FOOD FOR THOUGHT

AMERICAN LITERATURE HAS NEVER BEEN CONTENT TO BE

JUST ONE AMONG THE MANY LITERATURES OF THE
WESTERN WORLD. IT HAS ALWAYS ASPIRED TO BE THE
LITERATURE NOT ONLY OF A NEW CONTINENT BUT OF A NEW
WORLD
– CHRISTOPHER DAWSON
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous
Authors and
Works

Arrived Native 1. Oral Literature; Epic

40,000 – Americans Narratives, Creation Myths,
20,000 BC stories, poems and songs

Literature of 2. Use stories to teach moral

Explorations lessons and convey practical
information about the natural
world
3. Deep respect for nature
and animals
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous
Authors and
Works

Arrived Literature of 4. Cyclical world view

40,000 – Explorations
20,000 BC

5. Figurative Language/
Parallelism
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous
Authors and
Works

1600 – 1800 Puritanism 1. Wrote mostly diaries and

(Colonial) histories, which expressed the William
connections between God Bradford (“Of
First and their everyday lives Plymouth
“American” Plantation”),
2. Sought to “purify” the
colonies Anne
Church of England by
established Bradstreet
reforming to the simpler forms
(poetry)
of worship and church
Salem Witch
organization described in the
Trials
New Testament
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous
Authors and
Works

1600 – 1800 Puritanism 3. Saw Religion as a Jonathan

(Colonial) personal, inner experience Edwards
(“Sinners in
First 4. Believed in the original sin the hands of
“American” and “elect” who would be an Angry
colonies saved God”),
established 5. Used plain style of writing Edward
Taylor
Salem Witch (“Huswifery”)
Trials
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous Authors
and Works

1750 – 1800 Rationalism 1. Mostly comprised of Benjamin

Revolutionary “The Age of philosophers, scientists, Franklin
War Reason” writing speeches and (Autobiography),
pamphlets Patrick Henry
(“Speech to the
Virginia
Convention”)
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous Authors
and Works

The 2. Human beings can Thomas Paine

Constitution, The arrive as truth (God’s (“The Crisis”),
The Bill of Enlightenment rules) by using deductive Phyllis Wheatley
Rights, and reasoning, rather than (poetry)
The relying on the authority of
Declaration of the past, on religious
Independence faith, or intuition
were created
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous Authors
and Works

The 2. Human beings can Thomas Paine

Constitution, The arrive as truth (God’s (“The Crisis”),
The Bill of Enlightenment rules) by using deductive Phyllis Wheatley
Rights, and reasoning, rather than (poetry)
The relying on the authority of
Declaration of the past, on religious
Independence faith, or intuition
were created
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous Authors
and Works

1800 – 1860 1. Valued feeling,

intuition, idealism, and Washington
inductive reasoning. Irving (“Rip Van
2. Placed faith in inner Winkle”), Emily
Industrialization Romanticism experience and the Dickinson
War of 1812 power of imagination. (poetry), Walt
Whitman (Leaves
3. Shunned the artificiality
of Grass)
of civilization and seek
unspoiled nature as a
path to spirituality.
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous Authors
and Works

4. Championed individual
California freedom and the worth of Edgar Allan Poe
Gold the individual. (“The Raven”),
Rush 5. Saw poetry as the Nathaniel
Romanticism highest expression of the Hawthorne
imagination (The Scarlet
Letter)
6. Dark Romantics: Used
dark and supernatural
themes/settings (Gothic
style)
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous Authors
and Works
1. Everything in the world,
1840 – 1860 Transcendentalism including human beings, is a Ralph Waldo
reflection of the Divine soul Emerson (Nature,
Abolitionist, 2. People can use their Self Reliance)
Utopian, and intuition to behold God’s spirit Henry David
Women’s The American Thoreau (Walden,
revealed in nature or in their
suffrage Renaissance Life in the
own souls.
Movements Woods), Louisa
3. Self-reliance and
May Alcott (Little
individualism must outweigh
Women)
external authority and blind
conformity to tradition
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous Authors
and Works
1. Everything in the world,
1840 – 1860 Transcendentalism including human beings, is a Ralph Waldo
reflection of the Divine soul Emerson (Nature,
Abolitionist, 2. People can use their Self Reliance)
Utopian, and intuition to behold God’s spirit Henry David
Women’s The American Thoreau (Walden,
revealed in nature or in their
suffrage Renaissance Life in the
own souls.
Movements Woods), Louisa
3. Self-reliance and
May Alcott (Little
individualism must outweigh
Women)
external authority and blind
conformity to tradition
Period Dates Period Period Characteristics Famous Authors and
Name Works
1850 – 1890 1. Feeling of disillusionment Mark Twain
(Huckleberry Finn)
Realism 2. Common subjects; slums of Jack London
Civil War rapid growing cities, factories (Call of the Wild, To
Reconstruction replacing farmlands, poor factory Build aa Fire)
worker, corrupt politicians Stephen Crane
3. Represented the manner and (The Open Boat)
environment of everyday life and Ambrose Bierce (An
ordinary people as realistic as Occurrence at Owl
possible. Creek)
4. Sought to explain behavior Kate Chopin
(psychologically/socially) (Story of an Hour)
Period Dates Period Period Characteristics Famous Authors and
Name Works
1850 – 1900 1. Feeling of disillusionment Mark Twain
(Huckleberry Finn)
Realism 2. Common subjects; slums of Jack London
Civil War rapid growing cities, factories (Call of the Wild, To
Reconstruction replacing farmlands, poor factory Build aa Fire)
worker, corrupt politicians Stephen Crane
3. Represented the manner and (The Open Boat)
environment of everyday life and Ambrose Bierce (An
ordinary people as realistic as Occurrence at Owl
possible. Creek)
4. Sought to explain behavior Kate Chopin
(psychologically/socially) (Story of an Hour)
Period Dates Period Period Characteristics Famous Authors and
Name Works
1900 – 1950 1. Feeling of disillusionment and Lorraine Hansberry
(A Raisin in the Sun)
loss of faith in the “American Scott Fitzgerald
World War 1 Realism Dream”; the independence, self (The Great Gatsby)
reliant, individual will triumph William Faulkner
(A Rose for Emily)
2. Emphasis on bold Eudora Welty
The Great experimentation in style and form (A Worm Path)
Depression Robert Frost
over the traditional. (Poetry)
3. Interest in the inner workings of T.S. Elliot
World War 2 (The Wasteland, Love Song
the human mind (Stream of of J. Alfred Prufrock)
consciousness) John Steinbeck
(Of Mice and Men, Grapes
of Wrath)
Period Dates Period Period Characteristics Famous Authors and
Name Works
1900 – 1950 1. Feeling of disillusionment and Lorraine Hansberry
(A Raisin in the Sun)
loss of faith in the “American Scott Fitzgerald
World War 1 Realism Dream”; the independence, self (The Great Gatsby)
reliant, individual will triumph William Faulkner
(A Rose for Emily)
2. Emphasis on bold Eudora Welty
The Great experimentation in style and form (A Worm Path)
Depression Robert Frost
over the traditional. (Poetry)
3. Interest in the inner workings of T.S. Elliot
World War 2 (The Wasteland, Love Song
the human mind (Stream of of J. Alfred Prufrock)
consciousness) John Steinbeck
(Of Mice and Men, Grapes
of Wrath)
Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous Authors and
Works
1920 – Harlem 1. Black cultural movement in James Weldon
1940 Renaissance Harlem, New York Johnson
The Jazz Age 2. Some poetry rythmns based Claude McKay
“The New on spirituals, and jazz, lyrics on Countee Cullen
Negro the blues, and diction from the Langston Hughes
Movement” street talk of the ghettos (poetry)
Zora Neale Hurston
The Roaring 3. Other poetry used
20s conventional lyrical
Prohibition
Period Period Name Period Characteristics Famous Authors
Dates and Works
1950 – Contemporary 1. Influenced by studies of media, Alice Walker
Present language, and information Wallace Stevens
technology E.E. Cummings
Postmodernism 2. Sense that little is unique; Maya Angelou
Korean culture endlessly duplicates and Anne Sexton
War copies itself James Baldwin
Richard Wright
Vietnam 3. New literary forms and Sandra Cisneros
War techniques; works composed of Amy Tan
only dialogue or combining fiction
and nonfiction, experimenting with
physical appearance of their work