American Literature Movements

American Literary Realism (1860 - 1915)

  • Everyday situations and characters

  • Avoidance of sentimentalism

    • Did not “idealize” life; showed “less attractive” side of life

  • Common language/local dialects

  • authentic social detail

    • Strong sense of everyday life; details of time and place

  • Emphasis on characterization over plot

  • Authors want to show the world hat could be

  • Wrote a lot about

Naturalism

  • See the world as determined by forces that we have no control over.

  • Pessimistic

  • Darwinism

  • Marxism

  • Life can come along and steam roll you

Modernism (1870s - 1930s)

  • Imagism poems

    • Five senses focusing in poems

  • World War One

    • Movement was Optimistic before

    • Movement was Pessimistic after.

  • Visual Arts

    • Lots of music and literature

  • All modernist movements are connected by the fact that they are part of the generation who want to do things differently than their parents did

    • Some tried to find something that has not been done before

  • Originates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

  • An era of experimentation, change and invention

    A reaction against “romantic excess”

  • Inspiration was heavily drawn from the science of psychology

  • A crisis of faith ensuing

  • Literary works wer more fragmented and non-linear

Beat Movement

  • post world war II

  • to reject literary formalism and the American culture built on capitalism and materialism.

  • Two big trials for obscenity from the literature of this generation

    • Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”

    • New York having Ulysses being distributed nationwide

    • Done for pornographic and obscenity of material

  • Loved Jazz Music

  • Came about during first decade of TV movement

    • Writers appeared a lot on The Tonight Show

    • Became celebrities

Magical Realism

  • Definition: A literary genre that combines realistic narrative with elements of magic or fantasy.

  • Characteristics:

    • Blending of ordinary and magical elements seamlessly.

    • Mundane events portrayed in a magical way.

    • Surreal and dreamlike atmosphere.

  • Origins:

    • Coined by German art critic Franz Roh in 1925.

    • Popularized by Latin American authors like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabel Allende.

  • Themes:

    • Blurring of reality and fantasy.

    • Cultural identity and heritage.

    • Social and political commentary through magical elements.

  • Examples:

    • "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

    • "The House of the Spirits" by Isabel Allende.

    • "Like Water for Chocolate" by Laura Esquivel.

  • Impact:

    • Influenced literature, art, and film globally.

    • Provides a unique perspective on reality and human experience.