Research guides: Literature in English: Periods

English Literature Timeline

Key literary periods & movements:

Iter: Gateway to the Middle Ages and Renaissance This link opens in a new window
- Historical texts in multiple European languages
International Medieval Bibliography (IMB) This link opens in a new window
- Major interdisciplinary database for the European Middle Ages, covering Europe, the Middle East and North Africa in the period 300-1500AD

English Poetry This link opens in a new window
- Full text of poems
British Literary Manuscripts Online This link opens in a new window
- Contains literary manuscripts, letters, diaries, drafts of poems, plays, novels & other literary materials

Key literary periods & movements:

Shakespeare Collection
- Full text of plays, primary sources, criticism
Shakespeare Criticism
World Shakespeare Bibliography Online, 1965-2004
- Contains scholarly articles, books, bibliographies as well as production information
Shakespeare Survey Online, 1948+
- Annual collection of Shakespeare studies & production information
A Dictionary of Shakespeare, Stanley Wells
- Background information on all aspects of Shakespeare in his own time
Oxford Companion to Shakespeare

Early English Prose Fiction This link opens in a new window
Full text of selected prose works
English Drama This link opens in a new window
- Full text of selected plays
Lexicons of Early Modern English This link opens in a new window
- Search historical dictionaries

Open Source Shakespeare
- Includes searchable full text of plays, poems, criticism & a concordance

Key literary periods & movements:

Literary Manuscripts from the Brotherton Library This link opens in a new window
- Digital manuscript collection searchable by author, title, as well as first lines & last lines
Perdita Manuscripts: Women Writers, 1500-1700 This link opens in a new window
- Includes poetry, prose, drama as well as diaries, correspondence & non-fiction writing

Eighteenth-Century Fiction This link opens in a new window
Prose by British 18th century authors

Key literary periods & movements:

Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Period This link opens in a new window
Scottish Women Poets of the Romantic Period This link opens in a new window
Literary Manuscripts from the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library This link opens in a new window
- Contains unpublished poems, working notebooks & handwritten manuscripts from leading writers of the Victorian era

The Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals, 1824-1900
- Index of journal articles on a wide range of subjects including politics & literature
Intelex Past Masters
- Full text of works by many 19th century authors & thinkers
- Includes many works from earlier periods as well
Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism
The Letters of Matthew Arnold
The Letters of Christina Rossetti
Emily Dickinson's Correspondances: A Born Textual Digital Inquiry
Jackson Bibliography of Romatic Poetry
- Bibliography seeking to provide description for all verse published in English from 1770 to 1835
Victorian Database Online
- Indexes books, articles & dissertations on every field of 19th Century British studies

Key literary periods & movements:

Oxford Companion to 20th Century Poetry
Twentieth Century Literary Criticism
Index of American Periodical Verse
- Index of contemporary American poetry appearing in magazines & literature journals
- Available in print at Robarts
Representative Poetry Online
- Extensive, easily searchable collection of poetry including criticism
The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Anthologies
- Identify the collection a poem was published in by searching for the poem title, the author, or the first line of the poem
- Available in print at Robarts

Literature Online (LION) This link opens in a new window
- Contains full text collections of 20th Century & contemporary poetry, drama & prose
- Click on 'Complete contents' under 'Browse' on the left to view text collections