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{{More citations needed|date=September 2020}}
{{See also|Poetry of the United States|Theater in the United States}}
{{short description|Literature written or related to the United States}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2015}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2015}}
{{Culture of the United States}}
[[File:LOC_Main_Reading_Room_Highsmith.jpg|thumb|right|260px|Main reading room at the [[Library of Congress]]]]
'''American literature''' is [[literature]] predominantly written or produced in [[English language|English]][{{cite encyclopedia |last=Dickstein |first=Morris |archive-url=https://www.britannica.com/art/American-literature|title=American literature |encyclopedia=Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/American-literature |archive-date=23 August 2020}}.][{{cite web|last=Herlihy-Mera |first=Jeffrey |url=https://www.academia.edu/34217614/After_American_Studies_Rethinking_the_Legacies_of_Transnational_Exceptionalism_Preview_ |title=After American Studies: Rethinking the Legacies of Transnational Exceptionalism |publisher=Routledge |date=2018 |page=5 |access-date=2019-08-21}}] in the [[United States|United States of America]] and its [[Colonial history of the United States|preceding colonies]]. Before the [[American Revolutionary War|founding of the United States]], the [[Thirteen Colonies]] on the eastern coast of the present-day United States were heavily influenced by [[Literature of the United Kingdom|English literature]]. The American literary tradition thus began as part of the broader tradition of [[English literature|English-language literature]]. However, a small amount of literature exists in other [[Languages of North America|immigrant languages]] and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribes have a rich tradition of [[oral storytelling]].[Q. L. Pearce. ''Native American Mythology''. Greenhaven Publishing LLC, 2012. {{ISBN|978-1-4205-0951-9}}; and [https://www.britannica.com/art/Native-American-literature "Native American Literature", Britannica online. The article on "American literature" links to this article.]]
[[American Revolution|The American Revolutionary Period]] (1775–83) is notable for the political writings of [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[Thomas Paine]], and [[Thomas Jefferson]]. An early novel is [[William Hill Brown]]'s ''[[The Power of Sympathy]]'' published in 1791.
Writer and critic [[John Neal (writer)|John Neal]] in the early-mid nineteenth century helped advance America's progress toward a unique literature and culture, by criticizing predecessors like [[Washington Irving]] for imitating their British counterparts and influencing others like [[Edgar Allan Poe]].[{{Cite book | publisher = University of Chicago Press | isbn = 0-226-46969-7 | last = Lease | first = Benjamin | title = That Wild Fellow John Neal and the American Literary Revolution | location = Chicago, Illinois | year = 1972 | page = 80}}] [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]] pioneered the influential [[Transcendentalism]] movement, [[Henry David Thoreau]] author of ''[[Walden]]'', was influenced by this movement. The political conflict surrounding [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism]] inspired the writers like [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]. These efforts were supported by the continuation of slave narratives.
[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' (1850) is an early American classic novel and Hawthorne influenced [[Herman Melville]], author of ''[[Moby-Dick]]'' (1851). Major American poets of the nineteenth century include [[Walt Whitman]] and [[Emily Dickinson]]. [[Edgar Allan Poe]] was another significant writer who greatly influenced later authors. [[Mark Twain]] was the first major American writer to be born away from the East Coast. [[Henry James]] achieved international recognition with novels like ''[[The Portrait of a Lady]]'' (1881).
American writers expressed both disillusionment and nostalgia following [[World War I]]. The short stories and novels of [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] captured the mood of the 1920s, and [[John Dos Passos]] wrote about the war. [[Ernest Hemingway]] became famous with ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'' and ''[[A Farewell to Arms]]''; in 1954, he won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]]. [[William Faulkner]] was another major novelist. American poets also included international figures: [[Wallace Stevens]], [[T. S. Eliot]], [[Robert Frost]], [[Ezra Pound]], and [[E. E. Cummings]]. Playwright [[Eugene O'Neill]] won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]]. In the mid-twentieth century, drama was dominated by [[Tennessee Williams]] and [[Arthur Miller]], as well as the [[musical theatre]].
[[Great Depression|Depression]] era writers included [[John Steinbeck]], author of ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (1939). America's involvement in World War II influenced works such as [[Norman Mailer]]'s ''[[The Naked and the Dead]]'' (1948), [[Joseph Heller]]'s ''[[Catch-22]]'' (1961) and [[Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]]'s ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five]]'' (1969).
One of the developments in late 20th century and early 21st century has been an increase in the literature written by ethnic, Native American, and [[LGBT]] writers; [[Postmodernism]] has also been important during the same period.
==Colonial literature==
[[File:Houghton STC 22790 - Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, John Smith.jpg|right|thumb|[[John Smith (explorer)|Captain John Smith]]'s ''A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Noate as Hath Happened in Virginia...'' (1608) can be considered America's first work of literature.]]
The [[Thirteen Colonies]] have often been regarded as the center of early American literature. However, the first European settlements in North America had been founded elsewhere many years earlier, and the dominance of the English language in American culture was not yet apparent.[Baym, Nina, ed. ''The Norton Anthology of American Literature''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007. Print.] The first item printed in [[Pennsylvania]] was in [[German language|German]] and was the largest book printed in any of the colonies before the American Revolution.[Henry L. Schoolcraft, "The Capture of New Amsterdam," ''English Historical Review'' (1907) 22#88 674–693 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/550138 in JSTOR]]
From 1696 to 1700, only about 250 separate items were issued from the major printing presses in the American colonies. This is a small number compared to the output of the printers in [[London]] at the time. London printers published materials written by New England authors, so the body of American literature was larger than what was published in North America. However, printing was established in the American colonies before it was allowed in most of England. In England, restrictive laws had long confined printing to four locations, where the government could monitor what was published: London, York, Oxford, and Cambridge. Because of this, the colonies ventured into the modern world earlier than their provincial English counterparts.[Skipp, Francis E. ''American Literature'', Barron's Educational, 1992.]
Other late writings described conflicts and interaction with the Indians, as seen in writings by [[Daniel Gookin]], [[Alexander Whitaker]], [[John Mason (c.1600-1672)|John Mason]], [[Benjamin Church (ranger)|Benjamin Church]], and [[Daniel J. Tan]]. [[John Eliot (missionary)|John Eliot]] translated the [[Bible]] into the [[Algonquin language]] (1663) as [[Mamusse Wunneetupanatamwe Up-Biblum God]].[''A Short History of Boston'' by Robert J. Allison, p.14] It was the first complete Bible printed in the Western hemisphere; [[Stephen Daye]] printed 1,000 copies on the first printing press in the American colonies.[the Bay Psalm Book exhibition at the Library of Congress 2015]
Of the second generation of New England settlers, [[Cotton Mather]] stands out as a theologian and historian, who wrote the history of the colonies with a view to God's activity in their midst and to connecting the Puritan leaders with the great heroes of the Christian faith. His best-known works include the ''[[Magnalia Christi Americana]]'' (1702), the ''[[Wonders of the Invisible World]]'' and ''The Biblia Americana''.{{fact|date=January 2021}}
[[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]] and [[George Whitefield]] represented the [[First Great Awakening|Great Awakening]], a religious revival in the early 18th century that emphasized [[Calvinism|Calvinist thought]]. Other Puritan and religious writers include [[Thomas Hooker]], [[Thomas Shepard (minister)|Thomas Shepard]], [[John Wise (clergyman)|John Wise]], and [[Samuel Willard]]. Less strict and serious writers included [[Samuel Sewall]] (who wrote a diary revealing the daily life of the late 17th century),[ and [[Sarah Kemble Knight]].{{fact|date=January 2021}}
New England was not the only area in the colonies with a literature: southern literature was also growing at this time. The diary of [[Planter class|planter]] [[William Byrd II|William Byrd]] and his ''[[The History of the Dividing Line]]'' (1728) described the expedition to survey the swamp between Virginia and North Carolina but also comments on the differences between [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indians]] and the white settlers in the area.][ In a similar book, ''Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West'', [[William Bartram]] described the Southern landscape and the Indian tribes he encountered; Bartram's book was popular in Europe, being translated into German, French and Dutch.][
As the colonies moved toward independence from Britain, an important discussion of American culture and identity came from the French immigrant [[J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur]], whose ''[[Letters from an American Farmer]]'' (1782) addresses the question "What is an American?" by moving between praise for the opportunities and peace offered in the new society and recognition that the solid life of the farmer must rest uneasily between the oppressive aspects of the urban life and the lawless aspects of the frontier, where the lack of social structures leads to the loss of civilized living.][
This same period saw the beginning of [[African-American literature]], through the poet [[Phillis Wheatley]] and the [[slave narrative]] of [[Olaudah Equiano]], ''[[The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano]]'' (1789). At this time American Indian literature also began to flourish. [[Samson Occom]] published his ''A Sermon Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul'' and a popular hymnbook, ''Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs'', "the first Indian best-seller".][Gray, Richard. ''A History of American Literature''. Blackwell, 2004.]
===Revolutionary period===
[[File:Memoirs of Franklin.jpg|right|thumb|[[The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin]] (1793)]]
The Revolutionary period also contained political writings, including those by colonists [[Samuel Adams]], [[Josiah Quincy II|Josiah Quincy]], [[John Dickinson (delegate)|John Dickinson]], and [[Joseph Galloway]], the last being a loyalist to the crown. Two key figures were [[Benjamin Franklin]] and [[Thomas Paine]]. Franklin's ''[[Poor Richard's Almanac]]'' and ''[[The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin]]'' are esteemed works with their wit and influence toward the formation of a budding American identity. Paine's pamphlet ''[[Common Sense (Book)|Common Sense]]'' and ''[[The American Crisis]]'' writings are seen as playing a key role in influencing the political tone of the time.
During the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]], poems and songs such as "[[Nathan Hale]]" were popular. Major satirists included [[John Trumbull (poet)|John Trumbull]] and [[Francis Hopkinson]]. [[Philip Morin Freneau]] also wrote poems about the War.
During the 18th century, writing shifted from the Puritanism of Winthrop and Bradford to Enlightenment ideas of reason. The belief that human and natural occurrences were messages from God no longer fit with the budding anthropocentric culture. Many intellectuals believed that the human mind could comprehend the universe through the laws of physics as described by [[Isaac Newton]]. One of these was [[Cotton Mather]]. The first book published in North America that promoted Newton and natural theology was Mather's ''The Christian Philosopher'' (1721). The enormous scientific, economic, social, and philosophical, changes of the 18th century, called the [[American Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], impacted the authority of clergyman and scripture, making way for democratic principles. The increase in population helped account for the greater diversity of opinion in religious and political life as seen in the literature of this time. In 1670, the population of the colonies numbered approximately 111,000. Thirty years later it was more than 250,000. By 1760, it reached 1,600,000.[Colden, Cadwallader, and John G. Shea. ''The History of the Five Indian Nations Depending on the Province of New-York.'' New York: T.H. Morrell, 1866.] Colden also wrote a book on botany, which attracted the attention of [[Carl Linnaeus]], and he maintained a long term correspondence with Benjamin Franklin.[Gitin, Louis L. ''Cadwallader Colden: As Scientist and Philosopher.'' Burlington, Vt, 1935.][Hoermann, Alfred R. ''Cadwallader Colden: A Figure of the American Enlightenment.'' Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2002.]
==Post-independence==
[[File:US-original-Declaration-1776.jpg|thumb|The opening of the original printing of the Declaration, printed on July 4, 1776 under Jefferson's supervision.[Julian P. Boyd, [http://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/view/43289/43010 "The Declaration of Independence: The Mystery of the Lost Original"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150212073815/http://journals.psu.edu/pmhb/article/view/43289/43010 |date=February 12, 2015 }}. ''Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography'' 100, number 4 (October 1976), p. 456.]]]
In the post-war period, [[Thomas Jefferson]] established his place in American literature through his authorship of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], his influence on the [[United States Constitution|U.S. Constitution]], his autobiography, his [[Notes on the State of Virginia]], and his many letters. [[The Federalist]] essays by [[Alexander Hamilton]], [[James Madison]], and [[John Jay]] presented a significant historical discussion of American government organization and republican values. [[Fisher Ames]], [[James Otis, Jr.|James Otis]], and [[Patrick Henry]] are also valued for their political writings and orations.
Early American literature struggled to find a unique voice in existing literary genre, and this tendency was reflected in novels. European styles were frequently imitated, but critics usually considered the imitations inferior.
=== The First American Novel ===
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the first American novels were published. These fictions were too lengthy to be printed as manuscript or public reading. Publishers took a chance on these works in hopes they would become steady sellers and need to be reprinted. This scheme was ultimately successful because male and female literacy rates were increasing at the time. Among the first American novels are [[Thomas Attwood Digges]]'s ''Adventures of Alonso'', published in London in 1775 and [[William Hill Brown]]'s ''[[The Power of Sympathy]]'' published in 1789. Brown's novel depicts a tragic love story between siblings who fell in love without knowing they were related.
In the next decade important women writers also published novels. [[Susanna Rowson]] is best known for her novel ''Charlotte: A Tale of Truth'', published in London in 1791.[Parker, Patricia L. "Charlotte Temple by Susanna Rowson." ''The English Journal.'' 65.1: (1976) 59-60. ''JSTOR.'' Web. 1 March 2010.] In 1794 the novel was reissued in Philadelphia under the title, ''[[Charlotte Temple]].'' ''Charlotte Temple'' is a seduction tale, written in the third person, which warns against listening to the voice of love and counsels resistance. She also wrote nine novels, six theatrical works, two collections of poetry, six textbooks, and countless songs.[Schweitzer, Ivy. "Review." ''Early American Literature.'' 23.2: (1988) 221-225. ''JSTOR.'' Web. 1 March 2010.] Told from Foster's point of view and based on the real life of Eliza Whitman, the novel is about a woman who is seduced and abandoned. Eliza is a "coquette" who is courted by two very different men: a clergyman who offers her a comfortable domestic life and a noted libertine. Unable to choose between them, she finds herself single when both men get married. She eventually yields to the artful libertine and gives birth to an illegitimate stillborn child at an inn. ''The Coquette'' is praised for its demonstration of the era's contradictory ideas of womanhood.[Hamilton, Kristie. "An Assault on the Will: Republican Virtue and the City in Hannah Webster Foster's 'The Coquette'." ''Early American Literature.'' 24.2: (1989) 135-151. ''JSTOR.'' Web. 1 March 2010] even as it has been criticized for delegitimizing protest against women's subordination.[Joudrey, Thomas J. [http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/TNEQ_a_00257?journalCode=tneq "Maintaining Stability: Fancy and Passion in 'The Coquette'.]" ''New England Quarterly.'' 86.1 (2013): 60-88.]
[[File:Washington Irving and his Literary Friends at Sunnyside.jpg|thumb|240px|[[Washington Irving]] and his friends at [[Sunnyside (Tarrytown, New York)|Sunnyside]]]]
Both ''The Coquette'' and ''Charlotte Temple'' are novels that treat the right of women to live as equals as the new democratic experiment. These novels are of the Sentimental genre, characterized by overindulgence in emotion, an invitation to listen to the voice of reason against misleading passions, as well as an optimistic overemphasis on the essential goodness of humanity. Sentimentalism is often thought to be a reaction against the Calvinistic belief in the depravity of human nature.[Campbell, Donna M. "The Early American Novel: Introductory Notes." ''Literary Movements.'' 14 July 2008. 1 March 2010. http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/earamnov.htm]
While many of these novels were popular, the economic infrastructure of the time did not allow these writers to make a living through their writing alone.[[[Mildred Lewis Rutherford|Rutherford, Mildred]]. ''American Authors.'' Atlanta: The Franklin Printing and Publishing Co., 1902.]
[[Charles Brockden Brown]] is the earliest American novelist whose works are still commonly read. He published ''[[Wieland (novel)|Wieland]]'' in 1798, and in 1799 published ''Ormond'', ''[[Edgar Huntly]]'', and ''[[Arthur Mervyn]]''. These novels are of the Gothic genre.
The first writer to be able to support himself through the income generated by his publications alone was [[Washington Irving]]. He completed his first major book in 1809 titled ''A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty.''[Reynolds, Guy. "The Winning of the West: Washington Irving's 'A Tour on the Prairies'." ''The Yearbook of English Studies.'' 34: (2004) 88-99. ''JSTOR.'' Web. 1 March 2010.]
Of the picaresque genre, [[Hugh Henry Brackenridge]] published ''Modern Chivalry'' in 1792-1815; [[Tabitha Gilman Tenney]] wrote ''Female Quixotism: Exhibited in the Romantic Opinions and Extravagant Adventure of Dorcasina Sheldon'' in 1801; Royall Tyler wrote ''The Algerine Captive'' in 1797.[{{cite book|last=Sears|first=Donald A.|title=John Neal|publisher=Twayne Publishers|year=1978|isbn=080-5-7723-08|page=82}}]) in 1828. [[Catherine Maria Sedgwick]] wrote ''A New England Tale'' in 1822, ''Redwood'' in 1824, ''[[Hope Leslie]]'' in 1827, and ''The Linwoods'' in 1835. [[James Kirke Paulding]] wrote ''The Lion of the West'' in 1830, ''The Dutchman's Fireside'' in 1831, and ''Westward Ho!'' in 1832. [[Omar ibn Said]], a Muslim slave in the Carolinas, wrote an autobiography in [[Arabic]] in 1831, considered an early example of [[African-American literature]].[{{Cite journal|last=Marfo|first=Florence|date=2009|title=African Muslims in African American Literature|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/27743138|journal=Callaloo|volume=32|issue=4|pages=1213–1222|issn=0161-2492}}][{{Cite book|last=Said, Omar Ibn.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1043364329|title=Muslim American Slave : the Life of Omar Ibn Said.|date=2014|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-24953-3|oclc=1043364329}}][{{Cite web|title=Summary of Autobiography of Omar ibn Said, Slave in North Carolina, 1831. Ed. John Franklin Jameson. From The American Historical Review, 30, No. 4. (July 1925), 787-795|url=https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/omarsaid/summary.html|access-date=2020-08-08|website=docsouth.unc.edu}}] [[Robert Montgomery Bird]] wrote ''Calavar'' in 1834 and ''[[Nick of the Woods]]'' in 1837. [[James Fenimore Cooper]] was a notable author best known for his novel ''[[The Last of the Mohicans]]'' written in 1826.[{{cite thesis | last = Fiorelli | first = Edward Alfred | date = 1980 | title = Literary Nationalism in the Works of John Neal (1793-1876) | type = PhD | publisher = Fordham University | url = https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8020060 | at = Abstract}}] He criticised Irving and Cooper for relying on old British conventions of authorship to frame American phenomena,[Lease 1972, pp. 42, 69] arguing that “to succeed...[the American writer] must resemble nobody…[he] must be unlike all that have gone before [him]” and issue “another Declaration of Independence, in the great Republic of Letters.”[{{cite book | last = Neal | first = John | title = Rachel Dyer: A North American Story | publisher = Shirley and Hyde | location = Portland, Maine | year = 1828 | url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001692794 | pages = xii, xviii}}] As a pioneer of the literary device he alternately referred to as “talk[ing] on paper”[{{cite book | last = Neal | first = John | title = Seventy-Six; or, Love and Battle | publisher = J. Cunningham | location = London, England | year = 1840 | url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008957328 | orig-year = originally published as ''Seventy-Six'' in 1823 | page = 4}}] or "natural writing,",[{{cite book | last = Neal | first = John | title = Errata; or, The Works of Will. Adams | publisher = Published for the proprietors | location = New York, NY | year = 1823 | volume = 1 | url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001027688 | page = 59}}] Neal was “the first in America to be natural in his diction”[{{cite book | editor-last = Pattee | editor-first = Fred Lewis | last = Pattee | first = Fred Lewis | chapter = Introduction | title = American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine (1824-1825) | publisher = Duke University Press | location = Durham, North Carolina | year = 1937 | url = https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001026497 | page = 22}}] and his work represents “the first deviation from...Irvingesque graciousness.”[Lease 1972, p. 70, quoting Harold C. Martin]
[[File:Edgar Allan Poe portrait.jpg|thumb|left|200px|[[Edgar Allan Poe]]]]
In 1832, [[Edgar Allan Poe]] began writing short stories – including "[[The Masque of the Red Death]]", "[[The Pit and the Pendulum]]", "[[The Fall of the House of Usher]]", and "[[The Murders in the Rue Morgue]]" – that explore previously hidden levels of human psychology and push the boundaries of fiction toward [[mystery fiction|mystery]] and [[fantasy]].
Humorous writers were also popular and included [[Seba Smith]] and [[Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber]] in [[New England]] and [[Davy Crockett]], [[Augustus Baldwin Longstreet]], [[Johnson J. Hooper]], [[Thomas Bangs Thorpe]], and [[George Washington Harris]] writing about the American frontier.
The [[Boston Brahmin|New England Brahmins]] were a group of writers connected to [[Harvard University]] and [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]. They included [[James Russell Lowell]], [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], and [[Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.]]
[[File:Ralph Waldo Emerson ca1857.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]]]
In 1836, [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], a former minister, published his essay ''Nature'', which argued that men should dispense with organized religion and reach a lofty spiritual state by studying and interacting with the natural world. Emerson's work influenced the writers who formed the movement now known as [[Transcendentalism]], while Emerson also influenced the public through his lectures.
Among the leaders of the Transcendental movement was [[Henry David Thoreau]], a nonconformist and a close friend of Emerson. After living mostly by himself for two years in a cabin by a wooded pond, Thoreau wrote ''[[Walden]]'' (1854), a memoir that urges resistance to the dictates of society. Thoreau's writings demonstrate a strong American tendency toward individualism. Other Transcendentalists included [[Amos Bronson Alcott]], [[Margaret Fuller]], [[George Ripley (transcendentalist)|George Ripley]], [[Orestes Brownson]], and [[Jones Very]].[Gura, Philip F. ''American Transcendentalism: A History''. New York: Hill and Wang, 2007: 7–8. {{ISBN|978-0-8090-3477-2}}]
As one of the great works of the Revolutionary period was written by a Frenchman, so too was a work about America from this generation. [[Alexis de Tocqueville]]'s two-volume ''[[Democracy in America]]'' (1836&1840)described his travels through the young nation, making observations about the relations between American politics, individualism, and community.
The political conflict surrounding [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism]] inspired the writings of [[William Lloyd Garrison]] and his paper ''[[The Liberator (anti-slavery newspaper)|The Liberator]]'', along with poet [[John Greenleaf Whittier]] and [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]] in her world-famous ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' (1852). These efforts were supported by the continuation of the slave narrative autobiography.
[[File:Nathaniel Hawthorne old.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]]]
In 1837, the young [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] (1804–1864) collected some of his stories as ''[[Twice-Told Tales]]'', a volume rich in symbolism and occult incidents. Hawthorne went on to write full-length "romances", quasi-allegorical novels that explore the themes of guilt, pride, and emotional repression in [[New England]]. His masterpiece, ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'' (1850), is a drama about a woman cast out of her community for committing adultery.
Hawthorne's fiction had a profound impact on his friend [[Herman Melville]] (1819–1891), who first made a name for himself by turning material from his seafaring days into exotic sea narrative novels. Inspired by Hawthorne's focus on allegories and psychology, Melville went on to write romances replete with philosophical speculation. In ''[[Moby-Dick]]'' (1851), an adventurous whaling voyage becomes the vehicle for examining such themes as obsession, the nature of evil, and human struggle against the elements.
In the short novel ''[[Billy Budd (novel)|Billy Budd]]'', Melville dramatizes the conflicting claims of duty and compassion on board a ship in time of war. His more profound books sold poorly, and he had been long forgotten by the time of his death. He was rediscovered in the early 20th century.
Anti-transcendental works from Melville, Hawthorne, and Poe all comprise the [[Dark romanticism|Dark Romanticism]] sub-genre of popular literature at this time.
===Ethnic, African American and Native American writers===
Slave narrative autobiography from this period include [[Frederick Douglass]]'s ''[[Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave]]'' (1845) and [[Harriet Jacobs]]'s ''[[Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl]]'' (1861). At this time, American Indian autobiography develops, most notably in [[William Apess]]'s ''A Son of the Forest'' (1829) and [[George Copway]]'s ''The Life, History and Travels of Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh'' (1847). Moreover, minority authors were beginning to publish fiction, as in [[William Wells Brown]]'s ''[[Clotel|Clotel; or, The President's Daughter]]'' (1853), [[Frank J. Webb]]'s ''The Garies and Their Friends'', (1857) [[Martin Delany]]'s ''Blake; or, The Huts of America'' (1859–62 and [[Harriet E. Wilson]]'s ''[[Our Nig| Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black]]'' (1859) as early African American novels, and [[John Rollin Ridge]]'s ''[[The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta]]'' (1854), which is considered the first Native American novel but which also is an early story about [[Mexican American]] issues.
==Late 19th century Realist fiction==
[[File:MarkTwain1907.jpg|thumb|[[Mark Twain]], 1907]]
Mark Twain (the pen name used by [[Mark Twain|Samuel Langhorne Clemens]], 1835–1910) was among the first major American writers to be born away from the East Coast – in the border state of [[Missouri]]. His regional masterpieces were the memoir ''[[Life on the Mississippi]]'' and the novels ''[[Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'' and ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' (1884). Twain's style – influenced by journalism, wedded to the vernacular, direct and unadorned but also highly evocative and irreverently humorous – changed the way Americans write their language. His characters speak like real people and sound distinctively American, using local dialects, newly invented words, and regional accents.
Other writers interested in regional differences and dialect were [[George W. Cable]], [[Thomas Nelson Page]], [[Joel Chandler Harris]], [[Mary Noailles Murfree]] ([[Charles Egbert Craddock]]), [[Sarah Orne Jewett]], [[Mary E. Wilkins Freeman]], [[Henry Cuyler Bunner]], and William Sydney Porter ([[O. Henry]]). A version of local color regionalism that focused on minority experiences can be seen in the works of [[Charles W. Chesnutt]] (African American), of [[María Ruiz de Burton]], one of the earliest [[Mexican American]] novelists to write in English, and in the [[Yiddish]]-inflected works of [[Abraham Cahan]].
[[William Dean Howells]] also represented the [[realism (arts)|realist]] tradition through his novels, including ''[[The Rise of Silas Lapham]]'' (1885) and his work as editor of ''[[The Atlantic Monthly]]''.
[[Henry James]] (1843–1916) confronted the Old World-New World dilemma by writing directly about it. Although he was born in New York City, James spent most of his adult life in England. Many of his novels center on Americans who live in or travel to Europe. With its intricate, highly qualified sentences and dissection of emotional and psychological nuance, James's fiction can be daunting. Among his more accessible works are the novellas ''[[Daisy Miller]]'' (1878), about an American girl in Europe, and ''[[The Turn of the Screw]]'' (1898), a ghost story.
[[Stephen Crane]] (1871–1900), best known for his Civil War novel ''[[The Red Badge of Courage]]'' (1895), depicted the life of New York City prostitutes in ''[[Maggie: A Girl of the Streets]]'' (1893). And in ''[[Sister Carrie]]'' (1900), [[Theodore Dreiser]] (1871–1945) portrayed a country girl who moves to [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]] and becomes a kept woman. [[Frank Norris]]'s (1870 – 1902) fiction was predominantly in the [[naturalist]] genre. His notable works include ''[[McTeague|McTeague: A Story of San Francisco]]'' (1899), ''[[The Octopus: A Story of California]]'' (1901) and ''[[The Pit (Norris novel)|The Pit]]'' (1903). Norris along with [[Hamlin Garland]] (1860 – 1940) wrote about the problems of American farmers and other social issues from a naturalist perspective. Garland is best known for his fiction involving hard-working [[American Midwest|Midwestern]] farmers.[{{cite web|url=http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/dictionary/index.asp?action=view&term_id=10601&keyword=garland|title=Garland, Hamlin 1860 - 1940|work=Dictionary of Wisconsin History|publisher=Wisconsin Historical Society|access-date=2009-10-17}}] (''[[Main-Travelled Roads]]'' (1891), ''Prairie Folks'' (1892), ''[[Jason Edwards: An Average Man|Jason Edwards]]'' (1892).[{{cite web |url=http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/nye-russel_hamlin-garland-and-henry-george-1943.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-01-29 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203135043/http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/nye-russel_hamlin-garland-and-henry-george-1943.html |archive-date=2014-02-03 }}])
===Social novel===
[[Edward Bellamy]]'s [[utopian]] novel ''[[Looking Backward]]'' (1888) was concerned with political and social issues.
==20th century prose==
[[File:Ernest Hemingway in Milan 1918 retouched 3.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Ernest Hemingway]] in World War I uniform]]
At the beginning of the 20th century, American novelists were expanding fiction to encompass both high and low life and sometimes connected to the [[naturalism (literature)|naturalist]] school of realism. In her stories and novels, [[Edith Wharton]] (1862–1937) scrutinized the upper-class, [[Northeast megalopolis|Eastern-seaboard]] society in which she had grown up. One of her finest books, ''[[The Age of Innocence]]'' (1920), centers on a man who chooses to marry a conventional, socially acceptable woman rather than a fascinating outsider.
Social issues and the power of corporations was the central concern of some writers at this time. [[Upton Sinclair]], most famous for his [[muckraking]] novel ''[[The Jungle]]'' (1906), advocated [[socialism]]. Other political writers of the period included [[Edwin Markham]] and [[William Vaughn Moody]]. Journalistic critics, including [[Ida M. Tarbell]] and [[Lincoln Steffens]], were labeled "The Muckrakers". [[Henry Brooks Adams]]'s literate autobiography, ''[[The Education of Henry Adams]]'' (1907) also depicted a stinging description of the education system and modern life.
Race was a common issue as well, as seen in the work of [[Pauline Hopkins]], who published five influential works from 1900 to 1903. Similarly, [[Sui Sin Far]] wrote about Chinese-American experiences, and [[Maria Cristina Mena]] wrote about Mexican-American experiences.
Prominent among mid-western and western American writers were [[Willa Cather]] and [[Wallace Stegner]], both of whom had a major opus set largely in their regions.
===1920s===
[[File:Francis Scott Fitzgerald 1937 June 4 (1) (photo by Carl van Vechten).jpg|thumb|200px|left|[[F. Scott Fitzgerald]], photographed by [[Carl van Vechten]], 1937]]
Experimentation in style and form soon joined the new freedom in subject matter. In 1909, [[Gertrude Stein]] (1874–1946), by then an expatriate in Paris, published ''[[Three Lives (book)|Three Lives]]'', an innovative work of fiction influenced by her familiarity with cubism, jazz, and other movements in contemporary art and music. Stein labeled a group of American literary figures who lived in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s the "[[Lost Generation]]".
The 1920s brought sharp changes to American literature. Many writers had direct experience of the First World War, and they used it to frame their writings.[Hazel Hutchison, ''The War That Used Up Words: American Writers and the First World War'' (Yale University Press, 2015)] Writers like Henry James, Gertrude Stein, and poets [[Ezra Pound]], [[H.D.]] and [[T. S. Eliot]] demonstrate the growth of an international perspective in American literature. American writers had long looked to European models for inspiration, but whereas the literary breakthroughs of the mid-19th century came from finding distinctly American styles and themes, writers from this period were finding ways of contributing to a flourishing international literary scene, not as imitators but as equals. Something similar was happening back in the States, as Jewish writers (such as [[Abraham Cahan]]) used the English language to reach an international Jewish audience.
[[File:Carl Van Vechten - William Faulkner (greyscale and cropped).jpg|thumb|200px|[[William Faulkner]] in 1954]]
The period of peace and debt-fueled economic expansion that followed WWI was the setting for many of the stories and novels of [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] (1896–1940). Fitzgerald's work captured the restless, pleasure-hungry, defiant mood of the 1920s, a decade he named [[the Jazz Age]]. Fitzgerald's characteristic theme, expressed poignantly in his masterpiece ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', is the tendency of youth's golden dreams to dissolve in failure and disappointment. Fitzgerald also dwells on the collapse of long-held American Ideals, such as liberty, social unity, good governance and peace, features which were severely threatened by the pressures of modern early 20th century society.[Jeffrey Meyers, ''Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography'' (HarperCollins, 1994).] [[Sinclair Lewis]] and [[Sherwood Anderson]] also wrote novels with critical depictions of American life. [[John Dos Passos]] wrote a famous anti-war novel, ''[[Three Soldiers]]'', describing scenes of blind hatred, stupidity, and criminality; and the suffocating regimentation of army life.[{{Cite book|title=Three Soldiers|last=Dos Passos|first=John|publisher=The Modern Library|year=1932|location=United States of America}}] He also wrote about the war in the [[U.S.A. trilogy]] which extended into the Depression.[Maxwell Geismar, ''American moderns, from rebellion to conformity'' (1958)] Experimental in form, the U.S.A. trilogy weaves together various narrative strands, which alternate with contemporary news reports, snatches of the author's autobiography, and capsule biographies of public figures including [[Eugene V. Debs|Eugene Debs]], [[Robert M. La Follette|Robert La Follette]] and [[Isadora Duncan]].
[[Ernest Hemingway]] (1899–1961) saw violence and death first-hand as an ambulance driver in World War I, and the carnage persuaded him that abstract language was mostly empty and misleading. He cut out unnecessary words from his writing, simplified the sentence structure, and concentrated on concrete objects and actions. He adhered to a moral code that emphasized grace under pressure, and his protagonists were strong, silent men who often dealt awkwardly with women. ''[[The Sun Also Rises]]'' and ''[[A Farewell to Arms]]'' are generally considered his best novels; in 1954, he won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].[Keith Ferrell, ''Ernest Hemingway: The Search for Courage'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2014)]
[[William Faulkner]] (1897–1962) won the Nobel Prize in 1949. Faulkner encompassed a wide range of humanity in [[Yoknapatawpha County]], a [[Mississippi]]an region of his own invention. He recorded his characters' seemingly unedited ramblings in order to represent their inner states, a technique called "[[Stream of consciousness writing|stream of consciousness]]". He also jumbled time sequences to show how the past – especially the slave-holding era of the [[Deep South]] – endures in the present. Among his great works are ''[[Absalom, Absalom!]]'', ''[[As I Lay Dying (novel)|As I Lay Dying]]'', ''[[The Sound and the Fury]]'', and ''[[Light in August]]''.[John T. Matthews, ''William Faulkner: seeing through the South'' (Wiley, 2011).]
===1930s – Depression-era===
{{see|List of writers of the Lost Generation}}
[[Great Depression|Depression]] era literature was blunt and direct in its social criticism. [[John Steinbeck]] (1902–1968) was born in [[Salinas, California]], where he set many of his stories. His style was simple and evocative, winning him the favor of the readers but not of the critics. Steinbeck often wrote about poor, working-class people and their struggle to lead a decent and honest life. ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (1939), considered his masterpiece, is a strong, socially-oriented novel that tells the story of the Joads, a poor family from Oklahoma and their journey to [[California]] in search of a better life.
Other popular novels include ''[[Tortilla Flat]]'', ''[[Of Mice and Men]]'', ''[[Cannery Row (novel)|Cannery Row]]'', and ''[[East of Eden (novel)|East of Eden]]''. He was awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1962. Steinbeck's contemporary, [[Nathanael West]]'s two most famous short novels, ''[[Miss Lonelyhearts]],'' which plumbs the life of its eponymous [[antihero]], a reluctant (and, to comic effect, male) [[advice columnist]], and the effects the tragic letters exert on it, and ''[[The Day of the Locust]]'', which introduces a cast of Hollywood stereotypes and explores the ironies of the movies, have come to be avowed classics of American literature.
In non-fiction, [[James Agee]]'s ''[[Let Us Now Praise Famous Men]]'' observes and depicts the lives of three struggling tenant-farming families in Alabama in 1936. Combining factual reporting with poetic beauty, Agee presented an accurate and detailed report of what he had seen coupled with insight into his feelings about the experience and the difficulties of capturing it for a broad audience. In doing so, he created an enduring portrait of a nearly invisible segment of the American population.
[[Henry Miller]] assumed a unique place in American Literature in the 1930s when his semi-autobiographical novels, written and published in Paris, were banned from the US. Although his major works, including ''[[Tropic of Cancer (novel)|Tropic of Cancer]]'' (1934) and ''[[Black Spring (novel)|Black Spring]]'', would not be free of the label of [[obscenity]] until 1962, their themes and stylistic innovations had already exerted a major influence on succeeding generations of American writers, and paved the way for sexually frank 1960s novels by [[John Updike]], [[Philip Roth]], [[Gore Vidal]], [[John Rechy]] and [[William Styron]].
==Post-World War II fiction==
===Novel===
[[File:Normanmailer.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Norman Mailer]], photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1948]]
The period in time from the end of World War II up until, roughly, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw the publication of some of the most popular works in American history. The period was dominated by the last few of the more realistic [[modernist]]s along with the wildly Romantic [[beatnik]]s, This included the highly popular ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'' (1960) by [[Harper Lee]] that deals with racial inequality and novels that responded to America's involvement in World War II.
Though born in Canada, Chicago raised [[Saul Bellow]] would become one of the most influential novelists in America in the decades directly following World War II. In works like ''[[The Adventures of Augie March]]'' (1953) and ''[[Herzog (novel)|Herzog]]'',(1964) Bellow painted vivid portraits of the American city and the distinctive characters that peopled it. Bellow went on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1976.
World War II was the subject of several major novels: [[Norman Mailer]]'s ''[[The Naked and the Dead]]'' (1948), [[Joseph Heller]]'s ''[[Catch-22]]'' (1961) and [[Kurt Vonnegut Jr.]]'s ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five]]'' (1969). While the Korean war was a source of trauma for the protagonist of ''[[The Moviegoer]]'' (1962), by Southern author [[Walker Percy]], winner of the National Book Award; his attempt at exploring "the dislocation of man in the modern age."[Kimball, Roger [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07E5D81238F937A3575BC0A963948260 Existentialism, Semiotics and Iced Tea, Review of Conversations with Walker Percy] New York Times, August 4, 1985, Accessed September 24, 2006]
Other noteworthy novels are [[J.D. Salinger]]'s ''[[The Catcher in the Rye]]'' (1951), [[Sylvia Plath]]'s ''[[The Bell Jar]]'' (1963), and Russian-American [[Vladimir Nabokov]]'s ''[[Lolita]]'' (1955).
In the 1950s the poetry and fiction of the "[[Beat Generation]]" developed, initially from a New York circle of intellectuals and then established more officially later in San Francisco. The term ''Beat'' referred to the countercultural rhythm of the Jazz scene, to a sense of rebellion regarding the conservative stress of post-war society, and to an interest in new forms of spiritual experience through drugs, alcohol, philosophy, and religion (specifically [[Zen Buddhism]]). [[Allen Ginsberg]] set the tone with his Whitmanesque poem ''[[Howl]]'' (1956), a work that begins: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness..." Among the achievements of the Beats, in the novel, are [[Jack Kerouac]]'s ''[[On the Road]]'' (1957), the chronicle of a soul-searching travel through the continent, and [[William S. Burroughs]]'s ''[[Naked Lunch]]'' (1959), a more experimental work structured as a series of vignettes relating, among other things, the narrator's travels and experiments with [[hard drugs]].
[[File:John Updike with Bushes new.jpg|thumb|right|[[John Updike]]]]
In contrast, [[John Updike]] approached American life from a more reflective but no less subversive perspective. His 1960 novel ''[[Rabbit, Run]],'' the first of four chronicling the rising and falling fortunes of [[Rabbit Angstrom|Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom]] over the course of four decades against the backdrop of the major events of the second half of the 20th century, broke new ground on its release in its characterization and detail of the American middle class and frank discussion of [[taboo]] topics such as [[adultery]]. Notable among Updike's characteristic innovations was his use of present-tense narration, his rich, stylized language, and his attention to sensual detail. His work is also deeply imbued with [[Christianity|Christian]] themes. The two final installments of the Rabbit series, ''[[Rabbit is Rich]]'' (1981) and ''[[Rabbit at Rest]]'' (1990), were both awarded the [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]]. Other notable works include the [[Henry Bech]] novels (1970–98), ''[[The Witches of Eastwick]]'' (1984), ''[[Roger's Version]]'' (1986) and ''[[In the Beauty of the Lilies]]'' (1996), which literary critic [[Michiko Kakutani]] called "arguably his finest."[{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/12/books/books-of-the-times-seeking-salvation-on-the-silver-screen.html|title=Seeking Salvation On the Silver Screen|last=Kakutani|first=Michiko|work=[[The New York Times]] Books|date=January 12, 1996|access-date=December 3, 2009}}]
Frequently linked with Updike is the novelist [[Philip Roth]]. Roth vigorously explores [[Jewish identity]] in American society, especially in the postwar era and the early 21st century. Frequently set in [[Newark, New Jersey]], Roth's work is known to be highly autobiographical, and many of Roth's main characters, most famously the Jewish novelist [[Nathan Zuckerman]], are thought to be [[alter ego]]s of Roth. With these techniques, and armed with his articulate and fast-paced style, Roth explores the distinction between reality and fiction in literature while provocatively examining American culture. His most famous work includes the Zuckerman novels, the controversial ''[[Portnoy's Complaint]]'' (1969), and ''[[Goodbye, Columbus]]'' (1959). Among the most decorated American writers of his generation, he has won every major American literary award, including the Pulitzer Prize for his major novel ''[[American Pastoral]]'' (1997).
In the realm of African-American literature, [[Ralph Ellison]]'s 1952 novel ''[[Invisible Man]]'' was instantly recognized as among the most powerful and important works of the immediate post-war years. The story of a black [[Notes from Underground|Underground Man]] in the urban north, the novel laid bare the often repressed racial tension that still prevailed while also succeeding as an [[existentialism|existential]] character study. [[Richard Wright (author)|Richard Wright]] was catapulted to fame by the publication in subsequent years of his now widely studied short story, "[[The Man Who Was Almost a Man]]" (1939), and his controversial second novel, ''[[Native Son]]'' (1940), and his legacy was cemented by the 1945 publication of ''[[Black Boy]]'', a work in which Wright drew on his childhood and mostly [[autodidactic]] education in the segregated South, fictionalizing and exaggerating some elements as he saw fit. Because of its polemical themes and Wright's involvement with the [[Communist Party USA|Communist Party]], the novel's final part, "American Hunger", was not published until 1977.
Perhaps the most ambitious and challenging post-war American novelist was [[William Gaddis]], whose uncompromising, satiric, and large novels, such as ''[[The Recognitions]]'' (1955) and ''[[J R]]'' (1975) are presented largely in terms of unattributed dialog that requires almost unexampled reader participation. Gaddis's primary themes include forgery, capitalism, religious zealotry, and the legal system, constituting a sustained polyphonic critique of modern American life. Gaddis's work, though largely ignored for years, anticipated and influenced the development of such ambitious "postmodern" fiction writers as [[Thomas Pynchon]], [[David Foster Wallace]], [[Joseph McElroy]], [[William H. Gass]], and [[Don DeLillo]]. Another neglected and challenging postwar American novelist, albeit one who wrote much shorter works, was [[John Hawkes (novelist)|John Hawkes]], whose surreal [[visionary fiction]] addresses themes of violence and eroticism and experiments audaciously with narrative voice and style. Among his most important works is the short nightmarish novel ''[[The Lime Twig]]'' (1961).
===Short fiction===
In the postwar period, the art of the short story again flourished. Among its most respected practitioners was [[Flannery O'Connor]], who developed a distinctive [[Southern gothic]] esthetic in which characters acted at one level as people and at another as symbols. A devout Catholic, O'Connor often imbued her stories, among them the widely studied "[[A Good Man is Hard to Find]]" and "[[Everything That Rises Must Converge]]", and two novels, ''[[Wise Blood]]'' (1952); ''[[The Violent Bear It Away]]'' (1960), with deeply religious themes, focusing particularly on the search for truth and religious skepticism against the backdrop of the nuclear age. Other important practitioners of the form include [[Katherine Anne Porter]], [[Eudora Welty]], [[John Cheever]], [[Raymond Carver]], [[Tobias Wolff]], and the more experimental [[Donald Barthelme]].
==Contemporary fiction==
[[File:Library exhibit, Trinidad, CO IMG 5056.JPG|thumb|right|Libraries often display exhibits inside and outside the structures, as this sculpture of a little girl reading at the public library in [[Trinidad, Colorado|Trinidad]], [[Colorado]].]]
Though its exact parameters remain disputable, from the early 1990s to the present day the most salient literary movement has been [[postmodernism]]. [[Thomas Pynchon]], a seminal practitioner of the form, drew in his work on modernist fixtures such as temporal distortion, unreliable narrators, and [[internal monologue]] and coupled them with distinctly postmodern techniques such as [[metafiction]], [[ideogram]]matic characterization, unrealistic names (Oedipa Maas, Benny Profane, etc.), plot elements and hyperbolic humor, deliberate use of [[anachronisms]] and [[archaism]]s, a strong focus on [[postcolonial]] themes, and a subversive commingling of high and low culture. In 1973, he published ''[[Gravity's Rainbow]]'', a leading work in this genre, which won the [[National Book Award]] and was unanimously nominated for the [[Pulitzer Prize for Fiction]] that year. His other major works include his debut, ''[[V.]]'' (1963), ''[[The Crying of Lot 49]]'' (1966), ''[[Mason & Dixon]]'' (1997), and ''[[Against the Day]]'' (2006).
[[Toni Morrison]], recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, writing in a distinctive lyrical prose style, published her controversial debut novel, ''[[The Bluest Eye]]'', to critical acclaim in 1970. Coming on the heels of the signing of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1965]], the novel, widely studied in American schools, includes an elaborate description of incestuous rape and explores the conventions of beauty established by a historically racist society, painting a portrait of a self-immolating black family in search of beauty in whiteness. Since then, Morrison has experimented with lyric fantasy, as in her two best-known later works, ''[[Song of Solomon (novel)|Song of Solomon]]'' (1977) and ''[[Beloved (novel)|Beloved]]'' (1987), for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction; along these lines, critic [[Harold Bloom]] has drawn favorable comparisons to [[Virginia Woolf]],[Bloom, Harold: ''How to Read and Why'', page 269. Touchstone Press, 2000.] and the Nobel committee to "Faulkner and to the Latin American tradition [of [[magical realism]]]."["Nobel Prize Nobel Prize Award Ceremony Speech". Nobelprize.org. 19 Aug 2010 [Daniel J Tan]_prizes/literature/laureates/1993/presentation-speech.html]] ''Beloved'' was chosen in a 2006 survey conducted by ''[[The New York Times]]'' as the most important work of fiction of the last 25 years.[{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/books/fiction-25-years.html|title=What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?|work=The New York Times|date=May 21, 2006|access-date=December 4, 2009}}]
Writing in a lyrical, flowing style that eschews excessive use of the comma and semicolon, recalling [[William Faulkner]] and [[Ernest Hemingway]] in equal measure, [[Cormac McCarthy]] seizes on the literary traditions of several regions of the United States and includes multiple genres. He writes in the [[Southern Gothic]] aesthetic in his Faulknerian 1965 debut, ''[[The Orchard Keeper]]'', and ''[[Suttree]]'' (1979); in the [[Epic Western]] tradition, with grotesquely drawn characters and symbolic narrative turns reminiscent of Melville, in ''[[Blood Meridian]]'' (1985), which Harold Bloom styled "the greatest single book since Faulkner's ''[[As I Lay Dying (novel)|As I Lay Dying]]''", calling the character of [[Judge Holden]] "short of [[Moby Dick]], the most monstrous apparition in all of American literature";[{{cite news|url=http://www.avclub.com/articles/harold-bloom-on-blood-meridian,29214/|title=Harold Bloom on ''Blood Meridian''|last=Bloom|first=Harold|work=A.V. Club|date=June 15, 2009|access-date=March 3, 2010}}] in a much more pastoral tone in his celebrated [[The Border Trilogy|Border Trilogy]] (1992–98) of ''[[bildungsroman]]s'', including ''[[All the Pretty Horses (novel)|All the Pretty Horses]]'' (1992), winner of the [[National Book Award]]; and in the [[Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|post-apocalyptic]] genre in the Pulitzer Prize-winning ''[[The Road]]'' (2007). His novels are noted for achieving both commercial and critical success, several of his works having been [[Film adaptation|adapted to film]].
[[Don DeLillo]], who rose to literary prominence with the publication of his 1985 novel, ''[[White Noise (novel)|White Noise]]'', a work broaching the subjects of death and consumerism and doubling as a piece of comic social criticism, began his writing career in 1971 with ''[[Americana (novel)|Americana]]''. He is listed by Harold Bloom as being among the preeminent contemporary American writers, in the company of such figures as Philip Roth, Cormac McCarthy, and Thomas Pynchon.[{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2003/09/24/dumbing_down_american_readers/|title=Dumbing down American readers|last=Bloom|first=Harold|work=[[The Boston Globe]]|date=September 24, 2003|access-date=December 4, 2009}}] His 1997 novel ''[[Underworld (DeLillo novel)|Underworld]]'' chronicles American life through and immediately after the [[Cold War]] and is usually considered his masterpiece. It was also the runner-up in a survey that asked writers to identify the most important work of fiction of the last 25 years.[{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html|title=All-Time 100 Novels: The Complete List|work=Time Magazine|access-date=December 4, 2009|date=October 16, 2005}}] and his final novel, unfinished at the time of his death, [[The Pale King]] (2011), has garnered much praise and attention. In addition to his novels, he also authored three acclaimed short story collections: ''[[Girl with Curious Hair]]'' (1989), ''[[Brief Interviews with Hideous Men]]'' (1999) and ''[[Oblivion: Stories]]'' (2004).
[[Jonathan Franzen]], Wallace's friend and contemporary, rose to prominence after the 2001 publication of his [[National Book Award]]-winning third novel, ''[[The Corrections]]''. He began his writing career in [[1988 in literature|1988]] with the well-received ''[[The Twenty-Seventh City]]'', a novel centering on his native [[St. Louis, MO|St. Louis]], but did not gain national attention until the publication of his essay, [[Why Bother? (essay)|"Perchance to Dream,"]] in [[Harper's Magazine]], discussing the cultural role of the writer in the new millennium through the prism of his own frustrations. ''[[The Corrections]]'', a [[tragicomedy]] about the disintegrating Lambert family, has been called "the literary phenomenon of [its] decade"[{{cite news|url=http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,2010000,00.html|title=Jonathan Franzen: Great American Novelist|work=Time Magazine|access-date=August 16, 2010 | first=Lev | last=Grossman | date=August 12, 2010}}] and was ranked as one of the greatest novels of the past century.[{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/books/16book.html?ref=books|title=A Family Full of Unhappiness, Hoping for Transcendence|work=The New York Times|first=Michiko|last=Kakutani|date=August 15, 2010|access-date=August 16, 2010}}][{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/books/review/Tanenhaus-t.html?ref=books|title=Peace and War|work=The New York Times|first=Sam|last=Tanenhaus|date=August 19, 2010|access-date=August 19, 2010}}]
Other notable writers at the turn of the century include [[Michael Chabon]], whose Pulitzer Prize-winning ''[[The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay]]'' (2000) tells the story of two friends, Joe Kavalier and Sam Clay, as they rise through the ranks of the [[comics]] industry in its heyday; [[Denis Johnson]], whose 2007 novel ''[[Tree of Smoke]]'' about falsified intelligence during Vietnam both won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was called by critic [[Michiko Kakutani]] "one of the classic works of literature produced by [the [[Vietnam War]]]";[{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/31/books/31book.html|title=In Vietnam: Stars and Stripes, and Innocence Undone|work=The New York Times|access-date=April 17, 2010 | first=Michiko | last=Kakutani | date=2007-08-31}}] and [[Louise Erdrich]], whose 2008 novel ''The Plague of Doves'', a distinctly Faulknerian, polyphonic examination of the tribal experience set against the backdrop of murder in the fictional town of Pluto, North Dakota, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and her [[2012 in literature|2012]] novel ''The Round House'', which builds on the same themes, was awarded the [[National Book Award for Fiction#2010 to date.5B40.5D|2012 National Book Award]].[{{cite news|url=https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-2012#.ULu_iYUx9D0|title=2012 National Book Awards|work=National Book Foundation|access-date=December 2, 2012|date=November 14, 2012}}]
==Poetry==
{{main|American poetry}}
[[File:Bay Psalm Book title page.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Title page]] of the copy of the Bay Psalm Book held by the [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]]]
Puritan poetry was highly religious, and one of the earliest books of poetry published was the ''[[Bay Psalm Book]]'' (1640), a set of translations of the biblical [[Psalms]]; however, the translators' intention was not to create literature, but to create hymns that could be used in worship.[ Among lyric poets, the most important figures are [[Anne Bradstreet]], who wrote personal poems about her family and homelife; pastor [[Edward Taylor]], whose best poems, the ''Preparatory Meditations'', were written to help him prepare for leading worship; and [[Michael Wigglesworth]], whose best-selling poem, ''[[The Day of Doom]]'' (1660), describes the time of judgment. It was published in the same year that anti-Puritan Charles II was restored to the British throne. He followed it two years later with ''God's Controversy With New England''. [[Nicholas Noyes]] was also known for his [[doggerel]] verse.
===18th century===
The 18th century saw an increasing emphasis on America itself as fit subject matter for its poets. This trend is most evident in the works of [[Philip Freneau]] (1752–1832), who is also notable for the unusually sympathetic attitude to [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], which was reflective of his skepticism toward [[Culture of the United States|American culture]].][{{cite book
| title = Born for the Shade: Stereotypes of the Native American in United States Literature and the Visual Arts, 1776–1894
| first = Klaus
| last = Lubbers
| publisher = Rodopi
| year = 1994
| isbn = 978-90-5183-628-8
}}] However, this late colonial-era poetry generally was influenced by contemporary poetry in Europe. The work of [[Rebecca Hammond Lard]] (1772–1855), is still relevant today, writing about the environment as well as also human nature.[[http://landandlit.iweb.bsu.edu/literature/Authors/author_rd3/lardr.html]{{dead link|date=August 2014}}]
===19th century===
[[File:Whitman-young.jpg|thumb|left|[[Walt Whitman]], 1856]]
The [[Fireside Poets]] (also known as the Schoolroom or Household Poets) were some of America's first major poets domestically and internationally. They were known for their poems being easy to memorize due to their general adherence to poetic form (standard [[Poetry#Form|form]]s, regular [[Meter (poetry)|meter]], and [[rhyme]]d [[stanza]]s) and were often recited in the home (hence the name) as well as in school (such as "[[Paul Revere's Ride (poem)|Paul Revere's Ride]]"), as well as working with distinctly American themes, including some political issues such as abolition. They included [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], [[William Cullen Bryant]], [[John Greenleaf Whittier]], [[James Russell Lowell]], and [[Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.]]. Longfellow achieved the highest level of acclaim and is often considered the first internationally acclaimed American poet, being the first American poet given a bust in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner.[[http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5654 "A Brief Guide to the Fireside Poets"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116214914/http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5654 |date=January 16, 2014 }} at [http://www.Poets.org Poets.org]. Accessed 10-07-2015]
[[Walt Whitman]] (1819–1892) and [[Emily Dickinson]] (1830–1886), two of America's greatest 19th-century poets could hardly have been more different in temperament and style. [[Walt Whitman]] was a working man, a traveler, a self-appointed nurse during the [[American Civil War]] (1861–1865), and a poetic innovator. His magnum opus was ''[[Leaves of Grass]]'', in which he uses a free-flowing verse and lines of irregular length to depict the all-inclusiveness of American democracy. Taking that motif one step further, the poet equates the vast range of American experience with himself without being egotistical. For example, in ''[[Song of Myself]]'', the long, central poem in ''Leaves of Grass'', Whitman writes: "These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me ..."
In his words Whitman was a poet of "the body electric". In ''[[Studies in Classic American Literature]]'', the English novelist [[D. H. Lawrence]] wrote that Whitman "was the first to smash the old moral conception that the soul of man is something 'superior' and 'above' the flesh."
By contrast, [[Emily Dickinson]] lived the sheltered life of a genteel unmarried woman in small-town [[Amherst, Massachusetts]]. Her poetry is ingenious, witty, and penetrating. Her work was unconventional for its day, and little of it was published during her lifetime. Many of her poems dwell on the topic of death, often with a mischievous twist. One, "[[Because I could not stop for Death]]", begins, "He kindly stopped for me." The opening of another Dickinson poem toys with her position as a woman in a male-dominated society and an unrecognized poet: "I'm nobody! Who are you? / Are you nobody too?" [{{Cite web|url=http://www.edickinson.org/search|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180124023453/http://www.edickinson.org/search|url-status=dead|archive-date=2018-01-24|title=Emily Dickinson Archive|date=2018-01-24|access-date=2018-01-24}}]
===20th century===
[[File:Harmonium cover.png|thumb|First edition]]
American poetry arguably reached its peak in the early-to-mid-20th century, with such noted writers as [[Wallace Stevens]] and his ''[[Harmonium (poetry collection)|Harmonium]]'' (1923) and ''The Auroras of Autumn'' (1950), [[T. S. Eliot]] and his ''[[The Waste Land]]'' (1922), [[Robert Frost]] and his ''[[North of Boston]]'' (1914) and ''[[New Hampshire (poetry collection)|New Hampshire]]'' (1923), [[Hart Crane]] and his ''[[White Buildings]]'' (1926) and the epic cycle, ''[[The Bridge (long poem)|The Bridge]]'' (1930), [[Ezra Pound]],''[[The Cantos]]'' (1917–1969). [[William Carlos Williams]] and his epic poem about his New Jersey hometown, ''[[Paterson (poem)|Paterson]]'', [[Marianne Moore]], [[E. E. Cummings]], [[Edna St. Vincent Millay]] and [[Langston Hughes]].
Pound's poetryis complex and sometimes obscure, with references to other art forms and to a vast range of literature, both Western and Eastern.[Noel Stock, ''The Life of Ezra Pound'' (1970)] He influenced many other poets, notably [[T. S. Eliot]] (1888–1965), another expatriate. Eliot wrote spare, cerebral poetry, carried by a dense structure of symbols. In ''[[The Waste Land]]'', he embodied a jaundiced vision of post–World War I society in fragmented, haunted images. Like Pound's, Eliot's poetry could be highly allusive, and some editions of ''The Waste Land'' come with footnotes supplied by the poet. In 1948, Eliot won the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].[Hugh Kenner, ''The invisible poet: TS Eliot'' (1965).]
====Post-World War II====
Among the most respected postwar American poets are: [[John Ashbery]], the key figure of the surrealistic [[New York School (art)|New York School]] of poetry, and his celebrated ''[[Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror (book)|Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror]]'' (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1976); [[Elizabeth Bishop]] and her ''North & South'' (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1956) and "Geography III" (National Book Award, 1970); [[Richard Wilbur]] and his ''Things of This World,'' winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for Poetry in 1957; [[John Berryman]] and his ''The Dream Songs'', (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1964, National Book Award, 1968); [[A.R. Ammons]], whose ''Collected Poems 1951-1971'' won a National Book Award in 1973 and whose long poem ''Garbage'' earned him another in 1993; [[Theodore Roethke]] and his ''[[The Waking]]'' (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1954); [[James Merrill]] and his epic poem of communication with the dead, ''[[The Changing Light at Sandover]]'' (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1977); [[Louise Glück]] for ''The Wild Iris'' (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1993) and ''Faithful and Virtuous Night'' (National Book Award, 2014), who is additionally the only living American author publishing primarily written poetry awarded the [[Nobel prize in literature]];[[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2020/summary/]] [[W.S. Merwin]] for ''The Carrier of Ladders'' (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1971) and ''The Shadow of Sirius'' (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 2009); [[Mark Strand]] for ''Blizzard of One'' (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1999); [[Robert Hass]] for ''Time and Materials,'' which won both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for Poetry in 2008 and 2007 respectively; and [[Rita Dove]] for ''Thomas and Beulah'' (Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, 1987).
In addition, in this same period the [[Confessional poetry|confessional]], whose origin is often traced to the publication in 1959 of [[Robert Lowell]]'s ''[[Life Studies]]'',[[http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5960 Groundbreaking Book: Life Studies by Robert Lowell (1959)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100529005428/http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5960 |date=May 29, 2010 }} Accessed May 5, 2010] and [[beat poetry|beat]] schools of poetry enjoyed popular and academic success, producing such widely anthologized voices as [[Allen Ginsberg]], [[Charles Bukowski]], [[Gary Snyder]], [[Anne Sexton]], and [[Sylvia Plath]], among many others.
==Drama==
{{main|Theater of the United States}}
[[File:Eugene ONeill stamp.png|upright=1.5|thumb|left|O'Neill stamp issued in 1967]]
Although the American theatrical tradition can be traced back to the arrival of [[Lewis Hallam]]'s troupe in the mid-18th century and was very active in the 19th century, as seen by the popularity of [[minstrel show]]s and of [[Tom Shows|adaptations of ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'']], American drama attained international status only in the 1920s and 1930s, with the works of [[Eugene O'Neill]], who won four [[Pulitzer Prize for Drama|Pulitzer Prizes]] and the [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize]].
American dramatic literature, by contrast, remained dependent on European models, although many playwrights did attempt to apply these forms to American topics and themes, such as immigrants, westward expansion, temperance, etc. At the same time, American playwrights created several long-lasting American character types, especially the "Yankee", the "Negro" and the "Indian", exemplified by the characters of [[Brother Jonathan|Jonathan]], [[Sambo (racial term)|Sambo]] and [[Metamora; or, The Last of the Wampanoags|Metamora]]. In addition, new dramatic forms were created in the [[Tom Shows]], the [[showboat|showboat theater]] and the [[minstrel show]]. Among the best plays of the period are [[James Nelson Barker]]'s ''Superstition; or, the Fanatic Father'', [[Anna Cora Mowatt]]'s ''Fashion; or, Life in New York'', [[Nathaniel Bannister]]'s ''[[Putnam, the Iron Son of '76]]'', [[Dion Boucicault]]'s ''[[The Octoroon|The Octoroon; or, Life in Louisiana]]'', and [[Cornelius Mathews]]'s ''Witchcraft; or, the Martyrs of Salem''.
Realism began to influence American drama, partly through Howells, but also through Europeans such as [[Ibsen]] and [[Émile Zola|Zola]]. Although realism was most influential in set design and staging—audiences loved the special effects offered up by the popular melodramas—and in the growth of [[American literary regionalism|local color]] plays, it also showed up in the more subdued, less romantic tone that reflected the effects of the Civil War and continued social turmoil on the American psyche.
The most ambitious attempt at bringing modern realism into the drama was [[James Herne]]'s ''[[Margaret Fleming]]'' (1890), which addressed issues of social determinism through realistic dialogue, psychological insight, and symbolism. The play was not successful, and both critics and audiences thought it dwelt too much on unseemly topics and included improper scenes, such as the main character nursing her husband's illegitimate child onstage.
In the middle of the 20th century, American drama was dominated by the work of playwrights [[Tennessee Williams]] and [[Arthur Miller]], as well as by the maturation of the American [[musical theatre|musical]], which had found a way to integrate script, music and dance in such works as ''[[Oklahoma!]]'' and ''[[West Side Story]]''. Later American playwrights of importance include [[Edward Albee]], [[Sam Shepard]], [[David Mamet]], [[August Wilson]] and [[Tony Kushner]].
==Ethnic, African American, LGBT & Native American writers==
{{main|Jewish American literature|Chicano literature|Asian American literature|African-American literature|American literature in Spanish|Gay literature}}
One of the developments in late-20th-century American literature was the increase of literature written by and about ethnic minorities beyond African Americans and Jewish Americans. This development came alongside the growth of the Civil Rights Movement and its corollary, the ethnic pride movement, which led to the creation of [[Ethnic Studies]] programs in most major universities. These programs helped establish the new ethnic literature as worthy objects of academic study, alongside such other new areas of literary study as [[women's literature]], gay and lesbian literature, [[Proletarian literature|working-class literature]], [[postcolonial literature]], and the rise of [[literary theory]] as a key component of academic literary study.
===Ethnic literature===
[[File:SandraCisneros.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Sandra Cisneros]], best known for her first novel ''[[The House on Mango Street]]'' (1983) and her subsequent short story collection ''[[Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories]]'' (1991). She is the recipient of numerous awards including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and is regarded as a key figure in [[Chicano literature|Chicana literature]].[{{Harvnb|Madsen|2000|p= 107}}]]]
The twentieth century saw the emergence of American Jewish writers such as [[Saul Bellow]], [[Norman Mailer]], [[Joseph Heller]], [[Philip Roth]], [[Chaim Potok]], and [[Bernard Malamud]]. Potok's novels about a young New York Jewish boy's coming of age, ''The Chosen'' and ''The Promise'' figured prominently in this movement.
After being relegated to cookbooks and autobiographies for most of the 20th century, Asian American literature achieved widespread notice through [[Maxine Hong Kingston]]'s fictional memoir, ''[[The Woman Warrior]]'' (1976), and her novels ''China Men'' (1980) and ''[[Tripmaster Monkey|Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book]]''. [[Chinese-American]] author [[Ha Jin]] in 1999 won the [[National Book Award]] for his second novel, ''[[Waiting (novel)|Waiting]]'', about a Chinese soldier in the [[National Revolutionary Army|Revolutionary Army]] who has to wait 18 years to divorce his wife for another woman, all the while having to worry about persecution for his protracted affair, and twice won the [[PEN/Faulkner Award]], in 2000 for ''Waiting'' and in 2005 for ''[[War Trash]]''.
Other notable [[Asian-American]] novelists include [[Amy Tan]], best known for her novel, ''[[The Joy Luck Club (novel)|The Joy Luck Club]]'' (1989), tracing the lives of four immigrant families brought together by the game of [[Mahjong]], and Korean American novelist [[Chang-Rae Lee]], who has published ''[[Native Speaker (novel)|Native Speaker]]'', ''[[A Gesture Life]],'' and ''Aloft.'' Such poets as [[Marilyn Chin]] and [[Li-Young Lee]], [[Kimiko Hahn]] and [[Janice Mirikitani]] have also achieved prominence, as has playwright [[David Henry Hwang]]. Equally important has been the effort to recover earlier Asian American authors, started by [[Frank Chin]] and his colleagues; this effort has brought [[Sui Sin Far]], [[Toshio Mori]], [[Carlos Bulosan]], [[John Okada]], [[Hisaye Yamamoto]] and others to prominence.
[[Indian-American]] author [[Jhumpa Lahiri]] won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her debut collection of short stories, ''[[Interpreter of Maladies]]'' (1999), and went on to write a well-received novel, ''[[The Namesake (novel)|The Namesake]]'' (2003), which was shortly adapted to [[The Namesake (film)|film]] in 2007. In her second collection of stories, ''[[Unaccustomed Earth]]'', released to widespread commercial and critical success, Lahiri shifts focus and treats the experiences of the [[Immigrant generations|second and third generation]].
Hispanic literature also became important during this period, starting with acclaimed novels by [[Tomás Rivera]] (''[[...y no se lo tragó la tierra]]'') and [[Rudolfo Anaya]] (''[[Bless Me, Ultima]]''), and the emergence of Chicano theater with [[Luis Valdez]] and ''[[Teatro Campesino]]''. Latina writing became important thanks to authors such as [[Sandra Cisneros]], an icon of an emerging [[Chicano literature]] whose 1983 [[bildungsroman]] ''[[The House on Mango Street]]'' is taught in schools across the United States, [[Denise Chavez]]'s ''[[The Last of the Menu Girls]]'' and [[Gloria Anzaldúa]]'s ''[[Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza]]''.
[[Dominican-American]] author [[Junot Díaz]], received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his 2007 novel ''[[The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao]]'', which tells the story of an overweight Dominican boy growing up as a [[social outcast]] in [[Paterson, New Jersey]]. Another Dominican author, [[Julia Alvarez]], is well known for ''[[How the García Girls Lost Their Accents]]'' and ''[[In the Time of the Butterflies]]''. [[Cuban American]] author [[Oscar Hijuelos]] won a Pulitzer for ''[[The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love]]'', and [[Cristina García (journalist)|Cristina García]] received acclaim for ''[[Dreaming in Cuban]].''
Celebrated Puerto Rican novelists who write in English and Spanish include [[Giannina Braschi]], author of the [[Spanglish]] classic ''[[Yo-Yo Boing!]]'' and [[Rosario Ferré]], best known for "Eccentric Neighborhoods".[{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/bookfest/author/giannina_braschi|access-date=February 17, 2015|title=Giannina Braschi|work=National Book Festival|publisher=Library of Congress|year=2012|quote='Braschi: one of the most revolutionary voices in Latin America today'}}][{{Cite book|author=Ilan Stavans|title=Norton Anthology of Latino Literature|publisher=Norton|year=2011|oclc = 607322888}}] Puerto Rico has also produced important playwrights such as [[René Marqués]] ([[La Carreta|The Oxcart]]), [[Luis Rafael Sánchez]] (The Passion of Antigone Perez), and [[José Rivera (playwright)|José Rivera]] ([[Marisol (play)|Marisol]]). Major poets of [[Puerto Rican Diaspora|Puerto Rican diaspora]] who write about the life of American immigrants include [[Julia de Burgos]] (''I was my own route fui''), [[Giannina Braschi]] ([[Empire of Dreams (poetry collection)|Empire of Dreams]]), and [[Pedro Pietri]] (''Puerto Rican Obituary''). Pietri was a co-founder of the [[Nuyorican Poets Café]], a performance space for poetry readings.[{{Cite web|date=2020-10-05|title=Luis A. Miranda, Jr. Doesn’t ‘Need To Be Liked’ but This New Documentary Will Make You Like Him Anyway|url=https://remezcla.com/features/film/luis-a-miranda-jr-doesnt-need-to-be-liked-but-this-new-documentary-will-make-you-like-him-anyway/|access-date=2020-10-12|website=Remezcla|language=en-US}}]
Spurred by the success of [[N. Scott Momaday]]'s Pulitzer Prize–winning ''[[House Made of Dawn]]'', Native American literature showed explosive growth during this period, known as the [[Native American Renaissance]], through such novelists as [[Leslie Marmon Silko]] (e.g., ''[[Ceremony (Silko novel)|Ceremony]]''), [[Gerald Vizenor]] (e.g., ''[[Bearheart: The Heirship Chronicles]]'' and numerous essays on Native American literature), [[Louise Erdrich]] (''[[Love Medicine]]'' and several other novels that use a recurring set of characters and locations in the manner of [[William Faulkner]]), [[James Welch (writer)|James Welch]] (e.g., ''[[Winter in the Blood]]''), [[Sherman Alexie]] (e.g., ''[[The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven]]''), and poets [[Simon Ortiz]] and [[Joy Harjo]]. The success of these authors has brought renewed attention to earlier generations, including [[Zitkala-Sa]], [[John Joseph Mathews]], [[D'Arcy McNickle]] and [[Mourning Dove (author)|Mourning Dove]].
More recently, [[Arab American literature]], largely unnoticed since the [[New York Pen League]] of the 1920s, has become more prominent through the work of [[Diana Abu-Jaber]], whose novels include ''[[Arabian Jazz]]'' and ''Crescent'' and the memoir ''The Language of Baklava''.
==Nobel Prize in Literature winners (American authors)==
{{History of modern literature}}
{{further|Nobel Prize in Literature}}
*1930: [[Sinclair Lewis]] (novelist)
*1936: [[Eugene O'Neill]] (playwright)
*1938: [[Pearl S. Buck]] (biographer and novelist)
*1948: [[T. S. Eliot]] (poet and playwright)
*1949: [[William Faulkner]] (novelist)
*1954: [[Ernest Hemingway]] (novelist)
*1962: [[John Steinbeck]] (novelist)
*1976: [[Saul Bellow]] (novelist)
*1978: [[Isaac Bashevis Singer]] (novelist, wrote in [[Yiddish literature|Yiddish]])
*1987: [[Joseph Brodsky]] (poet and essayist, wrote in English and Russian)
*1993: [[Toni Morrison]] (novelist)
*2016: [[Bob Dylan]] (songwriter)
*2020: [[Louise Glück]] (poetry)
==American literary awards==
{{See also|:Category:American literary awards}}
*[[American Academy of Arts and Letters]]
*[[Pulitzer Prize]] (Fiction, Drama and Poetry, as well as various non-fiction and journalist categories)
*[[National Book Award]] (Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry and Young-Adult Fiction)
*[[American Book Awards]]
*[[:Category:International PEN literary awards|PEN literary awards]] (multiple awards)
*[[United States Poet Laureate]]
*[[Bollingen Prize]]
*[[Pushcart Prize]]
*[[O. Henry Award]]
==List of literary critics==
{{See also|:Category:American literary critics|Literary criticism}}
{{div col}}
*[[John Neal (writer)|John Neal]]: Early [[American literary nationalism|American literary nationalist]] and [[American literary regionalism|regionalist]]
*[[Edgar Allan Poe]]: Dark Romanticism, Short-Story Theory
*[[T. S. Eliot]]: Modernism
*[[Harold Bloom]]: Aestheticism
*[[Susan Sontag]]: ''[[Against Interpretation]]'', ''[[On Photography]]''
*[[John Updike]]: Literary realism/modernism and aestheticist critic
*[[M. H. Abrams]]: ''The Mirror and the Lamp'' (study of Romanticism)
*[[F. O. Matthiessen]]: originated the concept "[[American Renaissance (literature)|American Renaissance]]"
*[[Perry Miller]]: Puritan studies
*[[Henry Nash Smith]]: founder of the "Myth and Symbol School" of American criticism
*[[Leo Marx]]: ''[[The Machine in the Garden]]'' (study of technology and culture)
*[[Leslie Fiedler]]: ''Love and Death in the American Novel''
*[[Stanley Fish]]: Pragmatism
*[[Henry Louis Gates]]: African American literary theory
*[[Gerald Vizenor]]: Native American literary theory
*[[William Dean Howells]]: Literary realism
*[[Stephen Greenblatt]]: New Historicism
*[[Geoffrey Hartman]]: Yale school of deconstruction
*[[John Crowe Ransom]]: New Criticism
*[[Cleanth Brooks]]: New Criticism
*[[Kenneth Burke]]: Rhetoric studies
*[[Elaine Showalter]]: Feminist criticism
*[[Sandra M. Gilbert]]: Feminist criticism
*[[Susan Gubar]]: Feminist criticism
*[[Alicia Ostriker]]: feminist criticism
*[[J. Hillis Miller]]: Deconstruction
*[[Edward Said]]: Postcolonial criticism
*[[Jonathan Culler]]: Critical theory, deconstruction
*[[Judith Butler]]: Post-structuralist feminism
*[[Gloria E. Anzaldúa]]: Latina literary theory
*[[Ilan Stavans]]: Latino cultural theory
*[[Frederick Luis Aldama]]: Latino literature in the United States
*[[Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick]]: Queer theory
*[[Fredric Jameson]]: Marxist criticism
{{div col end}}
==See also==
{{Portal|Literature|United States}}
{{div col}}
* [[American Literature (academic discipline)]]
* [[Great American Novel]]
* [[List of 20th-century American writers by birth year]]
===Indigenous literature===
* [[Indigenous literatures in Canada]]
* [[Oral tradition#Native America|Indigenous oral literature]]
* [[List of writers from peoples indigenous to the Americas]]
* [[Mesoamerican literature]]
*[[Mexican literature#Pre-Columbian literature]]
* [[Native American cultures in the United States]]
* [[Native American Renaissance]]
===Regional and minority focuses in American literature===
* [[Literature of New England]]
* [[Chicago literature]]
* [[Southern literature]]
** Literature of Southern states: [[Alabama literature|Alabama]]; [[Arkansas literature|Arkansas]]; [[Florida literature|Florida]]; [[Literature of Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]; [[Kentucky literature|Kentucky]]; [[Literature of Louisiana|Louisiana]]; [[Maryland literature|Maryland]]; [[Mississippi literature|Mississippi]], [[North Carolina literature|North Carolina]]; [[South Carolina literature|South Carolina]]; [[Tennessee literature|Tennessee]]; [[Texas literature|Texas]]; [[Virginia literature|Virginia]]; [[West Virginia literature|West Virginia]]
* [[Literature in Hawaii]]
* [[LGBT literature]]
** [[Black lesbian literature in the United States]]
* [[Deaf American literature]]
* [[American Catholic literature]]
* [[American literature in Spanish]]
;Ethnic minority literature
* [[Armenian American literature]]
* [[African American literature]]
** [[List of African American writers]]
* [[Jewish American literature]]
** [[List of Jewish American writers]]
* [[Arab American literature]]
** [[List of Arab American writers]]
* [[Asian American literature]]
** [[Chinese American literature]]
** [[Korean American writers]]
** [[List of Asian American writers]]
* [[Latino literature]]
** [[:Category:Hispanic and Latino American writers|Hispanic American writers]]
** [[Chicano literature]]
*** [[Chicano poetry]]
** [[Puerto Rican literature]]
*** [[List of Puerto Rican writers]]
** [[List of Cuban American writers]]
** [[List of Mexican American writers]]
* [[Native American literature]]
** [[Native American Renaissance]]
** [[American Indian literary nationalism]]
{{div col end}}
==Notes and references==
{{Reflist|30em}}
==Bibliography==
*{{Cite book|last=Bercovitch |first=Sacvan |title=The Cambridge History of American Literature |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1994–2005 |location=Cambridge |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/series/cambridge-history-of-american-literature/608196CA724ADA74F3EE7DDA7ADCDCD0}}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle=American Literature}}
*{{Cite book|last=Gray |first=Richard |title=A History of American Literature |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |year=2011 |location=Malden}}
* Moore, Michelle E. (2019). ''Chicago and the Making of American Modernism: Cather, Hemingway, Faulkner, and Fitzgerald in Conflict''. New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic.
*{{Cite book|last=Müller |first=Timo |title=Handbook of the American Novel of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries |publisher=de Gruyter |year=2017 |location=Boston |url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/456477}}
==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
* [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20161217052706/https://library.osu.edu/find/collections/william-charvat-collection-of-american-literature/charvat-manuscripts/nineteenth-century 19th Century American Fiction and Poetry] The Ohio State University Libraries Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110710192647/http://engelsklenker.com/us_resource.php Audio lectures on American Literature in TheEnglishCollection.com (clickable timeline)]
* [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/etas/ Electronic Texts in American Studies]
{{United States topics}}
{{English literature}}
{{North American topic|| literature}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:North American literature]]
[[Category:English-language literature]]
[[Category:American culture|Literature]]
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Return to American literature.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_literature"
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