LITERATURE OF COLONIAL AMERICA
Puritan literature- religion was very important, it was a serious literature, it attempts to present life truly because the truth could and should be presented plainly. Plain style stressed order and proportion (metaphors and parallels) what wasn't in the Bible couldn't be used in Puritan lit. Puritan authors are cold, detached; they don't want to arise passion among readers. Readers should be governed by reason and faith.
Winthrop, John- he was extremely religious and subscribed fervently to the Puritan belief that the Anglican Church had to be cleansed of Catholic ritual. Winthrop was convinced that God would punish England for its heresy, and believed that English Puritans needed a shelter away from England where they could remain safe during the time of God's wrath. He was writing in a was plain style. He was sober, cold, and less emotional than Bradford. His work History of New England is a chronicle of events. It is a collection of instances of Puritan's faith in the New World. He shows first description of epidemic venereal diseases. He was ready to hung witches and recommended drowning as punishment. He shows that colonists were cruel to Indians and also to themselves.
Sewall, Samuel- He became a judge without training. Sewall was very liberal in his views. In The Selling of Joseph he came out strongly against slavery which made him one of the earliest colonial abolitionists. His Diary describes his life as a Puritan against the changing tide of colonial life, as the devoutly religious community of Massachusetts gradually adopted more secular attitudes and emerged as a liberal, cosmopolitan-minded community. As such, it is an important work for understanding the transformation of the colony in the days leading to the American Revolution. Religion wasn't the central thing and the main concern. He was honest and sincere. Dreams were very important to him. He was the first American patriot.
Bradford, William- He was the second signer and primary architect of the Mayflower Compact. Bradford's greatest achievement was introducing the system of privatized production. The History Of Plymouth Plantation is the most complete authority for the story of the Pilgrims and the early years of the Colony they founded. The journal describes the story of the Pilgrims from 1608, when they settled in Holland, through the 1620 Mayflower voyage, until the year 1647. The book ends with a list, written in 1650, of Mayflower passengers.
Bradstreet, Anne- She was the first American woman writer and the first American poet to have her works published. Much of Bradstreet's poetry is based on observation of the world around her, focusing heavily on domestic and religious themes. She won critical acceptance in the 20th century as a writer of enduring verse, particularly for her sequence of religious poems she wrote about politics, history, medicine, and theology.
Taylor, Edward- He was a colonial American poet, physician, and pastor. While Taylor was a prolific poet, his work languished in relative obscurity. Taylor is the only known American poet who wrote in the metaphysical style. His best-known work is the conceit titled Huswifery, a direct comparison between weaving and God's salvation through divine grace.
Mather, Cotton- His ubiquitous literary works made him one of the most influential religious leaders in America. Mather set the nation's "moral tone," and sounded the call for second and third generation Puritans, whose parents had left England for the New England colonies of North America to return to the theological roots of Puritanism.
Edwards, Jonathan- He tried to apply scientific approach to the subject of religion. He wrote Personal Narrative about him and his encounter with God. He showed God's doctrine of sovereignty and showed that God can condemn a man. He wanted to create coherent and comprehensible religious structure in Calvinist tradition. He was worried about by decline of religion among colonists; he felt that religious standard and experience of salvation was neglected. He took part in the Great Awakening.
LITERATURE OF REASON AND REVOLUTION
Franklin, Benjamin- He was one of the most prominent of the Founders and early political figures, inventor, and a statesmen of the United States. His wise writings are proverbial to this day. He shaped the American Revolution. He was the leader of the Enlightenment. He was an early proponent of colonial unity. He formed both the first public lending library and fire department in America as well as the Junto, a political discussion club. He invented the Franklin stove, medical catheter, lightning rod, swimfins and glass armonica. He wroke The Way to Wealth, his autobiography, and Poor Richard's Almanac.
Paine, Thomas- He was an intellectual, scholar, revolutionary, deist and idealist. He was a radical pamphleteer. Paine anticipated and helped foment the American Revolution through his powerful writings, most notably Common Sense, an incendiary pamphlet advocating independence from Great Britain. He was an advocate for liberalism; he outlined his political philosophy in Rights of Man, a treatise on the benefits of personal liberty and limited government, in which he considers society a representation of human ideals, and government a necessary evil. Paine was also noteworthy for his support of deism, taking its form in his treatise on religion The Age of Reason, as well as for his eye-witness accounts of both the French and American Revolutions. He received a patent in Europe for the single-span iron bridge. He developed a smokeless candle, and worked with John Fitch on the early development of steam engines.
Jefferson, Thomas- He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and an influential Founding Father of the United States. Major events during his presidency include the Louisiana Purchase, the Embargo Act of 1807, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He was a political philosopher who promoted classical liberalism, republicanism, and the separation of church and state, he was the author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. He founded the University of Virginia and wrote Notes on the state of Virginia.
Freneau, Philip- He was a United States poet and newspaper editor. He was one of the most important writers/poets of The Age of Reason. He is often considered the first American poet, in a popular sense. His nature poem, The Wild Honey Suckle, is considered an early seed to the later Transcendentalist movement.
AGE OF ROMANTICISM
Irving, Washington- He was an American author of the early 19th century. He is perhaps best known for his short stories, his most famous stories are The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip van Winkle (both appearing in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon). He was a prolific writer of essays and biographies. He wrote The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus.
Fenimore Cooper, James- He was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is particularly remembered as a novelist, who wrote numerous sea-stories as well as the historical romances known as the Leatherstocking Tales and The Last of the Mohicans, which many people consider his masterpiece. He had 2 visions that were in perpetual conflict: traditional attachment to land and unspoiled nature, and need for progress.
Poe, Edgar Allan- He was an American poet, short story writer, editor, critic and one of the leaders of the American Romantic Movement. He is the best known for his tales of the macabre. Poe was one of the early American practitioners of the short story and a progenitor of detective fiction and crime fiction. He is also credited with contributing to narrative forms of the emergent science fiction genre.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo- Emerson is consistent in his perception of God and religion. A religion instruction is a waste of time. He believed that self-reliance leads to a great art. He believed that every individual should trust in himself. He formulated and first expressed the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his essay Nature.
Thoreau, Henry David- He was an American author, development critic, naturalist, transcendentalist, pacifist, tax resister and philosopher who is famous for Walden, on simple living amongst nature, and Civil Disobedience, on resistance to civil government and many other articles and essays. He was a lifelong abolitionist. He delivered lectures that attacked the Fugitive Slave Law while praising the writings of Wendell Phillips and defending the abolitionist John Brown. Among his lasting contributions were his writings on natural history and philosophy, where he anticipated the methods and findings of ecology and environmental history.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel- He was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is seen as a key figure in development of American Literature. He was interested in Puritan New England. He wanted to recreate the community of Boston. He believed that all men are sinful and that every character can be good under the surface. Hawthorne was obsessed with sin, devil and evil. He believed that evil is everywhere; it is an active force and we remain and will always remain sinful. He believed in duality of human's perception. It consists of intellectual and moral rides according to him.
Melville, Herman- He was an American novelist, essayist and poet. During his lifetime, his early novels were popular, but his popularity declined later in his life. By the time of his death he had nearly been forgotten, but his masterpiece, Moby-Dick, was "rediscovered" in the 20th century. His first stories were based on south adventures; he gives description of cannibals. He presents 2 aspects: preservation of the native tribes and the protestant missionaries and their work with the tribes. His poetry is spiritual and religious. He questioned the meaning of Christianity.
AGE OF REALISM
Whitman, Walt- He was a poet, essayist, journalist, and a humanist. His most famous works are the poetry collections Leaves of Grass and Drum-Taps. In Leaves of Grass he is a physical person who discovers his identity by writing it. He celebrates America political system. America is a subject matter of his poetry. He predicted the greatness of America and the popularity of every things that will come out of it. He also wrote poetry for children and about science and technology. His poetry is free, simple and direct.
Dickinson, Emily- Her life has inspired numerous biographers and voluminous speculation, mostly about her sexuality, of which little is definitively known. Although she wrote (at latest count) 1789 poems, only a handful of them were published during her lifetime, all anonymously and probably without her knowledge. Her facility with ballad and hymn meter, her extensive use of dashes and unconventional capitalization in her manuscripts, and her idiosyncratic vocabulary and imagery create a unique lyric style.
James, Henry- He significantly contributed to the criticism of fiction, particularly in his insistence that writers must be allowed the greatest freedom possible in presenting their view of the world. His imaginative use of point of view, interior monologue and possibly unreliable narrators brought a new depth and interest to narrative fiction. He was an extraordinarily productive writer; he published books of travel writing, biography, autobiography and visual arts criticism. His fiction is very intellectual; it has to do with the mind and brain. He was preoccupied with intellectual life.
Crane, Stephen- Crane's first novel, Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets, was a milestone in the development of literary naturalism. He used a method that has come to be known as "naturalism," in which characters face very realistic and often bleak circumstances. This style of writing would be a defining trait of his later work, especially The Red Badge of- a powerful tale of the American Civil War. The book won international acclaim for its realism and psychological depth in telling the story of a young soldier facing the horrors and triumphs of war for the first time. Crane never experienced battle personally, but conducted interviews with a number of veterans, some of whom may have suffered from what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder.
Twain, Mark- He had no respect for ancient customs and institutions of Europe. He drew cartoons for newspapers. He materialized the idea that a book should reach each home. He was the first writer who sold a book that hasn't been written yet. His writings marked the end of Realism in America.
Anderson, Sherwood- The main theme of his writing is the frustration of modern life. He believed that human life was thwarted by the standardizations imposed by the machine age. His characters usually tried to escape from the confinements of regulated life. He endowed sex with mystical significance and stressed man's identification with primal forces of nature. His novels and stories are based on his experiences in the Mid-West. His style is simple, direct and consciously naïve.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott - He was a novelist and short story writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald was the self-styled spokesman of the "Lost Generation", Americans born in the 1890s who came of age during World War I. He finished four novels, left a fifth unfinished, and wrote dozens of short stories that treat themes of youth, despair, and age. Many admire what they consider his remarkable emotional honesty. His heroes—handsome, confident, and doomed — blaze brilliantly before exploding, and his heroines are typically beautiful and alluring.
Hemingway, Ernest- He was a short story writer and a journalist. His distinctive writing style is characterized by minimalism and understatement and had a significant influence on the development of twentieth century fiction. Hemingway's protagonists are typically stoics, often seen as projections of his own character — men who must show "grace under pressure". Many of his works are considered classics in the canon of American literature.
NATURALISM AND REALISM IN LIT.
Howells, William- His literary reputation took off with the realist novel, A Modern Instance, which described the decay of a marriage. His novel The Rise of Silas Lapham is perhaps his best known. It described the rise and fall of an American entrepreneur in the paint business. His social views were strongly reflected in the novels Annie Kilburn and A Hazard of New Fortunes.
Garland, Hamlin- He is best known for his fiction involving hard-working Midwestern farmers. He came up with the theory of variatism- a novel about slums should be written by a man who knows well this environment. His greatest contribution is to the regional novel.
Norris, Frank- He followed the theoretical model of naturalism. His notable works include McTeague, The Octopus: A California Story, and The Pit. Although he did not support socialism as a political system, his work nevertheless evinces a socialist mentality and influenced socialist writers. Like many of his contemporaries, he was profoundly influenced by the event of Darwinism, and Thomas Henry Huxley's philosophical defense of it. Through many of his novels runs a preoccupation with the notion of the civilized man overcoming the inner "brute", his animalistic tendencies. His peculiar, and often confused, brand of Social Darwinism also bears the influence of the early criminologist Cesare Lombroso.
Sinclair Lewis- He was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. His works are known for their insightful and critical views of American society and capitalist values. His style is at times droll, satirical, yet sympathetic. Lewis was known for giving strong characterization to modern working women and for his concern with race. Some of his most famous books were Main Street and Babbitt. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, which he rejected.
Dreiser, Theodore- His style is marked by long sentences and intense attention to detail. Since his works deal with social status and the pursuit of material goods and pleasures, it can make many of his works difficult for some. Dreiser is not well-regarded for his style, but for the realism of his work, character development, and his points-of-view on American life. He is known to have had an enormous influence on the generation that followed his.
Steinbeck, John- He wrote in the naturalist style and portrayed people as the center of his stories. His people and his stories were taken from real life struggles in the first half of the 20th century. His body of work reflects his wide range of interests, including marine biology, jazz, politics, philosophy, history, and myth. Seventeen of his works went on to become Hollywood films, and Steinbeck himself achieved success as a Hollywood writer, garnering an Academy Award nomination for Best Writing for Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat. He is known as a regionalist, naturalist, mystic and proletarian writer.