It is the history of English literature from 15th century to 19th century. It makes easy to know about whole history about literature.

1. English Literature
History of English Literature

2. English literature -timeline
• Old English literature
• Medieval English literature
• Renaissance and reformation
• Revolution literature of 17th century
• English literature of 18th century – Classicism
• Romantic literature
• Victorian literature

3. 1. The Anglo-Saxon Period
(the earliest time---1066)
Literature: Beowulf , the earliest literature, the national
epic of the Anglo-Saxon, one of the striking features -
the use of alliteration.
• EPIC
• Alliteration
Michael Morpurgo
~Beowulf~
Illustrated by:
Michael Foreman
ALLITERATION
EPIC

4. 2. TheMedievalPeriod
(1066---15th century)
Literature: Langland ; English Ballad;
Romance; Chaucer.
• Allegory:
A literary technique used to narrate a
story in an imaginative way.
• Ballad:
A slow sentimental or romantic song.
• Romance:
Describes the life of noble hero. Sometimes
in prose, verses, and in long composition.
William Langland.
“Piers the Plowman”
Geoffrey Chaucer,
father of English poetryBallad by Chaucer.
Romance of king
Arthur.

5. 3. English Renaissance
(15th and 16th century)
Literature: Renaissance; Humanism; Thomas
More; Edmund Spencer; Francis Bacon; drama.
• Renaissance:
The humanistic revival of classical art,
architecture, literature, and learning.
Utopia by Thomas More.
The Faerie Queen by
Edmund Spencer.
Francis Bacon, Essays.
Doctor Faustus by
Christopher Marlowe.
Play by Ben Jonson.Shakespeare, one of the greatest
writer in the world.

6. 4. The Period of Revolution and
Restoration (the 17th century)
Literature: John Milton; John Bunyan; John
Dryden; Metaphysical poets.
• heroic couplet:
two successive lines of verse, equal in length
and with rhyme.
• Metaphysical poetry:
A subject that deals with things, which do
not have concrete shape.
Metaphysical poem
by Andrew Marvell.
John Donne; considered the pre-
eminent representative of
the metaphysical poets.
Heroic couplet by Alexander Pope.

7. 5. The Period of Enlightenment and
Classicism (the 18th century)
Literature: the school of Classicism; the rise of modern
novel; Sentimentalism; Pre-Romanticism; Sheridan’s
drama.
• Classicism:
The following of ancient Greek or Roman
principles and style in art and literature, generally
associated with harmony, restraint, and adherence .
• Model Novel:
The mid-century predominated by a new realistic novel.
• Sentimentalism:
excessively sentimental behavior, writing, or speech.
Sentimentalist poetry marks the midway in the
transition from classicism to romanticism.
• Pre-Romanticism:
The latter half of the 18th century; strong protest
against the 4 bondage of classicism, a recognition of the
claims of passion and emotion. William Blake- “The Songs of
Innocence” and “The Songs of Experience;”.
Addison and “The
Spectator”.
Model novel. Defoe and
“Robinson Crusoe”.
Sentimentalism.
Thomas Gray and
“Elegy Written in a
Country Churchyard”.

8. 6. The Romantic Period (the turn of
the 18th and 19th century)
Literature: The Romantic period is an age of poetry;
Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelly and Keats are
the major Romantic poets; Prose writers and novelists.

9. 7. Critical Realistic Period (the
mid and late 19th century)
Literature: Fiction is the highest achievement
with Dickens as its representative.