Presentation from the workshop " Cracking BCS English".

1. An Overview of English and
American Literature

2. What is English literature?
Literature?
English?
American literature?

3. • The Middle Ages ( -1485)
• The Sixteenth Century (1485-1603)
• The Seventeenth Century (1603-1660)
• The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century (1660-1798)
• The Romantic Period (1798-1832)
• The Victorian Age (1832-1901)
• The Twentieth Century (1901-present)
1914-1945 : The Modern Period
1945- : Postmodern Period
Periods of English Literature
(Norton Anthology Periodization)

4. Before the Middle Ages ( -1485)
The Roman Period (43 A.D. – 410)
• 56 BC: Caesar visited Britain.
• 40 AD: Roman colony founded.
• 410: Last Roman legion withdrawn from
England.

5. The Middle Ages ( -1485)
The Anglo-Saxon Period (450-1066)
• ca. 450: Anglo-Saxon Conquest.
• 597: Christianity introduced to England by St. Augustine..
• 1066: England conquered by the Normans.

6. The Middle Ages ( -1485)
The Norman-French Period (1066-1340)
• ca. 1200: Beginnings of Middle English literature.
• 1095: The First Crusade begins.

7. The Middle Ages ( -1485)
The Late Middle Ages (1340-1485)
• 1387: Geoffrey Chaucer begins to write The Canterbury Tales.
• 1474: First book in English printed by Caxton.

8. The Sixteenth Century (1485-1603)
• 1485: Henry VII starts the Tudor sovereigns.
• 1509: Henry VIII becomes king.
• 1558: Elizabeth I becomes queen.
• 1576: The Theatre built.
• 1588: Spanish Armada defeated.
• 1603: Elizabeth I dies.

9. The Seventeenth Century (1603-1660)
• 1603: James I starts the Stuart line.
• 1620: Plymouth colony founded.
• 1641: Civil War breaks out. All theatres closed.
• 1649: Charles I executed; The commonwealth established.
• 1660: Charles II restored to throne.

10. The Restoration and Eighteenth Century
(1660-1798)
• 1660: Charles II restored to throne.
• 1668: The Glorious Revolution.
• 1776: The American colonies united for freedom.
• 1789: The French Revolution begin.

11. The Romantic Period (1798-1832)
• 1798: Lyrical Ballads published.
• 1842: The Reform Bill carried in Parliament.

12. The Victorian Age (1832-1901)
• 1837: Victoria becomes queen.
• 1851: The Great Exhibition in London.
• 1859: Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species published.
• 1901: Queen Victoria dies.

13. The Twentieth Century (1901- )
Modern Period (1914-1945)
• 1914-18: World War I.
• 1922: T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land; James Joyce’s Ulysses.
• 1930: Period of depression begins.
• 1939-45: World War II breaks out.

14. The Twentieth Century (1901- )
Postmodern Period (1945- )

15. • Early American Literature 1620-1820
• American Literature 1820-1865
• American Literature 1865-1914
• American Literature between the Wars 1914-1945
• American Literature Since 1945
Periods of American Literature
(Norton Anthology Periodization)

16. Early American Literature 1620-1820
• 1492: Columbus arrives at one of the Bahamas Islands.
• 1620: Mayflower Compact signed.
• 1776: Declaration of Independence.

17. American Literature 1820-1865
• 1831: Nat Turner’s revolt.
• 1838-39: The Trail of Tears.
• 1849: California Gold Rush begins.
• 1861-65: American Civil War.

18. American Literature 1865-1914
• 1867: Reconstruction Acts.
• 1871: Great Chicago Fire.

19. American Literature between the Wars
1910-1945
• 1917: U.S. enters World War I.
• 1929: Great Depression begins.
• 1941: U.S. enters World War II.

20. American Literature Since 1945
• 1950: McCarthyism begins.
• 1961: Vietnam War begins.
• 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated.
• 1975: Vietnam War ends.