american literature part 3

pastoral

artistic composition dealing with the life of shpherds or a simple rural life/existence

idealized sheperd life - creating a peaceful and uncorrupted existence image

simplicity, charm and serenity of counrty life

beautiful landscape, carefree sheperd life, seductive nymphs, rural songs and dance

noble savage

idealized concept of uncivilized man

not corrupted by civilization - innately good

dominant theme in Romantic Writings in the 18th - 19th c.

depiction of Amerindians, indigenous African, Australian bushmen

1. dangerously superstitious, violent, lazy, irrational

2. innately good, noble, living harmoniously with nature

romance

literary form

characterized by its trestment of chivalry

France - mid 12th c.

genre ddeveloped in the context of aristocratic rule

in modern English - medieval narrative composition, love affair or a story about a love affair

rather idyllic, idealized type, sometimes strange or unexpected incidents and development

Woman In The Nineteenth Century

book by women’s rights - Margaret Fuller

published in ‘The Dial’ magazine - ‘The Great Lawsuit’

later expanded and republished in book form

conclusion; before true union can occur, each person must be an individual and self-dependent

for women to become such individuals , men needs to remove their dominating influence but women also needs to claim themselves as self-dependent and remove themselves from man’s influence

one of the major documents in American feminism

Civil Disobedience

Thoreau

essay on Civil Disobedience

he argues that the right of the individual to refuse to pay taxes when morals dictates, 

he had done in protest against the Mexican War and slavery - briefly imprisoned

free man is more important then macchines and social oppressions