period of english literature by mohammad fahmi (0808471)

PERIODS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE

At this age, English literature term known as writing valued as works of art written in English. English literature has been divided in some periods such as Middle English period and the renaissance.

Periods of English literature

· Old English period : 5^th-11^th century (450-1066)

· Middle English period: 12^th-15^th century (1066-1500)

· The Renaissance: 16^th-17^th century (1500-1660)

o Elizabethan Age: 1558-1603

o Jacobean Age: 1603-1625

o Caroline Age: 1624-1649

o Commonwealth period: 1649-1660

· The Augustan Age: 18^th century (1700-1745)

· The Romantic Period: first half of 19^th century (1785-1830)

· The Victorian Period: second half of 19^th century (1830-1901)

· The Modern Period: first to second world war (1901-1960)

· The Post modern period: 1960s-present

1. OLD ENGLISH PERIOD

Old English period also known as Anglo-Saxon period is regarded as beginning with the invasion of Britain by Germanic (Anglo-Saxon) tribes in the 5^th century AD and lasting until the French invasion under William the conquer in 1066. This period existed in the middle age, from 5^th century until 11^th century. It became the earliest period of English literature.

In this period, number of texts which have been handed down is very small, comprising anonymous magic charms, riddles, and poems such as “The Seafarer”(c. 9^th century) or “The Wanderer” (c. 9^th-10^th century). Several epic works, such as the mythological Beowulf (c. 8^th century) or The Battle of Mardon (c. 100) which is based on historical facts also complete this period.

2. MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD

The Middle English period exist from 12^th -15^th century when England was conquered by the French-speaking Normans. It happened when the standard literary language acquired from the dialect of the London area, and then became as “Modern English”.

Numbers of literature works from various literary genres have been preserved in this period. Lyric poetry and epic “long poems” have been listed in several genres such as religious, with it Piers Plowman (c. 1330-1386). Another genre of this age is romance. This genre is a part of secular literature and produced in second half of this age. It has several popular works, such as the anonymous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (fourteenth century) and Le Morte d’ Arthur by Thomas Malory (1470). Middle English literature also produced cycles of narratives, such as Canterbury tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1387) which was similar to Giovanni Boccacios’, IL Decamerone (c. 1349-1351) in Italy and comparable works of other national literatures, which are important models for the short story of the nineteenth century.

3. THE RENNAISANCE

The English Renaissance is also called the Early New English period. It appeared from sixteenth century until seventeenth century. The English renaissance consists of four ages, Elizabethan age, Jacobean age, Caroline age, and Commonwealth age.

· The Elizabethan Age

This age was appeared in 1558-1603 when Queen Elizabeth I led England. Political rule became one of it characteristic beside focus on the history of language. The Greco-Roman genres were influenced and dominated this age. In this age, appeared several writers who became the most famous writer in Elizabethan age. One of them is William Shakespeare (1546-1616) with his phenomenon masterpiece, Romeo and Juliet. The others writers of this age are Christopher Marlowe (1546-1593) and Edmund Spencer (1552-1599) who wrote Faerie Queene (1590; 1596).

· The Jacobean Age

The Jacobean age was appeared in 1605-1625 when King James I overbearing England. This age produced a lot of prose, drama, and King James translation of Bible. In this age, literature became serious, complicated, refined, has social abuse and rivalry awareness.

In a period of 1604-1611, William Tyndale translated Bible into English, and then became the standard Bible of the Church of England. This was the biggest project in history of literature. There were several famous writers who existed in this age, such as Ben Jonson with his phenomenon Volpone, Beamount and Fletcher with The Knight of the Burning Pestle, and John Donne with his song and sonnet “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”.

· The Caroline Age

The Caroline age was appeared in 1625-1649 when King Charles I overbearing England. This age produced circle poets or known with “Cavalier Poets”. The characteristics of this age were refinement and elegance. The political context was added to literature form while this age. This age has several drama writers, such as John Ford, Massinger, James Shirley, and Richard Brome. They published their works in the beginning of English Civil War.

· The Commonwealth Period

This period was also known as “The Puritan Interregnum”, because was under guidance of The Puritan Oliver Cromwell. It was appeared in 1649-1660. In this age, public theater and a drama performance for religious reason was closed and prohibited.

This age produced several political writers, such as John Milton and Thomas Hobbes, and prose writer such as Andrew Marvell. John Milton wrote Paradise Lost (1667) and Paradise Regained (1671), political pamphlets and religious epics. Then, Thomas Hobbes wrote his political treatise, “Leviathan”.

4. THE AUGUSTAN AGE

This age was appeared in the eighteenth century (1700-1745) which is referred to as the Golden Age or Neoclassical age. In this period, classical literature and literary theory were adapted to suit contemporary culture. John Dryden (1631-1719), Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Joseph Addison (1672-1719) and Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) were the popular authors who wrote translation, theoretical essays and literary texts in variety genres.

This age was the time of influential change in distribution of texts, including the development of the novel, the introduction of newspaper and literary magazine as a new genre. 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 pieces which marked the beginning of a new literary genre.

5. THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

Romantic period was appeared in the end of eighteenth century (1785-1830). Nature and individual, emotional experience play an important role in this age. Lyrical Ballads (1798) by William Wordsworth (1770-1850), William Blake (1757-1827), John Keats (1795-1821), Lord Byron and Jane Austen were the famous piece and authors of the Romantic period.

6. THE VICTORIAN AGE

This age appeared in the second half of nineteenth century or 1830-1901 when Queen Victoria’s reign just started. The social, economic, religious and intellectual problems were the themes of this period, which added with the industrial revolution, the early feminism movement, also the impact of the Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. There were several famous authors from this age, such as Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, George Elliot, Thomas Hardy, Matthew Arnold, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

7. THE MODERN PERIOD

This period can be seen as a reaction of the realist movements of the late nineteenth century. The modern period discovered innovative narrative techniques such as stream of- consciousness or structural forms such as college and literary cubism. The main pieces of this age were Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939) by James Joyce (1882-1941), Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Light House (1927) by Virginia Woolfs (1882-1941), three lives (1909) by Gertude Stein (1874-1946), The Cantos (1915-1970) by Ezra Pound (1885-1972), The Waste Land (1922) by T.S Elliot (1888-1965) and The Sound And The Fury (1929) by William Faulkner (1897-1962).

8. THE POST MODERN PERIOD

In this period, modern period issues concerning innovative narrative techniques are taken up again and adapted in an academic. The literary movement of this period indirectly deals with Nazi crimes and the nuclear destruction of World War II. The characteristics of this period were narratives techniques with multiple perspectives, interwoven strands of plot, and experiments in typography.

Literary works, such as Lost in the Funhouse (1968) by John Barth (*1930), The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) by Thomas Pynchon (*1937), Double or Nothing (1971) by Raymond Federsman (*1928), and The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1969) by John Fowles (*1926) were the biggest literary works produced in this period.

REFFERENCES :

Klarer, Mario. 1998. An Introduction to Literary Studies. Routledge: London.

http://englishliterature99.wordpress.com/periods-of-english-literature/

http://sairam-english-literature.blogspot.com/2009/04/periods-of-english-literature.