Guillory H Literary Eras Study Mate Questions

The Puritan or Colonial Era

1620-1750: Writers of this era used writing to explore their inner and outer lives for signs of God's grace. They favored a plain style so that their ideas could clearly be understood by their readers

The Puritan Era Writers and works:

Anne Bradstreet (our first American poet--"Upon the Burning of Our House") + Jonathon Edwards (minister responsible for "The Great Awakening"--sermon "Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God")

The Age of Reason / Revolutionary Era

1750-1800: Believed that God created the universe but does not interfere with its workings. Also believed that people arrive at truth by using rational means to understand how the world operates. Most of their writing was political and had the purpose of persuasion.

Age of Reason Writers and Works:

Benjamin Franklin + Patrick Henry ("Give me liberty or give me death!") + Thomas Jefferson (The Declaration of Independence) + Thomas Paine (The Crisis Papers)

The Romantic Era

1800-1860: Favored the use of imagination and intuition over rationalism and reason; had an intense interest in and reverence for nature; actively involved in reform movements; fascinated by the supernatural and psychological; gave us our first fictional literature

The Romantic Era Writers and Works:

James Fenimore Cooper (gave us our first American literary hero, Natty Bumppo) The Fireside or Schoolroom Poets (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Cross of Snow") + Edgar Allan Poe ("The Raven") + The Transcendentalists (Bright Romantics): Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau + Nathaniel Hawthorne (Dark Romantic who write The Scarlet Letter) + Herman Melville (Moby-Dick)

The Realist Era

1860-1915: Often had a harsh outlook on life, trying to show it as it actually is. Gave us writing that used the actual language of people from certain regions of the country ("vernacular style") and that showed how ironic life can be many flaws we have as human beings.

The Realist Era Writers and Works:

Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn--dramatic irony, satire, and vernacular style) + famous poet Walt Whitman (free verse) + Emily Dickinson + Ambrose Bierce, Kate Chopin, and Edwin Arlington Robinson (psychological realism and irony)

The Modern Era

1915-1945: As a result of WWI, individuals of this time period experienced feelings of uncertainty, mistrust of traditional values, and a loss of faith in the American Dream. Often called the "lost generation." Tried to capture modern life in their writing.

The Modern Era Works and Writers:

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald + The Imagist Movement + Robert Frost + The Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes) + John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men) + Ernest Hemingway (A farewell to Arms) and William Faulkner

The Contemporary or Post-Modern Era

1946-the present: A major focus of this era is the values of our society and individuals in our society, who often feel alienated and alone. Fantasy and science fiction have become major genres.

The Contemporary Era Works and Writers:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger + The Crucible by Arthur Miller (political allegory that warns against history repeating itself) = The Confessional Poets and The Beat Poets = A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams + "Letter from Birmingham Jail" by Martin Luther King Jr. + A Raison in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry + Richard Blanco's "One Today"