American Literary
Movements
1650-present
AKA…the “isms” of literature
“What is an
American?”
“What is an American?” (Crevecoeur) &
Excerpt from Poor Richards Almanac
(Franklin) pgs. 224-226 & Qs #1-6 pg. 227
Puritanism/Coloniali
sm
1650-1750
Genre/Style:
Utilitarian writing, sermons,
diaries, personal narratives
Written in plain style
Effect/Aspects:
Instructive
Descriptive
Reinforce authority of the
Bible and church
Historical Context:
Predestination
Notion of progress, preoccupation
with guilt, emphasis on hard work
and drive toward affluence
All people are corrupt and must be
saved by Christ
Examples:
Of Plymouth Plantation by William
Bradford
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry
God” by Jonathan Edwards
Puritanism/Coloniali
sm
1650-1750
American writing began with the work of English adventurers
and colonists in the New World chiefly for the benefit of readers
in the mother country. Some of these early works reached the
level of literature, as in the robust and perhaps truthful account
of his adventures by Captain John Smith and the sober
journalistic histories of William Bradford in New England. From
the beginning, the literature of New England was also purposed
for the edification and instruction of the colonists themselves,
intended to direct them in the ways of the godly.
Puritanism/Colonial
ism
1650-1750
Puritanism/Colonialism: “To My Dear and
Loving Husband” (Bradstreet) pg. 149 & Qs
#1-4 pg. 149
“Upon the Burning of Our House” (Bradstreet)
pgs. 150-151 & Qs #1-7 pg. 152
Excerpt from “Sinners in the Hands of an
Angry God” (Edwards) pgs. 161-164 & Qs #1-6
pg. 166
Revolutionary/Age of
Reason
Genre/Style:
Political pamphlets
Travel writing
Highly ornate style
Persuasive writing
1750-1800
Historical Context:
Effect/Aspects:
Patriotism grows
Instills pride
Creates common agreement (and
opposition) and issues
National mission and the
American character
Control in own destiny?
Tells readers how to interpret what
they are reading to encourage
Revolutionary War support
Instructive in values
Moves away from lofty philosophies
(God, church, etc…) to domestic,
immediate issues
Examples:
Poor Richard’s Almanac by Benjamin
Franklin
Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas
Paine and Patrick Henry
Revolutionary/Age of
Reason
1750-1800
This period was a time when authors were focused more on
their own reasoning rather than simply taking what the church
taught as fact. During this period there was also cultivation of
patriotism. The main medium during that period were
political pamphlets, essays, travel writings, speeches, and
documents.
Also during this period many reforms were either made or
requested, for instance during this time the Declaration of
Independence was written.
Revolutionary/Age
of Reason
1750-1800
Revolutionary/Age of Reason: “Speech in the
Virginia Convention”(Henry) & “The Boston
Tea Party” (Barry) pgs. 207-212 & Qs #1-6 pg.
213
Romanticism
1800-1860
Style/Genre:
Character sketches
Slave narratives
Poetry
Short stories
Effect/Aspect:
Value feeling and intuition over
reasoning
Journey away from corruption of
civilization & limits of rational thought
toward integrity of nature & freedom of
the imagination
Helped instill proper gender behavior for
men and women
Allowed people to re-imagine the
America past (good thing???)
Historical Context:
Expansion of magazines, newspapers, &
book publishing
Slavery debates
Industrial revolution brings ideas that the
“old ways” of doing things are now
irrelevant
Examples:
Poems of Emily Dickinson
Poems of Walt Whitman
“Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant
“We Wear the Mask” by Paul Laurence
Dunbar
Romanticism
1800-1860
After the “Age of Reason” came to an end, the people of America were
tired of reality; they wanted to see life as more than it was. This was the
Era of Romantics. The main medium that presented itself at that time
were short stories, poems, and novels. During this era, as appose to the
“Age of Reason” the imagination dominated; intuition ruled over fact,
and there was a large emphasis on the individual/common man, and on
nature or the natural world.
Gothic literature was also introduced at this time, which is a sub-genre
of Romanticism, this genre included stories about characters that had
both good and evil traits. Gothic literature also incorporated to use of
supernatural elements.
Romanticism
1800-1860
"I Hear America Singing" (Whitman) pgs. 313314 & Qs #1-3 pg. 314
"I Sit and Look Out" (Whitman) pg.315 & Qs
#1-3 pg. 315
"Song of Myself" (Whitman) pgs. 316-319 & Qs
#1-4 pg. 320
Transcendentalism
1840-1860
Style/Genre:
Poetry
Short Stories
Novels
Effects/Aspects:
True reality is spiritual
Idealists
Self-reliance & individualism
Importance & significance of
nature
Historical Context
Today in literature we still read of
people seeking the true beauty in
life and in nature
In literature, we also still see a
belief in true love and
contentment
Examples:
“Self Reliance” by Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
Transcendentalism
1840-1860
This movement pushed America from the elaborate and fantasy like
writings displayed in the period Romanticism, into a period of literature
that stressed individualism, and mature and self-reliance. Often
Transcendentalists used nature to gain knowledge or to return to a life of
self-reliance and individualism. It also stressed the fundamental idea of a
unity between God and the world, that each person was a microcosm for
the world.
Unlike many European groups, the Transcendentalists never issued a
manifesto. They insisted on the differences in each individual.
Transcendentalism
1840-1860
"Self Reliance" (Emerson) & "Memoirs" (Fuller)
pgs. 292-294 & Qs #1-3, 5-7 pg. 295
Anti-Transcendentalism/
Dark Romanticism
1840-1860
Genre/Style:
Poetry
Short Stories
Novels
Hold readers’ attention through dread of
a series of terrible possibilities
Feature landscapes of dark forests,
extreme vegetation, concealed ruins
with horrific rooms, depressed
characters
Effect/Aspects:
Used great symbolism to great effect
Sin, pain and evil exist
Historical Context:
Today in literature we still see portrayals
of alluring antagonists whose evil
characteristics appeal to one’s sense of
awe
Today in literature we still see stories of
the persecuted young girl forced apart
from her true love
Examples:
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
“The Masque of the Red Death” and “The
Black Cat” by Edgar Allen Poe
Anti-Transcendentalism/
Dark Romanticism
1840-1860
During the same time period when Transcendentalism was taking place,
it’s opposite, Anti-Transcendentalism, was also happening. As oppose
to Transcendentalism, which focused on the natural world and its
relationship to humanity, and the quest for understanding of the
human spirit. Anti- Transcendentalism focused on the limitations of
mankind, and its potential destructiveness of the human spirit. For
instance, water brings life, but it’s excess, i.e. a flood, can bring death
and destruction.
(Notice how they sometimes use nature in their writings to reflect what
goes in with humans. Example: Scarlet Letter and the forest – reflect
Pearl’s wild nature; only place Hester and Dimmesdale can be free, etc.)
Anti-Transcendentalism/
Dark Romanticism
1840-1860
“The Masque of the Red Death” (Poe) &
“Danse Macabre” (King) pgs. 357-365 & Qs 1-6
pg. 366
Realism
1855-1900
Style/Genre:
Novels and short stories
Objective narrator
Does not tell the reader how to
interpret the work
Dialogue includes voices from around
the country
Effect/Aspects
Social realism aims to change a
specific social problem
Aesthetic realism includes art that
insists on detailing the world as one
sees it
One’s perspective is one’s reality
Historical Context:
Civil War brings demand for “truer”
type of literature that does not idealize
people or places
Examples:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass by Frederick Douglass
Realism
1855-1900
This literary movement took place during the Civil War; at a time
when a war was taking place people were tired of Transcendentalism
and Anti-Transcendentalism, for one thing they were both extremes
of the same spectrum, one was nice and happy, and “frilly;” the other
was dark and destructive. People wanted to see things how they
were, so Realism came about.
Realism also came about as a reaction to Romanticism, in which there
were heroic characters, and adventures, with strange and unfamiliar
settings. In response Realism authors tried to write truthfully and
objectively about ordinary characters in ordinary situations.
Modernism
1900-1950
Style/Genre:
Novels
Plays
Poetry
Highly experimental as writers seek a
unique style
Use of interior monologue & stream of
consciousness
Effect/Aspects:
In pursuit of the “American Dream”…
Admiration for America as a “paradise”
Optimism
Importance of the individual
Historical Context:
Writers reflect the ideas of Darwin (survival
of the fittest) and Karl Marx (how $ and class
structure control a nation)
Overwhelming technological changes of the
20th century
Rise of the youth culture and counter
cultures
WWI & WWII
Harlem Renaissance
Examples:
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Poems by TS Eliot, Robert Frost, Ezra Pound,
e.e. cummings, Carl Sandburg
Short stories by Ernest Hemingway, William
Faulkner, John Steinbeck
Modernism
1900-1950
This type of writing is one of the most experimental types. Modernist
authors used of fragments, stream of consciousness, and interior
dialogue. The main thing that authors were trying to achieve with
Modernism was a unique style, one that they could stand out for, and
be known for.
During this period Technology was taking incredible leaps and two
World Wars took place, there was destruction of a global scale. The
younger generation began to take over the main stage.
Realism
1855-1900
Excerpt from Narrative of the Life of Fredrick
Douglass (Douglass) pgs. 447-454 & Q #1-7 pg.
455
Modernism
1900-1950
“Chicago” (Carl Sandburg) pgs. 670-671 & Q
#1, 3-4 pg 671
Harlem Renaissance
1920s
Style/Genre:
Allusions to African-American spirituals
Uses structure of blues songs in poetry
(repetition)
Superficial stereotypes revealed to be
complex characters
Dialect
Historical Context:
Parallel to modernism
Mass African-American migration to
Northern urban centers
African-Americans have more access to
media and publishing outlets after they
move north
Effect/Aspects:
“Conversation art”
Blues and jazz transmitted across
America via radio and phonographs
(widespread popularity)
Examples:
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora
Neale Hurston
Essays & poetry of W.E.B. DuBois
Poetry, short stories and novels of Langston
Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston
Poetry of Claude McKay, Jean Toomer and
Countee Cullen
Harlem Renaissance
1920s
Originally called the New Negro Movement, the Harlem Renaissance was a literary
and intellectual flowering that fostered a new black cultural identity in the 1920s.
Chiefly literary, the birth of jazz and many other artistic firsts are credited within this
time period.
The years between WWI and the Great Depression were “boom times” for the United
States and jobs were plentiful in cities, especially in the North. Between 1920 and
1930 almost 750,000 African Americans left the South and many of the migrated to
urban areas in the North to take advantage of the prosperity and the more racially
tolerant environment.
The white literary establishment soon became fascinated with the writers and artists
of the Harlem Renaissance and began publishing them in larger numbers. But for the
writers themselves, acceptance by the white world was less important, as Langston
Hughes put it, than the “expression of our individual dark-skinned selves”.
PostModernism/Contemporary
1950-present
Style/Genre:
Fiction/Non-fiction
Mixing of fantasy with non-fiction; blurs
lines of reality for reader
No heroes/anti-hero
Concern with individual in isolation
Narratives
Present-tense
Emotion-provoking
Humorless or humorous irony
Effect/Aspects:
Erodes distinctions between classes of
people
Insists that values are not permanent but
only “local” or “historical”
Some too soon to tell
Historical Context:
Post-WWII prosperity
Media culture interprets values
People beginning a new century and a new
millennium
We are still struggling with many issues and
face new ones all the time
Examples:
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Beat Poets: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien
Writings of Maya Angelou, Barbra Kingsolver,
John Grisham, Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton
PostModernism/Contemporary
1950-present
In the years since the Modernism period, American authors have
begun to write from a plethora of genres. Americans have realized
that the best way to go is have many authors writing what ever it is
they are best at. That’s exactly what has happened, there are more
different types of writing being done at one time than at any other
period in history; Fantasy, fiction, science fiction, horror, Political
writings, romantics, plays, and poems, anything and everything.
PostModernism/Contemporary
1950-present
“At the Justice Department. November 15,
1969″ (Levertov) pg. 980 & Qs #1-5 pg. 980
“Revolutionary Dreams” (Giovanni) pg. 981 &
Qs #1-6 pg 982
“El Patron” (Candelaria) pgs. 1009-1016 & Qs
#1-6 pg. 1018
What is an American?
What is Literature?
What is American Literature?