The focus of this article is on literature in the English language from anywhere‚ not just the literature of England‚ so that it includes writers from Scotland‚ the whole of Ireland‚ Wales‚ as well as literature in English from former British colonies‚ including the US. However‚ up until the early 19th century‚ it deals with the literature written in English of Britain and Ireland. English literature is generally seen as beginning with the epic poem Beowulf‚ that dates from between the 8th to the
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Periods of English Literature. For convenience of discussion‚ historians divide the continuity of English literature into segments of time that are called "periods." The exact number‚ dates‚ and names of these periods vary‚but the list below conforms to widespread practice. The list is followed by a brief comment on each period‚ in chronological order. 450-1066 Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) Period 1066-1500 Middle English Period 1500-1660 The Renaissance (or Early Modern) 1558-1603 Elizabethan
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Periods of English Literature A Note on the Naming of Periods: Periods in literature are named for rulers‚ historical events‚ intellectual or political or religious movements‚ or artistic styles. Most literary periods therefore have multiple names. What’s worse‚ some of these names are debated. Is the later 17th Century the Baroque era? The term baroque is an intractable term derived from art criticism‚ though it may usefully be applicable to some writers as well. Is the early 17th Century the
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melodrama‚ the sexuality that was once muted‚ was turned up to create the femme fatale. The femme fatale is a necessary component of mise-en-scene in the film noir genre. * Femme Fatale The femme fatale was first seen in pre-WWII. During the time of the time of the war‚ melodrama‚ a genre that did not include the femme fatale‚ became the popular genre of film. After the war‚ with the birth of film noir‚ the femme fatale became more widely featured. Post WWII‚ many women became independent from
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centuries of literature have depicted a variety of mentalities and lifestyles. . Centuries could pass‚ and not many changes could be easily perceived by the common man‚ as those changes came gradually. Yet those changes can be readily discerned when looking at England as a whole‚ not looking at parts of history individually. The alterations of life‚ when looked at from a certain literary viewpoint‚ can be explained when one looks at the different periods in English literature‚ seeing the depictions
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Development of English Literature Usually‚ English literature is divided into seven periods from the academic angle: The first period is Early and Medieval English literature. And this period can be divided into two parts. The first part is Anglo-Saxon Period (449-1066). The main literary contribution of this period is the Epic‚ and its masterpiece is the national epic The Song of Beowulf. It is the oldest poem in the English language and the oldest surviving epic in Anglo-Saxon literature. Next is
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ASPECTS OF MIDDLE ENGLISH LITERATURE (1066-1500) Middle English‚ Anglo-Norman‚ Anglo-Latin After the Conquest: dramatic changes in language and cultural temperament Old English literature: Middle English literature realistic‚matter-of-fact‚unromantic‚ growing audience‚ a panorama of most serious‚ often melancholic‚ diverse folk of many social classes (castle‚ monochrome gray‚ loyalty to the lord‚ barnyard‚ town); the appearance of leasure desperate courage in defeat‚ class
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HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE Old English 496-1050 Middle English 1050-1500 Modern English 1500 onwards OLD ENGLISH Old English literature encompasses literature written in Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon)‚ during the 600-year Anglo-Saxon period of England‚ from the mid-5th century to the Norman Conquest of 1066. These works include genres such as epic poetry‚ hagiography‚ sermons‚ Bible translations‚ legal works‚ chronicles‚ riddles‚ and others. In all there are about 400 surviving manuscripts from
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experimentation. The search for new forms of expression‚ which affected all branches of literature‚ was carried on first of all in fiction and novel. So far novelists had concentrated above all on plots‚ and their main preoccupation had been with characters in society‚ since they thought that the function of novels was to present people in a social context‚ so that they became mirrors of their own age. The English novel was essentially bourgeois in its origin and throughout the 18th and the 19th centuries
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Chapter I: literature of the middle ages A. ANGLO- Saxon period (5th - 10th centuries) During the first five centuries of our era and long before that‚ Britain was inhabited by a people called Kelts‚ who lived in tribes. Britain’s history is considered to begin in the 5th century‚ when it was invaded from the Continent by the fighting tribes of Angles‚ Saxons and Jutes. At the very end of the 5th century they settled in Britain and began to call themselves English (after the principal tribe of
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