1. Timeline of American Literature English 11

2. Native American (?-1600) HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Creation stories to explain nature Ritualistic (healing, initiation, planting & harvesting, purification & hunting) GENRE/STYLE: Communicated orally, not in writing Myths, legends, chants EXAMPLES: “How the World was Made” (Cheyenne) “Origin Legend” (Navajo)

3. Age of Faith (1607-1750) HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Puritans & Pilgrims Separated from the Anglican church of England Religion dominates writing & lives Work ethic: hard work & simple living GENRE/STYLE: Sermons, diaries, letters, personal narratives, slave memoirs Instructive, plain style, documentation MAJOR WRITERS: Anne Bradstreet (1 st published American poet), “To My Dear & Loving Husband” Jonathan Edwards (Minister), “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

4. Age of Reason (1750-1800) HISTORICAL CONTEXT: American Revolution; growth of patriotism Democracy as a value/character Reason replacing faith GENRE/STYLE: Political pamphlets, essays, almanacs, travel writing, speeches, documents Instructive writing in highly ornate language EXAMPLES: Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography & Poor Richard’s Almanac Thomas Jefferson, “Declaration of Independence” Thomas Paine, “The American Crisis”

5. Romanticism (1800-1855) HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Expansion of book, magazine & newspaper publishing Industrial Revolution Abolitionist movement GENRE/STYLE: Short stories, novels, poetry Imagination over reason, intuition over fact; focused on the fantastic part of human experience & human feeling Writing interpreted both on surface & in depth Gothic literature (supernatural, characters both good & evil, dark & depressed settings) EXAMPLES: Washington Irving, “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “Rip van Winkle” Nathanial Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, “Young Goodman Brown” Edgar Allen Poe, “The Raven,” “Fall of the House of Usher”

6. Transcendentalism (1840-1855) Fit these notes under the “Romanticism” heading: Transcendentalism: Stressed the individual, intuition, nature, being self-reliant EXAMPLES: Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” Henry David Thoreau, Walden

7. REALISM (1865-1915) HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Civil War brings demand for realistic writing People defined by “class” Darwin’s influence: survival of the fittest GENRE/STYLE: Realism: focus on lives of ordinary people Naturalism: the universe is unpredictable, free will an illusion Novels, short stories Focus on social problems EXAMPLES: Frederick Douglass, escaped slave, My Autobiography Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Jack London, Call of the Wild, “To Build a Fire”

8. MODERNISM (1915-1945) HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Overwhelming changes in technology WAR and mass destruction Rise of youth culture GENRE/STYLE: Stream of consciousness, interior monologue, other unique experimental styles EXAMPLES: John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

9. CONTEMPORARY (1945-present) HISTORICAL CONTEXT: Media-saturated culture Post WW2 prosperity Social protest New millennium GENRE/STYLE: Mix of fantasy & non-fiction Anti-heroes Women/ethnic writers Graphic novels, experimental styles EXAMPLES: J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye Maya Angelou, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried