"American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it."
Study of literature produced in the United States, including novels, short stories, poetry, and drama. Analyzing the works of famous American authors, such as Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, and Toni Morrison.
Colonial period (1607-1776): Explores early American writings produced during the colonization of North America, such as the Puritanical writing of Anne Bradstreet and the political rhetoric of Thomas Paine.
Revolutionary period (1776-1789): Includes the writings of famous figures such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and the Federalist Papers that shaped the basis of American ideology.
Romanticism (1800-1860): Explores the nature of individualism, imagination, emotion and philosophy, and features authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Hawthorne and Melville.
Transcendentalism (1830-1860): Is a literary and philosophical movement that grew out of Romanticism and encompassed writers such as Emerson, Thoreau and Margaret Fuller.
Realism (1865-1910): Is concerned with representing life as it really is, without romanticizing or idealizing it, and features writers such as Mark Twain, Henry James and Frank Norris.
Naturalism (1880-1900): Portrays humans and the world as scientific, deterministic and unchangeable, with use of biological and social forces, and presents authors such as Stephen Crane and Jack London.
Modernism (1900-1945): Is characterized by self-consciousness, experimentation and fragmentation, and features writers such as T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway.
Harlem Renaissance (1910-1930): Was a literary and cultural movement that explored African-American culture and featured writers such as Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright.
Postmodernism (1945-present): Is an eclectic mix of styles, techniques, and themes that often includes self-referentiality and a tendency to blur the boundaries between genres and art forms.
Multiculturalism (1960-present): Recognizes the diversity of American culture in all aspects of life, including literature, and features writers such as Toni Morrison, Sandra Cisneros and Sherman Alexie.
Native American Literature: This includes narratives, myths, and songs of different Native American tribes such as Iroquois, Cherokee, Navajo, Plains Indians, and others.
Colonial Literature: This literature refers to the writings of European explorers and colonizers who came to America in the 16th and 17th centuries. It includes historical accounts, diaries, letters, and sermons.
Puritan Literature: This literature represents the religious writings of Puritan settlers in New England. It includes sermons, theological treatises, and hymns.
Revolutionary Literature: This includes political texts, speeches, and essays written during the American Revolution, such as Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" or the Declaration of Independence.
Romantic Literature: This type of literature reflects the romanticism movement that emerged in the early 19th century and emphasizes individualism, emotion, and the sublime in nature.
Transcendental Literature: This literature emphasizes self-reliance and the power of the individual to transcend physical and material limitations. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau are prominent examples.
Realist and Naturalist Literature: Realist literature represents a style of writing that focuses on depicting ordinary life, whereas naturalist literature emphasizes the influences of environment and heredity on human behavior.
Harlem Renaissance Literature: This literature represents a cultural movement that emerged in the 1920s and 30s and focused on African American literature, music, art, and politics.
Beat Literature: This represents a social movement in the 1950s that emphasized anti-materialism, spontaneity, and alternative lifestyles.
Postmodern Literature: This literature emerged in the late 20th century and rejects the traditional narrative structure and conventions of realism. It emphasizes fragmentation, irony, and self-consciousness. Thomas Pynchon and William S. Burroughs are prominent examples.
"A rich tradition of oral storytelling exists amongst Native Americans."
"The American Revolutionary Period (1775–1783) is notable for the political writings of Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson."
"Writer and critic John Neal in the early-mid nineteenth century helped advance America's progress toward a unique literature and culture, by criticizing predecessors like Washington Irving."
"Edgar Allan Poe took American poetry and short fiction in new directions."
"Major American poets of the nineteenth century include Walt Whitman, Melville, and Emily Dickinson."
"The conflict surrounding abolitionism inspired writers like Harriet Beecher Stowe and by slave narratives, such as those by Frederick Douglass."
"Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter (1850) explored the dark side of American history, as did Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851)."
"Mark Twain was the first major American writer to be born away from the East Coast."
"F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Dos Passos, Ernest Hemingway, and William Faulkner adopted experimental forms."
"Depression-era writers included John Steinbeck, author of The Grapes of Wrath (1939)."
"Works such as Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (1948), Joseph Heller's Catch-22 (1961), and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) were influenced by America's involvement in World War II."
"In the mid-twentieth century, drama was dominated by Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, as well as the musical theater."
"In late 20th century and early 21st century, there has been increased popular and academic acceptance of the literature written by immigrant, ethnic, Native American, and LGBT writers, and of writings in other languages than English."
"Examples of pioneers in these areas include Asian American authors such as Maxine Hong Kingston, the Native American Louise Erdrich, and African Americans Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and 1993 Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison."
"In 2016, the folk-rock songwriter Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature."