1800-1865

Coinciding with the European movement, it rebelled against Classicism, and focused on individualism, idealism, imagination, and nature. Settings were often in distant times or places but illustrated American ideals. Authors include Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Fenimore Cooper, Washington Irving, and Herman Melville. It contains the largest body of work studied most often in school.

1840-1860

Shares beliefs about the natural and spiritual world including the following: Nothing in nature is insignificant; The basic truths of the universe transcend the physical world; Every individual can experience God through their own intuition; God, humanity, and nature share a universal soul; Everything in nature is meaningful, symbolic and important; Every human being is born inherently good. Authors include Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Throeau.

1620-1750

Written by the immigrants who left Europe to find religious freedom. Includes the rules and fears of sin and hell that characterized their society. Consists of sermons, poetry, diaries, and stories that teach a moral. Authors include Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, and Johnathan Edwards.

1920's- mid 1930's

Also called The Lost Generation, Jazz Age, and Roaring 20's. After years of creative and social repression, many African Americans migrated north. It was a concentrated outburst of African American art, writing, and music from Harlem. It attacks racial inequality and stereotypes while voicing racial pride. Authors include Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen, and Ralph Ellison.

1950-present

Lines are blurred between popular culture, literature, and art. Authors have a realistic view of reality and believe the interpretation of reality is more important than the concrete experience of reality itself. Authors include Arthur Miller, Kurt Vonnegut, Edward Albee, Ken Kesey, J.D.Salinger, Truman Capote, Nikki Giovanni, Sylvia Plath, and Toni Morrison.

1750-1800

Also known as Rationalism, Classicism, and The Age of Reason. Consists of political and philosophical writings about reason and common sense. Authors include Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, and Phillis Wheatley.

1914-1945

Consists of a noticeable shift in expression and writing style from previous movements. Written by individuals disillusioned by WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII. There is a greater use of symbolism and themes of alienation, isolation, individual perception, and human consciousness. Authors include F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Henry Miller, and T.S. Eliot.

1865-1914

Related to realism but focuses specifically on social issues caused by industrialization. It includes dark, tragic stories of struggle. Characters unsuccessfully adapt to their environment and their environment causes them to make bad decisions. Authors include Stephen Crane, Edith Wharton, Sinclair Lewis, Jack London, and John Steinbeck.

1865-1914

It rebelled against Romanticism and Neoclassicism and promoted facts over intellectual or emotional reasoning. Includes stories of everyday people and is written in natural language. Use of detailed descriptions is more important than overall plot. Authors include Mark Twain, Willa Cather, and Kate Chopin.