an overview of the american literary periods (blitz week)

7/27/2019 An Overview of the American Literary Periods (BLITZ Week)

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Mr. LawrenceBLITZ Week: Day 2


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American Literature is exactly what it

sounds like literature that is specific to

America. So what exactly does that mean?


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The history of American Lit. begins with the1stAmericanswhich are who?

Literature is told through the oral tradition

(whats the problem here?)Works largely consist of origin myths,

legends, chants, and other storiesSpiritual forces show up in water, land,

animals, etc. which shows a major themein Native American literaturereverencefor nature.


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The next period goes from the people thatwere already here to the people thatdiscovered America. This period is called

the Exploration Period.The main writers during this time were

explorers (Christopher Columbus, JohnSmith, William Bradford) who mainly wrotetheir accounts down in diaries, journals,and histories. Many of which are morefiction than fact.


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The Early Colonial Period the main writerswere Puritans which is why this age is oftenreferred to as Puritanism.

Puritan life focused on two thingsGod andwork. They lived what we would consider tobe lame lives from the way they dressed totheir conversations.

The main writers from the Puritan age:

Edward Taylor Huswifery, Anne BradstreetTo My Dear and Loving Husband, andJonathan Edwards Sinners in the Hands ofan Angry God


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Early American Fiction features the birth oftwo unique narratives.

The captivity narrative are stories of people

captured by "uncivilized" enemies. Thenarratives often include a theme ofredemption by faith in the face of the threatsand temptations of an alien way of life. The

most famous of these being MaryRowlandsons Narrative of the Captivity andRestoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.


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The second unique genre is the slave

narrative which is an autobiographical

account of life as a slave.

The most famous of these are The

Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah

Equiano, Narrative of the Life of Frederick

Douglas: An American Slave, and Up fromSlavery(by: Booker T. Washington)


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The Revolutionary Period produced someof Americas finest political andphilosophical writings. It also marked a

movement into what is known as theAgeof Reason orAge of Enlightenment.

Key works of this period focus more onreason and common sense over tradition,scientific investigation over dependence onreligious doctrine, and democracy overmonarchy.


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The major writers and works of the

Revolutionary Period are: Benjamin

FranklinsAutobiographyand Poor

Richards Almanac, the writings of Thomas

Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Patrick

Henry


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As you can tell the Revolutionary Period

did not produce much creativity in its

writings with the exception of one

standoutPhillis Wheatley. Phillis

Wheatley was a slave purchased by John

Wheatley who was lucky enough to be

taught to read. She was well versed in theclassics (Shakespeare, mythology, the

Bible, etc.)


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On Being Brought from Africa to America

'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,Taught my benighted soul to understandThat there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.Some view our sable race with scornful eye,"Their colour is a diabolic die."

Remember, Christians, Negro's, black as Cain,May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.


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This is where American fiction begins tobecome unique and develop a trulyAmerican voice. Romantic writings focus on

feelings and the individual. Characters inthese works are often heroic and larger thanlife. They strive to find their identity in hostileand lonely settings. Romantics believe in

individualism and that manifests itself in thebeauty of nature and the power ofimagination.


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In the early Romantic we see writers such

as James Fennimore Cooper (The Last of

the Mohicans), Washington Irving (Rip Van

Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and

The Devil and Tom Walker), Edgar Allan

Poe (The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart,

etc.), Nathaniel Hawthorne (The ScarletLetter), Herman Melville (Moby Dick).


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A crucial literary development occurred during theRomantic Period called transcendentalism.

This movement started with the thoughts ofphilosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson and it was the

belief that the world and God were one. Accordingto Emerson each persons soul was a part ofnature and therefore it was identical to God. Andthat man can reach a God-like state through hisown genius, imagination, self-reliance, and

connection to nature. Emerson fully explains theprinciples of Transcendentalism in his essayNature


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Emerson had a protg named Henry DavidThoreau who was also a transcendentalist. Inhis book Walden he describes the joy he tookliving in his cabin on Walden Pond dependingon no one but himself for survival.

In 1844 Emerson wrote an essay The Poetin it he claimed that we were in need of a trulyAmerican poetic voice we were too much like

England. This essay changed the course ofAmerican Poetry forever!


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Free VerseFree Style


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The last great writer of The Romantic

Period is normally considered to be Harriet

Beecher Stowe. She wrote a book called

Uncle Toms Cabin which shocked America

by presenting the horrors of slavery told

through the eyes of a white woman.


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Realism and Naturalism usually begins withthe Civil War and ends with WWI.

Realism is the exact opposite ofRomanticism. There is nothing fantastic about

it. The characters, settings, themes, plots areall realistic.

Realism and Naturalism reflect the daily lifeand language of American life. Characters in

the these stories have both virtues and vicesand reflect a society that is far moreindustrialized and urban than the agriculturalsociety seen in Romanticism.


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The fiction writer realism has to offer is

Samuel Clemens who wrote under the

pseudonym Mark Twain. His classic The

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn brings

readers face to face with the issues of

slavery, education, morality. However

Twain does this by using humor, a realisticplot, and regionalism)


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Other famous novelists of Realism includeWilliam Dean Howells, Henry James, andEdith Wharton. These writers produced works

that portray wealthy Americans who have todeal with their own spiritual blindness,selfishness, and greed. Sometimes theycome out of it okay as in Howells The Rise of

Silas Lapham. Which tells the story of awealthy business man who choosesbankruptcy over immorality.


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Toward the end of this period in the late1800s and early 1900s we see what arecalled Naturalistic writers.

Naturalism focuses on deep social problems

caused by industrialization, a loss of morality,alienation, and over crowded cities. Theconcentrated on the lives of the poor and theoutcasts. And the overwhelming

environmental forces that alter a personsability to make the best decisions.


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Famous writers and works of Naturalism

include: Jack London (The Call of the

Wild), Stephen Crane (The Red Badge of

Courage and Maggie: A Girl of the

Streets), Theodore Dreiser(An American

Tragedy).


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This period shows a wide range of themes

and characters largely in part because of

all the challenges America was facing

(WWI, the Great Depression, and WWII).

In this periods you see themes such as the

horrors of war, racism, innocence,

disillusionment, the consequences ofgreed and materialism, and loneliness vs.

love).


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Famous writers include: F. Scott Fitzgerald

(The Great Gatsby), Ernest Hemingway

(The Old Man and the Sea),William

Faulkner (As I Lay Dying, Absalom,

Absalom!)


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Here you also see the Social Protestwriters John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men,The Grapes of Wrath), Sinclair Lewis

(Babbit, It Cant Happen Here).The Harlem Renaissance also falls here

with writers like Richard Wright (NativeSon), Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes

Were Watching God), Langston Hughes (IToo, Sing America, Harlem), LoraineHansberry (A Raisin in the Sun).


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Here you see EVERYTHINGthis is the

literary period that America is in now.

Writers are influenced by the Cold War, the

Civil Rights Movement, drugs, religion,

globalization (Im tired of typingjust make

note everything!!!)


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Metafiction-the blending of fiction and non-

fiction

Existentialism-literature that focuses on

extreme despair

Magical Realism-literature in which magic

(like ghosts) is viewed as something

everyday to the characters


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Here you see many writers from other

cultures burst onto the American literature

scene. Hispanics like Sandra Cisneros

(House on Mango Street) and RudolfoAnaya (Bless Me, Ultima). And members

of the Asian community such as Amy Tan

(The Joy Luck Club) and Maxine HongKingston (The Warrior Woman) .


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Good Luck Class of 2012

GO TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!

an overview of the american literary periods (blitz week)

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