Lakhasly

Introducing British and American Literary Movements
Outline of Lecture One:
1- Defining Literary Movements
2- The Importance of Studying Literary Movements
3- World and British Literature Periods
3-1- Early Periods of Literature
3-2- Later Periods of Literature
Aim: At the end of this lecture, students will be able to:

1. identify the meaning and the aspects of different literary periods of English literature;


2. distinguish the main features of each movement;


3. compare the main contributions of English writers, poets and playwrights.
   Prerequisites:
   ▪ Students must have figured out the meaning of literature and literary texts.
   ▪ Students are able to differentiate between the literary genres.
   ▪ Students have acquired a systematic and conscious consideration of the value and
   function of analyzing literature.
   1- Defining Literary Movements:
   A literary movement, period or epoch can be defined as a body of literary works (plays,
   novels, novellas, serialised stories, poems) composed during a set time period, or era. This body
   of literary works is grouped together based on certain features, such as a common perspective,
   philosophy or ideology, aesthetic, school of thought, or its social, political and cultural
   influences.
   The history of English literature stretches across many years. It can be divided into seven
   chief periods, each of which has distinct features, remarkable authors and typical pieces of
   literature.
   It can be commonly1 divided into: Classicism, Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism,
   Modernism, Postmodernism and Post-Postmodernism (Contemporary Period).
   British Literary Movements:
   The following timeline shows the period of each British literary movement and its duration.
   2- The Importance of Studying Literary Movements: They help
   a- categorize authors, literary works and topics according to common features, time, place
   and context;
   b- compare and contrast different literary movements;
   c- highlight the aspects of each movement and the contribution of each author;
   d- analyze literary texts regarding social, cultural, economic and political contexts.
   3- World and British Literature Periods:
   3-1-Early Periods of Literature
   These periods are spans of time in which literature shared intellectual, linguistic,
   religious, and artistic influences. In the Western tradition, the early periods of literary history are
   roughly as follows below:
   A. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD (1200 BCE - 455 CE)


4. HOMERIC or HEROIC PERIOD (1200‐800 BCE)
   Greek legends are passed along orally, including Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey. This
   is a chaotic period of warrior‐prince wandering sea‐traders, and fierce pirates.


5. CLASSICAL GREEK PERIOD (800‐200 BCE)
   Greek writers and philosophers such as Gorgias, Aesop. Plato, Socrates, Aristotle,
   Euripides, and Sophocles. The fifth century (499‐400 BCE) in particular is renowned as The
   Golden Age of Greece. This is the sophisticated period of the polis, or individual City‐State, and
   early democracy. Some of the world's finest art, poetry, drama, architecture, and philosophy
   originate in Athens.


6. CLASSICAL ROMAN PERIOD (200 BCE‐455 CE)
   Greece's culture gives way to Roman power when Rome conquers Greece in 146 CE. The
   Roman Republic was traditionally founded in 509 BCE, but it is limited in size until later.
   Playwrights of this time include Plautus and Terence. After nearly 500 years as a Republic, Rome
   slides into dictatorship under Julius Caesar and finally into a monarchial empire under Caesar
   Augustus in 27 CE. This later period is known as the Roman Imperial period. Roman writers
   include Ovid, Horace, and Virgil. Roman philosophers include Marcus Aurelius and Lucretius.


7. PATRISTIC PERIOD (c. 70 CE‐455 CE)
   Early Christian writings appear such as Saint Augustine, Tertullian, Saint Cyprian, Saint
   Ambrose and Saint Jerome. This is the period in which Saint Jerome first compiles the Bible,
   when Christianity spread across Europe, and the Roman Empire suffered its dying convulsions.
   In this period, barbarians attack Rome in 410 CE and the city finally falls to them completely in
   455 CE.
   B. THE MEDIEVAL PERIOD (455 CE-1485 CE)


8. THE OLD ENGLISH (ANGLO-SAXON) PERIOD (428‐1066)
   The so‐called "Dark Ages" (455 CE ‐ 799 CE) occur when Rome falls and barbarian tribes
   move into Europe. Franks, Ostrogoths, Lombards, and Goths settle in the ruins of Europe and
   the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes migrate to Britain, displacing native Celts into Scotland, Ireland,
   and Wales. Early Old English poems such as Beowulf, The Wanderer, and The Seafarer originate
   sometime late in the Anglo‐ Saxon period. The Carolingian Renaissance (800‐ 850 CE) emerges
   in Europe. In central Europe, texts include early medieval grammars, encyclopedias, etc. In
   northern Europe, this time period marks the setting of Viking sagas.


9. THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD (c. 1066‐1450 CE): In 1066,
   Norman French armies invade and conquer England under William I. This marks the end
   of the Anglo‐ Saxon hierarchy and the emergence of the Twelfth Century Renaissance (c. 1100‐
   1200 CE). French chivalric romances‐‐such as works by Chretien de Troyes‐‐and French fables‐‐
   such as the works of Marie de France and Jeun de Meun‐‐spread in popularity. Abelard and other
   humanists produce great scholastic and theological works.


10. LATE OR "HIGH" MEDIEVAL PERIOD (c. 1200‐1485 CE):
    This often tumultuous period is marked by the Middle English writings of Geoffrey
    Chaucer, the "Gawain" or "Pearl" Poet, the Wakefield Master, and William Langland. Other
    writers include Italian and French authors like Boccaccio, Petrarch, Dante, and Christine de
    Pisan.
    C. THE RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION (c. 1485-1660 CE)
    The Renaissance takes place in the late 15th, 16th, and early 17th century in Britain, but
    somewhat earlier in Italy and the southern Europe, somewhat later in northern Europe.


11. EARLY TUDOR PERIOD (1485‐1558):
    The Wars of the Roses ends in England with Henry Tudor (Henry VII) claiming the throne.
    Martin Luther's split with Rome marks the emergence of Protestantism, followed by Henry VIII's
    Anglican schism, which creates the first Protestant church in England. Edmond Spencer is a
    sample poet.


12. ELIZABETHAN PERIOD (1558‐1603):
    Queen Elizabeth saves England from both Spanish invasion and internal squabbles at
    home. Her reign is marked by the early works of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kydd, and Sidney.


13. JACOBEAN PERIOD (1603‐1625):
    Shakespeare's later work, Aemilia Lanyer, Ben Jonson, and John Donne.


14. CAROLINE AGE (1625‐1649):
    John Milton, George Herbert, Robert Herrick, the "Sons of Ben" and others write during the
    reign of Charles I and his Cavaliers (The Cavalier Poets).


15. COMMONWEALTH PERIOD OR PURITAN INTERREGNUM (1649‐1660):
    Under Cromwell's Puritan dictatorship, John Milton continues to write, but we also find
    writers like Andrew Marvell and Sir Thomas Browne.
    3-2-Later Periods of Literature
    These periods are spans of time in which literature shared intellectual, linguistic,
    religious, and artistic influences. In the Western tradition, the later periods of literary history are
    roughly as follows below:
    D. THE ENLIGHTENMENT (NEOCLASSICAL) PERIOD (C. 1660-1790)
    "Neoclassical" refers to the increased influence of Classical literature upon these
    centuries. The Neoclassical Period is also called the "Enlightenment" due to the increased
    reverence for logic and disdain for superstition. The period is marked by the rise of Deism,
    intellectual backlash against earlier Puritanism, and America's revolution against England.


16. RESTORATION PERIOD (c. 1660‐1700):
    This period marks the British king's restoration to the throne after a long period of Puritan
    domination in England. Its symptoms include the dominance of French and Classical influences
    on poetry and drama. Sample writers include John Dryden, John Lock, Sir William Temple, and
    Samuel Pepys, and Aphra Behn in England. Abroad, representative authors include Jean Racine
    and Molière.


17. THE AUGUSTAN AGE (c. 1700‐1750):
    This period is marked by the imitation of Virgil and Horace's literature in English letters.
    The principal English writers include Addison, Steele, Swift, and Alexander Pope. Abroad,
    Voltaire is the dominant French writer.


18. THE AGE OF JOHNSON (c. 1750‐1790):
    This period marks the transition toward the upcoming Romanticism though the period is
    still largely Neoclassical. Major writers include Dr. Samuel Johnson, Boswell, and Edward
    Gibbon who represent the Neoclassical tendencies, while writers like Robert Burns, Thomas
    Gray, Cowper, and Crabbe show movement away from the Neoclassical ideal. In America, this
    period is called the Colonial Period. It includes colonial and revolutionary writers like Ben
    Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine.
    E. ROMANTIC PERIOD (c. 1790-1830)
    Romantic poets write about nature, imagination, and individuality in England. Some
    Romantics include Coleridge, Blake, Keats, and Shelley in Britain and Johann von Goethe in
    Germany. In America, this period is called the Transcendental Period. Transcendentalists
    include Emerson and Thoreau. Gothic writings, (c. 1790‐1890) overlap with the Romantic and
    Victorian periods. Writers of Gothic novels (the precursor to horror novels) include Mary Shelley,
    Radcliffe, Monk Lewis, and Victorians like Bram Stoker in Britain. In America, Gothic writers
    include Poe and Hawthorne.
    F. VICTORIAN PERIOD AND THE 19th CENTURY (c. 1832-1901)
    Writing during the period of Queen Victoria's reign includes sentimental novels. British
    writers include Elizabeth Browning, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Robert Browning,
    Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, and Jane Austen. Pre‐ Raphaelites, like the Rossettis and
    William Morris, idealize and long for the morality of the medieval world.
    The end of the Victorian Period is marked by intellectual movements of Asceticism and
    "the Decadence" in the writings of Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. In America, Naturalist writers
    like Stephen Crane flourish, as do early free verse poets like Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson.
    G. MODERN PERIOD (c. 1914-1945)
    In Britain, modernist writers include W. B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Dylan Thomas, W. H.
    Auden, Virginia Woolf, and Wilfred Owen. In America, the modernist period includes Robert
    Frost and Flannery O'Connor as well as the famous writers of The Lost Generation (also called
    the writers of The Jazz Age, 1914‐1929) such as Hemingway, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner.
    "The Harlem Renaissance" marks the rise of black writers such as Baldwin and Ellison. Realism
    is the dominant fashion, but the disillusionment with the World Wars lead to new
    experimentation.
    H. POSTMODERN PERIOD (c. 1945-1970)
    T. S. Eliot, Morrison, Shaw, Beckett, Stoppard, Fowles, Calvino, Ginsberg, Pynchon, and
    other modern writers, poets, and playwrights experiment with metafiction and fragmented
    poetry. Multiculturalism leads to increasing canonization of non‐Caucasian writers such as
    Langston Hughes, Sandra Cisneros, and Zora Neal Hurston. Magic Realists such as Gabriel
    García Márquez, Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Günter Grass, and Salman Rushdie flourish with
    surrealistic writings embroidered in the conventions of realism.
    I. POST-POSTMODERN PERIOD (1970 onward):
    Post-postmodernism is an inclusive set of changes as well as developments in different
    domains: culture, economy, politics, philosophy and art to complete and, at times, react to
    postmodern era. It marks distinct features and aspects.