The first thing, about literature my teachers divulged was the fact that it was going to be a vast course and not possible to cover its entirety. Nevertheless, there are ways to make the study more systematic and comprehensive.
To begin with, we need to understand the fact that the study of literature has become diverse and multidisciplinary. There is British Literature, American Literature, Common-wealth literature all of which has branched out of the British Literature under the umbrella term English literature. There are also different approaches to literature where it gives it wider viewpoint to comprehend the work of art in its extensiveness.
So what we will try to do is to is first chart out the timelines of the British literature and understand what happened in each period, how it progressed and how the literature of that time reflected the society at large.
Then each period will be discussed along with some of the authors either well known or maybe even less known followed by why they were encompassed to apprehend the trends in a particular timeline.
I will also cite the sources of my readings if and where required within the content.
Periods of English Literature(British Literature)
( From A Glossary of Literary Terms seventh edition by M.H. Abrams)
450-1066 Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period
1066-1500 Middle English Period
1500-1660 The Renaissance (or Early Modern)
1558-1603 Elizabethan Age
1603-1625 Jacobean Age
1625-1649 Caroline Age
1649-1600 Commonwealth Period (or Puritan Interregnum)
1660-1785 The Neoclassical Period
1660-1700 The Restoration
1700-1745 The Augustan Age (or Age of Pope)
1745-1785 The Age of Sensibility (or Age of Johnson)
1785-1830 The Romantic Period
1832-1901 The Victorian Period
1848-1860 The Pre-Raphaelites
1880-1901 Aestheticism and Decadence
1901-1914 The Edwardian Period
1910-1936 The Georgian Period
1914- The Modern Period
1945- Postmodernism
Next post will be on Old English or Anglo-Saxon period .
To begin with, we need to understand the fact that the study of literature has become diverse and multidisciplinary. There is British Literature, American Literature, Common-wealth literature all of which has branched out of the British Literature under the umbrella term English literature. There are also different approaches to literature where it gives it wider viewpoint to comprehend the work of art in its extensiveness.
So what we will try to do is to is first chart out the timelines of the British literature and understand what happened in each period, how it progressed and how the literature of that time reflected the society at large.
Then each period will be discussed along with some of the authors either well known or maybe even less known followed by why they were encompassed to apprehend the trends in a particular timeline.
I will also cite the sources of my readings if and where required within the content.
Periods of English Literature(British Literature)
( From A Glossary of Literary Terms seventh edition by M.H. Abrams)
450-1066 Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period
1066-1500 Middle English Period
1500-1660 The Renaissance (or Early Modern)
1558-1603 Elizabethan Age
1603-1625 Jacobean Age
1625-1649 Caroline Age
1649-1600 Commonwealth Period (or Puritan Interregnum)
1660-1785 The Neoclassical Period
1660-1700 The Restoration
1700-1745 The Augustan Age (or Age of Pope)
1745-1785 The Age of Sensibility (or Age of Johnson)
1785-1830 The Romantic Period
1832-1901 The Victorian Period
1848-1860 The Pre-Raphaelites
1880-1901 Aestheticism and Decadence
1901-1914 The Edwardian Period
1910-1936 The Georgian Period
1914- The Modern Period
1945- Postmodernism
Next post will be on Old English or Anglo-Saxon period .
