1. Puritans – 1620s to 1720s
Protestants (English), Martin Luther has said that people are wicked and have cardinal sin; they can repair it only by doing good deeds. John Calvin believed in predestination and salvation, but only for elected by God – others will have to suffer in hell. They didn’t like literature, cause it diverted people form God; thinks that you have work hard to be happy (if one is successful there god is on one side); They didn’t believed in priesthood – only in individual path to God, reading Bible. P. weren’t tolerant – if someone was different – he/she was punished.
John Winthrop – sermon A model of Christian Charity (keep and work together, cooperate, believe that God is among them, ‘like a city upon a hill, and everybody’s eyes will be on them”)
Anne Bradstreet – poems To my dear and loving husband, Before the birth of one of her children; describes normal life of puritan woman.
Edward Taylor – poems & sermons – about human and God
Marry Rowlandson – ‘captivity narrative’ – after being kidnapped by Indians she wrote some kind of narrative diary.
2. Enlightenment 1720–1825
Science becomes very important, that it can answers all their questions. P. believe that: world behaves according to the patterns and rules; everyone could be educated, introduction of term Tabula Rasa; they can understand God; Good as a ‘watchmaker’. Catholic Church was attacked – Deism; Voltaire denied providence and evil.
Europe:
John Locke – forefather of American forefathers, idea of natural right & declaration of independence. ‘Life, Liberty, pursuit of property’, ‘People have a right to rebel against tyrannies’.
Alexander Pope – Essay on Man, Essay on Criticism
Jonathan Swift – Gulliver’s Travels – a satire on society
Jean-Jacques Rousseau – ‘The progress in the arts and science doesn’t correspond with progress in morality’. Introduces term of ‘Noble savage’. ‘Liberty, Equality & Fraternity’
Denis Diderot – move forward the ideas of Enlightenment
America:
Benjamin Franklin – statesman, scientist, writer. ’Poor Richard’s Almanac’ (type of calendar + bits and pieces of info about Richard’s adventures and common things). Some inventions: lightning rod, Franklin stove, street lamps etc. He did never take profit from his inventions. Founded Library of Philadelphia, Americas first volunteer department, started Philadelphia Academy, Pennsylvania Hospital, helped to write Declaration of Independence and Constitution. His Autobiography gave birth of America’s middle class. He wasn’t puritan, but believed in hard work, honesty, practical morality. Main goal – social and material success through good deeds, best way to worship God – to take care of yourself and others.
Jonathan Edwards – minister of Church and founder of ‘The Great Awakening’. Church believed that people are less pious than earlier and it was less God in it, so TGA was to awake them and bring back to God. In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God he presents God as a Punisher, and human as a spider. God takes the people between his fingers above the hellish pit and only in his mind is to let it fall or not. And people haven’t any control of it – its God arbitrary decision. People couldn’t understand God, they are to use intuition, feelings & emotions. If God allows – P. may have revelations.
3. American Romanticism 1800-1860
Journey as a declaration of independence, realization of freedom. American Short story was invented by Poe. Rationalistic changed into romantic view of life – from places of success and self-realization cities have become places of moral corruption, poverty and death (because of industrial revolution). Romantic journey is to the countryside, which is associated with independence, moral clarity & purity. Country is place of phantasm, is idyllic and is an escape. Romantic sensibility – valuing feeling over reason, life as we would like to be, imagination, beauty of unspoiled nature, youthful innocence, individual freedom, lessons of the past, poetry, myths legends and folk culture. Am. Rom. writers imitated the European writing style, but broke away form English tradition and discovered unique American topics, explored unknown lands – frontier between known an unknown. Natty Bumppo – new American hero – young, handsome, strong, tall, capable to living in the forest, intuitive, innocent, not well educated, one with nature, a loner, moral an honorable. Cooper – who writes about adventures of Bumppo, writes about Indians, but his point of view is false – romantic but not real. His Indians was too good, too moral, too honorable (he didn’t know Indians – only read about them) Types of novel: sentimental – about feeling, ex. Love stories; picaresque – about adventures of low class young character who is victim and trickster, he loves freedom and escapes from restrictions of conventional society – ex. Huckleberry Finn; gothic novel – about dark side of human nature, telling about superstitions, , delusions, anxiety, haunted places, lot of death and fear, ex. Poe’s s. stories.
Langston Irving – first who introduces American settings, uses a. landscape, own style of writing, first who entertains public in two sides of ocean, his books read for pleasure, he lives on his books. Rip Van Wrinkle – normal guy, goes to forest, drink with Indians, sleep 20 years and returns to his village, lives in his daughter house and as an old man, tell stories to children. Another type of A. hero – not so young, friendly, gentle, married, children & dogs likes him. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow – in short: Katarina has to choose either Ichabad Crane (North, European Style, tall, skinny, educated, teacher, not so handsome) or Brone Bones (local hero, prototype of American Hero). She chooses B.B. The Skeetch Book – compilation of I.’s essays which made him famous.
Nathaniel Howthorne – H. introduced sin and theory that people are doing sins, because they can’t find balance between good and evil, he explores dark side of humanity. In The Scarlet Letter uses symbols – rosebush in front of prison door – prison is s. of God’s rage, roses – love with a lot of pain. Plot: Hester Prynne – married woman (with Roger Chillinksworth), when her husband vanished at sea she goes pregnant with Arthur Dimmensdale – a local clerk, young, handsome man. Because she lives in Puritan society, there is no place to Adultery, so she is sent to prison and has to wear clothes with big letter ‘A’ as a sign of her sin. But she does a piece of art from normal letter ‘A’, and after time Adultery changes into Angel. She has never told anybody who is the father of the child. SIN: Hester- Adultery; Roger – willful revenge, pretending to be a friend, tormenting; Arthur – Adultery, not telling anybody what he has done.
Walt Whitman – first truly American poet, saw slavery and slave markets from inside, was laid off because of his opinion about slavery, in his poems uses repetitions, images, symbols, phrases, grammatical units, enumerations and catalogues. Themes: power of love; brotherhood and comradeship; imaginative projection into other lives; optimistic faith into democracy and equality; nature as a teacher; unabashed exaltation of the body and sexuality. When the lilacs last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and O captain, My Captain – about Abraham Lincoln’s death. I hear America singing – about America’s happiness, professions etc. part of American propaganda, vision of white America.
Emily Dickson – spent all her life in house where she had born, in Amherst; she was real outsider, she lived alone in world of her thoughts. She have never given any titles to her poems (about 1200-1400). Characteristic of poems: short, simple, deep, rhythmic – like singing, can’t be interpret completely, private. Themes: death – what it is, means, feels like, how deal wit it; Individualism; isolation; knowledge; success; truth (how to tell the truth not hurting anybody); love, friendship; nature; poetry; religion. She was quite rebellious – want to pray God in the way she like, not in the way imposed by “Church”.
Harriet Beecher Stone – Uncle Tom’s Cabin – story about Tom – tall, strong, black slave. Sad story which opened the eyes of the North to issue of slavery.
4. Transcendentalism 1836 – 1860
It advocated to go beyond the material world; T. want people leave their material goods; T believe in doctrine of compensation – there must be balance in the world – If sth bad happens, there must happen sth good; T were optimistic about human being and human developing. T wrote essays about – nature, religion, A. scholar system, self-reliance.
Ralph Waldo Emerson – father of Transcendentalism.
Henry David Thoreau – bought a land, built a house and lived there for about a year – he was studying nature and wrote Walden, or the life in the Woods. Next essay – Civil Disobedience – citizens have to disobey the Government if they feel that they should. Write also about only 2 good types of taxes – for education and roads.
5. Gothic Romanticism
People were much more literate, and had time for reading. While he need for reading magazines (periodicals) rose, there were printed short stories.
Edgar Allan Poe – journalist, inventor of short stories, detective stories, gothic horror stories. S.S. – fictional narrative, can be completely read in one sitting, 1-2 well-defined characters, simple plot, a single, unified, implosion on psychological effect. Plot structure – rising action/complications à CLIMAX àfalling action/resolution. For Poe death is not the end; death, sleep, hyper-consciousness are only different levels and states of consciousness. Poe was interested in: tremendous stress, anxiety and pressure and psychological effects of those feelings; types of narration (1st person perspective) to draw reader into psychology of narrator and character; the abnormal and insane mind. Tell-Tale Heart (blue, vulture like eye of old man, murder, heart beating being cause of catching by police), Cask of Amontillado (Festival, strange acquaintance, cask of vine, cellar, chains, brick laying). Invented the character of Mr. Dupin – detective who solves the crimes using his mind (The Murders in the Rue Morgue – Ape kills mother and daughter in their apartment, because it was frightened) The Fall of the House of Usher (old friend, death of his sister, scary stories, sounds in house, imagination, ghost of sister, the house cracking, falling apart). The Raven (death of lover, Raven, nevermore) . Poe uses a lot of allusions – to Bible, Greek mythology; a lot of symbols.
6. American Regionalism, Realism, Naturalism 1860-1920
Realism 1860-1890: faithful representation of reality in literature – verisimilitude; prose written in natural vernacular (common language) or dialects. It develops, because of: Civil War; urbanization and industrialization; immigration (Irish, German); as a reaction to Romanticism; The emerging Middle Class. Writers: Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Edgar Lee Masters.
Henry James – international theme – novel explores differences and similarities between American and European theme – ex – Daisy Miller (filthy rich woman from England lives in America, clash between in way of behave – American and expectation of European society. Daisy validates almost every rule – talk to strangers, become friends with porter, dances with one partner all night, goes for a walk with two men. Q: is she coquette or innocent girl?). Aesthetic ideas: to represent life in very common, ugly way, describes social function of art and avoid omniscient point of view. Style: language – highly refined, polished, large vocab. complicated construction. Point of view – psychological analysis, (he was a father of stream of consciousness), psychological realism.
Regionalism (local color fiction) 1865-1895: focuses on characters, dialects, customs, topography, and other features specific to a certain region. It developed because of: dual influence of romanticism and realism; The Civil war and the building of national identity; Writers: Kate Chopin (south); Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (New England); Mark Twain (west); Willa Cather (Midwest).
Mark Twain – firstly – affirmative writer, but later – almost determinist; social critic, loved life, justice, freedom’ hated tyranny and iniquity, despised manners and cruelty. Uses vernacular (colloquial) language of different classes and ethnic groups; puts a lot of humor into his novels; Wrote abroad, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (“all modern American literature starts at Huckleberry Finn.”)
Twain: describes lover-class Americans, James – high-class, Howell – middle-white-class.
Twain: localism and colloquial style; James: imaginative treatment of reality or psychological realism; Howell: genteel realism
Naturalism 1880-1920: scientific principles of objectivity and detachment to the study of human beings. Influenced by Darwinism (natural selection) and psychology (Freud). The Origin of Species – the fittest can only survive; Heredity (genes) decides whether sb will be a loser or the fittest. Men are governed by heredity (if your genes are weak – you will be a loser, you can’t change it) & environment. Developed because of: the swell of immigrants in the latter half of the 19th century which increases poverty and led to larger lower class; pessimism in the wake of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Writers: Stephen Crane, Ambrose Bierce, Jack London, Katherine Ann Porter.
Stephen Crane - Maggie – the girl from streets (about girl who decide to be a prostitute) – for first time main character is a prostitute; girl want to change but she fails. The Red Badge of Courage (war novel about boy, who thinks that war is fun and becomes a soldier. When he was thrown into the battle – he runs away and, thanks to that, stayed alive; he realizes that war is nothing to be proud of; next battle – victorious, he is brave like lion; he realizes that war isn’t good thing, that killing people is cruel and foolish. Book ends optimistic).
Muckrakers – group of journalists and writers, who realizes the impact of the immigration; They know all the truth about immigrant’s ghettos , and living conditions – diseases, alcoholism, prostitution, poverty. They were writing about these conditions to attract America’s attention to this issue.
Upton Sinclair - writes Jungle (Trzęsawisko) – about Ukrainian Family which sold everything they have and travels to America. They were cheated by someone, sign a contract they didn’t understand (they don’t know English) and loose all the money. After that, they live in tenant house; father finds work – in meat packing facility. During job he looses his arm and be kicked out. He start drinking, women (mother and daughters) start to earn money being a prostitutes. After publication of this book, the sanitary laws had to be changed.
7. Literature in the 1930s
American proletariat art – developed during The Great Depression; individualism of creation in service to the social goals of a collectivist ideology; cooperation, socialism, solitary among workers; interaction of gender and race;
Michael Gold – Jews without money – the true side of immigration of Jews; very dark portrait of Jew immigrants; cheats and poverty;
The Masses – most influential magazine about immigrants distributed between workers.
Theodore Dresser – Sister Carrie (poor girl come to Chicago to her sister. First she works, later she meets Charles Drouet who is attracted to her. She became depend financially on him – lives in high standard, goes to restaurants and theatre. Some time later she reveals that she has singing and scenic talent, meets George Hurstwood and escapes to NY, where she becomes a theatre starlet.) Interesting in S.C. is how she climb on the social ladder and that she don’t beg for it – it just happen – she takes opportunities.
John Steinbeck – The Grapes of Wrath (family of farmers, because of loans [three years of drought] goes to California with thousands other people. Wages in C are very low, so they work from dusk till down, often don’t eating anything. Family starts to falling apart, but the mother is trying to don’t let it happened. She fails.) Of mice and man – about itinerant workers, two friends, homeless who travel from home to home, from farm to farm and asking for job.
8. Modernism 1914-1945
Refers to experimental style, also called avant-garde or unconventional; losses of optimism in human, great invents (Einstein’s theory of relativity, Freud’s psychoanalytic method, new war technologies – tanks, poison gases; right to vote for women; radio; Miss America; Fast-food & first drive-in; Hollywood; TV). During Modernism world was world of war – Russian Revolution, WWI, WWII (+holocaust). Art developed in all its branches: poetry (Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats, TS Eliot [The Waste Land]), Fiction (Franz Kafka [The Trial], James Joyce [Invents the stream of consciousness]; science fiction and dystopias(F.G Wells [The War of the Worlds], Aldous Huxley [Brave New World], Gorge Orwell [1984]); Theater – Konstantin Stanislavsky (actor’s personification to the role); Painting – Cubism (Pablo Picasso, Georges Baque), Futurism (Tommaso Marinetti), Fauves (nature and culture), Nonobjective Art, Dadaism, surrealism (Salvador Dali); Film – Sergei Eisenstein – Battleship Potemkin (montage); Architecture (Frank Lloyd Wright, Bauhaus); Music – Stravinsky’s dissonance; Dance – Martha Graham (free dance). Imagist thoughts that a poem is to be a visual image of an artist’s imagination. Language of common speech is used. Not many decorative words, instead exact words. Free verse, absolute freedom in the choice of subject. Interested in the essence of poetry. Modernism poetry is sensible, sensitive, private and not predictable. Motive of alienation.
Francis Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby (1920s, setting – East Egg, West Egg, NYC; Jay Gatsby – was nobody but with hard work he becomes one of the richest person in NYC; Daisy is rich, but her money is inheritated; Jay’s from West – frontier, opportunity, chance; Daisy’s from East – “The Old World”; prohibition + bootlegging – illegal selling of alcohol)
Ernest Hemingway - member of the ‘Lost Generation’, moved to Paris (lack of money), fascinated in Spanish, very simple way of narrating and writing. Writes For Whom The Bell Tolls, The Old Man and The Seau, The Sun Also Rises.
William Faulkner – uses stream of consciousness, connected wit South, complex sentences, allusions to Bible, elements of Gothic Romance, multiple narrators. Writes: The Sound of The Fury, Sanctuary, Light August, Absalom! Absalom!
9, Harlem Renaissance 1915 – 1929
First African American (AA.) cultural movement; AA. literature finally is in the mainstream, AA. arts attracted significant attention from the nation at large; AA. Artists promoted equality, the goals of civil rights. It developed because of: great migration (thousands of AA. moved from south to north), takes advantage of employment after WWI, education of AA., development of AA. middle class, Harlem became the political and cultural centre of black America. Music : Jazz & blues; art: question of identity (more African or more American?) W.E.B. Dubois invented “twonees”; Fire!: magazine edited & published by AA.; Only origin (themes – roots, slavery, history of AA.) united HR. – in other ways – AA. were different; strong racial pride (“Black is beautiful”); Harlem cabarets attracted not only its residents, but also white New Yorkers; most famous club – Cotton Club; HR. ended with the beginning of the Great Depression;
NAACP – National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Founded by W.E.B. Dubois – it helps AA.
Zora Neale Hurston – novelist, Their Eyes Were Watching God
Richard Wright – 1930s writer, Native Son
Ralph Ellison – 1930s & 40s, The Invisible Man
James Baldwin – novelist, Got Tell It on the Mountain
Booker T. Washington – 1856-1915, autobiography ...
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