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American Literature > Midterm Study Guide > Flashcards

Midterm Study Guide Flashcards

0
Q

What was the first permanent English settlement?

A

Jamestown, Virginia

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1
Q

What 3 aspects of Puritan influence continue today?

A

1) work ethic
2) goal centeredness
3) subservience of pleasure to duty

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2
Q

Name two things that sustained the Pilgrims through hardship.

A

1) will to suceed

2) confidence in God’s providential care

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3
Q

What was the main motive for migration?

A

Religious (freedom)

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4
Q

During the 17th century, puritans grew into a potent potential force. The meaning of the term Puritan broadened to include virtually all of what?

A

English Protestants other than those supporting the Anglican Church

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5
Q

Why did Puritanism decline?

A

1) secular values replaced religious ones
2) spiritual fervor declined
3) material prosperity brought worlds interest and goals

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6
Q

What is the halfway covenant?

A

A compromise that required expected / expecting church members to give a testimony about their salvation to gain membership.

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7
Q

According to Deism what is the solution to man’s problems?

A

Human reason rather than supernatural revelation of the Bible

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8
Q

What do deist believe?

A

1) God created the world and controls it but doesn’t intervene in its operation
2) man is flawless and can please God through his works
3) they believe in an afterlife
4) man’s good will be rewarded in a future life and his evil will be punished
5) man can become better through education

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9
Q

What is the description desists use for God?

A

“Great First Cause” and “Clock-winder”

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10
Q

What had to occur before a distinctly american literature could exist?

A

Early writers had to cast off their childlike dependence on English literature

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11
Q

Early colonial literature was mostly about _____________ because of the environmental threats.

A

Adversity

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12
Q

Once permanent settlements were established the subject matter focused on ______________.

A

Religion

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13
Q

What was the primary purpose of literature in early America?

A

Instruction

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14
Q

What style did early Puritan writers imitate?

A

Plain / plainness; not the ornate style

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15
Q

Modern critics unjustly criticized the Puritan writings as lacking what?

A

Artistry

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16
Q

In “A Description of New England” John Smith argues for worthiness of colonization. List the 4 powers from most to least important.

A

1) God
2) king
3) country
4) ourselves

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17
Q

Why did William Bradford begin writing “Of Plymouth Plantation”?

A

He feared that the small colony of Plymouth would be eclipsed one day by its sister colony, Massachusetts Bay Colony

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18
Q

What does John Winthrop’s journal primarily focus on?

A

God’s providential care for the colonists

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19
Q

According to Winthrop, what type of livery does man have in common with animals?

A

Natural Liberty

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20
Q

Mary Rowlandson’s captivity represents what?

A

1) attitudes of colonists toward Indians
2) colonists’ reliance on the Bible in difficult times
3) dangers of colonial life

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21
Q

Roger William’s belief about what principle has been influential among religious and political conservatives since his day?

A

Separation of church and state

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22
Q

What does Anne Bradstreet accomplish more effectively than any other Puritan writer?

A

Recording the touchingly human drama of Puritan life

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23
Q

In “Upon the Burning of Our House,” what reason does Bradstreet cite for determine that God is just?

A

All her goods belong to God

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24
Q

Was not a well known poet

A

Edward Taylor

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25
Q

Why does Edward Taylor want God to be his spectacles?

A

So he can examine himself from God’s perspective to see if he indeed has God’s image

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26
Q

In Edward Taylor’s “God’s Determinations” it emphasizes what?

A

God’s plan of redemption for the sinner and spiritual growth for the believers.

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27
Q

What was the main theme of Jonathan Edwards writings?

A

That religious knowledge must be in the heart not just in the head

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28
Q

Jonathan Edward’s view of what later influenced authors such as Hawthorne and Melville?

A

Man’s corrupt nature

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29
Q

Benjamin Franklin stressed what as the means of happiness, but also encouraged what’s?

A

Right living as the means of happiness and encouraged religious toleration

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30
Q

What were the 3 religious principles Benjamin Franklin accepted?

A

1) God exist and created the world and we area governed by his providence
2) The soul is immortal
3) Crime will be punished and virtue rewarded either this life or the next
4) The most acceptable service of God is doing good to men
5) He did not accept that Jesus lived, died, and was resurrected

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31
Q

What was Benjamin Franklin’s view of Jesus?

A

That Jesus provided the best system of morals that ever was or that ever will be, but he probably wasn’t divine.

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32
Q

Critics agree that Thomas Paine’s genius lies in what?

A

Style rather than thought

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33
Q

Paine served as the major spokesperson for what?

A

Rationalism

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34
Q

The Age of Reason was providentially hindered due to the fact of what?

A

It was published during America’s second major revival.

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35
Q

What made William Bartram’s literature peice, Travels, especially significant?

A

His emphasis on scientific observation and its literary merit.

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36
Q

Philip Freneau had been called what?

A

Early America’s first truly American Poet.

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37
Q

Freneau’s poetry reflects a shift in what?

A

The literary emphasis from 18th century neoclassic style to 19th century romantic style

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38
Q

Freneau’s poetry compared to those of the Puritan’s shows what?

A

A fundamental shift in the view of God and man.

39
Q

What was particularly unusual about Phillis Wheatley’s style of the poem?

A

It’s written in blank verse

40
Q

Both of Phillis Wheatley’s poems are similar in what message?

A

That all men may have redemption through Christ and her praise to God for bringing her to America

41
Q

What were the years of literary Romanticism?

A

1820-1865

42
Q

Washington Irving and “The Sketch Book” we’re what?

A

The first American writer and work to be widely read and respected in both England and the U.S.

43
Q

T/F
It was during the time of american Romanticism that American Literature matured and the U.S won literary independence from England

A

True

44
Q

T/F

It was during the 18th century that American Literature matured and the U.S. Won literary independence from England

A

False

45
Q

It was during the time of American Romanticism that what happened?

A

American Literature matured and the U.S. Won literary independence from England

46
Q

What were the four key elements of American Romanticism ?

A

1) individualism
2) imagination
3) nature
4) the distant

47
Q

The Romantics favored what?

What were they not?

A

Experimentation, organicism, and optimism.

They were not rational.

48
Q

What were two aspects of the sense of distance employed by the romantic writers?

A

1) space

2) time

49
Q

What was the least objectionable of the four elements to the Puritan’s?

A

The distant

50
Q

What was the even that brought more attaches against the Bible than did any other source?

A

The publication of Darwin’s “Origin of Species”

51
Q

Who was the first American writer to emphasize writing for the purpose of entertainment?

A

Washington Irving

52
Q

What was the literary form created by combining narrative tale and essay of character?

A

Short story

53
Q

What is an aspect of Cooper’s work that has special interest to the Christian?

A

The Christian values of Natty Bumpo’s character

54
Q

What was one of the dominant themes of the novel “Leatherstocking Tales”?

A

Initiation

55
Q

Bryant’s poetry is what?

A

Classic in style, but romantic in content

56
Q

Compared to the other New England School poets Longfellow used what?

A

The greatest variety of genres and verse forms

57
Q

(Diving Commedia)

This introductory poem was part of the larger effort of what?

A

His translation of Dante’s a divine Comedy from Italian to English

58
Q

Line 12 “The tumult of the time disconsolate” refers to what?

A

The Civil War rather than personal grief

59
Q

Who was not the first American poet to be able to make a living primarily from his poetry?

A

Lowell

60
Q

The Lesson is chiefly about what?

A

Pride

61
Q

The Lesson is not anthologies very often I’m secular collections because of what?

A

It’s clear moral emphasis on God’s superiority to man

62
Q

Whittier’s poetry presents what?

A

A detailed picture of rural life

63
Q

Who is the least typical of the New England School?

A

Whittier

64
Q

Whittier had no formal training in what?

A

Poetic training

65
Q

(First Day Thoughts)

What is the aspect that causes problems from a Biblical standpoint?

A

The idea that a person’s spiritual intuition has authority equal to or greater than the Bible

66
Q

What is the significance of Old Ironsides?

A

The special significance for this one is that “Old Ironsides” launched Oliver Wendall Holmes’ literary career

67
Q

Ralph Waldo Emerson was what of Transcendentalism?

A

The philosophical leader

68
Q

Emerson was described as what?

A

The nine-tenth century arch-heretic

69
Q

What was Emerson’s true vocation?

A

Lecturing throughout America

70
Q

Emerson’s transcendentalism contradicts Christianity by supporting what doctrines: (dip)

A

1) the divinity of man
2) the irrelevance of the Bible
3) the perfectibility of society

71
Q

Thoreau tried what after graduating from Harvard?

A

Teaching

72
Q

What characterized Thoreau’s life?

A

Nonconformity

73
Q

What was the central event of Thoreau’s life?

A

His residence at Walden Pond

74
Q

In Civil Disobedience what ideas represent Thoreau’s view? (Pic)

A
  • The individual is above the state
  • Ideally citizens should be neighbors to the state rather than subjects to it
  • A person is justified in breaking any law he considers bad
75
Q

Thoreau also applies transcendental principles to what?

A

Politics

76
Q

According to Thoreau, what is the best government of all?

A

That “which govern not at all” or “which givers least”

77
Q

What did Walt Whitman do with Emerson’s ideas?

A

He extended Emerson’s ideas to their logical outcomes

78
Q

What was Whitman’s most harmful long-range effect?

A

To encourage total freedom in poetic content and style

79
Q

Whitman has had a strong influence on what?

A

Modern American poetry

80
Q

What is Whitman’s central work, a collection of poems refined and revised for 37 years?

A

“Leaves of Grass”

81
Q

Whitman’s work reveals what?

A
  • self worship
  • sexual explicitness
  • unity with nature
82
Q

What were the three dominant symbols In When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d?

A

Lilac, star, and thrush

83
Q

Poe was the first American to influence what three genres?

A

Poetry, fiction, criticism

84
Q

What were Poe’s three principles?

A

1) a work must have high literary quality, not just typical American content
2) a single mood or emotion should dominate the work
3) a work should be short enough to be read in one sitting

85
Q

Hawthorne frequently criticized what?

A

The unrealistic optimism of transcendentalism

86
Q

What are the three stages of Hawthorne’s literary career?

A

Literary preparation, short story, and novel

87
Q

No other 19th century writer was more strongly attracted to American poetry than him

A

Nathaniel Hawthorne

88
Q

Hawthorne uses what kind of settings in his fiction and stresses what’s?

A

Historical settings and universal themes of isolation, guilt, and pride

89
Q

Because Poe believed that man’s instincts for truth, beauty, and duty were completely independent impulses, he attacked what?

A

The view that literature should be a means of instruction.

90
Q

Hawthorne sets “The Birthmark” in what century and for what reasons?

A

18th century because the 18th century’s AGE of REASON is appropriate for Alymer’s character (who represents an unbalanced over emphasis not eh mental part of mankind)

91
Q

What was Melville’s greatest work?

A

Moby Dick

92
Q

What provided Melville’s background for his fiction?

A

His own sea experiences

93
Q

What style did Melville favor that attempted to represent the world exactly as he saw it?

A

Realistic style

94
Q

Why are Modern critics sympathetic to Melville?

A

his questions about God’s goodness and the existence of meaning in the universe

American Literature (9 decks)

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