Timeline of British Literature (1660-present)
450-1066 Old English Period (Anglo-Saxon) 1066-1500 Middle English Period (Medieval Period ) 1500-1660 The Renaissance 1660-1785 The Neoclassical Period
1785-1831 The Romantic Period (or 1798-1837) 1832-1900 The Victorian Period (often dated 1837-1901) 1914-1965 The Modernist Period 1965-present Postmodern Period
British Literature:
一、Old and Medieval British Literature （5th century -- 1485）
二、British Literature of the Renaissance Period (late 15th century – early 17th century) 三、The 17th century—The Period of Revolution and Restoration 四、The 18th century---The Age of Enlightenment in England 五、The Age of Romanticism (1798-1832)
六、The Victorian Period---English Critical Realism (1830s -- 1918) 七、English Modernism (1918--1945) 八、Contemporary Period (1945--)
American Literature:
一、Colonialism殖民时期（about1607—1765）
二、Enlightenment and the Revolutionary War启蒙时期和独立革命（1765—18世纪末） 三、Romanticism浪漫主义时期（1865—1918） 四、Realism现实主义时期（1865—1918） 五、Modernism现代主义时期（1918—1945）
六、Contemporary Literature当代文学（1945— ）
各时期术语辑录
（根据星火英语《英语专业考研考点精梳与精练》整理）
Old and Medieval British Literature （5th century -- 1485）：
Alliteration, ballad, consonance(假韵), couplet(两行诗), epic, imagery(意象), kenning(隐喻表达法), legend, ottava rima(八行体), romance, simile, understatement.
British Literature of the Renaissance Period (late 15th century – early 17th century):
Allegory, aphorism(格言), blank verse, comedy, essay, foreshadowing(预兆), humanism, paradox(似非而是), morality play, meter(格律), miracle play, narrative poem, pastoral(牧歌), poetry, quatrain(四行诗), Renaissance, soliloquy(独白), sonnet, Spenserian stanza, stanza, terza rima(三行体), tragedy, trochee(抑扬格), university wits.
The 17th century—The Period of Revolution and Restoration:
Assonance(押韵), carpe diem(及时行乐), didactic literature(教诲文学), elegy, genre, metaphor,
metaphysical poetry, conceit.
The 18th century---The Age of Enlightenment in England:
Aside(旁白), classicism, enlightenment movement, denouement(结局), epistolary novel(书信体小说), farce(闹剧), fiction, gothic romance, the graveyard school(墓地派诗歌), mock epic, neoclassicism, novel, pre-romanticism, refrain(叠句), satire, sentimentalism, theme. The Age of Romanticism (1798-1832):
Byronic hero, canto, fable, lake poets, lyric, ode, romanticism.
The Victorian Period---English Critical Realism (1830s -- 1918):
Allusion(暗指/典故), antagonist, character, critical realism, dramatic monologue, flashback, narration, narrator, psychological novel, point of view, plot, protagonist, bildungsroman(成长小说).
English Modernism (1918--1945)
Aestheticism or the aesthetic movement, black comedy or black humor, Dadaism, epiphany(顿悟), free indirect discourse(自由间接引语), modernism, Oedipus Complex, parody, stream of consciousness, surrealism, the theater of absurd, tone, the Angry Young Men. Contemporary Period (1945--) :
Experimental novel, open ending, metafiction, the Movement(运动派), kitchen-sink drama(极端现实主义喜剧).
American Literature
Colonialism（about1607—1765）and Enlightenment and the Revolutionary War（1765—18世纪末）:
American Puritanism, autobiography.
Romanticism浪漫主义时期（1865—1918）:
American Romanticism, American Transcendentalism, southern gothic, Calvinism, free verse, new England poets, symbol, symbolism. Realism现实主义时期（1865—1918）:
American Naturalism, American realism, Darwinism, Local Colorism. Modernism现代主义时期（1918—1945）
The Beat Generation, determinism, expressionism, Freudianism, Harlem renaissance, Hemingway Code Hero, imagism, impressionism, Jazz Age, the Lost Generation, new criticism, Southern Renaissance, Waste Land Painters, Yoknapatawpha.
Contemporary Literature当代文学（1945— ）:
Postmodernism, the confessional poetry, the Black Mountain Poets. 术语分类 文学体裁类：
诗歌：couplet(两行诗), epic, ottava rima(八行体), blank verse, narrative poem, pastoral(牧歌), poetry, quatrain(四行诗), sonnet, terza rima(三行体), elegy, genre, 小说：didactic literature(教诲文学), epistolary novel(书信体小说), 戏剧：comedy, morality play, tragedy, 其他：ballad, legend, romance, essay,