English

History of English Literature

  • 450 BCE

    Old English period

    Old English period
    From 450-1066.
    One of the most important representatives was the book" the Anglo-saxon Beowulf" which is about viking fighting back then. It was written in old English.
  • 1066

    Middle English

    Middle English
    From 1066-1500.
    One of its representatives was Geoffrey Chaucer with " The Canterbury tales(1830).
  • 1500

    English Renaissance from 1500-1660

    English Renaissance from 1500-1660
    From 1500-1660.
    One of the most important representative of this period was William Shakespeare in his iconic "Hamlet" and Romeo and Juliet"
  • 1558

    Elizabethan Period

    Elizabethan Period
    From 1558-1603.
    It is one of the most fascinating periods in the history of England.It was name this way after the after the greatest queens of England, queen Elizabeth 1st.Great Explorers, such as Sir Francis Drake and Walter Raleigh. The era of the very first Theatres in England - William Shakespeare, the globe Theatre and Christopher Marlowe.
  • Jacobian Period

    Jacobian Period
    From 1603-1625 of King's James 1st.
    At this time John Milton wrote "paradise lost" in .1667
  • Carolina Period

    Carolina Period
    From 1625-1653 of Kings Charles 1st.
    It was influenced by the artwork,music and literature during the period.This influence was due to the king Charles I. And had a strong influence because of the civil war at that time, as well as mathematics and science.
  • Puritan Period.

    Puritan Period.
    From 1653-1660. It was a religious reform movement in the late 16th and 17th centuries that sought to “purify” the Church of England of remnants of the Roman Catholic “popery” that the Puritans claimed had been retained after the religious settlement reached early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. At that period, Church had a lifestyle to rule the nation.
  • Restoration Age.

    Restoration Age.
    From 1660-1700.
    This period came after the King Charles II was brought to the throne. This restoration came with a revolutionary change in social life and literature.
  • Century period.

    Century period.
    From 1700-1798.
    It was divided in two parts. First the Augustian literature from 1700-1750. One of the representatives was Daniel Defoe and his tale " Robinson Crusoe (1719) a fake traveller's tale.
    the second part is the age of sensibility from 1750- 1798. in this period one representative was Jane Austen with her classic book " Pride and Prejudice" (1813).
  • The Romanticism.

    The Romanticism.
    From 1798-1837.
    It was recognized as time of poetry and novels.Writers like W. Wordsworth and John Keats, and Lord Byron. At that time, the poetry was very active.
  • Victorian

    Victorian
    From 1837-1901.
    One of its representatives was Charles Dickens who wrote "Oliver Twist " as a socila criticism in 1837.
  • Modern Literature.

    Modern Literature.
    From 1901- 1940.
    In this new era, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote " detective fiction " Sherlock Holmes series ( 1887) ".
  • Post Modern.

    Post Modern.
    From 1940-2000
    we have writers like James Joyce and his book "Ulysses" and Virginia Woolf.
    And George Bernard Shaw wrote " Pygmalion "
    Another important figure back then was J.R.R. Tolkien and his books " the Hobbit(1937) and " the lord of the rings( 1954-1955).
  • Contemporary.

    Contemporary.
    From 2000- to the present.
    One of the most successful writers is J.K Rowling and her "Harry Potter series" (1997- 2007).