Literary Periods, Movements, and

History
Literature History
Henry Augustin Beers was a literature historian and professor at Yale who lived at the turn of the 19th
century. He wrote intensely detailed histories of American and English literature, covering the periods up
until what were his modern times. We have collected those works below.

English Literature History

From the Conquest to Chaucer 1066-1400

From Chaucer to Spenser 1400-1599

The Age of Shakespeare 1564-1616

The Age of Milton 1608-1674

From the Restoration to the Death of Pope 1660-1744

The Death of Pope to the French Revolution 1744-1789

The French Revolution to the Death of Scott 1789-1832

From the Death of Scott to the Present Time 1832-1893

Appendix

American Literature History

Preface

The Colonial Period 1607-1765

The Revolutionary Period 1765-1815

The Era of National Expansion 1815-1837

The Concord Writers 1837-1861

The Cambridge Scholars 1837-1861

Literature in the Cities 1837-1861

Literature Since 1861

Appendix

Literary Period Introductions

Tracing the evolution of literature through time scholars often group works from a certain timeframe together
and label it as a period or movement. This section of The Literature Network aims to disect these
movements for the better understanding of you, the reader. The movements or periods listed here where not
mutually exclusive in their timeframes, they overlap, liberally. In some cases a single author can even be
claimed by more than one movement. Classifing art, an art in itself, often ends up more fluid like this. Each
introduction (listed below) includes a broad overview of the movement or period, examples of key works, and
a list of major authors.
See also our Literary Periods Timeline for a visual reference of the evolution of literature.

Literary Periods
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Renaissance Literature

The Enlightenment

Romanticism

Transcendentalism

Victorian Literature

Realism

Naturalism

Modernism

Bloomsbury Group

Existentialism

Beat Generation