Timeline of British Literature AngloSaxon Period 449 1066

Timeline of British Literature

Anglo-Saxon Period • 449 -1066 • Strong belief in fate • Juxtaposition of the church and pagan worlds • Admiration of heroic warriors who prevail in battle • Express religious faith and give moral instruction through literature

Anglo-Saxon Period • Christianity helps literacy spread • Introduces Roman alphabet to Britain • Oral tradition helps unite diverse people and their myths • Styles / Genres – Oral tradition of literature – Poetry is the dominant genre

Anglo-Saxon Period • Historical Context – Life centered around ancestral tribes/clans that ruled themselves – At first, tribes/clans were warriors from invading outlying areas • Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Danes – Later, they became primarily agricultural

Medieval Period • 1066 -1485 • Plays that instruct the illiterate masses in morals and religion – “Morality Plays” • Chivalric code of honor – Knights, their ladies fair • Religious devotion • Romances

Medieval Period • Style / Genre – Oral tradition continues – Folk Ballads • A song that is traditionally sung by the common people of a region and forms part of their culture

Medieval Period – Mystery plays • Focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches – Miracle plays • Specifically re-enact miraculous interventions by the saints into the lives of ordinary people – Morality Plays • A kind of drama with personified abstract qualities (think: sin, charity, Christian) as the main characters. Presented a lesson about good conduct and character.

Medieval Period – Stock epithets • Any word or phrase applied to a person or thing to describe an actual or attributed quality • Ex: Richard the Lion-Hearted – Kenning • A poetic phrase used in place of the usual name of a person or thing • Ex: “A wave traveler” for “A boat”

Medieval Period • Church instructs its people through the morality and miracle plays • An illiterate population is able to hear and see the literature

Medieval Period • The Crusades bring the development of a money economy for the first time in Britain • Trading increases dramatically • Henry III crowned king in 1154 – Brings a judicial system, royal courts, juries, and chivalry to Britain

The Renaissance • 1485 -1660 • Worldview shifts from religion and afterlife to the human life on earth • Popular Themes – Development of human potential – Love (unrequited, constant, timeless, courtly, Love subject to change)

The Renaissance • Styles / Genres – Poetry • Sonnets – Drama • Written in verse • Supported by royalty • Tragedies, comedies, histories – Metaphysical poetry • Elaborate, unexpected metaphors called “conceits”

The Renaissance • Historical Context – War of Roses ends in 1485 and political stability arrives – The printing press helps stabilize English as a language and allows more people to read a variety of literature – Economy changes from farm-based to international trade

The Restoration • 1660 -1785 – 1660 -1700: emphasis on decorum – 1700 -1745: emphasis on satire and on a wide public readership – 1745 -1785: emphasis on revolutionary ideas • Literacy has expanded to include the middle classes and even some of the poor • Emphasis on rules, reason, and logic – The Age of Enlightenment

The Restoration • Styles / Genre – Satire • Uses irony and exaggeration to poke fun at human faults and foolishness in order to correct human behavior – Novels becoming better known than poetry – Essays – Letters, diaries, biographies – Notes

The Restoration • Historical Context – 50% of men are functionally literate – Factories begin to spring up as the industrial revolution starts – Impoverished masses begin to grow as farming life declines and factories build – Coffee houses: educated men spend evening with literary and political associates

Romanticism • 1785 -1830 • A literary, artistic, and intellectual movement • Partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution – It was a revolt against the aristocratic social and political norms of Enlightenment • Celebrated emotion, spontaneity, imagination, subjectivity, and the purity of nature

Romanticism • Validated intense emotion as an authentic source of experience – New emphasis on • Apprehension • Horror and terror • Awe • Romantics wanted to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl, and industrialism

Romanticism • Historical Context – The Industrial Revolution – Laissez Faire • “Let (people) do (as they please)” • The rich grew richer, the poor suffered even more

Realism /Naturalism • 1830 -1901 • Realism – Aimed for an honest portrayal over sensationalism, exaggeration, or melodrama – Desired an accurate and detailed portrayal of ordinary, contemporary life

Realism /Naturalism • Naturalism – An offshoot of the realism movement – An intensification of realism – Used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character

Realism /Naturalism • The novel begins to rise in popularity • Historical context – Great Reform Act – Slavery banned in British colonies – Irish potato famine – Ten Hour Act

Modern/Post-Modern • 1900 -1980 • The loss of the hero in literature • Major theme: technology’s destruction of society • Free verse poetry • Novelists begin writing in “stream of consciousness”

Modern/Post-Modern • Increasing role of science and technology • Mass literacy and proliferation of mass media • Spread of social movements • Individualism • Industrialization • Urbanization

Modern/Post-Modern • Historical Context – World War II