Overview of British Literary Periods

Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (450–1066)

The term Anglo-Saxon comes from two Germanic tribes: the Angles and the Saxons.

This period of literature dates back to their invasion of Celtic England circa 450. The era ends in 1066 when Norman France, under William, conquered England.

some important works are Beowulf and those of the period poets Caedmon and Cynewulf.

Middle English Period (1066–1500)

Notable works include "Piers Plowman" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."

The era extends to around 1500.This period is home to the likes of Chaucer, Thomas Malory, and Robert Henryson.

The Middle English period was a great transition in the language, culture, and way of life of England and results in what we can recognize today as a modern form of the language.

The Renaissance (1500–1660)

This period is often subdivided into four parts, including the Elizabethan Age (1558–1603), the Jacobean Age (1603–1625), the Caroline Age (1625–1649), and the Commonwealth Period (1649–1660).

The Elizabethan Age was the golden age of English drama,The Jacobean Age is named for the reign of James I,The Caroline Age covers the reign of Charles I and the Commonwealth Period was so named for the period between the end of the English Civil War and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy.

Some of its noteworthy figures include Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser, Sir Walter Raleigh, and, of course, William Shakespeare.

The Neoclassical Period (1600–1785)

The Age of Sensibility was the time of Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon, Hester Lynch Thrale, James Boswell, and, of course, Samuel Johnson.

The period of the Restoration occurs especially in the theater, Satire also became quite popular.The Augustan era was the time of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift.

The Neoclassical period is also subdivided into ages, The Restoration (1660–1700), The Augustan Age (1700–1745), and The Age of Sensibility (1745–1785).

The Romantic Period (1785–1832)

The romantic period is said to have begun in 1785 immediately after the Age of Sensibility. Others say it started in 1789 with the start of the French Revolution, and still, others believe it started in 1798.

American literature has its romantic period, when speaking of romanticism it refers to the great and diverse era of British literature, perhaps the most popular and well-known of all literary eras,There is also a minor period, also quite popular (between 1786–1800), called the Gothic era.

The most outstanding authors: Wordsworth, Coleridge, William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Charles Lamb, Mary Wollstonecraft, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas De Quincey, Jane Austen, and Mary Shelley.

The Victorian Period (1832–1901)

Poets of this time include Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold.

The period has often been divided into “Early” (1832–1848), “Mid” (1848–1870) and “Late” (1870–1901) periods or into two phases, that of the Pre-Raphaelites (1848–1860) and that of Aestheticism and Decadence (1880–1901).

This period is named for the reign of Queen Victoria, who ascended to the throne in 1837, and it lasts until her death in 1901

The Edwardian Period (1901–1914)

This period is named for King Edward VII,it is a short period

The era includes classic novelists such as Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, and Henry James.

Some notable poets, Alfred Noyes and William Butler Yeats; and playwrights such as James Barrie, George Bernard Shaw, and John Galsworthy.

The Georgian Period (1910–1936)

The themes are treated with delicacy and tradition rather than with passion.

Georgian poetry is typically considered to be the works of minor poets anthologized by Edward Marsh.

The Georgian period refers to the reign of George V (1910-1936), but also includes the reigns of the four successive Georges from 1714 to 1830.

The Modern Period (1914–1945)

The modern period traditionally applies to works written after the start of World War I.

Common features include bold experimentation with theme, style, and form, spanning narrative, verse, and drama.

Some of the most notable writers of this period include the novelists James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Dorothy Richardson, Graham Greene, Seamus Heaney, Wilfred Owens, Dylan Thomas, and Robert Graves; and the dramatists Tom Stoppard, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett.

The Postmodern Period (1945–?present)

Some notable writers of the period include Samuel Beckett, Joseph Heller, Anthony Burgess, John Fowles.

some believe it is a direct response to modernism. others say the period ended around 1990.

The postmodern period begins about the time that World War II ended.