American questions Flashcards
12) The period of Puritanism and its reflection in American literature.
Captain John Smith: The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624)
John Winthrop: A Model of Christian Charity (1630)
Britain:
Mary I - flee to holland
Elizabeth I - come back
James I - king james bible
Jamestown
- plymouth
- pilgrims on mayflower from holland
- thanksgiving
- arbella
- puritans - shining city upon a hill
- massachusets bay
- predestination
- salem - cotton matter - witch trials
13) The Age of Reason in American history, culture, and literature. American Independence reflected in literature.
Thomas Paine: Common Sense (1776)
Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography (1771-1790)
seven years war
- stamp act 1765
- boston massacre
- tea stamp act
- boston tea party
- common sense
- independence war
- washington
- victory - declaration of independence
14) Cultural and economic development that led to American Romanticism in poetry and fiction. New England Transcendentalism: representatives, important issues.
- Edgar Allan Poe: The Tell-Tale Heart (1843)
- Herman Melville: Bartleby, the Scrivener (1853)
- Henry David Thoreau - Walden (1854)
- Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass - “A Song of Myself” (1855)
- Emily Dickinson: Poems by Emily Dickinson (Mid-19th century)
- Growth in population (1760-1860)
- Increased immigration
- Westward expansion (manifest destiny)
The Enlightenment, Industrialization (1790)
The railroad – trade, travel, transport
Lumbering, mining, machine tools
Literacy – NE 85%-90% vs. 50-60% in V
New presses, new paper - Affordable books, emerging newspapers, and magazines
- The Louisiana Purchase (1803)
1830s-50s
The Removal act, Trail of tears
1848 - gold rush!
- chinese immigration
15) The history of slavery, segregation, and civil rights in America. African American fiction: representatives, themes.
Frederick Douglass: The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1845)
Sojourner Truth: Ain’t I a Woman (1851)
yay, slaves - oh mighty god please give me this question qwq
departure of slaves to tobaccoo plantations
rising abolitionism
the partus principle - aloowed for raping women to get free slave children
slaves escaping
harriet tubman - helps slaves escape through the underground railroad
- 19 trips, 300 saved
sojourner thruth - aint i a women (won her son in court against white man)
anne bredstreet (white)
- questionable poetry
- seemed rather pro slavery
- as she celebrated the christianity slaves are getting
frederick doughlass - autobiography (education by his mistress, educating others, escape to north)
harriet beecher stowe (white)
- uncle toms cabin, fake “slave narrative”
- helped to spread abolitionism
- but got a lot of critique
abraham lincoln elected
= civil war 1861-1865
- emancipation proclamation - shift even more on abolitionism
north vs south
north wins, technologically more advanced
from slavery into segregation
jim crow laws
montgomery bus boycott
brown vs board of education
16) Economic and sociopolitical changes in the USA at the turn of the 20th century. Realism and Naturalism reflecting the period in literature.
- Charlotte Perkins Gilman: The Yellow Wallpaper (1892)
- Jack London: A Thousand Deaths (1899)
- Jack London: To Build a Fire (1902
REALISM
- after the civil war
talk about red badge of courage and chickamauga - and their portrayal of reality, just a little bit
- “back to reality”
enough with lyrical poems
against literature as escapism
attention to detail and psychology of the characters
real people and their struggles
space for critical thinking
feminism, voting rights
sense of nationalism
reconstruction of the country after many wars - societal norms, classes a problémy mezi nimi (frog story about swindling a guy out of his money)
women in society (yellow wallpaper) -
regionalism is a part of this - regions, cities, dialects found in the stories - mark twain mostly, THE LOCAL COLOUR
NATURALISM
aka harsher realism
JACK LONDON - naturalism
shows that we cant control nature, bcs nature controls us, we are just tiny humans
- human being are victims of circumstances
ABSENCE OF DIVINE GOODNESS
INHUMAN BRUTALITY OF LIFE
- nature over human
viewing nature as dangerous, untamed
environment over human
science, technology, rapid development
naturalism leans in favor of science, disregarding any emotions or feelings that we may have towards the world. in the eyes of mother nature, we are only weak creatures that ultimately have a need to survive. in naturalism, the idea is to express how no matter what our title is in society, we all succumb to the power of natural elements the same way as everything ELSE eventually. One example of this scientific and apathetic view is the final part of To Build a Fire where the doggo leaves the man, knowing he’s going to SUCCUMB, and goes to find FOOD to survive.
brutal and harsh use of symbolism and scenes is to show the cruel reality of nature
TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENTS
So, this soon to be milionaire (with a soul..? or a great strategic plan?) comes up with an idea, to make a HORSE-LESS CARRIAGE.
and he does succeed, BUT
this “car” is not affordable for an “average joe”
and so he makes a factory for the car industry
where he manages to keep his workers motivated
by offering much better working conditions than in other factories
an 8hour long working day (when 10 was a norm)
double the price than other factories - 5dollars per hour
AND HE MANAGES TO MAKE THE FIRST CARD AFFORDABLE
AND MAKES A GREAT GREAT BUSSINESS OUT OF IT
HE SUCCEEDS IN MAKING A “MODERN CONSUMER AMERICAN WORKER” that can buy what he makes.
OTHER TECHNOLOGY
Electricity and Power Distribution
Thomas Edison’s development of practical electric lighting systems
Telephone:
Alexander Graham Bell’s invention of the telephone in the late 19th century revolutionized communication.
Automobiles:
The early 20th century saw the rise of the automobile industry. Innovators like Henry Ford played a crucial role in making automobiles more affordable and accessible to the general public
Airplanes
Steel Production and Skyscrapers
Radio:
The development of radio technology allowed for the wireless transmission of information and entertainment. Radio broadcasting became a powerful medium for disseminating news, music, and cultural programming.
Motion Pictures:
The motion picture industry emerged with inventors like Thomas Edison and the Lumière brothers
Sanitation and Public Health:
Advances in sanitation and public health, including the implementation of sewer systems and clean water supplies, contributed to improved living conditions and a reduction in the spread of diseases.
Women working in america
( Industrial revolution - first phase - early 19th century
Working class women were stuck in factories, mostly of textile work and sewing.
women of higher class (mostly middle) got to be teachers, hotel keepers and even actresses, maids and cooks. )
Industrial revoluion - second phase - early 20th century
-Factories were seen as a man’s job so there were less women in factories, tho some working class women were still forced to do this job
stiill mostly textiles and stuff
middle classwomen had similar jobs like being teachers, hotel keepers and actresses. maids and cooks
-during the first world war, women jumped to more factories as people needed stuff for the war
AFTERMATH
both are a reaction to avoiding the ugly parts of life
wilson doesnt want to send his men in another war, unless he has to
and so he has to in 1917 america joins ww1
- 17) Native American experience. Native American cultures, American colonial history in relation to Indigenous peoples. Native American literature.
- Raven: A Trickster Tale from Pacific Northwest (Oral tradition)
- Barry Lopez: Selected stories from American Indian Trickster Tales (“Coyote Creates the Earth” (1978), “Coyote Finishes His Work” (1978))
- Leslie Marmon Silko: Lullaby (1981)
oral tradition
trickster tales
creation tales
why and how tales
-preserving their culture
-recording of their stories
- retelling
trickster - a cunning character
- coyote, fox, raven, wolf, spider…
- immortal, always resurrected
- represent humanity and its ups and downs
- not necessarily bad, just making jokes, exploring, causing chaos
every time has its own tricksters
- people who change their appearance and behave with questionable manners and aims
- lady gaga, dr house, joker, robin hood….
colonies
fights with natives
thanksgiving
seven years war
america moves westward
INDIAN REMOVAL ACT
=> trail of tears 1830-50
- mainly cherokee tribe affected
forced migration
brutal
many died
RESERVATIONA
ANGLO-INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOLS
parents who loose their americanised children, sadness, sorrow - Silko - LULLABY
18) Immigration experience. Minorities in the U.S.A. 20th-century multi-ethnic writing.
- Sandra Cisneros: The House on Mango Street (1984)
- Amy Tan: Two Kinds (1989)
first
chinese
1984 - californias gold rush
- single men came to support the families
- ended up working at transcontinental railroad construction
1924-1965 immigration (restriction) act
19) America in wars in the 19th – 20th centuries. The theme of war in American literature.
- Ambrose Bierce: Chickamauga (1889)
- Stephen Crane: The Red Badge of Courage (1895)
- Ernest Hemingway: A Soldier’s Home (1925)
- Ernest Hemingway: A Clean, Well-Lighted Place (1933)
CIVIL WAR
- two approaches
- bierce: war veteran, fought at chickamauga - portraying the horrors of war, the impact it has on the innocent children, women, civilians…
- destroying the myths of romanticizing a war
- a journey from innocence to experience - the little kid sees funny wounded soldiers but realizes the true nature of war when he sees his mother dead
crane:
- has never been in war
- interviewed war veterans and wrote a story about a non-typical young soldier, who is not all brave and ready to put his life for his country… instead he is ready to run away in case of danger, and so he does
- however he gets his badge of courage as she gets hit into his head by other soldiers
- this gives him the courage and he marches in the battle with confidence, his attitude changed and he in the end becomes the true war veteran
HEMINGWAY - WW1
he tells a stories from the post ww1 period, the alienation and inability to get back to life, the need for contact with other people, the different problems people of this period had…
20) America in the 20th century and the cultural influence of the USA in the world today. Postmodern fiction, contemporary literature.
- Arthur Miller: Death of a Salesman (1948)
- Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
- Don DeLillo: White Noise (1985)
the post ww2 period, when new generations rise and try to fulfill their dreams, such as the old americans, or the immigrants dreaming of the wealth this country promises, however many fail - DEATH OF A SALESMAN - tragedy play
in Fahrenheit, bradbury warns against the shallow, quick afford-less new media, he succesfully predict many things we as humanity acieved - big tv screens, mechanical dogs, bluetooth… he warns against cenzorship, tries to show that books are important to keep individualism, to remember history, to not fall into a trap of government and totalitarian regimes….
aaaand white noise, this is a warning against consumerism, advertisement, it makes fun of american society, where kids are often more educated or more clever than adults, as the 80s generation was the first one that had acces to media and internet. it shows how people live in fear (of technological creations), how people use this fear for their advantage - selling drugs, “hoax organizations” spreading lies idk more
