Notes about the American eras in literature, covering Puritanism, Enlightenment, Romantic Gothic, Romantic Transcendental, Realism, Modernism and Post-Modernism.
PURITANISM (1630s-1670s)
breakthrough: first purely American literature
Historic Events
1630 - Puritans come to Massachusetts
1637 - Thomas Morton writes New English Canaan
1650 - Anne Bradstreet write The Tenth News
Themes
Religion
books were very religious
Puritans faced religious persecution
Harsh environment
snowy in Massachusetts
Style
Little Fiction
instead, there was poetry,, moral-based superstitions, diraries by explorers (example: John Smith), historical books
Vocabulary
austere -> simple, plain, rigid
creed -> a statement of religious belief
dogma -> a tenet or belief
heretic -> opposing beliefs to fundamentals of church
Authors
William Bradford
governor
John Winthrop
establishes Puritan society
Cotton Mather
author/minister
Culture
Lord’s Day -> Sabbath
no religious freedom
simple lifestyle and respectful attire
Thanksgiving is created
no unemployment cuz common welfare
ENLIGHTENMENT (1750-1800)
breakthrough: creation of the essay
invented the essay to ‘try’ to explain things to other people
Historic Event
Revolutionary War
Declaration of Independence
Themes
politics
religion
Style
deism -> appreciation and belief for God
liberalism -> natural rights of humans
Republicanism ->nations should be ruled by officials not through inherited power
Conservatism -> tradition
toleration -> acceptance of other races to protect one’s economic
Scientific Progress -> skepticism about religion
Authors
Benjamin Franklin
religious liberty
used various pennames
Thomas Paine
patriotic writings
Alexander Hamilton
radical deist
Thomas Jefferson
created the concept of ‘living document’
James Madison
father of the Constitution
John Adams
Abigail Adams
spoke her mind in letters to friends and family
ROMANTIC GOTHIC (1830s-1860s)
breakthrough: creation of horror stories
created the dark and nasty stories of human nature
Historic Events
The Industrial Revolution
before Civil War
Themes
dark romanticism
negativity from Romantic-Transcendentalism
logic and reasoning
good vs bad
sinning
darkness
mysterious
disorder! -> uncontrollable nature
Authors
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Scarlet Letter (1850)
Edgar Allen Poe
The Raven (1845)
imagination goes crazy
Tell Tale Heart (1843)
Moby Dick (1851)
ROMANTIC TRANSCENDENTAL (1840-1855)
breakthrough: naturalist
Historic Events
post-American Revolution
independence
Industrial Revolution
pre-Civil War
many abolitionist writings
Panic of 1937
Themes
corrupt religion/politics
independence
IDEALISM -> originality and individualism - MAJOR THEMES
mystical, very spiritual
feelings and everyday life
inner light, individualism
self-culture
transcendentalism, transcendentalist
Influences
Platoism
philosophical
Indian and Chinese Literature
started in Europe in 1820s -> America (1840s)
Authors
Thomas Carlyle and Victor Cousin
individualism
Ralph Waldo Emerson
father of Romantic-Transcendentalism
The Dial
wrote abolitionist essays
Henry David Thoreau
Walden
individualism, breaking norms, idealism
Margaret Fuller
The Dial
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Blithedale Romance
The Scarlet Letter
George Ripley
Bookfarm
Style
newspapers, magazines, Moby Dick
REALISM (1865-1914)
breakthrough: normal life; everyday and ordinary life and talked about current events; creation of the novel
emphasized the character
Historic Events
Transcontinental Railroad
Western Explansion
W E S T
Civil War
Alaska Purhcase
Womens’ Rights (suffrage)
Inventing
Sino-Japanese War
Native American rebellions
Ruso-Japanese War
WWII
Themes
everyday characters
more important than plot
realistic
events happen to or during
a book published in 1870, will be about 1869/1870
Naturalism
nature is chaotic
Regionalism
local area customs
about Middle Class
Authors
Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
MODERNISM (1914-1945)
breakthrough: imagism poetry; abstract poetry; jazz
Historic Events
1914 - WW1
1919 - Prohibition
1929 - Great Depression
1941 - WW2
Themes
optimism (due to post-WWII)
depressing during depression
alienation -> separate from society
Style
Writing techniques
fragmented
advanced without explanation; no solid ending
plays with time, POV, implying themes, metaphors
explores human thought with wit, humor
myth, allusions, hopelessness (due to Great Depression)
Harlem Renaissance
time of African American inspiration
Originated
after Roman, Greek, Chinese, Japanese
free verse
NEW concepts and ideas
Cultural
Pre-WW2
Roaring 20s
Jazz
Many authors were alcoholics
flappers (at parties, the women)
Post-WW2
classy fashion, elegance in fashion
pop music
dark art due to WW2
Authors
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Great Gatsby
only became popular after his death
Gertrude Stein
started many authors’ careers and many artists’ careers
wrote no plot/dialogue
Ernest Hemingway
very social person and became popular from that
Thomas Stearns Eliot
poet
POST-MODERNISM (1945-2000s)
breakthrough: SCI-FI
Historic Events
post-World War II
Cold War
Themes
irony and black humor
due to Nuclear Age, morbid humor because people realize that they can destroy themselves
uses subjects considered taboo
temporal distortion
distortion of time
ex: historiographic metafiction
both popular in postmodern literature
definition: works that fictionalize actual historical events or figures
pastiche
unique example
books came unbound
readers organized book how they wanted to
fragmentation
elements of book are split apart
spread throughout book
makes it seem chaotic
appears disorganized
feminism, civil rights movements, multiculturalism
Novels
The Naked and the Dead (1948) by Norman Mailer
heavily influenced by World War II, focusing on soldiers fighting in the South Pacific
From Here to Eternity (1951) by James Jones
written about the lives of military men stationed in Hawaii leading up to the Pearl Harbor bombings
Catch-22 (1961) by Joseph Heller
written about World War II but written during the lead-in to the Vietnam War
The Feminine Mystique (1963) by Betty Friedan
post-WWII, when men returned from war, women were removed from their jobs which were taken by men
this novel started a feminism era in literature
The Crucible (a play 1953) by Arthur Miller
a metaphor comparing the Salem Witch Trials to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s search for Soviet spies among American citizens
The House on Mango Street (1984) by Sandra Cisneros
shows the perspective of an outsider/insider in American literature
