Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
American Literature Letteratura Americana - Coggle Diagram
American Literature 
The Colonial Period (1492-1700)
Native Americans, the first inhabitants of the continent, did not develop anything we can call "literature". Their stories and poems were spread orally, which means the American literally history begins with the age of colonialism
-
The Revolutionary Period (1700-1800)
As dissatisfaction with the colonial system and the relations with Britain grew, the litrature gradually changed its shape
The writers became more politically, anti-British and revolutionary oriented, rationalism and enlightenment prevailed
Essays, speeches and pamphelets became more important, the Puritans' religious poetry fell out of favour as man was not considered naturally sinful any longer
The Period of Romanticism and Transcendetalism (1800-1880)
The period of romanticism represented a revolt against classisism and its values such as reason and form
-
-
American Realism and Naturalism (1860-1930)
Just as in Europe, the period of romanticism was followed by the period of realism
Writers left behind the styles and topics adopted by the previous generation and rather concentrated on describing life as it was with its negatives typical for the period
It was the era of industrialisation and migration, determinism was a major paradigm of the age
-
The 1890s saw the rise of naturalism, an extreme form of realism coined by émile Zola
Writers portrayed people in extreme situations and described their real behaviour, their books are full of dirty environments, poor neighbourhoods, prostitutes, drunks, crime and illeteracy. They formed a group called the Muckrakers
Contemporary American Literature
The authors of the 2nd half of the 20th century followed in the tradition developed by their predecessors
More movements appeared, ethnic writers became more involved and some of the aithors may be called "post-modernist"
New topics became popular (the revolt against the system, ethnic and racial issues, the holocaust)
New genres flourished (comic books, fantasy novels, sci-fi, horror stories)
-
In the 1950s, a group of non-conformist authors emerged, which is now known as the Beat Generation
They refused to fit in the society, revolted against the stablishment, experimented with drugs and criticised consumerism
They preferred spontaneity and travelling, San Francisco became their centre
-
-
-
New genres have become more popular in the past decades. They are: sci-fi, fantasy, horror fiction
-
American Modernism
Since the dawn of the 20th century, writers were looking for new ways of writing and new topics
Their writings expressed their feelings about living in the modern age, some of them wrote positively, some negatively
Their style became more complicated, experiments were quite common
-