BRITAIN’S HISTORY MAIN TIME PERIODS

Prehistory 5000 BC - 55 BC

Roman Britain 55 BC - 410 AD

King Arthur HYPERLINK "http://www.britannia.com/history/h12.html"&

HYPERLINK "http://www.britannia.com/history/h12.html" the Early British
Kingdoms 410 AD - 597 AD

Anglo Saxon England 597 AD - 1066 AD

The Middle Ages 1066 AD - 1485 AD

Reformation HYPERLINK "http://www.britannia.com/history/h70.html"&

HYPERLINK "http://www.britannia.com/history/h70.html" 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 NIGHT’S DREAM 1595

HAMLET 1600

MACBETH 1605
 BAROQUE

SHAKESPEARE’S 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 GULLIVER’S 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 ALICE’S 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 D’URBERVILLES, 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 O’NEILL: MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA 1931

POSTMODERNISM

British

WILLIAM GOLDING: LORD OF THE FLIES 1954 (third 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 CHILDREN’S CRUSADE: A

DUTY – DANCE WITH DEATH, 1969 (3rd omniscient and 1st person