Typicality in poetic movements

Middle English

The Canterbury Tales

typical of Middle English texts

Strong men
Army or cavalry
Can get any women

Old English

Beowulf

Typical of old English text

Strong men
kings
Monsters

Medieval Literature

Canterbury tales Chaucer
Beowulf
445ad- 1485
Hand written texts
Less authorship
Myths and legends
Long poems

Renaissance

14th - 17th century
Rebirth
Italy later 1300s
Latin and Greek reawakening
Rise in popularity of poetry and drama

Petrarch

1304-1374
Italian
Laura
Lover or love
14 lines
10 syllables
Octave and sestet
Conceit
Personification

Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

Prolific poet
Three quatrains
Concluding couplet
Abab bcbc cdcd ee
Problem and answer

Shakespearean sonnet

Three quatrains
Concluding couplet
Abab cdcd efef gg

Restoration Literature

1500-1600
Cavaliers and Roundheads
Charles 1 beheaded oliver Cromwell in power replaces by Charles 11

Cavaliers

King
Liberal
Secular
Solider
Worship women
Hyperbole

Roundheads

Parliament
Punctual
Realistic
Spiritual
Conceit
Logical

Aphra Behn (1640-1689)

First female writer of the time when the king stopped paying her to spy

Romantic Period

18th 19th century
Wordsworth Coleridge Blake - nature

political romance poets

Keats
Byron
Shelley

Romanticism Characteristics

Sceptical of authority
Natural world imagery
Freedom
Vernacular
Mysterious
Sexual
Dangerous
Unhappy with the treatment of the poor

Victorian Literature

19th - 20th century
Browning

Victorian Literature Characteristics

Science vs religion
Morality
Rise of women
Rights to marriage
Death interests
Sexual
City
Sensory
Biblical allusions
Strong characters
Focus on plot

Victorian literature writing

Rise of the novel
Physical description
Dialogue
Judgements
Thoughts
Actions
Frankenstein

Post modernism

a 20th century movement that moves away from modernism for concepts of play, open forms, chance, anarchy, impermanence, and random access.
Unreliable narrators
Metafiction
Intertextuality
Identify
Irony

Second half of post modernist writing

Emotional
Lyrical
Explicit
Sexual
Playful
E.g. Sylvia Plath

classic literature

1200bc to 455bc
Greek
Roman

Epic poem classical literature

Homer the Odessey
In the middle of action
Gods vast settings
Quest

Lyrical poetry classical literature

Gods goddess
Instrument accompanied
Sung
700bc

Satire/drama classical literature

Trilogy
Fatal flaw
Tragedy
Middle of action

Modernism in literature

19th and 20th century. self-conscious break with traditional styles of poetry and verse
Reaction to mechanical slaughter
War destroyed beauty
Arguments
Emotional
Negative
Extravagance
Harsh
Stream of consciousness