American Literary History

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American Literary History

• Seven Eras That Have Influenced American
  Literature

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1. The First American Literature Native Americans

• Communicated Orally
• Included myths and legends
• Focus on nature
• Creation Stories

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2. The Enlightenment (1607-1800)

• Two Phases
• 1. Age of Faith (Puritans/Religion)
• 2. Age of Reason (Patriots/Politics)

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Age of Faith (1607-1750)

• Puritans and Pilgrims
• Genres/Style
• Sermons
• Plain style
• Instructive
• Some Major Writers
• Anne Bradstreet
• John Smith

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Age of Reason (1750-1800)

• Political context (time of American Revolution)
• Use of reason over faith alone
• Genres/style
• Political pamphlets, speeches, essays, documents
• Major Writers
• Ben Franklin
• Thomas Jefferson
• Thomas Paine

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3. Romanticism (1800-1855)

• Time of Industrial Revolution
• Genres/style
• Short stories, novels, poetry
• Imagination valued over reason intuition valued
  over fact
• Major Writers
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Washington Irving
• Edgar Allen Poe

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4. Transcendentalism (1840-1855)

• Stressed individualism, self-reliance, intuition,
  and connection with nature
• Father of Transcendentalism Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Other major writerHenry David Thoreau

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5. Realism (1865-1915)

• Civil War era
• Genres/style
• Novels, short stories
• Focus on lives of ordinary people tell it like
  it is
• Nature is powerful, and beyond mans control
• Major Writers
• Frederick Douglass
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Mark Twain
• Jack London

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6. Modernism (1915-1945)

• Time of World War I and overwhelming advances in
  technology
• Genres/style
• Experimental styles
• Dominant moodalienation disconnection
• Major writers
• Ernest Hemingway
• William Faulkner
• John Steinbeck

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7. Contemporary (1945-present)

• Time of Post WWII prosperity media saturated
  culture
• Genres/style
• Lines of reality blurred
• concern with individual in isolation
• ethnic and women writers emerge
• Major Writers
• Allen Ginsberg, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sylvia Plath,
  Elie Wiesel, Stephen King

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Lets Review.

• Tell me ONE THING YOU REMEMBER, and ONE COMMENT
  YOU HAVE about
• Native Americans
• Enlightenment Age of Faith
• Enlightenment Age of Reason
• Romanticism
• Transcendentalism
• Realism
• Modernism
• Contemporary

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In Conclusion

• You are responsible for knowing this information
  for this weeks quiz.
• We will also refer back to this information
  throughout the course, so DONT LOSE YOUR
  NOTES!!!