history_of_american_literature.ppt

7/28/2019 History_of_American_Literature.ppt

1/108

AmericanLiterature


2/108

Table of Contents

Introduction Brief Outline of American Literature

Chapter I Colonial Period

Chapter II Revolutionary Period

Benjamin FranklinPhilip Freneau

Chapter III American Romanticism

Washington Irving

James Fenimore Cooper

William Cullen Bryant

Edgar Allan Poe

Nathaniel Hawthorne


3/108

Introduction

1. What is literature?

Writings that are valued as works of art, esp. fiction,

drama and poetry.

2. Forms (genres) of literature?

Poetry, novel (fiction), drama, prose, essay, epic, elegy,

short story, journalism, sermon, (auto) biography, travel

accounts, novelette, etc.


4/108

Puritanism in America

1. They follow the ideas of the Swiss reformer JohnCalvin.

2. Doctrines:- Predestination- Original sin and total depravity (human beings are basicallyevil.)- Limited atonement (or the Salvation of a selected few)

3. Puritan values (creeds):Hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety, simple tastes.Puritans are more practical, tougher, and to be ever ready forany misfortune and tragic failure.They are optimistic.


5/108


4. Why did Puritans come to America?

- to reform the Church of England

- to have an entirely new church- to escape religious persecution

* Gods chosen people

* To seek a new Garden of Eden* To build City of God on earth


6/108


5. Influence

- American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping

influences in American thought and American literature.

- American literature is based on a myth, i.e. the Biblical myth

of the Garden of Eden.

- Puritanism can be compared with Chinese Confucianism.


7/108

Brief Outline of American literature

1. Colonial period (1607-1775)Anne BradstreetEdward Taylor

2. Revolutionary period(1775-1783)Benjamin FranklinPhilip Freneau

3. Democratic Period (1783-1802)

4. Romanticism (1820-1861)Washington IrvingEdgar Allan Poe

Nathaniel HowthorneWilliam Whitman* Transcendentalism* (New England Renaissance)Ralph Waldo EmersonFillip Thoreau

5. Realism (1861-1914)Mark TwainHenry James

Naturalism:Stephen Crane

Theodore Dreiser

6. The 1920sT.S. Eliot

William Faulkner

Ernest Hemingway(Lost Generation)

Imagism:

Ezra Pound


8/108

Brief Outline of American literature

7. The 1930sSteinbeckHarlem Renaissance

(Black American literature)

Hughes

Wright

Ellison

8. American DramaEugene ONeill

9. The Post-war SceneSaul BellowSalinger

Poetry:

Confessional Poetry

Black Mountain Poets

San Francisco Renaissance

The Beat Generation

The New York Poets


9/108

Colonial Period (1607-1775)

Chapter One


10/108

Three major poets in colonial period:

1. Anne Bradstreet

2. Michael Wigglesworth

3. Edward Taylor


11/108

1. Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

the first noted poetess in colonial period

1. Anne Bradstreets WorksSome verses on the Burning of Our HouseThe Spirit and the Flesh

The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America

2. Anne Bradstreets Life* She was born and educated in England.* At the age of 18, she came to America in 1630 with her father and husband.

* She had 8 children.

* She became known as the Tenth Muse who appeared in America.

the first collectionpublished byEnglish colonistsliving in America


12/108

2. Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1705)

the most popular poet in American ColonialPeriod

Work: The Day of Doom (1662)

3. Edward Taylor (1642?-1729)

the finest poet in colonial period

Work:Preparatory Meditation


13/108

Features of Colonial Poets

1. They were servants of God.

2. They faithfully imitated andtransplanted English literary

traditions.In English

style

Puritanpoets


14/108

Chapter TwoRevolutionary Period (1775-1783)

The Age of Reason

American Enlightenment


15/108

In the 18th century, people believed in mans

own nature and the power of human reason.

With Franklin as its spokesman, the 18th centuryAmerica experienced an age of reason.

Words had never been so useful and so

important in human history. People wrote a lot of

political writings. Numerous pamphlets and

printings were published. These works agitated

revolutionary people not only in America but also

around the world.


16/108

The 18th-century American Enlightenment was a

movement marked by an emphasis on rationalityrather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead ofunquestioning religious dogma, andrepresentative government in place of monarchy.

Enlightenment thinkers and writers were devotedto the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as thenatural rights of man.

The colonists who would form a new nation were

firm believers in the power of reason; they wereambitious, inquisitive, optimistic, practical,politically astute, and self-reliant.


17/108

Leading writers and their works

Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826):

The Declaration of Independence (1776)

Thomas Paine(1737-1809):

Common Sense (1776)

Benjamin Franklin:

Autobiography

Philip Freneau:

The Wild Honey Suckle


18/108

1. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)


19/108

2. Life

Benjamin Franklin came from a Calvinist background.

He was born into a poor candle-makers family. He had very littleeducation. He learned in school only for two years, but he was a

voracious reader.

At 12, he was apprenticed to his elder half-brother, a printer.

At 16, he began to publish essays under the pseudonym Silence

Do good .At 17, he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune.

He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher. In

1727 he founded the Junto club.

1. Works

The Autobiography

Poor Richards Almanack


20/108

Franklins Contributions to Science

He was also remembered for volunteer fire departments, effective street

lighting, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and efficient heating devices.And for his lightning-rod, he was called the new Prometheus who had

stolen fire from heaven.

Franklins Contributions to the U.S.He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the

United States:The Declaration of Independence,

The Treaty of Alliance with France,

The Treaty of Peace with England,

The Constitution

Franklins Contributions to Society

He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital.

He founded an academy which led to the University ofPennsylvania.

And he helped found the American Philosophical Society.


21/108

TheAutobiographyis a record of self-examination and

self-improvement.

Benjamin Franklin was a spokesman for the new order of

the 18th century enlightenment

TheAutobiographyis a how-to-do-it book, a book on theart of self-improvement. (for example, Franklins 13

virtues)

Through telling a success story of self-reliance, the book

celebrates, in fact, the fulfillment of the American dream.

The Autobiographyis in the pattern of Puritan simplicity,

directness, and concision.

3. Evaluation


22/108

2. Philip Freneau (1752-1832)

Poet of the American

Revolution

Father of American Poetry Pioneer of the New

Romanticism

A gifted and versatile lyric

poet


23/108

1. Works

The Rising Glory of America (1772)

The House of Night (1779, 1786)

The British Prison Ship (1781)

To the Memory of the Brave Americans (1781)

The Wild Honey Suckle (1786)

The Indian Burying Ground (1788)

The Dying Indian: Tomo Chequi


24/108

The wild honeysuckle

2. Life

He was born in New York.

At 16, he entered the College of New Jersey

(now Princeton University).

While still an undergraduate, he wrote in

collaboration with one of his friends (H. H.

Brackenridge) a poem entitled The Rising

Glory of America.

( It pronounced the virtues of a new nation progressing towards its freedom;America would be a land blessed with sweet liberty!/Without whose aid the nobles

genius fails,/And science irretrievable must die)

In 1771 he decided do a postgraduate study in theology. But two years later he gave it

up.

Later he attended the War of Independence, and he was captured by British army in

1780.

After being released, he published The British Prison Ship in 1781.

In the same year, he published To the Memory of the Brave Americans.

After war, he supported Jefferson, and contributed greatly to American government.

But after 50 years old, he lived in poverty. And at last he died in a blizzard.


25/108

3. Evaluation He was the most significant poet of 18th century America.

Some of his themes and images anticipated the works of such 19th century

American Romantic writers as Cooper, Emerson, Poe and Melville.

4. Aspects of Freneau Poet of American Independence: Freneau provides incentive and inspiration to the

revolution by writing such poems as "The Rising Glory of America" and "Pictures of

Columbus."

Journalist: Freneau was editor and contributor of The Freeman's Journal (Philadelphia)

from 1781-1784. In his writings, he advocated the essence of what is known asJeffersonian democracy - decentralization of government, equality for the masses, etc.

Freneau's Religion: Freneau is described as a deist - a believer in nature and humanity but

not a pantheist. In deism, religion becomes an attitude of intellectual belief, not a matter of

emotional of spiritual ecstasy. Freneau shows interest and sympathy for the humble and the

oppressed.

Freneau as Father of American Poetry: His major themes are death, nature, transition, and

the human in nature. All of these themes become important in 19th century writing. Hisfamous poems are "The Wild Honey-Suckle" (1786), "The Indian Burying Ground" (1787),

"The Dying Indian: Tomo Chequi" (1784), "The Millennium" (1797), "On a Honey Bee"

(1809), "To a Caty-Did" (1815), "On the Universality and Other Attributes of the God of

Nature," "On the Uniformity and Perfection of Nature," and "On the Religion of Nature"

(the last three written in 1815).


26/108

Poem Appreciation

The Wild Honeysuckle

The following poem was published in his Poems(1786) and was virtually unread in the time when hewas living.

In the poem the poet expresses his keen awarenessof the liveliness and transience of nature celebratingthe beauty of the frail forest flower, thus showing hisdeep love for nature.

The poem was written in six-line iambic tetrameterstanzas rhymed on ababccpattern.

The poem is said to anticipate the nineteenth-centuryromantic use of simple nature imagery.

It is considered one of the authors finest naturepoems.
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Elements%20of%20Poetry.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Elements%20of%20Poetry.doc


27/108

Fairflower, that dost so comely grow,

Hid in this silent, dull retreat,

Untouchd thy honeyd blossoms blow,Unseen thy little branches greet:

No roving foot shall crush thee here,

No busy hand provoke a tear.

By Natures selfin white arrayd,

She bade thee shun the vulgar eye,

And planted here the guardian shade,And sent soft waters murmuring by;

Thus quietly thy summer goes,

Thy days declining to repose.
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.doc


28/108

Smit with those charms, that must decay,

I grieve to see your future doom,

They died----nor were those flowers more gay,The flowers that did in Eden bloom;

Unpitying frosts, and Autumns power

Shall leave no vestige of this flower.

From morning suns and evening dews

At first thy little being came:

If nothing once, you nothing lose,

For when you die you are the same;

The space between, is but an hour,

The frail duration of a flower.
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Wild%20Honeysuckle.doc


29/108

The Indian Burying Ground

The poem was published in the poets Miscellaneous

Works in 1788.

Like The Wild Honey Suckle, it anticipated romantic

primitivism and the celebration of the noble savage.

The poem portrays sympathetically the spirit of the

nomadic Indian hunters, who were traditionally buried in a

sitting position and with images of the objects they knew

in life.

It is believed to be the earliest to romanticize the Indianas a child of nature.

The poem was written in ten iambic tetrameter quatrains

with the rhyme scheme ofabab.


30/108

In spite of all the learned have said;

I still my old opinion keep,

The posture, that we give the dead,Points out the souls eternal sleep.

Not so the ancients of these lands

The Indian, when from life released,Again is seated with his friends,

And shares again the joyous feast.

His imaged birds, and painted bowl,

And venison, for a journey dressed.

Bespeak the nature of the soul,

Activity, that knows no rest.
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.doc


31/108

His bow, for action ready bent,

And arrows, with a head of stone,

Can only mean that life is spent,And not the old ideas gone.

Thou, stranger, that shalt come this way.

No fraud upon the dead commitObserve the swelling turf, and say

They do not lie, but here they sit.

Here still a lofty rock remains,On which the curious eye may trace,

(Now wasted, half, by wearing rains)

The fancies ofa ruder race.
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.doc


32/108

Here still an aged elm aspires,

Beneath whose farprojecting shade

(And which the shepherd still admires)

The children of the forest played!

There oft a restless Indian queen

(Pale Shebah, with herbraided hair)

And many a barbarous form is seenTo chide the man that lingers there.

By midnight moons, oer moistening dews,

In habit for the chase arrayed,The hunter still the deer pursues,

The hunter and the deer, a shade!
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.doc


33/108

And long shall timorous fancy see

The painted chief, and pointed spear,

And Reasons self shall bow the kneeTo shadows and delusions here.
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Notes%20for%20the%20Indian%20Burying%20Ground.doc


34/108

Chapter Three

American Romanticism(1820-1860)


35/108

General Introduction Romanticism

The term ,Romanticism, isassociated with imagination and

boundlessness, as contrastedwith classicism, which iscommonly associated with reason

and restriction. The mostprofound and comprehensiveidea of romanticism is the visionof a greater personal freedom for

the individual.


36/108

Its origins may be traced to :

the economic rise of the middleclass, struggling to free itself fromfeudal and monarchical restrictions;

the individualism of the Renaissance; the Reformation, which was based

on the belief in an immediate

relationship between man and God; the scientific deism, which

emphasized the deitys benevolence;


37/108

the psychology of Locke, Hartley,and others, who contended that

minds are formed byenvironmental conditions, thusseeming to be indicate that allmen are created equal and may be

improved by environmentalchanges;

the optimistic humanitarianism of

Shaftsbury; the writings of Rousseau who

contended that man is naturalgood, institutions also having

made him wicked.


38/108

Romantic Attitudes

1. Appeals to imagination; useof the "willing suspension of

disbelief."2. Stress on emotion rather

than reason; optimism,

geniality.3. Subjectivity: in form and

meaning.


39/108

1. Time Range

From the end of the 18thcentury through the outbreak

of the Civil War.


40/108

2. Ideals:

Ideals: Democracy and

political equality becamethe ideals of the newnation.


41/108

3. Social Background

Economic boom:

Industrialism

Immigration

Westward expansion

optimism andhope amongpeople


42/108

4. Features American Romanticism was both

imitative and independent.

Imitative

Independent

English and EuropeanRomanticists

Emerson and Whitman


43/108

5. Themes:

Imitative

Independent

home, family,nature, childrenand idealized love,

etc.

major problems ofAmerican life, like thewestward expansion anddemocracy and equality, etc.


44/108

1. Washington Irving

(1783--1859)Father of American Imaginativeliterature

Father of the American shortstory


45/108

1) Works

a) A History of New Yorkfrom theBeginning of the World to the

End of the Dutch Dynasty byDiedrich Knickerbocker


46/108

b)The Sketch Bookof

Geoffrey Crayon, Gent

Rip Van Winkle

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Washington%20Irving.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Washington%20Irving.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Washington%20Irving.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/Washington%20Irving.doc


47/108

c) Bracebridge Hall 1822

d) Oliver Goldsmith 1840e) Life of George Washington1855-1859


48/108

2LifeIrving was born into a wealthyNew York merchant family. Froma very early age, he began to

read widely and write juvenilepoems, essays and plays.

Later, he studied law.


49/108

His first book A History of NewYork, written under the name ofDiedrich Knickerbocker, was agreat success and won him widepopularity.

In 1815, he went to England to

take care of his family businessthere, and when it failed, had towrite to support himself.


50/108

With the publication of The SketchBook, he won a measure of internationalrecognition.

Knickerbocker Rip Van Winkle


51/108

In 1826, as an Americandiplomatic attach, he wassent to Spain, where he

gathered material for hiswriting.From 1829 to 1832, he was

secretary of the U.SLegation in London.


52/108

Then when he was fifty, he returnedto America and bought Sunnyside,

his famous home. There he spentthe rest of his life, living a life ofleisure and comfort, except for a

period of four years (1842--1846),when he was Minister to Spain.

View of Sunnyside


53/108

3Evaluation

Washington Irving was the firstAmerican writer of imaginativeliterature to gain international

fame.The short story as a genre inAmerican literature began withIrvings The Sketch Book.

The Sketch Bookalso marked the

beginning of American Romanticism.

2 James Fenimore Cooper


54/108

2. James Fenimore Cooper

(1789-1851)

novelist

1) Works


55/108

1) Works.

Leatherstocking Tales

The Pioneers 1823 4

The Last of the Mohicans 1826 .2

The Prairie 1827 5

The Pathfinder 1840 3

The Deerslayer 1841 ........1
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/From%20The%20Last%20of%20the%20Mohicans.dochttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2/From%20The%20Last%20of%20the%20Mohicans.doc


56/108

Precaution 1820

The Spy 1821

The Pilot 1823

2) Life


57/108

2) Life

Born into a rich land-holding family of

New Jersey, Cooper was one of the newAmerican authors who did not have to

worry about money.

He was sent to Yale at 14, but wasexpelled in his junior year because of

improper behavior.


58/108

He went and spent five years at sea;then, while still in his early twenties,

he inherited his fathers vast fortune

and settled down to a life of comfortand even luxury.

His second book,The Spy, a novelabout the American Revolution,

proved to be an immense success.


59/108

He was a prolific

writer, wrotemore than thirty

novels.


60/108

Fiction

Precaution,1820;

The Spy,1821; The Pioneers, 1823;

The Pilot, 1824;

Lionel Lincoln,1824;

The Last of the Mohicans, 1826;

The Red Rover,1827;

The Prairie, 1827;

The Red Rover,1827; The Red Rover, 1828;

The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish,1829;

The WaterWitch,1830


61/108

The Bravo,1831;The Heidenmauer,1832;

The Headsman,1833;The Monikins,1835; Homeward Bound,1838;

Home as Found,1838; Mercedes of Castile,1840;The Pathfinder, 1840;The Deerslayer, 1841;The Two Admirals,1842;The Wing-and-Wing,1842; Le Mouchoir; an Autobiographical

Romance,1843;


62/108

Ned Myers, 1843; Wyandotte, 1843;

Afloat and Ashore,1844; Miles Wallingford: A Sequel to Afloat

and Ashore,1844;

Satanstoe,1845;The Chain Bearer,1845;The Redskins,1846;The Crater,1847;J ack Tier,1848; Oak Openings, 1849;The Sea Lions,1849;

The Ways of the Hour,1850.


63/108

Non-Fiction :

Notions of the Americans:Picked Up by a TravellingBachelor, 1828;

Sketches of Switzerland,1836;

Gleanings in Europe,1837;

The American Democrat,1838;The History of the Navy of the

United States of America,1839.


64/108

Title Publication Date Natty Bumppo's Age Set in Year

The Pioneers 1823 70 1793Natty Bumppo first appears as a seasoned scout in advancing years, with the dying

Chingachgook, the old Indian chief and his faithful comrade, as the eastern forestfrontier begins to disappear and Chingachgook dies.

The Last of

the Mohicans 1826 40 1757 An adventure of the French and Indian Wars in the Lake George county.

The Prairie 1827 90 1804 Set in the new frontier where the Leatherstocking dies.

The Pathfinder 1840 40 1757

Continuing the same border warfare in the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontariocountry.

The Deerslayer 1841 23 1740-45

Early adventures with the hostile Hurons on Lake Otsego, NY.


65/108

Contributions of Cooper

The creation of the famous Leatherstocking

saga has cemented his position as our first

great national novelist and his influence

pervades American literature. In his thirty-two years (1820-1851) of authorship,

Cooper produced twenty-nine other long

works of fiction and fifteen books - enoughto fill forty-eight volumes in the new

definitive edition of his Works. Among his

achievements:

Cooper Creates many first in the field of


66/108

Cooper Creates many first in the field of

American novels

1. The first successful American historical romance inthe vein of Sir Walter Scott (The Spy, 1821).

2. The first sea novel (The Pilot, 1824).

3. The first attempt at a fully researched historical

novel (Lionel Lincoln, 1825). 4. The first full-scale History of the Navy of the United

States of America (1839).

5. The first American international novel of manners

(Homeward Boundand Home as Found, 1838). 6. The first trilogy in American fiction (Satanstoe, 1845;

The Chainbearer, 1845; and The Redskins, 1846).

7. The first and only five-volume epic romance to carry

its mythic hero - Natty Bumppo - from youth to old age.


67/108

3Evaluation Leatherstocking Tales is a

series of five novels about the

frontier of American settlers.

The Pioneers was probablythe first true romance of the

frontier in American literature.


68/108

Natty Bumppo represents the

ideal American, living a

virtuous and free life in Godsworld. To him and to Cooper,

the wildness is good, pure,

perfect, where there is

freedom not tainted andfettered by any forms of

human institutions.


69/108

Natty Bumppo is a

veritable embodiment ofhuman virtues like

innocence, simplicity,

honesty and generosity,

a man born with animmaculate sense of

good and evil and right

and wrong.


70/108

Cooper is a mythic writer. His preface to

the Leatherstocking series indicates thathe wrote with increasing consciousness

to create a mythic figure. Cooper is good

at inventing plots. His plots are

sometimes quite incredible. Cooper has been known as a powerful yet

clumsy writer. His style is dreadful, his

characterization wooden and lacking in

probability, and his language, his use of

dialect, is not authentic.


71/108

Anyhow, Cooper did help tointroduce the western

tradition into American

literature.

3 William Cullen Bryant


72/108

3. William Cullen Bryant(1794-1878)

the firstAmerican lyric

poet ofdistinction

1) Works


73/108

1) Works

a) Poems 1821

b) The Fountain 1842


74/108

c) The White-Footed Deer 1844

d) A Forest Hymn 1860

e) The Flood of Years 1878


75/108

f) To a Waterfowl 1815

g) Thanatopsis 1817

h) The Yellow Violet 1814

2 Life


76/108

2Life Bryant was a poet,

and editor.

He was born into a

doctors family inMassachusetts.

He started to write

poems when he was14 years old.


77/108

Bryant quitted his study inuniversity and then became alawyer.

In 1825, he turned to

journalism. In 1827, he becamean editor for Evening Post andwrote a lot of political

criticism. But it is his poetrywhich made him popular amongpeople.


78/108

v

He was influenced by Graveyard Schoolin England and wrote Thanatopsis.

His best works are his lyric poemsabout nature and so his style is quite

similar to that of Wordsworth.

4. Edgar Allan Poe


79/108

4. Edgar Allan Poe(1809-1849)

father ofmodern short story

father ofdetective story

father ofpsychoanalytic

criticism

1) W k


80/108

1) Works

a) Tales of the Grotesque and theArabesque

b) MS. Found in a Bottle

C) The Murders in the Rue Morgue


81/108

d) The Fall of the House of Ushere) The Masque of the Red Death

f) The Cask of Amontillado


82/108

g) The Ravenh) Israfel

i) Annabel Lee

j) To Helen


83/108

k) The PoeticPrinciplel) The Philosophy of Composition

2) Life


84/108

) f

Famous American Poet, short-storywriter and critic.

3) Ev lu ti n


85/108

3) Evaluation

Poe remained the most controversial andmost misunderstood literary figure in thehistory of American literature.


86/108

Emerson dismissed him in three words thejingle manMark Twain declared his

prose to be unreadable. And Whitman wasthe only famous literary figure present atthe Poe Memorial Ceremony in 1875.


87/108

Ironically, it was in Europe that Poe enjoyedrespect and welcome.

Bernard Shaw said: Poe was the greatest

journalistic critic of his time; his poetry isexquisitely refined; and his tales arecomplete works of art.


88/108

Poes reputation was first made in France.Charles Baudelaire said that Edgar Poe, whoisnt much in America, must become a greatman in France.


89/108

Today, Poes particular powerhas ensured his position among

the greatest writers of theworld. The majority of criticstoday, in America as well as inthe world, have recognized the

real, unique importance of Poeas a great writer of fiction, apoet of the first rank, and acritic of acumen and insight.His works are read the worldover. His influence in world-wide in modern literature.

Nathaniel Hawthorne


90/108

Nathaniel Hawthorne

(1804-1864)

W k

Collections


91/108

Works

a) Twice-Told Tales 1837

b) Mosses from an Old Manse 1843

c) The Scarlet Letter 1850

of shortstories


92/108

d) The House of the Seven Gables

1851

e) The Blithedale Romance 1852

d) The Marble Faun 1860


93/108

g)

Young Goodman Brown

h) The Ministers Black Veil

g) Dr. Rappacinis Daughter

Life


94/108

Life

Hawthorne was born in SalemMassachusetts.

Some of his ancestors were men of

prominence in the Puritan theocracy ofseventeenth-century New England. One ofthem was a colonial magistrate, notoriousfor his part in the persecution of the

Quakers, and another was a judge at theSalem Witchcraft Trial in 1692.


95/108

When Nathaniel was four, his father died on a

voyage in Surinam, Dutch Guinea, but maternalrelatives recognized his literary talent and financed

his education at Bowdoin College.

Among his classmates were many of the important

literary and political figures of the day: writerHoratio Bridge, future Senator Jonathan Ciley,

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and future President

Franklin Pierce. These prominent friends supplied

Hawthorne with government employment in the

lean times, allowing him time to bloom as an author.


96/108

Like James Fenimore Cooper, Hawthorne was

extremely concerned with conventionality; his

first pseudonymously published short stories

imitated Sir Walter Scott, as did his 1828 self-

published Fanshawe.

Hawthorne later formally withdrew most of thisearly work, discounting it as the work of

inexperienced youth. From 1836 to 1844 the

Boston-centered Transcendentalist movement,

led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, was an importantforce in New England intellectual circles.

The Transcendentalists believed that human


97/108

existence transcended the sensory realm, andrejected formalism in favor of individual

responsibility. Hawthorne's fiance SophiaPeabody drew him into "the newness," and in1841 Hawthorne invested $1500 in the BrookFarm Utopian Community, leaving disillusioned

within a year. His later works show some Transcendentalist

influence, including a belief in individual choiceand consequence, and an emphasis on symbolism.

As America's first true psychological novel,TheScarlet Letter would convey these ideals;contrasting puritan morality with passion andindividualism.


98/108

The Scarlet Letter represents the height ofHawthorne's literary genius; dense with

terse descriptions. It remains relevant for

its philosophical and psychological depth,and continues to be read as a classic tale on

a universal theme.


99/108

Reasons for Hawthorne's Current Popularity

One of the most modern of writers, Hawthorne is

relevant in theme and attitude. According to H. H.

Waggoner, Hawthorne's attitudes use irony,

ambiguity, and paradox. Hawthorne rounds off the puritan cycle in

American writing - belief in the existence of an

active evil (the devil) and in a sense of

determinism (the concept of predestination).


100/108

Hawthorne's use of psychological analysis(pre-Freudian) is of interest today.

In themes and style, Hawthorne's writings

look ahead to Henry James, William

Faulkner, and Robert Penn Warren

f


101/108

Influences on Hawthorne

Salem - early childhood, later work at the

Custom House.

Puritan family background - one of his

forefathers was Judge Hathorne, who

presided over the Salem witchcraft trials,

1692.

Belief in the existence of the devil.

Belief in determinism.

M j Th i H h ' Fi i


102/108

Major Themes in Hawthorne's Fiction

Alienation - a character is in a state ofisolation because of self-cause, or societal

cause, or a combination of both.

Initiation - involves the attempts of analienated character to get rid of his isolated

condition.

Problem of Guilt -a character's sense of

guilt forced by the puritanical heritage or

by society; also guilt vs. innocence.

Pride - Hawthorne treats pride as evil. He


103/108

p

illustrates the following aspects of pride in

various characters: physical pride (Robin),spiritual pride (Goodman Brown, Ethan

Brand), and intellectual pride (Rappaccini).

Puritan New England - used as abackground and setting in many tales.

Italian background - especially inThe

Marble Faun.

Allegory - Hawthorne's writing is

allegorical, didactic and moralistic.

Other themes include individual vs. society,


104/108

self-fulfillment vs. accommodation or

frustration, hypocrisy vs. integrity, love vs.hate, exploitation vs. hurting, and fate vs.

free will.

i A i


105/108

Hawthorne as a Literary Artist

First professional writer - college educated,familiar with the great European writers,and influenced by puritan writers like

Cotton Mather. Hawthorne displayed a love for allegory

and symbol. He dealt with tensionsinvolving: light versus dark; warmth versus

cold; faith versus doubt; heart versus mind;internal versus external worlds.

His writing is representative of 19th


106/108

His writing is representative of 19th

century, and, thus, in the mainstream due

to his use of nature, its primitiveness, andas a source of inspiration; also in his use of

the exotic, the gothic, and the antiquarian.

F t f hi k


107/108

Features of his works

setting

themes

Idea

Feature

technique

Puritan New England

Evil & sin

black vision toward human beings

Ambiguity

symbolism

The Scarlet Letter


108/108

The Scarlet Letter

Hester

Chillingworth

Dimmesdale

Pearl

Sin

evil

Adultery

AbilityAngel

history_of_american_literature.ppt

Documents