Literary Periods of the American Literature

LITERARY PERIODS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS

PERIODS	Genre/Style	Effect/   Aspects	Historical Context	Examples
PURITAN/COLONIAL 1650-1750	Sermons, diaries, personal narratives Written in plain style	Instructive Reinforces authority of the Bible and church	A person’s fate is determined by God All people are corrupt and must be saved by Christ	Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation Rowlandson's "A Narrative of the Captivity" Edward's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" Though not written during Puritan times, The Crucible & The Scarlet Letter depict life during the time when Puritan theocracy prevailed.
REVOLUTIONARY/AGE OF REASON 1750-1800	Political pamphlets Travel writing Highly ornate style Persuasive writing	Patriotism grows Instills pride Creates common agreement about issues National mission and the American character	Tells readers how to interpret what they are reading to encourage Revolutionary War support Instructive in values	Writings of Jefferson, Paine, Henry Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac Franklin's "The Autobiography"
ROMANTICISM 1800-1860	Character sketches Slave narratives Poetry Short stories	Value feeling and intuition over reasoning Journey away from corruption of civilization and limits of rational thought toward the integrity of nature and freedom of the imagination Helped instill proper gender behavior for men and women Allowed people to re-imagine the American past	Expansion of magazines, newspapers, and book publishing Slavery debates Industrial revolution brings ideas that the "old ways" of doing things are now irrelevant	Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis" Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask" Poems of Emily Dickinson Poems of Walt Whitman
AMERICAN RENAISSANCE/ TRANSCENDENTALISM 1840-1860 (Note overlap in time period with Romanticism -- some consider the anti-transcendentalists to be the "dark" romantics or gothic)	Poetry Short Stories Novels Anti-Transcendentalists *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	Transcendentalists: *True reality is spiritual *Comes from18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant * Idealists * Self-reliance & individualism * Emerson & Thoreau Anti-Transcendentalists: * Used symbolism to great effect *Sin, pain, & evil exist * Poe, Hawthorne, & Melville	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 Today in literature we still read of people seeking the true beauty in life and in nature … a belief in true love and contentment	Poems and essays of Emerson & Thoreau Thoreau's Walden Aphorisms of Emerson and Thoreau Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Black Cat"
REALISM 1855-1900 (Period of Civil War and Postwar period)	Novels and short stories Objective narrator Does not tell reader how to interpret story Dialogue includes voices from around the country	Social realism: aims to change a specific social problem Aesthetic realism: art that insists on detailing the world as one sees it	Civil War brings demand for a "truer" type of literature that does not idealize people or places	Writings of Twain, Bierce, Crane The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (some say 1st modern novel) Regional works like: The Awakening. Ethan Frome, and My Antonia (some say modern)
THE MODERNS 1900-1950	Novels Plays Poetry (a great resurgence after deaths of Whitman & Dickinson) Highly experimental as writers seek a unique style Use of interior monologue & stream of consciousness	In Pursuit of the American Dream-- *Admiration for America as land of Eden *Optimism *Importance of the Individual	Writers reflect the ideas of Darwin (survival of the fittest) and Karl Marx (how money and class structure control a nation) Overwhelming technological changes of the 20th Century Rise of the youth culture WWI and WWII Harlem Renaissance	Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Poetry of Jeffers, Williams, Cummings, Frost, Eliot, Sandburg, Pound, Robinson, Stevens Rand's Anthem Short stories and novels of Steinbeck, Hemingway, Thurber, Welty, and Faulkner Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun & Wright's Native Son (an outgrowth of Harlem Renaissance-- see below) Miller's The Death of a Salesman (some consider Postmodern)
HARLEM RENAISSANCE (Parallel to modernism) 1920s	Allusions to African-American spirituals Uses structure of blues songs in poetry (repetition) Superficial stereotypes revealed to be complex characters	Gave birth to "gospel music" Blues and jazz transmitted across American via radio and phonographs	Mass African-American migration to Northern urban centers African-Americans have more access to media and publishing outlets after they move north	Essays & Poetry of W.E.B. DuBois Poetry of McKay, Toomer, Cullen Poetry, short stories and novels of Hurston and Hughes Their Eyes Were Watching God
POSTMODERNISM 1950 to present Note: Many critics extend this to present and merge with Contemporary -- see below)	Mixing of fantasy with nonfiction; blurs lines of reality for reader No heroes Concern with individual in isolation Social issues as writers align with feminist & ethnic groups Usually humorless Narratives Metafiction Present tense Magic realism	Erodes distinctions between classes of people Insists that values are not permanent but only "local" or "historical"	Post-World War II prosperity Media culture interprets values	Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and The Executioner's Song Feminist & Social Issue poets: Plath, Rich, Sexton, Levertov, Baraka, Cleaver, Morrison, Walker & Giovanni Miller's The Death of a Salesman & The Crucible (some consider Modern) Lawrence & Lee's Inherit the Wind Capote's In Cold Blood Stories & novels of Vonnegut Salinger's Catcher in the Rye Beat Poets: Kerouac, Burroughs, & Ginsberg Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
CONTEMPORARY 1970s-Present (Continuation of postmodernism)	Narratives: both fiction and nonfiction Anti-heroes Concern with connections between people Emotion-provoking Humorous irony Storytelling emphasized Autobiographical essays	Too soon to tell	People beginning a new century and a new millennium Media culture interprets values	Poetry of Dove, Cisneros, Soto, Alexie Writings of Angelou, Baldwin, Allende, Tan, Kingsolver, Kingston, Grisham, Crichton, Clancy Walker's The Color Purple & Haley's Roots Butler's Kindred Guest's Ordinary People Card's Ender's Game O'Brien The Things They Carried Frazier's Cold Mountain