Movements in American Literature

AP Lang & Comp

Puritan/ Colonial

• 1650 – 1750• Earliest settlement literature• Reflects religious emphasis of the

break from England• Theocracy

Reason & Revolution

• 1750 – 1800• Heavy political emphasis• Highly reactive to the “blind faith” of the

prior period• Emphasis on logic and independence• Shift to democratic ideal

American Romanticism

• 1800 – 1860• A shift to writing for creative expression,

imagination, and entertainment• Birth of the American short story and

first American novel• “Distinctly American” fiction and poetry

The American Renaissance

• 1840 – 1860• Also known as the “Flowering of New

England”• Notable overlap with the Romantics• Encompassing three concurrent movements:– Transcendental– Anti-Transcendental– Fireside Poetry

• A focus on the “possibilities” of human nature

War & Reconciliation

• 1855 – 1865• Social unrest, conflict, and uncertainty

reflected in the writing• Return to a “truer” focus in literature,

real life and times• Emphasis on Americana / national

identity (collective and individual)

Realism/Regionalism/Naturalism

• 1865 – 1915• A focus on the everyday influence of

places, events, rural vs. urban life• Each movement had a distinction, but

literature and authors often fell into multiple movements

• Influence of industrialization & migrant workforce

Modernism

• 1915 – 1946• Emphasis on pursuit of the American

Dream• Literature is highly reflective of major

societal influences• Stylistically experimental• Progress in prose, fiction, drama, and

poetry

Harlem Renaissance

• 1920s & 1930s• Sub-movement of Modernist period• Emergence of urban African-American voice• Range of cultural experience in arts

Post-Modernism

• 1946 – 1985• Emergence of technological and scientific

themes• Highly unorthodox in stylistic elements• Influence of mass media