Writing Styles

Years	Style	Authors	Characteristics
pre 1500s	Native American Myths	Native Americans	stories, poems, and histories created by Native Americans before the influence of European settlers
1528-1745	Puritan & Colonial Period	John Smith Anne Bradstreet William Bradford Edward Taylor Cotton Mather Mary Rowlandson Jonathan Edwards Michel-Guillame Jean de Crevecouer	writings of the original colonies and the Puritan religious regions of the Northeastern U.S. illustrates the beliefs in order, hard work, education, a god- centered society, and community shows the dependence on England and English ideas
1706-1810	Revolutionary Era (Classicism)	Benjamin Franklin Patrick Henry Thomas Paine Abigail Adams James Madison Alexander Hamilton John Adams John Locke	writings illustrate the forming of an American identity, social structure, and philosophy documents reflect the independent ideas of the nation and attempt to form a nationalistic feeling through the states
1783-1886	Romanticism	Emily Dickinson Washington Irving William Cullen Bryant John Greenleaf Whittier Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Herman Melville Andrew Jackson Abraham lincoln Edgar Allan Poe Nathaniel Hawthorne Stephen King Reformers/Abolitionists	portrays the ideal image of life follows the lives of larger than life characters and the upper and upper middle class prefers action to character highly colorful plots and are often mythic in nature imagination, intuition, and emotions are superior to reason poetry is superior to science natural world will help discover the truth behind reality shows a distrust of industry and city; idealizes rural life & nature shows an interest in the “natural” past and the supernatural * Poe and Hawthorne develop the short story *
1836-1860	Transcendentalism (subgroup of Romanticism)	Ralph Waldo Emerson Henry David Thoreau Walt Whitman	belief that God is present in every aspect of Nature (including people) conviction that everyone is capable of apprehending God through self belief that all of nature is symbolic of the spirit (circle symbol) optimistic view of the world as good and evil as non-existent Emerson’s writings in 1836 & 1842 push the ideas Thoreau’s Walden in 1854 strengthens the movement Whitman’s Leaves of Grass (varied years) concludes the period
1850-1920	Realism	Ambrose Bierce W.E.B. DuBois Jack London Booker T. Washington Kate Chopin Paul Dunbar Theodore Dreiser	attempts to depict life accurately without idealizing or romanticizing it concentrates on the middle class focuses on the here and now prefers character over plot focuses on literary technique
1865-1914	Naturalism (subgroup of Realism)	Mark Twain Brett Harte Henry James Stephen Crane Edith Wharton Willa Cather	extension of realism claiming to portray life as it really is human behavior determined by heredity and environment people have no recourse to supernatural forces subject to laws of nature beyond their control applies scientific principles objectively to study humans (philosophical) views the world as amoral and impersonal
1920-1947 (Revival considered by some to continue today)	Harlem Renaissance (and the African-American Revival)	Langston Hughes Richard Wright Ralph Ellison Maya Angelou Toni Morrison Zora Neale Hurston Alex Haley Malcolm X Countee Cullen Martin Luther King, Jr.	flowering of African-American art, writing, and music centered in Harlem but extended outwards aimed to define and preserve the African-American heritage targeted to protest oppression of African-Americans sought to make other Americans aware of African-American life/culture
1920-1955	Modernism	Sherwood Anderson Ernest Hemingway William Faulkner F. Scott Fitzgerald James Thurber John Steinbeck Flannery O'Connor John Updike Robert Frost Carl Sandburg	bold new experimental styles and forms called for changes in subject matter, in fictional styles, in poetic forms, and in attitudes realized the themes and settings in realist writings were limited experiments included stream of consciousness
1960-present	Post-Modernism	Ken Kesey Chuck Palahniuk Isaac Asimov Phillip K. Dick Joseph Heller Tim O'Brien Kurt Vonnegut	more dramatic experiments in literature influenced by the increasing dependence on technology and drugs/mind-altering states pessimistic view of the present with a cry for a return to a more natural past rejects tradition to find new realms of thought, uniquity, and individuality emphasis on anarchic tendencies and diversity merging of self and others (humanity cannot be defined) seen as the lone creative artist retrieving creations of yesteryear and reinventing them (collage effect) *** Major influences include: Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, and the Dada movement