American Literary Time Periods

Puritanism, 1700-1750

Jan 1, 1700

sermons, diaries, personal narratives, plain style

American Literary Time Periods, 1700-1900

Period: Jan 1, 1700 to Jan 1, 1900

Rationalism, Age of Enlightenment, 1750-1850

Jan 1, 1750

political pamphlets, travel writing, highly ornate. National Mission and American Character, democratic utopia.

Romanticism, 1800-1850

Jan 1, 1800

poetry, short stories, novels, slave narratives, essays, Transcendentalism, imagination over reason

Transcendentalism, 1836-1860

Jan 1, 1836

Sub-genre of Romanticism. Main ideas - imagination over reason, reverence for nature, focus on the individual.

Realism, 1850-1900

Jan 1, 1850

Spirituals, slave narratives, political writing, poetry, Naturalism, Reagionalism, Social Realism