Literary Eras & Movements

Key Events:

Decline of Catholic Church, Printing Press

Literature:

Inspired by Ancient Greece & Rome, explores humanity

Major Writers:

Shakespeare, Milton

Major Types:

Drama, Poetry

Key Events:

Scientific advancements, limitation of monarchy

Literature:

Focus on democracy, rights, realism

Major Writers:

Jonathan Swift, John Locke

Major Types:

The modern novel

Key Events:

Reaction to Enlightenment ideals, Industrial Revolution

Literature:

Celebrates emotion, nature, Gothic themes

Major Writers:

William Wordsworth, John Keats

Major Types:

Romantic Poetry, Gothic Novel

Key Events:

Industrialization, economic disparity, women's rights

Literature:

Realistic, critiques society, explores gender & class struggles

Major Writers:

Charles Dickens, Brontë Sisters

Major Types:

Novels

Key Events:

World Wars, Freud's psychoanalysis

Literature:

Breaks traditional forms, explores the human mind

Major Writers:

Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway

Major Types:

Psychological realism, free verse poetry

Key Events:

Social justice movements, media revolution

Literature:

Critiques institutions, irony, intertextuality

Major Writers:

Salman Rushdie, Kurt Vonnegut

Major Types:

Irony, experimental literature