American Lit 101: From Nathaniel Hawthorne to Harper Lee and Naturalism to Magical Realism, an Essential Guide to American Writers and Works

Adams 101

by Brianne Keith

From poetry to fiction to essays, American Lit 101 leaves no page unturned!

Edgar Allan Poe. Willa Cather. Henry David Thoreau. Mark Twain. The list of important American writers goes on and on. These voices played a vital role in shaping the scope of American literature, and the United States itself. But too often, textbooks reduce this storied history to dry text that would put even a tenured professor to sleep.

American Lit 101 is an engaging and comprehensive guide through the major players in American literature. From colonialism to postmodernism and every literary movement in between, this primer is packed with hundreds of entertaining tidbits and concepts, along with easy-to-understand explanations on why each author's work was important then and still relevant now. So whether you're looking for a refresher course on key American literature or want to learn about it for the first time, American Lit 101 has all the answers--even the ones you didn't know you were looking for.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literature, History, Reference, United States, American

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2017

Reviews

[BAM doesn’t answer to her real name · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well shit I think I just found a new LIST

I gave this three stars because I’m not really a fan of American Literature (traitor to my country), and now I have another book’s list added to my long-term goal. Honestly many of these books that I have not read (and I’m going to say I’ve read at least 30-40%) just really do not grab my interest. I do own most of them though or they are on my iPad cheap. I dont know if I agree with the choices since English lit is really where my heart is? But I think the author did a great job of categorizing the various movements and picking books that were influential. In that respect though the English lit book was better.there were just more books in that one, which I guess makes sense since that island country has been around for centuries when America was just forests and clean water with American Indians. (AND yes American Indian is what the majority of those natives of the land we stole from them prefers to be called I researched it). Plus the American segments are much smaller in recommendations than the English book. I think I was able to get 100 out of this one whereas the English has like 130-something? What I should do is when I drink my coffee in the morning out of my literature timeline mug (yes it’s awesome) I should see if the books match. Good idea!

[bahar vural · Rating 3 out of 5]

konu hakkında pek bir şey bilmeyenlere, giriş için iyi bir kitap gibi duruyor. amerikan edebiyatı uzmanı değilim, o yüzden pek bilmiyorum ama genel hatlarıyla kafamda bir sistem oluştu ve güzel okuma listeleri yaptım.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty useful for making a reading list to hit all the classics, which was my aim in reading it.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Description:
From poetry to fiction to essays, American Lit 101 leaves no page unturned!

Edgar Allan Poe. Willa Cather. Henry David Thoreau. Mark Twain. The list of important American writers goes on and on. These voices played a vital role in shaping the scope of American literature, and the United States itself. But too often, textbooks reduce this storied history to dry text that would put even a tenured professor to sleep.

American Lit 101 is an engaging and comprehensive guide through the major players in American literature. From colonialism to postmodernism and every literary movement in between, this primer is packed with hundreds of entertaining tidbits and concepts, along with easy-to-understand explanations on why each author's work was important then and still relevant now. So whether you're looking for a refresher course on key American literature or want to learn about it for the first time, American Lit 101 has all the answers--even the ones you didn't know you were looking for. (By Publisher)

Contents:

Introduction:
Chapter 1: Literature of the New World
-Exploring America
-Native American Literature
-Captivity Narratives
-The Puritans
-Early American Poetry
-Jonathan Edwards

Chapter 2: Literature of a Growing Republic
-Thomas Paine's Common Sense
-Thomas Jefferson
-The Writing of Benjamin Franklin
-John and Abigail Adams
-Philip Freneau
-Washington Irving
-James Fenimore Cooper

Chapter 3: Creating an American Literature

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
-Transcendentalism and The Dark Romantics
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
-Henry David Thoreau
-Nathaniel Hawthorne
-Herman Melville
-Edgar Allan Poe

Chapter 4: Literature of the Civil War

-Harriet Beecher Stowe
-Frederick Douglass
-Lydia Maria Child
-Walt Whitman
-Emily Dickinson

Chapter 5: Realism and Naturalism
-Mark Twain
- Edith Wharton and Henry James
-Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman
-Stephen Crane and Jack London

Chapter 6: Modernism
-The Lost Generation
-The Roaring Twenties
-Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot
-William Faulkner
-Willa Cather and John Steinbeck
-Robert Frost
-E.E. Cummings and William Carlos Williams
-The Harlem Renaissance

Chapter 7: Postwar Literature
-The Beats and J.D. Salinger
-Confessional Poets
-Twentieth-Century Dramatists
-Writers of the Southern Gothic

Chapter 8: Contemporary American Literature and Beyond
-Today's Literature
-New Forms and New Themes

Index

Subjects:
American literature -- History and criticism.
Authors, American.
American literature.
Literature
USA

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I wasn't exactly reluctant to teach American literature this year, it's not my one great literary love. I'd spent enough time immersing myself in British literature for the past couple decades that I am familiar with the landscape in a way I'm not with American literature. This ended up, as I prepared for the class, leading to an incredible overabundance of information that I wanted to teach my students because I had a much harder time deciding what was The Most Important. So, to help me organize my thoughts and narrow my focus, I checked out alllll the generalist American Lit books from the library. Some proved entirely useless, but Keith's American Lit 101 proved very helpful. The scope is huge, but Keith is succinct and focused and helped me organize my thoughts and weed out all the extraneous things that I wish I had time to teach.

Would I recommend this book to students? Maaaaybe. But only as an accompaniment to an actual class, not as a substitute for one.

[Eve · Rating 4 out of 5]

American Literature and I have always been at odds - I had a professor at university who made it the bane of my existence by having me memorize full texts for one sentence on a test, that was never the most notable or interesting.

This book however, was... less painful. I still had a hard time reading it, likely because of my predisposition to the subject matter, but all around it was a smoother experience. I'd recommend this as a teaching tool for high school or university level for the simple fact that it breaks things down to the most basic information - not oversaturating the mind of the reader.

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Where was the fantasy? WHERE WAS THE FANTASY?
Aside from fantasy being almost entirely left out, this book was fairly enjoyable. That is, as much as a book that you read for school can be. It was definitive and taught me what I need to know, so it passes.
Other than that, nothing particularly remarkable (positive or negative). Perfectly average.

[Özgür Atmaca · Rating 3 out of 5]

İngiliz edebiyatı baskısında sonra nedense bu çok yavan geldi, amerikan edebiyatı, birleşik krallığın yanında zaten kekrem kalır da, benim bahsettiğim sunuşta da bir yavanlık olmuş, tam 101 serisi gibi bir anlatı var içinde,
Edgar Allen Poe kısmında özellikle anlatamamak için direnmişler gibi,
neyse elimde başak kalmadı uzun süre de bu hızlandırılmış kurlara girmem sanırım.

[Adam Dunnells · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written and breezy, this is a VERY brief fly-by of American literature. A nice starting point for anyone unfamiliar with the classics of American literature, but an easy pass for most scholars, as this is clearly aimed at high school students

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though an interesting survey of American literature, I am annoyed how the science fiction and fantasy genres continue to be overlooked & excluded.

[JoAnne Thornton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent overview of the authors and movements of American lit, but I would have really liked to see more excerpts and examples.

[Can Urla · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great glimpse on the American literary history

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written concise book of an overview of American Lit.

[hamatesus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bir puanı bazı kitapların sonunu şak diye söylediği için kırdım.

[Maria Isabel Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really comprehensive review of american literature and authors, highly recommend for a fast but deep dive into the topic!

[Kayla Stogner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been gobbling up these little books on all sorts of different subjects. This is by no means exhaustive, but it is a nice refresher into the major literary players in American Literature.