Page "Periodization" Paragraph 5

Similar problems attend other labels.

Is it possible to use the term " Victorian " outside of Britain?

It sometimes is used when it is thought that its connotations usefully describe the politics, culture and economic conditions characteristic of the last two-thirds of the nineteenth century.

Nevertheless periodizing terms often have negative or positive connotations that may affect their usage.

This includes Victorian, which often negatively suggests sexual repression and class conflict.

Other labels such as Renaissance have strongly positive characteristics.

As a result, these terms sometimes extend in meaning.

Thus the English Renaissance is virtually identical in meaning to the Elizabethan Period.

However the Carolingian Renaissance is said to have occurred during the reign of the Frankish king Charlemagne.

There is a space of approximately seven hundred years between these two renaissances.

Other examples include the American Renaissance of the 1820s-60s, referring mainly to literature, and the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, referring mainly to literature but also to music and the visual arts.