Famous American authors of the 20th century
This is a list of modern literary movements: that is, movements after the Renaissance. These terms, helpful for curricula or anthologies, evolved over time to group certain writers who are often loosely related. Some of these movements (such as Dada and Beat) were defined by the members themselves, while other terms (the metaphysical poets, ) emerged decades or centuries after the periods in question. Ordering is approximate, as there is considerable overlap.
- Romantic fiction written in the 17th and 18th centuries.
- Distinct from European Romanticism, the American form emerged somewhat later, was based more in fiction than in poetry, and incorporated a (sometimes almost suffocating) awareness of history, particularly the darkest aspects of American history.
- 19th-century, primarily English movement based ostensibly on undoing innovations by the painter Raphael. Many were both painters and poets.
- 19th-century American movement: poetry and philosophy concerned with self-reliance, independence from modern technology.
- 19th-century American movement in reaction to Transcendentalism. Finds man inherently sinful and self-destructive and nature a dark, mysterious force.
- Late-19th-century movement based on a simplification of style and image and an interest in poverty and everyday concerns.
- Also late 19th century. Proponents of this movement believe heredity and environment control people.
- Early-20th-century fiction consisting of literary representations of quotidian thought, without authorial presence.
- Touted by its proponents as anti-art, dada focused on going against artistic norms and conventions.
- British poets who documented both the idealism and the horrors of the war and the period in which it took place.
- Originally a French movement, influenced by Surrealist painting, that uses surprising images and transitions to play off of formal expectations and depict the unconscious rather than conscious mind.
- Mid-20th-century poetry and prose based on seemingly arbitrary rules for the sake of added challenge.
- Amrita Mohan Singh et al. established a new type of Punjabi poetry in the early 20th century that revised older Punjabi forms, to a degree influenced by trends in the English language. But mainly this was home grown and soon became a traditional realist form. There was a Marxist sloganistic tone.
- This replaced the older traditional Pargatiwadi in Punjabi literature during the 1960s. By this time most were following Russian and English Realism in an established manner which Paryogsheel contrasted. S.S. Misha was the main proponent. Others included Ajaib Kamal and Ravinder Ravi. They gave a fresh face and new soul to the Punjabi poetry by experimenting in theme as well as in form, thereby mapping out new directions for the generations that followed.
- Postwar movement skeptical of absolutes and embracing diversity, irony, and word play.
- Poetry that, often brutally, exposes the self as part of an aesthetic of the beauty and power of human frailty.
- Urban, gay or gay-friendly, leftist poets, writers, and painters of the 1960s.
- A literary movement founded in the late 1960s by René Philoctète, Jean-Claude Fignolé, and Frankétienne centered around the idea that the universe is interconnected, unpredictable, and governed by chaos.
- A postmodern literary movement where writers use their speaking voice to present fiction, poetry, monologues, and storytelling arising in the 1980s in the urban centers of the United States. The textual origins differ and may have been written for print initially then read aloud for audiences.
- A late-20th and early 21st century movement in American poetry advocating a return to traditional accentual-syllabic verse.
- This is the lasting viral component of Spoken Word and one of the most popular forms of poetry in the 21st century. It is a new oral poetry originating in the 1980s in Austin, Texas, using the speaking voice and other theatrical elements. Practitioners write for the speaking voice instead of writing poetry for the silent printed page. The major figure is American Hedwig Gorski who began broadcasting live radio poetry with East of Eden Band during the early 1980s. Gorski, considered a post-Beat, created the term Performance Poetry to define and distinguish what she and the band did from performance art. Instead of books, poets use audio recordings and digital media along with television spawning Slam Poetry and Def Poets on television and Broadway.