The Literary Periods of American Literature

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The Literary Periods of American Literature

• Mrs. Iwanskis
• ENG 11

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Puritanism/Colonialism

• Colonialism involves the expansion of
  nationalism. Colonial literature often explores
  the exploitation of the place or people, or a
  discovery of new lands.
• Anne Bradstreet
• -Here Follow Some Verses Upon the Burning of
  Our
• House, July 10, 1666

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Captivity Narratives

• Captivity narratives were popular in Colonial
  American Literature. Captivity Narratives
  presented quite sensational stories. The
  narrative detailed the capture and "deliverance"
  of Puritans.
• Mary Rowlandson
• -A Narrative of the Captivity of Mary
  Rowlandson

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Classicism

• Classicism is an approach to literature and the
  other arts that stresses reason, balance,
  clarity, ideal beauty, and orderly form in
  imitation of the arts of ancient Greece and Rome.
  The word "classical" refers to the ideal, a norm,
  or a standard against which everything else in
  its class must be measured.
• Examples-Thomas Paines Speech to the
• Virginia Convention
• - The Declaration of Independence

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Enlightenment (1750-1800)

• Called the Enlightenment period due to the
  influence of science and logic, this period is
  marked in US literature by political writings.
  Genres included political documents, speeches,
  and letters. Benjamin Franklin is typical of
  this period. There is a lack of emphasis and
  dependence on the Bible and more use of common
  sense (logic) and science.

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Romanticism/ 1800 - 1860

• Romanticism stresses imagination, emotion, and
  individualism. Purely American topics were
  introduced such as frontier life. Romantic
  elements can be found in the works of American
  writers as diverse as Cooper, Poe, Thoreau,
  Emerson, Dickinson, Hawthorne, and Melville.
• Washington Irving The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• Edgar Allan Poe
• -Fall of the House of Usher
• -The Cask of Amontillado
• -The Black Cat
• -The Raven
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• -The Scarlet Letter
• -Rappaccinis Daughter
• Emily Dickinson - Poetry

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Transcendentalism 1840 - 1860

• Transcendentalism was an American literary and
  philosophical movement of the nineteenth century.
  The Transcendentalists, who were based in New
  England, believed that intuition and the
  individual conscience transcend experience and
  thus are better guides to truth than are the
  senses and logical reason.
• The Transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo
  Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

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Realism Naturalism/ 1850 - 1900

• Naturalism is an American literary movement. In
  general, the concept is one in which everything
  belongs to nature, is "natural."
• Realism is the presentation in art of the details
  of actual life. Realism was also a literary
  movement that began during the nineteenth century
  and stressed the actual as opposed to the
  imagined or the fanciful. The Realists tried to
  write truthfully and objectively about ordinary
  characters in ordinary situations.
• Mark Twain
• -Life on the Mississippi
• Ambrose Bierce
• -An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

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Modernism/ 1900 - 1950

• An age of disillusionment and confusionjust look
  at what was happening in history in the US during
  these datesthis period brought us perhaps our
  best writers. The authors during this period
  raised all the great questions of life, but
  offered no answers. Faulkner, Steinbeck,
  Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Frost are all
  examples.
• Upton Sinclair/ The Jungle
• Willa Cather/ A Wagner Matinee
• Robert Frost/ Poetry
• James Thurber/ The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
• ? Eudora Welty/ A Worn Path
• ? William Faulkner/ A Rose for Emily
• ? Ernest Hemingway/ The Short Happy Life of
  Francis Macomber

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The Harlem Renaissance

• The "Harlem Renaissance" is a term that refers to
  the flowering of African-American literature
  following World War I and extending into the
  mid-twentieth century. The Harlem Renaissance
  represents the beginning of the struggle for a
  sense of African-American cultural legitimacy and
  independence.
• Poetry by Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, and
  Langston Hughes

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Postmodernism/ 1950 - Present

• Carl Sandburg
• -Chicago
• -Fog
• -The Harbor
• Arthur Miller/ The Crucible