Periods of American Literature:
Historical & Cultural Context
English III
WFISD Curriculum (2013-2014)
PART I: Historical & Cultural Context
What shapes who you are?
1. List at least three things
that make you the person you
are. Prepare to share.
We are the product of
our time and culture.
The year we are born,
the places we’ve lived,
the people in our lives
– all these things
affect the people we
become.
Writers, too, are influenced by the
time and place in which they live. As
readers, we can better understand
and appreciate a writer’s work if we
learn about the history and culture
that inspired it.
Historical & Cultural Context
The time, place, and social conditions
that influence a work of literature are
called the historical and cultural
context.
History, Culture, & You
To better understand how
history and culture influence
writers, let’s first look at how
you are affected by your
times.
Think about who you are – your
values and beliefs, your likes and
dislikes, even your sense of style.
You’re you because of how you’ve
grown up. Your family and friends,
your personal experiences, and the
world in which you live have all
influenced you as a person.
Notes-Question 3: Using the
items just mentioned and/or
the items you listed in
Question 1, write a
paragraph (5-8 sentences)
specifically explaining how
you have become the person
you are today. Prepare to
share.
Both the time period and location in
which you grew up have influenced
who you are today. If it’s difficult to
see how, try to imagine growing up
in a different time & place.
For Example…
How would your
life be different if
you were growing
up during the Great
Depression?
The Great Depression forced many young
people to:
• give up school
• take on the roles of adults
• take jobs if they could find them
• stand in long bread lines to bring home food to their
families
• leave home when their families could not feed them
• look for work while traveling the country on freight
trains
Discuss with a partner…
What kind of person would you be if
you had grown up during these
harsh times? Discuss this with a
partner. Prepare to share.
Like us, writers are influenced by the times
in which they live.
•Whether they realize it or not, some writers
reveal their beliefs, values, and concerns in
their works.
•Sometimes those beliefs are echoed in
themes, or messages about life that a writer
wants to communicate. Other times, a
writer’s concerns are revealed through his or
her descriptions of settings, conflicts, or
characters.
Specific factors that affect writers
• Events - wars, medical breakthroughs, natural
disasters, etc.
• Cultural values – a culture’s belief about right and
wrong
• Social concerns – expression of feelings about the
social and political issues of the day
• Personal experiences – drawing on personal
experience to create a powerful, emotional impact
When we learn more about the events
and experiences that have shaped a
writer’s life, we are considering the
context and “reading” between the
lines, leading us to a deeper
understanding of literature.
For example…
Read the following
passage from Jack
London’s “To Build a Fire”
about a man traveling
through the wilderness
and bitter cold.
“He knew there must be no failure. When it
is seventy-five below zero, a man must not
fail in his first attempt to build a fire—that
is, if his feet are wet. If his feet are dry, and
he fails, he can run along the trail for half a
mile and restore his circulation. But the
circulation of wet and freezing feet cannot
be restored by running when it is seventyfive below.”
What can you infer, or make a
reasonable guess, about the setting of
this story?
a) It has a large population.
b) It is extremely harsh.
c) It is rarely sunny.
“B” is the correct answer.
Both the phrase “he knew” and the
description that follows reflect the
character’s understanding of the harsh
setting.
The story behind the story…
Now, read this background
information about Jack London’s life.
Consider how this information helps
you understand the inspiration
behind London’s story.
Jack London’s Background
In 1897, at the age of 21, London traveled to
the wilderness of Alaska and Northwest
Canada to prospect for gold.
He was fascinated by the life-and-death
struggles he experienced, as well as the tales
he heard from other prospectors. The harsh
conditions and challenges of the Yukon
appear in many of his works.
What evidence of London’s personal
experience appears in the passage
you read?
London knows firsthand about the
dangers and bitter cold of a setting like
this one. Perhaps he based his
descriptions on the “life-and-death
struggles he experienced.”
What might the author have been
trying to communicate to his readers?
Through his vivid descriptions,
London might have wanted to show
how harsh and unforgiving that
setting had been to the prospectors
living there.
PART II: American Literary Periods
Since different writers
were affected by the
same factors, we are
faced with specific
periods of time in which
these different writers
address the same issues
and convey similar
themes.
Native American Period (pre to 1620)
Characteristics
• Oral literature: epic narratives, creation myths, stories,
poems, songs. Use stories to teach moral lessons and
convey practical information about the natural world.
• Deep respect for nature and animals
• Cyclical world view
Major Works
The World on the Turtle’s Back – Iroquois Creation Myth
Puritanism (1620-1750)
Characteristics
• sermons, some poetry, personal
narratives, & diaries in plain style of
writing
• saw religion as a personal, inner
experience.
• believed in original sin and a person’s
fate is determined by God
Puritanism (1620-1750)
Major Works/Author
•Jonathan Edwards
•The Crucible (Arthur Miller-1950)
•William Bradford
•Mary Rowlandson
•Anne Bradstreet
Puritanism (1620-1750)
Historical Events
•colonies established
•Salem Witch Trials
Rationalism (1750-1800)
Characteristics
• also known as the The Age of Reason or The
Enlightenment and includes the Revolutionary Period
• mostly comprised of philosophers, scientists, &
politicians writing speeches & pamphlets; includes
some poetry
• believed human beings could arrive at truth (God’s
rules) by using deductive reasoning, rather than
relying on the authority of the past, on religious faith,
or intuition
• reaction to Puritanism
Rationalism (1750-1800)
Major Works/Authors
•Patrick Henry
•The Declaration of
Independence
•Thomas Paine
•Benjamin Franklin
•Phyllis Wheatley
Rationalism (1750-1800)
Historical Events
•Boston Tea Party
•Revolutionary War
•Creation of American
government
Romanticism (1800-1860)
Characteristics
• appreciation of nature
• sensory feelings valued over intellect
• obsession with passions & inner struggles of the hero
& genius
• encouragement of creativity & imagination
• interest in diverse cultural origins & grotesque and
barbaric origins
Romanticism (1800-1860)
Major Works/Authors
•Emily Dickinson
•Walt Whitman
•Washington Irving
•The Scarlet Letter
Romanticism (1800-1860)
Historical Events
•Industrialism
•War of 1812
•California Gold Rush
Transcendentalism (1840-1860)
Characteristics
• also known as American
Renaissance
• self-reliance & individualism over
external authority & blind
conformity
• intuition, or insight, reveals God’s
spirit in nature & human beings
• idealistic search for Utopia
Transcendentalism (1840-1860)
Major Works/Authors
• Self-Reliance by Ralph
Waldo Emerson
• Civil Disobedience by
Henry David Thoreau
• Margaret Fuller
Transcendentalism (1840-1860)
Historical Events
•abolitionist movement
•women’s suffrage
movement
•utopian movement
American Gothic Period (1800-1855)
Characteristics
• also known as Dark Romanticism
• contains cold, dark settings
• evokes a mysterious, suspenseful, &, sometimes, sad
mood
• often contains supernatural events, revelation of the
dark side of human beings, and/or feelings of
abandonment from God or a loved one
American Gothic Period (1800-1855)
Major Works/Authors
• Edgar Allen Poe
• some Nathaniel
Hawthorne works
• Moby Dick
Realism (1850-1900)
Characteristics
•Reflects feelings of disillusionment
•Contains common subjects – slums of rapidly
growing cities, factories replacing farmlands,
poor factory workers, & corrupt politicians
•Seeks to explain psychological & social
behaviors
Realism (1850-1900)
Major Works/Authors
•Occurrence at Owl
Creek Bridge by
Ambrose Bierce
•The Open Boat by
Stephen Crane
•Call of the Wild
Historical Events
• The Civil War
• Reconstruction
Regionalism (1880-1910)
Major Works/Authors
Characteristics
•
The
Notorious
Jumping
Represents mannered
Frog
of
Calaveras
and environment of
County by Mark Twain
everyday life &
• The Story of an Hour
ordinary people as
by Kate Chopin
realistically as
possibly
Modernism (1900-1950)
Characteristics
• Loss of faith in The American
Dream
• Emphasis on bold
experimentation in style & form
• Interest in the inner workings of
the human mind (stream of
consciousness)
Modernism (1900-1950)
Major Works/Authors
• The Great Gatsby by F.
Scott Fitzgerald
• Poetry of Robert Frost
• “The Love Song of J.
Alfred Prufrock” by T.S.
Eliot
• Of Mice and Men
Historical Events
• World War I
• The Great
Depression
• World War II
Harlem Renaissance (1920-1940)
Characteristics
• African American cultural
(literature, art, & music)
movement in Harlem, NY
• Poetry sometimes based on
spirituals & jazz
• Sometimes contained diction
from the street talk of the
ghettos
Harlem Renaissance (1920-1940)
Major Authors/Works
• Langston Hughes
• Claude McKay
• “How it Feels to be Colored Me”
by Zora Neale Hurston
Historical Events
• New Negro Movement
• Prohibition
Postmodernism (1950-present)
Characteristics
• also known as Contemporary period
• influenced by studies of media, language, and information
technology
• sense that little is unique; culture endlessly duplicates and
copies itself
• new literary forms and techniques: works composed of only
dialogue or combining fiction and nonfiction, experimenting
with physical appearance of their work
Postmodernism (1950-present)
Major Works/Authors
• Martin Luther King, Jr.
• In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
• E.E. Cummings
• Death of a Salesman
• Sandra Cisneros
Sources
• Holt McDougal Literature: American Literature – “Level Up: Historical
& Cultural Context”
• Cobb County School District – “American Literature Timeline”
WFISD Curriculum (2013-2014)