Literary scholars and cultural critics re-examine major writers, genres, and themes in terms of their traditional period affiliations from the Middle Ages to the present. They illuminate both the specific works and some problems with what have become the conventional temporal categories. Among the 13 perspectives are the beginnings of Chaucer's English style, a critique of Romantic periodization, Thomas Hardy, Wallace Stevens, and the question of a perennial literature. No index. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.