Timeline of British Literature

1. Timeline of British Literature

2. Anglo-Saxon Period • 449-1066 • Strong belief in fate • Juxtaposition of the church and pagan worlds • Admiration of heroic warriors who prevail in battle • Express religious faith and give moral instruction through literature

3. Anglo-Saxon Period • Christianity helps literacy spread • Introduces Roman alphabet to Britain • Oral tradition helps unite diverse people and their myths • Styles / Genres • Oral tradition of literature • Poetry is the dominant genre

4. Anglo-Saxon Period • Historical Context • Life centered around ancestral tribes/clans that ruled themselves • At first, tribes/clans were warriors from invading outlying areas • Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and Danes • Later, they became primarily agricultural

5. Medieval Period • 1066-1485 • Plays that instruct the illiterate masses in morals and religion • “Morality Plays” • Chivalric code of honor • Knights, their ladies fair • Religious devotion • Romances

6. Medieval Period • Style / Genre • Oral tradition continues • Folk Ballads • A song that is traditionally sung by the common people of a region and forms part of their culture

7. Medieval Period • Mystery plays • Focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches • Miracle plays • Specifically re-enact miraculous interventions by the saints into the lives of ordinary people • Morality Plays • A kind of drama with personified abstract qualities (think: sin, charity, Christian) as the main characters. Presented a lesson about good conduct and character.

8. Medieval Period • Stock epithets • Any word or phrase applied to a person or thing to describe an actual or attributed quality • Ex: Richard the Lion-Hearted • Kenning • A poetic phrase used in place of the usual name of a person or thing • Ex: “A wave traveler” for “A boat”

9. Medieval Period • Church instructs its people through the morality and miracle plays • An illiterate population is able to hear and see the literature

10. Medieval Period • The Crusades bring the development of a money economy for the first time in Britain • Trading increases dramatically • Henry III crowned king in 1154 • Brings a judicial system, royal courts, juries, and chivalry to Britain

11. The Renaissance • 1485-1660 • Worldview shifts from religion and afterlife to the human life on earth • Popular Themes • Development of human potential • Love (unrequited, constant, timeless, courtly, Love subject to change)

12. The Renaissance • Styles / Genres • Poetry • Sonnets • Drama • Written in verse • Supported by royalty • Tragedies, comedies, histories • Metaphysical poetry • Elaborate, unexpected metaphors called “conceits”

13. The Renaissance • Historical Context • War of Roses ends in 1485 and political stability arrives • The printing press helps stabilize English as a language and allows more people to read a variety of literature • Economy changes from farm-based to international trade

14. The Restoration • 1660-1785 • 1660-1700: emphasis on decorum • 1700-1745: emphasis on satire and on a wide public readership • 1745-1785: emphasis on revolutionary ideas • Literacy has expanded to include the middle classes and even some of the poor • Emphasis on rules, reason, and logic • The Age of Enlightenment

15. The Restoration • Styles / Genre • Satire • Uses irony and exaggeration to poke fun at human faults and foolishness in order to correct human behavior • Novels becoming better known than poetry • Essays • Letters, diaries, biographies • Notes

16. The Restoration • Historical Context • 50% of men are functionally literate • Factories begin to spring up as the industrial revolution starts • Impoverished masses begin to grow as farming life declines and factories build • Coffee houses: educated men spend evening with literary and political associates

17. Romanticism • 1785-1830 • A literary, artistic, and intellectual movement • Partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution • It was a revolt against the aristocratic social and political norms of Enlightenment • Celebrated emotion, spontaneity, imagination, subjectivity, and the purity of nature

18. Romanticism • Validated intense emotion as an authentic source of experience • New emphasis on • Apprehension • Horror and terror • Awe • Romantics wanted to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl, and industrialism

19. Romanticism • Historical Context • The Industrial Revolution • Laissez Faire • “Let (people) do (as they please)” • The rich grew richer, the poor suffered even more

20. Realism /Naturalism • 1830-1901 • Realism • Aimed for an honest portrayal over sensationalism, exaggeration, or melodrama • Desired an accurate and detailed portrayal of ordinary, contemporary life

21. Realism /Naturalism • Naturalism • An offshoot of the realism movement • An intensification of realism • Used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character

22. Realism /Naturalism • The novel begins to rise in popularity • Historical context • Great Reform Act • Slavery banned in British colonies • Irish potato famine • Ten Hour Act

23. Modern/Post-Modern • 1900-1980 • The loss of the hero in literature • Major theme: technology’s destruction of society • Free verse poetry • Novelists begin writing in “stream of consciousness”

24. Modern/Post-Modern • Increasing role of science and technology • Mass literacy and proliferation of mass media • Spread of social movements • Individualism • Industrialization • Urbanization

25. Modern/Post-Modern • Historical Context • World War I • World War II