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Period: 450 to 1066
Old English Period
Anglo Saxons were adventurous people and therefore their literary tradition were songs about heathen gods and wars. Poetry developed first than prose. During this period Anglo Saxon poetry consisted of personal and elegiac poems (sad poems written about death), war songs, riddles, and epic poems. Beowulf is the best-known and best-preserved Old English verse. The date and place of origin of Beowulf are uncertain and its authorship unknown. -
Period: 1066 to 1500
Middle English Period
During this period, the most prevailing kind of literature was the romance: a long composition, sometimes in verse, sometimes in prose, describing the life and adventures of a noble hero. The romance of King Arthur is the most important for the history of English literature. Important authors and works: Geoffrey Chaucer (the father of English poetry). He wrote The Canterbury Tales. And William Langland an his "Piers the Plowman" -
Period: 1500 to
English Renaissance Period
It marks the transition from the medieval to the modern world; Thinkers and scholars made attempts to introduce new ideas that expressed the interest of the bourgeoisie. Humanism, is the key-note of the Renaissance: emphasis on the human beings. Authors and Works: Thomas More and his "Utopia"; Edmund Spencer and his "The Faerie Queen"; Francis Bacon (the first English essayist) and his "Essays". In relation to drama: William Shakespeare (He wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets and 2 poems) -
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Puritan Period
The Puritans were a religious collective who created their identity by means of the word. They believed that their role in history had been fore-ordained in the Bible. The most important form of Puritan literary expression was the sermon. John Cotton, Thomas Hooker, Increase Mather, his son Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards were well-known for their sermons. Poetry played only a small part in the life of the Puritan colonies in America. Most Puritan poetry was religious in nature. -
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Restoration Period
The name 'restoration' comes from the crowning of Charles II, which marks the restoring of the traditional English monarchical form of government. Many typical literary forms of the modern world: the novel, biography, history, travel writing, and journalism—gained confidence during the Restoration period. Authors and works: John Milton and his "Paradise Lost", John Bunyan and his "The Pilgrim's progress", John Dryden (the great literary figure of his time) -
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18th Century Period
This period marks the rise of modern novel. Authors: Daniel Defoe and his Robinson Crusoe; Jonathan Swift and his Gulliver’s Travel. Sentimentalism came into being as the result of a bitter discontent among the people with social reality. Sentimentalists turned to sentiment, to the human heart. Representatives: William Blake and Robert Burns. -
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Romanticism Period
The Romantic period is an age of poetry. William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Shelly and John Keats are the major Romantic poets. Romanticism tends to see the individual as the center of all life and all experience. In relation to prose writers, Jane Austen is one of the most remarkable representatives: love and marriage are the major themes of her novels; Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility -
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Victorian Period
Fiction is the highest achievement with Charles Dickens as its representative.This period marks the rise of criticism of the society and the defence of the mass. Other authors: Charlotte Brontë and her Jane Eyre, which shows the struggle for basic rights and equality; Emily Brontë and her Wuthering Heights, theme: the passionate love. Poets: Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater: Art should serve no religious, moral or social end, -
Period: to
Modern Literature Period
The outstanding figures are John Galsworthy, H. G. Wells, and Arnold Bennett. Novelists began to turn their attention to the urgent social problems. The first three decades of this century were golden years of the modernist novels; The theory of the Freudian and Jungian psycho-analysis played an important role. -
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Post Modern Period
Postmodernism projects the fragmentation of the 20th century western world. It can also be associated with the dehumanization of the post-second world war and the onslaught of capitalism. Authors: George Orwell, C.S. Lewis, Evelyn Waugh, Bret Easton Ellis, Samuel Barclay Beckett -
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Contemporary Period
New trends have emerged after Second world war and have influenced literature. J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter can be an example from this period.