Advanced Placement English Literature & Composition

LITERARY PERIODS AND APPROACHES

This supplement provides some general information about how American and British literary
movements and writing styles have changed through the centuries. It is notable that each period
tends to evolve from and react to the previous one. American literature prior to the 20th century
tends to shadow tendencies in British literature. For example, the later Romantic movement that
originated in England in the late 18th century may be seen to have served as a model and
inspiration for American writers in the early to mid-19th century.

Included here first is a table timeline that places American and British literature side-by-side for
comparison. Listed for each century are names of periods, a listing of approaches or
movements, and some representative authors. The second part of this handout offers a kind of
glossary which describes many literary movements and some of the important ideas behind them.
Please note that dates are approximate and descriptions are fairly general.

I. Literature Timeline

American Literature British Literature

1500s Native American oral tradition;
myths, songs, and stories
1600s Begin “Colonial” period in early
1600s (Also known as “Age of
Faith”); writers tended to focus on
colonization/propaganda and
religious issues in diaries,
journals, travel writing, and
poetry; John Smith, William
Bradford, John Winthrop, Anne
Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, Cotton
Mather
1700s Begin “Revolutionary” period mid-
1700s (also known as
“Neoclassical Period” or “Age of
Reason”); neoclassicism, deism,
rationalism; Thomas Jefferson,
Thomas Paine, Phillis Wheatley,
1800s Begin “Romantic” period early to
mid-1800s; Romanticism
(including transcendentalism);
Washington Irving; William Cullen
Bryant, Edgar Allan Poe,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman
Melville, Oliver Wendell Holmes,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry
David Thoreau, Walt Whitman,
Renaissance (1485-1660) continues: This
was an era of political, religious, and
literary flowering. Notable figures include
Shakespeare and Spenser; begins reign of
Tudors
Early 1600s: Cavalier and Metaphysical
poets connect Elizabethan period to
Restoration and neoclassical/Augustan
satirists. Notable writers include Herrick,
Herbert, Donne, Lovelace, and Milton.
Neoclassical period continues. Primarily
known as age of satire and revival of
classical form. Major authors are Pope,
Swift, Defoe, Addison and Steele, and
Johnson. Romantic period often dated as
starting in 1798 with publication of Lyrical
Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge.
Other notables include Keats, Shelley, and
Byron.
Romance continues. Victoria comes to
throne in 1837 and rules through early 20th
century. Major authors of Victorian period
include Dickens, Wilde, Tennyson and
Hardy. Literature characterized by
evaluation of social issues, but also
included religious/scientific questioning as
Darwin and others pose questions
regarding man’s origins and geologic
evolution.
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Emily Dickinson

Begin “Realistic” period near end

of century; Realism and “local
color” writing; Mark Twain,
William Dean Howells, Brett Hart,
Ambrose Bierce, E.A. Robinson
1900s-Early Continue “Realistic” period in Early 20th century Britain sees rise of
2000s early years; Realism (including Modernist writers, including Eliot, Yeats,
Naturalism) Shaw, Joyce, Woolf and Auden.

Harlem Literary Renaissance

1920s and 1930s; W.E.B. DuBois,
Zora Neale Hurston, Langston
Hughes, Countee Cullen, Jean
Toomer, Claude McKay

Southern Literary Renaissance

1920s-50s; William Faulkner,
Eudora Welty, Flannery
O’Connor,

Begin “Modernism” by early

1920s; William Faulkner, T.S.
Eliot, Wallace Stevens, F.Scott
Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway,
John Crowe Ransom, Ezra
Pound

Begin “Postmodernism” by

II. Literary Movements and Some Ideas Behind Them

Renaissance (1500s)

Religious Ideologies Connected to “The Age of Faith” (1600s/1700s)

Calvinism is the name applied to the religious doctrines of John Calvin, which emphasized the
omnipotence of God and the salvation of the elect by God's grace alone. These were accepted
by Puritans and included five basic tenets: Original sin, predestination, limited atonement,
irresistible grace, perseverance of the saints.

Antinomianism is a term used to describe a religious sect or group of believers whose principles
go against the established orthodoxy. It basically means “against the law,” and has been used by
many religious groups as a way of discrediting theological adversaries.

Deism is the belief, based solely on reason, in a God who created the universe and then
abandoned it, assuming no control over life, exerting no influence on natural phenomena, and
giving no supernatural revelation. Although deism appealed to the individualism and optimism of
many eighteenth-century American political and social thinkers, it was popular only among upper-
class intellectuals. American deists ranged from the moderate anti-clericism, rational morality,
and political liberalism of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin to the much less common
militant deism of Ethan Allen and Thomas Paine, who called for an abolition of traditional religion.
The one unifying factor in the different versions of deism was a readiness to question traditional
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revealed religion. Deists generally subscribed to the “watchmaker theory”—the idea that God
created the world, but established requisite properties for it to continue to exist and run without
intervention or divine control.

Rationalism and Neo-Classicism (1700s)

Rationalism posits that reliance on reason is the best guide for belief and action. Rationalists
believe that the exercise of reason, rather than experience, authority, or spiritual revelation,
provides the primary basis for knowledge. In mid-18th century America this belief coincided nicely
with growing dissatisfaction with England during the Revolutionary period. American writers,
Paine in particular, questioned the validity of the time-honored notion of the “divine right” of kings.

Neoclassicism or “New classicism” refers to an 18th century tendency to model writing forms on
classical example (ancient Greek, Roman). In Britain this period was also referred to as the
“Augustan Age” and included a renewed emphasis on the essay and the art of satire. Pope and
Swift are among the most exemplary writers from this group.

Romanticism (Late 1700s/1800s)

Later Romanticism in English and American literature flourished in the mid-late 18th Century
through the later 19th Century. This literary period is often dated as starting with the publication of
Lyrical Ballads (William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge) in 1798, or with the preface to its
second edition in 1800. Romantic writing moved away from rationalist and neoclassical
traditions. Romanticism in general:
1) Values intuition over science, emotion over intellect, the ideal over the real, and
imagination over reason
2) Explores themes of libertarianism
3) Delights in Nature, unspoiled rural settings and people; often views Nature as a
teacher
4) Often focuses on the exotic, gothic, or supernatural themes
American Romanticism is often classified as either “Dark” (Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, etc) or
“Light” (“the Fireside poets” and earlier poets, and the Transcendentalists) Romance.

Romantic literature gets its name from its thematic and stylistic connections to Arthurian stories
that were originally written in French, a Romance language.

Transcendentalism (Mid-1800s)

To “transcend” means to go beyond. Transcendentalism refers to a philosophical and literary

movement that is generally connected with 19th century European and American thinkers. In
literature it is most often associated with the American Transcendentalists (notably Emerson,
Thoreau, Fuller, and Whitman), who tended to place particular emphasis on:
1) The belief that humanity “transcends” the corporeal
2) The notion of a “divine spark” that connects humanity with the “Over-Soul”
3) The idea of Nature as a teacher and place of spiritual connection
4) The importance of Self-Reliance
5) The realization that Democracy, as good as it is, is still flawed

Realism (Late 1800s/Early 1900s)

Realism refers to a literary approach in which the writer depicts characters and events as they
actually are, without idealizing or romanticizing them.

1) Is a reaction to Romanticism
2) Focuses less upon expressive, emotional responses—tends to value reason over
intuition
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3) Uses common characters (from everyday life)

4) Places less importance on traditional plot. Since life is without symmetry, realistic
stories may not employ chronological sequencing of events or have a “pat” ending
5) Searches for scientific/psychological truths, rather than ideal truths

Naturalism (Early 1900s)

Naturalism, a “subset” of realism, represents a movement in fiction begun in later nineteenth

century France and carried on in late nineteenth/early twentieth century America by writers like
Stephen Crane and Jack London. Influenced by Darwinism (science) and Marxism (socio-
economics), naturalism focused on natural, social, and economic determinism. In short writing
that adheres to principles of naturalism:
1) Renders its characters, settings, and themes as objectively and truthfully as science
handles its subject matter
2) Often employs objective, detached narration and meticulous detail
3) Demonstrates a pervading notion that actions and destinies of humans are controlled
by social, economic, biological, and natural forces
4) Often suggests that human free will is weak and ineffectual
5) Draws characters from lower classes and may spare little of the sordid details of
unhappy existence

Impressionism

Originally applied to works of nineteenth century French painters, impressionism deals with the
attempt to convey an “impression” gained from direct observation of nature. Eschewing
continuous brushstrokes, these artists sought to break light into its component parts by using
successive, discontinuous dabs of color. Impressionistic writing attempts to use precision of
language to render subjective experience with all its complexities. Though most often associated
with lyric poetry, impressionism has commonalities with naturalistic prose and may be seen in
stories like Crane’s “The Open Boat.”

The Harlem Literary Renaissance (U.S./1920s-30s)

Authors of the Harlem Renaissance broke with earlier ethnic writers whose work mimicked white
standards. Instead, they took the then-enormous liberty of rejecting the formulaic, Eurocentric
notions of theme, content, and form in favor of writing in the style, idiom, vernacular, and
cadences of their communities. The Renaissance group was on a mission -- to shuck off Uncle
Tom. These writers searched for a unifying cultural identity and boldly proclaimed the advent of a
new cultural aesthetic, a rebirth of ethnic pride on new soil.

From such characteristic works as Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God” to
Langston Hughes’ jazz-tinged, documentary-style poetry, the Harlem writers dared to capture the
urban African American experience in all its truth, pain, humor, sense of exile, and vibrant beauty.
Harlem Renaissance writers personified courage, dignity, and audacity through the simple, poetic
expression of the tribulations of an oppressed people, by those people, and for those people.
Their daring and innovative excavation of both ghetto sufferings and the creative riches of the
African American communal journey profoundly inspired black revolutionary writers and thinkers
of the 1950s and 1960s, including James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison .

The Southern Literary Renaissance (U.S./1920s-50s)

The Southern Renaissance refers roughly to the period between the two world wars when
Southern writers were far enough in time from the Civil War and slavery to regard their region
with some degree of objectivity through the techniques of international modernism, such as
stream of consciousness, complex points of view, and jarring juxtapositions.
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The writers of the Southern Renaissance tended to address two essential themes in their works.
The first was the burden of the past in a land that had suffered military and economic defeat,
social opprobrium, and the legacy of racism. In some ways, this response resembles the
defensiveness of antebellum writers, but the burden is the complex legacy of shame and guilt
which makes history become an individual's fate. The second major theme of the Southern
Renaissance, the individual's relationship to his or her community, is closely linked to the burden
of the past. In Northeastern American literature, identity is proudly and defiantly individual in the
Puritan and Transcendental traditions. In contrast, the Southern individual's identity or honor is
based on his or her standing in his community, and that standing is largely based on the family,
whose standing, in turn, is determined by the burden of the Southern past. Although its burdens
can be great, this emphasis on the societal over the individual can lead to the positive sharing,
caring, values of community and to heroic Southern stoicism, in which individuals face decline
and defeat with a public face of bravery, fortitude, and nobility. Today, when most people think of
Southern literature, they call to mind the authors of the Southern Renaissance, like William
Faulkner, Allen Tate, Caroline Gordon, Katherine Anne Porter, and Robert Penn Warren.

Modernism (Early-Mid-1900s)

Applied to literature of the early 20th century as it rejected the traditional and romantic,
modernism reflects more of a set of characteristics than a cohesive movement. Modernist
literature (notably works by several authors we have read, including Wallace Stevens, T.S. Eliot,
and William Faulkner in particular) tends to go beyond concerns of the realists by breaking the
bonds of chronological narration, often using multiple narrative points of view, unconventional
metaphor, and meaning that is dislocated from its normal context. In such literature internal
monologue often takes precedence over external action. Some other characteristics of modernist
works include:
1) Borrowing from other cultures/languages
2) Relying upon etanarrative and stream of consciousness
3) Venturing into mundane considerations
4) Establishing as “heroes” despairing individuals who are unable to cope with past,
present, or future
5) Rejecting history and substituting a mythical past

Post-Modernism (Mid-1900s and Beyond )

As applied to literature and other arts, the term “post-modernism” is notoriously ambiguous,
implying either that modernism has been superseded or that it has continued into a new phase.
Postmodernism may be seen as a continuation of modernism's alienated mood and disorienting
techniques and at the same time as an abandonment of its determined quest for artistic
coherence in a fragmented world: in very crude terms, where a modernist artist or writer would try
to wrest a meaning from the world through myth, symbol, or formal complexity, the postmodernist
greets the absurd or meaningless confusion of contemporary existence with a certain numbed or
flippant indifference, favoring self-consciously ‘depthless’ works of pastiche or disconnection. The
term cannot usefully serve as an inclusive description of all literature since the 1950s or 1960s,
but is applied selectively to those works that display most evidently the moods and formal
disconnections described above. It seems to have little relevance to modern poetry, and limited
application to drama outside the ‘absurdist’ tradition, but is used widely in reference to fiction,
notably to the novels and stories of Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut, Italo Calvino, Vladimir
Nabokov, William S. Burroughs, Angela Carter, Salman Rushdie, Peter Ackroyd, Julian Barnes,
Jeanette Winterson, and many of their followers.