Puritanism and Early Colonists: religious freedom, God’s grace as only redemption, the elect, diaries, poetry
Revolutionary War Era: public purpose, rhetoric and persuasion, secular world, neo-classicism, speeches, narratives, pamphlets
Myths: American Exceptionalism, “City upon a Hill,” self-made man, rational, strong work ethic/pull yourself up by bootstraps, the “new man,” land of the free, home of the brave
A Companion to the Literatures of Colonial America by 
Seasons of Misery by 
A Mixed Race by The Five ‘I’s: imagination, intuition, inspiration, individuality, idealism, preoccupation with the past to understand the present, encounters with the sublime, short stories, poetry
Myths: values of individual freedom, “noble savage”/civilization corrupts, quests for higher truths
A Companion to American Gothic by 
American Gothic by 
Phillis Wheatley and the Romantics by 
Romanticism by Spirituality in nature, man as divine, the oversoul, free verse and the rejection of formal structure, individualism and self-reliance, influence of Eastern religions, essays, poetry
Myths: rebellion against authority, reject conformity, spontaneous action
Visibility Beyond the Visible by 
Our Common Dwelling by 
Toward a Female Genealogy of Transcendentalism by Realistic depictions, lives of ordinary people, colloquial American speech, attempt to capture the present or “the now,” novels, short stories
Myths: frontier, expansionists, empire building
Traces of Gold by 
The Cambridge Introduction to American Literary Realism by Individual at the whims of larger forces, economic, social, and biological determinism, Social Darwinism, survival, muckraking journalism, urban squalor as setting, objective narrator
Myths: industrialist, capitalist, melting pot, nation of immigrants
A Man's Game by 
Naturalism in American Fiction by The New Negro, rebirth, art as expression of identity not a reaction to oppression, pan-Africanism, racial double-consciousness, jazz and blues, recognize contributions to the American nation and culture that black Americans have already made
Myths: pride in racial identity is something essentially American
Harlem Renaissance by 
Women Artists of the Harlem Renaissance by 
The African American Roots of Modernism by Art for art’s sake, break with tradition, rapid progress, collapsed plots, fragmented narratives, stream-of-consciousness, dealing with isolation and disillusionment, modern world as wasteland
Myths: progressive, democratic, war to end all wars, racial “purity” (eugenics)
Modernism by 
Improvisation and the Making of American Literary Modernism by 
A Companion to Modernist Literature and Culture by 
Unnatural Selections by Deconstruction and rejection of the “master narrative,” the Absurd, satiric commentary on society’s values, anti-hero, fragmentation, psychological time, playful and ironic, dark humor, parody, pop culture, intertextuality, media and virtual, (Later) hybridity, multi-perspective
Myths: relativity/we make our own truth, countercultural, diversity/plurality
Modernity and Postmodern Culture by 
Rethinking Postmodernism(s) by 
Pop Art and the Origins of Post-Modernism by 
Ebook Central has hundreds of book relevant to your research on American literary eras. Just a few have been posted on this page. Be sure to search by style, movement, writers, poets, etc.
A Journey Through American Literature by 
Where Is American Literature? by 
These are just a few examples of books that may be helpful to your research. Search the catalog on your own or ask Ms. Counts or Ms. Irwin for help. Remember we offer contact-free book pick up in the Chapel if you are unable to stop by the library.
Literature and Its Times
The Chronology of American Literature by 
From Puritanism to Postmodernism by 
Brief History of American Culture by 
American Art by 
Use Oxford Reference for high quality background information on your topic. Below are just two examples of relevant books.
The Oxford Companion to American Literature by 
The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Literature by 