Overview of the
American Literary
Periods
HONORS AMERICAN LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
Native American
Literary Period
30,000—1730 A.D.
Characteristics

Focus on the common origin of all
things (birth, death, rebirth, changing
seasons)

Tribal traditions and rituals

Respect for nature

Animals can be characters
(interchangeable with humans)

Uses similes, metaphors

Mostly oral (oral tradition)

Some written accounts

Ceremonial songs and prayers
Types of Literature

Mostly oral (oral tradition)

Some written accounts

Ceremonial songs and prayers
Writers and Their Works

Walum Olum (Delaware)—
explanation of the natural
world

Navajo Origin Legend (Navajo)

Spring Song (Chippewa)
Historical Events

Settlement of four to six million
Indians into various tribes on
American continents.

Columbus discovers America

Cortez conquers the Aztecs in
Mexico

Iroquois confederacy
established to stop warfare
among the Five Nations
Puritan Literary
Period
1620—1780
Characteristics

Miracle of grace cleanses envy,
vanity, and lust (allows one to
love God and all creation)

Plainness in all things. Stress on
simple forms of worship without
decoration or ornamentation

The best writing is simple and
clear; never clever or ornate (no
metaphors)

God chose (the Elect) the Puritans
to bring true Christianity to
America
Types of Literature

Sermons

Diaries/Journals

Narratives (of captivity)

Poetry

Letters (early explorers used
hyperbole)

Fiction drama was forbidden
(no plays)

Bible was the only book read
Writers and Their Works

Anne Bradstreet “Upon the
Burning of our House”

Cotton Mather (wrote a book
on evidence against witches)

Edward Taylor “Huswifery”

Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in
the Hands of an Angry God”
Historical Events

Pilgrims landed at Plymouth
Rock

Massachusetts Bay Company
brings Puritans to New England

Salem Witch Trials

Harvard University founded

First newspaper
Colonial Literary
Period
1750—1800
Characteristics

Also known as the “AGE OF
ENLIGHTENMENT”

High regard for reasoning and
scientific observation

Strong belief in human progress

Freedom from restrictive laws and
government

Little interest in religion or the
hereafter

Moderation and self-control in all
things

Stress on elegant, ornate style of
writing
Types of Literature

Political writings

Almanacs

Essays

Aphorisms

Magazines

Newspapers

Autobiographies

Speeches

Poetry
Writers and Their Works

Benjamin Franklin—Poor Richard’s
Almanac and Autobiography

Phillis Wheatley—”On Being Brought
from Africa to America”

Thomas Paine—Crisis No. 1 (prose
in defense of the Revolution)

Patrick Henry—Speech to the
Virginia Convention
Historical Events

Benjamin Franklin’s kite
experiment

Colonists resist new Stamp Act

Thomas Jefferson writes the
Declaration of Independence

Revolutionary War

George Washington becomes
first president
Romantic Literary
Period
1800—1860
Characteristics

The Romantic Period was extremely
popular in literature.

In America, Romantic literature was
defined by the Five “I’s”

Inspiration

Intuition

Innocence

Imagination

Inner experience
Writers and Their Works

William Cullen Bryant: “Thanatopsis”
(poem)

Washington Irving: “Rip Van Winkle”
(short story)

James Fenimore Cooper: The Last of the
Mohicans (novel)

Fireside Poets

Longfellow

Bryant

Lowell

Holmes

Whittier
Historical Events

War with England

Westward Expansion

Mexican War

California gold rush

Civil War

Gettysburg Address
The Romantic Writers

High regard for inner feelings and
emotions

Reverence for the imagination

Nature inspires us to the highest ideals

Interest in the past

Use of language of the “common”
people
Romantic Writers Stressed…

The innate goodness of man

Favored the individual over the group

Revered nature

Rebelled against political authority

Revered intuition over logic/reason
What were the Fireside Poets?

First group in American poets to
rival British poets in popularity in
either country.

Notable for their education, the
lasting power of lines, themes and
political interests.

Preferred conventional poet forms
over experimentation.

Often used American legends and
scenes of American life as their
subject matter.

Paid attention to rhyme and
cadence which made their poems
popular for memorization and
recitation.
Who were the Fireside Poets?

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

William Cullen Bryant

James Russell Lowell

Oliver Wendell Holmes

John Greenleaf Whittier
Lasting Impact of the Fireside Poets

Longfellow remained the most popular
American poet for decades, but after
Poe criticized his work, he was all but
ostracized from the poetry community.

Lowell and Whittier were outspoken
liberals and abolitionists.

Longfellow remains the only American
poet to be immortalized by a bust in
Westminster Abbey’s Poet’s Corner.

They took on causes in their poetry,
such as the abolition of slavery, which
brought the issues to the forefront.
American
Renaissance
Transcendentalism,
Anti-Transcendentalism, Gothic
Literature
1840—1860
Characteristics
(Note the overlap in time period with
Romanticism -- some consider the antitranscendentalists to be the "dark" romantics or
gothic)


Transcendental:

Truth beyond the physical world

Happiness through individualism/self-reliance

Reverence for nature
Anti-Transcendental:

Critical of transcendentalists

Human nature a mix of good and evil

Used symbolism to great effect

Sin, pain and evil exist
Types of Literature


Essays

Novels

Short Stories

Poetry
Writers and Their Works

Edgar Allen Poe “The Fall of the
House of Usher”

Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlett
Letter

Herman Melville Moby Dick

Henry David Thoreau Walden

Ralph Waldo Emerson On SelfReliance

Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle
Tom’s Cabin

Aphorisms of Emerson and Thoreau
Historical Events

War between U.S. and Mexico

California gold rush

First Women’s Rights Convention

The anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s
Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe is
published
Realism, Regionalism,
Naturalism Literary
Period
1850—1900
Characteristics—Realism

Expression of life as it is
actually lived

Factual description of ordinary
characters and events rather
than larger than life heroes in
imagined settings

Subject matter often consists of
factories, slums, workers,
bosses, criminals, social
outcasts
Characteristics—Naturalism

Heredity, environment and
economics determine one’s
destiny

Humans are at the mercy of brutal
forces beyond their control

Influence of scientific method (a
writer carefully gathers facts about
human experience and then
draws conclusions)
Types of Literature

Essays

Stories

Poetry

Novels

Songs

Speeches

Letters
Writers and Their Works

Walt Whitman “Song of Myself”

Bret Harte “Outcasts of Poker
Flat”

Jack London Call of the Wild

Mark Twain Huckleberry Finn

Emily Dickinson (poetry)

Stephen Crane Red Badge of
Courage
Historical Events

Civil War and post-Civil War
period

Thomas Eidson invents the light

Statue of Liberty dedication in
New York

Wright brother’s first airplane in
flight

Formation of NAACP

World War I
Modernism and
Post-Modernism
Literary Periods
900—1950
Characteristics

Opposition to dehumanizing trends in
modern life

Dignity of people in spite of great
challenges

Short stories with a more open form
that stress mood and character rather
than plot

Loss of idealism due to war,
industrialization, political changes
(search for new sources of hope)
Characteristics, continued

Experimental forms of poetry such
as free verse (irregular and/or
unrhymed verse lines) and
symbols that suggest meaning and
moods.

Imagist poets like William Carlos
Williams and H.D. Lawrence wrote
short poems with sharp and
precise images.

Confessional poets explored their
personal conflicts with great
honesty and frankness (Robert
Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton)
Characteristics, continued

Harlem Renaissance helped to
preserve African-American heritage
and raise awareness of Black
culture and concerns

Langston Hughes

Jean Toomer

Countee Cullen
Types of Literature

Stories

Novels

Poetry

Travel Books

Songs

Negro Spirituals
Writers and Their Works

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great
Gatsby

John Steinbeck The Grapes of
Wrath

John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men

Alice Walker The Color Purple

Thornton Wilder Our Town

Langston Hughes “The Weary
Blues”

William Carlos Williams (poetry)

H.D. Lawrence
Historical Events

Stock Market Crash

Great Depression

Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor

World War II

Segregation of public schools
becomes illegal

Resurgence of the Klan