American Lit Clep

Anne Bradstreet

traditional concerns of the puritan - brevity of life, certainty of death, hope for salvation

Jonathan Edwards

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Benjamin Franklin

witty and satirical, wrote Poor Richard’s Almanack

Phillis Wheatley

poetry, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious, and Moral

themes of colonian and early national literature

puritanism, religion, independence, rationalism

1600-1830

key works of colonial and early national literature

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

Poor Richmans Almanack

edgar allan poe

the raven, poetry

nathaniel hawthorne

novelist and short story writer

history, mortality, religion

herman melville

novelist. short story writer, poet

american renaissance period

Moby Dick

ralph waldo emerson

poet, philosopher, lecturer, essayist, minister, abolitionist

transcendentalism

self reliance

The Over-Soul

henry david thoreau

essayist, poet, philosopher, naturalist

transcedntalism

Walden - reflection on simple living in nature

Civiil Disobedience - nonviolent resistance to unjust laws

his writings explore nature and how people should live

walt whitman

poet, journalist, essayist

the father of free verse

long lines, catalogs, conversational tone to celebrate america individuality, and diversity

frankness, sensual imagery, celebration of human body and nature

emily dickinson

wrote nearly 1800 poems

challenged conventional definitions of poetry and the poet’s role

off-rhymes and elliptical language

experimental and liberating

themes of romanticism and transcendentalism (1830-1865)

individualism

nature

emotion

supernatural

inner truth

leaves of grass

celebrates the human experience, democracy, the interconnectedness of all life, through themes individuality, nature, spirituality, and love

moby-dick

the story of captain ahab’s posessive quest for revenge against Moby Dick, the giant sperm whale that bit off his leg

the scarlet letter

follows Hester Prynne, who is forced to wear a scarlet “A” for adultery after having a child, Pearl, with a local minister, Arthur Dimmesdale. While Hester endures public shaming, Dimmesdale suffers privately from guilt, and Hester’s husband, Roger Chillingworth seeks revenge on the minister

Walden

chronicles his two-year experiment in simple, self-sufficient living in a cabin near Walden Pond in Massachusetts

mark twain

pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens

writing known for humor, vivid details, memorable characters

henry james

key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism

kate chopin

short stories and novels based in Louisiana

forerunner of 20th-century feminist authors

stephen crane

red badge of courage

poetry, journalism, short stories

edith wharton

american writer and designer

drew upon knowledge of the upper-class new york aristocracy to portray lives and morals of gilded age

first woman to win pulitzer prize - age of innocence

themes of realism and naturalism (1865-1914)

ordinary life

social class

moral ambiguity

determinism

the adventures of huckleyberry finn

follows huck finn, a young boy escaping an abusive father and forced civilization by faking his death and fleeing down the mississippi river

the awakening

a woman in late 19th-century louisiana who seeks independence and personal fulfillment outside the constraints of her role as a wife and mother

the open boat

a short story about for men who survive a shipwreck and struggle to stay afloat in a small lifeboat off the florida coast

age of innocence

question the meaning of passion and love

f scott fitzgerald

chronicled the jazz age through novels and short stories

ernest hemingway

understated, sparse writing style (iceberg thoery)

william faulkner

innovative narrative techniques and characterization

ts elliot

revitalized english-language poetry through his innovative style, verse structure, diction

leader of english modernism

challenged traditional poetic forms, embraced ambiguity, intellectual complexity

ezra pound

major figure in early modernist poetry movement

collaborator in fascist italy

langston hughes

an innovator of jazz poetry

lead in harlem renaissance

themes of modernism (1914-1945)

alienation

disillusionment

fragmentation

expirementation

the waste land

portrays spiritual and cultural wasteland after world war 1 through five fragmented sections - TS Elliot

a rose for emily

short story about emily grierson, reculusive southern woman who lives in the decaying house of a once prominent family

tennessee williams

pen name of thomas lanier williams III

streetcar named desire

glass menagerie

explored the south’s decay beneath its charming facade, difficult women, queerness

arthur miller

playwright, essayist, screenwriter

brought attention to controversial social and political issues of his time

won pulitzer prize for drama in 1949

flannery o’connor

two novels and 31 short stories

wrote in sardonic southern gothic style

toni morrison

nobel prize for literature in 1993

explored black experiences in america

sylvia plath

advancing the genre of confessional poetry

alice walker

first african american woman to win pulitzer prize for literature

themes of contemporary/post 1945

identity

gender

race

irony

postmodernism

a streetcar named desire

a woman comes to live with. her sister and her sister’s husband. she eventually loses her grip on reality as she fails to get what it is she most desires

beloved

an escaped slave, Sethe, who in a desperate act to prevent her children from being returned to slavery, kills her infant daughter

the color purple

Celie, an african-american woman living in the south who survives icredible abuse and bigotry

transcendentalism

a 19th century-philosopher, literary, and religious movement that emphasized individualism, self-reliance, and a deep connection to nature as the path to truth and a divine spark within each person

southern gothic

a literary subgenre of american gothic literature that combines horror and mystery with the unique cultural and social context of the american south

postmodernism

a mid 20th century intellectual and cultural movement that is skeptical of universal truths and grand narratives instead emphasizing pluralism, fragmentation, and the role of subjective experience and interpretation