MTEL-English Questions and Answers
Puritan Correct Answ_Most of this is histories, journals, personal poems, sermons, and
diaries. Most of this literature is either utilitarian, very personal, or religious. Jonathan Edwards
continues to be recognized from this period.
Enlightenment - (1750-1800) Correct Answ_This period was influenced by science and logic
and is marked in US literature by political writings. Genres included political documents,
speeches, and letters. Benjamin Franklin is typical of this period. There is a lack of emphasis and
dependence on the Bible and more use of common sense (logic) and science. There was not a
divorce from the Bible but an adding to or expanding of the truths found there.
Romanticism - (1800-1840) Correct Answ_This period was a literary and artistic movement
of the nineteenth century that arose in reaction against eighteenth-century Neoclassicism and
placed a premium on fancy, imagination, emotion, nature, individuality, and exotica. There's a
movement here from personal and political documents to entertaining ones. Purely American
topics were introduced such as frontier life. Romantic elements can be found in the works of
American writers as diverse as Cooper, Poe, Thoreau, Emerson, Dickinson, Hawthorne, and
Melville. Romanticism is particularly evident in the works of the New England
Transcendentalists.
, Transcendentalism - (1840-1855) Correct Answ_This period was an American literary and
philosophical movement of the nineteenth century. These writers, who were based in New
England, believed that intuition and the individual conscience "transcend" experience and thus
are better guides to truth than are the senses and logical reason. This style respected the
individual spirit and the natural world, believing that divinity was present everywhere, in nature
and in each person. The Transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David
Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, W.H. Channing, Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth Peabody. The anti-
Transcendentalist (Hawthorne and Melville) rebelled against the philosophy that man is basically
good. A third group, the Fireside poets, wrote about more practical aspects of life such as dying
and patriotism.
Realism - (1865-1915) Correct Answ_This period presented the details of actual life. It was
also a literary movement that began during the nineteenth century and stressed the actual as
opposed to the imagined or the fanciful. Writers tried to write truthfully and objectively about
ordinary characters in ordinary situations. They reacted against Romanticism, rejecting heroic,
adventurous, unusual, or unfamiliar subjects. The Realists, in turn, were followed by the
Naturalists, who traced the effects of heredity and environment on people helpless to change
their situations. American realism grew from the work of local-color writers such as Bret Harte
and Sarah Orne Jewett and is evident in the writings of major figures such as Mark Twain and
Henry James.
Puritan Correct Answ_Most of this is histories, journals, personal poems, sermons, and
diaries. Most of this literature is either utilitarian, very personal, or religious. Jonathan Edwards
continues to be recognized from this period.
Enlightenment - (1750-1800) Correct Answ_This period was influenced by science and logic
and is marked in US literature by political writings. Genres included political documents,
speeches, and letters. Benjamin Franklin is typical of this period. There is a lack of emphasis and
dependence on the Bible and more use of common sense (logic) and science. There was not a
divorce from the Bible but an adding to or expanding of the truths found there.
Romanticism - (1800-1840) Correct Answ_This period was a literary and artistic movement
of the nineteenth century that arose in reaction against eighteenth-century Neoclassicism and
placed a premium on fancy, imagination, emotion, nature, individuality, and exotica. There's a
movement here from personal and political documents to entertaining ones. Purely American
topics were introduced such as frontier life. Romantic elements can be found in the works of
American writers as diverse as Cooper, Poe, Thoreau, Emerson, Dickinson, Hawthorne, and
Melville. Romanticism is particularly evident in the works of the New England
Transcendentalists.
, Transcendentalism - (1840-1855) Correct Answ_This period was an American literary and
philosophical movement of the nineteenth century. These writers, who were based in New
England, believed that intuition and the individual conscience "transcend" experience and thus
are better guides to truth than are the senses and logical reason. This style respected the
individual spirit and the natural world, believing that divinity was present everywhere, in nature
and in each person. The Transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David
Thoreau, Bronson Alcott, W.H. Channing, Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth Peabody. The anti-
Transcendentalist (Hawthorne and Melville) rebelled against the philosophy that man is basically
good. A third group, the Fireside poets, wrote about more practical aspects of life such as dying
and patriotism.
Realism - (1865-1915) Correct Answ_This period presented the details of actual life. It was
also a literary movement that began during the nineteenth century and stressed the actual as
opposed to the imagined or the fanciful. Writers tried to write truthfully and objectively about
ordinary characters in ordinary situations. They reacted against Romanticism, rejecting heroic,
adventurous, unusual, or unfamiliar subjects. The Realists, in turn, were followed by the
Naturalists, who traced the effects of heredity and environment on people helpless to change
their situations. American realism grew from the work of local-color writers such as Bret Harte
and Sarah Orne Jewett and is evident in the writings of major figures such as Mark Twain and
Henry James.
