American literary history carries echoes of many ages.

1. HISTORY OF AMERICAN
LITERATURE
Instructor: Bibi Halima
Bibi.halima@uow.edu.pk

2. THE COLONIAL PERIOD (1492-1700)
NATIVE AMERICAN LITERATURE
Colonization/Colonialism
Native Voices
Oral Stories, Myths, Pictorial
writings, Folktales
European Influences
Pale Faces &
Cooked Poetry
Benjamin Franklin
Ezra Pound
Henry James
Redskins &
Raw Poetry
Walt Whitman
Ralph Waldo
Emerson

4. THE LATER HALF OF COLONIAL PERIOD
Early Puritanism
(1650-1750)
Puritan Pilgrims
Sermons, Theological
books, diaries, pamphlets,
journals
John Smith & The True
Relation of Virginia (1608)
The first American writer
William Bradford
& Plymouth
Plantation

5. THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD (1700-
1800)
Growth of Puritanism, religious freedom,
spiritual insight , reason and revolution
Dissatisfaction with colonial rule, anti-European agendas,
REVOLUTIONARY WAR (1775-1783)/ DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Fiction: Drama and Novel
Non Fiction: Essays, Speeches and
pamphlets
Benjamin
Franklin (1706–1790)
The Way to Wealth
The Power of Sympathy
(First American Novel-
1789)
William Hill Brown
Thomas
Paine (1737-
1809)

6. Death is a fisherman, the world we see
His fish-pond is, and we the fishes be;
His net some general sickness; howe'er he
Is not so kind as other fishers be;
For if they take one of the smaller fry,
They throw him in again, he shall not die:
But death is sure to kill all he can get,
And all is fish with him that comes to net
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

7. AMERICAN RENAISSANCE (1800-1920)
Romanticism
(1800-1860)
Realism
(The later
half of 19th
century)
Naturalis
m (last
decade of
19th
Century)

8. Romanticism (1800-1860)
Nature, God, Individualism
Age of Idealism
Neoclassicism/Enlig
htenm-ent
<> Revolt against classicism,
reason and form
<> Less political and religious
<>imaginations and emotions
Knickerbockers
Washington
Irving
Transcendentali
sm
(1840-1855)
<> intuition, spirituality,
divinity
<> Supremacy of insight
<> Beyond empirical approach
and human experience
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nathanial Hawthorne
Walt Whitman & Emily Dickinson
Dark
Romanticism
(1836-1851)
<> dark side of human nature
<> Flaws like greed and
selfishness
Edgar Allan Poe
The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The
Black Cat”, “The Pit and
the Pendulum”

9. Glory Of Friendship
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched
hand,
nor the kindly smile nor the joy of
companionship;
it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one
when
he discovers that someone else believes in him
and is
willing to trust him

10. REALISM (later half of 19th
century)
Realistic
perceptions
<> Revolt against
romanticism
<> Everyday life
experiences
<> Industrialization,
migration
Mark Twain
Adventures of
Huckleberry
Finn
Slavery
<>
Emancipation
of natives
Henry
James
What Maisie
Knew
Civil War
<> A war
between
blacks and
whites
The Civil
War
Literature
Novel

11. NATURALISM (1890-1920)
EXTREMES
<> Extreme form of
realism
<> life is unforgiving
<> Over-emphasis on
pessimistic thoughts
<> Man, the victim
Muckrakers
Emile Zola
STEPHEN CRANE
THEODORE
DREISER
Evolutiona
ry Theory
of Darwin
<> Survival of
fittest
French
Influenc
es

12. Modernism and First Half of 20th
Century
Rise of
Technology
and Industry
<> Cities and
luxuries
<> Mechanical life
Modern Writers
<> New forms of writings were
introduced
<> New literary movements
World Wars &
Harlem
Renaissance
<> Great
Depression
<> Destructions
and
experimentations
Loss of Faith
<> American Dream
became futile
<>Realistic period in
history
<> The world appeared
more complicated

13. Modernis
m
Lost
Generation
Ernest Hemingway,
F. S. Fitzgerald,
Gertrude Stein,
William Faulkner
Beat
Generation
Jack Kerouac and
Allen Ginsberg
Chicago
Renaissanc
e
E. E. Cummings &
Carl Sandburg
Imagism Ezra Pound
Modern Literary Movements and
Writers

14. POSTMODERNISM (Since 1945)
Growth of
Technology
and Media
Post-modernists:
Formalists, confessionals,
aesthetes, beats, ethnics,
hyperrealists
Aftermaths
of World
Wars
<> Political
tension and
agony
Holocaust and
Atomic Bomb
<> Realism and
discontentment
CREATING
NEW
AMERICAS

15. POST-MODERNISTS
 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (1914–1983)
 ARTHUR MILLER (1915–2005)
 CHARLES BUKOWSKI (1920–1994)
 ALLEN GINSBERG (1926– 1997)
 TRUMAN CAPOTE (1924–1984)

16. 9/11, 2001
&
Racism
Election of Barack
Obama
&
African-American
literature
The Economy
Collapses
&
Materialism
2001-Present
Post-post-
modernism