Evolution Of American Literature

BY: Michael PotterEd Hackett

Diet DallmierSloane NaughtonJennifer Carleton

MoDeRnIsM

• Marcel Duchamp• Style- He liked to take other artist’s

work and make a new meaning out of the art, by changing it in some way or another

• He made the mustache Mona Lisa, and the toilet parody called the “fountain”.

William Carlos Williams( WCW)

• Style- Williams tried to invent an entirely fresh form, an American form of poetry whose subject matter was centered on everyday circumstances of life and the lives of common people. He then came up with the concept of the variable foot. (The concept that peoples language is influenced by the radio and songs and T.V.)

• Some of his famous works are, “The Red Wheelbarrow”, and “This Is Just To Say”.

Hilda Doolittle(HD)

• Style- She had a deep interest in classical Greek literature, and her poetry often borrowed from Greek mythology and classical poets. Her work is noted for its incorporated natural scenes and objects, which are often used to show a particular feeling or mood

• One of her most famous pieces is called the “Sea Rose”.

Ezra Pound

• Considered the poet most responsible for defining and promoting a modernist aesthetic in poetry.

• Style- Stressing clarity, precision, and economy of language, and forgoing traditional rhyme and meter in order to, in Pound's words, "compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of the metronome.“

• Famous piece is “canto 81”

T.S Elliot

• Style- It’s obscure nature - its slippage between satire and prophecy and its abrupt changes of speaker, location, and time. It’s elegiac but intimidating summoning up of a vast and dissonant range of cultures and literatures. (wikipedia)

• One of his famous poems is “The Waste Land”

Mood

• Mood- The feeling or emotion that the piece of work gives off

• Mood is used through out modernism to try to get the audience to feel the same emotion as the artists feels(through poetry).

Parody

• Parody- Making fun of a serous piece of work by imitation

• Marcel Duchamp uses parody’s through out his art, such as the mustache Mona Lisa.

Hyperbole

• Hyperbole- A over-statement of a statement, or an exaggeration.

• Modernists us hyperbole’s in all of their work. Being a modernists is using your work to exaggerate the ridiculousness of the true artist work.

Symbol

• Symbol- A object or an idea that has another meaning that the author is trying to convey through the reader.

• Symbols are sent sublimely through modernists work all of the time. But most often with poems, the symbol is obvious.

Puritan era(16th – 17th century)

• During the Puritan era, the Puritans centered their beliefs around God. Everything they did was to impress God and insure that they would have a place in his kingdom. They believed that everyone was born evil and that they had to word hardest to become good.

Arthur Miller(1950-2005)

• Miller who wrote the Crucible, wrote about the true Puritans and how they would act even if they considered themselves Gods chosen people. Miller exposed the true side of them

• Miller wrote:– Crucible– A View Form the Bridge– All My Son

John Winthrop(1588-1649)

• In his writing he stated that the Puritans were part of a special plan that God had for them and they were to create a Holy Community. Therefore in his writing he honored their beliefs.

• Winthrop wrote:– A Model of Christian Charity

Mary Rowlandson (1637-1711)

• Rowlandson wrote about how she turned her faith to God when she was captured by Native Americans. She expresses her true belief and acknowledges that God was the one that helped her escape. – The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being

a Narrative of the Captivity

Transcendentalism

Ed Hackett

Surmising the Movement

The transcendentalism movement was a movement of the mind. It asserted that the mind is above all the most influential aspect of society, and not as a collective but individually it possessed the greatest power to change the world through acts of civil disobedience and non-conformity.

Emerson

• 1803-1882

• Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Abolitionist

• Individualism

• New Thought Movement

Nature

• Emerson 1836

• Epitome of Transcendentalism

• New found belief, thought, and respect of nature

The American Scholar

• 1837

• "Intellectual Declaration of Independence“– Proclaimed by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Thoreau

• 1817-1862

• Life Long Abolitionist

• Non-Conformist

• Tax withholder

• Basis of later works and actions– Martin Luther King Jr.– Gandhi

Contributions

• Essay “Civil Disobedience” – Civil Government Resistance

• Lectures attacking Fugitive Slave Law

Civil Disobedience

• Thoreau

• Non violence

• Accepting consequences

• Non subversive– In plain sight and obvious

Fredrick Henry Hedge

• 1805-1890

• Unitarian Minister – New England

• Founded Transcendentalist Club– Began as Hedge’s Club

Transcendentalist Club

• Supported Foundations of Transcendentalist Movement

• Reluctance of Members to call it a club– “meeting of like minded men and women”– Reflects some feelings about

social/movement organizations

Transcendentalism

Ed Hackett

Surmising the Movement

The transcendentalism movement was a movement of the mind. It asserted that the mind is above all the most influential aspect of society, and not as a collective but individually it possessed the greatest power to change the world through acts of civil disobedience and non-conformity.

Emerson

• Ralph Waldo Emerson• Abolitionist• Individualism• New Thought Movement

Nature

• Emerson 1836• Epitome of Transcendentalism• New found belief, thought, and respect of

nature

The American Scholar

• 1837• "Intellectual Declaration of Independence“

– Proclaimed by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Thoreau

• Life Long Abolitionist• Non-Conformist• Tax withholder• Basis of later works and actions

– Martin Luther King Jr.– Gandhi

Contributions

• Essay “Civil Disobedience” – Civil Government Resistance

• Lectures attacking Fugitive Slave Law

Civil Disobedience

• Thoreau• Non violence• Accepting consequences• Non subversive

– In plain sight and obvious

Fredrick Henry Hedge

• Unitarian Minister – New England

• Founded Transcendentalist Club– Began as Hedge’s Club

Transcendentalist Club

• Supported Foundations of Transcendentalist Movement

• Reluctance of Members to call it a club– “meeting of like minded men and women”– Reflects some feelings about social/movement

organizations

Realism

• Realism is showing, in the form of art, the real nature of things. No matter how gruesome, inappropriate, vulgar, or beautiful authors that practice realism depict the truth.

Mark Twain

• Mark Twain is a Realist author who is famous for writing “The Adventures of Huckleberry finn.” His writing style is humorist, he likes joking around. He also is very satirical while he makes fun of people. He has written many books and uses the same style for each one.

 George Bellows

• George is a painter who paints urban life. He was the most successful painter of his time. He enjoyed painting realist paintings of boxing matches and the wilderness.

• He was a part of the American realist movement and had a huge success.

Satire

• Funny attack on shortcomings

Dialect

• Speech depicted by how its written, for example mark twain and southerners

Irony

A aspect that is not congruent to what is expected

Paradox

• Something that contradicts itsself

Imargy

• A Vivid image of a setting, or part

Romanticism

Definition-An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 18th century and characterized by a

heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the

attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules and conventions.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/romanticism

Edgar Allen Poe

• His short stories created a single effect. He maintained that any word that distracts from the effect of the story should be taken out

• His stories/poems were always about death and despair and he kept that mood throughout the whole literary piece

Major Literary Pieces

Stories

• The Black Cat

• The Tell-Tale Heart

Poem

• The Raven

James Fenimore Cooper

• He romanticized images of strong, fearless, and ever resourceful frontiersman, as well as Native Americans

• He was all about glorifying the west and aggrandizing it into something huge

Major Literary Pieces

Fictional Books

• The Last of the Mohicans

• The Prairie

• The Deer Slayer

Washington Irving

• Irving dealt mainly with the English lifestyle rather than the American lifestyle. He enjoyed incorporating humor into his stories to keep the readers attention as well. He especially enjoyed making fun of upper class New Yorkers

Major Literary Pieces

Fictional Books

• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

• The Devil and Tom Walker • Rip Van Winkle

William Cullen Bryant

• He wrote about and believed in the unity of humanity and the natural world, and used his work to promote human rights, freedom, and democracy

Major Literary Pieces

Poems

• Thanatopsis

• The Future Life

• June

Nathaniel Hawthorne

• Focused on dark romanticism and dark tales that suggested guilt, sin, and evilness are innate qualities of humanity

• His writings also included much use of symbolism and psychological themes

Major Literary Pieces

Books

• The Scarlett Letter

• The House of Seven Gables

• The Blithedale Romance