REVIEW: AMERICAN
LITERATURE
1565,1607 - 1763: SETTLEMENT AND COLONIAL
AMERICA
American colonists wrote histories, sermons, and
political pamphlets. Poetry concerned religious and moral subjects. Colonial
writings imitated popular European styles.
1) John Smith, A True
Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents...as
Hath Happened in
Virginia (1608): History of Virginia written to
attract settlers to
Virginia.
2) William Bradford, Of Plimuth Plantation: History of
the
Plymouth Settlers between 1620 and 1647.
3) John Winthrop,
Journal: History of life in the Massachusetts Bay
Colony between 1630
and 1649.
4) Bay Psalm Book (1640): First book printed in the
colonies (Cambridge)
5) Roger Williams, "The Bloudy Tenent of
Persecution" (1644): Pamphlet
argues for separation of church and
state.
6) Cotton Mather, Ecclesiastical History of New England
(1702): A Puritan
History.
7) Jonathan Edwards, "Sinners in the Hands
of an Angry God" (1741): Best
example of a Calvinist Sermon.
8) John
Woolman, Journal (1774): Thoughts on the Quaker beliefs.
9) Jean
de Crevecouer, Letters from an American Farmer (1782):
Describes
colonial rural life.
1763 - 1783: REVOLUTIONARY
PERIOD
10) Benjamin Franklin, political satires, Poor
Richard's Almanac
(1733-1758), Autobiography
11) Thomas
Paine, "Common Sense" (1776): Argued for complete independence
from Britain;
"The Crisis" (1776-1783): Series of pamphlets to
encourage the colonists
during the war.
1781 - 1789: GOVERNMENT UNDER THE ARTICLES OF
CONFEDERATION
1789 - 1824: THE NEW NATION
12)
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay, The
Federalist,
(1787-1788): Series of letters urging ratification of the
Constitution.
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13) Knickerbockers: This was the name for a group of writers that
flourished in New York City in the late 1700's and early 1800's.
These
writers took the first step toward creating a national
literature.
a)
Washington Irving, Knickerbocker's History of New York (1809):
Satire;
Short Stories: "Rip Van Winkle" (1819), "The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow"
(1820)
b) James Fenimore Cooper, Adventure stories of the New York
frontier
days: The Leatherstocking Tales, The Last of the
Mohicans
(1826).
c) William Cullen Bryant: Editor and owner of the
New York Evening
Post; Poetry: "Thanatopsis" (1811 - poem about death), "To
a
Waterfowl" (1818 - example of his poems about American
scenery).
1825 - 1849: AGE OF JACKSON
1849 -
1877: SECTIONALISM, CIVIL WAR, RECONSTRUCTION
14) William Lloyd
Garrison, "The Liberator" (1830's): Abolitionist
newspaper.
15)
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852)
16)
Transcendentalists: This was a group of New England writers who
emphasized
feelings more than observation and experience. They
believed that the
knowledge people got from their own instincts
transcended knowledge
resulting from logic and deduction. From
1840-1844 the transcendentalists
published a journal called "The Dial."
Contributors included George Ripley,
Margaret Fuller, and Bronson
Alcott.
a) Ralph Waldo Emerson: Spokesman
of the Transcendentalists. Essays:
"Self-Reliance" (1841), "The Oversoul"
(1841).
b) Henry David Thoreau: Wrote about nature, the human spirit, and
the
meaning of life. Essay: "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" (1849),
Walden (1854).
17) Boston Brahmins: This group was composed of
upper-class New Englanders.
a) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Poems -
"Evangeline" (1847), "The Song
of Hiawatha" (1855), "The Courtship of Miles
Standish" (1858)
b) Oliver Wendell Holmes: Leader of the Boston Brahmins,
physician;
Series of Essays: The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table
(1858).
Poetry: "The Chambered Nautilus" (1858)
c) John Greenleaf
Whittier: Accepted by the Brahmins although he was
a Quaker and not from
Boston. Poetry: "Snowbound" (1866).
18) Edgar Allen Poe: Father of the
Detective Story. Short Stories: "The
Tell-Tale Heart," "The Murders in the
Rue Morgue" (1841). Poetry:
"The Raven" (1845), "Annabel Lee" (1849).
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19) Nathaniel Hawthorne, Short Stories: "The Minister's Black Veil"
(1836).
Novels: The Scarlet Letter (1850)
20) Herman Melville,
Novels: Typee (1846), Moby Dick (1851).
21) Walt Whitman,
Poetry: Leaves of Grass (1855) - poems reflected the
greatness of
America and patriotism. Use of free verse.
22) Emily Dickinson: Most of
her poems were published after her death. She
wrote of love, nature, death,
and eternity.
1877 - 1901: BIG BUSINESS, INDUSTRY, LABOR, FARMERS,
REFORM
23) Humorists and Local Colorists: Subject matter dealt
with regional
characteristics and often employed use of dialect. This was
the
foundation of the Realist movement which would dominate the
1900's.
a) Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Novels: The Innocents
Abroad (1869),
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The
Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn (1884)
b) Bret Harte: Short
Stories of the Gold Rush days in California.
"The Outcasts of Poker
Flats"
c) Joel Chandler Harris: "Uncle Remus" stories.
d) Booth
Tarkington, Novels: Penrod.
24) Henry James, Novels: The
Portrait of a Lady (1881), Set Americans
in European settings and
explored their reactions.
25) Realism: William Dean Howells said this was
"nothing more and nothing
less than the truthful treatment of material."
Naturalism: Writing
which dwelled on the lowest aspects of society.
a)
William Dean Howells, Novels: The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885)
b)
Stephen Crane, Novels: The Red Badge of Courage (1895), showed
battle
reations of a Civil War Soldier.
c) Theodore Dreiser, Novels: Sister
Carrie (1900), An American
Tragedy (1925).
d) Hamlin
Garland, Short Stories: Main-Travelled Roads (1891), dealt
with
hardships of Midwestern farmers.
e) Jack London, The Call of the
Wild (1903)
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1901 - 1913: PROGRESSIVE ERA
1913 - 1921: WILSON
AND WORLD WAR I
26) Social Criticism: Writers in this era often
attacked evils in politics
and business. They were dubbed "Muckrakers" by T.
Roosevelt.
a) Lincoln Steffens, The Shames of the
Cities.
b) Ida Tarbell, History of the Standard Oil
Company.
c) Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906).
27)
O'Henry (William Sydney Porter), Short Stories: "The Gift of the
Magi"
(1905), use of surprise endings.
28) Expansion of Social
Criticism
a) Sherwood Anderson: Psychological examination of small-town
inhabitants. Winesburg, Ohio (1919)
b) Sinclair Lewis:
Satirized the hypocrisy and dullness of small-town
inhabitants. Main
Street (1920). Lewis became the first
American to win a Nobel Prize in
Literature. (1930)
29) Willa Cather, My Antonia (1918),
description of pioneer life in
Nebraska; O' Pioneers
30) Edith
Wharton, The Age of Innocence (1920), analysis of New York
society
life.
1921 - 1939: BOOM AND BUST AND A NEW
DEAL
31) Social Criticism Continued
a) Thomas Wolfe:
Studied American morals and values. Look Homeward,
Angel
(1929)
b) John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath (1939)
32) The
Harlem Renaissance: During the 1920's black writers gathered in
this district
of New York City and began to explore black American
culture.
a)
Countee Cullen: traditional poems on black themes.
b) Claude McKay,
Novel: Home to Harlem (1928). First best-seller
by a black
author.
c) Langston Hughes: best-known writer of the Harlem
Renaissance.
Poetry and short stories.
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33) The Lost Generation: This title was given by Gertrude Stein to a
group
of post-war writers who gravitated to Paris and wrote about
alienation
and rootlessness.
a) Ernest Hemingway, Novels: The Sun
Also Rises (1926), For Whom
the Bell Tolls (1940), The
Old Man and the Sea (1952)
b) F. Scott Fitzgerald, Novels: This
Side of Paradise (1920),
The Great Gatsby (1925).
c)
William Faulkner, Novels: The Sound and the Fury (1929), "stream
of
consciousness" technique.
34) Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth
(1931), stories about China.
35) Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the
Wind (1936)
36) Edna Ferber, Show Boat (1926), Giant
(1952)
37) Robert Frost, Poetry: "Mending Wall" (1914), "Stopping by
Woods on a
Snowy Evening" (1923)
38) Carl Sandburg, Free Verse:
Chicago Poems (1916), Biography:
Abraham Lincoln
(1939)
39) Stephen Vincent Benet, Poetry: "John Brown's Body"
(1928)
40) Imagists: These poets emphasized everyday speech, new rhythms,
and the
use of clear, sharp images. (Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell)
41) T.S.
Eliot, Poetry: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1917),
"The Waste Land"
(1922), difficult, symbolic poetry.
42) E.E. Cummings: Poet who used
unusual punctuations and no capital
letters.
43) Drama
a)
Eugene O'Neil, "Beyond the Horizon" (1920), "Mourning Becomes
Electra"
(1931), "Long Day's Journey Into Night" (1956), use of
realistic
themes.
b) Thornton Wilder, "Our Town" (1938), omitted scenery and
stage
settings.
44) Katharine Anne Porter, Short Stories: Flowering
Judas (1930),
Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939), Novel: Ship of Fools
(1962)
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1939 - 1945: WORLD WAR II
1945 - 1989+: COLD WAR
AND AFTER
45) Tennessee Williams, playwright: "The Glass
Menagerie" (1945),
"A Streetcar Named Desire" (1947).
46) Norman
Mailer, The Naked and the Dead (1948), account of American
soldiers
fighting in the Pacific.
47) Arthur Miller, playwright: "Death of a
Salesman" (1949)
48) Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny (1951),
conflicts on a Navy ship.
49) J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the
Rye (1951), story of a teenager
growing up in New York.
50) Ralph
Ellison, Invisible Man (1952), explored black life in the U.S.
51)
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), story of racism in a
small
Alabama town.
52) Alex Haley, Roots (1976)
53)
Beat Movement: This group of 1950's writers lived in New York City and
San
Francisco. They condemned middle-class morality and
praised
individualism
a) Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957),
autobiographical novel
b) Allen Ginsberg, Poetry: Howl, and Other
Poems (1956)
54) Edward Albee, playwright: "Who's Afraid of Virginia
Wolfe" (1962)
55) Neil Simon, playwright: "Odd Couple" (1965), "Brighton
Beach Memoirs"
(1983)