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How are the novels of Ernest Hemingway different from the short stories of Edger Allen Poe? What do Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman have in common? In addressing these questions, it is crucial to understand the difference between movements in American literature. For a relatively young country, the United States is home to a wealth of important literature representing a diverse array of writers and literary movements. Studying these movements will help you understand the development of American literature as well as the influences and relationships among writers.
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Jetzt kostenlos anmeldenHow are the novels of Ernest Hemingway different from the short stories of Edger Allen Poe? What do Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman have in common? In addressing these questions, it is crucial to understand the difference between movements in American literature. For a relatively young country, the United States is home to a wealth of important literature representing a diverse array of writers and literary movements. Studying these movements will help you understand the development of American literature as well as the influences and relationships among writers.
The following timeline shows the period of each American literary movement and its duration.
Assorted classic books, pixabay
The term American literary movement refers to the periods of evolution in American literature and the characteristics that literature from different time periods shares. Factors that unify literature within a particular movement might include the style of the authors' writing, common themes or ideas, and the influence of the era’s social and political climate.
The following is a brief history of American literary movements.
The first recognizable American literary movement is, of course, the pre-colonial period of Native American literature. Before the arrival of Europeans in what is now the United States, Native Americans had a vibrant literary tradition with a strong focus on oral storytelling. These stories were of high cultural value, including creation stories and other myths and folktales.
With the arrival of European settlers, the first period of English language literature began. As Puritans settled in New England, they used literature, not for entertainment, but rather to explore religious themes and biblical teachings. Puritan literature was generally non-fiction and included letters, diary entries, and other details of daily activities.
At the same time, Colonial literature was also developing in America. Like Puritan literature, the literature of the Colonial period was mostly non-fiction and geared towards descriptions of daily life. The major difference, however, was the religious content of Puritan literature, while Colonial writers like Captain John Smith focused on describing the process of colonization for those back home in Europe and Great Britain.
The American Revolution in 1775 marked the start of the Revolutionary and Early National literary movements. As you might guess, this literary movement was strongly influenced by the development of the new nation and the fight for independence. As a result, much of the literature from this period was political in nature. These texts included political essays discussing the formation of the new government as well as propaganda pamphlets supporting the revolutionaries’ cause.
Some of the most important writers of this period were also well-known political figures, such as Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), and Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804).
Influenced by the Enlightenment in Europe, American authors in the Revolutionary and Early National periods also embraced the literary movement of Rationalism. A preference for rational thought and deductive reasoning shaped texts of the era, including The Declaration of Independence (1776) and Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason (1794)
American Romanticism, pixabay
The year 1830 marks the beginning of American Romanticism. This is arguably the first uniquely American literary movement and gave rise to some of the most important authors in the history of American literature. With the American Revolution behind them, authors in the United States had the extraordinary opportunity to participate in the process of nation-building by creating truly American literature.
This was the first time American authors tried to separate themselves from the literary traditions of Europe and Great Britain. Authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Herman Melville wrote novels and poetry inspired by the American landscape and the ideals of freedom and individuality.
Some of the great American Romantic writers include Edger Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickenson.
American Romanticism was also the first literary movement in the United States that split into several sub-movements. These sub-movements included Transcendentalism, Dark Romanticism, American Gothic, and the poetry of the Fireside Poets.
Towards the middle of the 19th century, American literature began to move away from Romanticism as authors embraced the literary movements of Realism and Naturalism. The horrors of the Civil War had changed the mood of the country and the idealism of Romanticism was no longer applicable.
Instead, American authors such as Stephen Crane and Mark Twain sought to depict life as it really was, even the parts that might have been ugly or unpleasant. This movement was also exemplified in the proliferation of slave narratives that were published in the wake of the Civil War, including Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) by Harriet Jacobs.
Towards the end of the 19th century, Mark Twain became one of the most important writers associated with the literary movement known as regionalism or local color fiction. His novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin (1884) paid special attention to regional specifics, including dialect, landscape, and customs.
Can you think of some reasons why slave narratives would be classified as Naturalist literature?
At the beginning of the 20th century, American literature moved into the Modernist literary movement. Authors like William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway began to focus more on the structure and style of writing, making a conscious effort to break long-established literary conventions. This evolved into the even more unconventional movement of Experimental literature, as well as individual groups of writers, such as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston of the Harlem Renaissance, and Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald of the Lost Generation.
The term "Lost Generation" was coined by American writer Gertrude Stein to describe the generation reaching young adulthood during World War I. The term was also applied more specifically to describe the group of expatriate writers and artists living in Paris in the 1920s, including Ernest Hemingway and Ezra Pound.
Following World War II, Modernism began to shift into Postmodernism, a literary movement that eschewed meaning and embraced disorder and fragmentation. Postmodern authors such as Kurt Vonnegut and Philip K. Dick wrote playful, distorted texts that often relied heavily on metafiction and intertextuality.
By the mid to late 20th century, American literature had begun to resemble the diverse body of work that we see today. American drama grew in importance, with the first performances of Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (1949). American poets as diverse as Sylvia Plath and Allan Ginsberg established a variety of literary movements including the San Francisco Renaissance, New Formalism, the Confessional Poets, and the Beat Generation.
The urge towards experimentation and the breaking of literary conventions that began during the Modernist and Experimental periods continue to influence American literature, which represents a broad variety of literary themes, styles, and genres.
What common themes or styles can you identify in contemporary American literature?
The following list explains some of the key characteristics of each American literary movement.
Focus on the African American experience.
Experimentation with style and structure.
Examples include the poetry of Langston Hughes (1901-1967) and Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neale Hurston.
Some of the major movements in American literature are Romanticism, Naturalism, and Modernism.
There are eight identifiable literary movements in American literature ranging from pre-colonial Native American literature to the modern era. There have also been numerous sub-movements within these movements. For example, Transcendentalism is considered a sub-movement of Romanticism.
Each American literary movement has its own name to distinguish it from others. These include large movements, such as American Romanticism or Naturalism, and smaller movements, such as the Harlem Renaissance.
During the Modernist and Experimental literary movements in the early- to mid-20th century, authors experimented with the structure of their writing. They considered the way the story was told to be the most important part of writing. Therefore, these writers experimented with style, structure, and point of view.
There are many components that separate the different American literary movements. These include writing style, themes, and the impact of the social and political situation of the era.
What is the first American literary movement?
Native American literature
What is the difference between Puritan and Colonial literature?
Puritan literature usually focused on religious themes and Colonial literature described life in the new colonies.
What literary movements occurred during the American Revolution?
The Revolutionary and New National movements.
What literary forms were popular during the Revolutionary and New National movements?
Political essays and propaganda pamphlets.
What is generally regarded as the first uniquely American literary movement?
American Romanticism
Which was NOT a sub-movement of American Romanticism?
The Harlem Renaissance
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