-
Period: Jan 1, 1490 to
Puritanism
This was the first period of American literature. People wrote to glorify God. Religion was the main topic of literature at this time. Other subjects include the wilderness and manifest destiny. -
To My Dear and Loving Husband
Anne Bradstreet
In a letter to her husband, the author describes her true love for her husband. -
Sinners in Hands of Angry God
Jonathan Edwards
This sermon lead to new thinking during the Puritanism era and helped start the Great Awakening. -
Period: to
Rationalism
As colonists began to view their position differently, a new type of writing formed. Rationalistic writers would focus on the growth of patriotism, use of reason, and a national mission. The American character was created and a democratic utopia was sought after. -
Speech to Virginia Convention
Patrick Henry
Henry urges the colonists to rise up and fight against Britain. -
Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson
This document seperated the British colonies into their own nation. -
from The American Crisis
Thomas Paine
These pamphlets offered inspiration to the colonists in order to declare themselves seperate from Britain. -
Speech in the Convention
Benjamin Franklin
Franklin addresses problems in the Constiution and proposes solutions. -
Period: to
Romanticism
Romanticism had several identities. Bright romanticism concentrated on the goodness of people, while dark romanticism focused on the evils of people. Self-reliance, individualism, and utopian thought were all subjects covered during this time period. -
The Devil and Tom Walker
Washington Irving
An unpleasant man sells his soul to the devil for wealth. -
from Nature; Selft-Reliance (essay)
Ralph Waldo Emerson
These essays are a compilation of Emerson's themes. He focuses on avoiding conformity and following your own ideas. -
The Raven
Edgar Allan Poe
A man is searching for a book when he hears a tapping at the door. -
The Scarlet Letter
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The main character has a daughter through an affair and must live with the guilt and sin. -
Moby Dick
Herman Melville
The main character voyages out to find the massive whale that he had previously encountered. -
from Walden (essay)
Henry David Thoreau
This essay demonstrates the importance of self reliance, declaring independence, and simple living. -
Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman
It took Whitman his intire life to write this book and it is notable for its discussion of delight in sensual pleasures during a time when such things were considered immoral. -
Period: to
Realism
Realism was a literary movement that began during the nineteenth century and stressed the actual as opposed to the imagined. -
The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This short poem covers time and life. -
Period: to
Naturalism
Naturalism was a literary movement that used realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. -
Period: to
Regionalism
Regionalism refers to fiction or poetry that focuses on specific features including characters, dialects, customs, history, and landscape of a particular region. -
The Adventures of Huck Finn
Mark Twain
This book explores notions of race and identity and is considered rascist by some. -
Poetry collection
Emily Dickinson
These poems cover many diifferent romanticism themes. -
The Red Badge of Courage
-
We Wear the Mask (poetry)
Paul Laurence Dunbar
This poem talks about a mask which is an extended metaphor for African Americans putting on a brave face. -
The Awakening
Kate Chopin
This book is one of the earliest American novels that focuses on women's issues it is also considered a landmark for feminism. -
Call of the Wild
Jack London
The primary theme of the story is of survival and a return to primitivism. -
A Wagner Mantinee
Willa Cather
This book tells about the hardship and desolation of pioneer life and the power of music on peoples spirits. -
The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton
This story is about a women named Lily Bart, who is torn between her desire for luxurious living and a relationship based on mutual respect and love. She sabotages all her possible opportunities for a wealthy marriage, loses the esteem of her social circle, and dies young, poor, and alone. -
Period: to
Modernism
The moderist time period in literature is characterized by struggle, wars, and the power of human beings.
WWI, WWII, Great Depression -
Period: to
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance is a time where african american authors, artists, and musicians keyed in on racial equality and americanism.
WWI, WWII, Great Depression, Urbanization -
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
Postmodernism- Although in the time frame of modernism and the Harlem Renaissance, the road not taken has post modernism ideas such as the ability to choose your own path. -
The Wasteland
T.S. Eliot
Modernism- This novel contains referrence to WWI which takes place in the modernist time phase. -
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Modernism- This novel discusses and displays the roaring 20s which are a key time of modernist literature. -
As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner
The novel utilizes stream of writing techniques, multiple narrators, and varying chapter lengths. -
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
Harlem Renaissance- Depicts a teenage girl battling through racial struggles as she grows into a woman. -
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
Modernism- This novel focuses in on the hardships of migrant workers out west during the great depression. -
Native Son
Richard Wright
Harlem Renaissance- This novel discusses the poverty of African American youth and the racial hardships they face. -
For whom the bell tolls
Ernest Hemingway
Modernism- This war novel based during the Spanish Civil War has aspects of discontent and defiance, both characteristics of modernism. -
A Worn Path
Eudora Welty
This is a short story about and elderly women who walkes into town every so often to get medicine for her grandson who died a while ago. She has dementia and doesn't relize her grandson died already. -
Period: to
Post Modernism
Post modernist literature goes into depths about freedom, prosperity, racial harmony, and peace.
Vietnam War, Cold War, Civil Rights, Womans Movement -
The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger
Post Modernism- With many concepts of teenage alienation, this book focuses on freedom and equality, postmoderist themes. -
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
Harlem Renassance- Adresses social and intellectual issues of African Americans including black nationalism. -
The Crucible
Arthur Miller
Post Modernism- During the cold war the US government blacklisted accused communists, this novel was about the Salem witch trials, an allegory referring to this expericence. -
A Good Man is Hard to Find
Flannery O'Connor
This book shows a transformation in a grandmother who is concerned about looking like a good Christian rather than being a good Christian. -
I, Too
Langston Hughes
Harlem Reniassance- Langston Hughes is a famous African American author who battled for racial equality during the Harlem Renaissance. -
Old Age Sticks
ee cummings
Post Modernism- Old age sticks is a poem which harps on young realizing that the old were once young as well. -
To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
This book gives insight to sounthern living while telling the story of a obviously wrongfully accused African American. -
Beloved
Toni Morrison
Post Modernism- After the American Civil War, this novel depicts a slave who had previously ran away still hiding from those who enslaved her.