Short answers, pulled from the story.
English literature is literature written in the English language from the English-speaking world. The English language has developed over more than 1,400 years, beginning with Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the fifth century.
Beowulf is the most famous work in Old English and has achieved national epic status in England, despite being set in Scandinavia. Its only surviving manuscript is the Nowell Codex, with most estimates placing it close to the year 1000.
Geoffrey Chaucer was a significant figure in developing the legitimacy of vernacular Middle English at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were still French and Latin. He is best known for The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories framed as a contest among pilgrims travelling to Canterbury Cathedral.
William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and one of the world's greatest dramatists. His plays have been translated into every primary living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.
Following the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, the written form of the Anglo-Saxon language became less common, and French became the standard language of courts, parliament, and polite society. The English spoken after the Normans arrived is known as Middle English.
American literature began to diverge after the War of Independence led by colonists in British North America from 1775 to 1783, which formed the United States. It was the first English-language literature to develop outside the British Isles.
From 1907 to the present, writers from Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and former British colonies have received the Nobel Prize in Literature for works in English more than in any other language.