1. Literary Movements and Periods
On the Pink Cards

2. Renaissance and Elizabethan Era
Literature produced primarily during the reign of Elizabeth I of England ( ) and in to the mid 17th century (1660). This period saw a remarkable growth of the arts in England, and the literature of the time is characterized by a new energy, originality, and confidence.
This period was an extension of the Italian Renaissance and produced some of the greatest writers in Europe (e.g. William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, John Milton, and Jon Donne).
Shakespeare was the first writer in the English language to actively contemplate the nature of existence.

3. Romanticism
Literature produced primarily during the late 1700s ( ) to the mid-1800s was known as Romanticism. Romantics focused on prior themes that emphasized adventure and heroism.
European Romantics sought to “live life to the fullest” and explore the role of God in nature. By doing so, this inspired writers to create adventure stories or epics surrounding characters who would go on great journeys as well as focusing on intuition and emotion over reason.
As they explored God’s role in nature, sometimes they would reveal the dark side of his influences.
Famous writers in the European Romantic period included William Blake, John Keats, Percy Shelley, Lord Byron, and Mary Shelley.

4. Victorian Literature
The Victorian era took place from and is generally characterized as the advent of Realism in literature in Europe as well as America. British writers like Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist) and the Bronte sisters (Emily Wuthering Heights and Charlotte, Jane Eyre) wrote bleak novels chronicling the social struggles of inner-city children as well as the conundrums of socially repressed women in aristocratic society.
From this time period came the inspiration for American writers such as Frederick Douglass, Steven Crane, Mark Twain, Henry James, Kate Chopin and Lousa May Alcott who all wrote critically about American life pre, during and post-Civil War. This time period saw the explosion of the novel format and its ability to transcend continents and genres.

5. Modernism
An artistic discipline developed in the early 1900s-1940s that promotes a highly creative style of narrative which employs symbolism, allegory, and imagery when relating a message to the reader.
Modernists weave a complex web for the reader to decipher through the eyes of an everyman narrator who learns cynical truths about social and political aspects of the human condition.
Essential Modernist writers include James Joyce, George Orwell, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolfe, and William Faulkner.

6. Postmodernism
Postmodernism exists in the period after modernism from the 1950s to the present. Authors in this movement argue that there are no universal truths in life. This particular point draws a chasm in the sand inspired by global events which fragmented humanity (e.g. Hiroshima, The Holocaust) where the collective cynicism of modernism ends. A postmodernist narrative borrows techniques from modernism like stream of consciousness and psychological realism, but varies in the sense that the method serves the purpose of portraying a fragmented picture of humanity.
Popular postmodern classics include The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, and Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.