~~~~MAIN LITERARY PERIODS of WESTERN CIVILIZATION: An OUTLINE~~~~ ======== ======= ======= ============ ** IMMEDIATE CAVEAT: There is no general agreement among scholars concerning the dates, even the names, of literary periods and schools--what follows can be used as an as-good-as-any set of outlines, to be supplemented by your own literary knowledge & research efforts. ** Representative authors (and anonymous works) for each period are included, with the "greatest of the great"--from a literary history viewpoint, at least--in "bold" [e.g., *Homer*]. Those authors given right after a main heading (and arranged by countries) do not fit any of the major "ages" or movements listed beneath that period (if any); each of these sub-headings, moreover, has its own list of representative authors. NOTE: Authors in brackets pre- or post-date slightly the movement they are listed under, but are associated with that movement as important forerunners or latter-day adherents. ** Authors are also "keyed" to the genre they are MOST associated with, as follows: (p): poetry, incl. epic & lyric ~ (d): drama, incl. tragedy & comedy (f): fiction, incl. the novel & short story (hb): history or (auto)biography (pp): philosophy or political propaganda (r): religious polemics (s): science or social science (pr): miscellaneous prose (general essays, criticism, etc.) Finally, longer lists are sometimes even divided into genres by slashes (/). . . . ANOTHER NOTE: English & American authors & movements are not included in the initial listing--subsequent outlines devoted exclusively to them follow. . . . A FINAL NOTE!: deep apologies for the _mea_culpa_ omission of eons of important "non-Western" literature: e.g. (to name a very few works & authors), the (Egyptian) Book of the Dead; _Gilgamesh_; the Rig-Veda, the Upanishads, _The_Mahabharata_, _The_Ramayana_, and Kalidasa; Lao-Tzu, Confucius, Li Po, and Tu Fu; Firdausi, Omar Khayya'm, Rumi, Hafiz, and _The_Thousand_and_One_Nights_; and _The_Tale_of_Genji_, Basho, Buson, and Issa. . . . . . . A *LAST* FINAL NOTE: excuse the poor ascii attempts at foreign diacritical marks:::::::: e` = accent grave over "e" (etc.) e' = accent aigu over "e" (etc.) (?!--best I could do . . .) e^ = accent circonflexe over "e" (etc.) u" = umlaut over "u" (etc.) c, = cedilla ======== ======= ======= ============ --=>MAIN LITERARY PERIODS of WESTERN CIVILIZATION<=-- ======== ======= ======= ============ I. CLASSICAL PERIOD [Greece & Rome] (ca. 850 B.C.-A.D. 450) ========= ====== --GREECE: *Homer*(p), Hesiod(p), Sappho(p), Pythagoras(pp), Pindar(p) ... [Attic & Alexandrian Ages] ... Plutarch(hb), Epictetus(pp), Lucian(f), Plotinus(pp) **Attic Age (ca. 500-323 B.C.): d: *Aeschylus*, *Sophocles*, *Euripides*, Aristophanes / hb: Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon / pp: Plato, Aristotle **Alexandrian Age (ca. 323-146 B.C.): Theophrastus(pr), Menander(d), Epicurus(pp), Theocritus(p) --ROME: Plautus(d), Terence(d) ... [Golden & Silver Ages] ... Marcus Aurelius(pp), Apuleius(f) **Golden Age (ca. 70 B.C.-A.D. 17): --Ciceronian Age (ca. 70-44 B.C.): Cicero(pr), Caesar(hb), Lucretius(pp), Catullus(p) --Augustan Age (ca. 44 B.C.-A.D. 17): *Virgil*(p), Horace(p), Livy(hb), Ovid(p) **Silver Age (ca. A.D. 17-130): Seneca(d), Petronius(f), Martial(p), Tacitus(hb), Juvenal(p), Suetonius(hb) II. MEDIEVAL PERIOD [Middle Ages] (ca. A.D. 450-1450) ======== ====== --ROME//LATIN: [Augustine(hb),] Boethius(pp) // Aquinas(pp), Duns Scotus(pp) --SCANDINAVIA//GERMANY: _The_Elder_Edda_(p) // _The_Nibelungenlied_(p), Walther von der Vogelweide(p) --FRANCE: _La_Chanson_de_Roland_(p), _Aucassin_et_Nicolete_(p), _Le_Roman_de_la_Rose_(p), Villon(p) --SPAIN: _The_Poem_of_the_Cid_(p) --ITALY: *Dante*(p) III. RENAISSANCE (ca. 1450-1600) =========== --ITALY (ca. 1350-): Petrarch(p), *Boccaccio*(f), Machiavelli(pp), Ariosto(p), Cellini(hb), Tasso(p) --FRANCE: *Rabelais*(f), Du Bellay(p), Ronsard(p), Montaigne(pr) --SPAIN//PORTUGAL: _La_Celestina_(d) // Camoe"ns(p) --HOLLAND//GERMANY: Erasmus(pp) // Luther(r) IV. AGE OF REASON (ca. 1600-1700) === == ====== --SPAIN: {**Golden Age--ca. 1580-1681}: *Cervantes*(f), Lope de Vega(d), Tirso(d), Alarco'n(d), Caldero'n(d) --FRANCE: pp: Descartes, Pascal / d: Corneille, *Molie`re*, Racine / pr: La Rochefoucauld, Boileau / p: La Fontaine --GERMANY//HOLLAND: Boehme(pp), Leibniz(pp) // Spinoza(pp) V. ENLIGHTENMENT (The ~) (ca. 1700-1800) ============= --FRANCE: Montesquieu(pp), Voltaire(f), Pre'vost(f), Diderot(pr) --GERMANY: Klopstock(p), Lessing(d) **"Sturm und Drang" (fl. 1770's): Herder(pr), *Goethe*(d), Schiller(d) --ITALY: Alfieri(d) VI. ROMANTIC PERIOD (ca. 1800-1850) ======== ====== --GERMANY: pp: [Kant,] Hegel, Schelling, Schopenhauer / pr: Schlegel(s) / p: Ho"lderlin, Novalis, Heine / d: Grillparzer[Austr.] --FRANCE: [Rousseau(pp),] Chateaubriand(f), Lamartine(p), Vigny(p), Hugo(p), Musset(p), Gautier(f) --ITALY: Manzoni(f), Leopardi(p) --RUSSIA: Pushkin(p), Lermontov(p) VII. REALISTIC PERIOD (ca. 1850-1914) ========= ====== --FRANCE (fl. 1830-1870): *Stendhal*(f), Comte(s), *Balzac*(f), *Flaubert*(f), Daudet(f), France(f) **Naturalism (fl. 1870-1890): Zola(f), Maupassant(f) **_Symbolisme_ (fl.1870-1900): [Nerval(p), *Baudelaire*(p),] Mallarme'(p), Verlaine(p), Lautre'amont(f), Rimbaud(p), Laforgue(p), Maeterlinck(d)[Belg.] --RUSSIA {**Golden Age--ca. 1842-1883}: Gogol(f), Turgenev(f), *Dostoevsky*(f), *Tolstoy*(f) ... Chekhov(d) --GERMANY//SCANDINAVIA: Marx(pp), Nietzsche(pp), Hauptmann(d) // Kierkegaard(pp)[Denm.], *Ibsen*(d)[Norw.], Strindberg(d)[Swed.] --POLAND: Sienkiewicz(f) --ITALY: Carducci(p), D'Annunzio(p) VIII. MODERN(IST) PERIOD (ca. 1914-1945) =========== ====== --FRANCE: pp: Bergson / f: Rolland, Gide, Proust, Martin du Gard, Mauriac, Romains, Ce'line, Malraux / d: Claudel, Cocteau / p: Vale'ry, Apollinaire **Dadaism (ca. 1916-1924): Tzara(p) **Surrealism (fl. 20's&30's): Supervielle(p), Reverdy(p), E'luard(p), Breton(f), Aragon(p), Michaux(p)[Belg.], Pre'vert(p), Char(p) --GERMANY//CZECHOSLOVAKIA[~]: Freud(s)[Austr.], Hoffmannsthal(p)[Austr.], Jung(s)[Swiss], Mann(f), Rilke(p)[Austr.], Hesse(f)[Swiss], Heidegger(pp), Wittgenstein(pp) **Expressionism (fl. 1910's&20's): d: Wedekind, Capek[~], Toller, Brecht / f: Wassermann, Kafka[Austr.], Werfel / p: Benn, Trakl[Austr.] --SCANDINAVIA: Undset(f)[Norw.], Dinesen(f)[Denm.] --RUSSIA: Gorky(f), Blok(p), Pasternak(p), Mayakovsky(p), Babel(f), Sholokov(f) **Acmeism (ca. 1912-22): p: Akhmatova, Mandalstam --GREECE: Cava'fis(p), Kazantza'kis(p), Sefe'ris(p) --ITALY: Croce(pp), Pirandello(d), Saba(p), Ungaretti(p), Quasimodo(p), Montale(p), Pavese(f) **Futurism (fl. 1910's&20's): Marinetti(p) --SPAIN//LATIN AMERICA: Unamuno(pp), Baroja(f), Machado(p), Jime'nez(p), Ortega y Gasset(pp), Garcia Lorca(p) // Dario(p)[Nicar.], Vallejo(p)[Peru], Huidobro(p)[Chile], Neruda(p)[Chile] IX. POST-MODERN(IST) PERIOD (1945-->) --FRANCE: Derrida(pp) **Existentialism (fl. 40's&50's): Sartre(pp), Camus(f) **Theatre of the Absurd (fl. 50's&60's): d: Beckett, Gene^t, Ionesco **Anti-Novelists (fl. 50's-...): f: Sarraute, Simon, Robbe-Grillet, Butor --GERMANY: Celan(p), Grass(f) --RUSSIA: Solzhenitsyn(f), Voznesensky(p), Yevtushenko(p) --YIDDISH: Singer(f)[Pol.-Amer.] --LATIN AMERICA:Borges(f)[Argent.], Paz(p)[Mex.], Garci'a Ma'rquez(f)[Columb.] ================ ================ ****OUTLINE of ENGLISH LITERATURE**** (--Note that the generic "world lit." periods given above are not always in accord with specific national periods: the English Renaissance, for instance, has later dates than those usually given for the Renaissance in general because that "movement" arrived relatively late in England. Moreover, national periods often take their beginning and/or ending dates from a specific local event, like the death of a king or a leading literary figure.) I. Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (ca. 450-1100): _Beowulf_(p), Cynewulf(p), "The Seafarer"(p), "The Wanderer"(p) II. Anglo-Norman Period (ca. 1100-1350): _The_Owl_and_the_ _Nightingale_(p), Layamon(p), "Cuckoo Song"(p) III. Middle English Period (ca. 1350-1500): ... {folk ballads(p),} _The_Second_Shepherds'_Song_(d), Malory(f), _Everyman_(d) **Age of Chaucer (ca. 1350-1400): Langland(p), *Chaucer*(p), _Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight_(p) IV. Renaissance (ca. 1500-1660): A. Early Tudor Age (ca. 1500-1558): Skelton(p), More(pp), Wyatt(p), Surrey(p) B. Elizabethan Age (ca. 1558-1603): p: Spenser, Sidney / d: Lyly, Peele, Greene, Kyd, Marlowe, *Shakespeare* C. Jacobean Age (ca. 1603-1625): s: F. Bacon / d: Middleton, Jonson, Webster, Beaumont & Fletcher / pr: Burton / r: King James *Bible* D. Puritan & Cavalier Period (ca. 1625-1660): **Metaphysical School (ca. 1600-1660): p: Donne, Herbert, Crashaw, Cowley, Vaughn, [Traherne] 1. Caroline Age (ca. 1625-1649): {**Cavalier Poets}: p: Herrick, Carew, Waller, Suckling, Lovelace 2. Commonwealth Interregnum (ca. 1649-1660): Hobbes(pp), Walton(pr), Browne(pr) V. Neoclassical Period (ca. 1660-1798): A. Restoration (Age of Dryden) (ca. 1660-1700): p: *Milton*, Butler, Marvell, Dryden / r: Bunyan / pp: Locke / pr: Pepys / d: Wycherley, Congreve B. Augustan Age (Age of Pope) (ca. 1700-1750): f: DeFoe, Swift, Richardson, *Fielding* / pr: Addison & Steele / pp: Berkeley, Hume / d: Gay / p: Pope C. Age of Johnson (ca. 1750-1798): pr: Johnson / f: *Sterne*, Smollet, Goldsmith / p: Collins, Cowper, Crabbe / pp: Burke / hb: Gibbon, Boswell / d: Sheridan **Graveyard School (fl. 1740's&50's): p: Young, Thompson, Gray VI. Romantic Period (ca. 1798-1870): A. Romantic Age (ca. 1798-1832): p: [Blake, Burns,] Byron, P.B. Shelley, Keats / f: Scott, *Austen*, M. Shelley / pr: Lamb, Hazlitt, De Quincey **Lake Poets (fl. 1790's-1810's): p: *Wordsworth*, Coleridge, Southey B. Early Victorian Age (ca. 1832-1870): pr: Carlyle, Macaulay, Ruskin / r: Newman / pp: J.S. Mill / s: Darwin / p: Tennyson, Browning / f: Thackeray, *Dickens*, Trollope, Bront‘(s) **Pre-Raphaelites (fl. 1850's&60's): p: Rosetti(s), Morris VII. Realistic Period (ca. 1870-1914): A. Late Victorian Age (ca. 1870-1901): f: G. Eliot, Meredith, Carroll, Butler, Hardy, H. James, Stevenson s: Spencer, T.H. Huxley, Frazer / pr: Arnold, Pater / p: Swinburne, Hopkins **Decadents (fl. 1890's): Wilde(d), Dowson(p) B. Edwardian Age (ca. 1901-1914): d: Shaw, Barrie / f: Conrad, Kipling, Wells, Bennett, Galsworthy, Saki / p: Housman **Irish Renaissance (ca. 1890-1930): Yeats(p), AE(p), Synge(d), O'Casey(d) VIII. Modern(ist) Period (ca. 1914-1945): pp: Whitehead, Russell / f: Maugham, Forster, Joyce, Woolf, D.H. Lawrence, Mansfield, A. Huxley / p: T.S. Eliot, Auden, Spender, D. Thomas IX. Post-Modern(ist) Period (ca. 1945->): f: Orwell, Greene, Lowry, Golding, Durrell, Burgess, Amis, Fowles / p: Larkin / d: Pinter ================ ================ ****OUTLINE of AMERICAN LITERATURE**** . . . heck with it: not much of it really matters! (pardon the editorializing. . . .) :-} --Oh, well, here goes: I. Colonial Period (ca. 1607-1765): Bradstreet(p), Edwards(r), Taylor(p), Franklin(hb) II. Revolutionary & Early National Period (ca. 1765-1830) A. Revolutionary Age (ca. 1765-1790): Paine(pp), Jefferson(pp), Freneau(p) B. Federalist Age (ca. 1790-1830): Brown(f), Irving(f), Cooper(f), Bryant(p) III. Romantic Period (ca. 1830-1865): Hawthorne(f), Longfellow(p), Holmes(pr), Poe(p), *Melville*(f), *Whitman*(p) **Transcendentalism: Emerson(pr), Thoreau(pp) IV. Realistic Period ("Gilded Age") (ca. 1865-1900): p: Dickinson, Lanier / f: *Twain*, Howells, Bierce, O. Henry **Local Colorists (ca. 1870-1900): Harte(f), Harris(f), Jewett(f), Chopin(f), Freeman(f) **Naturalism (ca. 1890-1930): Norris(f), Crane(f), Dreiser(f), London(f) V. Modern(ist) Period (ca. 1900-1945): pp: W. James, Dewey, Santayana / p: Masters, Robinson, Frost, Sandburg, Stevens, M. Moore, cummings, H. Crane / f: Cather, Stein, S. Anderson, Lewis, Porter, Dos Passos, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Hemingway, Wolfe, Steinbeck, West / d: O'Neill, M. Anderson, Wilder **Imagism (fl. 1910's): p: A. Lowell, W.C. Williams, Pound, H.D. **Harlem Renaissance (fl. 20's): McKay(p), Toomer(f), Hughes(p), Cullen(p) VI. Post-Modern(ist) Period (ca. 1945-): f: Nabokov, R. Wright, Ellison, Bellow, Salinger, Vonnegut, Mailer, O'Connor, Barth, Barthelme, Updike, Brautigan, Roth / p: Roethke, Jarrell, Wilbur, Merwin / dd: T. Williams, A. Miller, Albee **Black Mountain School (fl. 50's): p: Olson, Duncan, Levertov, Creeley **Beats (fl. 50's&60's): Burroughs(f), Ferlinghetti(p), Kerouac(f), Ginsberg(p), Snyder(p) **Confessional Poets (fl.50's&60's): p: Berryman, R. Lowell, Snodgrass, Sexton, Plath **New York Surrealists (fl. 50's&60's): p: Koch, O'Hara, Ashbery **Deep Imagists (fl. 60's&70's): p: Bly, J. Wright, Simic ======== | --:--tcg )