1. British Literature Time Periods

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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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)

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

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

8. 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

9. 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

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

11. 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 the theatre
Some poems intended to be set to music
Religious focus
Focus on chastity and housewifery

12. 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)

13. 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

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

15. 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

16. 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 and Scotland became Great Britain in 1707
America declares independence from Britain on July 4, 1776

17. 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

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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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