Time Periods In American Literature

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Time Periods In American Literature
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Puritan 1650-1750

• Christian Utopia
• be a city upon a hill
• Sermons, Diaries, Narratives
• Reinforces the authority of the Bible and Church

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Puritan Cont.

• A persons fate is determined by God
• All corrupt and must be saved by Christ
• Works
• Huswifery Edward Taylor Pg 94

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Age of Enlightenment 1750-1800

• National Mission and American Character
• Democratic Utopia
• Use of Reason

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Age of Enlight. Cont.

• Political Pamphlets
• Travel Writing
• Fiction Employs Generic Plots and Characters
• Fiction Often Tells The Story of How an Innocent
  Young Woman is Tested by a Seductive Male

• Patriotism Grows
• Instill Pride
• Shows Differences between Americans and Europeans

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Age of Enlightenment Cont.

• Tells Readers How to Interpret What They are
  Reading To Encourage Revolutionary War Support

• Works
• Benjamin Franklins Autobiography

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Romanticism 1800-1855

• Idealism
• Focus on the Individuals Inner Feelings
• Imagination Over Reason
• Literary Tales
• Poetry
• Transcendentalism
• principles of reality are to be discovered by
  the study of the processes of thought, or a
  philosophy emphasizing the intuitive and
  spiritual over scientific

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Romanticism Cont.

• Emily Dickenson

• Gender Roles Were Defined
• Allow People to Re-imagine the American Past

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Realism 1855-1914
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Realism

• People in Society Defined By Class
• Society Corrupted By Materialism

• Novels and Short Stories Become Important
• Mark Twain!!!

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Modernism 1900-1946

• Disillusion, Defiance, Discontent
• People Unable to Communicate Effectively
• People Dwelled On The Past
• Faulkner
• Porter The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
• pg. 848

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Modernism Harlem Renaissance 1920s

• Celebrated Characteristics of African-American
  Life
• Celebrates New Life As Americans

• Used The Structure of Blues Songs In Poetry
• Gave Birth to a New Form of Religious Music
  Called Gospel
• Migration to Northern Urban Cities

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Post-Modernism 1946- Present

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Post Modernism Cont.

• People Observe Life as The Media Presents It,
  Rather Than Experiencing It
• Pop Culture Takes Over
• Fantasy Blurs Lines of Reality For The Reader

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Post-Modernism Cont

• Overwhelming Technological Changes
• Rise Of Youth Culture
• Speeches
• JFK
• Martin Luther King Jr