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Sep 9, 2024 · This article traces the history of American poetry, drama, fiction, and social and literary criticism from the early 17th century through the turn of the 21st century. For a description of the oral and written literatures of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, see Native American literature.
- The 19th Century
American literature - 19th Century, Realism, Romanticism:...
- The 17th Century
American literature - Puritanism, Colonization, Revolution:...
- The 20th Century
American literature - Modernism, Realism, Postmodernism:...
- Fiction
Fiction, literature created from the imagination, not...
- Literary Criticism
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- Critics of The Gilded Age
American literature - Gilded Age, Critics, Realism: Writers...
- The Novel and Short Story
American literature - Novels, Short Stories, Fiction: Two...
- The Influence of Raymond Carver
American literature - Raymond Carver, Minimalism, Realism:...
- The 19th Century
American Literature timeline. 1674. Sewall begins his diary. Samuel Sewall begins a diary of daily life in Boston, Massachusetts, that will span a period of more than fifty years. Samuel Edmund Sewall. 1700.
- Native American Literature
- Colonial Literature 1600s-1700s
- Enlightenment and Revolution Mid- to Late 1700s
- American Gothic Early 1800S-Present
- Romanticism and Transcendentalism 1820s-1850s
- Literary Realism, Naturalism and Modernism 1860s-1940s
- Contemporary & Postmodern Literature 1950S-Present
- The Broader Story of The American Literary Movements
Long before the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, native people had their own rich culture. The Native American literary tradition comprises oral tradition, folktales, creation stories and other myths that survive in the traditions and stories told by modern-day Native Americans. One common elementin these stories is repetition of incidents in ...
As the English colonies were established in the 17th century, the topics of literature among the colonists reflected their historical context. The earliest English works from the colonies ranged from practical accounts of colonial history and life written by leaders such as John Smith, to Anne Bradstreet’s The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America...
In the years surrounding the American Revolution, literature likewise shifted to encompass the patriotic spirit that drove the nation toward independence. The iconic Federalist Papers in the realm of politics were matched by works by other authors in the realm of science and philosophy, such as Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason. 1789 saw the publica...
Not to be confused with the famous painting by Grant Wood, American Gothic literature draws on dark themes from the nation’s historical and contemporary challenges. The early Gothic writers drew on frontier anxiety and fear of the unknown; Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow(1820) is perhaps the most famous example. As the nation grew a...
The romantic era began in Europe in the eighteenth century, but it arrived in America later, around 1820. American romantic writers explored themes of individualism, intuitive perception and the inherent goodness of the natural world. Among the best known American romantic novels are Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850), a dramatic story...
Following the Civil War, American literature was marked by a deep skepticism, understandable given the historical context. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, American literary realism, in the works of Mark Twain, John Steinbeck and others, was marked by attempts to present realistic things as they are, without supernatural or speculative elements. ...
The postwar period saw the rise of a whole spectrum of innovative and subversive themes in literature, from the overtly counter-cultural works of the 1950s “Beat Generation” to John Updike’s reflective explorations of faith, personal turmoil and sensuality. Sexually frank content entered the mainstream in this period, as restrictions on obscenity w...
American literature is about far more than just entertainment; it’s both a reflection of, and an influence upon, the moments in history and the changing human experience that shaped each movement. When you learn about the characteristics of American literature, you learn about what it is to be human, to struggle and succeed, to love and lose, to co...
In the post-war period, Thomas Jefferson established his place in American literature through his authorship of the Declaration of Independence, his influence on the U.S. Constitution, his autobiography, his Notes on the State of Virginia, and his many letters.
Jul 9, 2019 · Here are some of the most commonly agreed upon periods of American literature from the colonial period to the present. The Colonial Period (1607–1775) This period encompasses the founding of Jamestown up to a decade before the Revolutionary War.
Aug 15, 2023 · Colonial and Early National Period (1600–1830) The dawn of American literature is intrinsically linked to the arrival of the Puritan settlers on the shores of the New World. With them, they...
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The First Americans: American Literature During the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 1. Imagining Eden 1 Writing of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods 1. Inventing Americas: The Making of American Literature 1800–1865 47.
