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Literary Time Periods and Movements
Homeric (Heroic) Period (1200 – 800 BCE)◦ Legends passed orally◦ Period of warrior princes, wandering sea-traders
and fierce pirates◦ Homer records The Iliad and The Odyssey
The Classical Era (1200 BCE – 455 CE) –
4 Distinct Periods
Classical Greek (800 – 200 BCE)◦ Sophisticated period of the polis (City-State)◦ Period of great philosophers and tragediansPhilosophers◦ Plato◦ Socrates◦ Aristotle
Authors/Playwrights◦ Aesop (fables)◦ Euripides◦ Sophocles The Golden Age of
Greece
Classical Roman Period (200 BCE – 455 CE)◦ Greek culture gives way to Roman power (circa
146 CE)◦ Although Roman Republic traditionally founded
around 509 BCE it is limited◦ After approx. 500 years the Republic, slides into
dictatorship under Julius Caesar and later into a monarchy under Augustus (27 CE)…AKA Roman Imperial Period
◦ Writers include Ovid, Horace and Virgil
From Ovid’s Metamorphosis
Patristic Period (c. 70 CE – 455 CE)◦ Early Christian writers: Saint Augustine, Tertullian◦ Christianity spreads across Europe◦ Bible compiled by Saint Jerome◦ Roman Empire is declining
Barbarians attack in 410 CE Rome falls in 455 CE
St. Augustine
“Dark Ages”◦ Follow the fall of Rome◦ Britain settled by the Angles, Saxons & Jutes
(displacing the Celts)◦ Early Old English poems like Beowulf originate
Medieval Period (455 – 1485 CE)
Carolingian Renaissance (800 – 850)◦ Early medieval grammar texts◦ Encyclopedias ◦ Viking Sagas recorded
Middle English Period (1066 – 1450)◦ 1066 Norman Invasion
William of Normandy assumes the English throne◦ French chivalric romances
Chrétien de Troyes – tales of Arthurian knights◦ French fables
Medieval continued
Late or “High” Medieval Period (1200 – 1485)◦ Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales
◦ Italian and French authors: Petrarch and Dante
Medieval continued
Early Tudor (1485-1558)◦ Historically, The War of the Roses ends (a battle
for control of the throne between the houses of Lancaster and York)
◦ Martin Luther splits from Rome and Protestantism emerges
◦ Henry VIII forms the Anglican Church◦ Edmund Spenser – poet
Renaissance and Reformationc. 1485 – 1660 (Five periods)
Elizabethan Period (1558 – 1603)◦ Historically, Queen Elizabeth I credited with
saving England from Spanish invasion and internal conflict
◦ Literature is a blend of medieval tradition and Renaissance optimism.
◦ Lyric poetry and drama flourish Shakespeare Christopher Marlowe Sir Walter Raleigh Ben Jonson
◦ The plague closes theaters periodically
Jacobean Age (1603 – 1625)◦ Literature becomes more sophisticated, somber
and conscious of social abuses and rivalry.◦ King James I commissions the translation of the
Bible◦ The Gunpowder Plot is foiled and Guy Fawkes is
found responsible◦ Shakespeare retires
The Caroline Age (1625-1649)◦ Ends with the execution of Charles I ◦ “Metaphysical” poets
Characterized by wit, elaborate conceits, examination of religious and moral questions
John Donne, Andrew Marvell, George Herbert
◦ The Cavalier Poets Celebrated beauty, love, nature, sensuality, drinking, good
fellowship, honor, and social life Supporters of Charles I Include Robert Herrick, Richard Lovelace, Thomas Carew and
Sir John Suckling
Commonwealth Period (1649 – 1660)◦ Aka Puritan Interregnum – period of Puritan
dictator Oliver Cromwell (no monarch)◦ Political writings of Thomas Hobbes◦ John Milton is working on Paradise Lost (though
not published until 1667)◦ Theaters had been closed in 1642 because of
Puritan objections on religious and moral grounds; therefore, little/no drama was produced during this time.
“Neoclassical” refers to the increased influence of Classical literature upon these decades.
Also called The Enlightenment because of increased reverence for logic and a disdain of superstition
Marked by the rise of Deism: belief that God has created the universe but remains apart from it and permits his creation to administer itself through natural laws; thus, rejects the supernatural aspects of religion, such as belief in revelation in the Bible, and stresses the importance of ethical conduct.
The Enlightenment (Neoclassical)1660 - 1790
Restoration (1660 – 1770)◦ Monarchy restored to England◦ Reason and tolerance triumph over religious and
political passion◦ Writers include John Dryden and John Lock
The Enlightenment continued
Augustan Age (1700 – 1750)◦ Characterized by refinement, clarity, elegance
and balance of judgment◦ Imitative of Virgil and Horace◦ Satirist Jonathan Swift, poet Alexander Pope,
novelist Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe)◦ In France Voltaire
Age of Johnson (1750 – 1790)◦ Still largely neoclassical though transitioning
toward romanticism◦ Poets like Robert Burns ◦ In America this period is called the Colonial Period
Includes colonial and revolutionary writers like Franklin, Jefferson, and Thomas Paine.
Focus is on nature, imagination and individuality
Transcendental Period (American, 1830 – 1850)
Gothic writings which overlap Romanticism and the English Victorian period and continue through later periods
Romanticism (1790 – 1830)
Coincides with reign of Queen Victoria Sentimental novels – the Bronte Sisters Novels of social advancement – Dickens,
Hardy Pre-Raphaelites: idealize and long for
morality of medieval times
Victorian Period and the 19th Century (1832 – 1901)
Victorian “prudery”◦ “Sun never sets on the British Empire”◦ British Empire (Imperialism/Colonization)◦ Industrial Revolution
Aestheticism and Decadence - “Art of Art’s Sake”◦ Sensual pleasure vs. moral and sentimental
messages◦ Oscar Wilde
19th Century continued
In both Europe and America, writers are striving to depict “real” life often with the intent to critique social conditions
Regionalism: reflects the culture and traditions of particular regions of country◦ Employs local color
Naturalism: realism that addresses the role of nature, hereditary and environment on the fate of man.
Realism/Regionalism/Naturalism
Early realists◦ George Eliot◦ Thomas Hardy◦ Henry James◦ Joseph Conrad
Regionalists (local colorists)◦ Mark Twain◦ Kate Chopin
Naturalists◦ Jack London◦ Stephan Crane
Authors/Poets
In Britain, The Edwardian and Georgian periods.
No specific name in American literature Primarily literature of this time period
continued to be realistic and focused on the social, political and economic conditions of the time
Bloomsbury Group (London) – Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster
1901 – 1914 ???
Experimentation with subject matter, form and style
Includes members of the Bloomsbury Group, The Lost Generation (coined by Gertrude Stein) and the Harlem Renaissance
The Lost Generation – American ex-patriots writing about their disillusionment with the “American Dream” following the World Wars; includes Hemingway, Dos Passos, Stein, Fitzgerald (who coined the term “Jazz Age”), T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound
Modernism (1914-1945)
Harlem Renaissance
Modernism continued
Existentialism grows: Sartre, Camus, Kafka Writers of the Great Depression include
Steinbeck and Eugene O’Neill Southern Gothic: Faulkner, Flannery
O’Connor
Modernism Continued
Theater of the Absurd: Samuel Becket, Eugene Ionesco, Tom Stoppard, John Gardner
Multiculturalism – increasing “canonization” of non-Caucasian writers like Sandra Cisneros, Amy Tan, Sherman Alexie
Postmodernism 1945 - ??
Magical Realism – surrealistic writings embroidered in the conventions of realism (Gabriel Garcia Marques, Luis Borges, Salman Rushdie, Julio Cortazar)
Postmodernism continued
New Millenialism? What authors or works will be canonized?
What’s next?