Literary Time Periods (facts)

Old English/ Anglo-Saxon Period

Admiration of heroic warriors who prevail in battle

Christianity helps literary spread

Middle English Period/ The Medieval Period

Trading increases dramatically as a result of the Crusades

Chivalric code of honor

The Renaissance

World view shifts from religion and after life to one stressing the human life on earth

Popular themes include constant love, love subject to change, and development of human potential

The Restoration/ Neoclassicalism

Belief that man is basically evil

Emphasis on reason and logic

Romanticism

In nature one can find comfort and peace that the man-made urbanized towns and factory environments cannot offer

Evil attributed to society, not human nature, human beings are basically good

Victorian Period

Contains misdirected letters and detective novels

Paper becomes cheap and novels mass produce

Modern/Post Modern Period of Literature

Man is nothing except what he makes of himself

Loss of the hero in literature

Contemporary Period of Literature/Post Modern Period Continued

Escaping those ways of living that blind and dull the human spirit

50% of contemporary fiction is in first person narrative