1. Introduction
Major Literary Movements

2. American Literature
Major Movements
• Native American
• Puritan
• Enlightenment
• Romanticism
• Transcendentalism

3. Native American
• most of these works were part of the oral
tradition and weren’t written down until
the 19th and 20th centuries
• they are mostly myths and experience
changes and adaptations through the
centuries

4. Puritan
1472 -- 1750
• mostly histories, journals, personal poems,
sermons, and diaries
• usually utilitarian, personal, or religious
• often not meant for publication

5. Enlightenment
1750 -- 1800
• influenced by science and logic
• dominated by political writings -- speeches,
letters, and documents
• lacks influence of Bible seen in the Puritan
period and relies on common sense instead
• Often referred to as Neoclassical period as
it corresponds to the European movement

6. Romanticism
1800 -- 1840
• reaction to 18th century Neoclassicism
• valued fancy, imagination, emotion, nature,
individuality, and exotica
• meant more to entertain, less to instruct
• focused on “American” topics

7. Transcendentalism
1840 -- 1855
• Transcendentalists believed that intuition
and the individual conscience “transcend”
experience and are better guides than the
senses or logic
• respected individual spirit and the natural
world
• believed divinity was everywhere