CV Exam Flashcards
What are the 8 eras of American literature?
colonialism, neo-classicism, romanticism, transcendentalism, realism, naturalism, modernism, post-modernism
What are the characteristics of colonialism?
- foreign power in a homeland
- dependence on English ideas and forms of expression
- widespread religious undertones
What are the important colonial works and authors?
- Anne Bradstreet’s poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband”
- William Bradford’s narrative “Of Plymouth Plantation”
- Jonathan Edwards’ sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
What are the characteristics of neoclassicism?
- regard for tradition
- reverence for the classics (Greek/Roman)
- distrustful of innovation
- sense of literature as art that has definite rules and decorum
- focused on political/philosophical topics
What are the important neoclassical works and authors?
- Ben Franklin’s autobiography “The Autobiography”
- Phyllis Wheatley’s poem “To His Excellency, General Washington”
- Thomas Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence”
What are the characteristics of romanticism?
- imagination over reasoning; intuition over facts
- nature used as symbol w/ample description and often used to symbolize mood/tone or foreshadow events
- saw human potential as not limited by either human nature or tradition
- elements of the supernatural
(5. birth of truly American fiction)
What are the important romantic works and authors?
- Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “The Minister’s Black Veil”
- Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” and his poem “Annabel Lee”
- Herman Melville’s novel “Moby Dick,” especially chapter “The Whiteness of the Whale”
What are the characteristics of transcendentalism?
- belief in transcending the physical world and elevating the soul - no materialism
- considered God to be manifested through nature - God can only be understood through the contemplation of nature
- saw the individual as a god
* Remember triangle: God, self/individual, nature
What are some transcendental works and authors?
- Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem “Nature”
2. Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself” from Leaves of Grass
What are the characteristics of realism?
- “Slice of life”- offered an honest piece of reality
- Significance of meaning in commonplace/everyday life
- Saw the individual simply as a person
(Reaction against sentimentality of transcendentalism and romanticism)
What are some realist works and authors?
- Story of an Hour by Kate Chopin
- Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
(Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe?)
What are some naturalist characteristics?
- Saw the world as harsh and unforgiving
- Writer must observe objectively and draw conclusions
- Saw the individual as a helpless object
(4. Darker than realism)
What are some naturalist works?
- To Build a Fire by Jack London
2. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
What are the characteristics of modernism?
- Old notions of religion, honor, and progress dulled- lack of optimism
- Future as bleak, mechanistic, spiritless
- Civilization in fragments, “fragmented”
- Supported the idea of “breaking the rules” in grammar and mechanics
- Creative risk
What are some modernist works and authors?
- anyone lived in a pretty how town, l(a by E. E. Cummings
- In a Station of the Metro by Ezra Pound
- This is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams
- Fire and Ice, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
