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Whether you call yourself a voracious reader or not, literature has a significant influence on all our lives. Today's artistic endeavours, including films, television, YouTube, and even internet celebrities, owe a great deal to literature. Of course, trying to understand literature as a whole is a Herculean task. But one way to get an overview is to break it down into literary movements (or epochs).
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Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenWhether you call yourself a voracious reader or not, literature has a significant influence on all our lives. Today's artistic endeavours, including films, television, YouTube, and even internet celebrities, owe a great deal to literature. Of course, trying to understand literature as a whole is a Herculean task. But one way to get an overview is to break it down into literary movements (or epochs).
A literary movement or epoch is a body of literary works (plays, novels, novellas, serialised stories, poems) composed during a set time period, or era. This body of literary works is grouped together based on certain features, such as a common perspective, philosophy or ideology, aesthetic, school of thought, or its social, political and cultural influences.
Just as you have more than one opinion or philosophy or idea about the things that go on around you, so do literary texts and the authors or poets who compose them. This means there is often a considerable overlap between literary movements, whereby two different or even contradictory literary groups or philosophies coexist in the same period of time. When learning about literary movements and the literary canon, it is helpful to examine the circumstances that created a need for a certain idea, philosophy or perspective to be born and thrive.
While you could definitely read a literary text without knowing which literary movement it belongs to, knowing about the literary movement and time period it belongs to will certainly enhance your understanding and perhaps even your enjoyment of it. History and literature go hand in hand. Learning about the context of a work of literature and the literary movement it belong to, will result in a better appreciation of it and an enhanced ability to analyse it. You will not only have opinions but informed opinions on what you analyse.
Literary Movement Duration (approx.)
Old English 450-1066
Middle English 1066-1500
TheRenaissance 1500-1660
The Elizabethan Age 1558-1603
The Jacobean Age 1603-1625
The Restoration Period 1660-1700
The Romantic Period 1785-1832
The Victorian Period 1832-1901
Modernism 1914-1945
Postmodernism 1945 - present
The Old English period lasted from circa. 450 CE till the Norman conquest in 1066 CE. Old English is the earliest form of written English, and was influenced by the languages of the Anglo-Saxons, as well as Latin. At the time, there was linguistic exchange among the countries of Western Europe, particularly Germany, Italy and France. This is why we can find traces of German, Latin and French in Old English (and also in modern day English). The Anglos, Saxons and Jutes took up residence in Britain, bringing their language and culture with them.
In this period, Latin was the language of scholars (and education), so it had a wide range of vocabulary, including words for flora and fauna, elements and metals, domestic objects and all kinds of medical, social, political and military concepts. The Vikings had already established their presence in Britain by this time and further influenced popular speech. Old Norse is said to have introduced third person plural pronouns to English. King Alfred (c. 849-899) is credited with encouraging the spread of education in Britain. Old English began to lose its inflectional endings along with other linguistic changes, which brought about a transition from Old English to what became Middle English.
The Middle English period lasted for approximately 300 years. The Norman conquest of 1066 significantly impacted the grammar, spelling, pronunciation and vocabulary of Old English. Middle English is remarkably close to English as we know it today. A large portion of texts from this period are religious, along with some fictional texts. Even these contain religious themes and symbols. Around the year 1400, the Great Vowel Shift commenced, bringing considerable change to English pronunciation.
The Great Vowel Shift lasted from c. 1400-1700 and marked a shift in English pronunciation. There was a considerable change in long vowel sounds, as well as the silencing of some consonants. This was a result of the migration of large groups of people leading to a mixing of accents and French influence as a result of the Norman conquest, as well as the war with France.
The Renaissance as a movement originated in Western Europe, primarily in Italy, and was based on principles of humanism. The renaissance marks the rebirth of society, culture and art in the renewed enthusiasm for classical culture, leading to innovation and reform all across Europe. The Renaissance significantly manifested in art, architecture, literature, scientific progress and technology, as well as politics. The Renaissance also marked the rise of figures such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michaelangelo in Italy, and notable authors such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Edmund Spenser in England.
The title of this literary movement is derived from the then reigning Queen of England, Elizabeth I. A great patron of the arts, Queen Elizabeth I invited artists to perform for her and her court, including William Shakespeare. She was a poet herself, and proved to be a competent ruler. She survived numerous assassination attempts and is credited with defeating the Spanish Armada. She portrayed herself as 'The Virgin Queen' (for example in paintings of herself) to signify that she was married to Britain. Due to her patronage, art thrived during her reign, and is therefore often dubbed 'The Golden Age.' Because of her immense popularity, numerous works have characters that allude to her, such as Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene .
As you will notice, there is some overlap between the Renaissance and the Elizabethan Age, with some literary texts in common. Apart from those mentioned in the Renaissance section, other popular works during the Elizabethan Era include:
Like the Elizabethan Age, the Jacobean Age is named after the reigning monarch, King James I. It is called the 'Jacobean' era rather than the 'Jamesian' era as 'Jacobus' is the Latin version of the King's name. The Jacobean style can be identified in works of literature, architecture, visual arts and decor.
We call this epoch the Restoration period because of the restoration of the English monarchy. In 1649, the English monarch, Charles I was executed, and the country was ruled by senior ministers and officers of Parliament and the Council of State under the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. This continued up to the arrival of the King's son, Charles II in 1660. The period without any reigning king is known as the Interregnum . Upon the arrival of Charles II, the English monarchy was restored. The literature produced during this period is referred to as Restoration literature as a significant amount of it was a reaction to the restoration. During the interregnum, Puritanism and an austere lifestyle were imposed, so literary works from the Restoration period and comment on life before Restoration.
The Romantic period developed its distinctive characteristics as a reaction to neoclassicism.* The Romantics valued chivalry, honour, union with nature, the expression of emotions, and a sense of individualism, which features in most texts of the period. The two generations of Romantic poets contributed significantly to the English literary canon. It was during this period that a challenge was issued by a group of authors and poets holidaying in Switzerland. The challenge, issued by Lord Byron, was to write a ghost story, which suited the atmosphere of Villa Diodati, where they were residing at the time. The winner of this challenge was Mary Shelley, who produced her seminal work Frankenstein (1818) and consequently became a notable author. The Romantic Period was significantly influenced by the social, political and cultural happenings of the time, particularly the Industrial Revolution and the Enlightenment*.
Neoclassicism (as the name suggests) drew inspiration from classicism. Neoclassic texts paid homage to classical texts, such as those by Greek writers Sophocles and Aristotle. Neoclassical literature is characterised by reason, rationale, accuracy, and order. An example of a neoclassical work is John Dryden's Of Dramatick Poesie : An Essay (1668).
The Age of Enlightenment ran parallel to and coincided with neoclassicism. The main features of the Enlightenment were: the pursuit of knowledge, the application of reason, and scientific progress. Emphasis was also placed on human happiness, diversity, tolerance, freedom, and a sense of community. An example of a work from the Age of Enlightenment is Voltaire's Candide (1759).
Just like the Elizabethan Age, the Victorian period is named after England's monarch, Queen Victoria, who was crowned in 1837. While Romanticism continued to be popular, Victorian literature tended towards mysticism, spiritualism and the supernatural. Gothic fiction became popular. There was immense progress in technology, science, evolution, medicine and industry, and these aspects feature in Victorian literature. The treatment of women and children was also an important topic of discussion in Victorian literature. Serialised publications also became popular. Charles Dickens published numerous stories in instalments. While he aimed to entertain audiences, he often used his publications as a means to offer commentary on and to criticise certain aspects of Victorian society.
The Victorian novel became so popular and appealing that today the 'neo-Victorian novel' is a popular genre. Neo-Victorian texts, although written in modern times, are set in the Victorian age and often feature the 'asylum' trope. Additionally, reading culture transformed as periodicals and pamphlets became popular and libraries increased the desire to read.
As society progressed, particularly in fields of science and technology, there was a renewed desire for innovation in art and philosophy. Innovations in technology such as photography, the moving picture, stream-of-consciousness, and a sense of self-reflection permeated works emerging from this period. Abstractism and formalism also became key features of modernism. Writers broke away with established literary traditions to highlight self-consciousness and the fragmented nature of memory and contemporary society. Furthermore, Freudian and Jungian theories also had a significant influence on literature. Notable authors and poets from this period include James Joyce, TS Eliot, WB Yeats, Samuel Beckett and Virginia Woolf.
Though numerous scholars disagree on the term, with some employing 'metamodernism' or 'posthumanism,' a large number of scholars call the literary period following modernism post-modernism, as it is seen as a reaction against its predecessor. Postmodernism, like modernism, is characterised by fragmented narratives and introspection, but rejects the 'grand narratives' of literary works. Instead it uses skepticism, self-referential techniques and obscurantism - arguing against simple narrations and concrete binary oppositions (such as female/male, self/other, object/subject). Postmodernists believe in accurately reflecting the current state of society, which is broken, disconnected, obscure, irrational and multifaceted. Numerous literary theories flourished with the influence of postmodernism such as feminist theory, queer theory and ecocriticism.
Literary movements do not have a clear, black and white boundary. There is some overlap with other movements and periods, and some texts may adopt only some features of a movement while distancing themselves from others. Furthermore, the examples mentioned are only a very small number of works in the English literary canon. When writing about literary movements, think of the historical context and the political, social, economical and technological influences on the author or poet.
A literary period is a specific duration within which a body of literary works with common characteristics is produced. For example, the Romantic period in the late 18th century includes texts with common features of Romanticism.
In English (British) literary canon, there are numerous literary movements including:
A literary timeline shows the chronological development of various literary movements. Literary movements feature a body of literary works with common features.
Which of the following is NOT a literary movement?
The Charles Age
The first literary movement in the English literary tradition is...
Old English
Which of the following literary movements is NOT named after the reigning ruler?
The Romantic Period
Which of the following is a key work of the Old English movement?
Beowulf
Which of the following poems was NOT composed during the English Renaissance?
The Tyger
Who was England's reigning ruler in the Jacobean Age?
King James I
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