08/02/2018

LITERATURA INGLESA 2

AMERICAN LITERATURE -NINETEENTH CENTURY-

1. Introduction & Context

Words or ideas associated to America

Capitalism, American dream, patriotism, democracy, confidence, individualism, community,

national identity, popular culture…

Periods

- First period: 1820-1865

American Civil War (1861-1865)
Also known as “American Renaissance”: A literary nationalism.
“WASP”: White Anglo-Saxon Protestant writers (Harold Bloom, Western Canon)
Characteristics:
-The expansions of the literary market: there were more people able to read more novels,
books, newspapers… Good news to the writers but also it increases the competition
between the writers (it was harder to become the best one). The copyright was
undeveloped, so it was a lot of plagiarism. The publishing in magazines were faster so
many authors used it to increase their popularity. Women (Harriet Beecher Stowe,
Emily Dickenson…) had more chances but it was still hard for them.
-New landscapes, new themes: West, urban city. The life in the city.
-Reform and transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson, he wrote an essay named
Nature (value of nature) he had many influence in other authors. Margaret Fuller: The
Dial she was the first editor of it. The claim the importance of the individual and the
relationship with nature. Also, the importance of childhood. It was a movement for
peace, the wanted the world peace. Many of the belong to the Unitarian Church, they
rejected the idea of the Trinity, they thought that there was only one superior being.
Many of them lived in the city of Concord, Emerson lived there, they were all
neighbours. This people were specially concern about the poor and working class. They
promoted philanthropic actions, they advocate for women’s rights. The “Seneca Falls
 Convention” was a kind of first conference for women’s rights. They were specially
worried about national crime, they believed in freedom, in peace. They wanted to create
a more tolerant world to live.
-Native American literature: Black Hawk, William Apess.
-African American literature: Frederick Douglas, Frances Harper.
-Antebellum writers: sense of belonging to the same literary community.

- Second period: 1865-1914

The civil war left a lot of devastation and it was reflected in literature. The US were
exhaustive.
-Civil War  Transformation of a nation
-Frederick Jackson Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in American History
(1893).
Historical and social context:
-Transportation: railroad, telegraph, electricity, telephone. This connects the whole
country.
-Industrialization and manufacturing. Monopolies.
-Immigration (1870-1920)
-Rural farmers
-Industrial workers
Literature:
-Newspapers and magazines
-New themes, forms, subjects and characters. As the society changes, literature changes.
-Focus on prose fiction. During Romanticism poetry was more important but now is
going to be prose.
-Some significant examples in poetry: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickenson.
Fiction tendencies:
1.Realism: a literary style that attempts to represent the social world as convincingly as
possible: Henry James, Mark Twain, Edith Wharton.
2.Naturalism: extreme version of realism. A more deliberate kind of realism in novels,
stories, and plays, usually involving a view of human beings as passive victims of
natural forces and social environment: Stephen Crane, Jack London.
3.Regionalism: another expression of the realist impulse. It arose out of the desire both
to record distinctive ways of life and come to terms with the new world
-Non-fiction writers: articles and essays on women’s rights, political corruption, racial
inequality.
-Native American Writers: Sarah Winnemucca.
-African American Writers: W. E. B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington.