Chronological overview of English literature

The chronological overview of English literature

450–1066

Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period

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This Age started in the fifth century when the Jutes, Angles and Saxons came to England from Germany, defeated the English tribes and started their reign. It ended in 1066 with the Norman Conquest. The historical events which influenced the literature of this period were Christianity reached England and Christianization of the pagan English tribes began. In the 7th century monasteries were established where a written literature began. Earlier to this whatever existed as literature was oral. Alfred the Great who reigned over England from 871 to 901 encouraged education and supervised the compilation of The Anglo Saxon Chronicle.

by: Luz Angela Puente Martínez

1500–1660

The Renaissance

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Is an artistic movement that developed in Italy in the 14th century and spread throughout Europe reaching its peak with the 16th century art of the Italian masters Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. Renaissance, a French word meaning "rebirth", indicates the period that came after Medievalism and saw the humanistic revival of classical art. Moving away from the religious atmosphere that dominated the Middle Age, Renaissance artists turned their attention to the beauty and mystery of the natural world and to the individual man, who was considered the centre of this new era. Developed when Humanism, the philosophy that focused on human interests and needs, considering people rational beings, was spreading throughout Italy and Europe. It followed followed the Middle Ages when art was almost exclusively religious and although a religious view of the world continued to play an important role in art, in Renaissance there was a growing interest in the natural world and in the individual human being.

1785–1832

The Romantic Period

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The political and economic atmosphere at the time heavily influenced this period, with many writers finding inspiration from the French Revolution. There was a lot of social change during this period. Calls for the abolition of slavery became louder during this time, with more writing openly about their objections. After the Agricultural Revolution people moved away from the countryside and farmland and into the cities, where the Industrial Revolution provided jobs and technological innovations, something that would spread to the United States in the 19th century. Romanticism was a reaction against this spread of industrialism, as well as a criticism of the aristocratic social and political norms and a call for more attention to nature. Although writers of this time did not think of themselves as Romantics, Victorian writers later classified them in this way because of their ability to capture the emotion and tenderness of man. Robert Burns is considered the pioneer of the Romantic Movement. Although his death in 1796 precedes what many consider the start of Romanticism, his lyricism and sincerity mark him as an early Romantic writer. His most notable works are “Auld Lang Syne” (1788) and “Tam o’ Shanter” (1791). The Romantic Period saw more successful women writers, a precursor to their popularity in the Victorian era. The most significant female writer during this period was Jane Austen.

1901–1914

The Edwardian Period

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The end of the Victorian era marked a new beginning for literature in the land with fresh ideas and greater need leading the way. Edwardian literature would go on to be more intense, social and political for ages to come. Edwardian novels would go on to start a new style of writing that would be prevalent for a long time to come. The ambivalence and restlessness of the new millennium were to find representation earlier than expected in the boundaries of Edwardian literature itself. The main propagator of a whole new system style of writing in this era was none other than George Bernard Shaw himself. He would go onto use his works to question society and the structure of politics, the institution and norms of marriage as trusted forward by the society and the challenge of female emancipation.

1914–?

The Modern Period

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The Modernist Period in English Literature occupied the years from shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century through roughly 1965. In broad terms, the period was marked by sudden and unexpected breaks with traditional ways of viewing and interacting with the world. Experimentation and individualism became virtues, where in the past they were often heartily discouraged. Modernism was set in motion, in one sense, through a series of cultural shocks. The first of these great shocks was the Great War, which ravaged Europe from 1914 through 1918, known now as World War One. the Modernist Period in English literature was first and foremost a visceral reaction against the Victorian culture and aesthetic, which had prevailed for most of the nineteenth century. Indeed, a break with traditions is one of the fundamental constants of the Modernist stance.

1066–1500

Middle English Period

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Was marked by significant changes in the English language. Because of the Norman Conquest and the circumstances afterward and the way that the language began changing during the Old English period, Middle English had changes in its grammar and its vocabulary. As a result, the changes in grammar changed the English language from a “highly inflected language to an extremely analytic one, and those in vocabulary, “involved the loss of a large part of the Old English word-stock and the addition of thousands of words from French and Latin,” state Albert C.

1600–1785

The Neoclassical Period

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It is called the Neoclassical period because of reverence for the works of classical antiquity. The period is often called the Age of Reason, and science was used to glorify God and his creation. This was a period of political and military unrest, British naval supremacy, economic growth, the rise of the middle class, colonial expansion, the rise of literacy, the birth of the novel and periodicals, the invention of marketing, the rise of the Prime Minister, and social reforms. Key names include Mary Wollstonecraft (the rights of women; marriage was still an economic transaction; women were still considered property) and John Wesley (the founder of Methodism) n this period people also emphasized studying the English language. Literature was didactic, self-examination was important (hence diaries and letters), and as Pope says "the proper study of mankind is man"

1832–1901

The Victorian Period

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During this era, Britain was transformed from a predominantly rural, agricultural society into an urban, industrial one. New technologies like railroads and the steam printing press united Britons both physically and intellectually. Although now the period is popularly known as a time of prim, conservative moral values, the Victorians perceived their world as rapidly changing. Religious faith was splintering into evangelical and even atheist beliefs. The working class, women, and people of color were agitating for the right to vote and rule themselves. Reformers fought for safe workplaces, sanitary reforms, and universal education. Victorian literature reflects these values, debates, and cultural concerns. Victorian literature differs from that of the eighteenth century and Romantic period most significantly because it was not aimed at a specialist or elite audience; rather, because the steam printing press made the production of texts much cheaper and because railroads could distribute texts quickly and easily, the Victorian period was a time when new genres appealed to newly mass audiences.

1910–1936

The Georgian Period

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Georgian people were converted to Christianity and a Georgian alphabet was developed. The emergence of a rich literary language and an original religious literature was simultaneous with a massive effort to translate texts from Greek, Armenian, and Syriac. Georgian writers were decimated by the Bolsheviks in the 1920s; the Great Purge of the 1930s destroyed the survivors. Even those few who survived the holocaust overseen by Beria lost friends, family, nerve, and inspiration. The post-Stalinist thaw was slower in Georgia than in Russia. Fine lyrical poets achieved great popularity in the 1960s: Ana Kalandadze (who had been a harbinger of literary renewal in the 1940s, when her earliest work was published), Murman Lebanidze, and Mukhran Machavariani.

1945–?

The Postmodern Period

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Modernism and Postmodernism are almost inseparable as both the movements consisted of similar interests with authors focusing on different/unique styles in contrast to the preceding literary movements. However, one can observe the uniqueness of postmodernism by the use of these styles with a lot of variation and distinctive employing in comparison to modernism. Postmodernism in English literature consists of irony, parody, pastiche and satirical elements and authors seem to rely heavily on these elements to make their topic interesting. This led to shift of focus from the writer to the reader.

ENGLISH LITERATURE