Literary Movements in American Literature

Origins and Encounters2000 B.C. – A.D. 1620

• 2000-1000 B.C.-Native Americans in Southwest cultivate maize, a forerunner of corn.

• A.D. 500-Native American tribes in Eastern woodlands establish agricultural economy and trade.

• A.D. 800-Mound Builder culture develops along Mississippi River.

• A.D. 1000-Anaszi build elaborate, multistory cliff dwellings in Southwest canyons.

Origins and Encounters2000 B.C. – A.D. 1620

Miamisburg Mound, the largest conical mound in Ohio, is

attributed to the Adena archaeological culture.

Origins and Encounters2000 B.C. – A.D. 1620

Cliff Palace – Mesa Verde National Park, CO

Origins and Encounters2000 B.C. – A.D. 1620

• Mythology-a system of hereditary stories of ancient origin which were by a particular cultural group, and which served to explain that culture.

• “The World on the Turtle’s Back”-Iroquois Tribe

• “The Song of the Sky Loom”-Tewe Tribe

• Native American Myths

• “Hunting Song”-Navajo Tribe

• “Coyote and Buffalo”-Okanogan Tribe

Origins and Encounters2000 B.C. – A.D. 1620

• Accounts of Exploration and Exploitation

• 1502-First enslaved Africans taken to America.• 1607-First permanent English colony set up in

Jamestown, Virginia.• “La Relacion”-(report) Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca• “The Travels of Marco Polo”-(travelogue) Marco

Polo• “The Interesting Narrative of the Life Olaudah

Equiano”-(slave narrative) Olaudah Equiano

From Colony to Country1620-1800

• Age of Reason is the literary movement that adheres to strict Puritan doctrine.

• 1,000 Puritans settle in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

• 1630 - “A Modell of Christian Charity” by John Winthrop— “For we must consider that we shall be like a City upon a Hill”

Winthrop envisioned “a city of God” as the Utopian foundation for the new society that the Puritans would be building.

From Colony to Country1620-1800

• 1666-”Upon the Burning of Our House” by Anne Bradstreet—the first famous colonial poet.

From Colony to Country1620-1800

• 1692-1693 – “The Examination of Sarah Good” – Salem witch trials.

• What evil spirit have you familiarity with?None.Have you made no contract with the devil?No.Why do you hurt these children?I do not hurt them. I scorn it.Who do you imploy then to do it?I imploy no body.What creature do you imploy then?No creature. I am falsely accused.

Dialogue based on the examination of Sarah Good by Judges Hathorne and Corwin,from The Salem Witchcraft Papers, Book II, p.355

From Colony to Country 1620-1800

• 1732- Poor Richard’s Almanack- by Benjamin Franklin“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy wealthy and wise.”

From Colony to Country 1620-1800

• 1741- “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”- a sermon delivered by Jonathan Edwards. “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you…his wrath toward you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire.”

From Colony to Country 1620-1800

• 1776- “Declaration of Independence” by Thomas Jefferson. “We hold these truths to be self-evident:--That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

• 1782- “What Is an American?” by Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur. “He is an American who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds.”

Colonial Period Artwork

• Artist: The Freake-Gibbs Painter• Place and period: Worked in Boston in 1670• Title of work: The Mason Children: David,

Joanna, and Abigail• Date of completion: 1670

The Spirit of Individualism1800-1855

• Romanticism – At the beginning of the 19th century, this movement took place as a reaction to Neoclassicism. The Romantics realized the limitations of reason; as a result, they focused on the individual spirit, the emotions, the imagination, and the supernatural.

• 1835- Emerson, Thoreau, and others organized the Transcendental Club. Transcendentalism is based on the idea that truth exists beyond reason and experience.

Francisco Goya, The Third of May, 1808, Spain, 1814-1815

This Romantic painting by Goya serves as a social satire about theoppressive Napoleonic forces in Spain at the time. This painting exemplifiesRomanticism as it explores a new subject matter as well as color effects, andplaces an extreme importance on the power of emotion.

The Spirit of Individualism1800-1855

• 1838- Longfellow, a famous romantic writer, wrote “A Psalm of Life”

“Lives of great men all remind us

We can make our lives sublime,

And, departing, leave behind us

Footprints on the sands of time;”

The Spirit of Individualism1800-1855

• 1845- Thoreau begins to live on Walden Pond.• 1849- “Civil Disobedience” by Henry David

Thoreau— “That government is best which governs least;”

The Spirit of Individualism1800-1855

• 1841- “Self-Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”

The Spirit of Individualism1800-1855

• 1855- Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

“Song of Myself”

“Or I guess the grass is itself a child….the produced babe of the vegetation.”

The Spirit of Individualism1800-1855

• American Gothic- the setting is usuallyin the middle ages, often with a gloomy castle furnished with dungeons, underground passages and ghosts.

• American Gothic relates to romanticism where the imagination leads to the dark regions of the unknown.

• 1839- “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe

Conflict and Expansion1850-1900A House Divided

• 1851- Moby Dick by Herman Melville

• 1852- Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe• 1865- Abraham Lincoln delivers “Gettysburg

Address.”• 1882- “Narrative of the Life of

Frederick Douglass” Autobiography

Conflict and Expansion1850-1900

• 1876- Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

• 1883- Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain

Conflict and Expansion1850-1900

Realism became the dominant literary style after the Civil War. The focus was on ordinary people.

Local-color realism- the detailed representation in a literary work of the setting, dialect, customs, dress, and ways of thinking and feeling which are distinctive to a particular region. Mark Twain and Willa Cather used local-color realism.

Conflict and Expansion1850-1900

• Childe Hassam“Improvisation”-1899

• 1870-1900- Edith Wharton – “Age of Innocence” “The Gilded Age” is an era that characterizes economic growth that widens the gap between rich and poor, and breeds corruption through affluence in politics, business, and society.

Impressionism

Impressionist artists were concerned with the affects and quality of light, and

knew how colors could complement or alter one another. The spontaneity of

their painting was a great contrast to academic paintings of the past, and

leisure time activities were a favorite subject. While the name impressionism

derives from realism, the movement was deemed as such because of Monet’s

“Impression Sunrise.”

ExpressionismVan Gogh was influenced by the 20th century. Van Gogh's

inner state of mind certainly played a large role in his

subject matter and painting as a whole. Characterized by

his extreme uses of color and fragmentary brush marks, his

own feelings are fairly evident in his works.

Vincent Van Gogh,

Boulevard de Clichy, 1887

The Changing Face of America1855-1925

• 1862- Emily Dickinson writes 366 poems in a year.

“Because I could not stop for Death-

He kindly stopped for me-

The Carriage held but just Ourselves-

And Immortality.”

The Changing Face of America1855-1925

• 1890- “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman illustrates the emotional and intellectual oppression of a young woman during the Victorian Era.

The Changing Face of America1855-1925

The American Dream / Illusion or reality?

• 1890s- “We Wear The Mask” by Paul Laurence Dunbar describes the pain of racism.

“We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-”

The Changing Face of America1855-1925

• “Winter Dreams” by F. Scott Fitzgerald- “Often he reached out for the best without knowing why he wanted it…”

The Modern Age1910-1940

• 1915- “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot.-Alienation of the Individual

“I should have been a pair of ragged claws

Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.”

Modern Art

Edvard Munch (1863-1944): "Disease and Insanity were the black

angels on guard at my cradle". An early life full of death and struggle

traumatized Munch and left him "a human isolate in constant fear of

death". Themes of illness and death "dominate his paintings" as he was

so utterly scared of these issues. He also had a deep hatred of women

and of hands. His works really reflect his own personal issues.

The Modern Age1910-1940

• “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost

“Good fences make good neighbors.”

The Modern Age1910-1940

1920s- Harlem Renaissance originated in Harlem, New York. LangstonHughes was a leading voice for the Harlem Renaissance.

HarlemLangston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry upLike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore- And then run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Harlem Renaissance Art

William H. Johnson arrived in Harlem in 1918.

The Modern Age1910-1940

1920s-Harlem Renaissance Writers:• Zora Neal Hurston• Countee Cullen• Claude McKay• Langston Hughes

After 1960s-Reaffirming Black Cultural Identity:• James Baldwin• Gwendolyn Brooks• Toni Morrison• Nikki Giovanni• Alice Walker

Reaffirming the Harlem RenaissanceRomare Bearden can best be described as a "descendent" of the

Harlem Renaissance, for the majority of his works were created a

couple of decades after the movement had ended. His paintings,

collages and prints celebrate black history, black music (jazz primarily

an invention of black musicians), and black lifestyles. Bright colors,

unusual spatial compositions, and a jubilant attitude frequently occupy

his works.

“Soul History”

The Modern Age1910-1940

• Southern Gothic- The 19th century setting of a medieval castle shifted to a decaying plantation, with a family isolated in time and place.

• 1930- “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner.

War Abroad and Conflict at Home1940-Present

• Remembering the Wars (World War II)• “Armistice” by Bernard Malamud- a story set in

World War II before the U.S. entered the conflict. Anti-Semitism, prejudice against Jews, plays a major role in the story.

War Abroad and Conflict at Home1940-Present

• “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell. Jarrell served in the U.S. Army Air Force, teaching flight navigation in Arizona. He gained firsthand knowledge of fighter planes and gunners.

War Abroad and Conflict at Home1940-Present

• Traditions Across Time: War in Vietnam• “Ambush” by Tim O’Brien presents a soldier’s

response to the fear and confusion in Vietnam and the memories that haunt him after the war.

War Abroad and Conflict at Home1940-Present

• Integration and Disintegration• “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther

King Jr.(1963)- “…My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and non-violent pressure.”

War Abroad and Conflict at Home1940-Present

• Integration and Disintegration

• “Legal Alien” by Pat Mora

“sliding back and forth

between two worlds”

War Abroad and Conflict at Home1940-Present

• Integration and Disintegration• “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan

“I don’t see myself writing about culture and the immigrant experience. That’s just part of the tapestry. What I believe my books are about is relationships and family.”

Contemporary ArtPop Art began in England in the 1950s and emerged in a different wayin the United States in the 1960s. Pop is short for popular, as pop artreflected and expressed popular culture of the time. American Pop Artwas a unified movement that "insisted on a direct relationship betweenits use of the imagery of mass production and its adoption of moderntechnological procedures". Each artist established their own style andidentity which we can see clearly through the works of Andy Warholand Roy Lichtenstein.

Works Cited

Images• Miamisburg Mound, Cliff Palace - en.wikipedia.org • John Winthrop - www.pbs.org • Anne Bradstreet, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Walt Whitman, F. Scott

Fitzgerald - www.todayinliterature.com • Benjamin Franklin - teachpol.tcnj.edu

• Jonathan Edwards - www.jonathanedwards.com • The Mason Children - www.thinker.org • The Third of May – Francisco Goya - www.sbac.edu • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - www.nndb.com • Henry David Thoreau - etext.library.adelaide.edu.au• Edgar Allan Poe - www.crimelibrary.com • Herman Melville - nantuckets.com

• Frederick Douglass - www.historyplace.com

Works Cited• Mark Twain - passouline.blog.lemonde.fr • “Improvisation”-Childe Hassam - americanart.si.ed• “Impression Sunrise”-Claude Monet -www.mezzo-mondo.com • “Boulevard de Clichy” –Vincent Van Gogh - www.1st-art-gallery.com • Emily Dickinson - www.lucidcafe.com • Charlotte Perkins Gilman - gilman.thefreelibrary.com• Paul Laurence Dunbar - events.stanford.edu • T.S. Eliot - thecriticalpoet.tripod.com • “Scream” – Edvard Munch - www.geocities.com • Robert Frost - www.internal.org

• Langston Hughes - alloftheabove.wordpress.com • William H. Johnson - www.iusb.edu • Chain Gang – William H. Johnson

-http://www.reveries.com/folkden/riley.html• “Soul History” – Romare Bearden -www.eyeconart.net

Works Cited

• William Faulkner - www.themodernword.com • Bernard Malamud - www.csustan.edu • Randall Jarrell, Pat Mora - www.poets.org • Tim O’Brien -www.iwvpa.net • Martin Luther King Jr. - no.wikipedia.org

• Amy Tan - www.usnews.com • Pop Art - www.artofcolour.com

Information• Contemporary Art - en.wikipedia.org• Quotations, Literary terms, Backgrounds on writers

Anderson R., Brinnin J., Leggett J., Burroway, J., and Cisneros, S., Elements of Literature. Chicago: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. 1993.