A Look at the American Literary Movements
| 10 Min Read
The story of American literature begins long before the nation itself, woven through indigenous oral traditions, colonial religious writing and revolutionary pamphlets. It continues today in novels, poetry and essays that challenge, console and inspire readers across the world.
Students pursuing the online Bachelor’s in English/Writing program at Eastern Oregon University (EOU) develop the critical lens to understand how these movements connect — and how each era of American writing both reflected its historical moment and helped shape what came next. Let’s dive into the history of the main American literary movements and what they say about the characteristics of American literature.
What Is American Literature?
American literature is the body of written works produced in the United States. It spans from pre-colonial oral traditions to contemporary fiction, poetry and nonfiction, reflecting the nation’s evolving history, cultural diversity and the enduring human experience.
From the earliest indigenous storytellers to postmodern novelists, American literature encompasses a vast spectrum of forms, voices and perspectives. According to the Library of Congress, the scope of American literature extends across all monographs by American authors whose writings represent important trends in serious creative writing — a canon so broad that the Library’s collection numbers well over 300,000 titles. It is a tradition that continues to evolve with each generation.
What Is Native American Literature?
Native American literature is one of the oldest and most enduring literary traditions in the world, rooted in thousands of years of oral storytelling, myth and cultural memory. This rich tradition predates European contact, making it a foundational thread in the broader story of American literature.
Long before the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, native people had their own rich culture. Native American literature comprises oral traditions, folktales, creation stories and other myths that survive in the stories told by modern-day Native Americans.
One common element in these stories is repetition of incidents in a culturally significant number, usually four (the cardinal directions) or seven (the cardinal directions plus skyward, earthward and center). These stories were told and retold by generations of storytellers across many tribes, and they vary in telling not just from one storyteller to the next and tribe to tribe, but even across multiple tellings by the same narrator.
In the 1700s, the Reverend Samson Occom, a member of the Mohegan nation, was among the first Native Americans to publish writings in English. At the beginning of the 20th century, Zitkála-Šá, a Yankton Dakota writer, musician and activist, collected and published legends drawn from Native cultures for a widespread white, English-speaking readership — along with personal stories that explored her struggles with cultural identity and the tension between tradition and assimilation. Another iconic writer of the early 20th century was Charles Eastman, considered the first to write American history from the Native American point of view.
Beginning in the late 1960s, the Native American Renaissance saw a surge of Native American literature, including authors like James Welch and Paula Gunn Allen. Contemporary Native writers such as Eden Robinson and Louise Erdrich — whose novel The Night Watchman earned the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction — continue to be vital voices in the American literary tradition.
What Is Colonial Literature 1600s-1700s?
Colonial American literature was shaped by the practical, religious and political concerns of a new society. Its works spanned a wide range, from historical accounts and Puritan sermons to early poetry and critiques of the colonial order.
As the English colonies were established in the 17th century, the literary themes among the colonists reflected their historical context. The earliest English works from the colonies ranged from practical accounts of colonial history and life written by leaders such as John Smith, to Anne Bradstreet’s The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America, likely the first collection of poetry written in and about America.
Since many of the colonies were founded due to religious divisions back in Great Britain, it should be no surprise that religious themes were common. Such works ranged from the Puritan writings of ministers such as Increase Mather, to Roger Williams’ arguments for separation of church and state, and even the anti-religious New English Canaan by Thomas Morton — a harsh critique of the Puritans’ customs and power structures.
What Is Enlightenment and Revolution Literature Mid- to Late 1700s?
Revolutionary-era American literature was shaped by Enlightenment ideals, championing reason, individual rights and the democratic principles that would define the new nation. In the years surrounding the American Revolution, literature likewise shifted to encompass the patriotic spirit that drove the nation toward independence. The iconic Federalist Papers in politics were matched by works by other authors in science and philosophy, such as Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason.
1789 saw the publication of The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown. Widely recognized as the first American novel, Brown’s work was a cautionary tale about the dangers of seduction and advocated for rational thinking and the moral education of women. Given its historical context, critics have viewed The Power of Sympathy as an exploration of virtues most needed by the new nation.
What Is American Gothic Literature Early 1800s-Present?
American Gothic literature explores the dark undercurrents of the American experience, drawing on fear, moral corruption and the anxieties that shadowed the nation’s growth. Not to be confused with the famous painting by Grant Wood, American Gothic literature draws on dark themes from the nation’s historical and contemporary challenges. The early Gothic writers drew on frontier anxiety and fear of the unknown; Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820) is perhaps the most famous example.
As the nation grew and matured, the Gothic tradition matured with it, through the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe and others. Southern Gothic writers used the decaying plantations of the post-Civil War South in place of the castles of European Gothic literature, as in William Faulkner’s works. The contemporary works of authors like Stephen King, who draws on his own experiences in rural Maine, continue the long American Gothic tradition.
What Is Romanticism and Transcendentalism Literature 1820s-1850s?
American romanticism is a literary movement that celebrated individualism, the power of nature and emotion over reason, elevating personal experience and imagination as the highest sources of truth. The romantic era began in Europe in the eighteenth century, but American romanticism arrived later, around 1820. American romantic writers explored themes of individualism, intuitive perception and the inherent goodness of the natural world.
Key characteristics of American romanticism include a reverence for nature as a moral and spiritual force, a focus on the individual’s inner life and emotion and an interest in the supernatural and the mysterious. Among the best-known works of American romanticism are Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850), a dramatic story of a woman cast out of a Puritan community for committing adultery, and Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick (1851), one of history’s most famous stories of man against the elements.
According to the Poetry Foundation, American romanticism was shaped by writers who rejected the rationalism of the Enlightenment in favor of emotion, imagination and individual freedom. This shift marked a decisive turning point in the national literary identity. These writers laid the groundwork for the intellectual movements that would follow later in the 19th century.
Emerging from American romanticism was transcendentalism, perhaps the first notable American intellectual movement, built on the belief in the inherent goodness of people and the idea that self-reliance unlocks that goodness by transcending society’s corrupting influence. We see these ideas in the works of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller and others, most famously in Thoreau’s Walden, a reflection on his experience living independently near Walden Pond. Since transcendental literature was in many respects the opposite of American Gothic, prominent Gothic writers also penned critiques of transcendentalism, such as Hawthorne’s The Blithedale Romance.
What Is Literary Realism, Naturalism and Modernism Literature 1860s-1940s?
Following the Civil War, American literature shifted toward realism and naturalism as a direct rejection of romantic idealism. Writers increasingly favored unflinching portrayals of ordinary life and social conditions over idealized visions of human experience. This movement also grappled with the indifference of the natural world, a theme that would define much of the era’s most enduring work.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, American literary realism — exemplified by Mark Twain, Henry James and others — sought to present life as it truly was, free of supernatural or speculative elements. Twain’s vigorous, colloquial style in works such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn challenged tired literary conventions and helped define an authentically American voice. Closely related was American naturalism, shaped heavily by Frank Norris and writers like Stephen Crane, whose short story The Open Boat uses the ordeal of shipwreck survivors to explore the universe’s indifference to human struggle.
From the same current as realism, literature progressed to American modernism in the interwar period, with some of the most famous works penned by the “Lost Generation” of expatriate writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Modernist works drew from the pain and loss of direction this generation experienced, but they also contained themes of hope as individuals adapted to a transformed world.
What Is Contemporary & Postmodern Literature 1950s-Present?
Contemporary American literature is defined by its diversity and experimentation, embracing postmodern techniques, multicultural voices and a willingness to challenge every convention of storytelling that came before. The postwar period saw the rise of a wide spectrum of innovative and subversive themes in literature, from the overtly countercultural works of the 1950s “Beat Generation” to John Updike’s reflective explorations of faith, personal turmoil and sensuality. Sexually frank content entered the mainstream in this period, as restrictions on obscenity were loosened and writers were empowered to speak freely about previously taboo topics.
Over the last several decades, American literature has seen an explosion of postmodernist themes such as unreliable narrators, internal monologue and temporal distortion. Contemporary writers have used literature to critique American culture, find connections across time and place and explore themes such as pluralism, relativism and self-consciousness. The expansion of diverse voices in recent decades has transformed the literary canon, bringing perspectives from communities long underrepresented in mainstream American publishing to the center of the national conversation.
The Broader Story of the American Literary Movements
American literature is about far more than entertainment — it is both a reflection of, and an influence upon, the historical moments and shifting human experiences that gave rise to each movement. To study these movements is to study what it means to be human: to struggle and succeed, to love and lose, to communicate and create.
For students who want to engage deeply with this tradition, EOU’s fully online B.S./B.A. in English/Writing provides the critical framework to understand how these movements connect and what they reveal about the world we live in today. It provides the foundation for an array of pathways.
Learn more about Eastern Oregon University’s fully online B.S./B.A. in English/Writing program.
About Eastern Oregon University’s Online B.S./B.A. in English/Writing
Eastern Oregon University’s online B.S./B.A. in English/Writing equips students with the critical thinking, analytical writing and literary expertise needed to succeed across a wide range of professional and creative fields. The program is designed for working adults seeking the flexibility to earn a respected degree on their own schedule, without sacrificing academic rigor.
From close reading of canonical texts to developing an original creative voice, students graduate prepared to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing conversation that defines American — and global — literary culture. Request information to learn more about this flexible, fully online program.