American Lit - Sem 1 Exam

Earth on a Turtle’s Back

the Earth is created as soil is piled on the back of a great sea turtle that continues to grow until it is carrying the entire world.

The Iroquois Constitution

an oral narrative based om the formation of the 6 nations (Onondaga, Cayuga, Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, and Tuscarora nations)

Purpose of The Iroquois Constitution

to promote peace through an establishment of a league of native

Oral Tradition

The cultural knowledge and information that has been passed down through speech from one generation to the next

Anne Bradstreet

Female writer; Faced religious and emotional conflicts as being a woman writer and Puritan; Concerned with issues of sin, redemption, death, physical and emotional frailty, and immorality through life; Struggled to feel strongly connected to her family than to God - used inversion in her works

Edward Taylor

Puritan pastor; Devoted to Calvanistic and Puritan beliefs; Wrote Upon a Spider Catching a Fly & Huswifery Known for his imagery; Often combined two unlike symbols; Influenced by metaphysicals

Conceit

A fanciful expression in writing or speech, an elaborate metaphor

Puritans

Members of a religious reform movement; Believed that Church of England too similar to the Roman Catholic Church; Believed that ceremonies and practices not rooted in Bible should be eliminated

Pilgrims

Religious revival of American colonies during which number of new Protestant churches were established

Jonathan Edwards

Attended Yale, connected Protestant beliefs to the Enlightenment concepts of Newton & Locke; Leader of the 1st Great Awakening; wrote Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (most famous); Delivered a congregation that caused listeners to rise from their seats of hysteria

John Calvin

Stressed doctrine of predestination, and his interpretations of Christian teachings (Calvinism) influenced Reformed Churches

Calvinism Focuses on

1. Sovereignty of God
2. Depravity of humankind
3. doctrine of predestination

Predestination

the doctrine that all events have been willed by God, with reference to the eventual fate of the individual soul

the elect

the chosen people

puritain plain style

Type of writing which uncomplicated sentences and ordinary words to make simple direct statements; Used by Puritans to express themselves clearly w/ their religious beliefs

Enlightenment/Age of Reason

emphasized reason over superstition and science over blind faith.

deism

believing that God created the world but soon after left it to fend of it self; "God made the world with precision, but He is not involved”

ethos

ethics; appeals based on the reliability, creiditability, or expertise of the writer

pathos

emotions; Appeals to the audience's needs, values, or emotions

logos

logic; an appeal to logic or reason; logical argument

apophasis

The raising of an issue by claiming no to mention it

anaphora

the intentional repitition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a line for emphasis

imagery

visually descriptive or figurative language

Ben Franklin

BORN IN BOSTON; Known as the "Renaissance Man"

AN ABOLITIONIST; When working as an editor, the pseudonym was "Silence Dogood"

Purpose of autobiography-> to achieve moral perfection

"Instrumental in repealing the Stamp Act of 1765"

On the committee for writing the Declaration of Independence

Became an advocate for independence
Frankin's role in repealing The Stamp Act made him well known

Wrote POOR RICHARD'S ALMANAC
Served as ambassador to France

IMPORTANT influence in French decision to ally with the Americans against the British

Signed Treaty of Paris

Was a delegate to the Convention that wrote and approved the U.S. constitution

A leading political figure till his death

One of final acts was to publish treaty against slavery in 1789

The Stamp Act

1765; Require all American colonists to pay taxes on every piece of printed paper that came into their house

Thomas Paine

vilified by the world for his anti-religious tone in the book; became a tax collector and was fired twice; wrote common sense and rights of man; perceived as anti0religious; saved by American government

Common Sense

a rational argument for colonies to break away from england

Rights of Man

supported the french and offended the english

captivity narrative

Suffer shows the evil of Purtian society and temptations from original sin; Biblical aspect Whole fear of cannibalism Fear that Native Americans would eat them; Feels like he is facing evil , has no way to get out, judging hypocrisy as Christians; Worried that they will eat him

slave narative

helped end the slave trade; understates the hardships of slavery

Olaudah Equiano

his autobioraphy led to the banning of the slave trade in the U.S. and England; renamed Gustavus Vassa; wrote slave and captivity narratives

Phyllis Wheatley

Wrote on being brought from Africa to America and on virtue

American Romanticism and Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism, which lasted from about 1830 to 1860, was a vital part of the Romantic movement.

Fireside Poets

popular poets during romanticism/transcendentalism; Their works were read around the fire; Teachers would assign it to be memorized

Fireside Poet Examples

William Cullen Bryant; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; John Greenleaf Whittier; James Russell Lowell; Oliver Wendell Holmes

William Cullen Bryan

poet and journalist; first american lit celebrity; started at 14, became famous at 17 for thanatopsis; lawyer for 10 years; editor of ny post; founder of the abolitionist party

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

the arrow and the song; the tide rises the tide falls

Washington Irving

The father of american lit; First to make his living off creative writing; First to be recognized as a significant literary figure in England; Work was in folklore tradition (inspired Sir Walter Scott); Famous "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle", "The Sketch Book

Folklore

traditional customs, tales, sayings, dances, or art forms preserved among a people

F.O. Matthiessen's American Renaissance

yay sayers vs nay sayers

yay sayers

transcendentalists/optimists (emerson, thoreau, whitman)

nay sayers

dark romantics/pessimists (poe, hawthorne, dickinson)

Transcendentalism

a philosophy started in early 19th century that promotes intuitive/spiritual thinking instead of scientific thinking; optimistic part of romantic movement; involved environmentalism; Feminism; abolition of slavery

romanticism

movement in arts/literature that origniated in the late 18th century that emphasized inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual; Samuel taylor Coleridge and william wordsworth

gothic

Dark melodramatic writing with descriptive scenery; themes of exoticism, fear, dread, and mystery

organicism

strives to connect things that have been divided, like spirit and matter

sublime

literature that excites your thoughts or emotions; At the edge of terror and beauty

Walden

written by Henry David Thoreau; Walden details Henry David Thoreau's two-year stay in a self-built cabin by a lake in the woods sharing what he learned about solitude, nature, work; thinking and fulfillment during his break from modern city life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

transcendentalism; founded the dail; abolitionist; woman rights activist; yay sayer; thoreau’s mentor; fireside poet

William Wordsworth

a romantic poet; focused on the ideals of the romantic movement; person vs nature; spiritual and intellectual development; the prelude

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

supernatural themes and exotic images; culmination and romanticism in purest form; themes: nature, development, power of imagination; biographia literaria; lyrical ballads

The Dial

magazine of transcendentalists

Our literary Declaration of Independence

for American writers to turn away from British models and create their own literature was called; written by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Henry David Thoreau

fireside poet; mentor was emerson; wrote walden; solitude

Mexican American War

armed war in the mid 1800s; significant to transcendentalist bc expanded slave territory; authors refused to pay taxes to boycott

walt whitman

fireside poet; FREE VERSE; GREAT AMERICAN POET; "The poet"; wrote "Leaves of Grass"; work is seen as offensive; father of free verse

Leaves of Grass

indiviualism and beauty - together creates a united whole; controversial bc explicit sexualy imagery

Sojourner Truth

african american abolitionist; women’s rights, writer born into slavery; aib’t i a woman

Ain’t I a Woman

writing by truth that talks about how women can do just as much as men, she says how slave women were our working in the field just like a strong man

Sojourner Truth Project

recreation of truth's "ain't i a woman?" in what her voice would have sounded like

Characteristics of the Slave Narrative

1. An engraved portrait, signed by the narrator.
2. A title page that includes the claim, as an integral part of the title, "Written by Himself"
3. A handful of testimonials and/or one or more prefaces or introductions written either by a white abolitionist friend of the narrator

A poetic epigraph The actual narrative An appendix or appendices composed of documentary material--bills of sale, etc

Frederick Douglass

Born in slavery; Escaped at 20 to massachusetts; Admired willian lloyd Garrison "the Liberator" 1845 published autobiography Important advisor to President lincoln; Fought for equal rights and womens rights

Learning to Read and Write

story by frederick douglass where his mistress was first nice to him and taught him how to read and write, but soon saw how others treated the slaves and then treated him the same way

abolition

movement to end slavery

The Columbian Orator

written by Caleb Bingham; inspiring for a generation of American abolitionists including Frederick Douglass, Emerson; taught Douglass that "The moral which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder

Sherdidan

Irish Politician, playwright, poet, satirist, and owner of Drury Lane; Plays: The Rivals, School for Scandal, The Duenna, and A Trip to Scarborough; Writing style: comedy (the Rivals & School for Scandal); Dramas reflect gentle morality & sentimentality; Satirized society

fugitive slave act of 1850

gave federal government authority in cases involving runaway slaves; aroused considerable opposition in the North.

emily dickinson

poet; well educated in science; winter is blonde assassin; nature is haunted house; she was skeptoc in faith

edgar allan poe

gothic horror story; architect of the modern short story; fall of the house of usher

Rene Descartes

father of modern philosophy

sonnet

14 line poem with a specific rhyme scheme

english sonnet

ABAB CDCD EFEF GG

Ittalian Sonnet

ABBA ABBA CD EC DE

Hyperbole

signifiant exaggeration

Alliteration

repetition of sound

Enjambment

the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, couplet, or stanza

Onomatopoeia

word that sounds like its meaning

caesura

a pause in a line of poetry

slant rhyme

words that almost rhyme

sight rhyme

looks like it should rhyme