British Literature Time Periods Old English Anglo Saxon

British Literature Time Periods

Old English (Anglo Saxon) Period c. 450 -1066 • Genre/Style – Poetry (Epic and Elegiac – Prose – Riddles – Metaphorical and alliterative – Paraphrasing of Biblical texts

Old English (Anglo Saxon) Period c. 450 -1066 • Focus/Aspect – German heroes – Positive and negative aspects of life – Religious messages – Handed down orally from one generation to another – Latin used in schools and churches

Old English (Anglo Saxon) Period c. 450 -1066 • Historical Context – The invasion of Celtic England by Germanic tribes – The culture and forming of borders was developed – Religious evolution by Christian missionaries – Ethelbert, the King of Kent, is the first English king to convert to Christianity – The Battle of Hastings: The conquest of England, by the Norman-French William the Conqueror in 1066 ended Saxon rule.

Old English (Anglo Saxon) Period c. 450 -1066 • Literary pieces – Beowulf (Epic) – The Wanderer (Elegiac) – Writings of Alfred the Great – Caedmon’s Hymn – Monk Venerable Bede’s The Ecclesiastical History of the English People – Exeter Book (Riddles and religious poems)

The Middle Ages (Middle English) Period) 10 -66 -1500 • Genre/Style – Legends – Ballads – Songs – Drama – Elegy – Devotional books – Allegories – Biblical translations

Old English (Anglo Saxon) Period c. 450 -1066 • Focus/Aspect – Arthurian/Chivalry – Secular and religious thems – Appeal to popular audience – Mystery and morality

Old English (Anglo Saxon) Period c. 450 -1066 • Historical Aspects/ Perspectives – Founding of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge – King John signed the Magna Carta – English replaces Latin in school instruction around 1350 (except at Cambridge and Oxford) – Hundred Years War – The Black Death kills 1/3 of the population – First English printing press in 1476 – Columbus travels to America in 1492

Old English (Anglo Saxon) Period c. 450 -1066 • Literary pieces – King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table – Sir Gawain and the Green Knight – Malory’s Morte D’Arthur – Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales – Everyman

English Renaissance (Early Modern Period) 1500 -1660 • Genre/Style – – – Poetry Drama Epic Non-fiction prose Translations Lyrical style Elegy Tragedy Comedy Pastoral Blank verse

English Renaissance (Early Modern Period) 1500 -1660 • Focus/Aspect – Humanism stressed – Theatre re-emerges – Violence shown on stage, which eventually led to the closing of theatre – Some poems intended to be set to music – Religious focus – Focus on chastity and housewifery

English Renaissance (Early Modern Period) 1500 -1660 • Historical Aspects/ Perspectives – Eras: The Tudors; the Elizabethan Age; Jacobean Age; Puritan Interregnum – Henry VIII becomes king – Increase in publishing ventures – English Church breaks away from Roman Catholicism under Henry VIII – More than 10, 000 words addes – Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses (1517)

English Renaissance (Early Modern Period) 1500 -1660 • Literary Pieces – King James Bible – Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Macbeth – Sir Thomas More’s Utopia – Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin – Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene

Neoclassical Period (Age of Englightenment) 1660 -1785 • Genre/Style – – – Drama Novels Poetry Prose Diaries Essays Letters Satire Wit Classic style Heroic couplet

Neoclassical Period (Age of Englightenment) 1660 -1785 • Focus/Aspect – Aristrocracy – Life in the court – Focus on one’s instinct, feeling, and imagination – Social needs outweigh individual needs – Themes of restraint and order – Focus on the study of grammar

Neoclassical Period (Age of Englightenment) 1660 -1785 • Historical Aspects/ Perspectives – Eras: Restoration Age; Augustan Age; The Age of Sensibility – Charles I is crowned – Puritan ban on theatres was lifted – Great Plague – Great fire of London – The flourishing of art and architecture – England Scotland became Great Britain in 1707 – America declares independence from Britain on July 4, 1776

Neoclassical Period (Age of Englightenment) 1660 -1785 • Literary pieces – John Milton’s Paradise Lost – Diary of Samuel Pepys – John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress – Isaac Newton’s Principles of Mathematics – Congreve’s The Way of the World – Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels – Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe – Joseph Addison- prose and poetry

The Romantic Period 1785 -1837 • Genre/Style – Poetry – Novel – Gothic novel: romance, the supernatural, and terror – Prose – Drama

The Romantic Period 1785 -1837 • Focus/Aspect – Focus on emotions, adventure, and imagination – Rejection of the emphasis on logic and reason of the Enlightenment – Gain insight into the divine through nature – Importance of personal experiences and individuality – Escape from reality – Art to be enjoyed by all

The Romantic Period 1785 -1837 • Historical Aspects/ Perspectives – Victoria becomes Queen at 18 – Britain goes to war with France – Slave trade is abolished in Britain in 1807 – Reform of Britain’s social security by Poor Law of 1834 – Revolt against aristocracy

The Romantic Period 1785 -1837 • Literary Piece – Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) – Poetry of Burns, Blake, Coleridge, Lord Byron, Shelley, and Keats – Novels by Jane Austin, Sir Walter Scott, and Ann Radcliffe – Woodsworth’s lyrical ballad