Features of Anglo-American History

• Ancient Times (before 5th century AD) Key Features

  • Stories are passed down from one generation to another through oral tradition.
  • Poems written are laden with biblical and religious themes.
• Ancient Times (before 5th century AD) Genres

  • Epics
  • Religious poems
• The Middle Ages/Medieval Times (5th–15th Century) Key Features

  • Works were written in what was called as “Modern English” and not in Latin anymore.
  • Vernacular literature, religious writings, and secular texts emerged.
• The Middle Ages/Medieval Times (5th–15th Century) Genres

  • Heroic tales and romances that tackle chivalry and adventures of knights
  • Anthology of tales
• The Renaissance Period (1300s–1500s) Key Features

  • Texts show more optimism despite staying true to the medieval tradition.
  • Texts became sophisticated, serious, and concerned with social abuse and rivalry among groups.
  • Texts are centered on religious, practical, or historical themes. 
  • Theaters were closed due to moral and religious reasons.
• Age of Enlightenment/Reason/The Restoration (1685–1815) Key Features

  • Literary works are known for their use of philosophy, reason, skepticism towards institutions/authorities, wit, and refinement.
  • Writers wrote with clarity and balance of judgement.
• Age of Enlightenment/Reason/The Restoration (1685–1815) Genres

  • Comedy of manners
  • Epic
  • Play
  • Essay
  • Satire
  • Novel
• Romantic to Realistic Period (around 1770-1890) Key Features

  • Portrayed societal problems accurately.
  • Focused on the true, the good, and the beautiful, as well as the expansion of imagination.
• Romantic to Realistic Period (around 1770–1890) Genres

  • Gothic fiction
  • Lyric poems
• Modern to Contemporary (1900-Present) Key Features

  • Writers make commentaries on the social injustice and the selfishness of upper class society.
  • Naturalist works portrayed a darker yet more realistic view of life.
  • Writers experimented with subject matter, form, and style.
  • The Lost Generation writers fled to Europe and wrote about their moral crisis and disillusionment after the world wars.
• Modern to Contemporary (1900–Present) Genres


  Novels
• Christopher Marlowe

  • also known as Kit Marlowe
  • an English playwright, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era
  • Six dramas have been attributed to the authorship of Christopher Marlowe either alone or in collaboration with other writers, with varying degrees of evidence
• epic


  a long narrative poem that recounts the adventures and

  the triumph of a hero
• lyric poetry


  poetry, like sonnets, that expresses personal

  sentiments
• pastoral poem


  a poem that depicts the rural life
• comedy of manners


  a comedy that satirizes a specific group in society,

  usually the upper class
• satire


  a text that uses humor to attack a social issue
• gothic fiction


  features grotesque, gloomy, and mysterious settings,

  characters, and situations
• Genres and Representative Writers during Ancient Times

  • Epic
  • Religious poems written by Cynewulf and Caedmon
• Genres and Representative Writers during The Middle Ages/Medieval Times (5th-15th Century)

  • Heroic tales and romances that tackle chivalry and adventure of Knights
  • Le Morte d’ Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by the Pearl Poet
  • Anthology of tales
  • Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
• Genres and Representative Writers of The Renaissance Period (1300s–1500s)

  • Lyric poetry by William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser
  • Pastoral poems of Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh
  • Famous poets were John Donne, Thomas Middleton, and Anne Breadstreet
  • Prose/essays written by Francis Bacon, Benjamin Frankline, And Cotton Mather
  • Tragedies and comedies of William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe
• Genres and Representative Writers of Age of Enlightenment/Reason/The Restoration (1685–1815)

  • Comedy of manners
  • William Wycherley (The Country Wife, 1675) and William Congreve (The Way of the World, 1700).
  • Epic
  • John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained
  • Play
  • John Dryden
  • Essay
  • John Locke
  • Satire
  • Example: Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal” and Alexander Pope’s verses
  • Novel
  • Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
• Genres and Representative Writers of Romantic to Realistic Period (around 1770–1890)

  • Gothic fiction
  • novels by Anne Radcliffe and Mary Shelley; short stories by Edgar Allan Poe
  • Lyric poems
  • William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, her husband Robert, Matthew Arnold, and many others.
  • Political documents
  • Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” and Thomas Jefferson’s “The Declaration of Independence.”
  • Novels
  • Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, George Eliot, and Thomas Hardy
  • Satirical novels
  • Mark Twain
• Who is a representative writer of modern novels?

  George Bernard Shaw
• Name a novelist known for works in the 20th century.

  H.G. Wells
• Which author is known for the novel "Heart of Darkness"?

  Joseph Conrad
• Who wrote "The Call of the Wild"?

  Jack London
• Which author is associated with the modernist movement and wrote "To the Lighthouse"?

  Virginia Woolf
• Who is known for the novel "The Great Gatsby"?

  1. Scott Fitzgerald
• Name a poet from the modern to contemporary period.

  William Butler Yeats
• Who wrote "The Road Not Taken"?

  Robert Frost
• Which poet is known for the phrase "The Red Wheelbarrow"?

  William Carlos Williams
• Who is a notable poet from the Harlem Renaissance?

  Langston Hughes
• What themes do Langston Hughes and W.E.B. DuBois celebrate in their poems?

  The African-American identity
• Who is a prominent playwright of modern drama?

  Eugene O'Neill
• Which playwright is known for "Waiting for Godot"?

  Samuel Beckett
• Name a playwright associated with modern drama.

  Noel Coward
• Who are the representative writers of modern novels from 1900 to present?

  • George Bernard Shaw
  • H.G. Wells
  • Joseph Conrad
  • Rudyard Kipling
  • Henry James
  • E.M. Forster
  • James Joyce
  • D.H. Lawrence
  • Virginia Woolf
  • Edith Wharton
  • Sinclair Lewis
  • Willa Cather
  • Ernest Hemingway
  • William Faulkner
  • John Steinbeck
  • F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Who are the notable poets from the modern to contemporary period?

  • William Butler Yeats
  • Robert Frost
  • William Carlos Williams
  • Edna St. Vincent Millay
  • E.E. Cummings
  • Gertrude Stein
  • T.S. Eliot
  • Ezra Pound
  • Langston Hughes
  • W.E.B. DuBois
• Who are the key figures in modern drama?

  • Eugene O'Neill
  • Noel Coward
  • Samuel Beckett