History of American Literature - Курс лекций

Higher and Secondary Special Education Ministry of the Republic of Uzbekistan Gulistan State University «History of American Literature» Guliston-2005 Introduction In the tenth century brave Scandinavian sailors reached the Western coast of the Present USA. On 12th of October 1492 Christopher Columbus landed on one of the islands (in the region of Cuba). Later near that place there sprang up New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and these united under the name of New England. In 1634 there appeared Maryland and in 1681 William Penn founded the Quaker colony, Pennsylvania. American Literature can not be captured in a simple definition. It reflects the many religious, historical and cultural traditions of the American people, one of the worlds most varied populations. It includes poetry, fiction, drama and other kinds of writing by authors in what is now the US. It also includes non written material, such as the oral literature of the American Indians and folk tales and legends. In addition, American literature includes accounts of American written by immigrants and visitors from other countries, as well as works by American writers who spent all of their lives abroad. The United States became an independent nation by winning the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783). James Hector St. John De Creve Coeur the French - born essayist (1735-1813), helped the colonists think of themselves as American rather than Europeans. Crevecoeur saw America as a new land where individuals could throw off old Prejudices, suffocating social Customs, and tyrannical government. Franklin, Paine and Creve Coeur wrote in disnified, but Plain and clear, prose. This style reached its peak in the ringing eloquence of the «Declaration of Independence» written by Thomas Jefferson. The same type of writing appears in the sober language of the Constitution of the U.S-s, much of which was dratted by Gonverneur Morris, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay used this clear style in «The Federatist» (1784-1788), and series of public letters that persuaded New Yorkers to ratify the Constitution. William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant merits a claim to be one of America’s first naturalist poets. Born after the Revolutionary War, Bryant turned to nature as a source for poetic inspiration. «Thanatopsis», the name of his most famous nature poem, is a Greek word meaning «view of death». The opening lines assert: To him who in the love of nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language… Edgar Allan Poe, was also a master of the prose tale. A gifted, tormented man, Poe thought about the proper function of literature for more than any of his predecessors, with the result that he became the first great American literary critic… The next great American Romanticist, however, drew on America for both characters and seltings, and his work, though theoretical and philosophical, does mirror the attitudes and moves of the time. He was a Shy New Englander named Nathaniel Hawthorne. Although he wrote no poetry his short Stories and novels still rank among the best that America has produced. Abolitionism. Harriet Beacher Stowe «Uncle Tom’s Cabin» Transcendentalism. Ralph Waldo Emerson, the «Great Awakener» the founder of Transcendentalism, deeply influenced American literature. His Speeches «The American Scholar» (1837) and «Divinity School Address» (1838). In 1840 started publishing «The Deal», the Transcendentalism review. 1841. The book is also called «Knickbocker’s History of New York» because Irving wrote it under the name Diedrich Knickerbocker. In «The Sketch Book of Geoffren Crayon,» (1819-1820), Irving combined the style of the essay and the sketch to create the first short stories in American literature. The book includes «Rip Van Wirkle» and «The legend of Sleepy Hollow» two of Irving’s most famous tales. In «Rip Van Wirkle» the title character awakens from a 20-year sleep to find everything changed by the Revolutionary War. Irving’s doubts about American independence, his hostility toward New E-d culture, and his desire to mountain cultural ties with E-d run through all his early writing. The poet William Cullen Bryant adapted the style of E. romantic poetry to describe the American landscape and to find moral significance in its beauty. Such poems as «Thanatopsis» (1817), «To a Waterfowl» (1818), and «To the Fringed Gentain» (1832) reflect Bryant’s admiration of nature. He also meant to suggest that both elements were present in many stories in his collection. «The Fall of the House of Usher» is among Poe’s most famous and most accomplished tales. The house that falls is both the literal Usher habitation and the family it signifies. The house also represents the mind of Roderick Usher. In its density of detail, bizarre events, and uncanny tone, the story suggest gothic fiction. In its psychological richness and fainted family history, it reaches back to Greek tragedy. «The Cask of Amontillado» examp