LIT313D: LITERARY CRITICISM 1

Chapter 2: Periods and Movements in Literature

LESSON OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the discussion, students are expected to:
a. trace the foundations of literature and literary criticism through literary period development;
b. familiarize the intellectual, linguistic, religious, and artistic influences of literatures through
the literary periods and movements;
c. identify definite characteristics of each literary period and movement for an in-depth study of
literature; and
d. create a critical analysis of a text and an author from a definite literary period or movement.

LESSON PROPER:

Literary Periods are spans of time for literature that shares intellectual, linguistic,
religious, and artistic influences.
In grouping texts according to "type," the concept of genre is applied to all literary works,
past, present, or future. Thus seeing a single work in its generic context becomes inseparable
from seeing it as part of literary history. The concept of literary period also implies a grouping
through time. But a work, rather than being "placed" within the entire sweep of literary history,
is "placed" within a much more restricted time frame. The period concept provides another
system of classification, ordering literary and cultural data chronologically, within certain
discrete time periods. It assumes every age has its characteristic special features, which are
reflected in its representative artifacts or creations. (Indeed, among these characteristic features
may be its typical choice of genres.) The kind of coherence displayed is not accidental, for
literary works participate in the culture of their times.

The Period Concept

Basically, the period concept suggests two things: (1) that literary works can be grouped
according to what they share with each other within a given time span, and (2) that this grouping
can be differentiated from other such chronological groupings. Literary periods share, in Rene
Wellek's phrase, "systems of norms," which include such things as conventions, styles, themes,
and philosophies.

Usefulness of the Concept

The study of literary periods and movements can be helpful in three ways. At the least, for
student or for scholar, there is always some teasing contemporary allusion that can only be
cleared up by study of the age. More significantly, such study may help one avoid the potential
danger of misreading a work through ignorance of its historical context. Finally, and most
importantly, great works of art do indeed seem clearer and more interesting in proportion to the
reader's possession of certain broad kinds of information about the age in which they were
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produced--whether it be about the age's religious orientation or its cosmology, about its attitude
toward "love," toward the classics or its own place in history, toward the state, the individual, or
society. The reader's experience of literature will necessarily be enriched by knowledge of the
prevailing attitudes toward education, money, arranged marriages, duty, ethics; by its attitudes
toward human nature, including the importance attached to various human faculties (spirit,
reason, feeling, imagination). And especially important to the student of literature is the age's
representative attitudes toward art and the methods of its creation.

I. The Classical Period (1200 BCE - 455 CE)

I. HOMERIC or HEROIC PERIOD
(1200-800 BCE)
Greek legends were passed along orally, including Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey. This is a
chaotic period of warrior-princes, wandering sea-traders, and
fierce pirates.
II. CLASSICAL GREEK PERIOD
(800-200 BCE)
Greek writers, playwrights, and philosophers
include Gorgias, Aesop, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Euripides,
and Sophocles. The fifth century (499-400 BCE) in particular
is renowned as The Golden Age of Greece. This was the
sophisticated era of the polis, or individual City-State, and early
democracy. Some of the world's finest art, poetry, drama,
architecture, and philosophy originated in Athens.

III. CLASSICAL ROMAN PERIOD

(200 BCE-455 CE)
Greece's culture gave way to Roman power when
Rome conquered Greece in 146 CE. The Roman Republic was
traditionally founded in 509 BCE, but it was limited in
size until later. Playwrights of this time
include Plautus and Terence. After nearly 500 years as a
Republic, Rome slid into a dictatorship under Julius
Caesar and finally into a monarchial empire under Caesar
Augustus in 27 CE. This later period is known as the Roman
Imperial period. Roman writers include Ovid, Horace,
and Virgil. Roman philosophers include Marcus
Aurelius and Lucretius. Roman rhetoricians
include Cicero and Quintilian.
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IV. PATRISTIC PERIOD

(c. 70 CE-455 CE)
Early Christian writers include Saint Augustine, Tertullian, Saint
Cyprian, Saint Ambrose and Saint Jerome. This is the period when Saint
Jerome first compiled the Bible, Christianity spread across Europe, and the
Roman Empire suffered its dying convulsions. In this period, barbarians
attacked Rome in 410 CE, and the city finally fell to them completely in
455 CE.

Notable Literary Texts include: Homer’s Illiad and Odyssey, Aesop’s Fable, Ovid’s
Metamorphose, Virgil’s Aenid, and St. Jerome’s Bible compilation.
II. The Medieval Period (455 CE-1485 CE)
I. THE OLD ENGLISH (ANGLO-SAXON) PERIOD
(428-1066 CE)
The so-called "Dark Ages" (455 CE -799 CE)
occured after Rome fell and barbarian tribes moved
into Europe. Franks, Ostrogoths, Lombards, and Goths
settled in the ruins of Europe, and the Angles, Saxons,
and Jutes migrated to Britain displacing native Celts
into Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Early Old English
poems such as Beowulf, The Wanderer, and The Seafarer originated sometime late in the Anglo-
Saxon period. The Carolingian Renaissance (800- 850 CE) emerged in Europe. In central
Europe, texts include early medieval grammars, encyclopedias, etc. In northern Europe, this time
period marks the setting of Viking sagas.
II. THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD
(c. 1066-1450 CE)

In 1066, Norman French armies invaded and conquered England under William I. This marks the
end of the Anglo-Saxon hierarchy and the emergence of the Twelfth Century Renaissance (c.
1100-1200 CE). French chivalric romances--such as works by Chretien de Troyes--and French
fables--such as the works of Marie de France and Jeun de Meun--spread in
popularity. Abelard and other humanists produced great scholastic and theological works.
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Late or "High" Medieval Period

(c. 1200-1485 CE)
This often tumultuous period is marked by the Middle English writings
of Geoffrey Chaucer, the "Gawain" or "Pearl" Poet, the Wakefield Master,
and William Langland. Other writers include Italian and French authors
like Boccaccio, Petrarch, Dante, and Christine de Pisan.
Notable Literary Texts include: Beowulf, Geoffery Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Thomas
Malory’s Morte d’Arthur

III. The Renaissance and Reformation (1485-1660 CE)

(The Renaissance took place in the late 15th, 16th, and early 17th century in Britain, but
somewhat earlier in Italy and southern Europe and somewhat later in northern Europe.)
I. Early Tudor Period
(1485-1558)

The War of the Roses ended in England with Henry Tudor (Henry
VII) claiming the throne. Martin Luther's split with Rome marks the
emergence of Protestantism, followed by Henry VIII's Anglican schism,
which created the first Protestant church in England. Edmund Spenser is a
sample poet.

II. Elizabethan Period

(1558-1603)
Queen Elizabeth saved England from both Spanish invasion and
internal squabbles at home. Her reign is marked by the early works
of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Kyd, and Sidney.
III. Jacobean Period
(1603-1625)
Shakespeare's later work include Aemilia Lanyer, Ben Jonson,
and John Donne.
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IV. Caroline Age

(1625-1649)
John Milton, George Herbert, Robert Herrick, the "Sons of
Ben" and others wrote during the reign of Charles I and
his Cavaliers.

V. Commonwealth Period/Puritan Interregnum

(1649-1660)
Under Cromwell's Puritan dictatorship, John Milton continued to write, but we also find writers
like Andrew Marvell and Sir Thomas Browne.
Notable Literary Texts/Writers include: William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, Edmund
Spencer, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Ben Jonson, as well as John Done, Francis Bacon, and Thomas
Middleton, and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress

IV. The Enlightenment (Neoclassical) Period (1660-1790 CE)

"Neoclassical" refers to the increased influence of Classical literature upon these centuries. The
Neoclassical Period is also called the "Enlightenment" due to the increased reverence for logic
and disdain for superstition. The period is marked by the rise of Deism, intellectual backlash
against earlier Puritanism, and America's revolution against England.
I. Restoration Period
(1660-1700)
This period marks the British king's restoration to the throne after
a long period of Puritan domination in England. Its symptoms
include the dominance of French and Classical influences on
poetry and drama. Sample writers include John Dryden, John
Locke, Sir William Temple, and Samuel Pepys, and Aphra
Behn in England. Abroad, representative authors include Jean
Racine and Molière.

II. The Augustan Age

(1700-1750)
This period is marked by the imitation
of Virgil and Horace's literature in English letters. The principal
English writers include Addison, Steele, Swift, and Alexander
Pope. Abroad, Voltaire was the dominant French writer.
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III. The Age of Johnson

(1750-1790)
This period marks the transition toward the upcoming Romanticism though
the period is still largely Neoclassical. Major writers include Dr. Samuel
Johnson, Boswell, and Edward Gibbon who represent the Neoclassical
tendencies, while writers like Robert Burns, Thomas Gray, Cowper,
and Crabbe show movement away from the Neoclassical ideal. In America,
this period is called the Colonial Period. It includes colonial and
revolutionary writers like Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas
Paine.
Notable Literary Texts/Writers:
 John Milton published Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained
 Other major writers of the era include John Dryden and John Locke
 Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and Daniel Defoe
 Samuel Johnson
V. The Romantic Period (1790-1830 CE)
Romantic poets wrote about nature, imagination, and individuality in
England. Some Romantics include Coleridge, Blake, Keats,
and Shelley in Britain and Johann von Goethe in Germany. Jane
Austen also wrote at this time, though she is typically not categorized
with the male Romantic poets. In America, this period is mirrored in
the Transcendental Period from about 1830-
1850. Transcendentalists include Emerson and Thoreau.

Gothic writings (c. 1790-1890) overlap with the

Romantic and Victorian periods. Writers of Gothic
novels (the precursor to horror novels)
include Radcliffe, "Monk" Lewis, and Victorians
like Bram Stoker in Britain. In America,
Gothic writers include Poe and Hawthorne.

VI. The Victorian Period and the 19th Century (1832-1901 CE)
Writings from the period of Queen Victoria's
reign include sentimental novels. British writers
include Elizabeth Browning, Alfred Lord
Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Robert Browning, Charles
Dickens, and the Brontë sisters. Pre-Raphaelites, like
the Rossetti siblings and William Morris, idealize and long
for the morality of the medieval world.
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The end of the Victorian Period is marked by the intellectual movements

of Aestheticism and "the Decadence" in the writings of Walter
Pater and Oscar Wilde. In America, Naturalist writers like Stephen
Crane flourished, as did early free verse poets like Walt Whitman and Emily
Dickinson.

VII. The Modern Period (1914-1945 CE)

In Britain, modernist writers include W. B.
Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Dylan Thomas, W. H.
Auden, Virginia Woolf, and Wilfred Owen. In America,
the modernist period includes Robert Frost and Flannery
O'Connor as well as the famous writers of The Lost
Generation (also called the writers of The Jazz Age,
1914-1929) such as Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald,
and Faulkner.
The Harlem Renaissance marks the rise of black writers such
as Baldwin and Ellison. Realism is the dominant fashion, but the
disillusionment with the World Wars lead to new experimentation.

VIII. The Postmodern Period (1945 - onward)

T. S. Eliot, Morrison, Shaw, Beckett, Stoppard, Fowles, Calvino, Ginsberg, Pynchon, and other
modern writers, poets, and playwrights experimented with metafiction and fragmented
poetry. Multiculturalism led to an increasing canonization of non-
Caucasian writers such as Langston Hughes, Sandra Cisneros, and Zora
Neal Hurston.

Magic Realists such as Gabriel García

Márquez, Luis Borges, Alejo Carpentier, Günter
Grass, and Salman Rushdie flourished with
surrealistic writings embroidered in the conventions
of realism.
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LITERARY MOVEMENTS
A. METAPHYSICAL POETRY
The term ‘Metaphysical poets’ was coined by Samuel Johnson in 1779 to categorise a loose
collection of seventeenth-century poets that shared similar characteristics.
Metaphysical poets were thus never an official group.
Metaphysical poetry is a style of poetry that flourished in the 17th century in England,
characterized by its use of complex metaphors, intellectual or philosophical concepts, and often
playful or paradoxical language to explore the human experience. Defining features of the group
included wit and wordplay and the exploration of the relationship between physical forms and
abstract concepts. Metaphysical poetry often explores themes related to religion, morality and
love. Metaphysical poetry is known for its highly intellectual and imaginative nature, and for its
use of metaphysical conceit, which employs elaborate and extended metaphors to connect
seemingly unrelated things or ideas.
The most important metaphysical poet was John Donne, as his poems - like 'The Flea' (1633), 'A
Valediction, Forbidden Mourning' (1633) and 'The Sun Rising' (1633) are defining of the
metaphysical genre. The other significant metaphysical poets who share similar characteristics
are Henry Vaughan, Andrew Marvell, and George Herbert.
Characteristics of metaphysical poetry
The main key characteristics of metaphysical poetry are intellect, the use of conceit, spirituality,
and abstract ideas versus the physical world.
Intellect and wit
One of the defining features of metaphysical poetry is the use of wit, complex philosophy,
and paradoxes.
Conceit
The metaphysical poets made the conceit popular, using it so regularly that the technique was
harshly criticised as drawn-out and unnecessary.
Abstract ideas vs the physical world
A key characteristic of metaphysical poetry is the idea that the physical, spiritual, and emotional
world are interconnected. Metaphysical poets will often draw unusual comparisons between
physical ideas and abstract concepts.
(LEARN MORE: https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english-literature/literary-
movements/metaphysical-poets/)
B. SYMBOLISM/SYMBOLISTS
Symbolism is a late-nineteenth-century literary movement centred mostly around the work of
poets such as Stéphane Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine, Philippe Villiers de L’Isle-
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Adam, and the later Maurice Maeterlinck, as well as novelists like Joris-Karl Huysmans and
Edouard Dujardin. Although Tristan Corbière died in 1875, he is an important figure associated
with the movement thanks to his image as a poète maudit (‘poet of the damned’) and to this
poetic style. A broad term that occasionally extends to early twentieth-century modernists like
T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and Ezra Pound, Symbolism is traditionally dated from circa 1870 to
1900. (The term ‘Symbolist’ was coined by Jean Moréas in the review La Vogue in 1886.) The
movement became more international in the 1890s with the emergence of European Symbolism
such as Russian Symbolism, German Symbolism etc., and with poets such as Emile Nelligan in
Canada. Of equal importance is its influence as an artistic movement. Symbolism reacted to
broader cultural tendencies related to scientific and literary Positivism such as Realism and
Naturalism, and the language of the popular press, particularly as it appeared in the form of best-
sellers. Where popular language informs the public with moral narratives, Symbolist language
tries to avoid such a reduction.
Symbolism can lend itself to confusion because of its name. Far from being restricted to symbols
per se (though the symbol, especially as it pertains to the visual, had an important role in its
aesthetic development), Symbolism attempted instead to raise language (in the broader sense,
including the fine arts) to expression as opposed to explicit communication of ideas.
(LEARN MORE: https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/overview/symbolism-overview#ref89)
C. HARLEM RENAISSANCE LITERATURE
Harlem Renaissance literature celebrated and explored Black life and culture in the early
twentieth century.
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual, cultural, and artistic movement that centered
around the Black American experience and spanned from the 1910s to the 1930s. While it was
rooted in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, Black American writers, musicians, and
artists contributed from across the country.
The movement included Black artists from several disciplines—including music, visual art,
fashion, and literature. Musicians like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Bessie Smith
reinvented jazz in popular nightclubs, while painters like Aaron Douglas incorporated traditional
African imagery into new styles. Writers like Nella Larsen and Georgia Douglas Johnson created
novels, plays, and poems that reframed what it meant to be a Black American in the early
twentieth century.
A Brief History of Harlem Renaissance Literature
Harlem Renaissance literature grew out of the turmoil of slavery, segregation, and institutional
racism.
 The Great Migration: During World War I, Black Americans began moving out of the
Southern United States and relocating to the West, Midwest, and Northeast. By 1920,
hundreds of thousands of Black people had moved from the South to new areas,
including neighborhoods like Harlem in New York City.
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 New publishing opportunities: In 1917, Marcus Garvey, an immigrant from Jamaica,

founded the first chapter of the Universal Negro Improvement Association in Harlem.
Garvey contributed to the organization’s weekly newspaper, The Negro World, which
promoted racial pride and celebrated Black American culture. More organizations like the
National Urban League and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) formed print magazines and publications, creating new opportunities
for writers to share their work.
 Writers in Harlem: By the late 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance was in full swing, with
Black American artists creating a vast range of work. Black poets, authors, and essayists
wrote thousands of pieces that helped lay the framework for the civil rights movement to
follow decades later.
Notable Harlem Renaissance Writers and Poets
 Claude McKay (1889–1948)
 Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882–1961)
 James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938)
 Langston Hughes (1901–1967)
 Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
 Alain Locke (1885–1954)
(LEARN MORE: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/harlem-renaissance-literature-guide)
D. THE NEW YORK SCHOOL MOVEMENT
The New York School refers to an American group of poets and artists, part of the post-
modernism literary movement, who lived in New York City and produced work during the
1950s and 1960s. As a term, the New York School was cemented in literary studies by Donald
Allen's The New American Poetry: 1945-1960 (1960), a poetry anthology that presented post-
World War Two poetry in a number of selective groupings including 'San Francisco Renaissance'
and 'New York School'.
As reflected by its name, the New York School originated in New York City. This movement is
not associated with a literal school, instead it refers to a creative community with similar artistic
styles and subject matter.
Much of the poetry produced by writers associated with the New York School was focused on
everyday events and topics, featuring references to popular culture, conversational language, and
humour. As a sub-genre of the post-modernist literary movement, the New York School sought
to break away from traditional styles associated with academia.
New York School, first generation
Frank O'Hara, James Schuyler, Kenneth Koch, and John Ashbery were all early members of the
New York School of poets. They moved to, and lived in New York during the 1950s.
New York School, second generation
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The second generation of the New York School was not as tightly linked to New York City as
the first generation. For instance, Alice Notely, Ted Berrigan and Bill Berkson all studied at the
University of Tusla in Oklahoma.
(LEARN MORE: https://www.hellovaia.com/explanations/english-literature/literary-
movements/new-york-school-
poets/#:~:text=The%20New%20York%20School%20refers,the%20limitations%20of%20moder
nist%20thought.)
E. BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT (1965-1975)
The Black Arts Movement was a Black nationalism movement that focused on music, literature,
drama, and the visual arts made up of Black artists and intellectuals. This was the cultural section
of the Black Power movement, in that its participants shared many of the ideologies of Black
self-determination, political beliefs, and African American culture.
The Black Arts Movement started in 1965 when poet Amiri Baraka [LeRoi Jones] established
the Black Arts Repertory Theater in Harlem, New York, as a place for artistic expression. Artists
associated with this movement include Audre Lorde, Ntozake Shange, James Baldwin, Gil Scott-
Heron, and Thelonious Monk. Records at the National Archives related to the Black Arts
Movement primarily focus on individual artists and their interaction with various Federal
agencies.
Prominent Figures of the Black Arts Movement at the National Archives
Maya Angelou
Amiri Baraka
James Baldwin
Gwendolyn Brooks
Nikki Giovanni
Lorraine Hansberry
(LEARN MORE: https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/black-power/arts)