BRITAIN’S 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:
o THE CANTERBURRY TALES, around1400

RENAISSANCE 16TH C-beginning of 17th C

 ELIZABETHAN DRAMA /Blood and Thunder Tragedies

 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE:
o ROMEO AND JULIET 1594
o A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM 1595
o HAMLET 1600
o MACBETH 1605
 BAROQUE
 SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS (154) 1609
 JACOBEAN AGE 1603-1625
 CAROLINE 1625-1649
  PURITAN 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:
o ROBINSON CRUSOE 1719 (realist novel) 1st person, narrated by the
main character
 JONATHAN SWIFT
o GULLIVER’S TRAVELS 1724 (satire) 1st person narrative, narrated
by Gulliver

ROMANTICISM (ENGLAND) end of 18th C – first part of 19th C

 JANE AUSTEN
o PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 1813 (novel of manners) - (omniscient
narrator)
POETRY
 WILLIAM WORDSWORTH/S.T. COLERIDGE
o THE LYRICAL BALLADS 1798 /PREFACE 1800
 SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
o THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER 1798, BIOGRAPHIA
LITERARIA 1817
 JOHN KEATS
o ENDYMION 1818, TO AUTUMN, LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI,
ODE ON A GRECIAN URN 1819

ROMANTICISM / TRANSCEDENTALISM (AMERICAN) 1828-1865

 WALT WHITMAN: LEAVES OF GRASS 1851

 RALPH WALDO EMMERSON: SELF-RELIANCE
 HENRY DAVID THOREAU: CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
DARK ROMANTICISM (AMERICA) – subgenre of Romanticism / Transcedentalism

 NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
o THE SCARLET LETTER 1850 (romance – 3rd person subjective)
 EMILY DICKINSON 1830-1886
o POEMS (posthumously published)
 HERMAN MELVILLE:
o MOBY DICK 1851 (novel / adventure fiction - 1st person narrative,
narrated by Ishmael)
 EDGAR ALLAN POE
o 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

REALISM (American) 1865-1900

 MARK TWAIN:
o THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN 1884 (picaresque,
bildungsroman, and satire -1st person, narrated by the main
character) –social realism
 HENRY JAMES
o THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, 1881 (psychological novel, multiple
points of view)

VICTORIAN AGE (Queen Victoria 1837-1901)

 CHARLES DICKENS
o GREAT EXPECTATIONS 1861(Bildungsroman, 1st person narrative)
o DAVID COPPERFIELD 1850 (Bildungsroman, 1st person narrative,
narrated by the main character)
 LEWIS CAROL
o ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND 1865 (children’s
fiction; satire) 3rd person narrative, omniscient narrator
 THOMAS HARDY
 o TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES, 1891 ( tragic novel, 3rd person,
omniscient narrator)

BRITISH MODERNISM

EDWARDIAN PERIOD (King Edward 1901-1914)

 JOSEPH CONRAD
o HEART OF DARKNESS 1902 (Symbolism, colonial literature,
adventure tale, frame story - 1st person, narrated by Marlow)
o LORD JIM 1900( Psychological novel - 3rd person omniscient, then
1st person, narrated by Marlow)
 GEORGE BERNARD SHAW
o CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA 1901 (history play)
o PYGMALION 1912 (modernist drama, Romantic Comedy, Social
criticism)
 E. M. FORSTER
o A PASSAGE TO INDIA (Modernist novel; psychological novel - 3rd
person omniscient )

*Pot fi incadrati la MODERNISM, specificand perioada exacta.

MODERNISM (1914-1945)

 T.S. ELIOT
o WASTELAND 1922
 JAMES JOYCE
o ULYSSES 1922 (Modernist novel; comic novel; quest novel,- multiple
point of view, narrated by Bloom, Stephen and Molly)
o A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN (Bildungsroman,
autobiographical novel - 3rd person, at the end 1st person)
  VIRGINIA WOOLF
o MRS DALLOWAY 1925 (Modernist; formalist; feminist, multiple
point of view / stream of consciousness)

AMERICAN MODERNISM 1914-1939

THE JAZZ AGE / THE ROARING TWENTIES

 SCOTT FITZGERALD:
o THE GREAT GATSBY 1925 (Modernist novel, Jazz Age novel, novel
of manners - 1st person, narrated by Nick Carraway, minor character
in the novel)
 ERNEST HEMINGWAY:
o SHORT STORIES (several collections between 1923-1938)
o THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (Parable; tragedy - 3rd person /
However, the narrator frequently provides details about Santiago’s
inner thoughts and dreams)
 WILLIAM FAULKNER:
o ABSALOM, ABSALOM! 1936 (multiple points of view, 4 main
narrators)
o THE SOUND AND THE FURY (Southern gothic - 1st person -stream
of consciousness and 3rd person omniscient )
EXPRESSIONISM

 EUGENE O’NEILL:
o MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA 1931
POSTMODERNISM

British

 WILLIAM GOLDING:
o LORD OF THE FLIES 1954 (Allegory; adventure story; castaway
fiction; loss-of-innocence fiction - 3rd person omniscient)
 JOHN FOWLES:
o THE MAGUS 1965( existentialism, 1st person point of view, narrated
by the main character Nicholas Urfe)
o THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT’S WIFE

American

 KURT VONNEGUT :
o SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5 (OR THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE: A
DUTY – DANCE WITH DEATH), 1969 (3rd omniscient and 1st
person)