AMS authors and works

Anne Bradstreet

To My Loving Husband (Prologue, The Flesh and the Spirit, The Author of Her Book)

-connects her art with the everyday (novelty)

-how to achieve purpose in everyday life and the afterlife

-sacred mission above all

John Smith

A Description of New England

-supposed to attract new settlers

-glossed over the hardships, romanticization

William Bradford

Of Plymouth Plantation

-supposed to attract new settlers

John Winthrop

City upon a Hill

-sermon, meant to be listened to, not read

-trying to give solace to the people, the idea of them being the chosen people

Edward Taylor

Preface to God’s Determinations Touching His Elect

-poetic meditation framed through a series of rhetorical questions

-serves as an argument for the existence and omnipotence of God

Edgar Allan Poe

The Fall of the House of Usher - AM Gothic, criticism of aristocracy, twin brother and sister, insinuation of intermarriage and incest

The Tell-Tale Heart - mad narrator claiming he is not, murder of a loved one for no reason other than the fear of the old man’s pale blue eye, chopping the body and putting in below the floorboards, police comes but does not suspect, narrator’s paranoia and imagined sound of the man’s heart drive him to confess

The Purloined Letter - amateur detective Dupin and the side-kick narrator, establishing the trope

The Raven - narrative poem about a grieving man visited by a mysterious raven, mourning of lost love Lenore, repetition of raven’s “Nevermore” to the narrator’s profound questions, man trapped in hopeless grief

Ulalume - Gothic poem explores the themes of loss, grief and memory through a dreamlike narrative, meditation on the tension between remembrance and wish to escape grief, beauty in the macabre (young person dying)

Annabel Lee - poem about pure and deep love between the narrator and AL, their love was so strong the angels became envious and sent a chilling wind that led to AL’s death, the narrator continues to dream of her and lie beside her tomb each night, insisting their souls remain connected forever

Ralph W. Emerson

Nature - essay

-marks the start of Transcendentalism

-we must spend time in nature alone for our well-being and use our intuition to understand it

-to understand nature is to understand ourselves, others, the world, the universe, God

-this will unify humankind with nature again, which grew distant from it

Henry David Thoreau

Walden - reflective memoir

-his experiment of self-reliant living near Walden Pond i nMassachusetts, but not complete isolation

-reducing his needs to essentials and immersing himself in nature to explore the meaning of life and human existence

-reconnection with the self

Emily Dickinson

The Saddest Noise, the Sweetest Noise; I felt a Funeral, in My Brain; I’m Nobody! Who are you? etc.

-sublime poetry

-personified imagery of death, almost beautiful

-focus on the human mind, psychology

-grief, internal turmoil

Kate Chopin

The Awakening - novel

-the emotional and sexual awakening of Edna and increasing awareness of her own desires and independence

-begins to reject traditional roles imposed on her by society and marriage

-becomes conflicted between her duties as a wife and mother and longing for freedom and self-expression

-Robert unable to break free from societal constraints, deepens her isolation

-Edna returns to Grand Isle and drowns herself in the sea - symbol of escape and ultimate freedom from societal expectations

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass (Song of Myself) - poetry collction

-celebration of nature, individuality, self-expression, sensual pleasure, equality

-free verse, but has rhythm

-mostly famous for his erotic and sensual undertone, over homoeroticism

-democratic treatment of bodies, equal sensuality in male-famale, young-old, rich-poor bodies

-key motif: celebration of the body and the soul

-saw sexuality as something basic to life

F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby

-the novel explores the themes of wealth, class, idealism, love and the elusive nature of the American Dream

-portrays the ultimate impossibility of recapturing the past or achieving true fulfillment through materialism

-the decay of the American Dream, the idea that wealth will bring Gatsby everything crumbles

-wealthy people - leading unimaginative, empty lives - nothing substantial

-wealthy people have privileges that cannot be taken away, coming from rags to riches does not provide one with the right connction to succeed in refined society

-Daisy - if he could get her, it would mean that he had made it

Robert Frost

The Road Not Taken; Fire and Ice; Mending Wall; After Apple-Picking etc.

-does not belong to a specific tradition, unique AM voice

-simple imagery, everyday motifs but highly symbolic

-rural author, attuned to nature’s cycles

-tradition of new national poets, highly influential

T. S. Eliot

The Waste Land

-poem dedicated to Ezra Pound

-main theme - the disillusionment after WWI

-symbolic landscape - a society in need of rejuvenation

-5 parts: The Burial of the Dead, A Game of Chess, The Fire Sermon, Death by Water, What the Thunder Said

-ENNUI - a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement - self-sacrifice the antidote

-promiscuity, foresight, clairvoyance

Ezra Pound

In a station to the Metro, The Seafarer, Cantos

-Imagist movement - emphasis on clarity, precision and economy of language, drawing an inspiration from classical Chinese and Japanese poetry

-the Canots - his life’s work, complex modernist epic mixing history, politics and personal reflection

-key promoter of many major writers such as T.S. Eliot and Robert Frost

E. E. Cummings

Buffalo Bill’s, I Carry Your Heart with Me

-experimental with poetic form and language, distinct personal style

-typical poem of his - spare and precise, employing a few key words eccentrically placed on the page

-assigning his own private meaning to words or inventing new ones

Jack Kerouac

On the Road

-became a defining novel of the Beat Generation and postwar disillusionment, semi-autobiographical

-follows the restless journeys of Sal Paradise and his friend Dean Moriarty across postwar America

-From NYC to San Francisco and back, experiencing jazz, drugs, poetry and fleeting relationships - exploration of freedom, friendship, identity and the pursuit of happiness

-through their adventures, K portrays a restless generation seeking authenticity and connction in a rapidly changing world

-written in spontaneous, free-flowing style, captures the spirit of Beat Generation - youthful rebellion, the search of meaning and the desire to break free from societal norms

-celebration of freedom, rebellion and spiritual searching

-the novel is episodic - individual chapters often stand alone well

-introduction to Americana

-C3-5: vivid hitchhiking scenes (fast, poetic prose)

-C5: famous jazz club scene in an Francisco - reflecting Beat aestehtic (improvisation, racial crossover, ecstasy and spiritual hunger)

Allen Ginsberg

Howl

-defining work of the Beat Generation

-free verse, divided into three long sections

-begins with the famous line: “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness”

-raw and vivid exploration of the struggles faced by Ginsberg’s conteporaries

-it celebrates those who live outside of societal norms - artists, LGBTQ+ people, drug users and other marginalized by mainstream culture

-it portrays their search for meaning amid madness, addiction and oppression

-Part I catalogs the lives and suffering of these best minds

-Part II condemns “Moloch”, a symbol of the destructive forces of capitalism, industrialization and conformity that crush creativity and spirit

-Part III is a personal dedication to Carl Solomon, a friend G met in a mental hospital and reflects the shared experience of madness and industrialization

-G’s use of repetition, anaphora and long lines intended to be read in a single breath creates a powerful, rhythmic howl of protest and lament

William Faulkner

The Sound and the Fury

-traces the downfall of Compson family

-first 3 sections narrated by the 3 Compson sons

-Benjy (mental disability), troubled and sensitive Quentin and cruel, misogynist, patriarchal Jason

=fragmented unreliable story in the centre of which is the Compson daughter Candence - the obsession of all 3 brothers

-1st chapter narrated by Benjy - emotionally raw and structurally disorienting, mental disability integral to the novel - understanding of events fragmented and emotional, no clear line between past and present, his chapters shift back and forth in time

-Quentin is haunted and obsessed with his failure to protect his sister’s virginity . his oppressive sense of guilt eventually leads him to suicide

-Jason’s narrative straightforward but bitter and angry, obsessed with money and control, resents his sister, moral decay

-last narrative by the black maid Dilsey - the novel’s moral centre, embodies strength, faith and stability, compassionate, enduring figure, counterpoint to the chaos and tragedy, symbol of moral resilience

Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar

Robert Coover

The Babysitter

-short story, dark experimental narrative exploring fantasy and the blurred boundaries between reality and imagination

-multiple possible scenarios unfold simultaneously, ranging from innocent t violent and sexual, without clear resolution

-explores the complexity of human consciousness, desire and the fragmentation of modern life

• Fragmentation and Multiplicity: The story presents overlapping, contradictory versions of events, emphasizing uncertainty and the unreliability of perception.

• Voyeurism and Desire: The babysitter is both the object and subject of desire, with the narrative reflecting the male gaze and societal anxieties about female sexuality.

• Suburban Anxiety: Beneath the surface of a typical suburban setting lies tension, fear, and potential violence.

• Experimental Form: Coover uses stream-of-consciousness, shifting perspectives, and non-linear storytelling to challenge traditional narrative structures.

Don DeLillo

short story Videotape and novel White Noise

Videotape - centers on a man who becomes mesmerized by a disturbing video clip of a man getting shot in the head as his daughter is recording

-the man is unable to look away and tries to get his wife to watch it with him

-exploration of the fragility of life, the suddenness of death and society’s obsession with violent and shocking imagery

-critique of modern society’s desensitization to violence and the way media transforms real human tragedy into repeated spectacle

White Noise - follows Jack, a prof. of Hitler studies and hi family as they navigate everyday life disrupted by a catastrophic event called the Airborne Toxic event (a chemical spill)

-explores Jack’s growing fear of death after learning he has been exposed to the chemical

-Jack discovers his wife Babette has secretly been taking an experimental drug called Dylar, designed to eliminate the fear of death = stains the marriage and deepens Jack’s obsession with mortality

-influenced by his friend Murray’s theory that killing someone else can alleviate the fear of death, Jack tracks down and shoots the project manager of Dylar

-critique of consumer culture, media saturation and the pervasive anxiety about death in modern society

-satire of academia and explores how people seek meaning and control in a fragmented, media-driven world

-ambiguous ending - Jack reflecting on the mysteries of life and death amid the banal setting of a supermarket

Donald Barthelme

short story Concerning the Bodyguard

-offers an indirect, subtle glimpse into the life of a bodyguard and his employer “the principal”

-explores the relationship between the BG and the politician he protects

-focusing less on explicit plot and more on the nuances of their interaction and the nature of protection and surveillance

-minimalist style and layered meaning

-reflects on themes of identity, control and the blurred lines between public and private life in the context of celebrity