American Literature Timeline

By rmullin
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    The American Revolutionary War

    War fought between the Kingdom and Great Britain and the thirteen British colonies of North America, in pursuit of independence from Britain
  • The Declaration of Independence

    The Declaration of Independence

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    Gothic Movement

    A sub-genre of Romanticism
  • Nature

    Nature

    An essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson, considered the birthplace of Transcendentalist's foundations
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    The Transcendentalist Movement

    Largely sparked by Emerson's publication of the essay Nature
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    American Romanticism

    Rough duration of what is known as the Literary American Renaissance
  • The Raven

    The Raven

    Written by American Romantacism member Edgar Allen Poe, and is considered one of the most famous poems ever written.
  • Song of Myself

    Song of Myself

    Written by Walt Whitman, considered one of the most influential poems written by an American
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    The American Civil War

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    American Realism

    Approximate period of the Literary Movement's rise to dominance in the U.S.
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

    Written by Mark Twain
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    Naturalism

    Another widespread Literary movement in some ways similar to that of Realism in that both movements wished to present a photographically accurate version of "real" life
  • Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

    Upton Sinclair's The Jungle

    A significant Naturalist novel written by Upton Sinclair which most significantly revealed the mediocre conditions of America's meat packing industry.
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    World War I

    Occurred during Wilson's presidency, who declared the U.S. nuetral until joining the Allies in 1917
  • The Road Not Taken

    The Road Not Taken

    Written by Robert Frost
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    The Harlem Renaissance

    Approximate span of the cultural movement, which took place predominantly among African Americans in Harlem, New York
  • I, Too, Sing America

    I, Too, Sing America

    A Poem written by Harlem Renaissance Poet Langston Hughes
  • The Great Gatsby

    The Great Gatsby

    Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Sound and the Fury

    The Sound and the Fury

    A Southern Gothic novel written by William Faulkner
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    The Great Depression

    The most widespread, deepest depression of America's History
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    Widespread Growth of Modernism in America

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God

    Their Eyes Were Watching God

    Written by Zora Neale Hurston
  • The Grapes of Wrath

    The Grapes of Wrath

    Written by John Steinbeck
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    World War II

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    The Cold War

    Rough Time span of the lengthy conflict between the US and NATO allies against the communist party led by the USSR
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    Post-Modernism

    In a large sense, a reaction against the Modernist movement
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    African American Civil Rights Movement

    Aprroximate span of the worldwide political movement that took place chiefly in America for the equality of blacks
  • The Catcher in the Rye

    The Catcher in the Rye

    Written by J.D. Salinger
  • To Kill a Mockingbird

    To Kill a Mockingbird

    A Southern Gothic novel written by Harper Lee, which the questioned the issues of racial inequality.
  • Catch-22

    Catch-22

    Written by Joseph Heller

  • Enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

  • Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

    Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • First man on the Moon

    First man on the Moon

    As accomplished by Apollo 11, controlled by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
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    Contemporary American Literature

    General date of origins to Contemporary literature, a continuation of Post-Modernism