Britannica
Sources used in this answer
- Periods of American Literature
- Periods of American Literature - The Colonial and Early National Period (17th century–1830)
- Modernist literature - American Modernist literature
- Modernist literature - Overview of Modernist literature
- American literature: Top Questions
- American literature
- American Renaissance
Which six major periods are commonly used to divide American literature?
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American literature
Map of Virginia from John Smith's The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles, 1624.
American literature is commonly divided into the following six major periods:1
- Pre-colonization1
- The Colonial and Early National period (17th century to 1830)1
- The Romantic period (1830 to 1870)1
- Realism and Naturalism (1870 to 1910)1
- The Modernist period (1910 to 1945)1
- The Contemporary period (1945 to present)1