This document provides an overview of major American literary periods and authors from the 17th century to the modern era. It begins with the oral traditions of Native Americans and then discusses early colonial literature produced by Puritans. The document then outlines major literary eras like Romanticism and Realism before focusing on Modernist authors of the early 20th century like Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Williams, and Miller. It provides brief biographies and descriptions of their major works before concluding with sections on poets like Pound, Eliot, Frost, and Sandburg, as well as the Harlem Renaissance.

3. The story of American Literature begins
long before the US began its existence
Native Americans
Oral literature
Myths and Legends
Focus on nature and creation stories

4. The first permanent settlers were
Puritans
Interested in education and culture
Harvard was founded in 1636
Printing press was started in 1638

5. New World saw the emergence of
literature which was mainly made up of
sermons, histories, autobiographies and
poems all of them written with a religious
purpose

7. 1.Native Americans
2.Enlightenment Era
• Age of Faith
• Age of Reason
3.Romanticism Era
4.Realism Era
5.Modernism Era
6.Contemporary Era

8. MODERNISM
I. Historical Context
• Overwhelming technological advances
• World War I- first war of mass destruction
• Grief over loss of past; fear of eroding traditions
• Rise of youth culture

9. II. Genre/Style
• Dominant mood:
alliteration/disconnection
• Writing highly experimental: stream
of consciousness, interior dialogue
• Writers seek to create a new style

10. MAJOR WRITERS:
ERNEST HEMMINGWAY (1899-1961)

11. ERNEST HEMMINGWAY (1899-1961)
1.Writing style: concise, direct, spare,
objective, precise, rhythmic
2.Major works include The Sun Also
Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom
the Bell Tolls, The
Old Man and the Sea
3.a larger than life hero; big game
hunter; sport fisherman; headliner;
won Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize for
Literature

12. F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

13. F. SCOTT FITZGERALD (1896-1940)
• The Great Gatsby (ironic and tragic
treatment of the American success
myth)
• his work and life illustrate
American culture of the 1920's

14. WILLIAM FAULKNER (1897-1962)

15. • As I Lay Dying
• The Sound and the Fury (his
masterpiece)
• the most original writer of his
time
• primary subject was his heritage:
Southern memory, reality, myth
WILLIAM FAULKNER (1897-1962)

16. JOHN STEINBECK (1902–1968)

17. • Grapes ofWrath (combined naturalism
& symbolism to express outrage and
compassion for the plight of the
farmers displaced by the Depression &
Dustbowl)
• OfMice and Men
• The Pearl
• belief in the need for social justice;
hope that people can learn from the
suffering of others
JOHN STEINBECK (1902–1968)

18. TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (1911–1983)

19. • Writing style - playwright
• Major works include A Streetcar
Named Desire,The Glass Menagerie,
Caton aHotT
in Roof,& BabyDoll
• concerns with traditional values of the
American South and the aggressive,
rapidly changing world of modern
America.
• Personal: Homosexual, many of his
characters grapple with their sexuality.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (1911–1983)

20. ARTHUR MILLER (1915–2005)

21. • Writing style - playwright and essayist
• Major works include Death ofa
Salesman, The Crucible, Misfits, & AllMy
Sons
• Major Themes: American Dream and the
common man's inability to achieve it.
• Tragic Figure (Aristotle)
• Jewish American, Communism, and
Hollywood
ARTHUR MILLER (1915–2005)

22. EZRA POUND
MAJOR 20TH CENTURY POETS

23. • Imagism (ordinary language,
free verse, concentrated
word pictures)
• Committed treason
• spent a decade in a mental
hospital
EZRA POUND

24. T.S. ELIOT

25. T.S. ELIOT • Love Song of J. Alfred
Prufrock (what is our place
in the universe? how can
anyone love and
communicate with anyone
else?)
• The Waste-Land (the
failure of Western
civilization, illustrated by
WWI)

26. ROBERT FROST (1874-1963)

27. ROBERT FROST
• traditional verse forms; plain
speech of rural New
Englanders
• Death of the Hired Man
• Birches
• Stopping by Woods on a
Snowy Evening
• The Road Not Taken
• Mending Wall
• America's best known and
best-loved poet

28. CARL SANDBURG

29. CARL SANDBURG
• one of the Chicago poets
• describes everyday Americans,
positive tone, simple words,
easy to understand, free verse

30. THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE (1915-1929)
• A black cultural movement that emerged in
Harlem during the 20's; literature, music and
art flourished

31. • Langston Hughes: most successful black writer in America;
wrote poetry, drama, novels, songs, movie scripts, etc.
• Zora Neale Hurston: rediscovered by the women's movement
in the 70's
• Jean Toomer: "Cane" regarded as one of the most
influential works of the era
• F. Claude McKay: poetry evokes the heritage of his
native Jamaica
• Countee Cullen: the "black Keats" for his youth, skill as a poet,
use of traditional forms