American literature - semináře - zápisy

Ukázky na papírech

• Religious topics, identity – papíry – John Smith thinks he is acting in a good way, he is “a hero” – they overpowered 70 Indians

• The first crime – A Horrible Case of Bestiality – he mentioned all the animals to be trustworthy; class division mentioned – the last sentence, also it’s a crime against the Bible – a set of laws

• The Wonders of the Invisible World – extirpation = odstranění bradavic, vine = břečťan

• Heathen = pohani

• Religion is a protection – in order to survive

• 115 – edited every year

• 1. věta – morality – to be strong inside to stand up right

• You have to prepare to achieve something – God helps them that help themselves. – you have to have will

• Little strokes. Fell great oaks. – you have to be active

• Great talkers, little doers. – if you talk too much, you reveal too much

• Keep your eyes wide … - look actively for someone you will be happy with

• 116 – American dream – beginning of it – America being a land of opportunity

• 117 – slabikář – it is religious

Renaissance in 15th century – Italy…

American Renaissance

• 18th century

New England Renaissance

3 main groups:

• New England Brahmins

  • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  • Oliver Wendell Holmes

  • They were associated with wealth – they could explore their ideas and literature

  • They were at Harward – first college which was set up in England

  • They wrote in traditional way, they wouldn’t experiment as much

• The Transcendentalists

  • Ralph Waldo Emerson – civil disobedience – disobey (protest against something) without violence (Martin Luther King used teaching of Emerson)

  • Henry David Thoreau – he built a cabin himself – he wanted to show that he doesn’t need society

  • They went to nature, they didn’t need society – because there were many rules, constrictions

  • They were against possessing because it changes character

  • Special way of religion

  • Concord, Massachusetts

• Literary comedians

  • Charles Henry Smith

  • David Ross Locke

  • Henry Wheeler Shaw

  • Bill Arp

  • Bill Nye

  • They tried to explore the topic of comedy

• Other important authors

Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Scarlet Letter (1850) – “In the view of Infinite Purity, we are sinners all alike.” → it is impossible to not sin even if we behave according the rules

• Resolution – předsevzetí – made by individual or society

• His ancestor (předek) was William Hathorne - A magistrate who had sentenced a Quaker woman to public whipping

  • His son John as one of three judges in the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692

• He tried to be truthful

• A = adultery

• Themes: revenge, women and femininity, sin, guilt and blame, justice and judgement, fate and free will

Henry Melville – Moby Dick

• He didn’t belong in any major movement

• Major representative of American renaissance

• One of the greatest and most seminal novels

• Published in 1851

• It wasn’t well excepted in his times

• Studied as a novel of both literal and allegorical significance

• Hawthorne’s influence – Melville dedicated Moby-Dick to Hawthorne

• Inspiration: based on a story Melville read about, based on his experience – he worked as a sailor/whaler

• The whale appears only 3 times in the novel

• Themes: revenge, man and the natural world, religion, race, fate and free will, madness, sexuality and sexual identity

• Manifest destiny – you are ordinate by God, God told you to do something, Americans believe that they have this destiny

• Whale’s whiteness – heaven, purity/albinos are pushed away, or even killed (in Africa), it is rare

• White whale = something you obsess over until it destroys you (because of Moby-Dick)

• Ahab’s quest for revenge is impossible from the beginning because it’s foolish

• Nature is quite significant even if it’s not person

• Religion – all types of religious faiths are shown, religious extremism – when you follow something so much, it might not end in a good way

• The book was against orthodoxy (people read it in this way)

• Race – White supremacy - there is a hierarchy, Ishmael is an ordinary man – white American, white character survived

• The whole journey was a quest and it’s not completed