january 21 st through 29 th. thursday, january 21 st go over syllabus introductions assign books
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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)
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.
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