American Literary Periods and Their Characteristics

Puritan/Colonial Writing 1650-1750 Main Ideas / Focus Focus on God A person’s fate is determined by God (predestination) Man is sinful and corrupt Success or failure is a sign of God’s favor or disapproval

Puritan/Colonial 1650-1750 Writing Style / Types Sermons, diaries, personal narratives Moralistic and religious writing Written in plain style

Puritan/Colonial 1650-1750 Effect/Aspects Instructive Solemn tone Reinforces authority of the Bible and church

Puritan/Colonial 1650-1750 Examples Of Plymouth Plantation (Bradford) “A Narrative of the Captivity” (Rowlandson) “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (Edwards) Though not written during Puritan times, The Crucible & The Scarlet Letter depict life during the time when Puritan theocracy prevailed

Revolutionary/Age of Reason 1750-1800 Main Idea / Focus Freedom and independence “American” values Rationalism – arrive at truth through reason God created the universe but is “hands-off”

Revolutionary/Age of Reason 1750-1800 Writing Style / Types Political pamphlets Speeches Highly ornate style – “big” language Persuasive writing

Revolutionary/Age of Reason 1750-1800 Effect/Aspects Patriotism grows National pride Self-examination

Revolutionary/Age of Reason 1750-1800 Examples “Common Sense” (T. Paine) “Speech to the Virginia Convention” (P. Henry) “The Declaration of Independence” (T. Jefferson) Autobiography (B. Franklin)

Romanticism 1800-1860 Main Ideas / Focus In response to Industrial Revolution and rationalism Abolish slavery Move from corrupt civilization and limited rational thought to nature and freedom of imagination Emphasis on feelings and intuition NATURE

Romanticism 1800-1860 Writing Style / Types Slave narratives Poetry Short stories Essays

Romanticism 1800-1860 Effects/Aspects Journey into nature Trust personal experience and power of imagination Youthful innocence Sense of adventure into wilderness Distrustful of “progress” Poetry is ultimate expression of imagination

Romanticism 1800-1860 Examples “Rip Van Winkle” (W. Irving) “Thanatopsis” (W.C. Bryant) Poems of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman

American Ren./Transcendentalism 1840-1860 Main Ideas / Focus Prove that America has great writers Exploring the dark side of human existence / the human mind Nature is a doorway to mystical world containing truths Social improvement Lyceum mov’t Public education Abolish slavery Women’s rights

American Ren./Transcendentalism 1840-1860 Writing Style / Types Poetry Short Stories Novels “Intellectual” Explore conflict between good and evil; psychological effect of guilt and sin (Dark Romantics)

American Ren./Transcendentalism 1840-1860 Effect/Aspects Transcendentalists: Immanuel Kant True reality is spiritual Self-reliance and individualism Anti-Transcendentalists: Importance of symbolism Sin, pain, & evil exist Humans have a dark side, too

American Ren./Transcendentalism 1840-1860 Examples “Self-Reliance” (Emerson) Walden (Thoreau) Poems and short stories from Edgar Allen Poe Poems and essays of Emerson & Thoreau Moby Dick (Melville)

Realism (Civil War & Postwar Period) 1860-1900 Main Ideas / Focus Civil War brings demand for a "truer" type of literature that does not idealize people or places but accurately portrays real life Battlefield photography – reality of life in pictures

Realism (Civil War & Postwar Period) 1850-1900 Writing Style / Types Novels and short stories with objective narrators Realistic characters Does not tell reader how to interpret story Focus on social issues – writing about slavery, war, women’s issues, etc.

Realism (Civil War & Postwar Period) 1850-1900 Effect/Aspects Social realism: aims to change a specific social problem Aesthetic realism: art that insists on detailing the world as one sees it

Realism (Civil War & Postwar Period) 1850-1900 Examples Narrative of Sojourner Truth (Truth) Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Stowe) Little Women (Alcott) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (followed by Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) (Twain) The Red Badge of Courage (Crane)

The Moderns 1900-1950 Historical Context Charles Darwin (survival of the fittest) Karl Marx (money and class structure control a nation) Technological “progress” Rise of the youth culture WWI and WWII Harlem Renaissance

The Moderns 1900-1950 Writing Style / Types Novels / Plays Poetry (a great resurgence after deaths of Whitman & Dickinson) Highly experimental (writers seek a unique style) Generally a plain style Use of interior monologue & stream of consciousness Disillusioned but honorable & courageous hero figures

The Moderns 1900-1950 Effect/Aspect Pursue and challenge the promise of the American Dream Faith in progress Confidence in the triumph / success of the individual Optimistic End of innocence Disillusionment with and distrust of tradition

The Moderns 1900-1950 Examples The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) Chicago Poems (Sandburg) The Waste Land (Eliot) A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway) The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck) Robert Frost publishes his first poetry collection