Literary movement — English definition
Defined in 2 courses:
- A cluster of writers who share the questions, styles, and convictions of their era, such as Transcendentalism or Modernism. (English 11: American Voices, Identity & Public Memory)
- A cluster of writers who, across a generation, come to share questions, styles, and convictions — such as Romanticism, Realism, or Modernism. (English 12: Complex Texts, Independent Inquiry & Public Voice)
Where it is taught
- American Literary Movements & Themes — Close Reading & Literary Analysis, English 11: American Voices, Identity & Public Memory, Grade 11
- Literary Movements & Context — Close Reading & Literary Analysis, English 12: Complex Texts, Independent Inquiry & Public Voice, Grade 12
In use
American literature does not unfold as one smooth, continuous story — it arrives in waves, and each wave is a literary movement: a cluster of writers who share the questions, styles, and convictions of their moment.
American Literary Movements & Themes
A literary movement is a cluster of writers who, across a generation, come to share questions, styles, and convictions — and behind each movement stands a historical context (a revolution, an industrializing economy, a catastrophic war, an empire) that presses on what writers can even imagine, let alone say.
Literary Movements & Context
Taught alongside
- the American Dream
- individualism
- Transcendentalism
- Realism
- Modernism
- Romanticism
- historical context
- the sublime