Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events

1. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events Remember! Copy the words that are bold and underlined. For an extra challenge, copy the words that are just underlined too. Each slide will be on the screen for approximately one minute. This presentation will be available on Edmodo shortly after class today. Help is available most days during 8th hour.

2. Copy the bolded and underlinedwords Why study literature?  What's the point of studying literature? What's the point of studying art? • In theory, literaturereflects the values of its time, so that might be why it's important.

3. Copy the bolded and underlinedwords Why study literature? [cont.]  What's the point of studying literature? What's the point of studying art? • It's a cultural artifact - we can analyze the people who created it and the people who consumed it.

4. Copy the bolded and underlinedwords Why study literature? [cont.]  What's the point of studying literature? What's the point of studying art? • It's a window into a different world that might reveal truths that anthropology or historical stuff might miss. If we're studying art that our own time has produced, hopefully it can tell us something that we didn't previously realize about ourselves. It might not be something flattering, but hopefully it will tell us something.

5. Copy the bolded and underlinedwords FYI • This is Western literary tradition, primarily embodied in works from the United States.

6. Copy the bolded and underlinedwords FYI [cont.] • A lot of the periods you'll see might be familiar for you if you've studied any kind of art, philosophy, history, politics, anything like that. Just makes sense because, like literature, all of these other disciplines reflect their time, so they're kind of catch-all categories for speaking about dominant cultural trends. For instance, we can talk about Modernist literature, we can talk about Modernist art, we can talk about Modernist politics, and we're referring to the same era in all three cases.

7. Copy the bolded and underlinedwords FYI [cont.] • Exact dates for these eras are kind of imprecise, kind of subjective. People just say, 'Oh, this is when the next thing starts,' and that might not be totally representative of an author that was writing at a bridge time area. But we've noted that basically every author will be responding in some way to the prevailing trends of their time - they're going to be aware of it. They might be rejecting it. They might be going along with it, but they're going to be aware of it, and that's the important thing.

8. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events • 1607 – Jamestown Colony established • 1620 – Plymouth Plantation founded in Massachusetts • (1) 1650-1750—Puritan/Colonial Literature • 1650 – Anne Bradstreet’s book of poems The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, By a Gentlewoman of Those Parts is published in London Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

9. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events • 1702 – Cotton Mather publishes Magnalia Christi Americana - The Great Achievement of Christ in America • 1750-1800—The Age of Reason • 1773 –Phyllis Wheatley publishes her first book of poems Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

10. Copy the bolded and underlinedwords Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1776 – The Declaration of Independence is signed • (2) 1785-1830 – The Romantic Period, the Gothic • 1819 – Washington Irving publishes Rip Van Winkle • 1826 – James FenimoreCooper writes The Last of the Mohicans • 1836 – Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes Nature Literary Historical

11. Copy the bolded and underlinedwords Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • (3) 1836-1860—Transcendentalism • 1845 – Edgar Allan Poe writes “The Raven” • 1849 – Henry David Thoreau releases his essay Civil Disobedience • 1850 – Nathaniel Hawthorne writes The Scarlet Letter Literary Historical

12. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1851 – Herman Melville publishes Moby Dick • 1852 – Emily Dickinson publishes her first poem • 1852– Harriet Beecher Stowe writes Uncle Tom’s Cabin, beginning the American tradition of social writing • 1854 – Thoreau writes Walden Literary Historical Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

13. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1855 – Frederick Douglass Publishes My Bondage and My Freedom • 1855—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Writes The Song of Hiawatha • 1855 – Noah Webster releases his Blue-Backed Speller • 1855-- Walt Whitman publishes Leaves of Grass Literary Historical Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

14. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1861 - 1864 – The American Civil War is fought • (4) 1865-1900—Realism • 1868 – Louisa May Alcott writes Little Women • 1870 – Mark Twain writes The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Literary Historical Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

15. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1878 – Henry James writes Daisy Miller • 1884 – Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn • 1895 – Stephen Crane writes The Red Badge of Courage Literary Historical Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

16. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • (5) 1901-1914—Naturalism • 1903 – Jack London writes Call of the Wild • 1905 –O Henry, writes The Gift of the Magi Literary Historical Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

17. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1906 – Upton Sinclair writes The Jungle and helps launch America’s tradition of investigative journalism • 1913 – William Carlos Williams releases his first book of poems, The Tempers Literary Historical Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

18. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1914 - 1918 – The First World War is fought • (6) 1914-1945—Modernism • 1914 – Carl Sandburg Publishes Chicago • 1917 – T. S. Eliot writes The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock • 1920 – Edith Wharton is the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Age of Innocence Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

19. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • (7) 1920s—Harlem Renaissance • 1922 – T.S. Eliot publishes The Wasteland • 1923 – E. E. Cummings published his first book of poems, Tulips and Chimneys • 1923 – Robert Frost publishes “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”  Langston Hughes [far left] with [left to right:] Charles S. Johnson, E. Franklin Frazier, Rudolph Fisher and Hubert T. Delaney, on a Harlem rooftop on the occasion of a party in Hughes' honor, 1924. Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

20. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1925 - 1940 – Era of the lost generation writers • 1925 – F. Scott Fitzgerald Writes The Great Gatsby • 1926 – Ernest Hemingway writes The Sun Also Rises • 1926—Langston Hughes publishes The Weary Blues • 1929 – Faulkner writes The Sound and the Fury Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

21. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1931 – Pearl Buck writes The Good Earth • 1937—Zora Neale Hurston publishes Their Eyes Were Watching God • 1938 – Pearl Buck wins the Nobel Prize for Literature • 1939 – John Steinbeck publishes The Grapes of Wrath Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

22. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1939 - 1945 – The Second World War is fought • 1940 – Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls is published • 1945-1965—The Beat Generation • 1947 – Robert Heinlein launches the golden age of science fiction with his short story “The Green Hills of Earth” published in The Saturday Evening Post Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

23. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1948 – T.S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize for Literature • 1948—Tennessee Williams Wins His First Pulitzer Prize for A Street Car Named Desire • 1949 – William Faulkner becomes the fourth American to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature • 1949—Arthur Miller writes Death of a Salesman Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

24. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1950 - 1953 – The Korean War is fought • 1950 – Gwendolyn Brooks becomes the first Black recipient of the Pulitzer Prize • 1951—J.D. Salinger writes Catcher in the Rye • 1952 – Ernest Hemingway writes his masterpiece, The Old Man and the Sea Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

25. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • (8) 1950—?—Postmodernism • 1952—Ralph Ellison writes Invisible Man • 1953 – Ray Bradbury writes Fahrenheit 451 • 1953—James Baldwin writes Go Tell It on the Mountain • 1953—Arthur Miller writes The Crucible • 1954 – Ernest Hemingway wins the Nobel Prize for Literature Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

26. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1956 – Allan Ginsburg writes Howl • 1957 – Dr Seuss writes The Cat in the Hat • 1957—Jack Kerouac publishes On the Road • 1959 – William Burroughs writes The Naked Lunch Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

27. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1959—Playwright Lorraine Hansberry writes A Raisin in the Sun • 1961 – Joseph Heller writes Catch-22 • 1962 – John Steinbeck wins the Nobel Prize for Literature • 1963 – Sylvia Plath writes The Bell Jar Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

28. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1965 - 1973 – The Vietnam War is fought • 1966 – Truman Capote writes In Cold Blood • 1968 – Tom Wolfe publishes The Electric Koolaid Acid Test Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

29. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1969 – Kurt Vonnegut writes Slaughterhouse Five • 1976 – Saul Bellow wins the Nobel Prize for Literature • 1982 –Alice Walker writes The Color Purple • 1987 – August Wilson wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fences Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

30. Timeline of American Literary and Historical Events [cont.] • 1989 – The Cold War ends • 1989 –Amy Tan writes The Joy Luck Club • 1993 –Toni Morrison wins the Nobel Prize for Literature • 2003 – The Second Gulf War is fought • 2006 – Cormac McCarthy wins a Pulitzer Prize for The Road Copy the bolded and underlinedwords

31. http://www.online-literature.com/periods/timeline.php