American Literary Periods

The style of the Colonial period consisted of sermons, diaries, personal writings and religious poetry, focusing on daily life and ethics, while the Romantic period consisted of character sketches, slave narratives, general poetry and short stories, focusing on the individual and emotions. Aspects of transcendentalism are optimism, intuition, a simple lifestyle, individualism, oversoul and civil disobedience. Historical context affecting these periods dealt with political and social issues happening at those times, such as Romanticism's invocation of strong feeling due to the Civil War.