American Lit
Late 1820s-early 1850s. Based on the philosophy that all creation is a part of a unified whole. Themes of inherent goodness of people and nature and self-reliance. Works from Walt Whitman and Thoreau.
What is Transcendentalism?
1918-1937. Themes included relationship to Civil Rights, representation of black culture, and reform organizations. Most influential movement in African American literature history. Authors include Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston with Their Eyes Were Watching God.
What is the Harlem Renaissance?
1920-1950. Themes include disillusionment, loss of identity, and uncertainty of the future. The authors were those who came of age before WWI/1920s. Texts include T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald with the Great Gatsby, and Hemmingway with For Whom the Bell Tolls.
What is the Lost Generation?
1785-1832. Themes of feelings and truth of nature. Lots of poems, lyrical ballads, and gothic horror novels. Most diverse and well-known. Influenced by the Industrial and French Revolution. Texts include Don Juan by Byron, Isabella by John Keats or Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
What is the Romantic Period?
1901-1945. Themes of social issues and characters experiencing epiphanies, stream of consciousness. The authors played with style. The Edwardian and Georgian overlap with the Modern Period. The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot, Animal Farm by George Orwell, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night by Henry David Thoreau, and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf.
What is the Modern Period?
1830-1870. Themes focus on individuals, emotions, and nature. Includes texts about enslaved and free slaves before, during, and after the Civil War. Includes works of Edgar Allen Poe and Sojourner Truth.
What is the Romantic Period.
Late 19th-century. Themes include determinism, scientific objectivism, and detachment. It was an extreme form of realism. Texts include Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck and The Awakening by Kate Chopin.
What is Naturalism?
1945-Present. Themes/ideas of nuclear war, Civil Rights Movement, and equality. It is a reflection of the shift of the times. Texts include Sandra Cisneros The House on Mango Street, MLK, J.D. Saligner's The Catcher it the Rye. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, and Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut.
What is the Contemporary Period?
450-1066. Mostly epic poems, courageous heroes, and morality/goodness. It was oral literature for the first half until the 7th century (600s) and after that, they were mostly translations of legal and medicinal texts and religious prose. Texts include Beowulf.
What is the Anglo-Saxon/Old English Period?
1945 to present. Focuses on psychology, criticism, human behaviors, and relationships. Response to Modernism and post-WWII. Texts include the Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing and A Stitch in Time by Penelope Lively.
What is the Post-Modern Period?
17th-century to 1830 leading up to the American Revolution, themes of exploration of the New World practical and straightforward writing. Works include "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God."
What is the Colonial and Early National Period?
1870-1910. It portrayed American life as it truly was. Immense toll from Civil War. Texts include Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.
What is Realism?
Literature of the British Isles including Great Britain, Ireland, and surrounding islands. Reflects changes in culture and thinking over time. Studied chronologically.
What is British Literature?
1500-1660. Rebirth of classical values. Divided into four sub-periods: the Elizabethan Age, the Jacobean Age, the Caroline Age, and The Commonwealth Period.
What is the Renaissance?
1558-1603. Golden Age of English drama and public theaters. Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Fairie Queen by Edmund Spenser.
What is the Elizabethan Age?
1865-1790. Politically motivated writing. Texts include Common Sense and the Federalist Papers.
What is the Revolutionary Period?
1910-1945. Themes include disillusionment and a sense of loss. Rooted in the progress of technology and suffering from WWI and the Great Depression. Texts include Robert Frost, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennesee Williams.
What is the Modernist Period?
Broken down into three parts: The Restoration, The Augustinian Age, The Age of Sensibility, and the Enlightenment.
What is the Neoclassical Period?
1066-1500. Themes focus on religion, romance, diversity, and chivalry. Lots of morality plays and folk ballads. The major language and lifestyle shift of this period formed the foundation for today's English language. Texts include the Canterberry Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.
What is the Middle/Medieval Period?
1649-1660. Themes of morality, political writings. End of the English Civil War and start with Puritan-led Parliament. Theaters closed in response to perceived transgressions against Puritan beliefs.
What is the Commonwealth Period?
1855-1870. Ideals of the Romantic period are tested and considered a turning point in American Literature with a new generation of writers. The Romantic Era ideals are challenged. Mostly narrative. Texts include My Bondage and my Freedom and the Gettysburg Address.
What is the Civil War Period?
Late 19th century to early 20th century. Heavy focus on regional dialect, history, and customs. It was a result of the Civil War and Westward Expansion. Texts include Absalom! Absalom! By William Faulkner.
What is regionalism?
Focuses on interconnectedness and diversity of cultures. Comes from any country that is not the United States, Greece, Western Europe, or Rome. Texts include Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, Epic of Gilgamesh, The Handmaiden's Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Divide Comedy by Dante, The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini, Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo, All Quiet on the Western Front by Enrich Maria Remarque, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, and Night by Elie Wiesel.
What is Non-Western Literature?
1832-1901. Themes/ideas of idealized portrayal of life's struggles, centered around cultural issues specific to each Monarch Period. Marked by social, religious, and economic turmoil. The bridge between the Romantic and Modern periods. Texts include the Tale of Two Cities and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickins.
What is the Victorian Period?
1625-1649. Themes of philosophical exploration. Referred to as the Age of Poetry. Metaphysical poets. Texts include The Flea by John Donne and To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell.
What is the Caroline Age?