Periods in American
Literature
Puritans: Historical Context
1607-1750
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Separating from the Church of England
Come to America for religious freedom
Virginia is the dividing line. Below Virginia=$. Above Virginia =
God
Native Americans teach Puritans to plant crops and how to
not deplete the land, then we go to war with them and kill off
about 700 men, women and children
1692 witchcraft suspects are arrested and imprisoned. A
special court set up by the governor of Massachusetts.
Between June and September, 150 persons accused, 20
including 14 women executed
1696 New England Colonists begin slave trade for profit
By 1730’s there is a Great Awakening started by Jonathan
Edwards who tries to return to the people of America to the
original puritan way of life.
We are still under England’s rule
The Puritans: Outlook on God
1607-1750
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Come to America for religious freedom from the Church of
England
They believe that God could punish and reward their actions
The bible should be their law, did not want to separate church
and government
God’s plan was to send the Puritans to America and they
believed that if they read the bible, they could survive and
learn his plan
Puritans believed in PREDESTINATION/PREDETERMINATION
Today, this branch of Christians are referred to as Protestants,
they were protesting the beliefs and direction of the Church of
England
Puritans: Attitude Toward Man
1607-1750
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City upon the hill
All men are born evil-Adam & Eve (Original Sin)
Thought the bible held their plan, their plan to
bring them to survive, plan for living simply (no
materialism*)
Value education so that everyone could read the
bible (Founded Harvard, Yale, Princeton)
Slaves in the Bible, therefore okay to have
slaves
Puritans: Themes in Writing
1607-1750
Documenting their struggles/their journey
to America and their experience with the
Native Americans
 Biblical themes as a teaching tool of how
to live their own lives
 Journey of life and how to get to heaven
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Puritans: Genres & Literary Forms
1607-1750
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Historical Non-fiction (no stories because they
have to focus on their religious knowledge)
Writing style is simplistic “plain style” that
emulates the bible so that everyone can
understand it
Narrative (telling of an experience) or Diary form
Sermons to be delivered in Church
Poetry sparse and seen as a way to speak to
God
The Rationalists: Historical Context
1750-1800
4th & 5th generation “Americans” who were
used to self-governing as English Subjects
 1760’s-1770’s King George III Stamp Act
is unpopular, American Revolution here we
come.
 Cotton Mather, from devoutly Puritan
roots, develops Small Pox inoculation
 1800 Declaration of Independence
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The Rationalists: Outlook on God
1750-1800
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Deists who emphasized morality, rejecting orthodox
religious views
Deists came from diverse religious backgrounds and
embraced science, nature and humanity’s goodness
The Enlightenment thinkers
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Sir Isaac Newton (laws of gravity) compared God to a
great clockmaker.
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Valued logic and reason over faith
Once he created the perfect mechanism of this universe, he left
it to run on its own.
Little interest in the hereafter, instead focus on the power
of reason and science to further human progress
The Rationalists: Attitude Toward Man
1750-1800
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All men are born good
This is the Age of Reason. God’s greatest gift to
man was the ability to think and reason.
Believed in the perfectibility of man
Influenced by the Enlightenment thinkers
Voltaire (French Writer), Jean Jacques
Rousseau (French Philosopher), John Locke
(English Political Theorist)
The Rationalists: Themes in Literature
1750-1800
Writing expressed political ideas. After 1763, the writing focused on
relations with Great Britain and government
 1770’s and 1780’s public writing and speaking to rally against
“taxation without representation”
 Patrick Henry’s 1775 Speech to the Virginia Convention declaring
“Give me liberty or give me death” speech
 Thomas Paine’s January 1776 Common Sense
 June 1776 Declaration of Independence
 1787 The Constitution of the United States
 Ben Franklin wrote “Poor Richard’s Almanack*” – Fish and visitors
smell after 3 days.
*first American Dictionary not printed until 1798
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The Rationalists: Literary Forms
1750-1800
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50 Newspapers
40 magazines
Protest Documents
Autobiographies
Articles of Confederation, Constitution, Bill of Rights,
Declaration of Independence, etc.
No fiction or drama at this time, very little poetry or other
writings that rely on the imagination
The writing is meant to guide and perfect man’s common
goals-creating a better society, founding America,
forming cities, towns, states, etc.
Early Romanticism: Historical Context
1800-1840
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In 1800 Thomas Jefferson becomes President
War of 1812 against Great Britain-gave the United States
a true presence as a world power.
Francis Scott Key writes the Star Spangled Banner
(where F. Scott Fitzgerald gets his family name)
Women have little rights, blacks still counted as 3/5 of a
person
Vermont, Kentucky & Tennessee join original 13 states
Louisiana Purchase doubles size of the nation in 1803
Rapid change in transportation-westward expansion
Early Romanticism: Authors
1800-1840
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Washington Irving
 Terms New York City Gotham City
 Writes “The Devil and Tom Walker”
a Faustian legend
about selling your soul to the Devil at the crossroads,
writes “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and he writes
“Rip Van Winkle”
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William Cullen Bryant writes “Thanatopsis” a
poem about comparing nature to human life
James Fenimore Cooper writes The Last of the
Mohicans and The Spy
Early Romanticism: Outlook on God
1800-1840
Look to nature to apprehend truth behind
reality
 2nd Great Awakening. Hellfire & Damnation
style sermons.
 Temperance movement & abolitionst
 God is part of nature
 Distrust in city life (think about Gotham
city)
 Look to the past for wisdom
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Early Romanticism: Attitude Toward Man
1800-1840
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Value feeling and intuition over logic and reason
Avoid high society and culture
Prefer youthful innocence to educated
sophistication
The romantics are champions of individual
freedom and the work of the individual
Man’s purpose is to search for a higher truth
Greatest concern is for the common people, not
the wealthy
Early Romanticism: Themes in Literature
1800-1840
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Writings based on imagination and emotion
attempt to escape the confines of population growth, urban sprawl, and
industrialism, and it also attempted to embrace the exotic, unfamiliar, and
distant
Imagination able to apprehend truth
Writings focus on the human spirit
In searching for the known, the human spirit reaches for the unknown. In
trying to understand the present, we look to the past and the future.
Revolt against the democratic nature of rationalist writings.
Art rather than science could reveal greater truths in life.
Progress is an illusion. Think about how dirty and sooty the industrialized
city would have been at this time. The beauty of nature was much more
appealing.
The American “Hero” revealed virtue through his innocence, not in being
overly sophisticated like our European counterparts.
These innocent young men were never good with the ladies  Their
romantic counterparts pursue them in vain.
Early Romanticism: Genres & Literary Forms
1800-1840
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Poetry is the highest expression of the imagination. The
Fireside Poets, of this time, did not have a voice of their
own so they borrowed rhyme and meter from their
European counterparts.They focused on love, patriotism,
nature, family, God and religion.
Myths, legends and folk tales become inspiration for
writers of the time
Art rather than science could best express universal truth
Music starts to emerge as a form of American expression
Transcendentalism: Outlook on God
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The Oversoul is man’s capacity to apprehend truth and
spirituality through intuition.
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God present in every aspect of nature and man
Being in harmony with man and nature is essential for balance in
the world
Respect every individual, since every individual has part
of the Oversoul (God) within him and within nature. God
is everywhere.
Nature is the key to apprehending truth
Concern oneself with this life, not the afterlife. Never
fear death. In death, the soul passes to the Oversoul.
Unitarians in New England, for example, attracted a
huge following because of their belief in a loving God,
free will, and denial of original sin
Transcendentalism: Attitude Toward Man
1840’s
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The individual is the center of the universe
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The structure of the universe duplicates the structure of
the self. Self-knowledge is key to happiness.
Knowing oneself and studying nature is the same activity
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The Transcendentalists “transcend” the animalistic impulses to
live in harmony with man and nature
Nature mirrors our psyche: If the day is overcast, but our mood is
bright, we don’t notice how ugly the day looks.
Idealistic outlook on life
Transcendentalism: Themes in Literature
1840’s
Man frequently colliding with naturehappiness comes when man and nature
are in harmony
 Writing focuses on a path toward selfknowledge
 social protest, elimination of slavery,
women’s rights, creative and participatory
education for children, and labor reform
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Transcendentalism: Genres
1840’s
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Poems and narratives depicting beauty in nature
Essays, lectures, journals, intellectual
conversations. Any self-respecting
transcendentalist would carry around a journal to
record his or her thoughts. These are highly
intellectual individuals.
The Dial: magazine published by writers and
thinkers of the time
Transcendentalism: Historical Context
1840’s
Abolitionist movement-New England also
where Transcendentalists live
 Mexican American War
 Poor working conditions (mills, coal mines,
etc)
 Women’s rights are nill
 Child labor
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Dark Romanticism: Outlook on God
1850-1880
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Nature is greater than the value of reason
Imagination is able to apprehend truth
Saw the blackness and horror of evil
Valued intuition over logic and reason
Less clearly defined divinity found in nature
Contemplation of natural world led to the generalized
intellectual and emotional awakening
Searching for the meaning of the known, the human
spirit reaches for the unknown.
Dark Romanticism: Attitude toward Man
1850-1880
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Reaction to Puritan thought
Acknowledge the existence of sin, pain and evil
in human life
Against those who came before them
 Anti-transcendentalism
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Less optimistic toward man
Saw symbols, spiritual truths, and signs in
nature and everyday events.
Dark Romanticism: Themes in Lit
1850-1880
Conflict of good and evil
 Effects of guilt and sin
 Madness and derangement in human
psyche
 Literature used as a form of rebellion
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Dark Romanticism: Genres
1850-1880
Fiction, poetry, short story (Poe)
 Writing for the art of writing
 Literary criticism becomes popular.
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 Writing
finally legitimized in America
Symbolism
 Opera, symphony, art becomes important
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Dark Romanticism: Historical Context
1850-1880
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Civil War
Dred Scot decision (slave who sues for his freedom)
John Brown seizes Harper’s Ferry
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Emerson and Thoreau (Northern Abolitionists) see him as a
martyr
California Gold Rush
Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin sells 1
million copies a year. Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
only sold about 4000 in its first month
Modernism: Historical Context
Post WWI
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Soldiers return from WWI
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Scopes Monkey Trial (1925)
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Expatriate writers head to Europe
The “Lost Generation”-struggle to find meaning in the world in
the wake of chaos after WWI
Scopes arrested for teaching evolution
Shows how man evolved from monkeys
Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophy of man’s 'Will to Power',
were more important than facts, or things
Reaction to the Victorian culture-don’t do things the way
the previous generations did
Modernism: Outlook on God & Nature
Post WWI
Focus on human life rather than God and
religion
 Unwavering faith in progress
 For some, Idealism turns to cynicism.
There is a deep sense of loss and despair
 Art replaces religion and brings new life
 Little to no concern for nature
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Modernism: Attitude Toward Man
Post WWI
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Loss of innocence
Look at man’s subconscious desires
Question the meaning & purpose of human
existence.
Look not to the past, but look at the inner-self
and consciousness for answers
America as a new Eden
 Pursuit of
 Individual
the American Dream
can triumph if self-reliant
Modernism: Themes in Literature
Post WWI
The Modernist writers asked some of the
greatest questions about our society to
which they could not answer.
 Novel still driven by plot-protagonist vs
antagonist
 Rejection of hero as infallible. He is
disillusioned (Think Hemingway)
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Modernism: Genres & literary Forms
Post WWI
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Stream of Consciousness style of narration
Symbolism and imagism-way of exposing ideas
Experimentation in style and form
Rejection of traditional themes and subjects
Rejection of the hero as infallible
Rid poetic stereotype of “poetic & sentimental”
Harlem Renaissance – refer to presentations
Poets take full advantage of new, MODERN
approach