lit

• Prometheus in Greek mythology was a titan who created man in the image of the gods
• Prometheus stole the gift of fire from Mt. Olympus and gave it to man
• Prometheus was punished by Zeus and chained to a rock on a mountain
• Zeus' eagle would eat Prometheus' liver every day for 30 years
• Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was the daughter of William Godwin, an influential political philosopher and novelist, and Mary Wollstonecraft, a pioneer in promoting women's rights and education
• In the summer of 1816, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and Percy Shelley visited Lord Byron at his villa beside Lake Geneva in Switzerland
• Stormy weather forced them indoors where they read ghost stories, leading to a challenge by Byron for each guest to write their own story
• Mary's story, inspired by a dream, became Frankenstein
• Mary's dream of her daughter Clara being brought back to life through rubbing and warmth inspired her to write Frankenstein
• Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was not intended to be a tale of the supernatural
• Mary Shelley combined Gothic elements and science in Frankenstein
• Gothic literature emerged as a part of the larger Romanticism movement in the late 1700s
• John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding argued that a child is a "blank slate" formed only through experience
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Emile, or On Education promotes the idea that a child's upbringing is responsible for his nature
• Historical events like the French Revolution and Napoleon's crowning influenced the time period of Frankenstein
• Romanticism movement emphasized the importance of the individual, subjectivity, imagination, and expression of emotions
• Romantic writers turned to nature as an escape from the harsh realities of the world during the Romantic period
• Elements of the Gothic novel in Frankenstein include setting in a castle, mystery and suspense, supernatural events, and high emotion
• Mary Shelley delves into the psyches of the characters in Frankenstein to explain their reactions and decisions
• Scientists during Mary Shelley's time were fascinated by the boundary between life and death, experimenting with electricity and resuscitation
• Frankenstein's novel structure consists of three concentric layers: Robert Walton's letters, Frankenstein's story, and the Monster's description
• Main allusions in Frankenstein include Prometheus, Paradise Lost, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Allusions in Frankenstein also include Cornelius Agrippa, Adam and Eve, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus
• The monster in Frankenstein is just one of the monstrous entities in the novel, with Victor himself being seen as a kind of monster
• Critics have described Frankenstein as a monstrous combination of different voices, texts, and tenses
• Colonial Period (1607 – 1775):

  • Majority of writings were historical, practical, or religious in nature
  • Notable writers include Phillis Wheatley, Cotton Mather, William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet, and John Winthrop
  • First account of an enslaved African person published in 1760 Boston
• Revolutionary Age (1765 – 1790):

  • Includes writings of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton
  • Important works include the “Declaration of Independence,” "The Federalist Papers," and poetry of Joel Barlow and Philip Freneau
• Early National Period (1775 – 1828):

  • First American comedy written for the stage: "The Contrast" by Royall Tyler in 1787
  • First American Novel: "The Power of Sympathy" by William Hill in 1789
  • Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Charles Brockden Brown credited with creating distinctly American fiction
  • Edgar Allan Poe and William Cullen Bryant began writing poetry different from English tradition
• American Renaissance (1828 – 1865):

  • Major writers include Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, and Herman Melville
  • Emerson, Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller shaped literature and ideals of later writers
  • Inauguration point of American literary criticism led by Poe, James Russell Lowell, and William Gilmore Simms
  • First novels by African American authors in 1853 and 1859: "Clotel" by William Wells Brown and "Our Nig" by Harriet E. Wilson
• Realistic Period (1865 – 1900):

  • American Civil War, Reconstruction, and industrialism influenced American literature
  • Romantic notions replaced by realistic descriptions of American life
  • Notable writers include William Dean Howells, Henry James, Mark Twain, Sarah Orne Jewett, Kate Chopin, and Emily Dickinson
• Naturalist Period (1900 – 1914):

  • Defined by recreating life as it really is
  • American Naturalist writers include Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser, and Jack London
  • Edith Wharton wrote beloved classics during this time period
• Modern Period (1914 – 1939):

  • Second most influential age of American writing after the American Renaissance
  • Major writers include E.E. Cummings, Robert Frost, Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and more
  • Major movements within this period include the Jazz Age, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Lost Generation
  • Influenced by World War I and the Great Depression
• Beat Generation (1944 – 1962):

  • Beat writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg were anti-traditional and anti-establishment
  • Rise in confessional poetry and sexuality in literature
  • Writers faced legal challenges and censorship debates
• Contemporary Period (1939 – Present):

  • Broad and varied in theme, mode, and purpose
  • Important writers since 1939 include Kurt Vonnegut, Amy Tan, John Updike, Toni Morrison, Sylvia Plath, and many others
• Two young men, Kanakan sa Sebangan (East Bachelor) and Kanakan sa Sedpan (West Bachelor), made an agreement to engage in farming, put an equal share of the capital expense, and divide equally their farm produce
• Their farm was located at Lembaka a Lopa (Midland Area)
• East Bachelor lived in the east (sebangan), while West Bachelor dwelt in the west (sedpan). They only met at work on their farm in the midland
• Every day they went to their farm at the same time beginning at sunrise and returning to their respective houses at sunset
• Besides sharing equally their farming capital expenses, both worked and sacrificed equally for the success of their venture
• After a successful harvest, they got into trouble when partitioning the grain, each claiming a bigger share due to perceived differences in sacrifice