The Age of Reason and the Birth of American Literature
The Age of Reason: Enlightenment in America
The Age of Reason—the European Enlightenment—established reason, scientific observation, and natural law as the foundations of truth. Enlightenment thinkers believed in progress, arguing that human life could improve through knowledge. They defended natural rights (life, liberty, property) and the separation of powers, rejecting absolutism. These ideas shaped the intellectual climate of the American colonies.
In North America, Enlightenment thought spread at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th centuries, accompanied by the founding of institutions such as Yale, Princeton, and the American Philosophical Society. This was a secular age, centered on human reason rather than divine revelation. Americans sought to build a democratic nation based on human rights, contrasting with Puritan beliefs in predestination and human depravity. The self-made man emerged, emphasizing improvement through education and discipline.
Religion remained influential through Deism, which saw nature as evidence of God, and the Great Awakening, a revival movement marked by emotional preaching, exemplified by Jonathan Edwards.
The American Revolution and Political Thought
The American Revolution took place from 1776 to 1782, with independence recognized in 1783. Its causes included:
- Economic tensions with Britain (taxes, trade restrictions).
- A philosophical framework grounded in Enlightenment ideals, expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which defended liberty, equality, and natural rights.
- A growing national democratic consciousness, summarized by the idea that power comes from “We, the people.”
The writings of the Revolutionary Period were mainly practical and political. They included personal war narratives, travel writing linked to westward expansion, and especially political essays, pamphlets, and letters. Two key texts include Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, which argued that independence was “common sense,” and Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, which utilized Enlightenment principles to denounce British tyranny.
Benjamin Franklin: The Embodiment of Enlightenment
Benjamin Franklin embodied Enlightenment ideals. A self-taught man, he defended natural rights, education, anti-slavery positions, and the separation of powers. He emphasized self-scrutiny, hard work, and the connection between personal success and public responsibility. He believed in human progress through science and reason rather than religious faith.
Cultural Independence and Literary Nationalism
After independence, the new nation sought cultural independence, which proved difficult. Two attitudes emerged:
- American youthfulness: Associated with vitality and moral purity, contrasting with Europe’s decadence.
- American newness and uncertainty: Led writers to search for a national past by reinterpreting history through the Bible, classical myths, heroic figures, and the Age of Discovery.
Works like Joel Barlow’s The Columbiad turned American history into myth. The creation of a national literature faced obstacles: practical concerns, a preference for British models, and the lack of copyright laws.
This produced two positions:
- Conservatives: Believed American literature would always be inferior to Europe.
- Literary Nationalists: Such as the Connecticut Wits, who aimed to give American literature international prestige and celebrate national vitality.
The Origins of American Fiction
The origins of American fiction were shaped by Puritan distrust of fiction as “lying.” Early fiction therefore emphasized truthfulness and disguised emotional content as moral warnings. It imitated British forms: sentimental, gothic, picaresque, epistolary, and adventure novels.
- Sentimental fiction: Influenced by Richardson’s Pamela, it featured moral instruction, middle-class settings, female experiences, and rural innocence vs. urban corruption. Key works include The Power of Sympathy (1789), Charlotte Temple (1791), and The Coquette (1797).
- Adventure and picaresque novels: Included Brackenridge’s Modern Chivalry and Tyler’s The Algerine Captive.
- Gothic fiction: Followed British conventions—mystery, terror, ruins, villains, and supernatural events with rational explanations—but adapted them to American settings. Charles Brockden Brown was the central figure, using gothic elements to critique rationalism and Enlightenment optimism in novels like Wieland (1789) and Edgar Huntly (1801).
Poetry and the Pastoral Myth
American poetry remained imitative and tied to political ideals. Poets sought to define national identity while relying on British neoclassical models. The U.S. was imagined as the realization of the Pastoral myth, a pure and harmonious world opposed to Europe’s corruption. Prospect poems celebrated the American landscape and national destiny. Philip Freneau, often called the first truly American poet, blended neoclassical influences with pre-Romantic sensitivity. His poems, such as The Wild Honeysuckle, explore nature, morality, and cultural identity.
Early African American Literature
Early African American literature emerged in the context of slavery. Enslaved people preserved African heritage through songs, tales, and folklore, blending it with biblical influences. The main written sources are slave narratives, autobiographical accounts describing the experience of slavery and the search for freedom, such as Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative.
Phillis Wheatley, kidnapped from Africa as a child and enslaved in Boston, became the first African American poet to publish a book (Poems on Various Subjects, 1773). Her work is marked by neoclassical conventions and a strong focus on freedom. Her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America” uses heroic couplets to intertwine spiritual meaning with political implications, including a critique of racism.