1. An Overview of English and American Literature

2. What is English literature?
American literature?

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

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410: Last Roman legion withdrawn from England.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)
: World War I.
1922: T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land; James Joyce’s Ulysses.
1930: Period of depression begins.
: World War II breaks out.

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

15. Periods of American Literature (Norton Anthology Periodization)
Early American Literature
American Literature
American Literature
American Literature between the Wars
American Literature Since 1945

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.
: The Trail of Tears.
1849: California Gold Rush begins.
: 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.