LCS 108

LITERATURES OF EUROPE

Module 1

ENGLISH LITERARY PERIODS

Learning Outcomes
At the end of the lesson, you are expected to:

1. enumerate the literary periods in England

2. remember the authors who belong to each literary period

3. mention some literary pieces written in each literary period

4. recognize the authors of the literary pieces

The English literature is considered the largest body of literature ever written. It covers
more than 15 centuries. It begins from Anglo-Saxon period up to the modern times.

Before we proceed to the discussion of the English literary periods, you shall first
answer the following questions to find out your prior knowledge to English literature.

Activity 1: Answer the following questions;

1. What is the title of the first English epic which was composed during the Anglo-Saxon
period? _____________________________
2. Who wrote The Canterbury Tales? _____________________
3. He is considered the greatest playwright of all times._________________
4. His masterpiece is “Doctor Faustus”.______________________
5. He authored “Le Morte de Arthur”______________________
6. It is an English literary period that revealed authors’ love for
nature.______________________
7. He is one of the authors in this era of a close relationship with nature who wrote a
poem about daffodils. _______________
8. She is a woman author who hid under the name of George Eliot._____________
9. He is famous for his novels; Great Expectations, The Tale of Two Cities and A
Christmas Carols__________________
10. Jane Eyre is a classic novel written by this woman author from Victorian age.
_________________

Were you able to answer all the questions? I guess you are now eager to read on to find
the answers. The following are the English literary periods that an English literature
major should be familiar with.

Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (450–1066)

Old English literature, or Anglo-Saxon literature, covers the surviving literature written
in Old English in Anglo-Saxon England, in the period after the settlement of
the Saxons and other Germanic tribes in England (Jutes and the Angles) c. 450, after
the withdrawal of the Romans, and "ending soon after the Norman Conquest" in 1066

Oral tradition was very strong in early English culture and most literary works were
written to be performed. Epic poems were very popular, and some, including Beowulf,
have survived to the present day. Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English, and
has achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia.

Old English epics and elegies were characterized by regular stress, free rhythm, end-
stopped and unrhymed lines, alliterations and the use of kennings. Caedmon’s “Hymn”
has kennings for the word God. Caedmon is considered the father of English song.
During the 9th century, Cynewulf, a poet from Mercia gained fame through his “Christian
Beowulf” and “Dream of the Rood”. “Elene”, a poem about the discovery of the cross is
Cynewulf’s masterpiece.

Middle English Period (1066–1500)

The Middle English Period consists of the literature produced in the four and a half
centuries between the Norman Conquest of 1066 and about 1500, when the standard
literary language, derived from the dialect of the London area, became recognizable as
"modern English." Prior to the second half of the fourteenth century, vernacular
literature consisted primarily of religious writings. The second half of the fourteenth
century produced the first great age of secular literature. The most widely known of
these writings are Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the anonymous Sir
Gawain and the Green Knight, the legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round
Table include various versions that were written by important figures such as Geoffrey
of Monmouth who made Arthurian Stories and Legends famous and Thomas Malory
who wrote the last medieval chronicle of the Arthurian legend -Le Morte d'Arthur.

Another notable achievement during Middle English Period is John Wycliffe’s English
translation of the bible.

Geoffrey Chaucer

Middle English lasted until the 1470s, when the Chancery Standard, a London-based
form of English, became widespread and the printing press started to standardize the
language. It is during this time that Chaucer became known for his The Canterbury
Tales, a collection of stories about a wide range of humanity and presents a culture of
Britain in his time.

The Renaissance (1500–1660)\

Rennaisance is a French word meaning rebirth. This period brought rebirth or revival of
learning or art. An intense interest in the Greek and Roman scholarship, art and
literature appeared in England. Classical writers influenced and provided models for
literary writing. As England grew to be a world power during the reign of Queen
Elizabeth 1, it looked toward the New World, and came to the conquest and colonization
of America. This is one of the greatest times of expansion for Britain. Cultivation of
human potential through proper education; focus on individual consciousness and the
Interior mind. Concern with the refinement of the language and the development of a
national, vernacular literature are prevalent in this period. It was also during this time
that a great number of poets in England took interest in writing actively. During this time,
Thomas More wrote Utopia, a revolutionary work that transcends time.

This period is often subdivided into four parts, including the Elizabethan Age (1558–
1603), the Jacobean Age (1603–1625), the Caroline Age (1625–1649), and the
Commonwealth Period (1649–1660).

The Elizabethan Age is during the reign of Henry’s daughter Elizabeth I(1558)It is
Considered the golden age of English drama. Some of its noteworthy figures include
Christopher Marlowe (The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus), Francis Bacon (Essays),
Edmund Spenser (Sonnets), Sir Walter Raleigh (The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd) ,
and William Shakespeare (Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra,
The Merchant of Venice and other plays and sonnets).

The Jacobean Age is named for the reign of James I. It includes the works of John
Donne, Shakespeare, Michael Drayton, John Webster, Elizabeth Cary, Ben Jonson,
and Lady Mary Wroth. The King James translation of the Bible also appeared during the
Jacobean Age. The Caroline Age covers the reign of Charles I (“Carolus”). John Milton
(Paradise Lost, On His Blindness), Robert Burton, and George Herbert are some of the
notable figures.

The Caroline era refers to the period in English and Scottish history named for the 24-
year reign of Charles I (1625–1649). The term is derived from Carolus, the Latin for
Charles. It should not be confused with the Carolean era which refers to the reign of
Charles I's son King Charles II.[2]

The Caroline era was dominated by growing religious, political, and social discord
between the King and his supporters, termed the Royalist party, and
the Parliamentarian opposition that evolved in response to particular aspects of
Charles's rule. While the Thirty Years' War was raging in continental Europe, Britain had
an uneasy peace, growing more restless as the civil conflict between the King and the
supporters of Parliament worsened.

The Caroline period saw the flourishing of the cavalier poets (including Thomas
Carew, Richard Lovelace, and John Suckling) and the metaphysical
poets (including George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Katherine Philips), movements that
produced figures like John Donne, Robert Herrick and John Milton.[6]

The cavalier poets strove to create poetry where both pleasure and virtue thrived. They
were rich in reference to the ancients, and most poems "celebrate beauty, love, nature,
sensuality, drinking, good fellowship, honor, and social life".

The Commonwealth was the political structure during the period from 1649 to 1660
when England and Wales, later along with Ireland and Scotland, were governed as a
republic after the end of the Second English Civil War and the trial and execution of
Charles I. Oliver Cromwell came to power and upon his death in 1658 his son Richard
Cromwell ruled until 1660. Authors were not productive during this critical times, but to
name a few; Thomas Hobbes ( Leviathan in 1651), Jeremy Taylor (Holy Living,1650)
and Vaughan
The 17th Century

The 17th century was characterized by doubt and dissension brought about by civil
strifes. The metaphysical poets such as John Donne sought to probe deeply into the
origins of human feelings. They employed complex allusive images and had
considerable impact on modern poetry. Other popular metaphysical poets were George
Herbert, Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace and Sir John Suckling. They were otherwise
known as Cavalier Poets. Sir Thomas Browne is considered the greatest prose writer of
this epoch. He wrote “Religio Medici” (1642).

Restoration Literature

After the civil strife, writers who lived in the second half of the 17 th century have been
divided. But one great poet emerged in this era--John Milton. He published hi earliest
poems during the reign of Charles I and played a very important role during the time of
commonwealth. After the restoration of Charles II, he wrote one of his noblest works
—“Paradise Lost” (1660).

The 18th Century

The 18th Century has been called the Augustan Age, The Neoclassical Age and the Age
of Reason. The influences of this age are obviously from the latter part of the 17 th
century, most especially the works of Dryden. When Dryden died in 1700, Alexander
Pope took his place. Other contemporary poets of Pope are: John Gay (Beggar’s
Opera), James Thomson (The Seasons), William Collins and William Cowper, Thomas
Gray (Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard).

Prose writers in 18th century were; Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe), Jonathan Swift
(Gulliver’s Travels), Samuel Richardson (Pamela and Clarissa Harlowe), Henry Fielding
(Tom Jones), Tobias Smollett (Perigrine Pickle, Humphrey Clicker), Oliver Goldsmith
(Vicar of Wakefield) Fanny Burney, first female English novelist (Evelina).

The Romantic Period (1785–1832)

During this period poetry is the common form of writing. There was a reaction against
the scientific rationality of Neoclassicism and the Industrial Revolution. Individuality,
intuition, imagination, idealism, nature (as opposed to society & social order) were
emphasized. Elevation of the common man, mystery and the supernatural were
characterized.

The time period ends with the passage of the Reform Bill (which signaled the Victorian
Era) and with the death of Sir Walter Scott. American literature has its own Romantic
period, but typically when one speaks of Romanticism, one is referring to this great and
diverse age of British literature, perhaps the most popular and well-known of all literary
ages.

Romantic era have Noted Authors as Robert Burns (To a Mouse), William Blake
(Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience), William Wordsworth (Lyrical
Ballads),Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Kubla Kahn, The Rime of Ancient Mariner), Lord
Byron (Don Juan), Percy Bysshe Shelley (Ozymandias, Cenci ) and John Keats
(Endymion, Ode on a Grecian Urn)

The Famous Romantic novelists are: Sir Walter Scott (The Lay of the Last Minstrel),
Jane Austen (Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma,
Persuasion), Benjamin Disraeli-British Prime Minister (Vivian Grey, Coningsby, Sybil,
Tancred)

The Victorian Period (1832–1901)

This period is named for the reign of Queen Victoria, who ascended to the throne in
1837, and it lasts until her death in 1901. It was a time of great social, religious,
intellectual, and economic issues, heralded by the passage of the Reform Bill, which
expanded voting rights. The period has often been divided into “Early” (1832–1848),
“Mid” (1848–1870) and “Late” (1870–1901) periods or into two phases, that of the Pre-
Raphaelites (1848–1860) and that of Aestheticism and Decadence (1880–1901).
The novel is the dominant form of literature during this time period. Victorian literature
was notable for the creation of atypical heroes. This was a response to Imperialism and
fear about the following: Change, instability , fluctuation of beliefs & assimilation

The Victorian period is in strong contention with the Romantic period for being the most
popular, influential, and prolific period in all of English (and world) literature. Poets of
this time include Robert Browning(My Last Duchess) and Elizabeth Barrett Browning
(How Do I Love Thee), Christina Rossetti (Goblin Market and other Poems), and
Matthew Arnold (Dover Beach), Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and Walter Pater were
advancing the essay form at this time. Finally, prose fiction truly found its place under
the auspices of Charlotte Bronte (Jane Eyre) and Emily Bronte ( Wuthering Heights),
Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot-Mary Ann Evans (Silas Marner), Thomas Hardy (The
Poor Man and the Lady), William Makepeace Thackeray, and Samuel Butler
( Erewhon), Charles Dickens (Great Expectations), Rudyard Kipling (Jungle Book) ,
Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland) , Charlotte Brontë (Jane Eyre) , Emily
Brontë (Wuthering Heights), Alfred, Lord Tennyson (In Memoriam) , Oscar Wilde (The
Importance of Being Earnest).

19th Century Period

The 19th century English literary period is the era of the novels. This was brought about
by the circulating libraries, and the growth of popular education. Some famous novels
are, Great Expectations, Charles Dickens; Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë; Middlemarch,
George Eliot; Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë; Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy; A
Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens; Persuasion, Jane Austen; The Picture of Dorian
Gray, Oscar Wilde.

The Modern Period (1914–?)

The modern period traditionally applies to works written after the start of World War I.
Common features include bold experimentation with subject matter, style, and form,
encompassing narrative, verse, and drama. W.B. Yeats’ words, “Things fall apart; the
center cannot hold,” are often referred to when describing the core tenet or “feeling” of
modernist concerns.

Some of the most notable writers of this period include the novelists James Joyce,
Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Dorothy Richardson,
Graham Greene, E.M. Forster, and Doris Lessing; the poets W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot,
W.H. Auden, Seamus Heaney, Wilfred Owens, Dylan Thomas, and Robert Graves; and
the dramatists Tom Stoppard, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Frank
McGuinness, Harold Pinter, and Caryl Churchill.

New Criticism also appeared at this time, led by the likes of Woolf, Eliot, William
Empson, and others, which reinvigorated literary criticism in general. It is difficult to say
whether modernism has ended, though we know that postmodernism has developed
after and from it; for now, the genre remains ongoing.

Activity 2

1. Recall and enumerate the English literary periods with a brief description of each.
Then mention at least two popular authors for each period along with their literary work.

2. What are your favorite English literary pieces? Choose at least three literary pieces.
Elucidate why they are your most treasured literary pieces.

References:.

https://www.thoughtco.com/british-literary-periods-739034
https://literacle.com/eras-of-the-english-literature/
Assignment: Read the epic Beowulf from World Mythology by Donna
Rosenberg