literary eras

Old English/Anglo-Saxon Period (450-110)

The period between the invasion of England by the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, and the establishment of Norman rule. Marked by Christianization and tribal conflict, and then struggles with the invading Danes. Christianity introduced learning and literacy to the Anglo-Saxons, and much writing was done in Latin by clergy. Major Writers: Bede, Gildas, Asser, and the guy who wrote Beowulf

Anglo-Norman Period (1100-1350)

Period of English literature marked by the dominance of French speaking Normans, and before the Norman rulers began to think of themselves as English. Feudalism was established, the Magna Carta signed, Parliament was established, the Crusades happened, and Oxford and Cambridge arose as important universities. Works were mostly in either Latin or French; Arthurian Romance; mystery plays; religious dramas. Major authors: Geoffrey of Monmouth

Middle English Period (1350-1500)

Period of English Literature between the replacement of French with Middle English and the emergence of Modern English. Hundred Years' war, Peasants' revolt, Black Death, Late Middle Ages; Lollards and Wycliffe. Chaucer; mystery plays flourished; Malory's Le Morte de Arthur; Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; Alliterative Verse

The Renaissance (1500-1660)

Rebirth; transition from the medieval to the modern age in Europe. Emphasis on the classics; humanism; revitalization of Christianity and (further) harmonization with classical philosophy; beginning of colonization; reformation.

Early Tudor Age (1500-1557)

The period of Renaissance English Literature from the ascension of the Tudors to the ascension of Elizabeth. Reformation; widespread introduction of Italian literature; school plays; blank verse. Wyatt; Surrey; Skelton; Elyot; More

Elizabethan Age (1558-1603)

The period of English Renaissance literature during the reign of Elizabeth I. Reflects medieval tradition and the optimism of the Renaissance. Growth of England as a major power; religious controversy; commercial expansion. Major styles include lyric poetry, prose, and drama. Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser, Raleigh, Bacon, Donne and Jonson.

Jacobean Age (1603-1625)

The portion of the Renaissance during the reign of James I (1603-1625). The literature was a rich flowering of the Elizabethan Age and later showed attitudes of the Caroline Age. Beaumont, Fletcher, Webster, Middleton, Bacon, Shakespeare, Jonson, KJV, Donne, Adrewes.

Colonial Period (1607-1765)

Period in American literature from the founding of Jamestown to the American Revolution. Literature was generally utilitarian, political, or religious. Delt with colonial themes like expansion, wilderness, progress, etc. Little verse and no drama. Major Authors: Ben Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, Edward Taylor, Cotton Mather

Caroline Age (1625-1649)

Reign of Charles I. The term especially applies to royalist writers, such as the Cavalier Lyricists. There was carryover from the Elizabethan and Jacobean ages, and an increase in Classicism; more melancholy and less optimistic, more conflict.

Commonwealth Interregnum (1649-1660)

The period between the execution of Charles I and the restoration of the monarchy under Charles II and during which John Milton, Thomas Hobbes, and Andrew Marvell wrote.

Neoclassical Period (1660-1798)

The period in British literature between the restoration of the Stuarts and the publication of the Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge. Neoclassicism was dominant; Heroic Couplet became a major verse form; science

Restoration Age (1660-1700)

Name comes from the Stuart restoration. Major characteristics include reaction against Puritanism, (Neoclassical) French influence, revival of drama. Major writers include: Dryden, Howard, Otway, Milton, Locke, Temple, Pepys

Augustan Age (1700-1750)

This period is marked by the imitation of Virgil and Horace's literature in English letters. The principal English writers include Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele, Jonathan Swift, and Alexander Pope. Birth of the English Novel (Gulliver's Travels, Robinson Crusoe, etc.)

Age of Johnson/Sensibility (1750-1798)

The age of British literature between 1750 and 1798. Marked a transition from neoclassicism to romanticism, though neoclassicism was still dominant. Increased focus on sentiment and gothic horror began. Samuel Johnson was the major literary figure of the age. Other major authors: Burns, Goldsmith, Smart, Gray, Sheridan, Boswell, Hume, Gibbon

Revolutionary and Early National Period (1765-1830)

Period between the start of the Revolution and the ascendancy of Jacksonian Democracy; the time of the establishment of a new nation. Hartford wits; beginning of a new nation; Knickerbockers; establishment of magazines; gothic literature.

Revolutionary Age (1765-1790)

Period of American Literature between the start of the Revolution and the ratification of the constitution. Neoclassicism was dominant, though Romanticism was on the rise. Graveyard school; Trumbull, Freneau, Hopkinson, Barlow. Major prose authors: Tom Paine, Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, Franklin, Hill Brown (wrote the first American novel)

Federalist Age (1790-1830)

Period of American literature between the ratification of the constitution and Jackson, initially marked by the dominance of the Federalist Party. Rapid literary development; Knickerbocker group. Major writers: Barlow, Dwight, Freneau, Bryant, Brockden Brown, Brackenridge.

Romantic Period (1798-1870)

Period of British literature between the publication of the Lyrical Ballads and the death of Dickens. Romanticism dominated; emphasis on the individual, emotion, nature, vitalism; both radical (Shelley, Blake) and reactionary strands (Carlyle, late Coleridge); many contradictory positions; reaction to the French and Industrial Revolutions. Shakespeare started to be seen as the greatest English author at this time; the previous Neoclassical critics considered Shakespeare to be great, but not as the maestro he is seen as today.

Age of the Romantic Movement (1798-1832)

Period of British literature from the publication of the Lyrical Ballads to the death of Scott. Romanticism dominated; heavy focus on nature and the emotions; Novel of Manners in prose. Major writers: Coleridge, Wordsworth, Mary and PB Shelley, Keats, Scott, Lamb, Austen.

American Romantic Period (1830-1865)

Period of American literature between Jackson and the end of the Civil War. The first great flowering of American literature; Romanticism dominant in literature. Transcendentalism emerged out of New England; westward expansion; slavery issue; industrial capitalism; egalitarianism and democracy (both usually for white dudes only) was a major force in politics and philosophy. Major writers: Poe, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Melville, Stowe, Holmes, Whittier, Dickinson, Whitman, Simms, Thoreau, Emerson

Early Victorian Age (1832-1870)

Gradual tempering of the romantic impulse and the steady growth of realism. Poetry focused more on social issues and uncertainties that arose from the Industrial Revolution and the advance of natural science. Poetry: Tennyson, the Brownings, Arnold, and Swinburne. Prose: Dickens, the Brontes, Thackeray, Trollope, Carlyle, Ruskin, Newman, De Quincey

Realistic Period in American Literature (1865-1900)

The period between the Civil War and the turn of the century in literature. The American economy boomed in this era; Industrialization in full swing; gilded age, robber barons; machine politics; breakneck scientific progress; influence of Darwinism and Positivism. Rejection of Romanticism, embrace of realism; focus more on everyday life. Major authors: Twain, the James brothers, Howells, Robinson, Riley, Crane.

Realistic Period in British Literature (1870-1914)

Latter part of Victoria's reign and the reign of Edward VII. Reaction to Romanticism, dominance of Realism. Height of British Imperialism; foreign authors widely read; Positivism and Darwinism; secularism; decadents

Late Victorian Age (1870-1901)

Period in British literature between 1870 and the death of Victoria. Dominated by Realism; Darwinism and Positivism emerged as major movements; Celtic Renaissance began; massive amounts of popular literature such as Treasure Island. Major writers: George Eliot, Huxley, Hardy, Spencer, Arnold, Darwin, Wilde, Ibsen, Conan Doyle, Stoker, Kipling, Conrad.

Naturalistic and Symbolistic Period in American Literature (1900-1930)

Before WW1, dominated by Naturalism. After WW1, Imagism began. Growing international awareness, receptivity to European literary models; growing symbolism in literature; Little Theater movement and Eugene O'Neill; Little Magazines; Henry James reached his peak; widespread disillusionment after the Great War; Lost Generation; New Criticism (Faulkner, Ransom, Tate, Penn Warren); Agrarianism and the Fugitive in the South; growing Avant-Garde. Major authors: Jack London, Norris, Dreiser, Robinson, TS Eliot, Frost, Pound, Stevens, O'Neill, Faulkner, Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, EE Cummings, Edith Wharton.

Edwardian Age (1901-1914)

The period between the death of Victoria and the start of WW1. Reaction against the conservatism and stiff propriety of the Victorian age. Critical and questioning attitude; Celtic Renaissance in Ireland (WB Yeats, Hyde, Lennox Robinson, Ibsen); prose dominant; James Joyce got his start. Major authors: WB Yeats, Bernard Shaw, Conrad, Kipling, Bennett, Galsworthy

Modernist Period in Britain (1914-1965)

Began with WW1; Rise of Modernism; stream of consciousness; experimentation; comedy of manners; examination of the inner self

Georgian Age (1914-1940)

Period of British Literature between the start of WW1 and WW2. Time of great change in English life and experimentation in literature; Modernism; Bloomsbury Group flourished Major Authors: Joyce, Woolf, Dorothy Richardson, Aldous Huxley, Greene, TS Eliot, Bernard Shaw.

Period of Consolidation and Criticism in America (1930-1960)

Started with Great Depression; New Deal. Concern with social and economic issues; thirties more radical, after WW2, more conservative; More African-America literature; Agrarianism; New Criticism. Major Authors: Frost, JD Salinger, Faulkner, Henry Miller, Steinbeck, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams.

Diminishing Age in Britain (1940-1965)

Started with WW2. National crisis due to war, beginning of Cold War, and the decline of the British Empire. Experimental writing; rise of "angry young men". Major authors: Beckett, Orwell, Greene, Snow, Spender, WH Auden, Larkin.

Period of Confessional Self and Postmodernism in America (1960-)

Started in the 60's. Disillusionment with the government and traditional values; works focused more on introspection and confession; widespread higher education. Major authors: Sylvia Plath, Updike, Albee, Williamson, Goldbarth, Bellow, Malamud, Roth, Harris, Anne Sexton.

Postmodern Age in the UK (1965-)

Little changed between the 50s and 60s in Britain; attitude of cultural malaise; major strikes. Major Authors: Snow, Doris Lessing, Larkin, Harold Pinter, Stoppard, John Fowles, Osborne.

Age of Reason

Another name for the Enlightenment; also the name of a Tom Paine book

Baroque

An artistic style and era of the seventeenth century characterized by complex forms, bold ornamentation, energy, movement, realistic depiction, and contrasting elements.

Fin de siecle

End of the century; mostly applied to the end of the nineteenth century; artists and authors attempted to abandon old techniques and discover new ones; associated with decadence, realism, and radical social aspirations