American Literature — American dream, American naturalism (extended)

Intermediate

American literature encompasses the body of written works produced in the United States and its preceding colonies, spanning from the early writings of Native American oral traditions and Puritan settlers to contemporary fiction, poetry, and drama. It reflects the nation's evolving identity, its struggles with democracy, individualism, race, class, and the meaning of the American experience.

The canon of American literature traces a rich arc from the colonial sermons of Jonathan Edwards and the revolutionary pamphlets of Thomas Paine, through the American Renaissance of Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Melville, and Hawthorne, into the Realist and Naturalist movements of Mark Twain, Henry James, and Stephen Crane. The twentieth century saw explosive innovation with the Harlem Renaissance, the Lost Generation, Southern Gothic, the Beat Generation, and postmodern experimentation by writers such as Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, and Don DeLillo.

Studying American literature provides insight into the cultural, political, and philosophical currents that have shaped the United States. Themes of the frontier, self-reliance, racial justice, immigration, and the tension between idealism and disillusionment recur across centuries, making this literary tradition one of the most dynamic and diverse in the world. Critical approaches such as New Historicism, feminist criticism, and postcolonial theory have broadened the canon to include previously marginalized voices, from Native American and Latinx writers to Asian American and LGBTQ+ authors. Careers grounded in American literary study range from teaching and publishing to cultural criticism, archival research, and arts administration.

Practice a little. See where you stand.

Part of:AP English Literature and Composition

Ready to practice?5 minutes. No pressure.

Take the Quiz Learn First

Quiz

Reveal what you know — and what needs work

Adaptive Learn

Responds to how you reason, with real-time hints

Start here

Flashcards

Build recall through spaced, active review

Cheat Sheet

The essentials at a glance — exam-ready

Glossary

Master the vocabulary that unlocks understanding

Learning Roadmap

A structured path from foundations to mastery

Book

Deep-dive guide with worked examples

Argument

Map claim and supporting evidence

Key Concepts

A philosophical and literary movement of the 1830s-1860s centered in New England, emphasizing individualism, intuition, the divinity of nature, and self-reliance over established religion and political institutions. Led by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.

Example

Thoreau's 'Walden' (1854) chronicles his two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond, arguing that deliberate solitude in nature leads to spiritual truth and self-knowledge.

A period roughly from 1830 to 1865 during which American literature achieved a distinctive national voice and produced many of its most enduring masterworks. The term was popularized by critic F.O. Matthiessen in 1941.

Example

Herman Melville's 'Moby-Dick' (1851), Walt Whitman's 'Leaves of Grass' (1855), and Nathaniel Hawthorne's 'The Scarlet Letter' (1850) all emerged from this era of creative ferment.

A cultural, literary, and artistic movement centered in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City during the 1920s and 1930s. It celebrated Black identity, heritage, and artistic expression, and challenged racial stereotypes through literature, music, and art.

Writer's desk evoking the creative process

Example

Langston Hughes's poem 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers' (1921) connects African American identity to ancient civilizations, while Zora Neale Hurston's 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' (1937) explores Black female selfhood in the rural South.

A group of American writers who came of age during World War I and became disillusioned with traditional values, materialism, and the promises of the American Dream. The term is attributed to Gertrude Stein and was popularized by Ernest Hemingway.

Example

F. Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' (1925) depicts the moral emptiness behind Jazz Age wealth, while Hemingway's 'The Sun Also Rises' (1926) portrays expatriates adrift in post-war Europe.

A literary subgenre that employs grotesque characters, decaying settings, and dark humor to explore social issues in the American South, including racial injustice, poverty, and the legacy of slavery. It draws on Gothic conventions but roots them in Southern culture.

Example

Flannery O'Connor's 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find' (1953) uses violence and dark irony to examine grace and morality, while William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County novels chronicle the decline of the Southern aristocracy.

A literary movement of the 1950s that rejected mainstream American values, celebrated spontaneity, spirituality, drug experimentation, and sexual liberation, and pioneered new forms of poetic and prose expression. Key figures include Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs.

Example

Kerouac's 'On the Road' (1957) captured the restless, freewheeling spirit of the Beats through its breathless cross-country narrative, while Ginsberg's 'Howl' (1956) challenged censorship and literary convention.

A late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century literary movement influenced by Darwinism and determinism, depicting characters as products of heredity and environment with little free will. Naturalist works often focus on the struggles of lower-class characters against indifferent social and natural forces.

Example

Stephen Crane's 'The Red Badge of Courage' (1895) strips war of its romance, while Theodore Dreiser's 'Sister Carrie' (1900) follows a young woman driven by economic forces beyond her control.

A concept describing a novel that captures the essence of the American experience in its totality -- its ideals, contradictions, diversity, and spirit. The term has been debated since the nineteenth century and various works have been proposed as candidates.

Example

Mark Twain's 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' (1884), Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby,' Melville's 'Moby-Dick,' and Morrison's 'Beloved' (1987) are frequently cited as contenders for this designation.

A broad movement from the 1960s onward characterized by narrative fragmentation, metafiction, unreliable narrators, irony, pastiche, and a questioning of objective truth and grand narratives. It challenges the conventions of Realist and Modernist fiction.

Example

Thomas Pynchon's 'Gravity's Rainbow' (1973) uses sprawling, labyrinthine narrative and paranoia, while Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughterhouse-Five' (1969) blends science fiction, autobiography, and anti-war satire.

A recurring theme in American literature exploring the promise -- and frequent failure -- of upward mobility, individual freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. Writers have both celebrated and critiqued this ideal across every literary period.

Example

Arthur Miller's 'Death of a Salesman' (1949) dramatizes the tragic consequences of Willy Loman's blind faith in the American Dream, while Fitzgerald's Gatsby embodies its seductive allure and ultimate hollowness.

One concept at a time.

Explore your way

Choose a different way to engage with this topic — no grading, just richer thinking.

Explore your way — choose one:

Explore with AI →

Curriculum alignment— Standards-aligned

Grade level

Grades 6-8Grades 9-12College+

Learning objectives

•Identify major movements in American literature from Puritanism through postmodernism and their cultural contexts
•Analyze narrative techniques, symbolism, and thematic concerns in canonical American novels and poetry
•Compare how American authors across eras have represented identity, democracy, and the national experience
•Evaluate critical interpretations of American literary texts using historical, feminist, and postcolonial frameworks

Recommended Resources

This page contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Books

The Norton Anthology of American Literature

by Nina Baym (General Editor)

The Cambridge History of American Literature

by Sacvan Bercovitch (Editor)

Literary Theory: An Introduction

by Terry Eagleton

The American Novel and Its Tradition

by Richard Chase

Courses

American Literature: From the Civil War to the Present

CourseraEnroll

The American Novel Since 1945

Yale Open CoursesEnroll

My Progress Focus Mode

Arts & Humanities

British Literature

The study of literary works from the British Isles, spanning from Anglo-Saxon epic poetry to contemporary fiction and covering major movements, authors, and forms.

Intermediate

Arts & Humanities

Creative Writing

The art and craft of producing original literary works—fiction, poetry, drama, and creative nonfiction—using imagination, narrative technique, and the deliberate shaping of language.

Intermediate

Arts & Humanities

Philosophy

The systematic study of fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, and reality, spanning traditions from ancient Greece and Asia to modern analytic and continental thought.

Intermediate

Interdisciplinary

Cultural Studies

An interdisciplinary field examining how culture, power, and identity intersect across media, society, and everyday life.

Intermediate

Arts & Humanities

Film Studies

The academic study of cinema as an art form, analyzing how films create meaning through visual storytelling, cultural representation, and critical theory.

Intermediate

Arts & Humanities