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 of Wrath (combined naturalism
& symbolism to express outrage and
compassion for the plight of the
farmers displaced by the Depression &
Dustbowl)
• Of Mice 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,
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, & Baby Doll
• 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 of a
Salesman, The Crucible, Misfits, & All My
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 • America's best known and
best-loved poet
• 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

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. • F. Claude McKay: poetry evokes the heritage of his
native Jamaica
• Langston Hughes: most successful black writer in America;
wrote poetry, drama, novels, songs, movie scripts, etc.
• Countee Cullen: the "black Keats" for his youth, skill as a poet,
use of traditional forms
• 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