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The History of English Literature in 10 minutes



1.Anglo Saxon/ Old English period-
Features- Earliest phase of English literature. Started with Angles and Saxons much before they occupied Britain. They settled in Britain.
Works- Beowulf
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2.Middle English/ Anglo Norman period-
Features- Normans of Normandy(France) defeated the Anglo Saxon King and occupied Britain in 1066. >Foreign types of literature. >Latin control. > French influence
Works- Piers the Plowman(Langland), Canterbury Tales(Chaucer) etc
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3.Chaucer to Spenser- Barren period.
Only Scotland emerged as the source of good literature.
Works- King's Quhair written by Scotland's James-I
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4.Elizabethan Age/ Age of Shakespeare-
Features- Influence of Italian Renaissance, influence of Petrarchan Sonnet. > Time of discovery
Sub Periods- The Jacobian Age, The Caroline Age, The Commonwealth period.
Writers- Pre- Shakespearean writers- Marlowe, Kyd, Lodge(University wits), Shakespeare the great, Post Shakespeare- Ben Jonson etc.
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5.The Age of Milton-
Features- Non-monarchichal govt, Puritanism, Collapse of Drama, Excessive Morality
Works- Paradise Lost(Milton), King James' Bible
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6.Restoration Period/Age of Dryden-
Features - Monarchy was restored, Charles-II brought with him the looseness and foppery of France where he was in exile, Elizabethan age's creative vigour and Puritan age's moral discipline gone.
Writers- Dryden, Bunyan, Congreve.
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7.Age of Pope/ Augustan Age-
Features- Whig and Tory party- Party feud, Literature for aristocratics only, political writing
Writers- Pope, Swift, Defoe, Addison, Steele.
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8.Transition Age/ Pre Romantic Age-
Features- Drift towards Romanticism, Decline of party feud, Double tendency-- Allegiance to the old tradition as well as allegiance to the new idea of returning to nature.
Writers- Thomson, Blake, Fielding.
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9.The Return to Nature/Romantic Age-
Features- Revival of Romantic spirit, importance of nature, rustic people and common men.
Writets- Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelly, Keats... Walter Scott, Jane Austen... Lamb, Hazlitt.
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10.The Victorian Age-
Features- Morality, freedom of women curbed, Darwin, Scientific thought
Writers- Conformists- Tennyson, Dickens. Revolted- Carlyle, Arnlold, Browning.
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11.Birth of Modern Literature-
Features- End of stability, literature of social purpose, dominance of novel, rebirth of drama
Writers- Hardy, Conrad, Shaw, Synge, Yeats, Owen.
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12.The Inter-War years-
Features- Youth felt cheated, troubles in India and Ireland, Maimed surviving soldiers created moral issues, cynicism, disillusionment, emphasis on psychology.
Writers- D.H.Lawrence, Joyce, Virginia Wolf, Eliot, Forster.
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13.After The Second World War-
Features- Lack of positive optimism, violence and sadism as themes, bleak future, science fictions, literature from the commonwealth and USA.
Writers- WH Auden, Ted Hughes, Beckett. Post-Colonial writers: R.K.Narayan, Raja Rao, Achebe, A.D.Hope, Dan Davin, Zulphikar Ghose, Sam Selvon.
This is the only way you can remember all the ages in the history of English Literature.
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The big fat books will not help you unless you self-teach like this.
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Made by Sk Marifur Rahaman
Sources- Albert and David Daiches

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