part one colonial america
chapter i american puritanism
1. the new world
2. puritan fathers
3. the puritan principles
4. characteristics of american puritans
5. the puritan heritage
chapter ii the colonial literature
1. characteristics of the colonial
literature
2. william bradford
3. anne bradstreet
4. edward taylor
5. jonathan edwards
part two america independence
chapter i american revolution and enlightenment
1. american revolution
2. enlightenment
chapter ii the literature of revolution and
enlightenment
1. the literary features
2. thomas paine
3. thomas jefferson
4. philip freneau
chapter iii benjamin franklin
part three the age of romanticism
chapter i the rise of american romanticism
i. historical background
2. characteristics of romanticism
3. features of american romanticism
chapter ii early romanticism
1. characteristics of early romanticism
2. early romantic novelists
3. early romantic poets
chapter iii late romanticism
1. characteristics of late romanticism and
the flowering of american literature
2. late romantic poets--whitman,
dickinson,poe
3. late romantic essayists--emerson
and thoreau
4. irate romantic novelists--hawthorne
and melville
part four the age of realism
chapter i the rise of realism
1. realism
2. features of critical realism
3. historical background of
american realism
4. features of american realism
chapter ii three major novelists of realism
chapter iii four novelists of naturalism
chapter iv other writers of social criticism
part five the age of modernism
chapter i the rise of modernism
1. modernism
2. features of modernism
3. historical introduction of
american modernism
4. modern american poetry
5. modern american drama
6. modern american fiction
chapter ii modern poets
1. poets of native traditions
2. imagist and symbolist poets
3. confessional poets
4. beat poets
chapter iii modern novelists
1. midwest novelists
2. novelists of lost generation
3. novelists of depression
4. african american novelists
5. jewish novelists
6. southern novelists
7. war novelists
8. asian american novelists
9. women novelists
10. other contemporary novelists
chapter iv modern playwrights
1. eugene o'neill
2. three dominant playwrights
3. contemporary playwrights
appendix glossary of literary terms
references