Major Literary Movements in British LiteratureTime Period

DatesAuthor/

Major PiecesHistory Themes/Philosophies/Ideas

Old English/Anglo-Saxon Period 449-1066

Beowulf“The Seafarer” at first the people were warriors from

invading outlying areas: Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Danes

Christianity helps literacy to spread introduces Roman alphabet to Britain

Many Battles fought

juxtaposition of church and pagan worlds

Warriors and battle

oral tradition helps unite diverse peoples and their myths

Middle English Period (The Medieval Period) 1066-1485

Chaucer’s The Canterbury TalesSir Gawain and the Green Knight

Crusades bring money to Britain

Henry III is king.

William the Conqueror crowned in 1066.

Chivalry – Knights of the Round Table

Courtly Love

The Renaissance 1485-1660

* William Shakespeare   Macbeth  * Christopher Marlowe

War of the Roses ends

Gutenberg Printing Press is developed

Elizabeth I is queen

James I succeeds Elizabeth I

The Globe Theatre is built

Stresses life on earth and human potential on earth

Science calls religion into question

Major Literary Movements in British LiteratureTime Period

DatesAuthor/

Major PiecesHistorical Context Themes/Ideas/Philosophies

Neoclassical Period (The Restoration) 1660-1798

Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal” and Gulliver’s Travels

John Locke

Locke’s treatise on govt is published

Industrial Revolution begins

emphasis on reason and logic stresses harmony, stability, wisdom

belief that man is basically evil

Age of Reason

Romanticism 1798 – 1832

Novelists: Jane Austen, Mary Shelley William Wordsworth,

Napoleon Rises to power

Railroads begin to run

The middle class gets representation in parliament

Society is evil, not man

Recognizes the beauty of nature

Focus on the “sublime” – nature has power over man

Introduces gothic elements – terror/horror

Major Literary Movements in British LiteratureTime Period

DatesAuthor/

Major PiecesHistorical Context Philosophies/Ideas/Themes

Victorian Period 1832-1900

Charles DickensThomas Hardy George EliotOscar Wilde, Darwin

Known as the long period of peace

Libraries are popular

Victoria is Queen

Rise of the sweatshop

Struggle between the newly forming middle class and the landed gentry

Modern/Post Modern Period of Literature 1900-1980

William Golding, Lord of the FliesGeorge Orwell, 1984

British Empire loses 1 million soldiers to World War I

Winston Churchill leads Britain through WW II, and the Germans bomb England directly

British colonies demand independence

lonely individual fighting to find peace and comfort in a cruel world

loss of the hero in literature-rise of the antihero