American literature

Table of Contents

Introduction & Top Questions
The 17th century
The 18th century
- The new nation
- Notable works of the period
  - Poets and poetry
  - Drama and the novel
The 19th century
- Early 19th-century literature
- American Renaissance
  - New England Brahmins
  - The Transcendentalists
  - New England reformers and historians
  - Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman
- From the Civil War to 1914
  - Literary comedians
  - Fiction and local colorists
  - The naturalists
  - Henry James
  - Critics of the gilded age
  - Henry Adams
  - Poets of the era
The 20th century
- Writing from 1914 to 1945
  - Experiments in drama
  - The new poetry
  - Fiction
    - Critics of society
    - Hemingway, Faulkner, and Steinbeck
    - Lyric fictionists
  - Literary criticism
    - Socio-literary critics
    - Moral-aesthetic critics
- After World War II
  - The novel and short story
    - Realism and “metafiction”
    - Southern fiction
    - African American literature
    - New fictional modes
    - The influence of Raymond Carver
    - Multicultural writing
  - Poetry
    - Formal poets
    - Experimentation and Beat poetry
    - “Deep image” poets
    - New directions
    - Autobiographical approaches
  - Drama
    - Miller, Williams, and Albee
    - The Off-Broadway ascendancy
  - Literary and social criticism
    - Literary biography and the “new journalism”
    - Theory

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images, Videos & Interactives

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Periods of American Literature

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'Hamilton' author Ron Chernow's new book takes on an icon of American letters, Mark Twain • May 9, 2025, 11:17 AM ET (AP)

Photos and Videos

John Smith: Map of Virginia

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

Poor Richard's almanac

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Henry David Thoreau: Walden Pond cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe, c. 1880

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How did Phillis Wheatley become a poet?

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The video thumbnail image shows a black and white image of Robert Frost against a sepia-toned background.

An image of Joy Harjo, a Native American woman, imposed on a background of a notebook. A blue arrow points to Harjo with the label "poet laureate."

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Topics

deep image poet lyric fiction African American literature 13 Great Indigenous Writers to Read and Celebrate poet laureate muckraker National Book Awards Frost Medal Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize Pulitzer Prize English literature French literature African literature Arabic literature Italian literature German literature Spanish literature Japanese literature Latin American literature Chinese literature

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Quiz

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Emily Dickinson, head-and-shoulders portrait, facing right

Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) only confirmed photograph of Emily Dickinson. 1978 scan of a Daguerreotype. ca. 1847; in the Amherst College Archives. American poet. See Notes:

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Close up of books. Stack of books, pile of books, literature, reading. Homepage 2010, arts and entertainment, history and society

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