History of English Literature

Periods Of English Literature – An Overview

Old English Literature: c.450 – 1066

• Anglo Saxon Manuscripts
• Beowulf as an epic
• Old English Heroic Poetry
• Old English Christian Poetry
• Old English Prose with special reference to Alfred and Aelfric

Middle English Literature: 1066 – 1500

• Medieval English Dream Poetry
• Middle English Metrical or Alliterative Romance
• Chaucer’s Poetic Career

English Renaissance: 1500 – 1660

• The Tudors: A Royal English Dynasty
• Metaphysical Poetry
• The University Wits
• ENGLISH PROSE IN THE ELIZABETHAN AGE
• Sonnet Sequence of Elizabethan Period

Restoration Age: 1660 – 1700

• Restoration Prose
• Restoration Verse Satire with Special Reference to Dryden
• Restoration Heroic Tragedy
• Restroration Comedy of Manners

18th Century English Literature

• The Eighteenth Century Novel
• Contribution of Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding to the Development of the 18th Century English Novel

Romantic Period: 1798 – 1837

• Salient Features of Romanticism
• Lyrical Ballads
• Contribution of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey to English Romanticism
• Personal Essays and Essayists of the Romantic Period
• The Romantic Movement as Return to Nature

Victorian Literature: 1837 – 1901

• Victorian Poetry
• Non-Fictional Prose of the Victorian Age
• Charles Dickens as a novelist
• Woman Novelists of the Victorian Era

Twentieth Century English Literature

• Poetry of the First World War
• The Angry Young Men Movement of the 1950s
• Early 20th Century Drama
• Confessional poetry