American Literary Movements

Puritan Literature - Content

Time frame = 1650 - 1750Life is a “test”: the winners go to

Heaven, the losers to Damnation. Earth is a battlefield between God and Satan. America is a holy “Promised Land” where Puritan Christians will create Heaven on Earth, a Christian utopia.

Puritan Literature

Sermons and Religious TractsDiariesHistoriesPersonal Narratives (usually survivors

of Native American attacks)Religious Poems

Puritan Literature (Continued)

Very little imaginative literature produced. It was often just for personal satisfaction, so not published.

Puritan Literature – Historical Context

Puritan settlers fled England where they were being jailed for their religious beliefs.

They came to New England to establish their own brand of Christianity.

Believed all humans were corrupt and sinful to the core. God selects a few (not everyone!) and saves them,

although no one knows who He has chosen to go to Heaven or Hell.

Believed they could use the bible to interpret history, create laws, condemn criminals, and predict the future.

Puritans were highly educated and literate, mainly to read and understand scripture.

Colonial Literature-Content

Time frame: 1750-1800Politicians or patriots writing

reasonable, logical, yet often incendiary (the ability to cause strife) material to incite revolt against English rule.

Intended for wide circulation.

Colonial Literature-Genre

Political pamphlets, “broadsides,” and speeches

Political documents (ex: Declaration of Independence)

Travel writingAlmanacs

Colonial Literature- Style

Reasonable and logical, usually offering persuasive arguments

Highly ornate writing style

Colonial Literature-Effect

Patriotism grows by instilling pride in Americans, plus creates common agreement about issues

Shows differences between Americans and Europeans

Still little creative literature produced

Colonial Literature-Historical Context

English rule was becoming a weight, and while many colonists tried to patch up the relationship there was a growing belief that “American” meant something different than “English”---and so it made no sense to many that a foreign country should rule America.

Enlightenment philosophers in Europe contributed many new ideas, including government as a “contract” which people must accept willingly.

Romanticism (The American Renaissance) Content

Time Frame = 1800 – 1850Not an exclusively American

movement: Romanticism was extremely popular throughout Europe for well over 100 years. It stresses the freedom of the artist to be highly imaginative, emotional, and/or spontaneous in writing.

Romanticism – Content (Con’t)

Romanticism asserts the following: The worth of the individual The goodness of humanity The glory of communion with nature

Romanticism - Genre

Imaginative fiction (both novels and short stories)

Poetry, often focusing on nature

Romanticism - Style

Flowery, dramatic phrasing/wording intended to heighten emotional effect.

Exotic locations, such as the sea, wilderness, or distant past.

Larger-than-life characters, usually mistakably heroic or evil; they are obviously imaginary and not intended to be realistic (often stereotypical).

Romanticism - Effect

An explosion of creative output, sometimes “fluffy” (being only light entertainment), sometimes sublime.

The American past was mythologized.The idea that each person is important is

underlined in the public consciousness.Has never completely died: Some novels

today (and many movies) are “Romantic” in part or in whole.

Romanticism – Historical Context

For centuries leading up to this period, literature was to be logical, orderly, and fact-based, with authors detached and unemotional in their writing.

English writers set the standard for what was “good” in literature; Americans, in part, wrote Romantically because the English did – although it fit perfectly with the new American mindset.

Transcendentalism – “The New English Renaissance”

America’s Major Romantic Movement1840-1855

Transcendentalism - Content

Definitely Romantic, “Transcendentalists” believed not in Christianity per se, but in Nature as a guide for spiritual living.

We are all “one” in a mystical sense, but we each should emphasize our individuality to the exclusion of society, government, or anything else.

Transcendentalism - Genre

PoetryEssays (usually personal essays)Novels

Transcendentalism - Style

Similar to RomanticismPromoted fresh and new contentLittle use of epics or mythologyWriting drawn from personal experience

Transcendentalism - Effect

Individualism and self-reliance codified - and is still important in the American consciousness today.

Fueled the abolitionist movement, for Transcendentalists promoted human value of everyone, including slaves.

“Civil disobedience” of an unjust government or society first promoted, returning many times in the decades to follow (MLK).

Transcendentalism – Historical Context

No one is exactly sure why New England experienced such a tremendous birth of talent at this one time.

Slavery was debated nationally.

Gothic (sub-genre of Romanticism)

1800-1850+Gothic writing uses medieval or

mysterious elements in literature—often even supernatural.

Gothic Style

The tone ranges from gloomy to horrifying.Readers are often faced with forces or

powers they do not understand. Sometimes this force is insanity, which afflicts a main character or narrator.

Hold readers’ attention through dread of terrible events or possibilities.

Settings are dark forests, extreme vegetation, swamps, ruins, haunted locales, etc.

Gothic Effect

Today in literature we still read many Gothic-inspired tales.

Gothic Historical Context

Romanticism stresses wild imagination; Gothic tales regularly toy with logic and fact.

Realism

1860-1914Opposed to Romanticism, Realism advocated

writing about life as it actually is. Focus on realistic people, realistic events, and tell it in a realistic manner.

Tall tales and the like are, ironically, acceptable within Realism as long as they have a realistic flavor.

Realism Genre

NovelsShort StoriesTall tales

Realism Style Prefers objective narrator (third person point of view) OR a

realistic first person narrator Characters not idealized, but have normal human flaws

and virtues; they are often from the lower class (immigrants, laborers, homeless, etc.). Sometimes their choices fail, sometimes their endeavors are unsuccessful

“Local color”/ Regionalism: Dialogue includes vernacular diction from specific locations around the country; landscape and values of each locale also captured in print

Although most stories do have a moral, they do not directly say the point to the reader; it must be inferred from the reading.

Society often shown to be corrupt (due to materialism, human nature, etc.)

Realism Effect

Led to a pessimistic view of life (see Naturalism)

Modern and Postmodern literature are overwhelmingly Realistic.

Realism Historical Context

Civil War disillusionment and the civilizing of the American frontier cause a demand for a “truer” type of literature that does not idealize the people or places.

Naturalism (sub-genre of realism)

1880-1920A harsher, more pessimistic form of Realism,

Naturalists believed the universe was unpredictable and uncaring. Naturalism is “deterministic”: humanity has no free will, for we are victims of our heredity, environment, or just sheer blind chance. Quite often, Naturalists show life to be a cruel joke.

Naturalism Genre

Short storyNovelpoetry

Naturalism Style

Many Realism traits, especially in style of writing (vernacular use, lower class characters, etc.)

Dominant subject is the violent struggle to survive in a cold, uncaring universe—a struggle the individual often loses. Antagonists are chance, one’s heredity, nature, or other humans.

“Brute within” idea: each individual is comprised of strong and warring emotions such as greed, ambition, hatred, narcissism; which will emerge depends upon the circumstance. We are like dumb animals when it comes to emotion.

Naturalism Effect

Raised important issues such as urban depression

Historical Context

In a country that had traditionally been agricultural, half of America’s population was in 12 cities by 1919, resulting in overcrowded housing, unsanitary living conditions, low pay, poor working conditions, etc.

The ideas of Darwin (natural selection/ “survival of the fittest”) come to prominence, infringing upon religious beliefs and Romantic notions of humanity’s inherent value.

Modernism

1914 – 1946Still heavily influential (if not dominant)

in the present day

Modernism - Content

Leading up to WWI and afterwards, “Modern” life seemed radically different from traditional life (more scientific, faster, and more technological).

Society’s values were in shambles with little agreement on values or behaviors.

Modern literature showed people as alienated and disconnected from one another, society, and/or God.

Modernism - Genre

Experimental novels and short storiesExperimental poemsDrama

Modernism – Style

Highly experimental poems (abstract, grammar, unpoetic phrasing, etc.)

Prose experiments: use of fragments, juxtaposition, interior monologue, and stream of consciousness.

No overall conformity among writers. Each seeking own style.

Common subjects were grief over loss or uselessness of past traditions and inability for people to communicate.

Modernism – Style (con’t)

Tone normally down, depressed, or lostOften little or no resolution, for this

mirrors a Modernist’s reality.

Modernism - Effect

Common readers are often alienated by this literature due to experiments and depressing tone.

Modernism – Historical Context

Industrialism and invention changed life dramatically.

Many jobs eliminated and people were not as valuable as they once were in filling roles.

“The Great War,” World War I, was the first war of mass destruction due to technological advances.

More killed in a shorter period of time than before.

The Consciousness of the world became jaded.

Modernism – Historical Context (con’t)

Morals and values (and religion) seemed to have been destroyed by the war.

Disillusionment of youths caused them to rebel against the older generation who they blamed for the mass destruction of the War.

The rise of youth culture during Jazz Age was a time of young people looking for an identity in a fast-paced world.

Crash of 1929 and Depression fed into the feelings of a society gone wrong.

Harlem Renaissance- Content

Time period: 1920-1936Period of intense creative activity among African-

American writers and other artists living in Harlem in New York during the 1920s.

Artistic productivity bloomed in a short period of time.

Writers, poets, philosophers, musicians, visual artists, and filmmakers gathered to form a large and diverse talent base whose achievements reflected and challenged societal conventions.

Harlem Renaissance- Historical Context

The roots of this movement stem back to the Reconstruction period, when Southern African Americans tried to claim the education, economic opportunity, and political liberty that slavery had long denied to them.

Harlem Renaissance- Style and Genres

Sought to reach the entire community, not merely its most highly educated members.

NovelsShort StoriesDramaPoetry

Postmodernism

Time = 1946 – PresentPeople observe life as the media

presents it, rather than experiencing life directly

Popular culture saturates people’s livesAbsurdity and coincidence

Postmodernism - Content

A transformation of Modernism; the search for values (especially moral behavior toward others) is still important, but it is doubtful there are answers. The world is absurd: no values or truths are eternal, everything is momentary and relative.

Postmodernism – Genre/Style

Mixing of fantasy with nonfiction/reality; blurs lines of reality for reader

No heroesConcern with individual in isolation (question

of identity/stream-of-consciousness)Challenges most limitations, for they are seen

as oppressiveDetached, unemotionalNarrativesPresent Tense

Postmodernism - Effect

Erodes distinction between classes of people

Insists that values are not permanent but only “local” or “historical”

Postmodernism – Historical Context

Post World War II prosperityMedia culture interprets values