English Literature Literary Periods PDF

ENGLISH LITERATURE Historical Periods  Learning OBJECTIVE Identify the literary periods and notable writers  ANGLO-SAXONPeriod The term Anglo-Saxon comes from two Germanic tribes: the Angles and the Saxons. This period of literature dates back to their invasio...

ENGLISH LITERATURE Historical Periods  Learning OBJECTIVE Identify the literary periods and notable writers  ANGLO-SAXONPeriod The term Anglo-Saxon comes from two Germanic tribes: the Angles and the Saxons. This period of literature dates back to their invasion (along with the Jutes) of Celtic England circa 450. The era ended in 1066 when Norman France, under William, conquered England. Beowulf (unknown author) – Epic of heroism and monsters.  MIDDLE ENGLISH Period The Middle English period saw a huge transition in the language, culture, and lifestyle of England and resulted in what we can recognize today as a form of “modern” (recognizable) English. The era extends to around 1500. Notable Writers in MIDDLE ENGLISH Geoffrey Chaucer Canterbury Tales Satirical and diverse tales Notable Writers in MIDDLE ENGLISH Sir Thomas Malory Le Morte d’Arthur  THE RENAISSANCE Period This period is often subdivided into four parts, including the Early Tudor Age (1500–1558), Elizabethan Age (1558–1603), the Jacobean Age (1603–1625), the Caroline Commonwealth Period (1649–1660). Early Tudor Age Sir Thomas Wyatt He introduced sonnet in English literature. Sonnets Francesco Petrarch Petrarchan sonnets have 14 lines, divided into 2 subgroups: an octave and a sestet. Rhyme: ABBA ABBA CDE CDE/CDC CDC  Tears, bitter tears fall in a bitter rain, And my heart trembles with a storm of sighs When on your beauty bend my burning eyes, For whose sole sake the world seems flat and vain. But ah, when I can see that smile again, That chaste, sweet, delicate smile, then passion dies Withered in its own flaming agonies Gazing upon you, passion is lost and pain. But all too soon my very soul is rocked When you depart and with your passing dear Pluck from my perilous heaven my stars, O Sweet! Then at the last, by Love's own keys unlocked, My soul from out my body leaping clear On wings of meditation finds your feet. Sonnets William Shakespeare Shakespearian sonnets have 14 lines divided into 4 subgroups: 3 quatrains and a couplet. Rhyme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG  My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lips’ red; If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head. I have seen roses damasked, red and white, But no such roses see I in her cheeks, And in some perfumes is there more delight Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak, yet well I know That music hath a far more pleasing sound. I grant I never saw a goddess go; My mistress, when she walks, treads on the ground. And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any she belied with false compare. Sonnets Edmund Spenser A Spenserian sonnet is a variation on the Shakespearean sonnet, with a more challenging rhyme scheme Rhyme: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE. Early Tudor Age Henry Howard He innovated blank verse. Elizabethan Age William Shakespeare Sonnets, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, All’s Well That Ends Well Shakespeare’s Neologisms Words: Bandit Lonely Majestic Critic Unaware Manager Dauntless Undress Radiance Dwindle Uncomfortable Addiction Elbow Unearthly Bedazzled Lackluster Unreal Sanctimonious Phrases: Star-crossed lovers Brave new world Good riddance What's done is done Fair play A laughing stock Elizabethan Age Christopher Marlowe Doctor Faustus Elizabethan Age Edmund Spenser The Faerie Queene Spenserian Sonnet Puritan Age John Donne Holy sonnets Caroline and Commonwealth Period John Milton Paradise Lost Augustan Age Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels Notable Writers in REGENCY PERIOD Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), (1814), Emma (1815), and Persuasion Notable Writers in ROMANTIC PERIOD William Wordsworth Wordsworth is best known for Lyrical Ballads Notable Writers in ROMANTIC PERIOD Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Christabel Notable Writers in ROMANTIC PERIOD Percy Bysshe Shelly Ode to the West Wind Notable Writers in ROMANTIC PERIOD John Keats Ode to a Nightingale Ode on a Grecian Urn Notable Writers in ROMANTIC PERIOD Mary Shelley Frankenstein Notable Writers in VICTORIAN PERIOD Charles Dickens Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol Notable Writers in VICTORIAN PERIOD Charlotte Brontë Jane Eyre Notable Writers in VICTORIAN PERIOD Alfred Tennyson In Memoriam Notable Writers in VICTORIAN PERIOD Robert Browning My Last Duchess, The Ring and the Book Notable Writers in VICTORIAN PERIOD George Eliot Middlemarch, The Mill on the Floss Notable Writers in MODERN PERIOD James Joyce Ulysses Notable Writers in MODERN PERIOD Virginia Woolf Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and To the Lighthouse (1927) Notable Writers in MODERN PERIOD T.S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns) The Waste Land Notable Writers in MODERN PERIOD George Orwell Animal Farm  CONTEMPORARY English Writers Stephen King J.K. Rowling It Harry Potter Carrie Series END