Literary Periods

in British Literature
Please take thorough and specific notes over the following
material.
Introduction
The following is an overview of the major
periods in British literature we will and have
been studying.
Please take thorough and specific notes and
refer to the timeline provided to you.
Your notes timeline will serve as a frame of
reference as we continue our study of
literature.
450-1066 : Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period

The Old English Period or the

Anglo-Saxon Period refers to the
literature produced from the
invasion of Celtic England by
Germanic tribes in the first half of
the fifth century to the conquest of
England in 1066 by William the
Conqueror.
1066-1500 : Middle English Period
The Middle English Period
consists of literature produced in
the four and a half centuries
between the Norman Conquest of
1066 and about 1500, when the
standard literary language became
recognizable as "modern English.“
1066-1500 : Middle English Period
Prior to the second half of the 14th
century, literature consisted primarily of
religious writings. The second half of the
14th century produced the first great age of
secular literature. The most widely known
writings are Geoffrey Chaucer's The
Canterbury Tales, the anonymous Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight, and
Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur.
1500-1660 : The Renaissance
1558-1603 : Elizabethan Age
1603-1625 : Jacobean Age
1625-1649 : Caroline Age
1649-1660 : Commonwealth Period (or
Puritan Interregnum)
The English Literary Renaissance began
with English humanists such as Sir Thomas
More and Sir Thomas Wyatt.
1500-1660 : The Renaissance
The Elizabethan Age coincides with
the reign of Elizabeth I, 1558-1603. Lyric
poetry, prose, and drama were the
major styles of literature that flowered
during the Elizabethan Age. Important
writers of the Elizabethan Age include
William Shakespeare, Christopher
Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, Sir Walter
Raleigh, and Ben Jonson.
1500-1660 : The Renaissance
The Jacobean Age coincides with the
reign of James I, 1603-1625. The
Jacobean Age produced rich prose and
drama as well as the King James
translation of the Bible. Shakespeare
and Jonson wrote during the Jacobean
Age, as well as John Donne, Francis
Bacon, and Thomas Middleton.
1500-1660 : The Renaissance
The Caroline Age coincides with the
reign of Charles I, 1625-1649. The
writers of this age wrote with
refinement and elegance. This era
produced a circle of poets known as the
"Cavalier Poets" and the dramatists of
this age were the last to write in the
Elizabethan tradition.
1500-1660 : The Renaissance
The Commonwealth Period, also
known as the Puritan Interregnum,
includes literature produced during the
time of Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell.
This period produced the political
writings of John Milton, Thomas
Hobbes' political treatise Leviathan,
and the prose of Andrew Marvell.
1660-1785 : The Neoclassical Period
1660-1700 : The Restoration
1700-1745 : The Augustan Age (or Age of Pope)
1745-1785 : The Age of Sensibility (or Age of
Johnson)
The Neoclassical Period was much influenced by
contemporary French literature. The literature of
this time is known for its use of philosophy,
reason, skepticism, wit, and refinement. The
Neoclassical Period also marks the first great age
of English literary criticism.
1660-1785 : The Neoclassical Period
The Restoration, 1660-1700, is marked by the
restoration of the monarchy and the triumph
of reason and tolerance over religious and
political passion. The Restoration produced
an abundance of prose and poetry and the
distinctive comedy of manners known as
Restoration comedy. During this period, John
Milton published Paradise Lost and Paradise
Regained. Other major writers of the era
include John Dryden, John Wilmot 2nd Earl of
Rochester, and John Locke.
1660-1785 : The Neoclassical Period
The Augustan Age, 1700-1745, refers to
literature with the predominant
characteristics of refinement, clarity,
elegance, and balance of judgment. Well-
known writers of the Augustan Age include
Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and Daniel
Defoe. A significant contribution of this
time period included the novels by Defoe,
and the "novel of character," Pamela, by
Samuel Richardson in 1740.
1660-1785 : The Neoclassical Period
During the Age of Sensibility, literature reflected
the worldview of Enlightenment and began to
emphasize instinct and feeling, rather than
judgment and restraint. Another name for this
period is the Age of Johnson because the
dominant authors of this period were Samuel
Johnson and his literary and intellectual circle.
This period also produced some of the greatest
early novels of the English language, including
Richardson's Clarissa (1748) and Henry Fielding's
Tom Jones (1749).
1785-1830 : The Romantic Period
The Romantic Period began in the late 18th
century and lasted until approximately 1832.
Romantic literature can be characterized by its
personal nature, its strong use of feeling and
symbolism, and its exploration of nature and the
supernatural. The writings of the Romantics were
considered innovative based on their belief that
literature should be spontaneous, imaginative,
personal, and free. The Romantic Period
produced a wealth of authors including Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Jane
Austen, and Lord Byron.
1785-1830 : The Romantic Period
It was during the Romantic Period
that Gothic literature was born. Traits
of Gothic literature are dark and
gloomy settings and characters and
situations that are fantastic, grotesque,
wild, savage, mysterious, and often
melodramatic. Two of the most famous
Gothic novelists are Anne Radcliffe and
Mary Shelley.
1832-1901 : The Victorian Period
1848-1860 : The Pre-Raphaelites
1880-1901 : Aestheticism and Decadence
The Victorian Period began with the
accession of Queen Victoria to the throne in
1837, and lasted until her death in 1901.
Because the Victorian Period spans over
six decades, the year 1870 is often used to
divide the era into "early Victorian" and "late
Victorian.“
1832-1901 : The Victorian Period
In general, Victorian literature deals with
the issues and problems of the day. Some of
the most recognized authors of the
Victorian era include Alfred Lord Tennyson,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, her husband
Robert, Matthew Arnold, Charles Dickens,
Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Thomas
Hardy.
1832-1901 : The Victorian Period
In 1848, a group of English artists, including
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, formed the "Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood." Its aim was to
return painting to a style that had reigned
prior to Raphael and the high Italian
Renaissance. Rossetti and his literary circle,
which included his sister Christina,
incorporated these ideals into their
literature, and the result was that of the
literary Pre-Raphaelites.
1832-1901 : The Victorian Period
The Aestheticism and Decadence movement
encouraged experimentation and held the view
that art is totally opposed "natural" norms of
morality. This style of literature opposed the
dominance of scientific thinking. It was from
the movement of Aestheticism and
Decadence that the phrase art for art's sake
emerged. A well-known author of the English
Aestheticism and Decadence movement is
Oscar Wilde.
1901-1914 : The Edwardian Period
The Edwardian Period is named for King Edward
VII and spans the time from Queen Victoria's
death to the beginning of World War I. The British
Empire was at its height and the wealthy lived lives
of materialistic luxury, while 4/5 of the English
population lived in squalor. The writings of the
Edwardian Period comment on these social
conditions. Writers such as George Bernard Shaw
and H.G. Wells attacked social injustice. Other
writers include William Butler Yeats, Joseph
Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, Henry James, and E.M.
Forster.
1910-1936 : The Georgian Period
The Georgian Period refers to the period that is
named for the reign of George V (1910-36). Many
writers of the Edwardian Period continued to
write during the Georgian Period. This era also
produced a group of poets known as the Georgian
poets. These writers, now regarded as minor poets,
were published in four anthologies entitled
Georgian Poetry, published by Edward Marsh
between 1912 and 1922. Georgian poetry tends to
focus on rural subject matter and is traditional in
technique and form.
 1914-1945 : The Modern Period
The Modern Period includes literature
written since the beginning of World War
I in 1914. Poets of the period include
Yeats, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, and
Seamus Heaney. Novelists include James
Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, and Virginia Woolf.
Dramatists include Noel Coward and
Samuel Beckett.
1945-Present : Postmodern Period
Following World War II (1939-1945),
the Postmodern Period developed.
Postmodernism blends literary genres
and styles and attempts to break free of
modernist forms.