Period of English Literature by Eugenia Ines (0802894)

September, 30th 2009

The Period of English Literature
By: Eugenia Ines (0802894)


English Literature as we know is a literary works written in the English Language, whether is written by English writers or non English writer. In other words, English literature has so many kinds and dialect of English spoken around the world. In academic world, this subject is become one of the programs practicing English studies and learnt by the advance students.

However, periods in English literature are named by rules, historical events, intellectual or political or religious movements, or artistic styles. Because of that, most of literary periods sometimes have multiple names. For the example is in the later 17th century the baroque era is come from word “baroque” which is an intracable term from art critism, though it may usefully be applicable to some writers as well. Not just the name that has multiple name, but the dates may very too. In recent histories of literature and the latest Norton Anthology of English Literature offer the latest examples of terms applied to literary periods. So, it just better for us to follow the rules.

Here are the table that show the period of English literature it self:

Time Span, Terms, Movements, Examples
600-1200 Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Beowulf
1200-1500 Middle English Geoffrey Chaucer
1500-1660 The English Renaissance
1500-1558 Tudor Period Humanist Era Thomas More, John Skelton
1558-1603 Elizabethan Period High Renaissance Edmund Spenser,
Sir Philip Sidney,
William Shakespeare
1603-1625 Jacobean Period Mannerist Style (1590-1640) other styles: Metaphysical Poets; Devotional Poets Shakespeare, John Donne, George Herbert,
Emilia Lanyer
1625-1649 Caroline Period John Ford, John Milton
1649-1660 The Commonwealth &The Protectorate Baroque Style, and later, Rococo Style Milton, Andrew Marvell, Thomas Hobbes
1660-1700 The Restoration John Dryden
1700-1800 The Eighteenth Century The Enlightenment; Neoclassical Period;
The Augustan Age Alexander Pope,
Jonathan Swift,
Samuel Johnson
1785-1830 Romanticism The Age of Revolution William Wordsworth,
S.T. Coleridge, Jane Austen,
the Brontës
1830-1901 Victorian Period Early, Middle and Late Victorian Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Robert Browning, Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1901-1960 Modern Period The Edwardian Era
(1901-1910);
The Georgian Era
(1910-1914) G.M. Hopkins,
H.G. Wells, James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence,
T.S. Eliot
1960- Postmodern and Contemporary Period Ted Hughes, Doris Lessing, John Fowles, Don DeLillo, A.S. Byatt

(source: home.comcast.net/~stephen.gottlieb/romantic/periods.html)


Old English (Anglo-Saxon) (600-1200)

In the early Middle Ages, appeared the first literary works in English which is a text titled Cædmon's Hymn. However, in the early English culture, the oral tradition was very strong and most of literary works were written to be performed. Epic poems were very popular at that time, like Beowulf . The first written literature dates was dedicated for Christian people and founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury.

Middle English (1200-1500)

In this period, a number of texts from various literary genres have been introduced. The long list includes lyric poetry and epic “long poems” with religious context, such as Piers Plowman (1367-70). The romance was also became the new genre in this period.

The English Renaissance (1500-1660)

The Reformation inspired the production of vernacular liturgy which led to the Book of Common Prayer, a lasting influence on literary English language. The poetry, drama, and prose produced under Queen Elizabeth I and King James I constitute what is today labeled as Early modern (or Renaissance).

Elizabethan Era (1558-1603)

In this period, drama was growing so fast, this drama then become the beginning to foster from the old mystery and miracle plays of the Middle Ages, such as Gorboduc by Sackville & Norton and The Spanish Tragedy by Kyd that was to provide much material for Hamlet. William Shakespeare became so popular in this period as a poet and playwright as yet unsurpassed that he wrote what have been considered his greatest plays: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest, a tragicomedy that inscribes within the main drama a brilliant pageant to the new king.
In this period also Shakespeare popularized the English sonnet which made significant changes to Petrarch's model. The most important poets of this era include Edmund Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney. Elizabeth herself, a product of Renaissance humanism, produced occasional poems such as On Monsieur’s Departure.
Jacobean literature (1603-1625)
This era began after Shakespeare’s death, the poet and dramatist Ben Jonson was the main actor literary figure of the Jacobean era (The reign of James I). However, Jonson introduced the new genre of literature such as the theory of humors. Jonson is a master of style, and a brilliant satirist. Besides Shakespeare, whose figure towers over the early 1600s, the major poets of the early 17th century included John Donne and the other Metaphysical poets. Influenced by continental Baroque, and taking as his subject matter both Christian mysticism and eroticism, metaphysical poetry uses unconventional or "unpoetic" figures.

Caroline Period and the Commonwealth (1625-1660)

The years of the mid-17th century, during the Charles I monetary Commonwealth and Protectorate, found a flourishing of political literature in English. The literary works in this era was all about propaganda, to reform the nation.

The Restoration (1660-1700)

Paradise Lost and the Earl of Rochester's Sodom, the high spirited sexual comedy of The Country Wife and the moral wisdom of Pilgrim's Progress were the most popular Restoration literature. The satire became the biggest and the largest literary works in this period. In general, publication of satire was done anonymously. Prose in the Restoration period is dominated by Christian religious writing, but the Restoration also saw the beginnings of two genres that would dominate later periods: fiction and journalism. However, long fiction and fictional biographies began to distinguish themselves from other forms in England during the Restoration period.
The Eighteenth Century (1700-1800)
During the Age of Sensibility, literature reflected the worldview of the Age of Enlightenment (or Age of Reason) that approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues that promoted a secular view of the world and a general sense of progress and perfectibility. This era led by the philosophers who were inspired by the discoveries of the previous century (Newton) and the writings of Descartes, Locke and Bacon.
Romanticism (1785-1830)
The most popular novelist in this era was Sir Walter Scott, whose his great literary works had inspired a generations of painters, composers and also writers in Europe. His life time work was titled “Ivanhoe”.

Victorian Period (1830-1901)
The novel became the most leading works of literary in this era. The one of the most popular novelist in this era was Charles Dickens who presented the new trend of serial publication. Dickens writes about London life the struggles of the poor, but in a good-humored style.

Modern Period (1901-1960)
Literary modernism reached its popularity peak between the first and second world wars, and the movement appeared in the mid to late ninetieth century. Perhaps the most important figure in the modernist movement was the America poet Ezra Pound.

Postmodern and Contemporary Period (1960-…)

Actually many people describe the postmodern literature in post world war II. It was still against the modernist period. The important writers behind these literary works such as Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs, Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, Truman Capote, Thomas Pynchon.


References:
home.comcast.net/~stephen.gottlieb/romantic/periods.html
Mario Klaren, An Introducing to Literary Studies (1998; English)