An Overview of Topics and Authors

Background to Topics (1) to (3): The Middle Ages

(1) Anglo-Saxon England

- Anglo-Saxon Culture, Old English Poetry: St Augustine of Canterbury, the Venerable Bede, "Caedmon's Hymn", "The Wanderer", "The Battle of Maldon", Beowulf, King Alfred the Great, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

(2) Anglo-Norman England

- Celtic Legends: Marie de France, Chrétien de Troyes

- Romance, Arthurian Legend, Legendary Histories: Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace, Layamon, the Gawain Poet, Thomas Malory, William Langland

(3) Geoffrey Chaucer

Background to Topics (4) and (5): The Sixteenth Century

- Historical Chronology, Renaissance and Humanism, the Reformation, the English Bible, Court Culture, Literacy and Writing, Tudor Style, the Elizabethan Theatre

(4) Edmund Spenser

(5) Tudor Literature

- John Skelton, Thomas More, Thomas Wyatt, Henry Howard, Walter Ralegh, Philip Sidney, Mary Sidney, Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Kyd

Background to Topics (6) to (10): The First Half of the Seventeenth Century

- Historical Chronology, Politics and Religion, Philosophy and Science, Literature Promoters, Literature Writers

(6) William Shakespeare

(7) Jacobean Literature

- Ben Jonson, John Webster, John Fletcher, Francis Beaumont, Thomas Middleton, George Chapman

(8) The Metaphysical Poets

- John Donne, Lancelot Andrewes, Andrew Marvell, John Suckling, George Herbert, Richard Crashaw, Henry Vaughan

(9) John Milton

(10) Seventeenth-Century Philosophy and Science

- New Genres: Autobiography and Biography, Essay and Treatise

- Francis Bacon, Robert Burton, Thomas Hobbes, Thomas Browne, John Locke, Isaac Newton

Background to Topics (11) to (20): General Background to Literature between 1660 and 1790

- Historical Chronology, Society and Philosophy, Literature

(11) Restoration Drama

- Comedy: George Etherege, William Wycherley, Aphra Behn, John Vanbrugh, William Congreve, George Farquhar

- Tragedy: Nahum Tate, John Dryden, Thomas Otway, William Congreve

(12) Restoration Poetry and Prose

- Poetry: John Dryden, John Wilmot (Earl of Rochester)

- Autobiography: Margaret Cavendish, Samuel Pepys, John Bunyan

- Satire: Samuel Butler

Background to Topics (13) to (15): The First Half of the Eighteenth Century

- Satire, Prose, Drama, Poetry

(13) Daniel Defoe

(14) Jonathan Swift

(15) Alexander Pope

Background to Topics (16) to (20): The Second Half of the Eighteenth Century

- Poetry, Prose, the Novel

(16) Eighteenth-Century Prose

- the Periodical Essay: Richard Steele, Joseph Addison

- the Novel: Samuel Richardson, Henry Fielding, Laurence Sterne, Tobias Smollett, Oliver Goldsmith

(17) Eighteenth-Century Drama

- Sentimental Comedy: Richard Steele, Joseph Addison

- Satirical Comedy: John Gay, Henry Fielding

- Comedy of Manners: Oliver Goldsmith, Richard Brinsley Sheridan

(18) Eighteenth-Century Poetry

- Satirical Poetry: John Gay

- the Graveyard School: Thomas Gray, Oliver Goldsmith

- the Medieval Revival: Thomas Percy, James Macpherson, Thomas Chatterton

- Personal Poetry: James Thomson, William Cowper, George Crabbe

(19) Samuel Johnson

(20) Late Eighteenth-Century Novel

- Sense and Sentiment: Charlotte Smith, Frances Burney

- Gothicism: Edmund Burke, Horace Walpole, Ann Radcliffe, Matthew Gregory Lewis, Mary Shelley