British Literary Periods

British Literary Periods

Period: 500 to Dec 31, 2015

Roman Invasion of Britain

550

Old English The Roman Invasion of Britain ocurred when emperor Claudius was under control. Great Britain had already frequently been a target for invasions.

Cædmon

Apr 16, 657

https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_OE_Gallery.htm Caedmon's Hymn

Bede, The Venerable

Jul 24, 673

https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_OE_Gallery.htm Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum

Norman Conquest

Feb 2, 1066

http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_middle.html However, the Normans spoke a rural dialect of French with considerable Germanic influences, usually called Anglo-Norman or Norman French, which was quite different from the standard French of Paris of the period, which is known as Francien.

Bacon, Roger

Jul 8, 1214

http://www.iep.utm.edu/bacon-ro/#SH1b Summa de Sophismatibus et Distinctionibus

Renaissance

Period: Jan 1, 1300 to Dec 31, 1700

Chaucer, Geoffrey

Aug 12, 1343

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucer The Wife of Bath's Tale

The Birth of English Literature

Nov 15, 1343

http://www.thehistoryofenglish.com/history_middle.html Such was the pace of continuous change to the language at this time, that different forms of words were often used interchangeably, even by the same author, and this flexibility (or inconsistency) in spelling is quite noticeable in Chaucer’s work (e.g. yeer and yere, doughtren and doughtres, etc).

The Black Death

May 5, 1347

http://europeanhistory.about.com/od/cultureartliterature/a/blackdeath.htm The Black Death originated in the north-west shores of the Caspian Sea, in the land of the Mongol Golden Horde, and spread into Europe when the Mongols attacked an Italian trading post at Kaffa in the Crimea.

Death of Petrarch

Jul 19, 1374

http://www.biography.com/people/petrarch-9438891 Petrarch's most well-known vernacular compositions were lyrical poems about Laura, a woman he had fallen in unrequited love with after seeing her in an Avignon church.

Caxton, William

Feb 1, 1412

https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_ME_Gallery.htm The Game and Playe of The Chesse

Middle English (Medieval)

Period: Jan 1, 1470 to Dec 31, 1650

Coverdale, Miles

Oct 18, 1488

http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/renaissance_authors.html King Henry VIII’s

Tyndale, William

Aug 10, 1492

http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/william-tyndale.html The Obedience of a Christian Man

Chapman, George

Jan 7, 1559

http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/renaissance_authors.html Hero and Leander

Post-Modern

Period: Jul 25, 1605 to Sep 5, 1711

Bunyan, John

Nov 28, 1628

http://writershistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=588&Itemid=39 The Life and Death of Mr. Badman

Neo-Classicism

Period: Jan 1, 1660 to Dec 31, 1798

Defoe, Daniel

Mar 3, 1660

http://www.biography.com/people/daniel-defoe-9269678 The True-Born Engishman

The Royal Society

Oct 17, 1661

https://royalsociety.org/about-us/history/ At first apparently nameless, the name The Royal Society first appears in print in 1661, and in the second Royal Charter of 1663 the Society is referred to as 'The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge'.

Voltaire

Nov 21, 1694

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire Voltaire Treatise on Tolerance

The Act of Settlement

Jun 12, 1701

http://www.historytoday.com/richard-cavendish/act-settlement The Stuart cause was set back in September, however, when James II died and at the deathbed, Louis XIV acknowledged young James Francis Edward as the new king of England as James III.

Age of Enlightenment

Oct 2, 1701

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment Although Enlightenment thinkers generally shared a similar set of values, their philosophical perspectives and methodological approaches to accomplishing their goals varied in significant and sometimes contradictory ways.

Rousseau, Jean

Jun 28, 1712

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Jacques_Rousseau The Social Contrac

Kant, Immanuel

Apr 22, 1724

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant Kant Critique of Judgment

Blake, William

Nov 28, 1757

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Blake Songs of Innocence

Burns, Robert

Jan 25, 1759

http://www.bl.uk/people/robert-burns Kilmarnock Volume

Austen, Jane

Dec 16, 1775

http://writershistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=296&Itemid=39 Pride and Prejudice

Berchet, Giovanni

Dec 17, 1783

http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/giovanni-berchet/ Giulia and Matilde Romanze

Beginning of French Revolution

May 5, 1789

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/219315/French-Revolution The French population participated actively in the new political culture created by the Revolution. Dozens of uncensored newspapers kept citizens abreast of events, and political clubs allowed them to voice their opinions.

Romanticism

Period: Jan 1, 1800 to Dec 31, 1850

Dickens, Charles

Feb 7, 1812

http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/authors Hard Times

The United States Declares War on Great Britian

Jun 18, 1812

http://www.historycentral.com/1812/Declares.html The War of 1812 began as a result of American rights being infringed upon by the British. Even though there was no clear victory, Americans felt a burst of nationalism that lead to the American Romantic Period.

Brontë, Emily

Jul 30, 1818

http://www.bl.uk/people/emily-bronte Wuthering Heights

Victorian

Period: Jun 20, 1837 to Jan 22, 1901

Irish Potato Famine

Jul 23, 1845

http://www.anglotopia.net/british-history/british-empire/brit-history-10-events-victorian-era-every-anglophile-know/ The famine was a watershed in the history of Ireland.Its effects permanently changed the island's demographic, political and cultural landscape.

Crimean War

Apr 2, 1853

http://www.anglotopia.net/british-history/british-empire/brit-history-10-events-victorian-era-every-anglophile-know/ The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia in October 1853 and suffered a major defeat that gave Russia control of the Black Sea.

Aho, Juhani

Sep 11, 1861

http://writershistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=291&Itemid=45 Rautatie

New Culture Movement

Mar 20, 1912

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/411322/New-Culture-Movement Although it started in the early 1900s, it was actively promoted especially after World War I, and after the May 4th Movement, thousands of Chinese participated in the program.

Baldwin, James

Aug 2, 1924

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin Go Tell it on the Mountain

Contemporary

Period: Jun 19, 1930 to Dec 31, 2015

McCarthy, Cormac

Jul 20, 1933

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy Blood Meridian

Carter, Angela

May 7, 1940

http://writershistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=180&Itemid=42 Shadow Dance

King, Stephen

Sep 21, 1947

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King The Shining

Murakami, Haruki

Jan 12, 1949

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruki_Murakami Norwegian Wood

Amis, Martin

Aug 25, 1949

http://writershistory.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=166&Itemid=42 London Fields

Modern

Period: Apr 18, 1980 to Jul 1, 2001

Conversion to Christianity

Mar 2, 2022

Conversion to Christianity Columba, a monk from Ireland, who studied at the monastic school of Moville under St. Finnian, arrived in Iona as a self-imposed exile. The influence of the monastery of Iona would grow into what Peter Brown has called an "unusually extensive spiritual empire" which "stretched from western Scotland deep to the southwest into the heart of Ireland.

Alfred, King

Mar 2, 2022

https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_OE_Gallery.htm Consolation of Philosophy

Old English (Anglo Saxon)

Period: Mar 2, 2022 to Dec 31, 1066