An Overview of English and American Literature What

An Overview of English and American Literature

What is English literature? Literature? English? American literature?

Periods of English Literature (Norton Anthology Periodization) • The Middle Ages ( -1485) • The Sixteenth Century (1485 -1603) • The Seventeenth Century (1603 -1660) • The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (1660 -1798) • The Romantic Period (1798 -1832) • The Victorian Age (1832 -1901) • The Twentieth Century (1901 -present) 1914 -1945 : The Modern Period 1945 - : Postmodern Period

Before the Middle Ages ( -1485) The Roman Period (43 A. D. – 410) • 56 BC: Caesar visited Britain. • 40 AD: Roman colony founded. • 410: Last Roman legion withdrawn from England.

The Middle Ages ( -1485) The Anglo-Saxon Period (450 -1066) • ca. 450: Anglo-Saxon Conquest. • 597: Christianity introduced to England by St. Augustine. . • 1066: England conquered by the Normans.

The Middle Ages ( -1485) The Norman-French Period (1066 -1340) • ca. 1200: Beginnings of Middle English literature. • 1095: The First Crusade begins.

The Middle Ages ( -1485) The Late Middle Ages (1340 -1485) • 1387: Geoffrey Chaucer begins to write The Canterbury Tales. • 1474: First book in English printed by Caxton.

The Sixteenth Century (1485 -1603) • 1485: Henry VII starts the Tudor sovereigns. • 1509: Henry VIII becomes king. • 1558: Elizabeth I becomes queen. • 1576: Theatre built. • 1588: Spanish Armada defeated. • 1603: Elizabeth I dies.

The Seventeenth Century (1603 -1660) • 1603: James I starts the Stuart line. • 1620: Plymouth colony founded. • 1641: Civil War breaks out. All theatres closed. • 1649: Charles I executed; The commonwealth established. • 1660: Charles II restored to throne.

The Restoration and Eighteenth Century (1660 -1798) • 1660: Charles II restored to throne. • 1668: The Glorious Revolution. • 1776: The American colonies united for freedom. • 1789: The French Revolution begin.

The Romantic Period (1798 -1832) • 1798: Lyrical Ballads published. • 1842: The Reform Bill carried in Parliament.

The Victorian Age (1832 -1901) • 1837: Victoria becomes queen. • 1851: The Great Exhibition in London. • 1859: Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species published. • 1901: Queen Victoria dies.

The Twentieth Century (1901 - ) Modern Period (1914 -1945) • 1914 -18: World War I. • 1922: T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land; James Joyce’s Ulysses. • 1930: Period of depression begins. • 1939 -45: World War II breaks out.

The Twentieth Century (1901 Postmodern Period (1945 - ) )

Periods of American Literature (Norton Anthology Periodization) • Early American Literature 1620 -1820 • American Literature 1820 -1865 • American Literature 1865 -1914 • American Literature between the Wars 1914 -1945 • American Literature Since 1945

Early American Literature 1620 -1820 • 1492: Columbus arrives at one of the Bahamas Islands. • 1620: Mayflower Compact signed. • 1776: Declaration of Independence.

American Literature 1820 -1865 • 1831: Nat Turner’s revolt. • 1838 -39: The Trail of Tears. • 1849: California Gold Rush begins. • 1861 -65: American Civil War.

American Literature 1865 -1914 • 1867: Reconstruction Acts. • 1871: Great Chicago Fire.

American Literature between the Wars 1910 -1945 • 1917: U. S. enters World War I. • 1929: Great Depression begins. • 1941: U. S. enters World War II.

American Literature Since 1945 • 1950: Mc. Carthyism begins. • 1961: Vietnam War begins. • 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated. • 1975: Vietnam War ends.