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by Kieran Herlihy

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Pre-Colonialism

Time Period | Pre colonialism (1607 and before)

Major elements - Native Americans, spiritualism, religion, race, violence

Major historical events - Christopher Columbus discovers America (1492), Roanoke Colony founded (1585)

Major authors - Native Americans

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Sample work - Ghost Dance Songs by Native Americans
Time period - Pre-Colonialism
Dates - No confirmed date
Point of view - first person

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Sample Work Connection |

The Ghost Dance Songs introduce many aspects of pre colonialism, one of them being spiritualism. This idea is emphasized in the following quote: “The eagle has brought the message to the tribe” (Sioux 3). The native Americans heavily attached themselves to religious figures and spiritual ideas. Native American culture was heavily different from other cultures, as they were very respectful to their land and worshipped their earth and gods. There is lots of history regarding Native American culture, such as their unusual ways of worship, such as the ghost dance. They believed that this dance would bring back their traditional ways of life and drive away the white people. This connects back to the aspect of spiritualism in Pre Colonial Times.

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Colonialism

Time Period | Colonialism (1607 - 1775)

Major elements - religion, sin, economy, politics

Major historical events - The Jamestown Settlement established (1607), The mayflower (1620), Salem witch trials (1692, 1693), French Indian war (1754-1763)

Major authors - Jonathan Edwards, William Bradford, John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet

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Sample work - Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards
Time period - colonialism
Date - published in 1741
Point of view - second person

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Sample Work Connection |

As seen in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, many aspects of colonialism shine through in this sermon. The religious devotion of the colonial people heavily emphasizes the intensity of this text. The obedience to god and religion overall is shown in the following quote: “and god is dreadfully provoked, his anger is as great towards them as to those that are actually suffering the executions of the fierceness of his wrath in hell…” (Edwards 1). This obedience to the supernatural is carried on through historical events such as the Salem Witch trials, where several people were prosecuted due to witchcraft accusations in the late 1600s.

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Time Period | Enlightenment (1776-1820)

Major aspects - independence, war, liberty, reasoning = truth, god gave humans ability to think, humans must take advantage of the gift of thought, Deism, faith does not = truth, reasoning does

Major historical events - the signing of the Declaration, American Revolutionary War (1775 - 1783), Seneca falls convention, Boston tea party (1773)

Major authors - Benjamin Franklin, Phillis Wheatley, Thomas Jefferson

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Sample work - The Declaration of Independence by Thomas Jefferson
Time period - the Enlightenment Dates - 1776
POV - first and third

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Sample Work Connection |

The Declaration offers many ideas that fit into the category of the aspects of enlightenment. A fairly obvious idea yet one that deserves to be talked about is the idea of Liberty. Liberty has always been a confusing subject in American history. Who actually gets liberty? Liberty is introduced in the following quote: “... all men are created equal… they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights… life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Jefferson 1). These moral codes written by our founding fathers set the foundation for our country. This work itself is a major event in history.

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Time Period | Romanticism (1800-1850)
Dark romanticism (1836-1840s)

Major aspects - nature is focal point, independence, moral clarity, intuition over reason, individual freedom, beauty, inspiration

Aspects of dark romanticism are sin, evil, self destruction, judgement, punishment

Major historical events - The Industrial Revolution (1780s-1840s), birth of Edgar Allen Poe (1809)

Major Authors - Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, fireside poets (Henry Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, William Cullen Bryant)

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Sample work - The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Time period - romanticism/dark romanticism
Dates - 1850 (set in 1642 - 1649)
Point of view - 3rd person

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Sample Work Connection |

There are several aspects of Romanticism but especially Dark Romanticism depicted in The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne set the story in the 1600s, however it is seen often how he incorporated Romantic ideas into the story. A recurring example of this would be the idea of sin. Sin is a strong theme throughout the whole story. For example, in the following quote, Hawthorne emphasizes how confession of a sin could lead to salvation, “If they feelest it to be for the soul's peace, and that thy earthly punishment will thereby be more effectual by salvation, I charge thee to speak out the name of thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer" (56). This shows how much value they put on things such as sin and religion.

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Time Period | Transcendentalism (1830s - 1860s)

Major aspects - higher truth reached by intuition, humans possess an innate goodness, opposed strict ritualism, importance of nature, truth, inspiration, self trust, confidence

Major historical events - Monroe doctrine, Mexican American War, Civil War,

Major authors - Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson

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Sample work - Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant by Emily Dickinson
Time period -Transcendentalism
Dates - 1860s
POV - first person

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Sample Work Connection |

Tell all the Truth but Tell it Slant by Emily Dickinson represents many aspects of the transcendentalist era, the main one being Truth. The transcendentalists were heavy followers of the idea that higher truth is reached by intuition. This idea is represented through the following quote at the end of the poem: “The Truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind” (Dickinson 24). The truth gives every man vision. This idea is even represented through historical events such as the civil war, where the union and the confederacy were both seeking the truth of what is best for our country.

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Time Period | Slave Narrative (1800s - 1900s)

Major aspects - violence, human cruelty, escapism through music, education, physical escapism, innocence vs experience, truth vs deception

Major historical events - Civil War, the abolitionist movement, 13th amendment, women’s suffrage movements

Major authors - Frederick Douglass, slaves

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Sample work - The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Time period - Slave Narrative
Dates - Written in 1845, set from 1818-1895
POV - first person

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Sample Work Connection (Slave Narrative)

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Sample Work Connection (Slave Narrative)

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Sample Work Connection |

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the gold standard for slave narratives.  It introduces every aspect of slave narratives, but two very prominent ones that tie in with each other in a way are violence and human cruelty. These ideas are represented through the following quote: “"I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood" (Douglass 5). Since Douglass himself was an abolitionist, his narrative ties in with the famous 13th amendment, also known as the abolition of slavery.

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Time Period | Modernism (1901-1950)

Major Elements: loss of faith / doubt, fragmentation of belief, globalization, isolation / alienation, technological advancements (rapid-firing machine guns, trench warfare, science fiction), "moral degradation" (bootlegging, flappers), urbanization, Mass culture, Jazz age, the great migration, prohibition and the mafia, post WW1 era

Major Historical Events: World War I (1914-1918), The Great Depression (1929-1939), World War II (1939-1945, America entered 1941), the Holocaust (1941-1945), Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937), airplanes (1903)

Major authors: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Zora Neale Hurston, Gertrude Stein, Ralph Ellison, Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner

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Sample Work:
The Great Gatsby
Time Period: Modernism
Dates: Published in 1925 & Set in 1922
Point of View: First person

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Sample Work Connection |

The Great Gatsby represents many aspects during the peak of the modern era. For example, in the following quote, Gatsby "was content to be alone" (Fitzgerald 25). This quote is one that represents isolation, which is a prominent element of Modernism. Another example depicting an aspect of modernism is as follows: “Who is this Gatsby anyhow… some big bootlegger” (107). This quote represents moral degradation in the novel. The bootlegging later backfired against Gatsby as his lover Daisy has a newly distorted view of him after finding out. Fitzgerald depicts many Modernism ideas in The Great Gatsby.