[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-320549-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-320549-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","english-literature-periods-and-key-writers","English Literature - Periods and Key Writers","","Comprehensive outline of English literature history organized by major periods, from the Old English (Anglo-Saxon) era through the 20th century. For each period, it lists core themes and key terms such as religion and church influence, feudalism and vernacular writing, Renaissance humanism and reformation, metaphysical poetry and satire, romantic emotion and gothic fiction, Victorian upheaval and realism, and modernist and post-modern ideas amid world conflicts. Includes notable authors and signature works across poetry, drama, essays, and novels.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/","Literature",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/english-literature-periods-and-key-writers/320549/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/english-literature-periods-and-key-writers/320549.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Ophelia","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-29","2026-09-21",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",16,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"How is the document organized across English literature history?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It organizes content by chronological periods (e.g., Old English, Middle English, Sixteenth Century, Victorian Age, 20th century), and for each period it provides key terms and notable writers and works.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"What kind of information is listed under each period?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Each period includes a set of key terms or themes, followed by notable authors and representative works in genres such as poetry, drama, essays, and novels.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"Which authors and works are associated with the Old English period?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The document highlights Old English writers and texts including Bede and Caedmon’s Hymn, The Dream of the Rood, Beowulf, The Wanderer, The Wife’s Lament, The Battle of Maldon, The Seafarer, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (prose).","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},320549,1790623332,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,91,95,100,105,110,115,120,123,127],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":124,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":125,"show_sort_weight":124,"slug":126},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":128,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":129,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":130},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":132},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":133,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":26,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":96,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":111},7971461741311,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/74000253aff267980c6?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1779345379180704826","| PERIOD |  | KEY TERMS | NOTABLE WRITERS & WORKS |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| THE MIDDLE AGES | OLD ENGLISH PERIOD (to ca. 1066)\u003Cbr>ANGLO SAXON ENGLAND\u003Cbr>ANGLO NORMAN ENGLAND | 􀁸 Old English (Anglo-Saxon)\u003Cbr>􀁸 Religion\u003Cbr>􀁸 Church\u003Cbr>􀁸 Latin\u003Cbr>􀁸 Pagan & Christian motifs together\u003Cbr>􀁸 Alliteration\u003Cbr>􀁸 Kenning |  |\n|  |  |  | Bede – Caedmon’s Hymn\u003Cbr>The Dream of the Rood\u003Cbr>Beowulf\u003Cbr>The Wanderer\u003Cbr>The Wife’s Lament\u003Cbr>The Battle of Maldon\u003Cbr>The Seafarer\u003Cbr>Ecclesiastical History of English People\u003Cbr>King Alfred-The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (prose) |\n|  | MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD (to ca. 1485) |  |  |\n|  |  | 􀁸 Feudalism\u003Cbr>􀁸 Religion, Liturgy\u003Cbr>􀁸 Christianity, CHURCH\u003Cbr>􀁸 Black Death\u003Cbr>􀁸 French & Latin\u003Cbr>􀁸 Vernacular\u003Cbr>􀁸 Romance\u003Cbr>􀁸 Miracle and Mystery Plays\u003Cbr>􀁸 Morality Plays | Gawain-poet-Sir Gawain and the Green Knight\u003Cbr>Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales\u003Cbr>William Langland – The Vision of Piers Plowman\u003Cbr>Everyman (after 1485) (morality play) |\n| THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY (to 1603)\u003Cbr>(Elizabethan Literature)\u003Cbr>(Renaissance Literature) |  | 􀁸 Renaissance\u003Cbr>􀁸 HUMANISM\u003Cbr>􀁸 Reformation\u003Cbr>􀁸 Patronage\u003Cbr>􀁸 Sonnet, Revenge tragedies, Commedia Dell’Arte, etc.\u003Cbr>􀁸 Golden Age of Drama\u003Cbr>􀁸 Pastoral Comedies | Sir Thomas More – Utopia (prose) Sir Thomas Wyatt\u003Cbr>Queen Elizabeth\u003Cbr>Edmund Spenser – The Faerie Queene (epic poem), Sonnets, Epithalamion (poem)\u003Cbr>Sir Walter Raleigh\u003Cbr>Sir Philip Sidney – Astrophil and Stella (sonnet collection), The Defense of Poesy Michael Drayton\u003Cbr>Christopher Marlowe – Doctor Faustus (play), Tamburlaine (play)\u003Cbr>William Shakespeare – Sonnets; Plays –(tragedies) Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, King Lear; (comedies) The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream\u003Cbr>Thomas Nashe – The Unfortunate Traveller, or the Life of Jack Wilton (picaresque novel) |\n| THE EARLY 17TH CENTURY (1603 – 1660) |  | 􀁸 WIT\u003Cbr>􀁸 Jacobean Period\u003Cbr>􀁸 Commonwealth\u003Cbr>􀁸 Civil War\u003Cbr>􀁸 Cromwell\u003Cbr>􀁸 Masques\u003Cbr>􀁸 Metaphysical poetry\u003Cbr>􀁸 Cavalier Poets\u003Cbr>􀁸 Revenge tragedy | John Donne – The Flea (poem)\u003Cbr>Ben Jonson – Volpone, the Fox (play), Song: To Celia (poem) John Webster – The Duchess of Malfi (play), The White Devil (play) Francis Bacon – Essays; The New Atlantis\u003Cbr>Thomas Hobbes – Leviathan (prose)\u003Cbr>George Herbert – The Altar (poem)\u003Cbr>Henry Vaughan (metaphysical poet)\u003Cbr>Richard Crashaw (metaphysical poet)\u003Cbr>Richard Lovelace (poet)\u003Cbr>Andrew Marwell (poet)– To His Coy Mistress John Milton – Paradise Lost (epic poem) |\n| THE RESTORATION AND\u003Cbr>THE 18TH CENTURY (1660 – 1785)\u003Cbr>(The Age of\u003Cbr>Enlightenment/Sensibility/Reason) |  | 􀁸 Restoration of monarchy\u003Cbr>􀁸 Scepticism\u003Cbr>􀁸 Freethinking\u003Cbr>􀁸 Deism\u003Cbr>􀁸 Neoclassicism (rule, order, proportion)\u003Cbr>􀁸 Augustan Literature\u003Cbr>􀁸 REASON over emotion\u003Cbr>􀁸 Satire, Ode\u003Cbr>􀁸 Comedy of Manners\u003Cbr>􀁸 Birth of the Novel\u003Cbr>􀁸 Truthful, realistic literature\u003Cbr>􀁸 Churchyard School of Poets | John Dryden – Mac Flecknoe (satiric poem) Samuel Pepys – The Diary\u003Cbr>John Bunyan – The Pilgrim’s Progress\u003Cbr>John Locke – essays\u003Cbr>Sir Isaac Newton\u003Cbr>William Congreve – The Way of the World (play) Daniel Defoe – Robinson Crusoe\u003Cbr>Samuel Richardson – Pamela\u003Cbr>Henry Fielding – Shamela, Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones Jonathan Swift – Gulliver’s Travels, A Modest Proposal Laurence Sterne – Tristram Shandy\u003Cbr>Alexander Pope – Essays, The Rape of the Lock |\n| THE ROMANTIC PERIOD (1785 – 1830) |  | 􀁸 Romanticism\u003Cbr>􀁸 EMOTION 􀃆 Romantic poetry\u003Cbr>􀁸 IMAGINATION 􀃆 Gothic novels\u003Cbr>􀁸 Plain & simple language\u003Cbr>􀁸 Gothic novel | Romanic poets:\u003Cbr>William Blake\u003Cbr>William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge Charles Lamb\u003Cbr>Lord Byron\u003Cbr>Percy Bysshe Shelley John Keats\u003Cbr>Prose writers:\u003Cbr>Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Emma Thomas De Quincey – Confessions of an Opium Eater\u003Cbr>Horace Walpole – The Castle of Otranto William Beckford – Vathek Ann Radcliffe – The Mysteries of Udolpho Mary Shelley – Frankenstein\u003Cbr>Ed","cbCaidEsRdCualeS","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaidEsRdCualeS","pdf",970116,"English","# Old English / Anglo-Saxon England (to ca. 1066)\n# Middle English Period (to ca. 1485)\n# The Sixteenth Century (to 1603)\n# The Early 17th Century (1603 – 1660)\n# The Restoration and the 18th Century (1660 – 1785)\n# The Romantic Period (1785 – 1830)\n# The Victorian Age (1830 – 1901)\n# The 20th Century","[{\"question\":\"How is the document organized across English literature history?\",\"answer\":\"It organizes content by chronological periods (e.g., Old English, Middle English, Sixteenth Century, Victorian Age, 20th century), and for each period it provides key terms and notable writers and works.\"},{\"question\":\"What kind of information is listed under each period?\",\"answer\":\"Each period includes a set of key terms or themes, followed by notable authors and representative works in genres such as poetry, drama, essays, and novels.\"},{\"question\":\"Which authors and works are associated with the Old English period?\",\"answer\":\"The document highlights Old English writers and texts including Bede and Caedmon’s Hymn, The Dream of the Rood, Beowulf, The Wanderer, The Wife’s Lament, The Battle of Maldon, The Seafarer, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (prose).\"}]","English Literature - Periods and Key Writers | PDF",1789950146]