American Literature. Colonial Anne Bradstreet The Iroquois Constitution.

American Literature

Colonial

Anne Bradstreet

The Iroquois Constitution

Colonial1600s-1700s

Explorers, colonists, and Puritans wrote of their experiences and philosophy/theology.

Colonial

Although not acknowledged by the European settlers, the Native Americans also recorded their experiences in poem, story and song.

1600s-1700s

Neoclassical

Benjamin Franklin

Thomas Jefferson

Phillis Wheatley

NeoclassicalLATE 1700s

Literature of this time period reflects a change in the social structure from one which was largely influenced by Protestant theology to one which is centered on a respect for the common man and a move toward democracy.

Romanticism

Herman Melville

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Emily Dickinson Edgar Allan Poe

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Henry David Thoreau

Romanticism

These writers infused their writing with “…fancy, imagination, emotion, nature, individuality and exotica” (The American Experience).

Mid 1800s

Romanticism

Transcendentalism and Anti-Transcendentalism are hallmarks of this era as many of these writers explored man’s relationship to nature and his desire to reach a higher consciousness outside traditional theology.

Mid 1800s

Realism

Mark Twain

Walt Whitman

Kate Chopin

Realism1850s-1900s

Influenced by the events preceding and following the Civil War, literature from this period is less philosophical in nature than the Romantic period and more cynical and questioning.

Realism1850s-1900s

This period reflects a concern for the everyday experiences of the common man.

Naturalism

Willa Cather

Carl Sandburg

Jack

London

NaturalismLATE 1800s

Writers in this literary period tended to see humans as the “…hapless victims of immutable natural laws (The American Experience). They were also influenced by the Industrial Revolution.

Modernism

Ernest Hemingway

John Steinbeck

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Modernism1900 - 1950

The reader and the reader’s response to a text is the focus of this time period. Writers began to experiment with form and structure in order to evoke a particular response from readers.

ContemporaryLorraine Hansberry

Arthur Miller

Homer Hickam

Karen Hesse

Kaye Gibbons

Bernard Malamud

Walter Dean Myers

Contemporary1950 - PRESENT

Literature of this period reflects the social activism and social change characteristic of the times.

Contemporary1950 - PRESENT

In the latter half of this period, the influence of the digital age is reflected in new and emerging forms of writing and literacy.

American Literature

Works Cited

Photo Credits

Music Credits

*Red Lit Book

*Literary Periods – Bar Chart

*source web addresses

*The American Collection – Masterpiece Theater Theme – Yo Yo Ma, John Williams

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