american literary periods

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Periods	Genre & Style	Characteristics	Historical Context	Examples
Colonial 1620-1750	Sermons, diaries, personal narratives Sermons written in plain style rather than ornate Religious poetry	Focuses on daily life, moral attitudes, and political unrest Literature is instructive, reinforces authority of the Bible and church	Predestination: fate determined by God All are sinful and must be saved by Christ “Puritan" began as an insult by traditional Anglicans to those who criticized or wished to "purify" the Church of England.	Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our House” 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 (1692, Salem Witch Trials).
REVOLUTIONARY 1750-1800	Political pamphlets Travel writing Persuasive writing	Literature instills pride, spurs patriotism, and common agreement National mission and the American character	Encourages support for the Revolutionary War	Writings of Jefferson, Paine, Henry Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac and "The Autobiography"
ROMANTICISM 1800-1860	Character sketches Slave narratives Poetry Short stories	Celebrates the individual, nature, imagination & emotions Value intuition over reasoning Flee corruption of civilization and limits of rational thought toward the integrity of nature and freedom of the imagination Instill proper gender behavior for men & women Re-imagine the American past	Expansion of magazines, newspapers, and book publishing Industrial revolution leads questioning the "old ways" (English ways) of doing things Slavery debates Civil War (1861-1865) is pivotal	Irving's “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” Melville’s Moby Dick and Billy Budd Whitman’s Leaves of Grass Dickinson’s “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” (Some say these founders of American poetry also belong to Realism and Modernism.)
TRANSCENDENTAL ISM 1830-1880 (Some consider the anti-transcendentalists to be the "dark" romantics or gothic)	Poetry Essays Short Stories Novels	Transcendental: True reality is spiritual Intuition leads us to the indwelling God Self-reliance & individualism Gothic: Sin, pain, evil Contains elements of gloom, mystery, the grotesque	Today in literature we still read of people seeking beauty in life and in nature, the belief in true love and contentment We still see stories of the persecuted young girl forced apart from her true love We still see portrayals of antagonists whose evil characteristics appeal to one’s sense of awe	Emerson’s Nature and “Self-Reliance” Thoreau's Walden Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” Poe's “The Raven,” "The Fall of the House of Usher,” and "The Tell-Tale Heart"
REALISM 1850-1900	Novels and short stories Naturalism: An outgrowth of Realism People are hapless victims of immutable natural laws No supernatural intervention	Realism: Examines realities of life, human frailty, local color Depiction of ordinary people in everyday life Objective narrator Does not tell reader how to interpret story	Civil War (1861-1865) brings demand for a "truer" type of literature that does not idealize people or places Dialogue includes regional voices	Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage & “The Open Boat” The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (some say 1^st modern novel) Regional works like Chopin’s The Awakening, Wharton’s Ethan Frome, and Cather’s My Antonia (some say modern)
MODERNISM 1900-1950	Novels Plays Poetry (resurgence after deaths of W & D) Experimental as writers seek a unique style Use of interior monologue & stream of consciousness	The pursuit of the American Dream America as the land of Eden Soon that optimism and a belief in the importance of the individual is overwhelmed by Themes of alienation and disillusionment	WWI and WWII Writers reflect the ideas of Darwin (survival of fittest) and Karl Marx (how money & class structure control a nation) Overwhelming technological changes of the 20^th Century Harlem Renaissance	Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath Eliot’s The Wasteland Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms Williams’ The Glass Menagerie Miller's The Death of a Salesman (some say Postmodern)
HARLEM RENAISSANCE 1920s (Part of Modernism)	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	Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun Wright's Native Son Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God Hughes’ “Theme for English B,” “What Did I Do…?” Ellison’s Invisible Man
POSTMODERNISM 1950 to present (Many critics merge this with Contemporary)	Narratives: both fiction and nonfiction Metafiction Magic realism Mixing of fantasy with nonfiction; blurs lines of reality for reader No heroes Usually humorless	Concern with individual in isolation Social issues as writers align with feminist & ethnic groups 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	Feminist & Social Issue poets: Plath, Rich, Sexton, Levertov, Angelou Capote's In Cold Blood Stories of Bradbury & 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 Autobiographical essays Anti-heroes Emotion-provoking Humorous irony	Concern with connections between people	Beginning a new century Media culture interprets values	Poetry of Dove, Cisneros, Soto & Alexie Walker's The Color Purple, Haley's Roots & Morrison’s Beloved Nonfiction by Didion, White, Dillard & Krakauer O'Brien’s The Things They Carried Megastars: King, Crichton, Grisham, Clancy