L2 LIG S3 American Literature

Who is considered as the father of the Am novel?

Charles Brockden Brown

When did the gothic novel flourish in Br?

1764-1820

What did Charles Brockden Brown write?

Edgar Hunter in 1799 (use of Am cities and Am theme)

Wieland, or the Transformation: An American Novel in 1798 ( about a man driven to madness and murder, hearing voices and killing his wife and children and commit suicide

With what did James Fenimore Cooper deal with in his work?

Am settings, wilderness, subjects like the Am borders and Whites vs Indians

who was James Fenimore Cooper influence by?

Walter Scott and he was known as the Am W.S

What did James Fenimore Cooper write?

The Leatherstocking tales

The Prairie

The Deerslayer

Who is the main character in most of James Fenimore Cooper’s stories?

Natty Bumppo, a white man raised by Indians => Cultural hybrid

He contributed to the creation of the image of the cowboy

James Fenimore Cooper is considered as…

…The Founding Father of the Am Romance

When did the periodic period start?

1790s in G and Br

1820s, 30s in the USA

What is Romanticism

Chief emphasis upon freedom of indivudal self-expression.

What did Edgar Allan Poe write?

The Fall of the House of Usher

The Raven

The Philosophy of Composition = an essay

The Murders in the rue Morgue = tale of ratiocination

What is Poe’s main theme?

the man who lost a beautiful young woman

What is dark romanticism?

explores the strange aspect of psychological processes, a lot of fear, dark recesses of the mind ( extreme emotions/ sadness)

Which author were dark romantic?

Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville

What did Nathaniel Hawthorne write?

The Scarlett Letter in 1850

What is a romance?

A fictional in verse or prose that relates imporbable adventures of in some remote or enchanted settings = opposed to realism

What is The Scarlet Letter about?

In Boston 1650s about an adultery affair between a pastor and a young woman who is gonna be condemned to wear a scarlet letter (A)

Highlights the Puritan obssession with guilt, sexual repression

Who wrote Moby Dick?

Herman Melville (1819-1891) a friend of Hawthorne

What is Moby Dick about?

About a whaling ship (the Pequod)The book is centered on the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for vengeance against Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that bit off his leg on the ship's previous voyage

What are the main themes explored by Melville?

Philosophical and moral texts

The Profound enigmas (mystery of good and evil, God, life and death)

Contemporary social issues

What did Harriet Beecher Stowe write?

Uncle Tom’s cabin in 1852 anti slavery novel

To what did Uncle Tom’s cabin contributed?

to the propagation of the Tom’s stereotype (the black man as a docile and eldery man, submissive servant)

What is Slave narrative?

A written account by an escaped or freed slave of his/her own experience of slavery. A special Am form of autobiography

Give 2 examples of Slave narratives

Fredericj Douglass The Narrative of the Life of fredereic Douglass in 1845

Solomon Northup Twelve Years a Slave in 1853 = most famous slave narrative was born a free man but was kidnapped by the USA

Give an example of a Slave narrative written by a woman

Harriet Jacobs Incident in the Life of a Slave Civil in 1861

Reveals the sexual exploitation of female slaves

escaped in 1843 and went Nth and became an ardent abolionist speaker

How was also called the Romantic period in the USA?

The Age of Transcendentalism

What did Whitman write?

Song of Myself ( he sings his love for Am and believes that AM has a chief role to play worldwide)

O captain, my captain

Leaves of Grass

Who was Margaret Fuller?

considered as the first AM feminist

wrote an essay Woman in the XIXth

What is the Oversoul?

A divine principle which unifies everything in the universe, it is the name Emerson gave to the Divine Spirit

How can Transcendentalism be called?

Light Romanticism

Name Transcendentalist authors

Emerson, Thoreau

What did Emerson write?

Nature in 1836 the Bible of Tism

Self-Reliance in 1841= essay

The American Scholar in 1837 = essay in which he calls for Indpce from Eu= knowns as America’s intellectual declaration of Independance (real one 1776)

What did Henry David Thoreau write?

On the duty of Civil Disobedience = essay in which he urges people not to cooperate with the gvt because the policies are unfair

passive resistance

Walden, or Life in the Woods

He cut himslef from society and lived alone in a cabine he built on Walden Lake

What mvt was Whitman influenced by?

Tism

Name two of the Brahim Poets

henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Oliver Wendell Holmes

What did Horacio Alger write?

Novels for children about poor boys who rise from poverty to middle class comfort

Ragged Dick. Street Life in NY with the Boot-Blacks (led to…

Ragged Dick series

What did Mark Twain write?

Tom Sawyer

The Gilded Age in 1873= a criticism of the materialism of the USA

The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn in 1884 = set pre C.W

= Finn and his friend who is an escaped slave + use of Huck’s dialect

What is Local Colour?

Transition to Realism

Accurate descriptions of specific Am regions

they contributed to the use of the vernacular in literary work

Stories usually set in the past and not in the time of the writing

Name local colourists

Bert Harte, Mark Twain (most famous one)