English literature’s change and revolution

黃憲

English literatures change and revolution have five period：The Renaissance Period，The Neoclassical Period，The Romantic Period，The Victorian Period，The Modern Period.

1.The Renaissance Period

Generally，it refers to the period between the 14th and mid-17th centuries.It first started in Italy，with the flowering of painting，sculpture and literature.From Italy the movement went to embrace the rest of Europe.The Renaissance，which means rebirth or revival，is actrally a movement stimulated by a series of historical events，such as the rediscovery of ancient Roman and Greek culture，the new discoveries in geography and astrology，the religious reformation and the economic expansion.The Renaissance，therefore，in essencem，is a historical period in which the European humanist thinkers and scholars made attempts to get rid of those old feudalist ideas in medieval Europe，to introduce new ideas that expressed the interests of the rising bourgeoisie，and to recover the purity of the early church from the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church.

2.The Neoclassical Peiod

What we now call the neoclassical period is the one in English literature between the return of the Stuarts to the English throne in 1660 and the full assertion of Romanticism which came with the publication of Lyical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge in 1798.

3.The Romantic Period

The movement which we call Romanticism is something not so easy to define，especially concerning its characteristics or dates.For it is a broad movement that affected the whole of Europe （and America）.However，English Romaticism，as a historical phase of literature，is generally said to have begun in 1798 with the publication of Wordsworth and Coleridges Lyrical Ballads and to have ended in 1832 with Sir Walter Scotts death and the passage of the first Reform Bill in the Parliament.

4.The Victorian Period

Chronologically，the Victorian period roughly coincides with the reign of Queen Victoria who ruled over England from 1836 to 1901.The period has been generally regarded as one of the most glorious in the English history.

5.The Modern Period

In the second half of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century，both natural and social sciences in Europe had enormously advanced.Their rapid development led to great gains in material wealth.But when capitalism came into its monopoly stage，the sharpened contradictions between socilalized production and the private owenership caused frequent economic depressions .The gap between the rich and the poor was further deepened.To crown it all，the catastrophc First World War tremendously weakened the British Empire and brought about great sufferings to its people as well.The postwar economic dislocation and spiritual disillusion produced a profound impact upon the British people，who came to see the prevalent wretchedness in capitalism.The Second World War marked the last stage of the disintegrationof the British Empire.Britain suffered heavy losses in the war：thousands of people were killed；the economy was ruined；and almost all its former colonies were lost.The once sun-never-set Empire finally collapsed.