Periods of English Literature written by Zahara Ramadani

PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
Written by,
Zahara Ramadani (0802663)
B-Class

Years ago English literature term popular as a work that writing in English language, but as time goes by it means a writing produce in English. English literature has been classified by some criteria and characteristic until divided in periods, for example the Old and Middle English periods that classified based on the history of language.

Old English Period : 5th-11th century / 450-1066
Middle English Period : 12th-15th century / 1066-1500
The Renaissance: 16th-17th century / 1500-1660
• Elizabethan Age : 1558-1603
• Jacobean Age : 1603-1625
• Caroline Age : 1625-1649
• Commonwealth Period : 1649-1660
The Augustan Age or The Neoclassical Period : 1700-1745
The Romantic Period : 1785-1830
The Victorian Period : 1830-1901
The Modern Period : 1901-1960
The Postmodern Period : 1960-present



1.OLD ENGLISH PERIOD
Old English period also known as Anglo-Saxon period refers to the literature produced from the invasion of Celtic England by Germany tribes in the first half of the fifth century to the conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. This period appeared in the early of Middle Ages, from the 5th century until the 11th century and became the earliest period of English Literature. During this period, written literature began to develop from oral tradition.
The number of texts which have been down from this period is very small, comprising anonymous magic charms, riddles and poems, for example “The Seafarer” (c. 9th century) and “The Wanderer” (c.9th-10th century). The most famous anonymous epic works from the Old English period is Beowulf (c.8th century). It such a mythological story which is based on historical facts and include as a great Germanic epic poem. Then, there were two poets of the Old English Period who wrote on biblical and religious, Caedmon and Cynewulf.

2.MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD
The Middle English Period consist of the literature produced between the Norman Conquest of 1066 and about 1500, from the twelfth century until fifteenth century, as the effect from the conquered of the French by England in the eleventh century. It happened when the standard literary language derived from the dialect of the London area, changed and became as “modern English”.
In this period, number of texts from various literary genres have been kept. Lyric poetry and epic “long poems” have been listed with various contents such as religious, romance and also narrative contents. In the earlier of the second half of the fourteenth century, vernacular (the form of a language that a regional or other group of speakers use naturally) literature consisted mostly of religious writing, such as Piers Plowman (c. 1367-70) which has been attributed to William Langland (c. 1330-1386). Then, the secular literature was produced in the second half of the fourteenth century. One of genres of secular literature was the romance, such as the anonymous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (fourteenth century) and Le Morte d’Arthur (1470) by Thomas Malory (c. 1408-71). The Canterbury Tales (c. 1387) by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400) and Il Decamerano (c. 1349-51) by Giovanni Boccasio ( c. 1313-75) were the important models for the short story as the narrative contents of the Middle English Period.

3.THE RENAISSANCE
The English Renaissance also known as the Early New English Period appeared from the sixteenth century until seventeenth century. This period consists of four parts, that were the Elizabethan age, Jacobean age, Caroline age, and the Commonwealth period.

3.1 The Elizabethan Age
The Elizabethan age was appeared in 1558-1603 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. This term not only focus on the history of language but also on the political rule. The Elizabethan age was influenced by ancient Greek and Roman genres. Lyric poetry, prose and drama were the major term of literatures that born in this age. Drama became the most grown literature in the Elizabethan age. William Shakespeare (1546-1616) was one of the famous writers of the Elizabethan age. Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Anthony and Cleopatra were the examples of his masterpieces. The other writers are, Christopher Marlowe (1546-93) and Edmund Spencer (1552-99) who wrote Faerie Queene (1590; 1596).

3.2 The Jacobean Age
The Jacobean age was appeared in 1603-1625 during the reign of King James I. In this age, literature became sophisticated, serious and aware of social abuse and rivalry. A lot of prose, drama and the King James translation of Bible had been produced by the Jacobean age.
The King James translation of Bible into English was one of the biggest project in the history up to this time. It was started from 1604 until 1611 and translated by William Tyndale, then became the standard Bible of the Church of England.
Ben Jonson with his masterpiece Volpone, Beamount and Fletcher who wrote The Knight of the Burning Pestle, and John Donne’s song and sonnet "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" were the writers who lived in the Jacobean age.

3.3 The Caroline Age
The Caroline age was appeared in 1625-1649 during the reign of King Charles I. Refinement and elegance were the characteristics of this age. A circle of poets that produced in this age known as the “Cavalier Poets”.
John Ford, Philip Massinger, James Shirley, and Richard Brome were the major voice drama’s writer at this age, whose performed their piece at the start of the English Civil War. During this age, the literature form was usually added by the political context along the political lines.

3.4 The Commonwealth Period
The Commonwealth period was appeared in 1649-1660 and also known as the Puritan Interregnum, because was under guidance of the Puritan Oliver Cromwell and also because the performance of the religious drama that shaken the public theaters entitled the “Puritan Interregnum”. This period was also produced the great and famous political writers, such as John Milton, Thomas Hobbes and the prose writer such as, Andrew Marvell.
John Milton (1608-74) was one of the outstanding writers in this age, he wrote political pamphlets and religious epics titled Paradise Lost (1667) and Paradise Regained (1671). Then, Thomas Hobbes wrote his political treatise, “Leviathan”.

4. The Augustan Age
The Augustan age was appeared in the eighteenth century, from 1700-1745 which is also referred to as the Neoclassical or Golden Age. Refinement, elegance, clarity and balance of judgment were the characteristic of this age. The classical literature and literary theory were adapted into legal contemporary culture, in this age. The greatest writers of the Augustan age were John Dryden (1631-1700), Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Joseph Adisson (1672-1719) and Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) who wrote translation, theatrical essays, and literary texts in various kind of genres.
This time, novels, the introduction of newspaper and literary magazines developed became the new genres. The Tattler (1709-11), The Spectator (1711-14), Daniel Defoe’s (1660-1731) Robinson Crusoe (1719), Samuel Richardson’s (1689-1761) Pamela (1740-41) & Clarissa (1748-49), Henry Fielding’s (1707-54) Tom Jones (1749) were the examples of the beginning of novels as a new literary genre.

5.The Romantic Period
The Romantic period began in the first half of the nineteenth century, from 1785 until 1830. Nature, individual, emotional experience, strong use of feeling, use of symbolism were the characteristics of this period. Their belief of the spontaneous, imaginative, personal and free that should be from literature were the writers of the romantics period were considered.
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) with his piece titled the Lyrical Ballads (1798), William Blake (1757-1827), John Keats (1795-1821), Lord Byron and Jane Austen were the well known authors and piece of the Romantics period.

6.The Victorian Age
The Victorian period began in the second half of the nineteenth century, from 1830-1901 with the started reign of Queen Victoria. The issues and problems of the day, such as social, economic, religious and intellectual problems were the themes of this period, that added with the industrial revolution, the early feminism movement, also the impact of the Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, George Elliot, Thomas Hardy, Matthew Arnold, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning were some of the most well known authors of the Victorian period.

7.The Modern Period
The Modern period appeared in 1901-1960. This period can be seen as a reaction to the Realist movements of the late nineteenth century and headed to the English literature written since the beginning of the World War I in 1914.
This period focused on innovative narrative techniques and under the influence of psychoanalysis and other cultural-historical phenomena. The subject matter, form and style were had been experimented by the authors of the Modern period and have produced it in all literary genres.
The famous authors include their masterpieces of this period such as, Dylan Thomas, T.S Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), Yeats and Seamus Heaney who wrote poets. The Novelist include James Joyce with his masterpieces Ulysses (1922) & Finnegans Wake (1939), D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Wolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925) & To the Lighthouse (1927). Then the dramatists include Noel Coward and Samuel Beckett.

8.The Postmodern Period
The Postmodern period began in 1960. The innovative narrative techniques from the Modern period was taken again and adapted in an academic. The literary movement of this period had against with the Nazi crimes and the nuclear destruction. The narrative techniques developed with the multiple perspective and became the characteristic of this period.
Literary achievements’ such as John Barth’s Lost in the Funhouse (1968), Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 (1966), Raymond Feersman’s Doble or Nothing (1971), John Fowes’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969) were produced in this period.

REFFERENCES :
Klarer, Mario. 1998. An Introduction to Literary Studies. Routledge: London.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_literature
http://sairam-english-literature.blogspot.com/2009/04/periods-of-english-literature.html

http://www.peacecorpswriters.org/pages/depts/resources/resour_writers/100daysbook/bk100da.html
http://englishliterature99.wordpress.com/periods-of-english-literature/
http://www.peacecorpswriters.org/pages/depts/resources/bibliog/bibc.html