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?