Major periods, trends and authors in American literature Flashcards
1770-1865
The literature of the New Republic
At the very end of the 18th century, the ideals of the Enlightenment are reflected in an interest in balance, order and clarity. The dramatic events which led to independence gave rise to many political writings and journals:
Thomas Paine’s Common Sense (1776) is a convincing argued pamphlet which urges separation from England.
Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography (1793) shows how hard work, frugality and moral concerns can lead to the improvement of the self and of society.
Romanticism
The literature of the New Republic (1770-1865)
If John de Crèvecoeur’s Letters from an American Farmer (1782, showing an idealized vision of America as a nation of free, self-reliant citizens) already announces romanticism, the movement is only truly felt after 1820.
The Knickerbockers
The literature of the New Republic (1770-1865)
They combine conventional methods and American themes:
James Fenimore Cooper’s novels (The Pioneers, 1823, The Prairie, 1827) are romances set in the American wilderness and lamenting the destruction of its purity by civilization.
Washington Irving’s Sketch Book adapts Gothic German tales (imbued with a sense of mystery and supernatural) to America (The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 1819-20).
Transcendentalism
The literature of the New Republic (1770-1865)
An extremely influencial philosophical movement in the mid 19th century. Transcendentalists believed that all beings were divine, that Man, God and nature shared the same soul, the “Oversoul.” Men should therefore trust the divinity within them, follow their own intuitions and be self-reliant. Such individualism played an important part in the spirit of the frontier.
The best-known figures of the movement are Emerson (Self-Reliance, 1841) and Thoreau (Walden, 1854, an account of the months Thoreau spent alone living in the wild, observing the changes in nature through the seasons and recording the spiritual experience it gave rise to).
The American Renaissance
The literature of the New Republic (1770-1865)
It is the name given to the 1840s and early 1850s, when some highly imaginative and symbolic works were published.
Edgar Allan Poe
The literature of the New Republic: The American Renaissance (1840-1850)
He wrote tales of terror and mystery (Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840).
Nathaniel Hawthorne
The literature of the New Republic: The American Renaissance (1840-1850)
His sombre novels are “allegories of the heart”, romances set in the Puritan past of New England and exploring sin, guilt and moral conflicts (The Scarlet Letter, 1850).
Herman Melville
The literature of the New Republic: The American Renaissance (1840-1850)
His novel Moby Dick (1851) is about Captain Ahab’s hunting of the whale which cost him a leg. His quest takes on the mythic dimensions, evoking the frontier spirit and the fight between good and evil, and exploring themes such as madness, obsession and hubris.
Walt Whitman
The literature of the New Republic: The American Renaissance (1840-1850)
He dominated the period in poetry, and his Leaves of Grass (1855-92) shocked most Americans but was gradually seen as deeply influencial. The poems are written in free verse and are a celebration of the self, of sexuality and of the potentialities of all Americans. They are deeply nationalistic, praising the beauty and the democratic spirit of America.
1865-1915
Realism
Incresingly, as the end of the century approached, idealization gave way to a more faithful description of rural and urban America, then to the criticism of the evils brought about by capitalism.
Mark Twain
Realism (1865-1915)
His novels are set on the Mississippi River. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) are novels of initiation in which the young, innocent hero is confronted with all forms of dishonesty and evil.
Naturalism
Realism (1865-1915)
In the novels of Stephen Crane (The Red Badge of Courage, 1895), Franck Norris (The Octopus, 1901), Theodore Dreiser (Sister Carrie, 1900) and Jack London (The Call of the Wild, 1903), realism becomes bleaker and turns to naturalism, showing lives determined by their environment.
Henry James
Realism: inner realism (1865-1915)
His realism is psychological. He contrasts the values of America (innocence, energy, materialism) and those of Europe (corruption, decadence, art), through the portrayal of characters whose moral conflicts we follow as they become “centres of consciousness”: The Portrait of a Lady, 1881; What Maisie Knew, 1897; The Turn of the Screw, 1898.
Edith Wharton
Realism: inner realism (1865-1915)
Her novels expose the artificiality, immortality and corruption of the well-to-do society of her time (The Age of Innocence, 1920).
Emily Dickinson
Realism: inner realism (1865-1915)
Her highly personal poetry is about nature, love, and death, and explores the tension between conformity and rebellion, Puritanism and the rejection of conventional morality.
1915-1945
Between two World Wars
Modernism
Between two World Wars (1915-1945)
A trend of thought that affirms the power of human beings to create, improve, and reshape their environment, with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology and practical experimentation.
Robert Frost and Carl __Sandburg: although in conventional form, their poetry shows ironic detachment and scepticism.
William Carlos Williams, E.E. Cummings, Wallace Stevens and Marianne Moore all experimented with form.
The Lost Generation
Between two World Wars (1915-1945)
Several American novelists came to live in Paris after WWI and experimented with new forms.
- Ernest Hemingway’s clear, terse and controlled prose is used to portray stoic heroes whose only way of facing death and nihilism is to respect a code of honour and loyalty (A Farewell to Arms, 1929).
- John Dos Passos’ USA is an epic trilogy using collage, multiple voices, fragmentation and cinematic techniques to paint a social portrait of America.
- As for Francis Scott Fitzgerald, he exposes the moral vacuity of the Jazz Age and its vain attempts to achieve the American Dream (The Great Gatsby, 1925).
- The narrow-mindedness, philistinism and conformism of small-town America is exposed in the novels of Sinclair Lewis (Babbitt, 1922); the short stories of Sherwood Anderson (Winesburg, Ohio, 1919) focus on the secrets and repression that hide behind the façade of the same small towns.
- The poem which best symbolizes its age is probably The Waste Land (1922), by the Anglo-American poet T.S. Eliot, who uses collage, allusions and multiple voices to convey the chaos and fragmentation of modern society.
Social concerns
Between two World Wars (1915-1945)
After the 1929 crash, the search for new techniques gave way to a concern for the plight of the poor, the unemployed and all the victims of society. John Steinbeck’s novels, for instance, praise the virtues of love and solidarity in the face of hardships such as displacement, unfair labour practices and poverty (The Grapes of Wrath, 1939).
The Harlem Renaissance
Between two World Wars: new identities (1915-1945)
It was in the 1920s that a number of black writers asserted their pride and cultural heritage (e.g. the poetry of Langston Hugues). In the 1930s, the mood of opportunism was replaced by class-consciousness and revolt. This is clear in Richard Wright’s novels (Black Boy, 1945), political and naturalistic works which show how the environment of the ghetto can only lead to violence.
Southern Gothic
Between two World Wars: new identities (1915-1945)
Carrying a burden of guilt after the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Southern States, too, needed to refine their identity. In the novels of William Faulkner, their best representative, the characters are always violent and degenerate, grotesque even. The novels make use of multiple voices, stream of consciousness and temporal dislocation (The Sound and the Fury, 1929).
The Theatre
Between two World Wars (1915-1945)
It was in the 1920s that the American theatre came into its own, with the plays of Eugene O’Neill, influenced by Greek Tragedy, the theories of Freud and Ibsen.
They unite realism and expressionism, social concerns and symbolism (Mourning Becomes Electra, 1931).
1945-now
From WWII to present day
The Beat Generation
From WWII to the present day
The sense of alienation and loss which resulted from WWII led a number of writers to rebel against authority, the Establishment and the materialism of society. Instead they turned to the exploration of the self by means of drugs or oriental meditation. Indeed, the word “beat” refers to the rhythm or beat of jazz, the search for beatitude and a generation which is beaten.
They wrote works of both poetry (Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti) and fiction (Jack Kerouac, On the Road, 1957).
Confessional poets
From WWII to the present day
After the experimentations of modernist poets like T.S. Eliot, a reaction set in, reflecting the desire to express one’s emotions and feelings directly. This is to be found in the poetry of Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Elizabeth Bishop and Adrienne Rich.
Tennessee Williams
From WWII to the present day
His plays show frustrated individuals, whose failure leads to neurosis and a world of illusion. The message is brought home by symbolism expressionistic devices (A Streetcar Named Desire, 1947).
Arthur Miller
From WWII to the present day
His plays are more concerned by social problems and the conflict between ordinary, private lives and public issues. In The Crucible (1953), for example, Miller links the Salem witch hunts of the late 17th century to McCarthyism in the 1950s.
Southern literature
From WWII to the present day
The Decadence of the South, conveyed by Baroque and Gothic themes, still haunts the novels of Carson Mc Cullers (The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, 1940), William Styron (The Confessions of Nat Turner, 1967), Harper Lee (To Kill a Mocking Bird, 1960), Flannery O’Connor (A Good Man is Hard to Find, 1955), Truman Capote (In Cold Blood, 1966) and Joyce Carol Oates (Bellefleur, 1980).
