BRITAINS HISTORY MAIN TIME PERIODS
Prehistory 5000 BC - 55 BC
Roman Britain 55 BC - 410 AD
King Arthur & the Early British Kingdoms 410 AD - 597 AD
Anglo Saxon England 597 AD - 1066 AD
The Middle Ages 1066 AD - 1485 AD
Reformation & Restoration 1485 AD - 1689 AD
The Age of Empire 1689 AD - 1901 AD
The Twentieth Century 1901 AD - 2000 AD
ENGLISH LITERATURE
PERIODIZATION AND MAJOR LITERARY WORKS YEARS OF
PUBLICATION/WRITING
MIDDLES AGES 1066-1485
GEOFFREY CHAUCER: THE CANTERBURRY TALES, around1400
RENAISSANCE 16TH C-beginning of 17th C
ELIZABETHAN DRAMA /Blood and Thunder Tragedies
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
ROMEO AND JULIET 1594
A MIDSUMMER NIGHTS DREAM 1595
HAMLET 1600
MACBETH 1605
BAROQUE
SHAKESPEARES SONNETS (154) 1609
JACOBEAN AGE 1603-1625
CAROLINE 1625-1649
INTERREGNUM 1649-1660
RESTORATION 1660-1688
ENLIGHTENMENT/NEO-CLASSICAL AGE end of 17th C-18th C (end of
17th/beginning of 18th The Augustan Age, the rest of the 18th Georgian Age)
DANIEL DEFOE: THE LIFE AND STRANGE SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE, OF YORK, MARINER 1719 (realist novel) 1st person,
narrated by the main character
JONATHAN SWIFT GULLIVERS TRAVELS 1724 (satire) 1st person
narrative, narrated by Gulliver
JANE AUSTEN PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 1813 (realist novel) - Georgian
Age (omniscient narrator)
ROMANTICISM (ENGLAND) end of 18th C first part of 19th C
POETRY
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH/S.T. COLERIDGE
THE LYRICAL BALLADS 1798 /PREFACE 1800
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER
1798, BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA 1817
JOHN KEATS ENDYMION 1818, TO AUTUMN, LA BELLE DAME SANS
MERCI, ON A GRECIAN URN 1819
(DARK)ROMANTICISM (AMERICA)
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE THE SCARLET LETTER 1850 (romance 3rd
person subjective)
EMILY DICKINSON 1830-1886 POEMS (posthumously published)
HERMAN MELVILLE: MOBY DICK 1851 (1st person narrative, narrated by
Ishmael)
EDGAR ALLAN POE POEMS (The Raven, Annabel Lee, Eldorado) Short
Stories (The Fall of the House of Usher, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Purloined
Letter, Murders in the Rue Morgue)Gothic Fiction, Inventor of the detective story
ROMANTICISM/TRANSCEDENTALISM
WALT WHITMAN: LEAVES OF GRASS 1851
RALPH WALDO EMMERSON: SELF-RELIANCE
HENRY DAVID THOREAU: CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
MARK TWAIN: THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN 1884 (1st
person, narrated by the main character)
VICTORIAN AGE (Queen Victoria 1837-1901)
CHARLES DICKENS GREAT EXPECTATIONS 1861, DAVID COPPERFIELD
1850 (REALISM Bildungsroman, 1st person narrative, narrated by the main
character)
LEWIS CAROL ALICES ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND 1865 (nonsense
literature, absurd fiction) 3rd person narrative, omniscient narrator
HENRY JAMES THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, 1881 (psychological novel,
multiple point of view)
THOMAS HARDY TESS OF THE DURBERVILLES, 1891 (NATURALISM,
realist novel, 3rd person, omniscient narrator)
LATE VICTORIANISM/EDWARDIAN PERIOD (King Edward 1901-1914)
GEORGE BERNARD SHAW CESAR AND CLEOPATRA 1901, PYGMALION
1912? (modernist drama)
BRITISH MODERNISM
JOSEPH CONRAD HEART OF DARKNESS 1902 (first person, narrated by
Marlow), LORD JIM 1900(3rd person omniscient, then 1st person, narrated by
Marlow)
T.S. ELIOT WASTELAND 1922
JAMES JOYCE ULYSSES 1922 (stream of consciousness, multiple point of view,
narrated by Bloom, Stephen and Molly)
VIRGINIA WOOLF MRS DALLOWAY 1925 (stream of consciousness, multiple
point of view, narrated by Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus Warren Smith)
AMERICAN MODERNISM
A. THE JAZZ AGE/THE ROARING TWENTIES
1.SCOTT FITZGERALD: THE GREAT GATSBY 1925 (1st person, narrated by
Nick Carraway, minor character in the novel)
2. ERNEST HEMINGWAY: SHORT STORIES (several collections between
1923-1938)
WILLIAM FAULKNER: ABSALOM, ABSALOM! 1936 (multiple points of view, 4
main narrators)
EXPRESSIONISM
EUGENE ONEILL: MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA 1931
POSTMODERNISM
British
WILLIAM GOLDING: LORD OF THE FLIES 1954 (3rd person omniscient)
JOHN FOWLES: THE MAGUS 1965(existentialism, 1st person point of view,
narrated by the main character Nicholas Urfe)
American
KURT VONNEGUT : SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5 OR THE CHILDRENS
CRUSADE: A DUTY DANCE WITH DEATH, 1969 (3rd omniscient and 1st
person )
