January 21st through 29th

Thursday, January 21st

• Go over syllabus• Introductions• Assign books

Friday, January 22nd

• American Literary Periods• Personal essays, narratives, and memoirs

American Literary Periodsand their characteristics

Literary Periods Puritan/Colonial

Revolutionary/Age of Reason

Romanticism

American Renaissance/Transcendentalism

Realism

Modernism

Harlem Renaissance

Post Modernism

Contemporary

Puritan/Colonial (1650-1750)

Genre/Style

Sermons

Diaries

Personal Narratives

Written in plain style

Puritan/Colonial

Effects/Aspects

Instructive

Reinforces authority of the Bible and Church

Historical Context

A person’s fate is determined by God

All people are corrupt and must be saved by Christ

Puritan/Colonial Examples

Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation

Rowlandson’s “A Narrative of the Captivity”

Equiano’s narrative

Though not written during Puritan times, The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter depict life during the time when Puritan theocracy prevailed.

Revolutionary Age/Age of Reason

Genre/Style Political pamphlets

Travel writing

Highly ornate style

Persuasive writing

Effect/Aspects Patriotism grows

Instills pride

Creates common agreement about issues

National mission and the American character

1750-1800

Revolutionary/Age of Reason

Historical Context

Tells readers how to interpret what they are reading to encourage Revolutionary War support

Instructive in values

Examples

Writings of Jefferson, Paine, and Henry

Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac

Franklin’s “The Autobiography.

Romanticism (1800-1860)

Genre/Style

Character sketches

Slave narrative

Poetry

Short Stories

Effect/Aspects

Value feeling and intuition over reason

Journey away from corruption of civilization and limits of rational thought toward the integrity of nature and freedom of imagination

Helped instill proper gender behavior for men and women

RomanticismHistorical Context

Expansion of magazines, newspapers, and book publishing

Slavery debates

Industrial revolution brings ideas that the “old way of doing things are now irrelevant.

Examples

Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle”

Poems of Emily Dickinson

Poems of Walt Whitman

American Renaissance/

Transcendentalism

Genre/Style

Poetry

Short Stories

Novels

Hold readers’ attention through dread of a series of terrible possibilities

Effects/Aspects

True reality is spiritual

Comes from 18th century philosopher Immanuel Kant

Idealists

Self-reliance and individualism

American Renaissance/

Transcendentalist

Historical context

Portrayals of alluring antagonists whose evil characteristics appeal to sense of awe

Stories of persecuted young girl forced apart from her true love

People seeking the true beauty in life and in nature

A belief in true love and commitment

Realism (1850-1900)Genre and Style

Novels and Short Stories

Characteristics

Examines realities of life, human frailty, local color

Depiction of ordinary people in everyday life

Objective narrator

Does not tell reader how to interpret the story

RealismHistorical Context

Civil War (1861-1865) brings demand for “truer” type of literature that does not idealize people or places

Dialogue includes regional voices

Examples

Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

ModernismGenre and Style

Novels

Plays

Poetry

Experimental as writers seek a unique style

Use of interior monologue and stream of consciousness

Characteristics

Pursuit of the American Dream

America as the land of Eden

Soon that optimism and a belief in the importance of the individual is overwhelmed by themes of alienation and disillusionment

ModernismHistorical context

Writers reflect the ideas of Darwin and Marx

Overwhelming technological changes of 20th Century

Examples

Steinbecks The Grapes of Wrath

Eliot’s The Wasteland

Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms

Williams The Glass Menagerie

Chopin’s The Awakening

Harlem Renaissance (1920s)

Genre and Style

Outgrowth of Modernism

Allusions to African-American spirituals

Uses structure of blues songs in poetry (repetition)

Superficial stereotypes revealed to be complex characters

Characteristics

Gave birth to gospel music

Blues and jazz transmitted across America via radio

Harlem RenaissanceHistorical Context

Mass African-American migration to Northern urban centers

African-Americans have more access to media and publishing outlets after they move north

Examples

Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun

Wright’s Native Son

Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God

Ellison’s Invisible Man

Post-Modernism (1950 to present)

Genre/Style Narratives: both fiction and

non-fiction

Metafiction

Magical Realism

Mixing of fantasy with nonfiction; blurs lines of reality for reader

No heroes

Humorless

Characteristics

Concern with individual in isolation

Social issues as writers align with feminist and ethnic groups

Erodes distinctions between classes of people

Insists that values are not permanent but only “local” or “historical”

Post-ModernismHistorical Context

Post-World War II prosperity

Media culture interprets values

Examples

Feminist and social issue poets: Plath, Angelou

Capote’s In Cold Blood

Stories of Bradbury and Vonnegut

Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye

Beat poets: Kerouac, Ginsberg

Contemporary (1970s to present)

Genre/Style

Continuation of Post-Modernism

Narratives: fiction and non-fiction

Autobiographical essays

Anti-heroes

Emotion-provoking

Humorous Irony

Characteristics

Concern with connections between people

ContemporaryHistorical context

Beginning a new century

Media culture interprets value

Influence of war (Vietnam; Gulf; Iraq)

Examples Poetry of Dove, Cisneros, Soto

Walker’s The Color Purple, Haley’s Roots, Morrison’s Beloved

Nonfiction by Didion, Dillard, and Krakauer

O’Brien’s The Things They Carried

Megastars: King, Crichton, Grisham, Clancy

Personal Writings

Personal essayFocused on belief or

insight about life that is significant to the writer

Personal narrative

Focused on a significant event (can be in the

present)

Personal memoir

Focused on a significant relationship between the

writer and a person, place, event or object

(reflective)

This I Believe http://thisibelieve.org/essay/4108/

Life is fair

Words can hurt.

What goes around comes around

How you act in a crisis shows who you really are

Love conquers all

An eye for an eye

People learn from their mistakes

You can’t depend on anyone else; you can only depend on yourself.

If you smile long enough, you become happy.

Miracles do happen.

There is one special person for everyone

Money can’t buy happiness

Doing what’s right means obeying the law.