American Literature CLEP

Prose

All work that is not poetry, drama, or song.

Articles, Autobiographies, biographies, novels, essays.

Poetry

Selected words strung together for their beauty, sound and power to express feelings

Fable

Short, easy to read story. Teaches a lesson about people. Prose

Folk Tale

Story handed down between generations: Fable, Fairy Tale, Legend, Tall tale, Myth. Prose

Legend

Explains origins of natural items. Prose

Humor

Amusing components: sarcasm, word play, irony, exaggeration. Proze

Memoir

1st person recollection of an event. Prose

Ballad

Story told in song form. Common themes: love and adventure. Poetry

Lyric

Brief musical poems that convey speakers feelings. Poetry

Narrative

Story in poetic form. Has plot, characters, and theme, like narrative story. Poetry

Sonnet

14 line poem w/ set scheme and rhythm, usually iambic pentameter. Poetry.

Antagonist

Force or character in conflict with protagonist.

Exposition

1st part of plot. Introduces characters, setting, and conflict.

Rising Action

2nd part of plot. Builds Conflict and develops characters.

Climax

3rd part of plot. Highest point of action.

Denouement

4th part of plot. Resolves story and ties up loose ends.

Blank Verse

Un-rhymed lines of iambic pentameter. captures natural rhythm of speech.

Foot

group of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of poetry.

Free verse

no regular beat, rhyme, or line length. Fathered by Walt Whitman.

Meter

Beat of a poem created by stressed and unstressed syllables.

Refrain

Line or group of lines repeated at the end of a poem or song.

Stanza

Group of lines in a poem. AKA verse.

Allusion

Reference to a well known place, event, person, work of art, or other literature.

Image

word which appeals to one or more of our senses.

Speaker

personality the writer assumes when telling a story

Symbol

Person , place, or object which represents an abstract idea

Americas 1st Writers, (Early Colonial) 1607-1756

Puritanism and John Smith

Total deprevity

Everyone is born sinful. 'original sin' Puritan belief.

Doctrine of election

God chooses who is saved and doomed. Puritan belief.

Limited atonement

Jesus died for a select few. Puritan belief.

William Bradford

1590-1657. first leader of Plymouth Colony= 'Kingdom of God'.

-Re-elected 30 times.

-One of Mayflower Compact authors

-'History of Plymouth Plantation' 1620-1647

John Winthrop

Founder of Mass. Bay colony. Arrived in 1630 on Arabella. Governer of Mass. Bay colony.

Famous sermon: 'A model of christian charity'

Anne Bradstreet

1612-1672. 1st Am. published poet.

'The 10th muse lately sprung up in a Am.' 1650

'Love me tender, Love me true' = love for husband, promise of heaven.

'Verses of our burning house' = house means nothing compared to promise of heaven.

Puritan.

Michael Wigglesworth

Author of 'The day of doom' 1662, 1st Am. best seller = Puritan beliefs and end of the world.

Edward Taylor

1645-1729.

Puritan minister, finest puritan writer/poet.

2nd gen. explored self examination.

Used conceits.

Influenced:T.S Eliot and Ezra Pound.

Huswifery

Poem by Edward Taylor.

Spinning wheel = conceit for God's plan.

Conceit

Elaborate and unusual comparison between two starkly different objects.

Cotton Mather

1663-1728.

450 volumes of work, type A personality, Harvard @ 12y/o.

Began talk of witches.

Puritan Minister and Scribe during salem witch trials

'Magnalia Christi Americana'

Cotton Mather = author. 1702.

Most famous work, his views on puritan society.

John Smith

1580-1631.

Wrote: 'A Description of NE' (1616) and 'The great history of VA, NE, and the summer isles' (1624) Early american explorer.

Puritans

Extreme anglican reformists, exiled themselves to Am. for religious freedom. William Bradford = Alpha.

Revolutionary Period

(1750-1800) Early National Period

Mass produced, public literature: letters, essays, speeches, and declarations.

Abigail Adams

Married 2nd president, gave birth to future president.

Famous letter to congress 'Remember the ladies" Women will not "be bound by laws that leave them voiceless, or rebellion"

J. Hector St. Jean de Crevocoeur

1735-1813.

Coined terms:

"The Am. Adam" > Uniquely American Traits.

"Melting Pot" > America's uniqueness, transcends ethnicity, culture, religion.

Benjamin Franklin

1706-1790

Used aphorisms. > 'Poor Richards Almanac'

Self made american man.

Autobiography potrayed America's ambitious nature.

Aphorism

Clever, memorable statements.

"There will be sleeping enough in the grave"

Thomas Jefferson

1793-1826

'Sage of Monticello'

Declaration of Independence (1776)

Thomas Paine

1737-1809

Voyage to Am @ 37y/o paid by B. Franklin.

'Common Sense' & ' American Crisis' (1776) helped incite Revolutionary war

Washington Irving

1789-1851. Big Daddy of Am. Lit.

'A History of NY' > spoof of well known figures

Geoffrey Crayon, Jon Oldstyle, Anthony Evergreen = publishing names.

'Rip Van Winkle' 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow'

Put Am. on literary map.

Started 'local color' movement

Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Icabod Crane = Protagonist. lanky, ghastly figure.

Headless horseman kills Icabod and bewitches the town.

Author: Washington Irving

Rip Van Winkle

Lazy, drunkard husband has a nagging wife.

Goes to mountains, finds people bowling, sleeps for 20 years and wanders back to town.

Author: Washington Irving

The Devil and Tom Walker

Man who sells his soul to the devil.

Wife and husband (Tom, prot.) are unpleasant to say the least.

Tom finds devil in the woods, finds him pleasant compared to his wife. Author: Washington Irving.

James Fenimore Cooper

1789-1851. Father of the Am. Novel.

1st big hit= 'The Pioneers' 1823.

claim to fame = leatherstocking tales

Unpleasant, sued neighbors 40 times.

Leatherstocking Tales

Author: James Fenimore Cooper.

Natty Bumpo = Protagonist.

'The Pioneers' 1823, 'The Last of the Mohicans' 1826, 'The Prarie' 1827, 'The Pathfinder' 1840, 'The Deerslayer' (1841)

Influenced: N.Hawthornes 'Scarlet Letter' and H. Mellvilles Moby Dick'

Hurons = Iroquois = Mingos

1st Am. adventure stories

Edgar Allen Poe

1809-1849

Rhythm heavy, R.W. Emerson > "The Jingle Man"

Drunkard, married 13y/o cousin.

'The Raven' ' Annabel Lee'

Created short stories as lit. genre. Created detective novels.

'The Raven'

Set ground rules for 19th century poetry.

Author : Edgar Allen Poe.

Theme: man driven to madness by a raven while mourning the loss of his wife, Lenore.

Detective Short Stories

Logic is used to solve a mystery.

Created by Edgar Allen Poe: 'The Gold bug' 'Murders in Rue morgue' ' Purloined Letter' > Inspired character: Sherlock Holmes.

Romantic Period

1840-1855.

time period with R.W. Emerson, H.D Thoreou, N. Hawthorne, H. Melville.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

1803-1882.

Formed Transcendental Club (1836)

"Nature is God's work visible to man"

'Self Reliance' 'Hymn sung at the completion of the Concord monument' 'Nature' "The American Scholar" (speech)

"Divinity School Address" > True religion resides within.

'Self Reliance'

By: Ralph Waldo Emerson. Inward looking summary of how people should be independent.

Henry David Thoreau

1817-1862

Moved to R.W Emerson's in 1842.

Lived according to his definition of happiness and success.

'Walden' 'The Last Straw' 'Civil Disobedience'

Used Aphorisms

'Walden'

By: H.D Thoreau.

Theme: reducing life to it's simplest to understand it better, resist materialism

'The Last Straw'

essay protesting Mexican-Am. war. "gov't is best which governs least" by. H.D Thoreau

'Civil Disobedience'

influence MLK and Ghandi and Nelson Mandella. Guide to peaceful protests, by: H.D Thoreau.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

1804-1869

Themes: Sin and Guilt, brought adultery to am. lit., characters are torn between evil of human nature and sympathy for natural passions.

Poor, had powerful friends: Prs. Franklin Pierce.

'The Scarlet Letter' ' Young Goodman Brown'

'The Scarlet Letter'

1st psychological novel in Am. Hester Pryme = prot. = adultress.

Hester is put in jail and forced to wear a letter A on her chest. Rose bush is symbolism for Hester.

'Young Goodman Brown'

Young = prot., leaves his wife in the middle of the night to find townespeople coercing with the devil. by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville

Anti-transcendentalists > Flawed characters.

Dark Romantics> no clear line between good and evil.

Herman Melville

1819-1891

'Typee' = 1st book

'Moby Dick'

Poster child for misunderstood artist

'Typee'

Herman Melville's adventures at sea with island cannibals and nubile slave guards

'Moby Dick'

By. H. Melville. greatest novel.

Interpretations: 1. risks of trying to make nature bend to the will of man. 2. rebellion against evil and chaos. 3. Ishmael's(narrator) search for meaning in life.

Antagonist interpretations: symbol of evil, God, indifferent universe.

Early Romantic Period, Civil War

1855-1865

Harriet Beecher Stowe

1811-1896

'Uncle Tom's Cabin' = 1st Am. novel to sell 1M copies

'Uncle Tom's Cabin'

By: Harriet Beecher Stowe

credited for starting civil war.

Polemic- literary piece intending to change public opinion.

most influential book of 19th century.

theme: slavery can be solved with christian love.

Frederick Douglass

1817-1895

freed himself in 1838, taught himself to read. (13th amend=1865)

William Lloyd Garrison (militant abolitionist) hired him as a speaker.

'My Bondage and My Freedom' 1855, 'The life and times of ______'1881. 'Narrative of the life of _____, and Am. slave'

writer for newspaper 'North Star' > abolitionist

'Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass'

3 versions.

Theme: Slavery corrupts human spirit and robs freedom from both slave and master.

Walt Whitman

1819-1892

'Song of Myself' 'A noiseless patient spider' 'When lilac last in the dooryard bloomed' 'Out the cradle, endlessly rocking' 'O Captain, my captain'

'Leaves of Grass' 1855

Created new poetic forms and distinct Am. style.

No allusions or rhyme, captured everyday speech.

Walt Whitman's work

'Song of myself' defined am. poetry, no rhyme, non-traditional theme, no allusions.

'Leaves of Grass' Masterpiece compilation of poetry."I song the body electric" > homoerotic longings (heterosexual)

"A noiseless patient spider" Desire for immortality through legend. Heroic dignity of human soul, hanging by a thread, surrounded by chaos.

'When Lilac last in the dooryard bloomed'

lementing Lincoln's death, dealt with it through nature.

symbolism: lilac- everlasting spirit, poet's love for the pres.

fallen west star- pres. Lincoln. Thrush's song- grief

'O Captain, my Captain' also by W. Whitman, memorializes Lincoln's death

"Out of the cradle, endlessly rocking"

By: Walt Whitman.

Journey of the soul from _____ to art. Life's natural cycles, death and beauty.

Emily Dickinson

1830-1886

Afraid of open spaces, rarely, if ever left her house.

wrote 1775 poems, published 7 while alive.

No rhyme, strange grammar, striking figures of speech. = Rejected in her time, radical ideas.

Started Imagist movement of the 1920's

Themes: Love, nature, death (mostly), immortality

Foundations of Modern poetry

laid by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson

Realism and Naturalism

1865-1915

2 movements driven by: Industrialization of Am and wealth.

Mark Twain

Real name: Samuel Clemmens, 1835-1910

greatest humorist of 19th century.

captured local color of the west

Motifs: frontier vernacular, exagguration, humor, deadpan narration, strangers.

born and died with Haley's comet

'Tom Sawyer' 'Life on the mississippi' 'Prince and the pauper' 'A CT yankee in King Arthur's Court'

'Celebrated jumping frog of Culveras County'

By Mark Twain. Smiley = notorious gambler, trains a frog to jump. Stranger takes bet that he can find a frog which can jump higher, fills Smiley's frog with lead, Smiley loses, stranger vanishes.

'Adventure of Huckleberry Finn'

1885, by Mark Twain

Jim (slave) Huck (rebellious boy) escape slavery, abusive father, conforming to society, oppressive aunts on the Mississippi river.

Stephen Crane

1871-1900

Started naturalism believed in determinism

1st novel: 'Maggie: A girl of the streets' 1893, 'Red Badge of Courage' 1895, 'The open boat'

Attacked: Patriotism, individualism, and organized religion to confront a meaningless world.

Realism

major literary movement in the 19th century

The details of ordinary life = art. started by William Dean Howells

Naturalism

major literary movement of 19th century

determinism, effect of heredity and environment on helpless people. Started by Stephen Crane

Inescapable effects of chance, nature, heredity, and env.

Darwinism: Survival of the fittest. Life = blind machine.

Included: Jack London, Frank Norris, Theodore Dreiser

'Maggie: A girl of the streets'

1893

Maggie (prot.) falls for Pete, He dumps her after sex. Family disowns her and refuses to house or feed her, leads to prostitution and death. Mother forgives Maggie post mortem.

Big Picture: attack on traditional christian morals. Opened 20th century theme of loss of morals.

By: Stephen Crane

'Red Badge of Courage'

Theme: Civil War, journey to manhood

Prot. = Henry Flemming, itching to get war experience.

Intent: psycholigical portrayal of fear: isolation, identity, death, failure, guilt.

Title means to be wounded in war. Impressionist.

By: Stephen Crane

'The Open Boat'

by Stephen Crane. plot: 4 men on a boat which sinks, take a dingy to safety

The only one with a name (Billy the Oiler) dies, despite being the strongest > Nature is random.

Humanity vs. The sea, an indifferent killer.

Atavism

recessive genes which show in preceding generations. Naturalist Belief.

Determinism

All events follow natural laws. Inspired by Newton's laws of physics. Naturalist Belief.

Nativism

"Americans of early Anglo-Saxon origins". Naturalist Belief.

Nietzcheism

"Will to power" = primary force. Naturalist Belief.

Racialism

Different races have different traits. Naturalist Belief.

Scientism

Science trumps religion, mythical, or spiritual interpretations of life.

Naturalist Belief.

Naturalist Vs. Realist

Naturalist = pessimistic, people can't make moral choices.

Realists do not believe in determinism (all events follow natural laws)

Jack London

1876-1916

Highest paid writer in his day.'Martin Eden' = Autobiographical work: man becomes rich, woman falls for him (only for $), he commits suicide. 'Call of the Wild'