This document provides an overview of major British literary periods from Old English to Modern periods. It discusses some of the notable authors and works from each period. Some of the periods discussed include the Old English period which included works like Beowulf, the Renaissance period known for Shakespeare and Marlowe, the Romantic period with Wordsworth and Coleridge, and the Modern period with writers like Woolf, Joyce and Eliot. The document also briefly discusses Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare, two giants of world literature who died just one day apart in 1616 and have been translated into over 100 and 140 languages respectively.
This document provides an overview of major British literary periods from Old English to Modern periods. It discusses some of the notable authors and works from each period. Some of the periods discussed include the Old English period which included works like Beowulf, the Renaissance period known for Shakespeare and Marlowe, the Romantic period with Wordsworth and Coleridge, and the Modern period with writers like Woolf, Joyce and Eliot. The document also briefly discusses Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare, two giants of world literature who died just one day apart in 1616 and have been translated into over 100 and 140 languages respectively.
This document provides an overview of major British literary periods from Old English to Modern periods. It discusses some of the notable authors and works from each period. Some of the periods discussed include the Old English period which included works like Beowulf, the Renaissance period known for Shakespeare and Marlowe, the Romantic period with Wordsworth and Coleridge, and the Modern period with writers like Woolf, Joyce and Eliot. The document also briefly discusses Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare, two giants of world literature who died just one day apart in 1616 and have been translated into over 100 and 140 languages respectively.
Although historians have delineated the eras of British literature in different ways over time, common divisions are outlined below. The Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (450-1066) This period of primarily oral literature dates back to the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Celtic England circa 450. The era ends in 1066 when Norman France, under William, conquered England. A lot of the prose during this time was a translation of something else or otherwise legal, medical, or religious in nature; however, some works, such as “Beowulf” and those by period poets Caedmon and Cynewulf, are important. The Middle English Period (1066-1500) As with the Old English period, much of the Middle English writings were religious in nature; however, from about 1350 onward, secular literature began to rise. This period is home to the likes of Chaucer, Thomas Malory, and Robert Henryson. Notable works include “Piers Plowman” and “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.” The Renaissance (1500-1660) This period is subdivided into four parts. The Elizabethan Age (1558- 1603) was the golden age of English drama, some of its noteworthy figures being Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser, Sir Walter Raleigh, and, of course, William Shakespeare. The Jacobean Age (1603- 1625), named for the reign of James I, includes the works of John Donne, Shakespeare, Michael Drayton, John Webster, Elizabeth Cary, Ben Jonson, and Lady Mary Wroth. The Caroline Age (1625-1649) covers the reign of Charles I, with John Milton, Robert Burton, and George Herbert being some of the notable figures. Finally, the Commonwealth Period (1649-1660) was so named for the period between the end of the English Civil War and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy. At this time, John Milton and Thomas Hobbes’ political writings appeared and prose writers such as Thomas Fuller, Abraham Cowley, and Andrew Marvell published prolifically. The Neoclassical Period (1600-1785) The Neoclassical period is also subdivided into three ages. The Restoration (1660-1700) sees the development of comedies of manner under the talent of playwrights like William Congreve and John Dryden. The Augustan Age (1700-1745) was the climax of the oeuvre of Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and Daniel Defoe. The Age of Sensibility (1745-1785) was characterized by the Enlightenment ideas being championed by the novelists Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Tobias Smollett, and Laurence Sterne as well as the poets William Cowper and Thomas Percy. ЗГАДУЮЧИ ПРО ВЕЛЕТІВ (1) Вони жили в одну епоху, але в різних країнах… Вони померли майже одночасно – з різницею в один день… Але їх обох досі вважають найбільшими велетами світової літератури. Міґель де Сервантес Сааведра – іспанський новеліст, драматург і поет, класик світової літератури – залишив цю землю 22 квітня 1616-го. А Вільям Шекспір – англійський драматург Єлизаветинської епохи, один із найвідоміших драматургів та поетів світу, пішов із життя 23 квітня того ж року. Шекспіра вважають батьком всіх драматургів світу, він є автором принаймні 17 комедій, 10 хронік, 11 трагедій, 5 поем і циклу зі 154 сонетів. Сервантес прославився передусім твором «Дон Кіхот», який багато критиків називають першим сучасним романом та одним із найкращих творів світу. Він є батьком усіх сучасних письменників- романістів. Seminar 2 A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF BRITISH LITERARY PERIODS (2) The Romantic Period (1785-1832) This era includes the works of such juggernauts as Wordsworth, Coleridge, William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Charles Lamb, Mary Wollstonecraft, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas De Quincey, Jane Austen, and Mary Shelley. There is also a minor period, also quite popular (between 1786-1800), called the Gothic era. Writers of note for this period include Matthew Lewis, Anne Radcliffe, and William Beckford. The Victorian Period (1832-1901) This period, named for the reign of Queen Victoria, was a time heralded by the passage of the Reform Bill, which expanded voting rights. Poets of this time include Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold, among others. Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and Walter Pater were advancing the essay form at this time. Finally, prose fiction truly found its place under the auspices of Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Samuel Butler. The Edwardian Period (1901-1914) This period is named for King Edward VII and covers the period between Victoria’s death and the outbreak of World War I. The era includes incredible classic novelists such as Joseph Conrad, Ford Madox Ford, Rudyard Kipling, H.G. Wells, and Henry James (who was born in America but spent most of his writing career in England); notable poets such as Alfred Noyes and William Butler Yeats; and dramatists such as James Barrie, George Bernard Shaw, and John Galsworthy. The Modern Period (1914-?) Some of the most notable writers of this period, traditionally applied to works written after the start of World War I, include the novelists James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Dorothy Richardson, Graham Greene, E.M. Forster, and Doris Lessing; the poets W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Seamus Heaney, Wilfred Owens, Dylan Thomas, and Robert Graves; and the dramatists Tom Stoppard, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Frank McGuinness, Harold Pinter, and Caryl Churchill. The Postmodern Period (1945-?) The postmodern period begins about the time that World War II ended. Some notable writers of the period include Samuel Beckett, Joseph Heller, Anthony Burgess, John Fowles, Penelope M. Lively, and Iain Banks. ЗГАДУЮЧИ ПРО ВЕЛЕТІВ (2) Іспанські чиновники звітують, що твори Сервантеса перекладено на 140 мов світу. «Британська рада» скромно відповіла, що твори Шекспіра перекладено «лише» на більше, як 100 мов світу. Але Шекспір у наші часи став не просто драматургом, а ще й кінодраматургом. На основі його творів написано понад тисячу кіносценаріїв. Щоправда, і «Дон Кіхот» відомий за приблизно 50 кіноекранізаціями різними мовами світу. Твори Шекспіра та Сервантеса також лягли в основу численних мюзиклів. Відзначення ювілеїв – це ще й спроба донести твори класиків до сучасників. Адже проведене торік в Іспанії соціологічне дослідження показало, що лише 10 відсотків дорослих іспанців читали «Дон Кіхота». Адже це роман на 1100 сторінках із численними зносками та поясненнями. Люди епохи інтернету від такого «чтива» вже відвикли. Багато опитаних визнали, що доходили десь до 50-ї сторінки і читати далі вже не вистачало наполегливості й терпіння.
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