sssssss
1584 Walter Raleigh receives a patent from Elizabeth I (failure)
1607 Jamestown first colony (Virginia) John Smith governor (Pocahontas)
1660 renewal in interest in colonization
William Bradford – separatist, governor, fled first to holland “Of Plymouth plantation”
Puritanism – religious reform movement in 16s and 17s when representatives sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, poets: John Milton “The paradise lost”,
Anne Bradstreet 1612-1672 – first poem from American colony, poemy o codzienności, religious doubts
“to my dear and loving husband”
Puritan’s tenets – man is evil, predestination, the unpardonable sin
Samuel Sewall – diary, Merchant in boston, judge in the salem witchcraft trials 1692-1693
Jonathan Edwards – 1703-1758 “The great awakening” “personal narrative”- missionary among Indians
Edward Taylor – 1642-1729 – teacher, after harvard, refused to sign an oath of loyalty in 1668
RATIONALISM ENLIGHTMENT
Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790 on the committee on the DOI 4th july 1776 (Thomas Jefferson)
“The way to wealth”, autobiography
Thomas Paine 1737-1809 rights of men against hereditary monarchy
The federalist 85 essays – constitution 1789 written from scratch
Washington Irving 1783-1859 first american to achieve international literary reputation
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882 transcedalism, “Nature”
TRANSCENDENTALISM For: view of the mind as creative Against: Unitarianism – dogmas
Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862 “Walden”, work, self-sufficience, simplicity
Margaret Fuller 1810-1850 first woman journalist
FIRESIDE POETS: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ‘hymn to the night’ rhymes, easy to remember, standard
William Cullen Bryant – 1794-1878 first american poet of dictinction “Thanatopis”
Walt Whitman 1819-1892 “Leaves of grass”
Emily Dickinson – 1830-1886 life of isolation, poem discovered after death
REALISM – growing up, freedom, slavery
Mark Twain 1835-1910 humorous sketches for newspaper
BOYHOOD – main hero Tom Sawyer
Jack London 1876-1916 atheist, socialist, naturalist “the law of life”, “the call of the wild”
Henry James 1843-1916 “the portrait of a lady” “the ambassadors”
Stephen Crane 1871-1900 “The red badge of courage” “Maggie: a girl of the streets”
Edith Wharton 1862-1937 theme: cultural dislocation, first woman got gold medal in NIoF 1930, the most popular novels in ‘GILDED AGE’ “the house of mirth” “the age of innocence”
Kate Chopin 1850-1904 ‘Bayou Folk’ ‘A night in Acadie’
Sherwood Anderson 1876-1941 tales
Sinclair Lewis 1885-1951 First American Nobel Prize Laureate 1930 realism+humour and grotesque
“Main Street” “Babbit”
JAZZ AGE | THE LOST GENERATION – lost people
THE ICEBERG THEORY: when a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows
Scott Fitzgerald 1896-1940 “The great Gatsby” “This side of Paradise”
Ernest Hemingway 1898-1961 “The sun also rises” “The old man and the sea” nobel prize 1954
1929 stock market crash, beginning of great depression
HARLEM RENESANS 1918-1937, WW1 causes lack of workers so black Americans come from south, africa and caribbean
Langston Hughes 1902-1967 ‘busyboy poet’ “The negro speaks of rivers” “The weary blues”
Zora Neale Hurston 1891-1960 “Their eyes were watching god”
Civil Rights movement: 1955 rosa parks, 1963 march on washington
John Steinbeck 1902-1968 got nobel prize “Tortilla flat”, humour, reference to king arthur
“The red pony” short stories “East of eden” “The grapes wrath” – route 66
LITERATURE OF SOUTH novels: “Sartoris,” “the sound and the fury”
William Faulkner 1897-1962 – nobel prize
Flannery O’Connor 1925-1964 “Wise blood” “the violent bear it away”
American Playwrights of the 20th century, William dean Howells and Hamling Garland establish the first independent association in 1891 in boston – the little theatre movement 1920 the purpose was to encourage truth and progress in american dramatic art
Eugene O’Neill – the only nobel prize winning u.s playwright 1936, serious plays, realism and to study forces of life
Tennessee Williams plays: the glass menagerie, cat on a hot tin roof
Arthur Miller – shaped by great depression, plays: ‘all my sons’, ‘death of a salesman’
LITERATURE OF 50s and 60s
The beat generation – key locations – NY, Columbia University, San Francisco – non-conformity, hedonism, creativity
Allen Ginsberg “Howl” 1956, William S. Burrough “Naked Lunch” 1959 Jack Kerouac “On the raod” 1957
Ken Kesey – created band FURTHUR, “One flew over the cuckoo’s nest
William Carlos Williams – 1883-1963 poet and a doctor, imagism
Robert Frost 1874-1963 rural life – metaphorical meaning, colloquial language
Confessional poetry – The term used first in 1959 by the critic M.L. Rosenthal about Robert Lowell’s Life Studies – marital problems, generational struggle, mental illness
Anne Sexton 1928-1974 “Love or die” – pulitzer prize, suicidal
Sylvia Plath 1932-1963 “The Bell Jar”
SYMBOLISM – The consequences of pride, selfishness, guilt
“The Scarlet Letter” – Nathaniel Hawthorne, main Hester Prynne, who is accused of adultery, Pearl her daughter, Roger bad guy, difficult husband.
“The Cask of Amontillado” – Edgar Allan Poe – short story about 2 guys, Montresor and Fortunato. Plot is about revenge, deceit and murder as Montresor tricks drunk Fortunato by trapping him inside an ancient catacomb, because he was insulting him. Irony.
“DÉSIRÉE’S BABY” – Kate Chopin – main Desiree, abandoned child taken in by wealthy land-owners. Monsieur and Madame Valmonde. At 18 she marries Armand, strict personality and mistreating his slaves. Then giving him child not quite white and he told her to leave because of that, later finding out that baby was black cuz of Armand mother’s roots.
“Winesburg, Ohio” – Sherwood Anderson, “Paper pills”: Doctor Reefy, old man who is writing his thoughts on paper scraps and put them into pocket, cuz he is worried that someone will misunderstand him. For a short period of time, he found wife, tall dark girl came to him cuz someone make her pregnant and she probably miscarried. After marrying doctor, she lived only for few more months. His friend – Anderson.
“The leader of the people” – John Steinbeck – Stary dziad opowiada historię o tym jak walczył z indianami i to był najlepszy moment jego życia. Śmieje się i porównuje swoje przygody do polowania na myszy na ranczu. Jody Tiflin son, mother Jody, father Carl.
“The Killers” – Ernest Hemingway – The basic plot of the story involves two hitmen who enter a restaurant seeking to kill a boxer, a Swede named Ole Andreson, who is hiding out for reasons unknown, possibly for winning a fight. Killers – Al, Max. Sam – black guy, George some guys and Nick probably protagonist. Ole probably has depression.
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald. Jay Gatsy, Daisy Buchanan, Tom mąż, Nick przyjaciel.
Everyday use – Alice Walker – Dee osiągneła sukces a Maggie ma oparzenia na twarzy I jest nieśmiała, Maggie chciała oddać kołdry które swojej siostrze, ale mama kazała je zostawić Maggie.
Rose for Emily – William Faulkner – she killed Homer Baron because he didn’t want to marry her, which was found after her death at her funeral. Theme of change, death, and the complexities of human relationships.
Good Country People – Flannery O’Connor – Joy-Hulga protagonist with wooden leg, Manley Pointer salesman scam artist.
The Secret of Life of Walter Mitty – James Thurber – Walter Mitty is daydreamer and it is humorous story about him fantasying about being successful surgeon and military captain. The story ends with Mitty being jolted back into reality and realizing that he has forgotten a crucial errand he was supposed to run for his wife. The story is a commentary on the human desire to escape the monotony of everyday life and the power of imagination to transport individuals to new and exciting places.