PURITANISM

TO
POST MODERNISM
AMERICAN LIERATURE
 LITERARY PERIODS
 PURITANISM
 RATIONALISM
 ROMANTICISM
 TRANSCENDENTALISM
 REALISM
 MODERNISM
 HARLEM RENAISSANCE
 CONTEMPORARY
 PURITANISM
 Puritans: Members of church of England
 Protestants –wanted to “purify” the church of England.
 Simple form of worship, religion : a personal inner experience.
 Valued : self reliance, industriousness & simplicity
 Bible: guiding force most literature referred to & paid reverence to god
 1st in 1620, by 1640 more than 20000 puritans had arrived
 American character was shaped by the moral, ethical& religious conviction of
puritans.
 PURITAN AGE 1600-1800
 First person narratives in the forms of journals and diaries.
 Personal accounts of American colonists, depicting tales of traveling to the new
lands, immigration and everyday struggle.
 Letters were also a popular form of writing as many left their families back in
England
 Main genres: religious sermons, historical narrative, personal journals & poetry.
 Used plain style of writing.
 Heavy influence of Biblical text.
 FAMOUS WRITERS

 William Bradford: colonial governor &judge. Of Polymouth

Plantation ,history in journal form.

 Anne Bradstreet, poet, 1st puritan figure in American literature.

 Edward Taylor, founder of cultural anthropology.

 Jonnathan Edwards, theologist&preacher. sermons manuscripts

and correspondence
 RATIONALISM 1750 -1800

 Age of Reason /The Enlightenment. Reason & logic (science).

 Mostly comprised of philosophers , scientists (writing speeches and

pamphlets)

 Response to the extreme views of Puritanism and the oppressive laws of

British.

 Focused on Patriotism, unity, equality.

 MAJOR WRITERS

 Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography & Other Writings

 Patrick Henry – speech to the Virginia Convention

 Thomas Paine – Common Sense, Rights of Man

 Phyllis Wheatley- poet.1st African American women to publish a

book of poetry.
 ROMANTICISM 1800 -1860
 Focus changed from political matters and revolutionary ideas to the other
aspects of life: emotions, possibilities, imaginations, etc

 Placed faith in inner experience and the power of the imagination.

 They seek unspoiled nature as a path to spirituality.

 Importance to individual freedom and the worth of the individual

 Considered poetry as the highest expression of the imagination.

 Dark Romantics: Used dark and supernatural themes/settings(gothic

style)
 FAMOUS WRITERS

 Washington Irving- short story writer. Rip Van Winkle,The Legend

of Sleepy Hollow

 Emily Dickinson –poet. posthumously published

 Walt Whitman- poet, essayist

 Edger Allen Poe- poet, ss writer.

 Nathaniel Hawthorne- novelist. dark romantic

 T R A N S C E N D E N TA L I S M 1 8 4 0 - 1 8 6 0
 An idealist literary and philosophical movement.

 As a reaction and a protest against the general state of intellectualism (rationalism )

and spirituality (puritanism).

 They valued individualism, idealism & divinity of nature.

 They believed in inherent goodness of people and nature.

 Society and its institutions have corrupted the purity of the individual.

 They have a faith that people are at their best when truly self reliant and independent.
 MAJOR WRITERS

 Ralph Waldo Emerson – essayist& poet. Self reliance

 Henry David Thoreau- essayist&poet.civil disobedience

 Louisa May Alcott- novelist,SS,poet. Little Women

 REALISM 1850-1900

 Depicted the contemporary social realities and the lives, everyday activities
of ordinary people.
 Common subject: slums of rapidly growing cities, factories replacing
farmlands, poor factory workers , corrupt politicians
 Represented the manner and environment of everyday life and ordinary
people as realistically as possible
 Sought to explain behaviour.
 MAJOR WRITERS

 Mark Twain-Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Humourist. Adventures of

Tom Sawyer, huckleberry fin
 Jack London- John Griffith London .novelist, innovator of science
fiction.
 Stephen Crane- poet,novelist, ss. The Red Badge of Courage, maggie
A Girl of the Street
 Kate Chopin- SS & Novels. The Awakening, the Story of an Hour.
feminist
 MODERNISM 1910-1945

 Between World wars

 Loss of faith in traditional values and beliefs including “American Dream”
 Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and form over the traditional.
 Interest in the inner workings of the human mind ( stream of consciousness)
 The works reflected a sense of loss, disillusionment and even despair.
 Writers like James Joyce and T.S.Eliot saw a fragmented world but hoped that
fragmentation could be countered through their works.
 MAJOR WRITERS
 Lorraine Hansberry – playwright ,African american, collected last
plays of

 William Faulkner- nobel laureate,

 Robert Frost-poet. Road not taken, pulizter

 T S Eliot-poet , The Waste Land,nobel

 HARLEM RENAISSANCE
1920-1940

 Intellectual social and artistic explosion centred in Harlem

 The New Negro Movement, "The Jazz Age”, “The Roaring 20s”

 African American cultural movement, African Americans

celebrated their culture through literature and art.

 It enhanced the self esteem of African Americans

 FAMOUS WRITERS

 James Weldon Johnson – lift every voice & sing,national anthem to

black americans

 Claude McKay-poet

 Langston Hughes-poet innovator of jazz poetry(rhythm)

 Zora Neale Hurston- their eyes were watching god

 CONTEMPORARY 1950-

 Postmodernism

 Influenced by the studies of media, language and information technology.

 Based on reality with strong characters and believable story.

 New literary forms and techniques: works composed of only dialogues or

combining fiction and non fiction, experimenting with physical appearance
of the works
 FAMOUS WRITERS

 Alice Walker: novelist, poet, social activist. The Color Purple,

Pulizter, National book award.

 Maya Angelou: poet, singer, memoirist & civil rights activist.

 Harper lee- pulizter. To Kill a Mocking Bird.

 John steinbeck- nobel & pulizter