ETI 309-Introduction to Contemporary Western Literature

Outline of American Literature

Early American and Colonial Period to 1776 American literature begins with the orally transmitted

myths, legends, tales, and lyrics of native American cultures.

There was no written literature among the more than 500 different native American languages and tribal cultures that existed in North America before the first Europeans arrived.

Native American stories glow with reverence for nature as a spiritual as well as physical mother. Nature is alive and endowed with spiritual forces; main characters may be animals or plants, often totems associated with a tribe, group, or individual.

Early American and Colonial Period to 1776

The first European record of exploration in America is in a Scandinavian language.

The Old Norse Vinland Saga recounts how the adventurous Leif Eriksson and some wandering Norsemen settled briefly somewhere on the northeast coast of America in the first decade of the 11th century.

The first known contact between the Americas and the rest of the world began with the voyage of an Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, in 1492, funded by the Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella.

Early American and Colonial Period to 1776 The first colony was set up in 1585 at Roanoke, off the

coast of North Carolina. It was carefully recorded by Thomas Hariot in A Briefe and True Report of the New-Found Land of Virginia (1588).

The second colony, Jamestown, was established in 1607; it endured starvation, brutality, and misrule, but the literature of the period depicts America as the land of riches and opportunity.

In the 17th century, pirates, adventurers, and explorers opened the way to a second wave of permanent colonists, bringing their wives, children, farm implements, and craftsmen's tools.

Early American and Colonial Period to 1776 The Plymouth Colony was established in 1620.

Revolting against religious oppression, Puritans in England participated in the Great Migration and founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630.

The Middle Colonies (present-day states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware) were characterized by vast diversity.

The last of the Thirteen Colonies, Georgia Colony, was established in 1733.

Early American and Colonial Period to 1776 Puritan style of literature varied from complex

metaphysical poetry to journals and religious history, but the themes remained constant:

life was seen as a test failure in that test meant eternal damnation the world was seen as an arena of constant battle

between God and Satan.

By 1700’s religious dogmatism began to be replaced by the spirit of toleration and religious freedom.

Formation of the United States of America 1776-1789

The Thirteen Colonies began a rebellion against the British rule in 1775, proclaimed their independence on July 4, 1776, and constituted the first thirteen states of the USA.

1783 Treaty of Paris acknowledged of the US as an independent nation.

Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was ratified on March 1, 1781; it was replaced by the Constitution in 1789 and George Washington became the first president of the US.

Formation of the United States of America 1776-1789

The United States Bill of Rights was ratified on December 1791 to guarantee individual liberties (The first ten amendments of the Constitution).

The American Revolution also led to nationalistic hopes for a great new literature, which became an obsession.

James Cooper (Leather-Stocking Tales), Washington Irving were two of the first great American writers.

Westward Expansion 1789-1849

With The Lousiana Purchase in 1803, French presence from the Western border was removed.

Slave importation from Africa became illegal in 1808.

The Monroe Doctrine (1823) proclaimed the United States' opinion that European powers should no longer colonize or interfere in the Americas.

Indian Removal Act of 1830 resulted in the forced migration of several native tribes to the West.

The discovery of gold in California in 1848 led to the Gold Rush 0f 1849.

New England Romanticism and Transcendentalism The Romantic movement reached America around

1820; romantic ideas centered around the spiritual and aesthetic dimension of nature, and the importance of the individual mind and spirit; a major theme was the development of the self.

Closely linked to the Romantic movement was transcendentalism, embodied by Ralph Waldo Emerson (Nature-1836) and Henry David Thoreau (Walden, or Life in the Woods-1854)

Transcendentalism was a liberal philosophy favoring nature over formal religious structure, individual insight over dogma, and humane instinct over social convention.

Civil War Era 1849-1865

The irreconcilable differences (about government, economy, and slavery) between the North and the South began to emerge in mid-19th century.

After Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, eleven states withdrew from the union and established a rebel government in 1861, the Confederate States of America.

The Civil War, which erupted when the Confederacy attacked the Border States, ended in 1865 with the victory of the union.

Civil War Era 1849-1865

Walt Whitman (Leaves of Grass-1855) expressed the country’s democratic spirit (“Song of Myself” the most original poem ever written by an American)

Emily Dickinson and her poetry provide a link between her era and the literary sensitivities of the 20th century.

Along with Whitman and Dickinson, Herman Melville (The Moby Dick), Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter), and Edgar Allen Poe (Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym) represent the first great literary generation produced in the United States.

Rise of Industrialization 1865-1890

13th Amendment outlawed slavery; 14th Amendment guaranteed citizenship for everyone born or naturalized in the US territories; 15th Amendment granted the right to vote for everyone, regardless of race.

Ku Klux Klan (KKK) emerged in the 1860’s and was declared a terrorist group in 1870.

American industry expanded dramatically; per capita income became second only to that of Britain.

Large wave of immigration both provided cheap labor for the growing industries and created diverse communities.

The Rise of Realism

As industrialization grew, so did alienation. Mark Twain (pen name for Samuel Clemens) wrote

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; his style was based on realistic, colloquial American speech, unlike early 19th-century American writers who tended to be flowery (to prove that they could write as elegantly as the English).

Henry James (The American-1877, Daisy Miller-1879, The Portrait of a Lady-1881, The Bostonians-1886, The Ambassadors-1903) was noted for his themes revolving around relationships between naïve Americans and Cosmopolitan Europeans, feminism and social reform.

Progressive Era 1890-1918 Post-War Era 1918-1940 Large population and industrial growth led US to rise to

international power, both economically and militarily.

US entered into WWI in 1917; in the post-war period, business flourished and the successful prospered beyond their wildest dreams.

Prohibition that began in 1919 led to the proliferation of illegal bars and nightclubs, featuring jazz music, cocktails and daring attire.

College enrollment doubled in the 1920’s and Americans of the “Roaring Twenties” loved entertainment, moviegoing, automobile touring and the radio.

Modernism and Experimentation

Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises-1926, A Farewell to Arms-1929, The Old Man and the Sea-1952) Scott Fitzgerald (This Side of Paradise-1920, The Great Gatsby-1925) dealt with themes such as the extravagance and disillusionment of “the lost generation” of the period, and the American dream.

William Faulkner (The Sound of the Fury-1929, As I Lay Dying-1930, Absalom, Absalom!-1936) experimented with narrative chronology, different points of view and voices.

The poetry by T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, as well as the drama of Eugene O’Neill (Desire Under the Elms-1924, The Iceman Cometh-1946) and Arthur Miller (All My Sons-1947, Death of a Salesman-1949) are also well-known.

Post-War Era 1918-1940

The revolution in Russia led to real fears of communism in the US.

KKK grew to more than 4,5 million members by 1924.

Immigration Act of 1924 restricted foreign immigration.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression; Roosevelt created the New Deal to restart the economy and to help victims of the depression; despite rapid recovery, unemployment remained high until the 1940’s.

World War II 1940-1945

The US cut off oil and raw material supplies to Japan; Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor naval base on December 7, 1941; four days later Germany declared war on the US.

The war with Germany ended on May 8, 1945, following the surrender of Germany.

Harry Truman became the president after Roosevelt’s death; the US decided to use nuclear weapons to end the conflict with Japan; two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945.

Contemporary Period

US emerged as one of the two superpowers from the WWII; the membership of the US to the UN marked the end of its isolationism toward more international involvement.

The Cold War began between the US and Russia; series of conflicts, including the Korean War, ensued.

During John F. Kennedy’s administration, the Cold War reached its peak with the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

The Civil Rights movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr, gained momentum in the 1960’s.

Contemporary Period Cold War continued until the collapse of communism in

1991; the US emerged as the world’s remaining superpower after the the fall of the Soviet Union.

The US entered the Vietnam War, which eventually cost the lives of 58,000 American troops.

Nixon administration ended with the political scandal of Watergate.

The US continued to become involved in military action overseas with the 1991 Gulf War.

AIDS epidemic spread fast through the 1980’s.

Contemporary Period

During the 1990’s, the US began to face terrorist attacks from Islamist terrorist groups such as Al-Qaida.

On September 11, 2001, 19 terrorists hijacked four airliners, two of which crashed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and one into the Pentagon.

US Department of Homeland Security was created to lead and coordinate counter-terrorism activities

Contemporary Literature The “Beat poets” emerged in the 1950’s, inspired by jazz, Eastern religion, and the

wandering life. The nucleus of the Beat movement: Jack Kerouac (On the Road-1957) Alan Ginsberg (“Howl”) William Burroughs (The Naked Lunch-1959)

Beat poetry was oral, repetitive and it might be viewed as the great-grandparent of rap music; it was the most anti-establishment form of literature in the US.

Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar-1963) Arthur Miller (All My Sons, Death of a Salesman) Tennesse Williams (The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire) Ralph Ellison (The Invisible Man-1952) Saul Bellow (Dangling Man-1944, The Victim-1947) John Cheever John Updike Norman Mailer Toni Morrison Amy Tan Richard Ford Sherman Alexie