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American Literature

American Literature. Literary Periods and Their Characteristics. Puritan/Colonial 1650–1750 . Genre and Style Sermons, diaries, personal narratives Written in plain style. 2/41. Puritan/Colonial 1650–1750 . Effect and Aspects Instructive Reinforces authority of the Bible and church.

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American Literature

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  1. American Literature Literary Periods and Their Characteristics

  2. Puritan/Colonial1650–1750 • Genre and Style • Sermons, diaries, personal narratives • Written in plain style 2/41

  3. Puritan/Colonial1650–1750 • Effect and Aspects • Instructive • Reinforces authority of the Bible and church 3/41

  4. Puritan/Colonial1650–1750 • Historical Context • A person’s fate is determined by God • All people are corrupt and must be saved by Christ 4/41

  5. Puritan/Colonial1650–1750 • Literary Examples • Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation • Rowlandson's "A Narrative of the Captivity" • Edward's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" • Though not written during Puritan times, The Crucible & The Scarlet Letter depict life during the time when Puritan theocracy prevailed. 5/41

  6. Revolutionary/Age of Reason1750–1800 • Genre and Style • Political pamphlets • Travel writing • Highly ornate writing style • Persuasive writing 6/41

  7. Revolutionary/Age of Reason1750–1800 • Effect and Aspects • Patriotism grows • Instills pride • Creates common agreement about issues • National mission and the American character 7/41

  8. Revolutionary/Age of Reason1750–1800 • Historical Context • Tells readers how to interpret what they are reading to encourage Revolutionary War support • Instructive in values 8/41

  9. Revolutionary/Age of Reason1750–1800 • Literary Examples • Writings of Jefferson, Paine, Henry • Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac • Franklin's "The Autobiography" 9/41

  10. Romanticism1800–1860 • Genre and Style • Character sketches • Ante-bellum Slave narratives • Poetry • Short stories 10/41

  11. Romanticism1800–1860 • Effect and Aspects • Value feeling and intuition over reasoning • Journey away from corruption of civilization and limits of rational thought toward the integrity of nature and freedom of the imagination • Helped instill proper gender behavior for men and women • Allowed people to re-imagine the American past 11/41

  12. Romanticism1800–1860 • Historical Context • Expansion of magazines, newspapers, and book publishing • Slavery debates • Industrial revolution brings ideas that the "old ways" of doing things are now irrelevant 12/41

  13. Romanticism1800–1860 • Literary Examples • Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" • William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis" • Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask" • Poems of Emily Dickinson • Poems of Walt Whitman 13/41

  14. American Renaissance and Transcendentalism 1840–1860 • Note the overlap in time period with Romanticism – some scholars consider the anti-transcendentalists to be the “dark” romantics and gothics. 14/41

  15. American Renaissance and Transcendentalism 1840–1860 • Genre and Style • Poetry • Short Stories • Novels • Anti-Transcendentalists • Hold readers’ attention through dread of a series of terrible possibilities • Feature landscapes of dark forests, extreme vegetation, concealed ruins with horrific rooms, depressed characters 15/41

  16. American Renaissance and Transcendentalism 1840–1860 • Effect and Aspects • Transcendentalists: • True reality is spiritual • Comes from18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant • Idealists • Self-reliance & individualism • Emerson & Thoreau • Anti-Transcendentalists: • Used symbolism to great effect • Sin, pain, & evil exist • Poe, Hawthorne, & Melville 16/41

  17. Transcendentalism: a literary, political, and philosophical movement centered around transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau • Transcendent is defined as: • 1a : exceeding usual limits : surpassing b : extending or lying beyond the limits of ordinary experience c in Kantian philosophy : being beyond the limits of all possible experience and knowledge • 2: being beyond comprehension • 3: transcending the universe or material existence — compare immanent 2 • 4: universally applicable or significant <the antislavery movement…recognized the transcendent importance of liberty — L. H. Tribe> (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transcendent) 17/41

  18. Transcendentalists: • Attempted to create a uniquely American body of literature that was different from the influences of England, France, Germany, or any other European nation. • Struggled to define spirituality and religion in a way that took into account the new understandings of science their age made available. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/transcendentalism/ http://www.transcendentalists.com/what.htm 18/41

  19. American Renaissance and Transcendentalism 1840–1860 • Historical Context • Today in literature we still see portrayals of alluring antagonists whose evil characteristics appeal to one’s sense of awe • Today in literature we still see stories of the persecuted young girl forced apart from her true love • Today in literature we still read of people seeking the true beauty in life and in nature … a belief in true love and contentment 19/41

  20. American Renaissance and Transcendentalism 1840–1860 • Literary Examples • Poems and essays of Emerson & Thoreau • Thoreau's Walden • Aphorisms of Emerson and Thoreau • Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter • Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Black Cat" 20/41

  21. Realism 1855–1900 (Pre- and post Civil War period) • Genre and Style • Novels and short stories • Objective narrator • Does not tell reader how to interpret story • Dialogue includes voices from around the country 21/41

  22. Realism 1855–1900 (Pre- and post Civil War period) • Effect and Aspects • Social realism: aims to change a specific social problem • Aesthetic realism: art that insists on detailing the world as one sees it 22/41

  23. Realism 1855–1900 (Pre- and post Civil War period) • Historical Context • Civil War brings demand for a "truer" type of literature that does not idealize people or places 23/41

  24. Realism 1855–1900 (Pre- and post Civil War period) • Literary Examples • Writings of Twain, Bierce, Crane • The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (some say id the 1st modern novel) • Regional works like: The Awakening. Ethan Frome, and My Antonia (some say modern) 24/41

  25. The Moderns (Modernism)1900–1950 • Genre and Style • Novels • Plays • Poetry (a great resurgence after deaths of Whitman & Dickinson) • Highly experimental as writers seek a unique style • Use of interior monologue & stream of consciousness 25/41

  26. The Moderns (Modernism)1900–1950 • Effect and Aspects • In Pursuit of the American Dream-- • Admiration for America as the Land of Eden • Optimism • Importance of the Individual 26/41

  27. The Moderns (Modernism)1900–1950 • Historical Context • Writers reflect the ideas of Darwin (survival of the fittest) and Karl Marx (how money and class structure control a nation) • Overwhelming technological changes of the 20th Century • Rise of the youth culture • WWI and WWII • Harlem Renaissance (a period within Modernism) 27/41

  28. The Moderns (Modernism)1900–1950 • Literary Examples • Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby • Poetry of Jeffers, Williams, Cummings, Frost, Eliot, Sandburg, Pound, Robinson, Stevens • Rand's Anthem • Short stories and novels of Steinbeck, Hemingway, Thurber, Welty, and Faulkner • Miller's The Death of a Salesman (some consider Postmodern) 28/41

  29. Harlem Renaissance1920s • Genre and Style • Allusions to African-American spirituals • Uses structure of blues songs in poetry (repetition) • Superficial stereotypes revealed to be complex characters 29/41

  30. Harlem Renaissance1920s • Effect and Aspects • Gave birth to "gospel music" • Blues and jazz transmitted across American via radio and phonographs 30/41

  31. Harlem Renaissance1920s • Historical Context • The Great Migration: African-American migration to Northern urban centers due to little work and Jim Crow laws in the South • African-Americans have more access to media and publishing outlets after they move north 31/41

  32. Harlem Renaissance1920s • Literary Examples • Essays & Poetry of W.E.B. DuBois • Poetry of McKay, Toomer, Cullen • Poetry, short stories and novels of Hurston and Hughes • Their Eyes Were Watching God • Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun & Wright's Native Son (an outgrowth of Harlem Renaissance-- see below) 32/41

  33. Postmodernism1950 to Present(Note: Many critics extend this to present and merge with the Contemporary period) 33/41

  34. Postmodernism1950 to Present • Genre and Style • Mixing of fantasy with nonfiction; blurs lines of reality for reader • No heroes • Concern with individual in isolation • Social issues as writers align with feminist & ethnic groups • Usually humorless • Narratives • Metafiction • Present tense • Magic realism 34/41

  35. Postmodernism1950 to Present • Effect and Aspects • Erodes distinctions between classes of people • Insists that values are not permanent but only "local" or "historical" 35/41

  36. Postmodernism1950 to Present • Historical Context • Post-World War II prosperity • Media culture interprets values 36/41

  37. Postmodernism1950 to Present • Literary Examples • Mailer's The Naked and the Dead and The Executioner's Song • Feminist & Social Issue poets: Plath, Rich, Sexton, Levertov, Baraka, Cleaver, Morrison, Walker & Giovanni • Miller's The Death of a Salesman & The Crucible (some consider Modern) • Lawrence & Lee's Inherit the Wind • Capote's In Cold Blood • Stories & novels of Vonnegut • Salinger's Catcher in the Rye • Beat Poets: Kerouac, Burroughs, & Ginsberg • Kesey'sOne Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 37/41

  38. Contemporary1970s–Present(Continuation of Postmodernism) • Genre and Style • Narratives: both fiction and nonfiction • Anti-heroes • Concern with connections between people • Emotion-provoking • Humorous irony • Storytelling emphasized • Autobiographical essays 38/41

  39. Contemporary1970s–Present(Continuation of Postmodernism) • Effect and Aspects • Too soon to tell 39/41

  40. Contemporary1970s–Present(Continuation of Postmodernism) • Historical Context • People beginning a new century and a new millennium • Media culture interprets values • Third wave feminism: reversal of gender roles 40/41

  41. Contemporary1970s–Present(Continuation of Postmodernism) • Literary Examples • Poetry of Dove, Cisneros, Soto, Alexie • Writings of Angelou, Baldwin, Allende, Tan, Kingsolver, Kingston, Grisham, Crichton, Clancy • Walker's The Color Purple & Haley's Roots • Butler's Kindred • Guest's Ordinary People • Card's Ender's Game • O'Brien The Things They Carried • Frazier's Cold Mountain 41/41

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