Survey of American Literature

Review—From The New Land to

American Moderns

• The Earliest Americans– Oral Traditions

Viewed by many as folklore

Native American Literature

• A small group of Europeans who were religious reformers critical of the Church of England, sailed from England in 1620

• Preoccupation with sin and salvation• Their writings were primarily theological

studies, hymns, histories, biographies, and autobiographies with the purpose of each writing to provide spiritual insight and instruction.

The Pilgrims and Puritans

• Anne Bradstreet– Upon the Burning of Our House

– To My Dear and Loving Husband

• William Bradford– from Of Plymouth Plantation

• Jonathan Edwards– from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

• Mary Rowlandson– Captivity Narrative

Puritan Literature

• The Southern colonies differed from New England in climate, crops, social organization, and religion.

• Literature effected by their busy social lives

The Southern Planters

• Much of the literature of this time period was not produced in the colonies, rather it came from England

• By 1750, however, the clear beginnings of a native literature began to appear; one that would one day be honored throughout the English-speaking world.

• During this period, the mind of the nation was on politics.

• After 1763, ideas focused on relations with Great Britain and, more broadly, on the nature of government.

• Most important writing from the Revolutionary era focused on political writing.

The Colonial Period—Age of Reason1750-1800

• By the early 1800s, Americans had generated a small body of work, but no novels or plays existed, nor had the short story been invented.

Benjamin Franklin Patrick Henry

◦ Speech in the Virginia Convention Thomas Paine

◦ from The Crisis Phillis Wheatley

◦ To his Excellency, General Washington• Edward Taylor• Phillip Freneau

Thomas Jefferson◦ The Declaration of Independence

Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur◦ From Letters from an American Farmer

Sarah Kemble Knight◦ A Journey from Boston to New York

Writers of the Colonial Period

• The Puritans were religious fundamentalists who sought salvation.

• The founders of the republic were political realists who pursued reason.

• But the early 19th century writers were considered Romantics.– Humanitarian reform is a mark of Romanticism—

from abolition of slavery to improvements in education

From Reason to Romance

• The early 19th century writer were considered Romantics.

• Humanitarian reform is a mark of Romanticism—from abolition of slavery to improvements in education

Romanticism

• Realists believed that reason is the dominating characteristic both of nature and of human nature.

• They believed both nature and human nature are governed and fixed with unchanging laws.

Realists vs. Romantics

• A number of changing attitudes related to a sense of nationalism

• The romantics’ emphasis on the individual reflects the political ideal set forth in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal”

• Leads to an emphasis on the dignity and worth of the common individual and to social reforms that were meant to fulfill this ideal of equality

History of Romanticism

• Romantic writers favor the imagination over reason, intuition over facts. Intense interest in and reverence for nature.

• An accent on mystery—on the strange and fantastic aspects of human experience

• Often sought inspiration and understanding through the observation and contemplation of nature.

Romanticism

• Valued feeling and intuition over reason

• Placed central importance upon the emotions and upon the individual

• Reason was thought of as important, but it was not the surest guide to truth

• Romantic writers emphasized intuition, that inner perception of truth which is independent of reason

Romantic Views

William Cullen Bryant◦ Thanatopsis

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow◦ The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls

Oliver Wendel Holmes◦ The Last Leaf◦ Contentment

James Russell Lowell◦ The First Snow Fall

John Greenleaf Whittier◦ Telling the Bees

The Romantic Writers

• Edgar Allan Poe

• Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Herman Melville

The Dark Romantics

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Henry David Thoreau

• Emily Dickinson

• Walt Whitman

The Transcendentalists

The Rise of Realism1860-1914

Principles Of Realism • The commonplace• Characters are complex and more important than plot• Attack upon romanticism and romantic writers. • Emphasis on the realization of morals and an

examination of idealism. • Use of realistic dialogue and dialect• Social class is important

Famous Realists

• Mark Twain

• Jack London

• Charles Chestnutt

• Willa Cather

• Hamlin Garland

THE MODERNS1900-1950

 

CHANGE

 

Americans emerged from the war as victors, but

something was beginning to change.

The country seemed to have lost its innocence.

THE MODERNIST MOVEMENT

 

WWI was a turning point in American lives

Americans were disillusioned with traditions that seemed to have become spiritually empty

Creators of literature, paintings, music, and the other arts began to call for bold experimentation.

The First Wave of the Great Migration (1916-1919) - part I "Around the time of WWI, many African-Americans from the South left home and

traveled to cities in the North in search of a better life." © Jacob Lawrence

Grant Wood, Return from Bohemia, 1935, crayon,

gouache, pencil on paper, 23 1/2 x 20

inches

Walt Kuhn, Angna Enters, 1924, oil on canvas, 33 x 22

inches

Stuart DavisEBB TIDE, PROVINCETOWN (MAN ON THE BEACH), 1913oil on canvas38 1/16 in. X 30 1/16 in

Yves Tanguy. (American, born France. 1900-1955). Extinction of Useless Lights. 1927. Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 25 3/4" (92.1 x 65.4 cm). Purchase.

Marsden Hartley, Adelard the "Drowned," Master of the "Phantom," c. 1938-39, oil on board, 28 x 22 inches, Weisman Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

The modernists began to reject traditional themes and styles.

Idealism was turning to cynicism

Some writers began to question the authority and tradition that had seemed to be standard in America.

Soldiers who had seen the world wanted a more modern lifestyle.

For the 1st time, many Americans enrolled in higher education.

Farm machinery evolved, yet farmers were still poor.

Prohibition prompted underground “speak-easies.”

American women felt more liberated.

Because of economic conditions, American dollars were worth more abroad: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound became expatriates.

The Great Depression brought suffering to millions of Americans—those hard working people that had put their faith in America to provide for them.

Many saw the depression as punishment for their sins of loose living.

FDR and the New Deal programs tried to renew prosperity, but not until the industrial build-up of WWII did an economic resurgence occur.

ELEMENTS OF MODERNISM IN AMERICAN LITERATURE

•Emphasis on bold experimentation in style and form—reflects the fragmentation of society

•Rejection of traditional themes and subjects.

•Sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in the American Dream. (Modernists rejected Emerson’s optimism.)

•Rejection of the ideal of a hero as infallible in favor of a hero who is flawed and disillusioned but shows “grace under pressure” (Hemingway)

• Interest in the inner workings of the human mind. (Sometimes expressed through a new narrative technique such as stream of consciousness—William Faulkner)

THE AMERICAN DREAM: Pursuit ofPromise 

  Three Central Ideas:

1) There is admiration for America as a new Eden

 A “promised land” ofbeauty, bounty, unlimitedresources and promises,and endless opportunities.

2) Americans have faith in progress, and we can optimistically expect life to keep getting better and better.

 The American birthright is one of ever-expanding opportunity.

•Progress is a good thing.

•A belief that we are movingtoward an era of prosperity, justice, and joy that alwaysseems just around the corner.

 

3) The independent, self-reliant individual will triumph. Americans have confidence in the ultimate triumph of the individual.

•Everything is possible for the person who places trust in his or her own powers and potential.

•Remember Emerson’s “Self-Reliance.”

A CRACK IN THE DREAM:

Breakdown of beliefs and traditions

   World War I

  Economic Crash

 Both damaged the tenets of the American Dream.

CONCLUSION

American modernist writers both echoed and challenged the American Dream. They took on a broader voice than before causing a second American Renaissance. Even with these challenges, they continue to ask the fundamental questions about life and the purpose of human existence.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), born in Oak Park, Illinois, started his career as a writer in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the age of seventeen. After the United States entered the First World War, he joined a volunteer ambulance unit in the Italian army. Serving at the front, he was wounded, was decorated by the Italian Government, and spent considerable time in hospitals. After his return to the United States, he became a reporter for Canadian and American newspapers and was soon sent back to Europe to cover such events as the Greek Revolution.

William Faulkner (1897-1962), who came from an old southern family, grew up in Oxford, Mississippi. He joined the Canadian, and later the British, Royal Air Force during the First World War, studied for a while at the University of Mississippi, and temporarily worked for a New York bookstore and a New Orleans newspaper. Except for some trips to Europe and Asia, and a few brief stays in Hollywood as a scriptwriter, he worked on his novels and short stories on a farm in Oxford.

                                                           

The Roaring TwentiesTHE JAZZ AGE— (named by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

Flappers

Flappers

Flappers

The Jazz Age

THE JAZZ AGE— (named by F. Scott Fitzgerald)

The Roaring Twenties

• 1919—the constitution prohibited the manufacture and sale of alcohol—singled out as a central social evil.

• Consequently, the amendment caused an age of bootleggers, speakeasies, cocktails, and short skirted flappers, new rhythms of Jazz, and the new profession of gangster.

• The Roaring Twenties made an impact on America’s history—the pursuit of pleasure.

• Some took this pursuit abroad. Many American writers went abroad and became expatriates—one who withdraws from his own land.

•Living was cheap in Paris, somehow better and more exotic, more grace and luxury, no need to go into a cellar to get drunk.

•This wave of expatriates was another signal that something had gone wrong in

the Eden of America.

Pre-Reading Questions forPre-Reading Questions for

TheTheGreatGreatGatsbyGatsby

How might people who are born into wealth compare or contrast to those who are “nouveau riche” or acquired their wealth over night?

Would you date or marry someone just for his her Would you date or marry someone just for his her money? What would be the advantages and money? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of doing this?disadvantages of doing this?

What defines a What defines a person’s “social person’s “social class” today? class” today? Would you date or Would you date or marry someone marry someone below your own below your own social class? What social class? What would be your would be your parents’ reactions? parents’ reactions? How would you or How would you or your parents be your parents be different if the different if the person was above person was above your social class?your social class?

What What dreams dreams and and hopes do hopes do you have you have for your for your future?future?

What goals do you have What goals do you have for your life in the next...for your life in the next...

5 years (21) ?5 years (21) ?10 years (26) ?10 years (26) ?30 years (46) ?30 years (46) ?Lifetime (+)?Lifetime (+)?

Can money really buy happiness?Can money really buy happiness?

Is the loveIs the loveof money of money really the really the root of all root of all evil? evil? (from The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to Timothy. 6:10: “The love of money is the root of all evil.”)

F. Scott Fitzgerald

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_g-0u1wfNc&feature=related

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/timeline/fitzgerald.html