Period of English Literature by Retno

Name : Retno Widiati C
Std ID : 045132

Periods of English Literature


History is something happened in the past. We have to learn it in order to make it not be happening in the future. As English department student, we have to learn about the development of English literature in order to make us easier to analyze English literature text.

• Old English period
People in England are called Celt. They are used Celt language to speak. In 50th B.C., Roman Empire comes to England. In 410th Century roman army withdraw from England and German take over and make a move to England. This German consist a Saxon, angles, and jutes which is come from West Germany. Anglo Saxon claim England areas belong to them and they use Anglo-Saxon as their language. They brought literary works from their country that is Beowulf. Beowulf is the longest poem telling us about the hero who killed the monster.
The first famous English poet is Cadmon. More than half of Anglo-Saxon poem is ode (religious poem) and created from Northumbria and Mercia in 7th and 8th Century. The well-known poet at that time is Bede and Cynewulf.
In 9th Century, King Alfred from West Saxon command his people to translate the good book to his people own language. King Alfred is the first prosiest.

• Middle English period (1066-1550)
In 1066, William the duke who comes from Normandy (French) became the king of English. He becomes the first Normandy king of English. In the middle of 13th C, there was a war among English aristocrat and French aristocrat. So, in 14th Century, Geoffrey Chaucer announces that English become the official language, and that makes Chaucer become the father of English language.
There is one famous story from Celt that told about ‘Alexander the great’, that is King of Arthur. Beside poem that created by priest, there are some poems that well-known from “mouth to mouth”. It is called as ballad. The famous ballad is Robin Hood.

• 16th Century
This period is called as Elizabeth period or it is well-known as Renaissance period because there are revolution or rebellion against papal’s authority. Renaissance appeared in Italy in 14th Century than spread to north in 15th and 16th Century.
The well-known poet at this period is Edmund Spenser.

• 17th Century
This period is called as puritan period where people at that time more religious. In that time, people did not want to go to the theatre.

• 18th Century
This period is called as romantic period. This is English rising period because the literature, in this time, move from classicism to romanticism.
The first novel writer is Samuel Richardson. He write a novel entitled 'Pamela' or 'Virtue Rewarded'.

• 19th Century
At this time, English literature is influenced by industrialism and what happened at that time. The topic of English literature is about realistic and what happened to the people at that time.

• 20th Century
This period is called as modern period. English literature in this time is influenced by Irish and world war. The story is contain of modernist experiment adn uthopia.


References
Klarer, Mario. (1998). An Introduction to Literary. London. Roudledge.
S.S., Samekto. (1976). Ikhtisar Sejarah Kesusasteraan Inggris. Jakarta. PT Gramedia.