Lesson 3: American Literature

• The United States of America is referred to by many as the "El Dorado" or the land of opportunity.
• Recognized as a melting pot of diversity, this land has so much to offer, particularly when it comes to literature.
• The colonial period began when Jamestown, the first English settlement in America, was founded in 1607 and ended in the beginning of the American Revolution in 1775.
• In the 1630s, there was a big wave of British immigration to Boston. This phenomenon paved the way for various events to flourish in American literature during this

  period.
• The most prominent form of literary piece during this time was the pamphlet that extolled the European conquerors.
• John Winthrop - a Puritan who influenced the government and religions of other colonies through his writings.
• Edward Winslow - wrote several works that were of massive value to the historian of the Plymouth colony.
• William Bradford - wrote a journal chronicling the Pilgrim venture.
• Anne Bradstreet - one of the first poets to write

  English verse in the American colonies
• Edward Taylor - one of the foremost poets of

  colonial British North America
• Michael Wigglesworth - an author of rhymed.

  treatises expounding Puritan doctrines
• Nicholas Noyes - wrote competent verses in the

  Puritan metaphysical tradition
• Revolutionary Period - The natives’ realization of the atrocities of their conquerors, such as their lack of representation in the government, and their desire to have the same rights as the British subjects, brought about the revolutionary period, which ran from 1765 to 1783.
• Revolutionary Period - The literature of this period was political in tone because it was seen as an avenue by the American writers to express their protest against the British Empire. Two keynote personalities during this time were Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine.
• When we hear the word renaissance, we tend to zoom in on our history lesson of the Renaissance Period, in 14th century Europe, where the revival of classical art and learning flourished.
• The American Renaissance period is regarded as the “Golden Era” of American literature because writers showed the spirit of liberation in their works. It also led to the popularization of democratic literature. F.O. Matthiessen coined the term American Renaissance in 1941.
• F.O. Matthiessen asserted that American Renaissance literature is “literature for democracy and for the people.”
• Literary enthusiasts asserted that writers should have their unique styles that are only seen in American literature
• Transcendentalists - They believed that knowledge could be obtained through intuition and contemplation of inner spirits and not merely through the senses.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) ● Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) ● Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) ● William Henry Channing (1810–1884) ● George Ripley (1802–1880) ● Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) ● Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) ● Elizabeth Peabody (1804–1894)
• Transcendentalists: Major writers of this movement were:

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

  Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

  Margaret Fuller (1810–1850)

  William Henry Channing (1810–1884)

  George Ripley (1802–1880)

  Emily Dickinson (1830–1886)

  Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888)

  Elizabeth Peabody (1804–1894)
• Dark Romantics - They explored mankind’s darker side through writing subjects that are grotesque, gothic, and extremely melancholic. They also explored the conflict between good and evil in their literary works.
• Dark Romantics: Major writers of this movement were:

  Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864)

  Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)

  Herman Melville (1819–1891)
• Realism - Following the rebirth or renaissance of American literature, there came a time when musicians, artists, and literary writers alike yearned to be a reflection of what it truly means to be American. The creative and imaginative. America aimed to depict a more modern social reality
• Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who is more widely known by his pseudonym Mark Twain, is regarded as the father of realism in American literature. The most remarkable realist masterpieces of Twain are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
• A popular literary device used in this kind of literature was the frame narrative or the story within a story. In more technical terms, this is called “mise en abyme.” This device is not new to world literature as it has been used in earlier masterpieces such as Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
• Apart from Twain, there were numerous American realist writers who were famous as well. They were:

  George W. Cable,

  Thomas Nelson Page,

  Joel Chandler Harris,

  Mary Noailles Murfree (Charles Egbert Craddock),

  Sarah Orne Jewett,

  Mary E. Wilkins Freeman,

  Henry Cuyler Bunner, and

  William Sydney Porter (O. Henry).
• Modern and Postmodern Periods - During the 1950s, we can see a big and drastic change in the American literary tradition. That change revolutionized how writers compose their works. This, of course, comes from the social movements such as the two World Wars and the Cold War.
• Simply put, modernism and postmodernism underscored that literary writing has to be “free.”