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Enlightenment
Called the Enlightenment period due to the influence of science and logic, this period is marked in US literature by political writings. Genres included political documents, speeches, and letters. Benjamin Franklin is typical of this period. There is a lack of emphasis and dependence on the Bible and more use of common sense (logic) and science. There was not a divorce from the Bible but an adding to or expanding of the truths found there. -
Common Sense by Thomas Paine is published
This lead to the Declaration of Independence which was written and announced to Great Britain shortly after -
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Gothic 1800's - 1850's
Sub-genre of Romanticism often involving sublime use of the supernatural, characters at the mercy or helpless to higher powers which they don't understand and a reoccuring motif that one can have both evil and good characteristics to their personality -
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Romanticism
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The Last of The Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
"Father of the American Novel" This was the first American adventure story, -
Period: to
Trancendentalism 1830's - 1840's
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Indian Removal Act ratified
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Three Volumes of Dramatic Poetry by Joanna Baillie
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Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson
First Transcendentalist essay, not a novel hehe:) -
California Gold Rush
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Annabel Lee By Edgar Allan Poe
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Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
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Beginning of the American Civil War
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Realism
Style of writing in which the real world is presented in an unembellished way. It seeked to stand for experiences that are usual or typical rather than extraordinary or exotic. -
Enforcement Acts begin
Enforcement Acts sought to end the violence from the Klu Klux Klan -
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was first published in England in December 1884 and then in the United States in February 1885 -
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Naturalism
Although its origins were European, naturalism was an important movement in American literature from the 1890s until the 1920s. It is seen similar to realism, sharing emphasis on depicting surface reality, naturalism is more than a literary technique, involving the philosophy of determinism. Naturalism also emphasizes the limited ability of humans to impose will upon their own destiny, and also in devaluing the imagination's embellishment of reality -
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton is published
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Imagism
Imagism writers wrote short poems that used ordinary language and free verse to create sharp, exact, concentrated pictures. -
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Modernism Era 1910's - 1940's
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Tender Buttons [Chicken] by Gertrude Stein
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Dadaism 1900's-1920's
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End of WWI
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The Harlem Renaissance 1920's - 1930's
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Surrealism
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The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald is Published
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The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway is published
(Exact date unknown) -
Great Depression begins
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"The Star-Spangled Banner" becomes official
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"It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" by Duke Ellington
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21st Ammendment
The 21st ammendment's purpose was to end the prohibition of alcohol -
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
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Period: to
The Beat Generation 1950's - 1960's
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Period: to
Post-Modernism 1950's - Present
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Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is Published
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Forgetfulness by Billy Collins
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Underworld by Don DeLillo
