Periodicity Checklist
For each characteristic in the left column, write in the literary period that best matches it. Doing so will help you review for the final examination. The periods are as follows: Old English/Anglo-Saxon, Middle Ages, Renaissance/Early Modern, 18th Century/Neo-Classical, Romantic, Victorian, and Modern. For the postmodern period, see the separate handout. There is a separate handout for the postmodern period.
| Characteristic | Period |
| Time is no longer considered linear. | |
| The rise of the novel | |
| Sutton Hoo burial ship/cenotaph | |
| Emphasis on reason | |
| Chivalry and courtly love | |
| Interest in the primitive | |
| The Protestant Reformation | |
| The rise of industrialization | |
| Shift from geocentric to heliocentric model of the cosmos | |
| Art is a mirror. | |
| Roman Catholic Church (two periods) | |
| Humanism | |
| The beginnings of Christianity in England | |
| The dramatic monologue was first written. | |
| Interest in the unconscious mind | |
| Emphasis on emotion and on the imagination | |
| Tribal life | |
| Crisis of faith | |
| The relationship between the poet and society was an important theme. | |
| Greater emphasis on life in the here and now | |
| The English sonnet was born. | |
| Art is a lamp. | |
| The idea that life is a pilgrimage to a heavenly destination: life should be lived for the future. | |
| Kenning/caesura/alliterative verse | |
| Decorum | |
| Horatian and Juvenalian satire | |
| Dialectical relationship between the human mind and nature | |
| Comitatus/thanes | |
| Stream of consciousness | |
| William Caxton set up the first printing press in 1476. | |
| Who was the father of modern poetry? | |
| Major advances in science, especially Darwinism | |
| Intellectual rebirth | |
| Norman Conquest | |
| Beowulf | |
| Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | |
| Shakespeare | |
| Queen Elizabeth I | |
| Mixture of pagan and Christian elements |