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The Stages of American Literature
3
Transcript
Colonial
Literature
Colonial Literature, the birth of
American Literature, could be
seen as the sermons of Puritan preachers
or even the political pamphlets
being produced at the time, such as
Thomas Paine's Common Sense.
Also A major piece of literature writen at this time is Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography.
Towards the end of the 18th century, and the begining of the 19th century, our nation saw the emergence of it's first, and some of it's greatest writers, developing a uniquely American style. Writers that included Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper and
Edgar Allan Poe.
Along with the emergence of American novelists and short story writers leading up to, and during the Civil War, there was an out pouring of American Poetry. A great deal of this poetry was patriotic in nature. Perhaps the most well-known of such poems is Walt Whitman's poem,
O Captain, My Captain.
The turn of the 20th century saw a continuation of realism in American Literature, but in a different light. Topics that were once taboo to write about became fair game. Also, writers were becoming more liberal about criticizing what they saw wrong in American Society.
Some of the writers from this period
include F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemmingway, and my personal favorite, John Steinbeck.
The writing of the Modernists was detailed by writings about the struggle of the every day American. These writings were also detailed pictures of the frustration American's experienced in their day-to-day society over issues social as social class divisions and poverty. The most famous writers of this style during this period were Harper Lee, and J. D. Salinger.
The Beatnicks were struggling with the exact same issues, but seemed to not take notice. Their writings were presented as free spirited, and care free chronicles of charachters who just "dug it", whatever "it" may have been. Perhaps the most famoous examples of one of these novels is On The Road, by Jack Kerouac.
The Stages of American Literature
The 20th Century
Realism
Realism was a style of literature that developed in the United States following the Civil War. This style of writing charachterized by the journalism of the time; very satirical and humorous. The most popular writer during this period of American Literature was Mark Twain, who is most well known for his novels,
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Post World War II:
Modernist and Beatnicks
The Emergence of the American Writer
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