Classification of English Literary Periods

For English Literature, the periods are generally classified according to major historical, cultural, and literary changes. The dates are approximate because periods often overlap.

Classification of English Literary Periods

Period	Approx. Dates	Important Writers
Old English / Anglo-Saxon Period	450–1066	Caedmon, Cynewulf, King Alfred
Middle English Period	1066–1500	Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland, John Gower
Renaissance / Early Modern Period	1500–1660	William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson, John Donne, Francis Bacon
Neoclassical / Restoration Period	1660–1798	John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, Daniel Defoe, William Congreve
Romantic Period	1798–1837	William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, Lord Byron, P. B. Shelley, John Keats, William Blake
Victorian Period	1837–1901	Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Matthew Arnold, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Oscar Wilde
Modern Period	1901–1945	W. B. Yeats, T. S. Eliot, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, E. M. Forster, George Bernard Shaw
Postmodern / Contemporary Period	1945–Present	Samuel Beckett, George Orwell, Graham Greene, Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Harold Pinter, Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan

1. Old English / Anglo-Saxon Period (450–1066)

Important writers:

• Caedmon

• Cynewulf

• King Alfred

• Anonymous poet of Beowulf

Major work: Beowulf

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2. Middle English Period (1066–1500)

This period developed after the Norman Conquest of 1066.

Important writers:

• Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales

• William Langland – Piers Plowman

• John Gower – Confessio Amantis

• Thomas Malory – Le Morte d'Arthur

⭐ Chaucer is known as the "Father of English Poetry."

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3. Renaissance / Early Modern Period (1500–1660)

This is one of the most important periods for competitive examinations.

Major writers:

Elizabethan Age

• Edmund Spenser

• Christopher Marlowe

• William Shakespeare

• Ben Jonson

• Francis Bacon

Jacobean Age

• John Donne

• Ben Jonson

• John Webster

• Francis Beaumont

• John Fletcher

Caroline Age

• John Milton

• Robert Herrick

• Richard Lovelace

• George Herbert

Commonwealth / Puritan Age

• John Milton

• John Bunyan

• Andrew Marvell

⭐ Shakespeare is the most important writer of this period.

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4. Neoclassical / Restoration Period (1660–1798)

This period emphasised reason, order, wit, satire and classical rules.

Important writers:

• John Dryden

• Alexander Pope

• Jonathan Swift

• Samuel Johnson

• Daniel Defoe

• Joseph Addison

• Richard Steele

• William Congreve

• Henry Fielding

• Samuel Richardson

• Oliver Goldsmith

Important subdivisions:

• Restoration Age: 1660–1700

• Augustan Age: 1700–1745

• Age of Johnson: 1745–1798

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5. Romantic Period (1798–1837)

The period traditionally begins with the publication of Lyrical Ballads (1798) by Wordsworth and Coleridge.

The major Romantic poets:

• William Wordsworth

• S. T. Coleridge

• Lord Byron

• P. B. Shelley

• John Keats

• William Blake

Other important writers:

• Jane Austen

• Walter Scott

• Charles Lamb

• William Hazlitt

⭐ Wordsworth is often called the "Poet of Nature."

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6. Victorian Period (1837–1901)

The period corresponds broadly to the reign of Queen Victoria.

Important poets:

• Alfred Lord Tennyson

• Robert Browning

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning

• Matthew Arnold

• Christina Rossetti

• Gerard Manley Hopkins

Important novelists:

• Charles Dickens

• William Makepeace Thackeray

• George Eliot

• Thomas Hardy

• Charlotte Brontë

• Emily Brontë

• Anne Brontë

• Anthony Trollope

Other important writer:

• Oscar Wilde

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7. Modern Period (1901–1945)

Modern literature is associated with experimentation, fragmentation, psychological exploration and new literary techniques.

Important writers:

• T. S. Eliot

• W. B. Yeats

• James Joyce

• Virginia Woolf

• D. H. Lawrence

• E. M. Forster

• George Bernard Shaw

• Joseph Conrad

• Aldous Huxley

• Ezra Pound

⭐ Important movements/concepts: Modernism, Stream of Consciousness, Imagism, Symbolism.

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8. Postmodern / Contemporary Period (1945–Present)

Important writers:

• George Orwell

• Samuel Beckett

• Graham Greene

• Philip Larkin

• Ted Hughes

• Harold Pinter

• Doris Lessing

• Salman Rushdie

• Kazuo Ishiguro

• Ian McEwan

Important features include experimental writing, multiple perspectives, irony, intertextuality and questioning of traditional ideas.

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⭐ Most Important Timeline for Exams

Old English → 450–1066
↓
Middle English → 1066–1500
↓
Renaissance → 1500–1660
↓
Restoration/Neoclassical → 1660–1798
↓
Romantic → 1798–1837
↓
Victorian → 1837–1901
↓
Modern → 1901–1945
↓
Postmodern/Contemporary → 1945–Present

A very useful memory sequence

Old → Middle → Renaissance → Neoclassical → Romantic → Victorian → Modern → Postmodern