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    Periods of American Literature

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    The document summarizes major periods of American literature from Native American oral traditions before 1650 through contemporary literature of the late 20th century and beyond. It outlines the key characteristics, histories, and notable writers of each period, including Puritan literature from 1650-1750, Revolutionary/Age of Reason literature from 1750-1800, Romanticism from 1800-1860, Transcendentalism from 1840-1860, Realism/Regionalism/Naturalism from 1855-1900, Modernism from 1900-1950, and Post-Modernism/Contemporary literature from 1950 to the present.

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    Periods of American Literature

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    api-292101337
    1K views24 pages
    The document summarizes major periods of American literature from Native American oral traditions before 1650 through contemporary literature of the late 20th century and beyond. It outlines the key characteristics, histories, and notable writers of each period, including Puritan literature from 1650-1750, Revolutionary/Age of Reason literature from 1750-1800, Romanticism from 1800-1860, Transcendentalism from 1840-1860, Realism/Regionalism/Naturalism from 1855-1900, Modernism from 1900-1950, and Post-Modernism/Contemporary literature from 1950 to the present.

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    The document summarizes major periods of American literature from Native American oral traditions before 1650 through contemporary literature of the late 20th century and beyond. It outlines the key characteristics, histories, and notable writers of each period, including Puritan literature from 1650-1750, Revolutionary/Age of Reason literature from 1750-1800, Romanticism from 1800-1860, Transcendentalism from 1840-1860, Realism/Regionalism/Naturalism from 1855-1900, Modernism from 1900-1950, and Post-Modernism/Contemporary literature from 1950 to the present.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    1K views24 pages

    Periods of American Literature

    Uploaded by

    api-292101337
    The document summarizes major periods of American literature from Native American oral traditions before 1650 through contemporary literature of the late 20th century and beyond. It outlines the key characteristics, histories, and notable writers of each period, including Puritan literature from 1650-1750, Revolutionary/Age of Reason literature from 1750-1800, Romanticism from 1800-1860, Transcendentalism from 1840-1860, Realism/Regionalism/Naturalism from 1855-1900, Modernism from 1900-1950, and Post-Modernism/Contemporary literature from 1950 to the present.

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    of 24

    PERIODS OF AMERICAN

    LITERATURE
    Native American
    [ Before 1650]
    CHARACTERISTICS
    •1ST Americans
    •Creation & Origin Myths
    •Legends
    •Storytelling
    •Oral Tradition
    Puritans
    [1650-1750]

    CHARACTERISTICS
    PURITANS
    [1650-1750]
    • Sermons
    • Personal Narratives
    • Plain Style
    • Authority of Bible & church
    Revolutionary / Age of Reason
    [1750-1800]
    CHARACTERISTICS
    AGE OF REASON
    [1750-1800]
    • Political pamphlets
    • Ornate Style
    • Persuasive Writing
    • Patriotism
    Two Extremes
    PURITANS
    • Purify Church/ Journey to establish God’s Law
    • Person’s fate determined by God
    • All are corrupt & must be saved by Christ

    AGE OF REASON/REVOLUTIONARY
    • Establish government and law based on
    REASON & LOGIC
    • Revolutionary War support and greed-driven
    business
    • Instructive in values – can learn to be good;
    choices between good & evil
    Literature
    PURITAN
    • William Bradford
    • Mary Rowlandson
    • Jonathan Edwards
    • The Crucible (Arthur Miller)

    AGE OF REASON
    • Thomas Jefferson
    • Benjamin Franklin
    • Thomas Paine
    • Patrick Henry
    ROMANTICISM
    [1800-1860]
    CHARACTERISTICS
    • SLAVE NARRATIVES
    • POETRY
    • SHORT STORIES
    • VALUE FEELINGS & INTUITION OVER
    REASON
    • IMAGINATION & CREATIVITY
    ROMANTICISM
    HISTORY

    • Expansion of magazines, newspaper, and


    book publishing
    • Slavery debates
    • Industrial Revolution: “old ways” of doing
    things are now irrelevant
    ROMANTICISM
    WRITERS
    • Washington Irving
    • William Cullen Bryant
    • Paul Laurence Dunbar
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Walt Whitman
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    DARK Romanticism
    CHARACTERISTICS
    • Duality of the human psyche (everyone
    has a “dark” side)
    • Symbolism
    • Sin, Pain, & Evil
    • Supernatural (ghosts,
    • hauntings)
    • Psychological terrors
    TRANSCENDENTALISM
    CHARACTERISTICS
    TRANSCENDENTALISM
    [1840-1860]
    • “American Renaissance”
    • Self-Reliance
    • Individualism
    • Inner-Light
    • Idealist
    TRANSCENDENTALISM/ ANTI-
    TRANSCENDENTALISM
    WRITERS
    TRANSCENDENTALISM
    • Ralph Waldo Emerson
    • Henry David Thoreau
    • Nathaniel Hawthorne*

    DARK ROMANTICS
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    REALISM/ REGIONALISM/ NATURALISM
    CHARACTERISTICS
    • “Verisimilitude”
    • “Local Color”
    • Aesthetic Realism
    • Social Realism
    • Objective Narrator
    • Open Interpretation
    REALISM/ REGIONALISM/
    NATURALISM
    HISTORY
    [1855-1900]
    • Civil War & post Civil War
    • Influence of Sigmund Freud & Charles
    Darwin
    • Demand for “truer” type of lit. that does not
    idealize people or places
    • Invention of camera (showed reality of war)
    • Man vs. Nature (“taming” the Wild West)
    REALISM/ REGIONALISM/
    NATURALISM
    WRITERS
    • Mark Twain
    • Ambrose Bierce
    • Stephen Crane
    • Frederick Douglas
    • Kate Chopin
    • Edith Wharton
    MODERNISM
    CHARACTERISTICS
    • Plays, Poetry, Novels
    • “American Dream”
    • Optimism (before
    The Great Depression)
    • Use of interior monologue & stream of
    consciousness
    • BOTH World Wars (WWI and WWII)
    MODERNISM
    HISTORY
    [1900-1950]
    • WWI & WWII
    • “Jazz Age”
    • Harlem Renaissance
    • The Great Depression
    • Karl Marx
    • rise of youth culture (“teenager” becomes
    a concept in the 1950’s)
    MODERNISM
    WRITERS
    • F. Scott Fitzgerald
    • Robert Frost
    • T.S. Elliot
    • Carl Sandburg
    • John Steinbeck
    • William Faulkner
    • Arthur Miller*
    • Langston Hughes
    • W.E.B. DuBois
    POST-MODERNISM/
    CONTEMPORARY
    CHARACTERISTICS
    POST-MODERNISM
    [1950 → Present]
    • Mix of fantasy w/ non-fiction
    • No heroes
    • Individual Isolation
    • Social Issues (ethnic &
    feminist)
    • Sexual Revolution / Explicit sex
    POST-MODERNISM/
    CONTEMPORARY
    CHARACTERISTICS
    CONTEMPORARY
    [1970→]
    • Narratives
    • Anti-Heroes
    • Emotion-Provoking
    • Humorous Irony
    • Storytelling
    • Autobiographies
    POST-MODERNISM/
    CONTEMPORARY
    HISTORY
    POST-MODERNISM
    • Post WWII prosperity
    • Media culture interprets values

    CONTEMPORARY
    • New century & millennium
    • Media influence
    POST-MODERNISM/
    CONTEMPORARY
    WRITERS
    POST-MODERNISM
    • Arthur Miller
    • Sylvia Plath
    • Nikki Giovanni
    • Truman Capote
    • J.D.Salinger
    • “Beat Poets”
    POST-MODERNISM/
    CONTEMPORARY
    WRITERS
    CONTEMPORARY
    • Sandra Cisneros
    • Gary Soto
    • Maya Angelou
    • Alice Walker
    • John Grisham
    • Amy Tan
    …and the rest is unwritten…

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