implies 'new' and classical denotes the 'Roman and Greek classics'.
- It started the British tradition of 'afternoon tea'. Popular types of literature include parody,letters, essays, and satire. -
Period: to
Restoration Period
-Theatre closed down by the Puritans was restored. John
Dryden, greatest of all the poets of this age, established heroic couplet in English Poetry.
-This age was the beginning of modern prose. -
Period: to
Augustan Literature
-King Augustus was the emperor of that time. Some of the most famous Augustan writers are Virgil and Horace.
-Alexander Pope was the biggest name of this period. He basically wrote on harmony.
- The condition of women was not satisfactory. -
Period: to
Age of Sensibility
-Two most famous writers of this period are Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Oliver Goldsmith.
-The literary works of this age talk about human feelings,
classicism and Romantic revival. -
Romanticism
-This period was mainly a reaction against the philosophy of Enlightenment period that dominated much of European Philosophy.
-Many of the Romantic writers believed that people regardless of wealth or social class must be able to appreciate art and literature.
-The poets basically tried to bring out their inner feelings. -
Victorian literature
-The Victorian era was one of the most important eras in the History of English Literature.
-Technology and industrial progress helped Britain to be one of the most dominant countries in the world.
-The Victorian novels depicted almost every perspective of nineteenth-century Victorian life.
-Charles Darwin wrote Origin of the Species which caused full-scale controversy in Europe. -
Modernism
-Literature from various parts of the world started spreading.
-Women at the time were suppressed in the literary sense. They were not allowed to write freely. -
Period: to
The Edwardian Age
-Inthis era, the women status in the society seem to increase. Science and technology were also developed.
-Wright brothers invented the first airplane during that time. -
Period: to
Modernism
-An important development, beginning in the 1930s and 1940s was a tradition of working class novels actually written by working-class background writers.
-James Joyce's published Finnegans Wake, in which he creates a special language to express the consciousness of a dreaming character. -
Post–modernism
-Postmodern literature is both a continuation of the experimentation championed by writers of the modernist period.
-Postmodern literature, like postmodernism as a whole, is difficult to define and there is little agreement on the exact characteristics, scope, and importance of postmodern literature.
