A Short History of American Literature

By anne cabs
  • Period: 1900 BCE to 2000 BCE

    Modernism in America

    Imagist Movement; modernism in poetry; the Lost Generation; depression period; the Beat Movement; American fiction after WWII; new fiction；Twentieth ­century American Drama
  • Period: 1890 BCE to 1900 BCE

    American Naturalism

    Naturalism - ­­­The naturalists chose their subjects from the lower ranks of the society, portrayed misery and poverty of the underdogs who were demonstrably victims of society and nature. And one of the most familiar themes in American Naturalism is the theme of human bestiality, especially as an explanation of sexual desire.
  • Period: 1851 BCE to 1889 BCE

    The Period of Realism

    Realism - ­­­a reaction against Romanticism or a move away from the bias towards romance and self ­creating fictions; a great interest in the realities of life, everyday existence, what was brutal or sordid and class struggle; three dominant figures, William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James.
    Local Colorism - ­­­the beginning of Realism; the presentation and interpretation of the local character, the truthful color of local life.
  • Period: 1800 BCE to 1850 BCE

    The Period of Romanticism

    American Romanticism ­­­the real beginning of American literature; the first American Renaissance; emphasis upon the imaginative and emotional qualities of literature, a liking for the picturesque, the exotic, the sensuous, the sensational and the supernatural;
    the strong tendency to exalt the individual and the common man
    *New England Transcendentalism ­­­the Romanticism on the Puritan soil; emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul; “a transparent eyeball".
  • Period: 1600 BCE to 1700 BCE

    The Period of Colonization and Revolution

    American Puritanism is one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and literature; The representatives of the Enlightenment set them selves the task of disseminating knowledge among the people and advocating revolutionary ideas. They also actively participated in the War for Independence.