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Literary Movements

AP Study Guide

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Old English Literature (450-1066)

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  • Heroic tales (Beowulf)

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  • Elegies

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  • Riddles

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  • Christian poetry

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  • Reading Old English is next to impossible without translations--you won’t come across any of this during the AP exam.

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Middle English Literature (1066-1500)

  • Adventures of knights

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  • Brotherhood

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  • Chivalry

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  • Magic

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  • The power of true love

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  • It’s all about the quest!

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  • Reading Middle English is difficult, but doable, and you won’t come across any of this during the AP exam.

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What Did It Sound Like?

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Old English

Middle English

Modern English

Contemporary English

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The Renaissance (1500-1660)

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  • Humanism- -emphasized analysis of Greek & Roman classics to understand human nature & bring new age of intellectual achievement�
  • Secularism- emphasis on worldly things rather than religion—entertainment is valued more than the religious

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  • Individualism- -individuals tried to stand out, especially evident in competition for patronage of the arts (Shakespeare/Queen Elizabeth & King James)

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  • Rationalism- emphasis on logic, proof, beginning of science & questioning the Church's authority

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  • Virtue- be the most/best you can be--try to do as many things as you can as well as you can.

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  • Authors: Shakespeare, Spenser, Marlowe, Donne�

The Restoration (1660-1700)

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  • Puritans

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  • God/Satan Good/Evil

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  • Moderation

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  • Not interested in nature or philosophy

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  • Social manners/behavior is big

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  • Politics is a big topic

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  • Reason

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  • Rejection of Puritans

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  • Authors: Dryden, Milton

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The Age of Enlightenment/Reason (1700-1800)

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  • Celebration of reason

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  • Knowledge and freedom bring happiness

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  • Skepticism of religious dogma

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  • Scientific Revolution/Mixed with Christianity

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  • Deism- belief in a higher power that lets things happen on its’ own

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  • Perfectibility of mankind through reason and knowledge

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  • Authors: Locke, Voltaire

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Romanticism (1798-1837)

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  • Stressed passion and emotion

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  • Exotic settings

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  • Patriotism

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  • Revolution against traditional political/religious views

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  • Equality

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  • Heroism

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  • Brooding “misunderstood” romantic longing

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  • Genius of imagination

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  • Nature celebration of nature—nature as solace

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  • Transcendentalism- divinity pervades all nature & humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. This movement developed in the U.S. (New England): Emerson/Thoreau

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  • Authors: Austen, Wadsworth, Keats, Byron, Poe, Dickinson, Melville, Hawthorne

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Victorian Literature (1837-1901)

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  • Poverty/working class

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  • Position of women in society

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  • Racial & ethnic minorities start to appear

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  • Patronizing/Insulting representations of African, Middle Eastern, Asian cultures

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  • Marriage/social status

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  • Introduction of multiple narrators

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  • Sexuality is taboo & repressed

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  • Conservative resistance to change

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  • Industrialization

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  • Colonialism/Imperialism/Adventure

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  • Domesticity/Importance of Family

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  • Authors: Dickins, Tennyson, Bronte Family, George Eliot, Hardy

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Modernism (1901-1940)

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  • Radical break from norms

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  • Loneliness/Alienation

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  • Introduction of the ironic/anti-hero

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  • Disillusionment (World War I & The Great Depression)

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  • Experiments with narrative structure

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  • Attacks the notion of hierarchy

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  • Lost Generation/Harlem Renaissance

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  • Examination of inner-self

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  • Truth is subjective not objective

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  • Questions stability of the world

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  • Views historical structures & values as decaying/false

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  • Symbolic imagery/metaphor

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  • Authors: Joyce, Conrad, T.S. Eliot, Pound, Virginia Woolf, James

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Post-Modernism (1940-2000)

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  • Irony/Dark Humor/Playful

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  • Techno-culture/Hyper-reality (melding of reality & virtual world)

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  • Metafiction- disregarding the necessity for suspension of disbelief, breaking of the 4th wall

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  • Fabulism- integrates traditional notions of storytelling with fantastical elements, such as magic & myth, or elements from popular genres such as science fiction

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  • Fictionalize actual historical events or figures

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  • Non-linear narrative

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  • Magical Realism- juxtaposition of the fantastical with reality

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  • Paranoia

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  • Maximalism- embraces excess, encourages tangents/authorial experimentation 

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  • Authors: Burroughs, Dick, Ginsberg, Barthelme