1. American Literary Periods
Timeline of American Development

2. PURITAN/COLONIAL 1650-1750 Style: Major Themes:
Sermons, diaries, personal narratives, travel logs
Written in speaking style of the age (thine, thou, thee).
Major Themes:
A person’s fate is determined by God.
All people are corrupt and must be saved by Christ.
Led to extremely hyperbolic events such as the Salem Witch Trials (1692)
Important Authors:
Anne Bradstreet (poet)
John Edwards, Cotton Mather (reverends)
Captain John Smith

3. REVOLUTIONARY 1750-1800 Style: Major Themes: Important Authors:
Persuasive political pamphlets, travel writing, legislation.
Major Themes:
The ideology of democracy
Pushing forward to create a new nation.
Important Authors:
Patrick Henry, “Speech to the Virginia Convention”
Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence and The United States Constitution
Thomas Paine, “Common Sense”

4. ROMANTICISM 1800-1860 The middle of the industrial revolution
Style: Short Stories, Slave Narratives, and Poetry
Themes: Valuing feeling and intuition over reasoning, “Dark” Romanticism – a focus on the strange and horrible
Important Authors:
Edgar Allan Poe
Washington Irving
Emily Dickinson

5. TRANSCENDENTALISM
Style: Poetry, Essays, Novels, and Short Stories
Themes: A devotion to nature and the self, a focus on philosophy
Important Authors:
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience”
Ralph Waldo Emerson “Self-Reliance

6. REALISM 1855-1900 Style: Novels and Short Stories Themes:
Aesthetic realism – insists on detailing the world as it truly is.
Disillusionment with post-Civil War America
Emphasis on journalism and fact reporting.
Important Authors:
Mark Twain
Kate Chopin
Upton Sinclair

7. MODERNISM 1900-1950 Style: Novels, Dramas, and Poetry
Major Themes: Pursuit of the American Dream, Focus on the rise of the youth culture, Criticism of American morals.
Important Authors:
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman

8. HARLEM RENAISSANCE 1920-1950 Style: Poetry, Essays
Themes: Allusions to African-American spirituals, Uses structure of blues songs in poetry
Important Authors:
Claude McKay
Jean Toomer
Langston Hughes
Zora Neale Hurston

9. POSTMODERNISM 1950 to present
Style: Novels, Poetry, Dramas, Metafiction
Themes: Criticizes the uses of technology and the media, focuses on the changes in America following WWII
Important Authors:
Kurt Vonnegut
JD Salinger
Truman Capote