Overview of the American Literary PeriodsHONORS AMERICAN LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION

Native American Literary Period30,000—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 Period1620—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 Period1750—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 Period1800—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 Literature1840—1860

Characteristics(Note the overlap in time period with Romanticism -- some consider the anti-transcendentalists 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 Self-Reliance

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 Period1850—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-ModernismLiterary Periods900—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