American Literature
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28 – AMERICAN LITERATURE
Native American Literature
Mainly Indian literature in spoken form, fairy tales, legends, myths, songs. Powwow = all these stories / session where they are told.
Vikings came from North- 1st literature work: “The Old Northern Viking Saga” – Scandinavian language. The first notices of literature were often sent to Europe from Americans to inform in forms of diaries, charts, maps, letters etc. 15th century – “Epistole of Columbus Diary”.
17th century
First colony – Jamestown. “Diaries of Captain John Smith” -story about the Indian girl Pocahontas. Anne Bradstreet -2nd half of 17th century, first published book – poems.
18th century
War of Independence. Benjamin Franklin - writer, painter, editor, scientist, inventor etc., owned his own printing shop, said to had invented the lightning rod, Own “Biography”, “Poor Richard’s Almanac” -way to wealthy, American dream. Thomas Paine – “Common Sense” (supports fight for independence)- philosophical and political pamphlet. Noah Webster – “American Dictionary of English Language” – published every year since then.
19th century
Romanticism was connected with nationalism. Americans were proud of the American intellectual tradition.
James Fennimore Cooper wrote about conversion- differences between waste and civilised land. “The Pioneers “-life in the USA, Indians against white people; “Leather Stocking Tales” -settling Wild West; “The Last of the Mohicans” - Indian novels of adventure.
Walt Whitman was a poet of democracy, freedom, sexual love - Leaves of Grass.
Edgar Allan Poe was raised by a foster family of Allans; he had many debts and he became an alcoholic. He was a poet and short stories writer, founder of psychological horror genre. “The Raven”, “The Black Cat”, “The Pit and Pendulum”. He was the founder of detective genre: plot, tension, revenge, closed places.
Herman Melville was a symbolist- “Moby Dick” = “The Whale” – young boy Ismail.
Emily Dickenson wrote poems and lived in seclusion.
Topic of Slavery
Harriet Beecher Stowe – “Uncle Tom´s Cabin” – sufferings of separated family
Margaret Mitchell – “Gone with the Wind” – destiny of O´Hara family during the Civil War
20th century
The quick development in America at the end of 19th century in industry, trade and manufacturing goods gave rise to many problems. Authors first try to describe the ugliness of life, where moneymaking dominates, destroys human character and put aside all human values.
Realism and Naturalism developed.
Realistic Period
Mark Twain = Samuel Clemens; Mississippi river; “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn”
Stephen Crane – “Maggie, the Girl of Streets”
Jack London – the gold rush in Alaska, people searching for American Dream; “White Fang”, “The Call of the Wild”
Theodore Dreiser – the American Dream; “Sister Carrie”, “American Tragedy”
Lost Generation
After the WWI a group of writers known as the Lost Generation entered literature. They were writers who were influenced by the war. Their experience resulted in disillusionment. It was the most productive period of American Literature. It is connected with prohibition and economical crisis. The part of Lost Generation is called Jazz Era. The term “Lost Generation” was invented by Gertrude Stein.