English Literature Through the Time by Lathifah Ghoida Azhar

English Literature Through the Time
by Lathifah Ghoida Azhar
0807335

By Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary literature means pieces of writing that are valued as works of art, especially novels, plays, and poems (in contrast to technical books and newspapers, magazines, etc). So, English literature means literature that’s written in English. The English Literature appeared because of the Germanic traditional Anglo-Saxon settlers in early Middle Age.

The Old English (450-1066)

The Old English version of poetry probably was the ‘milder’ version of the original content. The original Germanic content was about war. In the first coming to England, the poetry was handed down orally from generation to generation.
The products: Beowulf

Middle English literature (1066-1500)

In this period Chancery Standard (an English-based Form) became widespread and printing press regularized their language. It was because Edward the third began a war to enforce his claims from approximately 1336 up until 1470s. The Middle English Literature focused on three main things, they are religious, country love and Arthurian.
The products: Piers Plowman

Renaissance/Early Modern English Literature (1500-1660)

This period divides into several sub-periods
• 1558-1603 Elizabethan Age
• 1603-1625 Jacobean Age
• 1625-1649 Caroline Age
• 1649-1669 Commonwealth Period
The products: Vernacular Liturgy, Book of Common Prayer

Neoclassical Period/18th century Literature (1660-1785)

This is the period where’s everything must has at least a reason, which was time to logical thinking, and the secularism grown fast. This period creates gothic novels.
The products: The Mysteries of Udolpho

Romantic Literature (1785-1830)

Pioneered by Jean Jacques Rousseau and followed by almost all European poets. The first England poets were Lake Poets, including William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It brought a new emotionalism and intropection.
The second generation includes Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, and John Keats.
The products: Rime of the Ancient Mariner, The Giaour, The Corsair, etc

Victorian literature (1832-1901)

In this period novel became the leading form of English Literature. Most writers were sick enough to fulfill the arictocratic wants. They began to meet the taste of middle class reading. The famous writers in that period include Brontë Sisters and Charles Dickens.
The Products: Vanity Fair, Pickwick Papers, Wuthering Heights.

Modern Literature

The Modern Literature got great influence from the Romantism and Karl Max’s political writings. The earliestm example of Modern appeared in the mid to late 19th century and reached its peak between the First and Second World War. Some great writers in that period were James Joyce and William Butler Yeats.
Products: Ulysses, Dubliners, Heart of Darkness

references:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_literature
http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=aa08
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-century/bl-periods.htm