American Literature

1
American Literature
2
Introduction
3
Course Description

• This course will survey American literature from
• the Colonial period to the Post-World War II
• period. Readings will include poems, novels,
• essays, autobiographies, short stories, and
• philosophical writings, originating in different
• regions and social settings across the country.
• Some works are chosen from their historical
• importance, others for their aesthetic virtues.
• Taken as a whole, they form a rich collection of
• imaginative and critical writings.

4

• Our goal will be to analyze these works as
  diverse
• representations of American experience, ideas,
• and values. As it is created, literature in its
  widest
• sense can function as moral instruction, personal
  
• expression, and casual entertainment.
• Much classroom discussion will involve close
• textual commentary upon the assigned works.

5
Course Outline

• 1.Literature of Colonial American
• 2.Early Romantics
• 3.Transcendentalism
• 4.High Romantics
• 5.Realism
• 6.Local Color Fiction
• 7.Naturalism
• 8.Modern Poetry
• 9.Modern Fiction Before 1945

6

• 10.Postwar Realism in Fiction
• 11.Beat Generation
• 12.Women Writers in America
• 13.Black Literature
• 14.Southern Literature
• 15.Modern Drama

7
Course Requirements

• Class attendance(10)
• Assignments(10)
• Classroom Discussion(10)
• Final Exam(70)

8
Literature of Colonial American
9

• The first American literature was neither
• American nor really literature. It was not
• American because it was the work mainly of
• immigrants from England. It was not literature as
  
• we know it---- in the form of poetry, essay, or
• fiction---- but rather an interesting mixture of
• travel accounts and religious writings

10
Benjamin Franklin
11

• Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790)

12

• An inventor, scientist, printer, political
  statesman,
• diplomat, exemplary self-made man,
• revolutionary hero, author.

13

• ---- Having faith in human accomplishment and
• progress
• ---- Believing that an individual with industry
  and
• thrift will improve himself and his community, a
• self-mad man and an archetypal American
• success story that has since become part of
• American popular culture
• ---- Almost the first example of achieving the
• American Dream

14
Philip Freneau
15

• Philip Freneau(1752-1832)

16

• A forerunner of American Romanticism or a
• transitional figure towards Romanticism.

17

• Wild Honeysuckle
• a lyrical lament for the mutability of nature and
  an
• expression of faith in mans ability to learn
• universal truths from nature. An indirect eulogy
  of
• America predicting Whitman

18
American Romanticism (1815-1865)
19
Learning Points

• Distinct Features
• Representatives
• Conclusion

20
Distinct Features

• 1. American Romanticism is in a way derivative.

21

• 2. American Romanticism is in essence the
• expression of a real new experience and
  contains
• an alien quality for the simple reason that
  the
• spirit of the place is radically new and alien.

22

• 3. Different from their European counterparts,
• American Romanticism tended to moralize, to edify
  
• rather than to entertain. It presented an
  entirely
• new experience alien to European culture.

23
Representatives

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Washington Irving
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Henry David Thoreau
• Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Herman Melville
• Walt Whitman
• Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
• James Fenimore Cooper

24
Conclusion

• imagination
• sensibility and tuition over reason
• primitivism
• love of nature
• sympathetic interest in the past
• mysticism
• individualism

25
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
26

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(1807-1882)

27

• The Secret of the Sea
• In this poem the sea symbolizes life and the
  moral
• of the poem lies in the line of Only those who
• brave its dangers comprehend its mystery.

28
William Cullen Bryant
29

• William Cullen Bryant(1794-1878)

30

• one of Americas earliest naturalist poets
• the American Wordsworth

31

• To a Waterfowl
• the poet in self-doubt and despair
• a lonely bird-- flying to--its destination-- by
  Power
• the poet-- walking to-- destination-- by Power too

32
Washington Irving
33

• Washington Irving(1783-1859)

34

• Works by Washington Irving
• 1. Rip Van Winkle
• 2. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• 3. The Sketch Book

35
Ralph Waldo Emerson
36

• Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)

37

• Father of American literature
• the dominant spirit of the age
• the proponent of the American newness

38
Henry David Thoreau
39

• Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862)

40

• On July 4, 1845, he began living in a hut (built
  on
• Emersons land) by the Walden Pond. There he
• lived simply and deliberately, devoting his time
  to
• observations and reflections.

41

• Walden, or Life in the Woods
• a reflection of his readings, concerns and
  thinking,
• a mixture of politics and philosophy.

42
Edgar Allan Poe
43

• Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

44

• Annabel Lee
• Thematically speaking, this poem not only mourns
• the death of a beautiful girl but also celebrates
  
• the timeless love.

45
Walt Whitman
46

• Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

47

• I hear America Singing
• The poem presents an image of America an
• image of proud and healthy individualists engaged
  
• in productive and happy labor.

48
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
49

• Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830-1886)

50

• There Is a Certain Slant of Light
• The poem itself conveys the oppressive mood that
• the weather creates. With her uncommon
• creativity and imagination on the poet associates
  
• the winter sunlight with the image of death.

51
Nathaniel Hawthorne
52

• Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

53

• Works by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• 1. The Scarlet Letter ??
• 2. The House of the Seven Gables???????
• ?
• 3. The Blithedale Romance ????
• 4. The Marble Faun ?????
• 5. Young Goodman Brown ?????
• 6. The Ministers Black Veil ??????
• 7. The Birthmark ??

54
Dr. Heideggers Experiment
55

• 
  

Dr. Heidegger
Colonel Killigrew
Mr. Medbourne
Water of Youth
Widow Wycherly
56
American Realism (1865-1910)
57
Learning Points

• Distinct Features
• Representatives

58
Distinct Features

• 1.Realism is the theory of writing in which
  familiar
• aspect of contemporary life and everyday scenes
• are represented in a straightforward or
  matter-of-
• fact manner.

59

• 2.In realist fiction characters from all social
  levels
• are examined in depth.

60

• 3.Open ending is also a good example of the
• truthful treatment of material.

61

• 4.Realism focuses on commonness of the lives of
• the common people who are customarily ignored
• by the arts.

62

• 5. Realism emphasizes objectivity and offers an
• objective rather than an idealistic view of human
  
• nature and human experience.

63

• 6. Realism presents moral visions.

64
Representatives

• William Dean Howells
• Henry James
• Edith Wharton
• Willa Cather
• O.Henry
• Kate Chopin
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• Mark Twain

65
Henry James
66

• Henry James (1843-1916)

67

• Paste
• This story is a subtle and profound study of
• human greed, hypocrisy and the betrayal of
• innocence. With his avoidance of the simple and
• direct statement, the story is full of hints,
• insinuations, suggestions, and implications. The
• Jamesian style is very well exemplified in this
• story.

68
Mark Twain
69

• Mark Twain (1835-1910)

70

• The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
• This story tells of a practical joke of the
  grimmest
• kind. It is successful mainly because it
  represents
• the Western humor that was extremely popular in
• America at that time.

71
American Naturalism
72
Learning Points

• Distinct Features
• Representatives
• Conclusion

73
Distinct Features

• 1. Humans are controlled by laws of heredity and
• environment.

74

• 2 The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and
• hostile to human desires.

75
Representatives

• Hamlin Garland
• Stephen Crane
• Frank Norris
• Jack London
• Theodore Dreiser
• Sherwood Anderson
• Sinclair Lewis
• Upton Sinclair

76
Conclusion

• 1.Generally speaking, American naturalists share
• similarities in theme and technique.

77

• 2. They tend to reduce to nil the human chances
• of winning on their own terms while realists
  stress
• freedom of choice with large provisos concerning
• the power of outside forces and romantics stress
• the possible triumph of the human will.

78
Stephen Crane
79

• Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

80

• The Red Badge of Courage
• War is seen as a force moving men ruthlessly and
• blindly as if they were pawns on a chessboard.
• By deromanticizing war and courage, the author
• depicts the education of a young man in the
• context of struggle in alarming honesty.

81
Theodore Dreiser
82

• Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)

83

• Sister Carrie
• On the one hand, Sister Carrie represents the
• image of new woman with more independence
• and freedom.
• On the other hand, she is slave to her heredity
• and environment, drifting in life all the time.

84
Jack London
85

• Jack London (1867-1916)

86

• The Law of Life
• In the story, the old tribal leaders death is
• depicted both as an illustration of the natural
  law
• that all living things die and in terms of the
• particular psychological state of the individual
• facing his end.

87

• Edwin Arlington Robinson

88

• Edwin Arlington Robinson(1869-1935)

89

• Richard Cory
• The poem tells us very directly that the heart of
  
• man is a mystery. This is his best known
• statement on the hollowness of conventional
• success.

90

• Robert Frost

91

• Robert Frost(1874-1963)

92

• The Road Not Taken
• The poem itself tells us the importance of making
  
• decisions and we should be aware that decisions
• in life once made cannot be changed.

93
Imagism
94
Learning Points

• Distinct Features
• Representatives
• Conclusion

95
What Is Imagism Movement?

• Poetic movement of England and the United
• States, flourished from 1909-1917.
• Its credo included the use of the language of
• common speech, precision, the creation of new
• rhythms, absolute freedom in choice of subject
• matter, the evocation of images in hard, clear
• poetry, and concentration.

96

• Originated from the aesthetic philosophy of T.E.
• Hulme (??), the movement soon attracted Ezra
• Pound (??), who became the leader of a small
• group opposed to the romantic conception of
• poetry.

97
Distinct Features

• 1. With a spirit of revolt against conventions,
• Imagism was anti-romantic and anti-Victorian.

98

• 2. Imagism produced free verse without imposing
• a rhythmical pattern.

99

• 3. Imagism tried to record objective observations
  
• of an object or a situation without
  interpretation or
• comment by the poet.

100
Representatives

• Ezra Pound
• Hilda Doolittle
• Amy Lowell
• William Carlos Williams

101
Conclusion

• 1.The imagists poets rebelled against
• conventional poetic material and forms and
• advocated the direct presentation of feelings in
• exquisite images.

102

• 2. The second lasting influence of imagism is the
  
• form of free verse.

103
Ezra Pound
104

• Ezra Pound (1885-1972)

105

• In a Station of the Metro
• In this brief poem, Pound uses the fewest
  possible
• words to convey an accurate image, with which he
• represents exactly what he observed in Paris
• subway.
• faces flowers petals

106
Modernism Before 1945
107
Learning Points

• Distinct Features
• Representatives

108
Distinct Features

• 1. Modernism presented discontinuity and
• imminent severance from the past while
• making determined efforts to use the past, its
• values and artistic forms by incorporating them
• in new literary production.

109

• 2. Modernists had a sense of fragmentation in
• social communities and the fragmentation
• within the individual himself. Hence
• fragmentation became a common theme in
• modernist writing.

110

• 3. Often in presenting their theme, these writers
• used an anti-hero.

111

• 4. The distinctive feature of literary modernism
• was its strong and conscious break with
  traditional
• forms, perceptions, and techniques of expression,
  
• and its great concern with language and all
• aspects of its medium.

112
Representatives

• Ernest Hemingway
• Francis Scott Fitzgerald
• John Dos Passos
• John Steinbeck
• Thomas Stearns Eliot
• Wallace Stevens

113
Thomas Stearns Eliot
114

• Thomas Stearns Eliot(1888-1965)

115

• The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
• This poem not only presents some of Eliots
• central ideas but also gives startling glimpses
  of
• the unprecedented methods the poet begins to
• use
• dramatic monologue stream-of-consciousness

116
Ernest Hemingway
117

• Ernest Hemingway(1899-1961)

118

• In Another Country
• The story is filled with emotional overtones. Its
  
• dominant feeling is pity for misfortunes that can
  
• never be remedied.

119
Francis Scott Fitzgerald
120

• Francis Scott Fitzgerald(1896-1940)

121

• The Great Gatsby
• The story deals symbolically with the failure of
  the
• American Dream.

122
Postwar Realism in Fiction
123
Distinct Features

• 1. It has been a search for vision that can
  relate
• an oppressed response to society and history to
• an awareness of individual loneliness and moral
• and transcendental hunger both to differentiate
• and reunite the self and the society.

124

• 2. Postwar realism combines the time-honored
• realism with the effective achievements of
  various
• literary trends, including modernism.

125

• 3. Postwar realism embodies the great changes in
• literature along with the great changes in
  society.
• In new realistic fiction, naturalistic depiction
  has
• become very explicit and old-fashioned realism is
  
• increasingly combined with fabulism.

126
John Cheever
127

• John Cheever(1912-1982)

128

• The Swimmer
• With a long-distance swimming as a means to link
• up a series of events not closely related, the
• author unfolds a picture of social manners and
• morals.

129
John Updike
130

• John Updike(1932-2005)

131
Beat Generation
132
Learning Points

• Distinct Features
• Representatives

133
What Is Beat Generation?

• A group of American writers and artists popular
  in
• the 1950s and early 1960s, influenced by Eastern
• philosophy and religion and known especially for
• their use of nontraditional forms and their
• rejection of conventional social values.

134
Distinct Features

• 1. The Beats were fed up with the official
• explanations of why things happened .

135

• 2. The Beats rejected middle class values,
• commercialism, and conformity.

136

• 3. The Beats withdrew from politics and from the
• obligations of citizenship.

137

• 4. The Beats rejected universities and the
• academic tradition.

138

• 5. The Beats evolved a free, non-materialistic
• religion with no formal church, but based loosely
  
• on the teaching of Buddha, comprising love, gay,
• and anarchy.

139

• 6. The Beats regarded modern American life as so
• cruel, selfish, and impersonal that writers and
• artists were being driven to madness.

140
Representatives

• Allen Ginsberg
• Jack Kerouac
• Neal Cassady
• Gary Snyder
• William Burroughs

141
Jack Kerouac
142

• Jack Kerouac(1922-1969)

143

• On the Road
• On the Road is Kerouacs representative work. The
  
• title of the novel is pun, meaning both on the
• road to enlightenment as the Chinese philosophy
• of Taoism and literally on the road as
  homeless,
• aimless wanderers.

144
Southern Literature
145
Learning Points

• Distinct Features
• Representatives

146
Distinct Features

• 1. A tightly knit, long established community is
• always powerfully presented and must be
• reckoned with.

147

• 2. There is the emotional, almost physical,
• response to the southern environment, including
• wind, rain, light, heat, the feel of the soil
• underfoot, the smell and sounds of land and river.

148

• 3. There are the accustomed patterns of speech,
• black and white, the intimate knowledge of
• characteristic body carriage and movement, the
• slow unemphatic drawl, the long effortless
• squatting silent companionship.

149

• 4. There is a curious quality of leisure, often
  long
• digressions in narration such as reminiscences of
  
• earlier events slightly related to the present.

150

• 5. There is a high rhetorical quality in
  narration to
• gain oratorical effect.

151

• 6. A profound consciousness of time itself is
  ever
• evident.

152
Representatives

• Allen Tate
• Katherine Anne Porter
• Eudora Welty
• Flannery OConnor
• William Faulkner

153

• Katherine Anne Porter

154

• Katherine Anne Porter(1890-1980)

155

• Katherine Anne Porter is good at short stories in
  
• which describes human beings empty spiritual
• World and their loneliness.

156

• Works by K. A. Porter
• The Leaning Tower??
• Ship of Fools???

157

• Theft
• This is Porters remarkably appealing short
  story.
• The stolen purse symbolizes all property. The
• theft represents the conflicts between the
  haves
• and have-nots, between men and women,
• between two women, between generations, and
• between ideals and reality.

158

• William Faulkner

159

• William Faulkner(1897-1962)

160

• A Rose for Emily
• One of the themes of this story is the relation
  of
• the individual and his actions to the past,
  present
• and future.

161
Black Literature
162
Background

• Black literature was once a neglected area of
• American literary scholarship. The rising
  interest
• in the work of Americans of African ancestry has
• come about mainly for two reasons

163

• 1. Blacks have made significant contributions to
• all aspects of American life, esp. during and
  after
• World War II.

164

• 2. Black writers have produced literature of
• impressive scope and quality.

165
Representatives

• Langston Hughes
• Alice Walker
• Richard Wright
• James Baldwin
• Ralph Ellison
• Toni Morrison

166

• Alice Walker

167

• Alice Walker(1944- )

168

• Everyday Use
• 
  

I
Dee
Maggie
169

• Langston Hughes

170

• Langston Hughes(1902-1967)

171

• The Negro Speaks of River
• In this poem, the poet uses the rivers to
• symbolize the soul of the Black people who create
  
• human civilization.
• The strong rhythm and the use of repetition
• heighten the effectiveness of the verse.

172

• Toni Morrison

173

• Toni Morrison(1931- )

174

• Works by Toni Morrison
• The Bluest Eye?????
• Sula??
• Song of Solomon?????
• Tar Boy????
• Beloved??

175
American Drama
176

• Eugene Gladstone ONeill

177

• Eugene Gladstone ONeill(1888-1953)

178

• Works by ONeill
• Long Days Journey into Night?????????
• The Iceman Cometh ?????
• Beyond the Horizon ???
• Emperor Jones????
• The Hairy Ape ??