Western Literature Timeline
| 800 BC-0 | 0-1000 | 1000-present | |||||
| 1 | 2 | ||||||
| 3 | 4 | 5 | |||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
| ancient literature ca. 800 BC-500 AD |
medieval literature ca. 500-1500 |
Renaissance/Reformation literature ca. 1300-1650 |
Enlightenment literature ca. 1650-1800 |
modern literature ca. 1800- |
| Archaic (ca. 800-500 BC) • poetry: narrative (Homer), lyric (Pindar) |
Classical (ca. 500-330 BC) • drama: tragedy (Sophocles), comedy (Aristophanes) |
golden age Latin (ca. 80 BC-20 AD) • poetry: narrative (Virgil) |
| Bible • Old Testament (ca. 1000 BC-0) • New Testament (ca. 0-100) |
Medieval (ca. 500-1500) • pre-Christian legend: Beowulf (English), Song of the Nibelungs (German), Edda (Norse) • Christian legend: Song of Roland (French), Song of the Cid (Spanish), Song of Igor's Campaign (Slavic) |
| Renaissance/Reformation (ca. 1300-1650) • poetry: narrative (Dante), lyric (Petrarch) • drama (Shakespeare) • prose: short (Boccaccio), novel (Cervantes) |
Enlightenment (ca. 1650-1800) • Milton (poetry) • Molière (drama) • Goethe (poetry, drama, prose) |
Modern (ca. 1800-present) • poetry (Goethe, Hugo, Pushkin, Wordsworth, Whitman) • novel (Goethe, Hugo, Tolstoy, Dickens, Twain) • drama: Romantic (Hugo, Goethe), modern (Ibsen) |