English Literature Throughout History: A Brief Overview (part 1)
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In this article series you will learn about the history of English literature. We’ll travel through ten literary periods and share the literary highlights and most influential writers of these times. In this article we’ll focus on British authors, but be mindful that many great non-British writers have also made significant contributions to the advancement of English literature.
The literary periods we’ll cover in this series are:
- (1) the Old English, or Anglo-Saxon period between 450 and 1066,
- (2) the Middle English period between 1066 and 1500,
- (3) the Renaissance period between 1500 and 1660,
- (4) the Neoclassical period between 1600 and 1785,
- (5) the Romantic period between 1785 and 1832,
- (6) the Victorian period between 1832 and 1901,
- (7) the Edwardian period between 1901 and 1914,
- (8) the Georgian period between 1910 and 1936,
- (9) the ‘Modern period’, starting in 1914,
- and finally, (10) the Postmodern period, starting in 1945.
What you’ll notice is that some periods overlap and cannot be neatly boxed in. This is because movements in art, culture and literature are fluid. They often develop from a combination of societal influences, like war, as well as being a reaction to previous periods, as you can clearly see in the Neoclassical period.
Let’s get started with the first three periods between 450 and 1660:
The Old English, Anglo-Saxon, Period (450-1066)
This period of literature dates back to the invasion of 450 of the Germanic tribes into Celtic England. These tribes originally came from northern Germany and Denmark and were called the Jutes, the Angles and the Saxons.
During the first half of this literary period, most of the literature was oral. This means that the literature of that time was mostly either spoken or sung. Later in this period, mostly medical, legal and religious works were written down. However, some poetry, like the well-known epic poem “Beowulf” also stems from the Old English Period.
The Middle-English Period (1066-1500)
The beginning of the Middle-English period is marked by the Norman Conquest. This invasion of England had a significant influence on society, culture and language. This was also the period in which the spoken and written language slowly became recognizable as ‘modern English’.
A notable figure of the Middle-English Period is the writer Geoffrey Chaucer. He is also known as the “father of English literature” or the “father of English poetry”. His seminal work, "The Canterbury Tales”, would go to have a huge impact on literature in the years to come.
The Renaissance Period (1500-1660)
This period can be divided into four different parts: the Elizabethan Age (1558-1603), the Jacobean Age (1603-1625), the Caroline Age (1625-1649), and the Commonwealth Period (1649-1660).
Within the Renaissance, the Elizabethan Age was an especially fruitful period in English drama. This was the time of playwrights like Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. If you’re keen to learn more about Shakespeare, I would highly recommend checking out our blog series on him and his influence on the English language here.
The Renaissance Period concluded with a period that was starkly different from the Elizabethan Age, namely, the Commonwealth Period. This was a time when the Puritan Oliver Cromwell led parliament. In this period, public theatres were closed for almost two decades to prevent religious offences, and political texts of prominent figures like John Milton were published.
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I hope you enjoyed reading this first part of our series on English literary periods! In the next article, you’ll learn all about the periods when the famous writers Jane Austen and Charles Dickens made their mark on English literature.