Literary Movements In American Lit

Posted by Melissa Howard Dec 14, 2007

Have you ever read a classic and finished and thought that it seemed a bit out of sync with the style of novel or book you generally read? Chances are the reason it seems off is not only because it was written in a different time in history but also because the literary style of the time focused on a different aspect of writing than we are familiar with today. If you are interested in finding out the literary and cultural context of a book that you’ve recently read, take a look at Washington State University’s American Literary Movements page. Browsing through it you will discover that James Fenimore Cooper author of The Last of the Mohicans wrote in a style known as Sentimentalism, that Captivity Narratives were made popular by Cotton Mather and that Stephen Crane wrote in a style known as Naturalism.