Timeline ofAmerican Literature

English 11

Native American (?-1600)

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:•Creation stories to explain nature•Ritualistic (healing, initiation, planting & harvesting, purification & hunting)GENRE/STYLE:•Communicated orally, not in writing•Myths, legends, chantsEXAMPLES:•“How the World was Made” (Cheyenne)•“Origin Legend” (Navajo)

Age of Faith (1607-1750)HISTORICAL CONTEXT:•Puritans & Pilgrims•Separated from the Anglican church of England•Religion dominates writing & lives•Work ethic: hard work & simple livingGENRE/STYLE:•Sermons, diaries, letters, personal narratives, slave memoirs•Instructive, plain style, documentationMAJOR WRITERS:•Anne Bradstreet (1st published American poet), “To My Dear & Loving Husband”•Jonathan Edwards (Minister), “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Age of Reason (1750-1800)HISTORICAL CONTEXT:•American Revolution; growth of patriotism•Democracy as a value/character•Reason replacing faithGENRE/STYLE:•Political pamphlets, essays, almanacs, travel writing, speeches, documents•Instructive writing in highly ornate languageEXAMPLES:•Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography & Poor Richard’s Almanac•Thomas Jefferson, “Declaration of Independence”•Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis”

Romanticism (1800-1855)HISTORICAL CONTEXT: •Expansion of book, magazine & newspaper publishing•Industrial Revolution•Abolitionist movementGENRE/STYLE:•Short stories, novels, poetry•Imagination over reason, intuition over fact; focused on the fantastic part of human experience & human feeling•Writing interpreted both on surface & in depth•Gothic literature (supernatural, characters both good & evil, dark & depressed settings)EXAMPLES:•Washington Irving, “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “Rip van Winkle”•Nathanial Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, “Young Goodman Brown”•Edgar Allen Poe, “The Raven,” “Fall of the House of Usher”

Transcendentalism (1840-1855)

Fit these notes under the “Romanticism” heading:

• Transcendentalism:• Stressed the individual,

intuition, nature, being self-reliant

• EXAMPLES:• Ralph Waldo Emerson,

“Nature”• Henry David Thoreau,

Walden

REALISM (1865-1915)HISTORICAL CONTEXT:•Civil War brings demand for realistic writing•People defined by “class”•Darwin’s influence: survival of the fittestGENRE/STYLE:•Realism: focus on lives of ordinary people•Naturalism: the universe is unpredictable, free will an illusion•Novels, short stories•Focus on social problemsEXAMPLES:•Frederick Douglass, escaped slave, My Autobiography•Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn•Jack London, Call of the Wild, “To Build a Fire”

MODERNISM (1915-1945)

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: •Overwhelming changes in technology•WAR and mass destruction•Rise of youth cultureGENRE/STYLE:•Stream of consciousness, interior monologue, other unique experimental stylesEXAMPLES:•John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath•F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

CONTEMPORARY (1945-present)

HISTORICAL CONTEXT: •Media-saturated culture•Post WW2 prosperity•Social protest•New millenniumGENRE/STYLE:•Mix of fantasy & non-fiction•Anti-heroes •Women/ethnic writers•Graphic novels, experimental stylesEXAMPLES:•J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye•Maya Angelou, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”•Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried