Movements in American Literature

OVERVIEW

This is a summary of the major literary movements in American literature, noting major authors and representative works for each period.

AUDIENCE AND PREREQUISITE SKILLS

This lesson is intended for high school juniors taking the usual 11th grade survey of American literature course. It is especially appropriate for students in an Honors, Pre-AP, or AP course. It might also be useful for students in American History. As a prerequisite, students should have some knowledge of the timeline and major events in U.S. history.

MATERIALS

Note-taking materials for students, note-making facilities for the teacher (markerboard, or electronic equivalent).

PROCEDURE

1. 1. Discuss English lit. heritage -- Elizabethan Age.
2. 2. 17th Century -- Puritan writings, no distinctive American lit.
3. 3. Age of Reason (Neoclassicism, Rationalism) -- importance as philosophical movement in founding of American democracy, representative writers.
4. 4. Romanticism -- values, major writers and works, rejection of Neoclassicism
5. 5. Realism -- values, major writers and works, rejection of Romanticism.
6. 6. Naturalism -- values, aims, major writers and works, growth from Realism.
7. 7. Modernism -- existentialism, rejection of older outlooks, historical influences, major writers and works.

EVALUATION

Students should be able to match a list of "value statements" with the movement in which such values were commonly held. Advanced students should be able to read a piece of literature, and then in an essay assign it to a particular movement, and justify why they think it belongs to that time period or philosophical outlook (good AP activity).

RESOURCES

Mark Twain Resources on the Web

WWW Virtual Library: Literature

American Memory - Library of Congress

Smithsonian Magazine - History