Early American & Colonial Period to 1776

8/22/2019 Early American & Colonial Period to 1776

1/24

Early American & ColonialPeriod to 1776


2/24

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


3/24

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


4/24

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


5/24

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


6/24

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


7/24

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


8/24

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


9/24

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


10/24

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


11/24

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


12/24

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


13/24

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


14/24

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


15/24

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


16/24

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


17/24

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


18/24

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


19/24

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


20/24

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


21/24

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


22/24

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


23/24

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


24/24

Early American & Colonial Period to 1776

Documents

Transcript of Early American & Colonial Period to 1776