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American Literature through Time
To find out more about a particular literature time period, click a link in the table below .
| Puritan Times | Rationalism/Age of Enlightenment | American Renaissance/Romanticism |
| Gothic | Realism (includes Local Color) | Naturalism |
| Modernism | Harlem Renaissance | Postmodernism |
| Contemporary |
Puritan
Times
1650-1750
Content:
errand into the
wilderness
be a city upon a hill
Christian utopia
Genre/Style:
sermons, diaries
personal narratives
captivity narratives
jeremiads
written in plain style
Effect:
instructive
reinforces authority of the Bible and church
Historical Context:
a person's fate is
determined by God
all people are corrupt and must be saved by Christ
Rationalism/
Age of Enlightenment
1750-1800
Content:
national mission
and American character
democratic utopia
use of reason
history is an act of individual and national self-assertion
Genre/Style:
political pamphlets
travel writing
highly ornate writing style
fiction employs generic plots and characters
fiction often tells the story of how an innocent young woman is tested by a
seductive
male
Effect:
patriotism grows
instills pride
creates common agreement about issues
shows differences between Americans and Europeans
Historical Context:
tells readers how
to interpret what they are reading to encourage Revolutionary War
support
instructive in values
American
Renaissance/Romanticism
1800-1855
Content:
writing that can be
interpreted 2 ways, on the surface for common folk or in depth for
philosophical readers
sense of idealism
focus on the individual's inner feelings
emphasis on the imagination over reason and intuition over facts
urbanization versus nostalgia for nature
burden of the Puritan past
Genre/Style:
literary tale
character sketch
slave narratives,
political novels
poetry
transcendentalism
Effect:
helps instill
proper gender behavior for men and women
fuels the abolitionist movement
allow people to re-imagine the American past
Historical Context:
expansion of
magazines, newspapers, and book publishing
slavery debates
Gothic
sub-genre of
Romanticism
1800-1850
Content:
sublime and overt
use of the supernatural
individual characters see themselves at the mercy of forces our of their control
which
they do not understand
motif of the "double": an individual with both evil and good
characteristics
often involve the persecution of a young woman who is forced apart from her true
love
Style:
short stories and
novels
hold readers' attention through dread of a series of terrible possibilities
feature landscapes of dark forests, extreme vegetation, concealed ruins with
horrific
rooms, depressed characters
Effect:
today in literature
we still see portrayals of alluring antagonists whose evil
characteristics appeal to one's sense of awe
today in literature we still see stories of the persecuted young girl forced
apart from
her true love
Historical Context:
industrial
revolution brings ideas that the "old ways" of doing things are now
irrelevant
Realism
1855-1900
Content:
common characters
not idealized (immigrants, laborers)
people in society defined by class
society corrupted by materialism
emphasizes moralism through observation
Style:
novel and short
stories are important
prefers objective narrator
dialogue includes many voices from around the country does not tell the reader
how to
interpret the story
Effect:
social realism:
aims to change a specific social problem
aesthetic realism: art that insists on detailing the world as one sees it
Historical Context:
Civil War brings
demand for a "truer" type of literature that does not idealize people
or places
Naturalism
(sub-genre of
realism)
1880-1900
Content:
dominant themes:
survival fate violence taboo
nature is an indifferent force acting on humans
"brute within" each individual is comprised of strong and warring
emotions such as
greed, power, and fight for survival in an amoral, indifferent world.
Genre/Style:
short story, novel
characters usually lower class or lower middle class
fictional world is commonplace and unheroic; everyday life is
a dull round of daily existence
characters ultimately emerge to act heroically or adventurously with acts of
violence, passion, and/or bodily strength in a tragic ending
Effect:
this type of
literature continues to capture audiences in present day: the pitting of man
against nature
Historical Context:
writers reflect the
ideas of Darwin (survival of the fittest) and Karl Marx (how money and class
structure control a nation)
Modernism
1900-1946
Content:
dominant mood:
alienation and disconnection
people unable to communicate effectively
fear of eroding traditions and grief over loss of the past
Genre/Style:
highly experimental
allusions in writing often refer to classical Greek and Roman writings
use of fragments, juxtaposition, interior monologue, and stream of consciousness
writers seeking to create a unique style
Effect:
common readers are
alienated by this literature
Historical Context:
overwhelming
technological changes of the 20th Century
World War I was the first war of mass destruction due to technological advances
rise of the youth culture
Harlem
Renaissance
(runs parallel to
modernism)
1920s
Content:
celebrated
characteristics of African-American life
enjoyment of life without fear
writing defines the African-American heritage and celebrates their new identity
as Americans
Genre/Style:
allusions in
writing often refer to African-American spirituals
uses the structure of blues songs in poetry (ex-repetition of key phrases)
superficial stereotypes later revealed to be characters capable of complex moral
judgments
Effect:
this period gave
birth to a new form of religious music called "gospel music"
blues and jazz are transmitted across America via radio and phonographs
Historical Context:
mass
African-American migration to Northern urban centers.
African-Americans have more access to media and publishing outlets after they
move north.
Postmodernism
1946-Present
Content:
people observe life as the media presents it, rather than experiencing life
directly
popular culture saturates people's lives
absurdity and coincidence
Genre/Style:
mixing of fantasy with nonfiction; blurs lines of reality for reader
no heroes
concern with individual in isolation
detached, unemotional
usually humorless
narratives
metafiction
present tense
magic realism
Effect:
erodes distinctions between classes of people
insists that values are not permanent but only "local" or
"historical"
Historical Context:
post-World War II
prosperity
media culture interprets values
Contemporary
(continuation
of Postmodernism)
1980s-Present
Content:
identity politics
people learning to cope with problems through communication
people's sense of identity is shaped by cultural and gender attitudes
emergence of ethnic writers and women writers
Style:
narratives: both fiction and nonfiction
anti-heroes
concern with connections between people
emotion-provoking
humorous irony
storytelling emphasized
autobiographical essays
Effect: too soon to tell
Historical Context:
people beginning a
new century and a new millennium
media culture interprets values
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