English Literary Movements

             Throughout history many ideas have presented themselves, thus with these ideas many literary movements were started. The history of ideas and literary movements can be seen to develop in a certain pattern. One great example of this concept is clearly seen in the change in American thought from the 17th century Puritans through the 19th century Romantics. Many authors and their works illustrate this development.
             In the 17th century a group of people left the England and its Church (The Church of England). These people called themselves Puritans due to the fact believed that the Church of England was corrupt and they wished to "purify" the Church of England in an effort to make it less Roman. The Puritans left England and colonized in America or more specifically the Massachusetts Bay area of what the called New England. It is in New England with the Puritans basic beliefs that Puritan Literature (1650-1750) began and flourished. Their basic beliefs were divine province (God takes a direct role in one's life), natural depravity (Human are all evil and thus belong in hell), and divine election (God chooses who goes to heaven). These beliefs influenced there many genres such as sermons. Over time as many Puritans began to forget the old basic beliefs. In an effort to revive these beliefs (The Great Awaking), a minister by the name of Jonathan Edwards stepped in. In the highly emotional sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Jonathan Edwards used a series of metaphors to make people come back to the three old basic beliefs.
             As times changed Puritan Literature was left because a new literary movement was developing, Colonial Literature (1750-1800). Many colonists at this time became influenced by Enlightenment philosophers such as John Lock with their new ideas of government. Thus as English rule was becoming a weight, politicians or patriots began writing reasonable, logical, yet often incendiary material to...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
English Literary Movements. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 13:42, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/12156.html