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Literature Overview for Blueprint B Version 2.0 © Författarna och Liber AB Får kopieras 1

Literature Overview for Blueprint B Version 2.0

Contents 3 500–1100 Old English

4 1100–1400 Middle English

5 1400–1500 The Renaissance begins to spread across Europe from Italy

7 1500–1650 The Renaissance and the Reformation

10 1650–1800 The Restoration (of the monarchy), the Age of Enlightenment

(Age of Reason). Beginning of the Romantic Age.

14 1800–c. 1835 The Romantic Age

18 1837–1901 The Victorian Age

25 1900 – end of WWII 1945, Modernism

31 1946–2000 (and beyond …) Postmodernism and various other movements


Literature OverviewThis overview furnishes material for browsing and context-seeking. Multiple cause-effect

links can be found between the different sections, especially by browsing across more than

one period.

• TheWhat sections describe developments in literature in English.

• Who mentions names of people who have been important to these developments, and

usually one example of their work.

• How tells in what way / by what means developments happened, relating to various

changes in society which affected or were motors of developments in literature.

• Why runs through the history of the main areas where English was spoken and

developing, showing events and circumstances which form the background to the How

section.

• Meanwhile then furnishes a little world orientation, giving some idea of parallel

developments in the world at large. Here we can find a selection of major and some

minor but curious world events, and names of some great international writers/artists/

composers.

• Dates – All persons appear chronologically according to their date of birth, thus

making it easy to locate them and see what was happening around them in their lives.

Their periods of major production can be roughly calculated as beginning 20–30 years

after their birth dates, but as the length of lives and the periods of major production

vary so much from person to person, it was decided to list them according to their date

of birth. However, the writers in Who are nevertheless placed in the literary period

during which they were most active, even if they were born in an earlier period. Hence

the apparent discrepancy of dates between Who and When.

All the authors mentioned under Who are also listed alphabetically according to last name

at the end of the overview, with their year of birth indicated, thus making it easy to locate

them in the overview. Bear in mind when locating an author in the overview that you will

need to search chronologically in both the British + others list and the USA list.

The layout of What/Who/Why divides in the later periods into two sections, showing

Britain and other nations first, and the USA afterwards.

Pointing out all the links between ideas/events/trends would take too much space, but

we trust the reader to browse these pages and find his/her own cause-effect cross

references. There are many to be found!

Note: Poet Laureate – appointed by the British monarch to, for the remainder of his/her life,

produce poetry for major events.


500–1100 Old English

What?History (e.g. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) and epic poems

Often Christian slant on earlier known tales, poems etc.

Beowulf (surviving version written down by unknown poet in 8th C) – 3,128-line epic poem

about 4th C Scandinavian hero

Who?The Venerable Bede (673–735) writes well-researched English history in Latin.

King Alfred (849–99), “father of English literature”, has much of it translated into English,

and encourages other writings in English.

How?From oral tradition to writing as Christianity spreads. Based on oral tradition, poetry is rich

in such memory aids as strong rhythm and rhyme, alliteration etc.

Why?English nation and language begin to stabilise based on population of Angles, Saxons and

Jutes, who invade and settle mid 5th C, driving earlier inhabitants (e.g. Celts) to more

distant regions.

Meanwhile…Fall of Western Roman Empire (31 BC – AD 476)

Plague kills half population of Eastern Europe (540’s)

Book printing in China

Library at Alexandria destroyed for third time (642)

Charlemagne becomes King of Franks (771)

Leif Eriksson reaches Canada (c. 1000)


1100–1400 Middle English

What?Not much written in English – Latin and French dominate in documents.

14th C, written poetry (mostly romances about knights) emerges, in poetic style like Old

English poetry, but now in evolved Middle English.

Drama – Mystery, Miracle and Morality plays performed

Bible in English 1380

Who?Geoffrey Chaucer 1345–1400. Most known for The Canterbury Tales – told in highly varying

verse style, by group of pilgrims headed for Canterbury. Satirises character types.

How?English develops in form as a spoken language, living alongside French, which is source of

much new vocabulary. Old English style of poetry survives.

Who?Norman invasion 1066 leads to c. 100 years of French as official language.

The English language develops in the meantime towards Middle English.

Oxford (1160’s) and Cambridge (1200’s) Universities founded.

Magna Charta 1215

Parliament reforms – local representatives, 1265

Before and during Hundred Years War (1337–1453), English ruling classes increasingly in

conflict with the French, gradually speak more English.

Meanwhile…Crusades in Europe/Middle East

Genghis Kahn 1162–1227 extends Mongolian Empire

Firearms in China 1259

Dante begins Divina Comedia 1307

The Black Death 1361


1400–1500 The Renaissance begins to spread across Europe from Italy

What?Romances increasingly popular (knights, monsters, love etc.)

Also Mystery, Miracle and Morality plays, e.g.. Everyman (c. 1500, allegorical morality play)

Folk ballads

Who?Sir Thomas Malory’s Morte d’Arthur (romance) published 1485

How?Early Modern English begins to develop. Pronunciation changes.

Why?English translations of the Bible forbidden 1408.

Henry V begins to use English as official language, 1415.

At end of Wars of the Roses (1455–85) the Tudors begin to reign in England.

William Caxton’s printing press is set up 1476, leading to gradual standardisation of written

forms.

Meanwhile…Medicis in Italy

Donatello’s David sculpture 1409

Bocaccio’s Decamerone 1419

Joan of Arc’s death 1431

Dutch painter Van Eyck dies 1441

Gutenberg’s Bible 1450’s

Leonardo da Vinci 1452–1519

Dutch painter Bosch c.1450–1516

Michelangelo 1475–1564.

Botticelli’s Birth of Venus 1483

Raphael 1483–1520

Columbus and Cabot land in the Americas 1490’s.

Titian (painter) c.1490–1576

Vasco da Gama rounds Cape of Good Hope 1497.


1500–1650 The Renaissance and the Reformation

What?Great interest in education, science, arts, the classics

Development of lyric (introspective) poetry – especially the sonnet – pastoral poems and

drama

Some non-fiction prose e.g.. essays, biographies

The King James Bible 1611

Who?Sir Thomas Moore’s Utopia (in Latin 1516)

Sir Philip Sydney 1554–1586, sonnets, pastoral

Christopher Marlowe 1564–1593, great playwright rivalling Shakespeare with e.g.. Dr

Faustus.

Edmund Spenser 1552–1599, “poets’ poet”, court poet, much pastoral

William Shakespeare 1564–1616, 37 plays (histories, comedies, tragedies), cycle of 154

sonnets, other poems

John Donne 1572–1631, great metaphysical poet

Ben Johnson 1572–1637, famous playwright, especially satirical comedy

Francis Bacon 1561–1626 (philosopher), essays

How?Early Modern English well established. Enormous growth and inventiveness in English

language culminates around 1600.

The first playhouse in England opens in London 1576. Theatres become enormously popular,

attended by all social classes. Dynamic creativity in theatre, with a number of top quality

dramatists working simultaneously.

Increasing awareness of England as great nation through e.g.. Shakespeare’s historical plays

and Bible translations into English (subsequent to Reformation).

All theatres closed down 1642 with growth of Puritanism, thus for a time stopping

dramatists’ creative art.

Why?Henry VIII r. 1509–1547, sets English Reformation in motion, establishes the Church of

England 1534.

Elizabeth I r.1559–1603, major English Renaissance period. London grows considerably.

Sir Francis Drake returns from circumnavigation of globe.

Spanish Armada defeated 1588, resulting in great international advantages for England.

Coal mining on the increase in England 1590’s

English East India Company founded c.1600

James I r.1603–1625, first king to unite England and Scotland


The Gunpowder Plot stopped 1605, Guy Fawkes executed

Voyages of discovery and exploration, growth in overseas trade, early colonisation

Catholic/Protestant opposition gradually gives way to Anglican/Puritan opposition

The Pilgrim Fathers emigrate for religious freedom, reach America 1620.

Charles I executed 1649 after civil war, the monarchy abolished, the Commonwealth set up.

Meanwhile…Sugar to Europe from America

Growth of slave trade

Martin Luther’s 95 theses 1517

Siege of Stockholm 1520

Flemish painter Breughel c.1520–69

Gustav Vasa crowned King of Sweden 1523.

Rabelais’ Pantagruel and Gargantua 1530’s

El Greco (painter) 1541–1614

Copernicus’ solar system theories published 1543.

Potatoes to Europe mid 16th C

Spanish Inquisition at its height

Ivan the Terrible extends Russia mid 16th C.

Earthquake in China kills over 830,000 1556.

Flemish painters Rubens 1577–1640, van Dyck 1599–1641

Dome of St Peter’s, Rome, 1590

Monteverdi’s Orpheus 1607 – one of the first operas

French philosopher/mathematician Descartes 1596–1650

Spanish painter Velasquez 1599–1660

Dutch painter Rembrandt 1606–69

Drinking chocolate and rubber to Europe 1615

Large numbers of Native Americans die in smallpox epidemic 1617

Niew Amsterdam (New York) founded 1626

Gustavus II of Sweden killed in Battle of Lützen 1632


1650–1800 The Restoration (of the monarchy), the Age of Enlightenment (Age of Reason). Beginning of the Romantic Age.

What?In early stages, much writing with religious content.

Restoration theatre – reaction against Puritanism – the “comedy of manners”, a light, witty,

bawdy style.

The scientific Revolution and the Age of Reason – much explanatory, descriptive,

argumentative, analytical and philosophical non-fiction prose writing.

Satire much used to criticise and attack people/types/institutions.

Poetry – admiration of Classics, much highly formalised, intellectual poetry with many

classical references.

Towards end of period Romantic poetry – see below.

The rise of the novel – early prose fiction (e.g. Robinson Crusoe 1719) very much in typically

analytical Enlightenment style.

Later, more intimate style of epistolary novels (series of letters), and picaresque novels,

following a central character through various often unrelated events, amorous adventures

etc.

By end of period, usually omniscient 3rd person narrator, main characters undergoing some

kind of development, the author’s “moral” clear.

Who?John Milton 1608–1674, major puritan poet, e.g.. epic poem Paradise Lost

Andrew Marvell 1621–1678, poet, e.g.. To His Coy Mistress

John Bunyan 1628–1688, puritan preacher/writer, e.g.. famous allegory of Christian

salvation The Pilgrim’s Progress

Philosopher John Locke 1632–1704 influenced many Enlightenment thinkers. Samuel Pepy’s

1633–1703 detailed diary 1660–1669

John Dryden 1631–1700, first Poet Laureate 1688

Aphra Behn 1640–89, female writer/dramatist, wrote England’s perhaps first philosophical

novel, Oroonoko, 1688.

Alexander Pope 1688–1744 satirical poet and philosophical essayist

Daniel Defoe 1660–1731 satirist and novelist, e.g.. Robinson Crusoe

Jonathan Swift 1667–1745, Anglo-Irish satirist and political/religious writer, e.g.. the highly

satirical Gulliver’s Travels and A Modest Proposal, which suggests eating of children as

solution to Irish famine problem.

William Congreve 1670–1729, dramatist, restoration comedy

Samuel Richardson 1689–1761, epistolary novelist, e.g.. Pamela

Henry Fielding 1707–1754, novelist, e.g.. Tom Jones

Samuel Johnson 1709–84, renowned thinker/writer/essayist/critic of Enlightenment


England, notably his Dictionary of the English Language 1755

Oliver Goldsmith 1723–74, Anglo-Irish dramatist/novelist/poet, e.g.. the play She Stoops to

Conquer

Richard Sheridan 1751–1816, “comedy of manners” dramatist, e.g.. The School for Scandal

William Blake 1757–1827, major pre-Romantic poet who inspired later Romantic poets, e.g..

Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, also painter/engraver

Robert Burns 1759–96, Scottish poet, songs and poems in the Scots language (descended

from earlier English)

Mary Wollstonecraft 1759–97, major Anglo-Irish feminist writer, e.g.. A Vindication of the

Rights of Woman. Died shortly after giving birth to her second daughter, who became Mary

Shelley.

How?Theatres are reopened 1660. A woman plays on an English stage for the first time

(Desdemona in Shakespeare’s Othello).

The Age of Reason – desire for stability and harmony, belief in the human intellect

Around mid 18th C, doubts start to set in on seeing growing miseries of Industrial

Revolution, new ideas that civilisation corrupts the basic good of mankind (the Noble

Savage)

Novel reading becomes enormously popular during 18th C, in early stages often looked

down upon. Often called “histories” at this time – “novel” towards end 18th C.

Why?Tea to England 1652

The Puritan government crumbles after death of leader Oliver Cromwell

Restoration of the monarchy, Charles II, 1660

Isaac Newton’s theory of gravity, 1665

The Great Plague peaks 1665, ends with The Great Fire of London 1666.

Greenwich Royal Observatory founded 1675.

Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas 1680.

Astronomer Royal, Halley, sees and gives name to Halley’s comet, 1682.

The Glorious Revolution 1688–9 ousts Catholic James II, brings Protestant William III and

Mary II to throne. Legislation prevents Catholic monarchs in future.

Sir Christopher Wren’s rebuilt St Paul’s Cathedral opens 1697 (destroyed in 1666 Great Fire).

Act of Union of England and Scotland 1707

Newcomen’s steam engine 1712

George I (from Hanover) becomes non English-speaking king 1714. Some attempts,

especially in Scotland, to reinstate Catholic Stuart monarchy.

Various inventions from early 18th C enhance industry.

Colossal gin consumption a cause for concern, peaks 1740.

Handel 1685–1759, operas and oratorios, incl. Messiah 1742.

Clive gains British control over s. India 1751.

Canal-digging begins in mid-18th-C England.

James Watt’s steam engine 1765

During much of 18th C England and France fight over North American colonies.


James Cook claims New Holland (Australia) for Britain 1770.

English artist Turner 1775–1851 and landscape painter Constable 1776–1837

American War of Independence 1775–83

Convicts, earlier deported to America, now to Australia 1787

The Times newspaper 1788

Economic boom for Britain by end of 18th C, due to early industrialisation and exploitation

of colonies.

USAThe Flushing Remonstrance – declaration of religious tolerance in America 1657

Pennsylvania founded 1681

Witches hanged in Massachusetts, 1692–4

America’s first newspaper the weekly News-Letter 1704, Boston

Benjamin Franklin 1706–90, scientist, author, statesman

South Carolina 1724, white colonists outnumbered by black slaves 2:1.

Boston Tea-party 1773

First Continental Congress 1774 stops trade with Britain

American Declaration of Independence signed 4th July 1776

American Revolution 1765–88, ends with establishment of US Constitution

George Washington is first USA president 1789

During the period, numerous disputes and violence between Native Americans and settlers

Meanwhile…Queen Christina of Sweden abdicates 1654.

Great French satirical playwright Molière 1622–73

French dramatic poet Racine 1639–99

Decimal system proposed in France 1670

Italian composer Vivaldi 1678–1741

Louis XIV’s court moves to Versailles 1682

German composer J.S.Bach 1685–1750

French Enlightenment writer, Voltaire, 1694–1778

Carl von Linné 1707–78

First piano built c.1709, Italy

French political philosopher Rousseau 1712–78 inspired revolutionists and writers of

Romantic Era

German philosopher Kant 1724–1804

Coffee planted in Brazil 1727

Austrian composer Haydn 1732–1809

Spanish artist Goya 1746–1828

China’s population 225 million 1749

German poet/dramatist/scientist Goethe 1749–1832, and poet/dramatist/ historian Schiller

1759–1805 – central figures in European Romantic Age

Austrian composer Mozart 1756–91

10 million die in Bengal’s Great Famine 1769

German composer Beethoven 1770–1827

German philosopher Hegel 770–1831


French painter Ingres 1780–1867

French Revolution 1789

Gustavus III of Sweden (absolute monarch since 1772) assassinated at midnight

masquerade 1792

French Republic set up 1792

Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette guillotined 1793

Reign of Terror in France at its worst 1794

After military success around Europe, Napoleon becomes Dictator of France 1799


1800–c. 1835 The Romantic Age

What?Romantic poetry, breaking away from earlier norms to seek new forms of expression,

specifically explained in a manifesto in foreword to the Lyrical Ballads of 1798 (Wordsworth

and Coleridge).

Reaction against highly regulated Enlightenment styles, much use of everyday language to

express imagination and overflowing emotions, often inspired by untamed Nature (e.g. the

Lake District), the exotic Far East, Medieval tales of knights, folk traditions.

With Jane Austen, contemporary of Romantics but of Enlightenment inheritance, the novel

has reached maturity in her highly ironic observations of human nature in the period’s social

setting.

Much passionate reading of Gothic novels – wild tales of mystery and terror, involving dark

forces, ghosts etc – typical of Romantic period; notably Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Historical novels also popular.

Who?Anne Radcliffe 1764–1823, Gothic novelist, e.g.. The Mysteries of Udolpho

The “Lake Poets” (living for a time in the Lake District): William Wordsworth 1770–1850 –

pensive, Nature-inspired works e.g.. The Daffodils; Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1772–1834 –

exotic/mystic inspiration e.g.. Kubla Khan, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Later Romantic poets Byron, Keats and Shelley develop lyrical poetry using e.g.. the sonnet

form. The revolutionary Lord Byron 1788–1824 (e.g. Don Juan) and Percy Bysshe Shelley

1792–1822 (e.g. Ode to the West Wind), the beauty-inspired John Keats 1795–1821 (e.g. Ode

on a Grecian Urn), all three live tempestuous lives and die young abroad – rather like

“Byronic heroes” themselves – Byron in Greek War of Independence, Shelley drowns in

storm on a lake in Italy, Keats dies of tuberculosis in Italy. Mary Shelley (Percy’s wife)

1797–1851, the Gothic novel Frankenstein.

Sir Walter Scott 1771–1832, historical novels (often Scotland-based) e.g.. Ivanhoe.

Jane Austen 1775–1817 perfects the “novel of manners” using much irony, e.g.. Pride and

Prejudice.

How?Late Modern English now established, no major structural differences from today’s English.

Romantic Age influenced by revolutions in America and France, ideals of liberty/equality/

fraternity.

Also counter-reaction to Industrialisation in England, where resulting miseries have

emerged.

Belief in the instinctive/intuitive/mysterious rather than the calculated, intellectual. Deism/

Pantheism – beliefs in a Nature/Universe-related divine being.


Why?By Act of Union 1801 Great Britain and Ireland form United Kingdom.

Law forbids children under 9 to work.

Madame Tussaud opens wax museum in London 1802, with death masks of the guillotined.

A Channel tunnel to France proposed 1802.

First successful steamship built 1802.

Steam railway locomotive demonstrated 1804.

Battle of Trafalgar 1805 – Napoleon defeated at sea, Nelson dies.

Gas lighting starts up in London 1807.

The Slave Trade abolished throughout British Empire 1807.

Due to George III’s mental illness, his playboy first son becomes Prince Regent 1811

(becomes George IV 1820).

Luddite rebellion 1811–12, textiles machinery destroyed by unemployed. Dance craze – the

waltz 1812.

The Corn Law 1815 protects British grain, but the poor cannot afford bread.

Wellington victorious at Battle of Waterloo, ending Napoleonic wars 1815.

Economic depression, many poor emigrate to America 1816.

Growing industrial unrest and repression, 11 deaths in “Peterloo incident” 1819.

British settlers reach S Africa 1820. 1825 law: max 12-hour day for under 16’s.

First stretch of steam locomotive railway opens 1825.

New possibilities through railway travel will revolutionise 19th C life by greatly increased

mobility.

English Pre-Raphaelite painter Millais 1829–96.

London Metropolitan Police Force founded 1829.

Faraday discovers electro-magnetic induction 1831.

After much industrial unrest and many deaths, the Reform Bill passed 1832, including

extension of vote to most men.

1833 law gives 2 hours’ schooling per day to under 13’s.

The Tolpuddle Martyrs (trade unionists) deported to Australia 1834.

Workhouses set up by Poor Law 1834.

USAFirst New York Evening Post 1801.

Cotton bypasses tobacco as US export 1803.

The Louisiana Purchase doubles size of USA 1803.

The Clermont steamboat begins traffic on Hudson River 1807.

Slave revolt in New Orleans repressed 1811.

Manhattan Street Plan 1811.

General Andrew Jackson defeats Creek Native Americans 1813.

US defeats British in Battles 1814–5, British abandon invasion plans.

Mississippi becomes 20th US state, and Ohio Native Americans give up large tracts of land

to US 1817.

First Mississippi steamboat round-trip 1817.

US/Canada border established 1818.

Steamship Savannah crosses the Atlantic 1819.

Florida and Alabama join the Union 1819.

The Monroe Doctrine 1823 declares American foreign policy.


Cherokee alphabet written by Sequoya 1824.

Erie Canal opens 1825.

First section Baltimore-Ohio Railroad opened 1830.

Joseph Smith’s The Book of Mormon 1830.

Rocky Mountains explored 1832.

Meanwhile…French writer Stendhal 1783–1842.

Composers Rossini (Italian opera) 1792–1868, Schubert (Austria) 1797–1828.

French Revolution-scene painter Delacroix 1798–1863.

Russian poet Pushkin 1799–1837.

French authors Balzac 1799–1850, Victor Hugo 1802–85 and Dumas 1802–70.

Napoleon becomes Emperor in France 1804. Napoleonic wars rage around Europe and

Russia.

Vast areas of Canada mapped 1809.

Gustavus IV of Sweden abdicates 1809.

Russian novelist/dramatist Gogol 1809–52.

Serfdom abolished in Prussia 1810.

Napoleon’s General Jean Bernadotte becomes Crown Prince of Sweden 1810.

Polish composer/pianist Chopin 1810–49.

German composer Schumann 1810–56.

Hungarian composer Liszt 1811–86.

German composer (esp. opera) Wagner 1813–83.

Italian composer (esp. opera) Verdi 1813–1901.

Danish philosopher Kierkegaard 1813–55.

Battle of Waterloo, end of Napoleonic Wars 1815, followed by various territorial conflicts

around Europe for rest of period.

Grimm brothers’ Fairy Tales published in Germany 1815.

German philosopher and founder of international communism Karl Marx 1818–83.

Many S. American states declare independence from Spain 1821.

Novelists Flaubert (French) 1821–80, Dostoyevski (Russian) 1821–81.

The Rosetta Stone deciphered 1822.

Austrian composer J. Strauss the younger 1825–99.

French novelist Jules Verne 1828–1905.

Norwegian dramatist Ibsen 1828–1906.

Russian novelist Tolstoy 1828–1910.

Greece independent 1829.

World population 1 billion 1830.

France colonizes Algeria 1830.

French impressionist painter Manet 1832–83.

German composer Brahms 1833–97.

French artist Degas 1834–1917.

Louis Braille invents reading system for the blind 1834.

Melbourne, Australia founded 1835.

Arc de Triomphe built in Paris 1836.


1837–1901 The Victorian Age

What?Prose, both fiction and non-fiction, important, especially the novel becomes widely read

and in its developed form intellectually accepted.

Gradual move from Romantic novel to Realism, depicting life as it really is, especially Social

Realism, showing hard realities of e.g.. the poor. Later developed to Naturalism, showing

hard detailed (still fictional) reality, often seeing mankind as victim of Darwinistic

environment.

Development of episodic writing, with “cliff-hanger” chapter endings, for serialised

publication in magazines.

Beginnings of detective stories, and of imaginative writing for children.

Non-fiction prose – many books/essays of e.g.. criticism of society and the Arts, politics and

ideology (e.g. triggered by Marx’s new anti-capitalistic ideas and by Darwin), histories,

biographies.

Victorian poetry continues largely in threads of Romantic and/or Enlightenment vein,

influenced by e.g.. the Pre-Raphaelites’ cult of beauty.

The Dramatic monologue is developed – poems of self-revelation by imaginary speaker.

Later, departure from rhythmic constrictures in poetry, e.g.. “sprung rhythm”, where a line

of verse can contain varying metric patterns, and eventually “free verse” – entire freedom of

rhyme + rhythm.

Drama becomes interesting end of 19th C with e.g.. Shaw’s and Wilde’s social comment and

satire.

Pre-Raphaelites influence e.g.. Wilde to cult of “art for art’s sake”.

USAGrowing literary awareness of separate identity of this new nation, later writers of the

period especially seeking to describe their life as Americans and to break from European

literary traditions.

From mid-19th C, traces of Romantic ideals in American packaging, e.g.. Poe’s mystery tales;

the Transcendentalist poets, with revolutionary ideals and Nature-based philosophy.

Walt Whitman, highly innovative poet, insists to a greater degree than the English Romantic

poets, on value of literary use of the language of common man, leading him to drastic break

in poetic tradition by use of “free verse” – no fixed rhyme/rhythm pattern – much followed

by others, but mostly not until 20th C.

Realism and Naturalism appear in the American novel, depicting e.g.. miseries before and

after abolition of slavery and effects of industrialisation in cities.

Who?John Stuart Mill 1806–73 philosopher/essayist, e.g.. On Liberty.

Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809–92, Poet Laureate fr. 1851, much Romantic-style poetry e.g.. The

Lady of Shalott and Ring Out, Wild Bells (read in Sweden every New Year).

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806–61, poet.


Robert Browning 1812–89 developed the “dramatic monologue” in poetry, e.g.. My Last

Duchess.

William Makepeace Thackeray 1811–63, novelist, e.g.. the satire Vanity Fair.

Brontë sisters, passionate, imaginative yet realistic novels, e.g.. Charlotte 1816–55 Jane

Eyre, Emily 1818–48 Wuthering Heights.

George Eliot (pseudonym for Mary Ann Evans) 1819–90, novelist, politically backgrounded

realism with much comment on human nature e.g.. Middlemarch.

Matthew Arnold 1822–88, poet, e.g.. Dover Beach, written in “free verse”.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828–82, pre-Raphaelite painter/Romantic style poet, his poet sister

Christina Rossetti 1830–94.

Lewis Carroll 1832–98, verse and allegorical tales e.g.. Alice in Wonderland.

Thomas Hardy 1840–1928, Naturalist poet/novelist, pessimistic social critique, e.g.. Far

from the Madding Crowd.

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850–94, Romantic-style adventure tales e.g.. Treasure Island.

Charles Dickens 1812–70, prolific Social Realism novelist, many sharply caricatured

characters, develops “episodic writing”, e.g.. Oliver Twist.

Oscar Wilde 1854–1900, Irish origin, great social wit, socially critical and humoristic poet/

dramatist e.g.. The Importance of Being Earnest, one novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.

George Bernard Shaw 1856–1950, Irish origin, political pamphleteer/essayist/critic and

dramatist e.g.. Pygmalion.

Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844–89, poet who invented “sprung Rhythm”.

Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling 1865–1936, much “empire poetry” and fiction e.g.. The

Jungle Books.

USAJames Fennimore Cooper 1789–1851, Romantic adventure stories often involving “Noble

Savage” Native Americans e.g.. The Last of the Mohicans.

Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803–82, Transcendentalist poet/essayist.

Nathaniel Hawthorne 1804–64, short stories and novels, e.g.. The Scarlet Letter.

Edgar Allan Poe 1809–49, Romanticism expressed in mostly Gothic style “mystery and

imagination” short stories and poems, e.g.. The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1807–82, central scholar/poet of the American canon of his

time, e.g.. The Song of Hiawatha.

Harriet Beecher Stowe 1811–96, novelist, e.g.. the anti-slavery episodic Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Herman Melville 1819–91, novelist, e.g.. the great symbolic novel Moby Dick.

Henry David Thoreau 1817–62, Transcendentalist poet/philosopher, father of “civil

disobedience”.

Walt Whitman 1819–92, major innovative poet, e.g.. Leaves of Grass.

Emily Dickinson 1830–86, highly original and prolific poet with strong use of imagery.

Mark Twain 1835–1910, Realist/Naturalist novelist, used dialect speech (early form of

Ebonics) in e.g.. the anti-slavery The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Henry James 1843–1916 (resident in England from 1869), psychological novels/short stories

often exploring English/American contrasts, e.g.. The Ambassadors.

Kate Chopin 1850–1904, Irish/Creole writer, short stories, poems etc.

Stephen Crane 1871–1900, psychological realism e.g.. novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.

Jack London 1876–1916, novelist, much realism and Nature e.g.. The Call of the Wild.


How?Increasing scientific knowledge (e.g. evolutionary theory) begins to change some religious

views.

Increasing industrial use of technology leads to growing social problems, which in turn lead

to radical political ideologies (e.g. Marx).

Growth of middle classes and of general education + museums and libraries, ever more

readers. “Pre-Raphaelites” turn from social/industrial ugliness to express beauty in art and

poetry.

Theatre a less important forum until end of 19th C, when e.g.. Wilde begins to mock the

theatre-goers themselves, and Shaw advocates new theatre ideas of Chekhov, Ibsen,

Strindberg.

English begins to become more global – becomes official government language in India

1835.

General sense of optimism in Britain with industrial and imperial growth, Queen Victoria a

figure-head.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) under production from late 1850’s.

USAGrowing sense of an expanding nation with growth in number of union states and ever

greater prosperity.

Gradual increased awareness of wrongs of slavery and of usurping rights of Native

Americans.

American speech dialects written into e.g.. dialogues in fiction by end 19th C.

Towards end of period, emergence of similar social problems in wake of industrialisation as

in Europe.

Why?18-year-old Victoria becomes queen 1837.

The “Penny Post” begins 1840.

New Zealand becomes British colony 1841.

Increasing agitation in Ireland for independence.

Some years of Potato famine in Ireland from 1844, many emigrate to the USA.

British Museum opens 1847.

Houses of Parliament (destroyed by fire) rebuilt 1852.

Florence Nightingale reforms nursing in Crimean War 1855.

Complete British rule over India 1858.

Darwin’s On the Origin of Species published 1859.

First section of London Underground opens 1863.

Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams 1872–1958.

Bell invents the telephone 1876.

The British annexe S. African Republic 1877.

Karl Marx dies in London 1883.

First cine-camera 1884.

Law extends the vote to almost all adult men 1884.

Jack the Ripper murders in London’s East End 1888.

Film actor/director Charlie Chaplin 1889–1977.


The Boer War 1899–1902.

Minimum age for coal mine workers raised from 12 to 13 1900.

Latter half of 19th C, growing anti-British unrest in Ireland and demands for Home Rule.

Throughout the period, strengthening and broadening of British Empire.

USADavy Crockett and others die when Mexicans attack San Antonio Alamo.

15,000 Missouri valley Native Americans die of smallpox 1837.

Emigrants begin to use Oregon Trail 1840s.

First known operation using ether as anaesthetic 1842.

Colonel Hays and Texas Rangers use revolvers to attack and kill large number of Comanches

1844.

Rotary printing press invented New York 1846.

Mexican War 1846–8 brings California into the USA.

First Chinese immigrants to New York 1847, birth of Chinatown.

Gold Rush in California begins 1848.

Northern/southern state friction grows 1850.

First New York Times 1851.

First elevator New York 1852 leads to multi-storey buildings.

Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah 1857, emigrants killed by Pah-Ute Native Americans

and Mormons.

Central Park New York 1857.

20-year-old Rockefeller enters oil industry 1860.

Abraham Lincoln president 1860.

American Civil War 1861–5 kills 618,000, and abolishes slavery.

1,200 killed in New York 1863 in draft riots, against conscription for Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln assassinated 1865.

Joining of Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railways in Utah 1869.

Barbed wire invented Illinois 1873. Battle of Little Big Horn 1876.

Arizona Apaches confined to barren reservation at San Carlos 1877.

Thomas Edison’s light bulb patented 1880. Billy the Kid shot 1881.

Machine gun invented 1883.

Brooklyn Bridge 1883.

First skyscraper Chicago 1885.

Workers killed by police in Chicago riots 1886.

Statue of Liberty 1886.

Sioux chief Sitting Bull accidentally shot dead when arrested 1890.

“Battle” of Wounded Knee – final massacre of Sioux 1890.

USA overtakes Britain in steel production 1890.

Mormon Temple Salt Lake City completed 1893.

USA annexes Hawaiian Islands 1897.

The Stars and Stripes Forever 1897.

Spanish-American War 1898.

Scott Joplin’s Maple Leaf Rag 1899.


Meanwhile…Morse code 1837.

French Post-Impressionist painter Cézanne 1839–1906; composer Bizet 1838–75.

British/Afghan wars and Opium Wars Britain/China begin 1830s.

French sculptor Rodin 1840–1917.

French Naturalist novelist Zola 1840–1902.

Russian composer Tchaikovsky 1840–93.

French impressionist painters Monet 1840–1926 and Renoir 1841–1919.

Czech composer Dvorak 1841–1904.

Norwegian composer Grieg 1843–1907.

German philosopher/critic Nietzsche 1844–1900.

Nitroglycerine discovered in Italy 1847.

French Post-Impressionist painter Gauguin 1848–1903.

Kremlin 1849.

Swedish dramatist Strindberg 1849–1912.

Civil war in China kills 30 million 1850–65.

French Naturalist novelist/short story writer Maupassant 1850–93.

Napoleon III proclaims 2nd French Empire 1852.

Dutch expressionist painter van Gogh 1853–90.

French Symbolist poet Rimbaud 1854–91.

Crimean War 1854–6.

Austrian founder of psychoanalysis Freud, 1856–1939.

Italian opera composer Puccini 1858–1924.

Garibaldi unites Italy 1860. Russian dramatist Chekhov 1860–1904.

Austrian painter Klimt 1862–1918.

Norwegian Expressionist Symbolic painter Munch 1863–1944.

French painter Toulouse Lautrec 1864–1901.

Finnish composer Sibelius 1865–1957.

Russian Bauhaus painter Kandinsky 1866–1944.

French Nobel laureate writer Gide 1869–1951.

French artist Matisse 1869–1945.

2nd French Empire collapses 1870.

Russian Marxist revolutionary and politician Lenin 1870–1924.

30,000 die when Paris commune collapses 1871.

French novelist Proust 1871–1922.

Russian composer Rachmaninov 1873–1943.

Austrian composer Schönberg 1874–1951.

German novelist Thomas Mann 1875–1955.

Russian revolutionaries sent to Siberia 1878.

Swiss artist Klee 1879–1940.

Extensive persecution of Jews in Russia begins 1881.

Hungarian composer Bartók 1881–1945.

Spanish Cubist painter Picasso 1881–1973.

First railway tunnel through Alps 1882.

Russian composer Stravinsky 1882–1971.

36,000 die when Krakatoa erupts 1883.

Europe’s first transcontinental train service, Orient Express, 1883.


Czech-Austrian novelist Kafka 1883–1924.

Raffles Hotel Singapore 1886.

First car (Daimler), Germany 1887.

Eiffel Tower 1889.

Russian Surrealist artist Marc Chagall 1889–1985, composer Prokofiev 1891–1953.

German Dadaist/Surrealist painter Max Ernst 1891–1976.

All women granted the vote in New Zealand 1893.

Spanish Surrealist artist Miró 1893–1983.

Russian Bolshevik poet Mayakovski 1894–1930.

Röntgen discovers X-ray 1895.

World’s first cinema, Paris 1895.

Radioactivity discovered in uranium by Becquerel, France 1896.

French Dadaist/Surrealist poet/critic Breton 1896–1966.

The Dreyfus affair, France 1898.

Spanish poet/dramatist Lorca 1899–1936.

Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams 1900.

Throughout period various British power struggles in different parts of Indian subcontinent.


1900 – end of WWII 1945, Modernism

What?Modernism develops with transfer of focus from externally observable to internal human

state and psychology.

Major breaks from traditional form in literature, e.g.. interior monologue/stream-of-

consciousness, the “ice-berg technique” (few words but highly charged between the lines),

and Absurdist theatre, in which totally unrealistic and illogical external conditions allow

revealing of inner truths.

Imaginative children’s literature comes to the fore, and such popular genres as detective/

spy fiction, science fiction and fantasy.

The “War Poets” of WWI express the realistic tragedy of war, as also later Spanish Civil War

and WWII poets.

In particular poetry develops into a flora of “–isms”, including much symbolism, also e.g..

Vorticism, Imagism, Surrealism, Dadaism, generally seeking to express inner truths. Much

use of free verse.

Who?UK and other English-speaking countries (not USA): early Modernist Polish-born novelist

Joseph Conrad 1857–1924 e.g.. Heart of Darkness becomes central work much intertextually

referred to by later writers.

W.B.Yeats 1865–1939, nationalistic Irish dramatist/poet, lyrical Modernist, much

Symbolism, e.g.. The Wild Swans at Coole.

Irish playwright J.M.Synge 1871–1909, ironic/realist, e.g.. The Playboy of the Western World.

E.M. Forster 1879–1970, Modernist/humanist, novels and short stories, e.g.. A Passage to

India.

A.A. Milne 1882–1956, children’s classics e.g.. Winnie-the-Pooh.

Modernists Virginia Woolf 1882–1941 (e.g. To the Lighthouse) and from Ireland highly

innovative James Joyce 1882–1941 (e.g. Ulysses), both independently developed stream-of-

consciousness technique.

Ezra Pound 1885–1972, American (spent adult life in London and Europe) highly intellectual

influential Modernist/Symbolist/Imagist poet, e.g.. The Cantos.

D.H.Lawrence 1885–1930 norm-breaking Modernist poet/novelist, e.g.. Lady Chatterley’s

Lover.

Siegfried Sassoon 1886–1967, war poet.

T.S.Eliot 1888–1965 highly influential American who became British Modernist poet/critic,

e.g.. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

J.R.R.Tolkien 1892–1973, mythological fantasy novelist, e.g.. The Lord of the Rings.

Wilfred Owen 1893–1918, war poet.

Nevil Shute 1899–1960, English-born Australian novelist e.g.. On the Beach.

George Orwell 1903–50, political novelist, e.g.. Animal Farm.

Evelyn Waugh 1903–66 (often satirical) novelist, e.g.. Brideshead Revisited.

Graham Greene 1904–91, novelist (sometimes thriller/detective stories) e.g.. The Third Man.


Sir John Betjeman 1906–84, poet laureate 1972.

Samuel Beckett 1906–1989, influential Irish (lived adult life in Paris) “Theatre of the

Absurd” playwright, e.g.. Waiting for Godot.

W.H.Auden 1907–1973, British who became American poet, wide range of expression,

influenced many.

William Golding 1911–93, novelist often commenting the nature of mankind, e.g.. Lord of

the Flies, Nobel laureate 1983.

Lawrence Durrell 1912–90, novelist e.g.. The Alexandria Quartet.

Patrick White 1912–90, English/Australian novelist, Nobel laureate 1973 e.g.. The Vivisector.

Dylan Thomas 1914–53, powerful, romantic Welsh poet, e.g.. Do Not Go Gentle into That

Good Night.

USAGertrude Stein 1874–1946, Modernist novelist lived in Paris, e.g.. Three Lives.

Willa Cather 1876–1947, novelist, aspects of American life in growing nation, e.g.. O

Pioneers!

Sherwood Anderson 1876–1941, naturalistic novels and short stories, e.g.. Winesburg, Ohio.

Upton Sinclair 1878–1968, socialist novelist, e.g.. The Jungle.

William Carlos Williams 1883–1963, Modernist poet, at first Imagist, e.g.. The Red

Wheelbarrow.

Sinclair Lewis 1885–1951, novelist, Nobel laureate 1930, e.g.. Main Street.

Pearl Buck 1892–1973, novelist in China until 1934, Nobel laureate 1938, e.g.. The Good

Earth.

e.e.cummings 1894–1962, Modernist/Dadaist poet.

F. Scott Fitzgerald 1896–1940, “Jazz-Age” novelist/short story writer, e.g.. The Great Gatsby.

William Faulkner 1897–1962, Modernist novelist, Nobel laureate 1949, e.g.. Absalom,

Absalom!

Eugene O’Neill 1888–1953, highly original Modernist playwright, Nobel laureate 1936, e.g..

Long Day’s Journey into Night.

Thornton Wilder 1897–1975, dramatist/novelist, e.g.. The Matchmaker.

Ernest Hemingway 1899–1961, “iceberg technique” novelist/short-story writer, Nobel

laureate 1954, e.g.. The Old Man and the Sea.

John Steinbeck 1902–68, novelist, Nobel Laureate 1962, e.g.. The Grapes of Wrath.

How?Freud’s psychoanalysis brings growing interest in psychology, increasingly expressed in all

art forms.

Darwinism increasingly recognised, and the effects noticeable especially in politically-

inspired writing.

Events/situations which profoundly affect many people become material/inspiration for art

forms, e.g.. millions dying in world wars, industrial strife/depression in e.g.. 1930s.


Why?UKQueen Victoria dies 1901.

First trans-Atlantic wireless signal 1901.

Harrods 1901.

Sinn Fein founded in Ireland for Home Rule.

London’s population 6.5 million 1902.

First use of fingerprint evidence 1902.

Philosopher/mathematician Bertrand Russell’s first publication Principles of Mathematics

1903.

First mainline electric train 1904.

Growing suffragette unrest and riots from around 1905.

Actor/director Sir Laurence Olivier 1907–89.

First colour films shown 1909.

National Insurance Act 1911, beginnings of the Welfare State.

Scott dies in Antarctica 1912.

The Titanic sinks 1912.

Growing opposition in North of Ireland to Home Rule 1912.

First film censorship 1913.

Composer Benjamin Britten 1913–76.

Industrial strife with growing national strikes since around 1911, 2 million on strike 1914.

First World War 1914–18.

Easter Rising in Dublin 1916.

School-leaving set at age 14, 1918.

Women over 30 gain vote 1918.

IRA formed 1919.

Escalating violence in Ireland until 1921, Irish Free State proclaimed, British province of

Northern Ireland formed.

High unemployment, first Hunger March to London from North 1922.

BBC formed 1922.

Baird demonstrates television 1926.

12-day General Strike 1926, supporting miners’ strike.

British Empire becomes British Commonwealth 1926 – equal political status to all member

nations.

Women’s votes from age 21, 1928.

First clinical use of penicillin 1929.

First jet engine 1930.

From early 1930s, depression in wake of Wall St crash, economist Keynes’ theories

published.

First RADAR demonstration 1935.

First TV broadcast 1936. Edward VIII abdicates 1936.

World War II 1939–45.

USAComposer/pianist Duke Ellington 1899–1974.

President McKinley shot by anarchist 1901.

Typhoid epidemic in NY 1903.


First transcontinental car journey 1903. 66 % of San Francisco destroyed in 1906

earthquake.

Composer Samuel Barber 1910–81.

USA enters World War I 1917.

Composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein 1918–90.

Lindbergh’s first solo non-stop trans-Atlantic flight 1927.

Wall Street crash 1929.

Chrysler building NY 1930.

First appearance of Mickey Mouse 1931.

Empire State Building NY 1931.

First diplomatic relations with USSR 1933.

Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess 1935.

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, 1937.

USA enters World War II 1941 after Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.

Mussolini resigns 1943.

Japanese government falls 1944.

Liberation of Paris 1944.

Pres Roosevelt dies 1945.

Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1945. End of WWII.

Meanwhile…Boxer Rebellion in China 1900–1.

Famine in Russia 1903.

Spanish Surrealist artist Dali 1904–89.

Japan/Russia war ends 1905.

Demonstrators shot down in St Petersburg 1905.

French existential philosopher/writer Sartre 1905–80.

Russian composer Shostakovich 1906–75. A

Austria annexes Herzegovina and Bosnia 1908, European countries take sides.

Sicily earthquake kills 75,000 1908.

French feminist/ existentialist writer de Beauvoir 1908–86.

Amundsen reaches South Pole 1911.

China becomes republic 1912.

Unrest and wars in Balkans from around 1912.

Romanian/ French “Theatre of the Absurd” playwright Ionesco b.1912.

“Action painting” artist Jackson Pollock 1912–56.

Algeria-born French existentialist writer Camus 1913–60.

Gandhi returns to India after 21 years in S Africa 1914.

French “nouveau roman” writer Duras 1914–1996.

World War I 1914–18.

Rasputin murdered in St Petersburg 1916.

Bolshevik rebellion begins St Petersburg 1917.

Spanish Influenza kills over 21.5 million world-wide 1918.

Russian Tsar and family shot 1918.

Russian writer Solzhenitsyn b.1918.

League of Nations formed in Paris 1919. Russian White Army defeated 1920.


International Court of Justice (“World Court”) opened in the Hague 1922. Mussolini given

dictatorial powers after “March on Rome” 1922.

Lenin establishes first Soviet forced-labour camp 1923.

Stalin extends his powers, banishing Trotsky 1926.

Artist Andy Warhol 1926–87.

German writer Günter Grass b.1927.

Italian novelist/critic Umberto Eco b.1929. Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (formed

after WWI) renamed Yugoslavia 1929.

Brazil becomes Dictatorship under Vargas 1930.

Haile Selassey (Ras Tafari) crowned King of Kings at Addis Ababa 1930.

Gandhi’s salt-march protest 1930.

German banks crash 1931.

Gandhi fasts to draw attention to British misrule in India 1932.

Major Nazi gains in German general election 1932.

Hitler becomes Chancellor 1933.

First Nazi concentration camp Dachau 1933.

Riots in Paris and general strike in France 1933.

Hitler becomes Führer 1934.

Mao Tse Tung and Communist force chased by Nationalists in “Long March” 1934.

Shah changes “Persia” to “Iran” 1935.

Stalin begins his purge, millions will die.

Spanish Civil War begins, Franco forms a junta 1936.

British artist David Hockney b.1937.

Hitler annexes Austria 1938.

“Kristalnacht” marks beginning of extreme persecution of Jews in Germany 1938.

End of Spanish Civil War, Franco takes Madrid 1939.

Germany invades Poland, triggering World War II 1939.

German occupation of France 1940, invasion of Greece, Yugoslavia, Russia 1941.

Dresden destroyed by British bombing 1945, 135,000 civilians killed.

124,000 civilians die in U.S. bombing of Tokyo 1945.

Mussolini executed and Hitler commits suicide 1945.

Atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki 1945, end of WWII.


1946–2000 (and beyond …) Postmodernism and various other movements

What?Increasing diversity in all art forms as 20th C progresses, ranging from highly structured,

concrete, realistic to wildly fantastic; from intensely personal to widely general/political.

After WWII the “angry young men” expose harsh social reality. Then Postmodernism revives

earlier Modernism’s experimentation in form, leading to novels with inventive use of

narrative technique and time representation, and less definition between real and imaginary

worlds.

Increasing use of dialect, especially as Post-Colonial writers come to fore, expressing new,

“cross-over” cultural identities in Post-Colonial world. An important branch of poetry

becomes beat/jazz/performance poetry, usually anti-establishment, with strong use of

rhythm/rhyme/sound effects.

Who?Doris Lessing b.1919, grew up Rhodesia (Zimbabwe), novelist, often political/philosophical

themes such as anti-racism, women’s movements, e.g.. The Golden Notebook

Kingsley Amis 1922–95, “Angry Young Men” novelist, e.g.. Lucky Jim

Nadine Gordimer b.1923, S African novelist, Nobel laureate 1991, focus on S African politics,

e.g.. July’s People

John Fowles b.1926, Postmodern novelist e.g.. The French Lieutenant’s Woman

Alan Sillitoe b.1928, “Angry Young Men” novelist/poet, e.g.. Saturday Night and Sunday

Morning

John Osborne 1929–94, “Angry Young Men” playwright, e.g.. “kitchen sink drama” Look Back

in Anger

Ted Hughes 1930–98 (Poet Laureate 1985), much strong animal imagery and environment

awareness, e.g.. The Thought-Fox

Chinua Achebe b.1930, Nigerian Post-Colonial novelist/poet e.g.. Things Fall Apart

Derek Walcott b.1930, West-Indian Post-Colonial poet/playwright, Nobel laureate 1992

Harold Pinter b.1930, poet/playwright, often “Theatre of the Absurd”, e.g.. The Caretaker

V.S.Naipaul b.1932, Post-Colonial novelist, Nobel laureate 2001, e.g.. A House for Mr Biswas

Wole Soyinka b.1934, Nigerian Post-Colonial playwright/novelist, Nobel laureate 1986, e.g..

A Play of Giants

Tom Stoppard b.1937, Postmodern playwright, e.g.. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Anita Desai b.1937, Indian Post-Colonial novelist e.g.. Clear Light of Day

Canadian Margaret Atwood b.1939, novelist/poet, e.g.. The Handmaid’s Tale

Margaret Drabble b.1939, novelist, much socio-political observation, e.g.. The Ice Age

Seamus Heaney b.1939, Irish poet, Nobel laureate 1995

Buchi Emecheta b.1944, Nigerian Post-Colonial novelist e.g.. Adah’s Story

Salman Rushdie b.1947, Anglo-Indian Post-Colonial novelist e.g.. The Satanic Verses

Postmodern novelist Ian McEwan b.1948, e.g.. Enduring Love

Andrew Motion b 1952, Poet Laureate 1999

Linton Kwesi Johnson b.1952, politically focused Jamaican-born English performance poet/


reggae artist e.g.. Inglan is a Bitch

Nick Hornby b.1957, neo-realist novelist, e.g.. How to be Good

Irvine Welsh b.1957, Scottish “neo-naturalist” novelist e.g.. Trainspotting

Roddy Doyle b.1958, Irish novelist e.g.. Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

Benjamin Zephaniah b.1958, influential politically focused performance poet/dramatist

Arundhati Roy b.1961, Indian Post-Colonial novelist e.g.. The God of Small Things

Zadie Smith b.1975, Post-Colonial novelist e.g.. White Teeth.

USALangston Hughes 1902–67, originator of “jazz poetry”

Isaac Bashevis Singer 1904–89, Polish-born Yiddish novelist, Nobel laureate 1978, e.g. A

Friend of Kafka

Richard Wright 1908–60, African-American novelist focusing on social problems of African

Americans, e.g. Native Son

Tennessee Williams 1911–83, dramatist e.g. A Streetcar Named Desire

Ralph Ellison 1914–94, author of first great African-American classic novel Invisible Man

Arthur Miller b.1915, dramatist e.g. Death of a Salesman

Saul Bellow b.1915, Jewish American novelist, Nobel laureate 1976, e.g. Humboldt’s Gift

Robert Lowell 1917–77, highly individual and personal modernist poet

J.D.Salinger b.1919, novelist/short story writer e.g. The Catcher in the Rye

Ray Bradbury b.1920, science fiction/fantasy writer, e.g. Fahrenheit 451

Jack Kerouac 1922–69, cult novelist/essayist, friend of Beat Poets, e.g. On the Road

Joseph Heller 1923–99, novelist e.g. Catch–22

Truman Capote 1924–84, novelist, e.g. Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Allen Ginsberg 1926–97, leading Beat Poet, founder member of Jack Kerouac School of

Disembodied Poetics

Edward Albee b.1928, dramatist (often Absurdist) e.g. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Toni Morrison b.1931, African-American novelist, Nobel laureate 1993, e.g. Beloved

John Updike b.1932, novelist/short story writer/poet, focus: relationships, e.g. The Witches

of Eastwick

Sylvia Plath 1932–63, poet/novelist wife of English poet Ted Hughes, focus: fraught mental

states, e.g. The Bell Jar

Amiri Baraka b.1934, politically prominent performance poet

Ken Kesey b.1935, novelist e.g. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Joyce Carol Oates b.1938, darkly naturalistic novelist/short story writer/poet, e.g. Because It

Is Bitter, Because It Is My Heart

Raymond Carver 1939–88, “Dirty Realism” short story writer/poet, e.g. Will You Please Be

Quiet, Please?

Hunter S Thompson b.1939, provocative realist novelist e.g. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

John Irving b.1942, imaginative novelist e.g. The World According to Garp

Alice Walker b.1944, African-American novelist/poet, e.g. The Colour Purple

Paul Auster b.1947, playwright (at first “Absurdist”)/novelist e.g. The Music of Chance.


How?More events/situations which profoundly affect many people become material/inspiration

for art forms, e.g. Cold War, student-led revolts late 1960s, anti-Vietnam war protests,

discrimination against minorities including original native groups, fears for environmental

destruction, fears for loss of ethics in galloping scientific achievement

Colossal growth in American population 81m 1900 to 255 m 1978

Hence tremendous growth in output of art forms in the USA, which thus exerts much

international influence

The film industry both draws on and affects other art forms

Censorship of art forms for political or moral reasons gradually lifted, e.g.

theatre censorship ends 1968 in the UK, resulting in inventive period of theatre

A later attempt to crush an art form, Ayatollah Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa on Salman Rushdie

for offending the Muslim faith in his novel The Satanic Verses

Literary criticism renewed by e.g.

Structuralism and Post-Structuralism, with much philosophical debate on the functions of

literature

Many writers consequently encouraged to experiment and break new ground

Feminist Criticism develops readers’ awareness of how art forms represent majority/

minority views/positions in life, thus encouraging e.g. literary expression by minority

groups.

Why?UKPost-war Labour government begins programme of nationalisation and social reform

Cold War begins 1946

The National Health Service 1946

School-leaving age 15, 1947

India independent 1947, Sri Lanka 1948

NATO formed 1949

Hillary reaches Mt Everest summit 1953

Jamaicans begin to immigrate into Britain 1955

The Suez crisis 1956

Dockers strike 1957

Parkinson’s Law 1957

Racial clashes in Notting Hill 1958

Rock ‘n’ Roll music dominant in youth culture 1959

1950’s-70’s, many African and other former colonies become independent

New law controls immigration of Commonwealth citizens 1962

The Rolling Stones formed 1962

The Beatles’ first hits 1963

Last hangings in Britain 1964

Oil found in North Sea 1965

Death Penalty abolished 1965

Student protests and sit-ins 1967–9

Theatre censorship abolished 1968

Increasing troubles in N Ireland from 1968 – British army moves in 1969


Open University founded 1969

Concorde maiden flight 1969

First 18-year-olds vote 1969

Law demands equal pay for men/women 1970

Transfer to decimal currency 1971

Growing industrial unrest and strikes 1971

Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar 1971

Miners’ strikes lead to power crisis and 3-day week for industry 1972 + 1973

“Bloody Sunday” 1972 in N Ireland, demonstrators shot by British troops, and later “Direct

Rule” from London imposed on N Ireland

Law forbids racial discrimination 1972

Britain and Ireland join EEC 1973

IRA begin bomb attacks in London 1973

Margaret Thatcher first woman Prime Minister of Britain 1979

Race riots in Brixton 1981

Prince Charles marries Lady Diana 1981

Humber Bridge completed 1981

Falklands War 1982

Thames Barrier 1982

Australia independent 1986

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera 1986

Terrorist bomb causes Lockerbie plane disaster 1988, 281 die

Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time 1988

Thatcher resigns as Prime Minister due to internal party opposition 1990

Gulf War 1991

City of London damaged by IRA bomb 1993

Channel Tunnel opened 1994

Mad cow disease, EU ban on British beef 1996

“Dolly” first cloned sheep 1997

New Labour government elected 1997

Princess Diana dies 1997

Hong Kong reverts to Chinese administration 1997

N Ireland peace accord 1998

Scottish Parliament opens 1999

Foot and mouth disease severely affects British farming 2001

Deaths of Princess Margaret and Queen Mother (age 102) 2002.

USA UN building NY 1950

US Atomic Energy Commission explodes first hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll 1954

Senator McCarthy’s Permanent Investigative Subcommittee begins routing communists

1954

Bill Haley’s Rock Around the Clock 1955

Rosa Parks triggers 381-day Montgomery bus boycott 1955

Mid 50s, Ku Klux Klan revives, begins to terrorise African Americans

Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel 1956

Guggenheim Museum NY 1959


Beach Boys’ Surfin’ Safari 1962

President Kennedy assassinated 1962

Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, Lincoln Memorial Washington 1963

US bombing in N Vietnam begins 1964, ground troops 1965

Anti-Vietnam war demonstrations in major cities 1967

My Lai Massacre of Vietnamese civilians by young US soldiers 1968

Oil found in Alaska 1968

Martin Luther King shot dead 1968

Troop withdrawal from Vietnam begins 1969

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin – first human steps on Moon 1969

Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Water 1970

Renewed US bombing in Hanoi, N Vietnam 1972

Watergate Affair 1972

World Trade Center twin towers NY 1972

Cease-fire and troop withdrawal from Vietnam 1973

President Nixon resigns after Watergate affair 1974

End of Vietnam War 1975

Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run 1975

President Carter in Camp David Accord, Israel/Egypt peace negotiated

“Affirmative action” encouraged in employment of minorities 1979

John Lennon killed in NY 1980

AIDS identified in California and NY 1981

Agreement with Moscow to limit nuclear weapon arsenals 1984

Actor Rock Hudson dies of AIDS 1985; growth in AIDS awareness

Space shuttle Challenger explodes just after take-off 1986

Gorbachev in Washington to sign nuclear weapon reduction treaty 1987

Exxon Valdez oil disaster in Alaska 1989

Race riots in Los Angeles 1992, after police acquitted of beating up African American

Rodney King

First winning legal claim against cigarette manufacturers for deaths of smokers 1992

Bomb attack on World Trade Center NY 1993

Waco siege in Texas ends in fire 1993, 97 die

Bomb attack on Federal building Oklahoma 1995

US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania bombed by terrorists 1998

Anti-smoking laws in California 1998

Hurricane Mitch 1998

President Clinton impeached 1998, acquitted 1999

Colorado school massacre 1999

Hand-over of Panama Canal to Panama 1999

Bush narrowly and disputedly elected president 2000

Heightening of Israeli/Palestine conflict 2000, after years of negotiations and near

agreement

Power crisis in California 2001

September 11th 2001, World Trade Center terrorist attacks, 3,000 die, Bush declares war on

terrorists.


Meanwhile…First UN General Assembly 1946

India independent 1947, Burma 1948. Gandhi assassinated 1948

Communist coup in Czechoslovakia 1948

State of Israel proclaimed 1948

Berlin cut off by Soviet forces 1948

Council of Europe formed 1949, also NATO

Siam becomes Thailand 1949.

Chairman Mao proclaims People’s Republic of China 1949

German Federal Republic and German Democratic Republic formed 1949

Indonesia independent 1949. Apartheid laws in S Africa 1949

Korean War 1950–3

China invades Tibet 1950

White settlers in Kenya driven out by Kenyatta 1952

Stalin dies 1953. World’s first nuclear power station, Obninsk, Russia, 1954

Algerians revolt against French rule 1954. Military coup in Argentina ousts Péron 1955

Suez Crisis 1956, UN forces move in

Sputnik I, first satellite, 1957

Fidel Castro head of state in Cuba 1959

Many European colonies in Africa and elsewhere become independent during ‘60s–70’s

72 die when police shoot black protesters in Sharpeville massacre, Johannesburg, 1960

East/West Berlin border closed 1961

UN General Secretary Dag Hammarskjöld dies in plane crash 1961

Russian Yuri Gagarin first man in space 1961

Cuban missile crisis close to triggering nuclear war 1962

Greece/Turkey conflict in Cyprus 1964

400,000 die in massacre of communists in Indonesia 1965

UN economic sanctions against Rhodesia’s discriminatory régime 1965

Sayings of Chairman Mao 1966

Right wing coup in Greece 1967

Six-day Arab-Israeli war 1967

Che Guevara shot 1967

World’s first heart transplant, S Africa 1967

Renewed Arab-Israeli aggressions, Israel attacks Lebanon 1970

Allende president of Chile 1970

Idi Amin seizes power in Uganda 1971

World energy crisis 1973

Pinochet’s military coup in Chile 1973

General Franco dies, Spain becomes constitutional monarchy 1975

655,000 die in Tangshan earthquake, China 1976

Mao Tse Tung dies 1976

Steve Biko dies in custody in S Africa 1977

Rhodesia becomes democratic Zimbabwe 1979

President Tito of Yugoslavia dies 1980

Lech Walesa leads strike in Poland 1980

Iran/Iraq at war 1980–8

World population 4.5 billion 1981


President Sadat of Egypt assassinated 1981

Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon 1982

Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi assassinated 1984

Soviet President Gorbachev begins Perestroyka reform program 1985

Volcano eruption in Columbia 1985, 25,000 die

Growing awareness and concern over Antarctica ozone hole 1985

Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme assassinated 1986

Nuclear power station at Chernobyl explodes 1986, much of Northern Europe

contaminated

Over 4,000 Kurds killed in Iraqi gas attacks 1988

Over 25,000 die in earthquake in Armenia 1988

Fall of Berlin Wall 1989

Fall and execution of President Ceaucescu in Romania 1989

Nelson Mandela released from prison 1990

East/West Germany formally reunited 1990

Iraq under Saddam Hussein annexes Kuwait 1990.

American, British and French troops drive Iraqis out of Kuwait 1991.

Cyclone in Bangladesh 1991 kills 138,000.

Battles between Serbs and Croats as Yugoslavia falls apart 1991.

Soviet member states begin to announce independence 1991.

End of Apartheid laws in S Africa 1991.

Vatican admits the earth is round by absolving Galileo 1992.

European Union: Maastricht Treaty 1992.

Hindu/Muslim riots in India 1992.

Civil war continues in Yugoslavia, Sarajevo under siege 1992.

Czechoslovakia becomes separate Czech and Slovak republics 1993.

First free elections in Russia 1993. World Trade Organisation formed 1993.

Nelson Mandela president of S Africa 1994.

Rwanda genocide 1994.

Serbia/Bosnia/Croatia peace agreement 1995.

Prime Minister Rabin assassinated in Jerusalem 1995.

Talibans conquer Afghanistan 1996.

Asian economic crisis begins 1997.

Kyoto Protocol Convention on climate change 1997.

Mother Theresa dies 1997. Earthquake in Turkey 1999, over 15,000 die.

Mapping of human genome 2000.

Ever-growing AIDS disaster in Africa 2000.

Talibans destroy Buddha statues in Afghanistan 2001.

The Euro replaces most European currencies 2002.


Writers in Who column(alphabetical index of last name + year of birth)

Achebe 1930

Albee 1928

Alfred (King) 849

Amis 1922

Anderson 1876

Arnold 1822

Atwood 1939

Auden 1907

Austen 1775

Auster 1947

Bacon 1561

Baraka 1934

Beckett 1906

Bede 673

Behn 1640

Bellow 1915

Betjeman 1906

Blake 1757

Bradbury 1920

Brontë, Charlotte 1816

Brontë, Emily 1818

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett 1806

Browning, Robert 1812

Buck 1892

Bunyan 1628

Burns 1759

Byron 1788

Capote 1924

Carroll 1832

Carver 1939

Cather 1876

Chaucer 1345 (?)

Chopin 1850

Coleridge 1772

Congreve 1670

Conrad 1857

Cooper 1789

Crane 1871

Cummings 1894

Defoe

Desai 1937

Dickens 1812

Dickinson 1830

Donne 15

Doyle 1958

Drabble 1939

Dryden 1631

Durrell 1912

Eliot, George 1819

Eliot, T.S. 1888

Ellison 1914

Emecheta 1944

Emerson 1803

Faulkner 1897

Fielding 1707

Fitzgerald 1896

Forster 1879

Fowles 1926

Ginsberg 1926

Golding 1911

Goldsmith 1723

Gordimer 1923

Greene 1904

Hardy 1840

Hawthorne 1804

Heaney 1939

Heller 1923

Hemingway 1899

Hopkins 1844

Hornby 1957

Hughes, Langston 1902

Hughes, Ted 1930

Irving 1942

James 1843

Johnson, Ben 1572

Johnson, Linton Kwesi 1952

Johnson, Samuel 1709

Joyce 1882

Keats 1795

Kerouac 1922

Kesey 1935

Kipling 1865

Lawrence 1885

Lessing 1919

Lewis 1885

Locke 1632


London 1876

Longfellow 1807

Lowell 1917

Malory 1400’s

Marlowe 1564

Marvell 1621

McEwan 1948

Melville 1819

Mill 1806

Miller 1915

Milne 1882

Milton 1608

More 1477 (?)

Morrison 1931

Motion 1952

Naipaul 1932

Oates 1938

O’Neill 1888

Orwell 1903

Osborne 1929

Owen 1893

Pepys 1633

Pinter 1930

Plath 1932

Poe 1809

Pope 1688

Pound 1885

Radcliffe 1764

Richardson 1689

Rossetti, Christina 1830

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel 1828

Roy 1961

Rushdie 1947

Salinger 1919

Sassoon 1886

Scott 1771

Shakespeare 1564

Shaw 1856

Shelley, Mary 1797

Shelley, Percy Bysshe 1792

Sheridan 1751

Shute 1899

Sillitoe 1928

Sinclair 1878

Singer 1904

Smith 1975

Soyinka 1934

Spenser 1552

Stein 1874 –

Steinbeck 1902

Stevenson 1850

Stoppard 1937

Stowe 1811

Swift 1667

Sydney 1554

Synge 1871

Tennyson 1809

Thackeray 1811

Thomas 1914

Thompson 1939

Thoreau 1817

Tolkien 1892

Twain 1835

Updike 1932

Walcott 1930

Walker 1944

Waugh 1903

Welsh 1957

White 1912

Whitman 1819

Wilde 1854

Wilder 1897

Williams, Tennessee 1911

Williams, William Carlos 1883

Wollstonecraft 1759

Woolf 1882

Wordsworth 1770

Wright 1908

Yeats 1865

Zephaniah 1958

literature overview - liber · literature overview for blueprint b ... the first playhouse in...

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