The colonial period

• American literature is the youngest of all national literatures
• for long time it was very much under influence of English literature and had puritan character
• first American newspaper started in Boston in 1704
• puritans described New England as “Promised Land” of the Bible and the central drama of hisory in many of their histories as the struggle between Christ and Satan

CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH (1580-1631)

• he fought in Hungary where he was wounded, taken prisoner and sold as a slave, but he escaped
• he helped found Jamestown in 1607

“The relation of Virginia, description of New England” – both advertisements for the New World

WILLIAM BRADFORD (1590-1657)

“The history of Plymouth plantation” – he described the difficult first winter in which half of Pilgrims died

 

The birth of a Nation (1700’s)

• the real history of American literature began in the time of the American fight for independence
• no fiction, only realistic songs, poems, phrase

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790)

• he was a publisher of books and newspapers, a scientist and a Revolutionary
• he helped in drafting the Declaration of Independence
• he wrote his AUTOBIOGRAPHY – real book

“The slave trade” – an ironical letter fighting for the abolition of slavery

THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826)

• the first Secretary of state, in 1801 was elected President
• he was founder of the University of Virginia
• the chief author of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE – it’s built on the Enlightenment ideas of John Locke

“Notes on the state of Virginia”- he attacked slavery

THOMAS PAINE

• was the greatest pamphlet writer of the Revolution

“Common sense”- most historically important pamphlet in American history about united American feelings against England

The rise of a national literature

• it appeared the first novel in US, using realistic details they could describe the reality of American life – it helped Americans to see themselves as a single nation
• in the early part of the 19^th century New York City was the center of American writing
• its writers were called the Knickerbockers – name came from “a history of NY, by Diedrich Knickerbocker

WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859)

• Irving’s books crested a lot of interests in the local history of NY, but it was a humorous rather than a serious history of the city and many events and legends were invented by Irving

“The sketch book” – contains two of the best known stories

“Rip van Winkle” and “The legend of sleepy hollow” – both stories are based on old German folk tales, but Irving put them both to NY

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (1789-1851)

• he wrote adventure stories with historical details, in Europe he became known as the American Walter Scott
• most of his stories were also set in NY (like Irving) and he described characters as the Indian and the Yankee sailors

“The spy, The last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder”

 

An American Renaissance (1830’s – 1840’s)

• the Transcendentalists – movement of feelings and beliefs

WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892)

• he helped American poets become free of old English traditions of form
• he worded as a nurse during the civil war, because he was too old to fight

“Leaves of grass” – his life’s work

• grass served Whitman as a symbol of the equality of people, of the progress in life and life’s triumph over death

“Song of myself” – his idea, that the “self” grows to include friends, the nation and humanity

The civil War/ The Gilded Age

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE (1811-1896)

“Uncle Tom’s cabin” – the story of an old slave (uncle Tom) who hopes for freedom, but never escapes slavery, in the end he welcomes the death caused his cruel master

MARK TWAIN (born Samuel Clemens) – (1835-1910)

• he grew up listening to Indian legends and stories told by black slaves
• he was influenced by life on the river and steamboats exited his dreams of adventure, in his book we see the conflict between the moral ideas of Ames and their desire for the money
• he became famous with a short story called “The celebrated jumping frog” – humor story

“The gilded age” – it’s novel about the immorality of post – civil war America, when small number of rich but ….. men held great power covering crime and social injustice

• people called time Golden Age, but he called it he Gilded Age

“Adventures of tom Sawyer and the adventures of Huckleberry Finn” – the heroes Tom  (romantic) and Huck (realist) fight against the stupidity of the adult

JACK LONDON (1876-1916)

• he was travelling and working as a sailor, worker, miner and writer

“The call of the wild”- his best know novel  – the story of a dog in the far North, who escapes from civilization to lead a wolf pack

Realism /Naturalism

• by the last quarter of the 19^th century American literature began moving toward
• they tried to find the truth through feeling and intuition rather than through logic – they found GOD everywhere, in man and nature

HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817-1862)

“Civil disobedience” – he described time what he had spent in jail, because he refused to pay taxes to the US government in protest to slavery

Writers against the transcendentalists:

HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891)

• he had a tragic view of life
• in his stories man lives in a world divided into two fighting parts :good against evil, God against satan, the head against the heart
• his stories were set as sea adventures, because he was a sailor

“Moby Dick” – his most important and famous novel

• it is the symbolic voyage of whaling strip, the white whale represents GOD or fate and captain Ahab is torn between his humanity and his desire to destroy the white whale – Ahab and darkness wins
• the public didn’t appreciate Moby Dick

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809-1849) – he also interested in dark side of human nature

• he is important representative of the short story, literary criticism and poetry
• he is also one of the creators of the modern detective story

“The raven” – his most famous poem

“The murders in the Rue Morgue, The black cat”

 

Some 19^th century poets:

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1807-1882)

• he was Boston aristocrat and Harvard professor
• he was optimistic and idealistic
• “Paul revere’s ride” – famous poems of American literature
• “Hiawatha” – an Indian epic of America

Realism, but some realists also become naturalists – they believed that people were not really free. That opinions and morality were controlled by social, economic and psychological courses

STEPHEN CRANE (1871-1900)

• first American naturalist, his characters are always controlled by their environment

“Maggie, a girl of the streets” – sad story of a girl who has to became a prostitute and it shows the cruelty of society

“Red badge of courage” – crane’s greatest novel

• story about soldier, who runs from battle to escape death, but he was injured, the other soldiers think it’s a battle wound
• he confusion of the battle field causes us to confuse good and bad, heroes and cowards – all is left to fate and chance

 

20^th century

• the first World War – the writers lost their ideals, they were not able to find a suitable place in society

 

ERNST HEMINGWAY (1898-1961)

• was the head of the disillusioned lost generation, Nobel award
• he was a volunteer ambulance unit in France, he was wounded

“From whom the bell tolls” – his longest novel, is a psychological picture of the Spanish civil war

• the main character Robert Jordan comes to Spain to help in the fight against fascism/Nazism

“The old man and the sea” – story about the Cuban fisherman Santiago and his struggle with nature

“Farewell to arms” the love story of an English nurse and American ambulance lieutenant during the war

“Men without women, green hills of Africa, to have and have not, Men at war, Across the river and into the trees”

 

FRANCIS SCOTT FITZGERALD (1896-1940)

• the theme of great wealth and selfish rich appears in many of his books

“Great Gatsby, Tender is the night”

 

JOHN STEIBACK (1902-1968)

• belong to great American realists, he defended the poor

“The pastures of heaven”- short stories about people of a farming community

“Tortilla flat” – it was filmed

“Of mice and man” – one of his best novel

• story of two homeless and wandering farm workers

“The grapes of wrath” – his master piece, tragic story of the travels of poor farmers

“East of Eden” – long family saga

– using the theme of Cain and Abel in a story both symbolic and realistic of man’s struggle between good and the evil