English Literature: Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Periods

• English literature includes diverse texts, such as poetry, prose, and drama, written in English.
• Spanning from the Anglo-Saxon period to today, it mirrors evolving social, political, and cultural contexts.

Anglo-Saxon Period (c. 450-1066)

• Old English literature features oral tradition, alliterative verse, and heroism and Christianity themes.
• Beowulf is a key epic poem, telling of Beowulf's heroic deeds.
• Religious poems by Cædmon and Cynewulf are also important.
• The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle documents English history in prose.

Medieval Period (1066-1485)

• The Norman Conquest of 1066 brought French language and culture.
• Middle English literature includes romances, allegories, and religious works.
• Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales offers a diverse view of medieval society.
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a chivalric romance.
• William Langland's Piers Plowman provides social commentary.
• Popular drama included mystery, morality, and miracle plays.

Renaissance (c. 1485-1660)

• The Renaissance had a new interest in classical learning and flourishing arts and literature.
• The English sonnet was perfected during the Early Modern Period by William Shakespeare.
• Elizabethan drama peaked with Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Ben Jonson.
• Shakespeare's tragedies include Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth.
• Shakespeare's comedies include A Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night.
• Shakespeare's histories include Richard III and Henry IV.
• Francis Bacon is known for his essays.
• Sir Thomas More wrote Utopia.
• The 1611 King James Bible greatly impacted the English language.

17th Century

• Political and religious upheaval marked the 17th century, reflected in its literature.
• Metaphysical poets like John Donne, George Herbert, and Andrew Marvell explored complex topics using wit.
• John Milton's Paradise Lost retells the Fall of Man.
• The Restoration (1660-1700) saw theaters reopen and Restoration comedy rise.
• William Congreve and William Wycherley were prominent Restoration playwrights.
• John Dryden was a key poet, playwright, and critic.

18th Century

• The 18th century, the Enlightenment or Age of Reason, focused on reason and classical ideals.
• The novel became a key form with writers like Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe), Samuel Richardson (Pamela), and Henry Fielding (Tom Jones).
• Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels is a satire that critiqued society.
• The Graveyard School, including Thomas Gray and Edward Young, explored death and melancholy.
• Alexander Pope wrote satirical verse and translated Homer.
• Samuel Johnson was an important critic, lexicographer, and biographer.

Romantic Period (c. 1798-1837)

• The Romantic era focused on emotion, imagination, and individual experience.
• Key Romantic poets: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats.
• Lyrical Ballads (1798) by Wordsworth and Coleridge began the Romantic movement.
• Romantic novels: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Sir Walter Scott's historical novels.
• Jane Austen wrote novels of manners, like Pride and Prejudice, that satirized society.

Victorian Period (1837-1901)

• The Victorian era featured industrialization, social reform, and moral earnestness.
• Victorian novels discussed poverty, class, and the impact of industrialization.
• Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities.
• Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
• George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) examined social themes in novels like Middlemarch.
• Important poets: Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
• The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, including Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Christina Rossetti, valued beauty and medieval themes.

Modern Period (1901-1945)

• The Modern era was known for experimentation and rejecting tradition.
• Modernist novels used stream of consciousness and subjective experience.
• Key Modernist novelists: James Joyce (Ulysses), Virginia Woolf (Mrs. Dalloway), and Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness).
• T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
• Important Modernist poets: W.B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, and Wilfred Owen.
• George Bernard Shaw and Samuel Beckett innovated drama.

Postmodern Period (1945-Present)

• Postmodern literature has metafiction, irony, and questions narratives.
• Postmodern novelists often mix fiction and reality.
• Key Postmodern novelists: Samuel Beckett, John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo.
• Contemporary literature has diverse styles and voices, reflecting cultures.
• Contemporary authors: Salman Rushdie, Toni Morrison, Margaret Atwood, and Kazuo Ishiguro.
• Contemporary literature addresses identity, globalization, and social justice.