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Lit. of Discovery and Exploration

Columbus Journal

A Description of New England by John Smith

Characteristics:

Full of political intentions directed towards Europe

Subversive, even mutinous vision of America as independent from England and a place where

many new things could be learned

Evokes beginning of American Dream of Success/material and spiritual domination

Establishes that English settlement is God-given right MANIFEST DESTINY

Just as it had been for the Spanish, giving the New World to God would be the argument used by the

English settlers to justify their domination and subjugation of other peoples throughout the territories

that were to become the U.S. - from Norton Anthology of American Literature

Puritan Literature

Puritanism Protestants opposed to the Church of England, established by Henry VIII, and revived by

Queen Elizabeth I

-Puritans left for America at height of English Renaissance: a rebirth of ideas characterized by invention of printing press

return to classical texts (Greek and Roman)

the new Protestant religion created by Luthers Reformation (attack on Catholic church)

the new Church of England (mixture of Protestant and Catholic)

the discovery of the NEW WORLD

the discovery of the NEW COSMOS

old = Ptolemy geocentric earth-centered

new = Copernicus heliocentric sun-centered

**This switch in world views was a big deal because it undermined the teachings of the church and

made people realize humans and the earth are NOT at the center of things

Characteristics of Puritan Lit. :

- shows competition between factions of settlers- ETHNOCENTRIC when one judges other cultures/other ethnic groups based on their own culture/

unable to see other peoples way of life objectively

- based on plainness of Geneva Bible (opposite of King James) / opposite of the worldly and witty lit.of the Southern Colonists

- shows idea that they were setting up a new world colony for the chosen people of God as prophesied

in the Bible MANIFEST DESTINY creating a NEW JERUSALEM- ethnocentric world-view their culture is right and only way to live

- shows how Puritan Doctrine is inflexible and uncompromising DOGMATIC

- spiritual diary shows belief in ELECTION Gods special favor

- Jonathan Edwards (a Puritan writer) sermons were part of a movement called THE GREATAWAKENING a time of religious fervor which permeated America

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Early American Lit Ideals and Themes the new world

religious freedom the New Jerusalem

expansion

economic freedom

the wilderness

diversity