English literature occupies the lion’s share of the literature of the world and the basic knowledge of the literature is crucial for many University-Level degrees including Undergraduate (B.A., Special English), Postgraduate (M.A., English), and to get through Common Entrance Exams for M Phil and PhD in English; and to achieve eligibility qualification to become PhD researcher or to qualify to become an assistant professor in a university or a college through UGC NET or SET examinations (screening/placement tests).

So, let's know what English literature is? It's nothing but the literature of England, Scotland and Ireland that dates back to approximately the 13th century, roughly beginning with Beowulf, the first Old English poem of great significance. Some major British writers include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Marlowe, Spenser, Donne, Milton, Wordsworth, Tennyson, Browning, Dickens, Bronte’s, George Eliot, Hardy, Woolf, Eliot, Yeats and Beckett. The British literature could be divided into many literary periods, each period consisting of many major and minor writers, their biographies, their works and important events that influenced those periods.

This tiny course on English literary periods includes various ages and periods of the history of English literature namely., the old English literature, the Middle English literature, the Elizabethan literature covering poetry, prose, drama; the age of Milton, the age of Restoration, the Neoclassical poetry, 18th-century prose, the age of Romanticism, the age of Tennyson, the 19th-century novelists as well as prose writers, the 20th century novel, prose, drama and poetry along with a brief introduction to contemporary literature.

Worry not! In this course, we will provide essential but simplified content related to all these literary periods in the most precise and interesting manner!