From the Beginning to the Present

Sermons, diaries, personal narratives Written in plain style Instructive Reinforces authority of Bible and church Person’s fate determined by God People are corrupt and must be saved by Christ

William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation Jonathon Edward’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Anne Bradstreet’s poetry Mary Rowlandson’s “A Narrative of the Captivity” Though not written in Puritan times, The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter depict Puritan life

Political pamphlets Travel writing Highly ornate style Persuasive writing aka Age of Reason Patriotism grows National mission and the American character Tells readers how to interpret and encourage war Instructive in values

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Paine Patrick Henry Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac Benjamin Franklin’s The Autobiography

Slave narratives Poetry and Short Stories Philosophy Value feeling and intuition over reasoning Journey away from corruption of civilization to the integrity of nature Transcendentalists are idealists Encourage self-reliance and individualism Dark Romantics use symbolism and focus on sin, guilt, and evil

Transcendentalists: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature and Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter Herman Melville’s Moby Dick Emily Dickinson poetry Walt Whitman poetry Edgar Allan Poe’s short fiction and poetry

Novels and short stories Objective narrator Does not tell reader how to interpret story Dialogue includes dialect Social realism—aims to change a specific social problem Aesthetic realism—art that insists on detailing the world as it really is Naturalism—the application of scientific determinism to literature

Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Kate Chopin’s The Awakening Frederick Douglass’s The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage

Novels, plays, and poetry Highly experimental writing Stream of consciousness Loss of faith in American dream Cynical point of view Writers reflect ideas of Darwin and Marx Major technological changes Rise of the youth culture WWI and WWII

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath Poetry of Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, ee cummings, etc.

Mass African-American migration to Northern urban centers Allusions to African- American spirituals Uses structure of blues songs in poetry Stereotypes revealed to be complex characters

Essays and poetry of W.E.B. DuBois Poetry of Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen Poetry and short fiction of Langston Hughes Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God

Mixing of fantasy and nonfiction No heroes Concern with individual in isolation Social issues as writers align feminist and ethnic groups Post-WWII prosperity Vietnam an d counter- culture

J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Beat poets—Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg Maya Angelou, Amy Tan, and Alice Walker