Post on 08-Aug-2018
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Early American & ColonialPeriod to 1776
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Orally transmitted myths, legends, chants,fairy tales, humorous anecdotes,
incantations, riddles, proverbs, epics, tales& lyrics of Indian culture
No written literature in Indian languages &tribal cultures before the arrival of first
Europeans Oral literature is diverse
Quasi-nomadic hunting culture differs fromstories of settled agricultural tribes
Tribal variations in systems of government& religion are reflected in literature
Yet a few generalizations are possible
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Reverence for nature as spiritual & physical
mother
Nature is alive & endowed with spiritual forces
Main characters are plants, animals or totems
associated with a particular tribe or individual
No long standardized religious cycle Accounts of migrations & ancestors abound
as do visions, healing songs, creation stories
& tricksters tales
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Variety of songs like lullabies, war chants,
love songs & special songs for childrens
games, gambling, magic or dance
ceremonials
Vision songs, appearing in dreams or
visions, may be healing, hunting or lovesongs
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The Literature of Exploration
The first European record of exploration inAmerica is in a Scandinavian language
The first known contact, however, between the
America & the rest of the world began with the
journey of Italian Christopher Columbus
Initial English attempts at colonization were
disasters
The first colony was set up in 1585 whichdisappeared with all the colonists
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The second attempt survived
The literature of the period paints Americaas the land of riches & promises
The accounts of colonization became world
famous & were translated in many languages
In the 17th c. pirates, adventurers & explorersopened the way to a second wave of
permanent colonists who brought along their
families
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The early exploration literature was made up of
diaries, letters, travel journals, ships logs &
reports to the explorers financial backers
Later it was supplanted by records of early
colonies
England eventually took possession of theNorth American colonies, the best known
colonial literature is English
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The Colonial Period in New England
New England: northeastern section of the United
States The first Puritan colonists who settled New England
exemplified the seriousness of ReformationChristianity
The large initial immigration to Boston in the 1630s
The high articulation of Puritan cultural ideals
The early establishment of a college and a printingpress in Cambridge gave New England a substantialedge
Printing was established in theAmerican colonies before it
was allowed in most of England
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The puritan definition of good writing was thatwhich brought a full awareness of the
importance of worshipping God & of thespiritual dangers on earth
Its style varied from complex metaphysicalpoetry to homely journals & pedantic religious
history Some of the American
literature were pamphlets
and writings extolling thebenefits of the colonies to
both a European and
colonist audience
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Themes
The religious disputes that prompted
settlement in America were also topics of
early writing
Other late writings described conflicts and
interaction with the Indians Some themes remained constant: life as a
test, world as an arena of battle between
forces of God & evil
They commonly cited Bible
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They clung to the Jewish tales, finding
similarities between Jewish exodus & puritan
migration
Puritan poetry was highly religious in nature
The poems of early New England imitate the
form & technique of mother country Yet religious passion, new settings &
frequent biblical references gave it a new &
distinct taste
They imitated writing that was already out of
vogue in England as they lived before the
advent of swift transportation
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They remained ignorant of English trends or
fine English lyrics due to lack of books &rejection of different sects
Colonial worlds tend to be archaic & New
England is no exception
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Literature in Southern & Middle Colonies
Pre-revolutionary southern literaturewas aristocratic & secular
It reflected the dominant social &
economic system of plantations
Many southerners were poor farmers or
trades people who lived no better than
slaves
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The Puritan emphasis on hard work, ,
education & earnestness was rare
Church was a focus of a genteel social life not
a forum for minute examination of conscience
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Poetry
American poetry, the poetry of the United
States, arose first as efforts by colonists toadd their voices to English poetry in the 17th
century
Although before this, a strong oral traditionoften likened to poetry existed among Native
American societies
Most of the early colonists' work relied on
contemporary British models ofpoetic form, diction, and theme
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One of the first recorded poets of the British
colonies was Anne Bradstreet (16121672),
who remains one of the earliest knownwomen poets who wrote in English
Edward Taylor wrote poems expounding
Puritan virtues in a highly wrought
metaphysical style that can be seen as typical
of the early colonial period
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The narrow focus on the Puritan ethic was
the dominant note of most of the poetry
written in the colonies during the 17th andearly 18th centuries
The earliest "secular" poetry published in
New England was by Samuel Danforth in his"almanacks" for 16471649
Of course, being a Puritan minister as well
as a poet, Danforth never ventured far from
a spiritual message
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Another distinctly American lyric voice of
the colonial period was Phillis Wheatley, aslave whose book "Poems on Various
Subjects, Religious and Moral," was
published in 1773
The 18th century saw an increasingemphasis on America itself as fit subject
matter for its poets
However, as might be expected from what
was essentially provincial writing, this late
colonial poetry is generally somewhat old-
fashioned in form and syntax
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It deployed the means and methods of Pope
and Gray in the era of Blake and Burns. On the whole, the development of poetry in
the American colonies mirrors the
development of the colonies themselves.
The early poetry is dominated by the need topreserve the integrity of the Puritan ideals
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As the colonists grew in confidence, the
poetry they wrote increasingly reflected
their drive towards independence.
This shift in subject matter was not
reflected in the mode of writing which
tended to be conservative
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AmericanTheatre
The birth of professional theater in Americamay have begun with the Lewis Hallamtroupe that arrived in Williamsburg, Virginia,in 1752
A theater was built in Williamsburg in 1716 The Hallams were the first to organize a
complete company of actors in Europe andbring them to the colonies
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The Merchan t of Venic ewas their first
performance, shown initially on September15, 1752
Lewis Hallam, Jr., founded the American
Company, opened a theater in New York,
and presented the first professionallymounted American playThe Prince of
Parthia, by Thomas Godfreyin 1767
In the 18th century, laws forbidding the
performance of plays were passed
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In spite of such laws, however, a few
writers tried their hand at playwriting.
Most likely, the first plays written inAmerica were by European-born dating
back as early as 1567
No plays were printed in America untilRobert Hunter's Androborosin 1714.
Still, in the early years, most of the plays
produced came from Europe; only with
Godfrey's The Prince of Parth iain 1767 dowe get a professionally produced play
written by an American
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