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American Literature Time Periods

American Literature Time Periods. A literary time period is another way to group authors and texts together. The writing from a certain time period tends to share certain characterisitics . What is a Literary Time Period?. Each time period tends to REACT TO the previous time period!

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American Literature Time Periods

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  1. American Literature Time Periods

  2. A literary time period is another way to group authors and texts together. The writing from a certain time period tends to share certain characterisitics. What is a Literary Time Period?

  3. Each time period tends to REACT TO the previous time period! • The next time period will often reject some part of the previous time period… • BUT it also tends to keep some of the characteristics, too! IMPORTANT!

  4. Puritanism1620-1750

  5. “In Adam’s fall, we sinned all.” • Main concern was living a Christian life and becoming one of the “elect.”

  6. The Age of Reason1750-1800

  7. Concerned with the perfection of the human being through reason/science • Didn’t reject, but questioned the heavy reliance on spirituality of the Puritans • The thinking of this period gave us our Constitution!

  8. Romanticism1800-1865

  9. Romantics rejected the scientific and rational emphasis of the previous time period. They were more interested in emotion, nature as a reflection of the divine, etc.

  10. Two divisions of Romanticism were: • Transcendentalism, which sought to find truth in beauty, specifically nature • Gothic Romance, which was more concerned with the SUPER natural

  11. Important romantic techniques included imagery, figurative language, and symbol. Not surprisingly, the best romantic writers were often poets.

  12. Realism1865-1919

  13. After the Civil War, writers rejected the idealized version of life romantic writers offered and concentrated on getting the facts right. Many writers of this time period started their careers as journalists

  14. Techniques the Realists used included dialect and “local color”

  15. Modernism1919-1945

  16. Affected by the horrors of WWI (the first “modern” war), Modern writers were realists, but rejected traditional literary forms and techinques. • This was not a happy group!

  17. Some new/important techniques the Moderns used were stream of consciousness, internal conflicts and points of view, the anti-hero, and open-ended endings that were non-moralistic.

  18. Some of the greatest American writers wrote during this time period, many in a group called The Lost Generation: • Hemingway • Fitzgerald • Steinbeck • Faulkner

  19. Post-Modernism1945-?

  20. Post-modern writers retained many of the ideas and techniques of the moderns. However, after the atomic bomb, everything seemed pointless to many of these writers. Their writing reflected that. • At least they were more fun than the moderns!

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