Balti state university a. Russo chair of english philology

 
2. Classification of Literary History 
The outline of English Literature conveniently falls into the following historical divisions: 
I. 
Middle Ages (449 - 1500) 
a) Anglo – Saxon Period (449 – 1066) 
b) Middle English Period (1066 – 1485) 
II. Renaissance (1500 – 1640) 
III. Revolution and Restoration (1640 – 1688) 
IV. The Age of Enlightenment (1688 – 1789) 
V. Romanticism (1489-1835) 
VI. Critical Realism in the 19
th
century (1835-1880) 

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VII. Critical Realism at the end of the 19
th
century – the beginning of the 
20
th
century (1880 - 1900) 
VIII. Modern English Literature (1900 – 2007) 
3. English Literature of the Middle Ages 
Literature of the Middle Ages lasted for 8 centuries and was subdivided into 3 different 
periods: Anglo-Saxon period, Norman period and Pre-Renaissance. These three periods coincide 
with the three different historic periods in the life of the medieval British nation. They were 
connected with the invasion of many wild tribes of different origins to the British Islands. 
Originally the aboriginal inhabitants of the British Isles were the Celts who experienced several 
invasions that considerably changed this nation. The Britons were enabled to mix up with Roman, 
Germanic and Norman people, which later sprang into the British nation. 
The Romans came to Britain in the 1
st
century A.D., the Anglo – Saxons attacked the Islands 
by the end of the 4
th
century, and the Normans conquered the Islands in the 11
th
century. All these 
peoples brought into the country their own lore (customs and traditions), forms of social life, 
language and culture. 
4.Anglo-Saxon Literature (Old English) 
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