Ancient Greece and Rome (c. 8th century BCE - 5th century CE) Key Figures: Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Virgil, Ovid Influences: Mythology, philosophy, epic poetry, tragedy, comedy Medieval Europe (c. 5th century - 15th century) Key Figures: Beowulf, Chrétien de Troyes, Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer Influences: Chivalry, religion, courtly love, allegory Renaissance (c. 14th - 17th century) Key Figures: William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Molière Influences: Humanism, classicism, realism, satire Enlightenment (c. 17th - 18th century) Key Figures: Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson Influences: Reason, logic, satire, social criticism Romanticism (c. 18th - 19th century) Key Figures: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Victor Hugo Influences: Nature, emotion, imagination, rebellion Realism (c. 1830s - 1900s) Key Figures: Gustave Flaubert, Leo Tolstoy, Charles Dickens, Jane Auste
