Terry Mondry

Grad. Scholarship

Aune

9-28-04

 TWENTIETH CENTURY BRITISH LITERATURE:MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM

 

MODERNISM 

climate of aesthetic experimentation and intellectual debate; playing with how things look, and debating what they mean.

 pastoral poetry: beauty, innocence, and unspoiled nature are good; experience, maturity, and urban settings are evil and corrupting.

 Melodrama and adventure stories featuring excessive patriotism and occasional sexism or racism: Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson

 texts reflect the increased pace and complexity of life, which leads to alienation from society and other people.  Again, the world is going to hell, so we either need to make sense of the madness through aesthetic experimentation and debate, or run away from it all and enjoy the beauty and innocence of nature, which we haven’t completely screwed up, yet

 The period of “high modernism” was about 1910 to 1930, and includes Woolf, Joyce, Eliot, Proust, Pound, and others.

 Elements of modernism include:

1. impressionism and subjectivity in writing; a focus on how we perceive, rather than what we perceive.  An example is stream-of-consciousness, seen clearly in Woolf.
2. a movement away from omniscient third-person narrators, fixed points of view, and strict moral codes.
3. blurring of genres: Eliot, Woolf, Joyce.
4. fragmentation over unity of form (a variation on #2).
5. self-consciousness in a work: a text calling attention to itself as a product.
6. minimalism and spontaneity in creation of works (which contributes to all of the above).
7. rejection of the distinction between high and pop culture (again, a result of all of the above).

 T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Joseph Conrad, Aldous Huxley, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Katherine Mansfield, George Orwell, George Bernard Shaw, H.G. Wells, and William Butler Yeats are modernists.

 POSTMODERNISM

 Postmodernism has only been an area of academic study since the mid-1980s. 

 While postmodernism shares most of the elements of modernism, it approaches them from a different angle.  Modernism uses these techniques to warn us that the world is going to hell and we need to stop it.  Postmodernism declares that, since the world no longer makes sense, we might as well enjoy it.  Modernist literature looks at society and the world through broad strokes, while postmodernism deals with only section at a time.

 In other words, postmodernism seeks to organize knowledge. In a modern society, gaining knowledge is good for its own sake.  It’s why we study the liberal arts.  In a postmodern society, knowledge is functional—we learn it in order to use it.   Today, an education is meant to provide us with practical skills.  Many of the English classes we take are justified through modernism, but they must have practical applications for the postmodernist.

 Postmodernism views “truth” as a construction of mankind (not a natural phenomenon), and seeks to uncover the framework behind our accepted beliefs and values.

 Postmodernists are interested in the process of the narrative itself: how it is constructed, viewed, interpreted, valued.  They want the reader or the audience to be aware of their work as a product, as the result of a process.  They want the reader to be aware of their technique and style, even during the initial reading.  Postmodernists gleefully break the illusion of reality that readers of poetry and fiction attempt to maintain during a reading.  One of the latest versions of postmodern writing is hypertext: it is impossible to read a hypertext without being aware of the medium and the technique involved.

 Thomas Pynchon, Jorge Luis Borges, and Dylan Thomas are postmodernists. 

 With its focus on deconstruction and fragmentation for its own sake, the next literary movement will likely be a return to modernism and the Enlightenment, another attempt to explain and justify the chaos which surrounds us.

 Timeline

 1892—1^st Sherlock Holmes published.

1895—Time Machine published.

1897—The Invisible Man published.

1898—War of the Worlds published.

1902—Heart of Darkness published.

June 28, 1914—Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austro-Hungarian Empire, assassinated.

July 28—Emperor of Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

July 31—As an ally of Serbia, Russian joins the war.

August 1—Germany declares war on Russia.

August 6—Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia.

January, 1915—War becomes “Total War” with German Zeppelin raid of England February 21-December 18, 1916—The Battle of Verdun, the longest of the war, is fought to a draw with an estimated one million casualties.

December 31, 1916—Rasputin is murdered by relatives of the Tsar.

1916—Prelude published.

July 31-November 10, 1917—Third Battle of Ypres, no breakthrough in the Western front despite 700,000 casualties for both sides.

April 22, 1918—Baron von Richthofen, “The Red Baron,” is killed in a dogfight.

November 11, 1918—the War ends in Armistice.

June 28, 1919—Peace Treaty signed in Versailles.

1920—The Second Coming published.

1922—The Waste Land and Ulysses published.

1924-25—Adolf Hitler imprisoned for sedition against the Weimar Republic; writes Mein Kampf.

1925—Everlasting Man published.  George Bernard Shaw wins Nobel Prize for Literature.

1929—A Room of One’s Own published.

1932—Brave New World published.

January 30, 1933—Adolf Hitler named Chancellor of Germany.

September 1939—Second World War begins.

April 30, 1945—Hitler commits suicide.

1945—Animal Farm published.

1949—1984 published.

 

Sources

 http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/mfs/index.html

Modern Fiction Studies—a scholarly journal with a free sample issue, covering many issues similar to these other sites.

 http://vos.ucsb.edu/

Voice of the Shuttle—fantastic site for Modern British authors and many other topics.  Dozens of useful links.

 http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/pomo.html

Course website for Professor Mary Klages, University of Colorado, Boulder.

 http://www.iath.virginia.edu/elab/hfl0256.html

 http://www.literaryhistory.com/20thC/Modernists.htm

Twentieth Century American and British Literature—another ridiculous number of links, arranged alphabetically by author.

 http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/20century/

Norton Anthology of English Literature—summary of various eras covered in the book.

Early American Literature 1585-1820

1585-1750

“Literature of Settlement” and “Literature of First Contact”

Literature of this time period still models itself after the British example, except for Puritan sermons, which are written in Plain Style. 

 

The Puritans or “The Puritan Experiment”:

Puritanism evolved after Henry VIII formed the Church of England.  They originally moved from England to Holland when James Stuart took the throne and later removed to Plymouth.   

In the Calvinist tradition, they believed in the idea of election (that God had already decided who would be saved).  They also saw themselves as God’s chosen people, and Plymouth was to be the location of their religious nation.

Puritanical writings, including letters, journals, court proceedings, and sermons, give us an idea of not only the spirituality of this group, but also accounts of daily life, thoughts, actions, accounts of weather, nature, and family problems that this group of early settlers experienced.

 “Typology” becomes a method of comparison:

            The idea that lasting truths about human nature could be learned from the past.  Thus, many teachers encouraged students to read not only biblical works, but pre-Christian works by Livy, Tacitus, and Plutarch in order to see how humans progressed towards Christianity. 

“Literature of the First Colonies” or “Colonial literature”:

Literature of the First Colonies includes letters, journals, and accounts of daily life in the New England colonies (as well as Puritanical writings).  They also include Captivity narratives: accounts of early settlers abducted by Native American tribes and travel narratives.  During this time there were also “tales,” which were anonymous, and typically had a moral subtext.

 

During this time there were immense economic, social, philosophical, and scientific changes occurring.  The idea of “community” was dissolving, land was no longer free, but was purchased by wealthy land owners and resold to settlers, and textiles, tobacco, rice, indigo, and anything having to do with shipbuilding were in demand from New England.  This, in part, created a large population influx (not primarily English, but German, Dutch, French Protestants, Jewish merchants and craftsmen).  With this increase in population and independent wealth, the idea of becoming an independent nation became a possibility.

 

Authors of Puritanical and/or Colonial literature:

William Bradford (1590-1657)

            * Of Plymouth Plantation

John Winthrop (1588-1683)

            * A Model of Christian Charity

            * The Journal of John Winthrop

Edward Taylor (c. 1642-1729)

            * Several poems including: Psalm Two, God’s Determination, Huswifery

            * Sermons including: Treatise Concerning the Lord’s Supper

Anne Bradstreet (c. 1612-1672)

            * Several Poems including: As Weary Pilgrim, Here Follows Some Verses upon

              the Burning of Our House, The Prologue, The Author to Her Book

Cotton Mather (1663-1728)

            * The Wonders of the Invisible World

            * Magnalia Christi Americana

            * Bonifacius

Sarah Kemble Knight (1666-1727)

            * The Private Journal of a Journey from Boston to New York

Mary Rowlandson (c. 1636-1711)

            * A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson

Thomas Morton (c. 1579-1647)

            * New English Canaan

Michael Wigglesworth (1631-1711)

            * The Day of Doom

Roger Williams (c. 1603-1683)

            * A Key into the Language of America

            * The Bloody Tenet of Persecution

            * A Letter to the Town of Providence

Samuel Sewall (1652-1730)

            * The Diary of Samuel Sewall

William Byrd (1674-1744)

            * The Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover

            * History of the Dividing Line           

The Enlightenment (Seventeenth-century):

Suggesting have been made that the “Modern” period dates from 1662 and the founding of the British scientific academy.  During this time, science and philosophy came into conflict with traditional Christian truths.  Scientists and philosophers argued that the universe was an ordered system and human beings could comprehend the laws that governed it.  They saw the universe as a more rational place than the Puritans had portrayed it.  They became known as the “Deists”: scientists and philosophers who “deduced the existence of a supreme being from the construction of the universe rather than the bible itself” (Norton 157).  There was also less interest in theology and more interest in the progress of the individual and mankind’s nature during this time.

Authors of the Enlightenment:

John Locke (1632-1704)

* We are not born with the innate ability to decipher good

               from evil.  Rather, our minds are blank slates where our experiences

               imprint themselves.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

            * Law of Universal Gravitation

 

The Great Awakening (beginning in the first half of the eighteenth century)

In reaction to The Enlightenment, The Great Awakening was an attempt at religious revival.  Jonathan Edwards becomes synonymous with “The Great Awakening” and Phillis Wheatley (first African American to be published) also makes a great contribution to literature of this time period.  Often literature of this nature depicts the individual’s response to ‘new science’ and focuses on the revival of religion and a desire to return to the past.

Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784)

            * Poems: On Being Brought to Africa to America, To Maecenas, Thoughts on

              the Works of Providence

            * Letters

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

            * Personal Narrative

            * A Divine and Supernatural Light

            * Letter to Reverend Dr. Benjamin Colman

            * Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

 

1750-1820

“Literature of the Revolution”

Also known as “The Middle Period” of early American literature, literature of the Revolution contains many autobiographies (often modeled after Benjamin Franklin’s) which attest to the idea of the “self-made man.”  All other pieces of literature tend to deal with the Revolutionary war itself: The Declaration of Independence, Revolutionary war poetry, songs, etc.  There are, however, some early stories, such as Washington Irving’s Knickerbocker tales (the style remains European, but he does begin to incorporate some of the American landscape into his work).  This time period also marks the dramatic increase of newspapers in the American colonies and a demand for nationalist literature.

 

Authors of the Revolution:

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

            * For Those Who Would Remove to America

            * Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America

            * The Autobiography

            *Poor Richard’s Alminac (check spelling and title)

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

            * Common Sense

            * The Crisis

            * The Age of Reason

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

            * The Autobiography of Thomas Jefferson

            * Notes on the State of Virginia

Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797)

            * The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas

              Vassa, the African, Written by Himself

 Literature of this time period that is not Revolutionary in nature:

John Woolman (1720-1772)

            * The Journal of John Woolman

            * Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes

            * A Short Narrative of My Life

Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814)

            * The Group (play)

J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur (1735-1813)

            * Letters from an American Farmer

William Bartram (1739-1823)

            * The Travels of William Bartram

John Adams (1735-1826) and Abigail Adams (1744-1818)

            * The Letters of John and Abigail Adams

Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820)

            * On the Equality of the Sexes

Timothy Dwight (1752-1817)

            * Travels in New England and New York

Philip Freneau (1752-1832)

            * Poems: The House of Night, On the Emigration to America and Peopling

              the Western Country, The Wild Honey Suckle, The Indian Burial Ground

Sarah Wentworth Morton (1759-1846)

            * Poems: The African Chef, Ode for Music, Lines

Susanna Rowson (1762-1824)

            * Charlotte: A Tale of Truth

Online Journals:

Jstor:

            Negro American Literature Forum

            American Literature

Project Muse:

            American Literature

ELH

Early American Literature

Black American Literature Forum

 

Other Journals (online or otherwise):

American Literary History

Journals of American Studies

Eighteenth Century Studies

African American Review

William and Mary Quarterly

 

Additional Websites:

http://vos.ucsb.edu/browse.asp?id=2739

Voice of the Shuttle

 http://www.nagasaki-gaigo.ac.jp/ishikawa/amlit/17_8/f_authors17_8.htm

American Authors on the Web

 http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/heath/teacher_tc.html

Heath Anthology

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/heath/lit_links.html

Colonial to 1800 via Heath

 http://www.colorado.edu/English/amlit/Colonial.html#anchor288686

Colonial to 1800 lit (including African American writers)

Bibliography

Andrews, William L, ed. African American Autobiography: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1993.

Armstrong, Nancy, and Leonard Tennenhouse. The Imaginary Puritan: Literature, Intellectual Labor, and the Origins of Personal Life. Berkeley: University of

            California Press, 1992.  

Arner, Robert D. "The Structure of Anne Bradstreet's Tenth Muse." Discoveries & Considerations: Essays on Early American Literature & Aesthetics Presented to

Harold Jantz. Ed. Calvin Israel. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1976.

Baym, Nina, ed. Et. al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature Fifth Edition Volume 1.  New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1998.

Brodhead, Richard. Cultures of Letters: Scenes of Reading and Writing in 19th Century America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990.

 Daybell, James ed. Early Modern Women’s Letter Writing, 1450-1700. New York:   Palgrave, 2001.

Elliot, Emory. Revolutionary Writers: Literature and Authority in the New Republic   1725-1810. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Ferguson, Robert A. The American Enlightenment 1750-1820. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997.

 Foster, William Henry. The Captors' Narrative: Catholic Women and Their Puritan Men on the Early American Frontier. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. ed. et al. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1997.

Gilmore, Michael T.  Early American Literature: A Collection of Critical Essays.    Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1980.

Heimert, Alan, and Andrew Delbanco, eds.  The Puritans in America: A Narrative Anthology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985. 

Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.

 McElrath, Joseph R., Jr., and Allan P. Robb. The Complete Works of Anne Bradstreet. Boston: Twayne, 1981.

 Ruppert, James.  Guide To American Poetry Explication. Colonial and Nineteenth-Century.  Vol. 1.  Boston: G.K. Hall, 1989. 

Works Consulted:

Baym, Nina, ed. Et. al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature Fifth Edition         

Volume 1.  New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1998.

Cameron, Kelly.  “Early American Literature Field Report.”  North Dakota State University.  Autumn Term 2003.

Coghill, Shelia.  “American Literature Survey I Lecture Notes.”  Minnesota State University Moorhead.  Fall Semester 2000.

 

American Literature 1820-1865

Elizabeth Ecker
21 September 2004

Important Figures in American Literature from 1820-1865

Louisa May Alcott:

 (1832-88)   American author.  Mostly educated by her father, she was a friend of Emerson and Thoreau, and her first book, Flower Fables (1854), was a collection of tales originally created to amuse Emerson’s daughter.  She first achieved wide fame and wealth with Little Women (1868), Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871), and Jo’s Boys (1886) are sequels. Alcott’s other novels for young readers include An Old-Fashioned Girl (1870), Eight Cousins (1875), and Under the Lilacs (1879). They all picture family life in Victorian America with warmth and perception.

Robert Montgomery Bird:

            (1806-54)   American playwright and novelist.  Nick of the Woods (1837), his most popular     novel, drew on his travels through America. In contrast to James Fenimore Cooper, Bird    depicted the Native American as violent.

William Cullen Bryant:

            (1794-1878)   American poet and newspaper editor.  An editor of a highly literate         paper, he          was a defender of human rights and an advocate of free trade, abolition of slavery, and other   reforms. He also holds an important place in literature as the earliest American theorist of      poetry. In his Lectures on Poetry, he stressed the values of simplicity, original imagination, and        morality. His blank verse translation of the Iliad appeared in 1870, that of the Odyssey in 1872.

William Ellery Channing:

            (1780-1842)    American Unitarian minister and author.  Channing influenced many American    authors, including Emerson and other transcendentalists. Channing was not by nature a      controversialist and never allied himself with the abolitionists, but his writings on slavery helped prepare for emancipation. In his denunciations of war, his discussion of labor problems,         and his views on education, he was ahead of his time.

 

James Fenimore Cooper:

            (1789-1851)  American author.  He was the first important American writer to draw on the       subjects and landscape of his native land in order to create a vivid myth of frontier life. With   The Pioneers (1823), the first of the famous Leatherstocking Tales, and The Pilot (1823), an        adventure of the high seas, Cooper’s reputation as the first major American novelist was established. Such works as The American Democrat (1838) and the fictional Homeward Bound             and its sequel,   Home as Found (both 1838), express the conservative, aristocratic social views           that made him       quite unpopular; his later life was filled with many quarrels and lawsuits over       his works.

 

Emily Dickinson:

            (1830-1886)  American poet.  Dickinson led a secluded life, only leaving her home in Amherst,             Maine, for one year. She devoted much of her time to writing poetry, producing close to     eighteen hundred poems, which were characterized by terse lines, "slant" rhymes, and keen     observation. Although most of Dickinson's work was not published in her lifetime, she did see          three small collections of poems printed (1890, 1891, and 1896). A half-century later, the three     volumes of The Poems of Emily Dickinson (1955) and two volumes of The Letters of Emily Dickinson (1958) appeared.

 

Frederick Douglass:

            ( 1818-1895) African American author, orator, and abolitionist.   Frederick Douglass was born             a slave in Maryland, and even though it was illegal for slaves to become literate, at an early age     he managed to learn to read and write. In 1836, after years of moving around among different     brutal situations, Douglass escaped. Douglass soon became an important orator in the          abolitionist movement, and with the publication of his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life      of Frederick Douglass (1845), he became the international spokesperson for emancipation.     Moving to Rochester, New York, in 1847, Douglass began publishing the antislavery paper The    North Star, later called Frederick Douglass's Weekly and Monthly. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he actively recruited black soldiers to join the Union Army, and when the Union won, he       argued for the immediate passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave African American          men the right to vote. Douglass's other autobiographies are My Bondage and My Freedom       (1855) and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881, 1892).

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

            (1803-1882)  American author and philosopher.  Emerson was the central figure in a group of   nineteenth-century Boston thinkers known as the Transcendentalists.  He spent much of his life       traveling, lecturing, and writing. Nature (1836), a major contribution to American Romanticism and Transcendentalism, appeared anonymously and was favorably received.  After he        published Essays (1841), Emerson gained fame and popularity in America. To this day, his             influence on numerous American writers is undeniable.

Margaret Fuller:

            (1810-1850)  American writer and critic.  Fuller was a child prodigy, rigorously trained in the    classics and modern languages and literatures by her father, who was associated with the       Transcendentalist circle of Concord, Massachusetts. She edited Emerson's magazine, The Dial,        from 1840 to 1842 and later, working as a literary critic for the New York Tribune, became one   of America's first self-supporting woman journalists. Her Woman in the Nineteenth Century             (1845) made the argument that both men and women were confined by the expectations of        society; it remains an influential work on American feminism.

 

Nathaniel Hawthorne:

            ( 1804-1864) American author.  Hawthorne was born in Salem, Massachusetts, a descendant of           Puritan ancestors, including one of the judges of the Salem witchcraft trials. Hawthorne's early   endeavors were mostly short stories, but even though he published many of these tales in        magazines and literary annuals, they always appeared anonymously and did little to advance his       literary career. Only when he published these stories in collections, as in Twice-Told Tales             (1837) and Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), did Hawthorne become a recognized literary force. His masterpiece, The Scarlet Letter, appeared in 1850 and became an international            sensation, with critics in Great Britain and the United States proclaiming him the finest American romance writer. Other novels by Hawthorne include The House of Seven Gables           (1851), The Blithedale Romance (1852), and The Marble Faun (1860).

           

Washington Irving:

            (1783-1859)  American author.  Irving was America's first international literary celebrity.  He     captured the nation's attention with the fictitious A History of New York, supposedly written by         a curious old gentleman named Diedrich Knickerbocker. In May 1815, Irving left the country     for what would be a seventeen-year sojourn in Europe, where he wrote such works as The Life   and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828) and The Alhambra (1832).  However, his Sketch             Book (1819-20), which included Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, remains his             most recognized and influential contribution to American literature.

 

Abraham Lincoln:

            (1809-1865) American orator. Lincoln was the sixteenth president of the United States whose   primary lifelong concern was that the United States should remain a unified nation. He was an     eloquent orator, whose famous political speeches include the House Divided speech (1858), in             which he argued against southern secession; the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), in which             he called for an end to slavery; and the Gettysburg Address (1863), in which he commemorated      the most devastating battle of the Civil War.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

            (1807-1882)  American poet. Henry Wadsworth-Longfellow was a powerful figure in the         cultural life of nineteenth century America. He became a national literary figure by the 1850s    and a world-famous personality by the time of his death in 1882.  He wrote some of the most          popular poems in American literature, in which he created a new body of romantic American       legends. From 1836 to 1854, Longfellow was professor of modern languages at Harvard, and       during these years he became one of an intellectual triumvirate that included Oliver Wendell        Holmes and James Russell Lowell. He achieved great fame with long narrative poems such as         Evangeline (1847), The Song of Hiawatha (1855), The Courtship of Miles Standish (1858), and        Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863), which included “Paul Revere's Ride.”

Herman Melville:

            (1819-1891) American author. After a variety of jobs in his teens, Melville joined a whaler        sailing for the South Seas in 1841. On that trip, Melville and a crewmate jumped ship and lived         for several weeks with a native tribe; upon his return to America, Melville transformed that             experience into Typee (1846), a popular adventure tale that established him as a literary       celebrity. He is best known for writing Moby-Dick (1851), though it was ill-received initially.

 

Edgar Allan Poe:

            (1809-1849) American author, poet, and critic.  Poe's horror tales and detective stories (a genre           he created) were written to capture the fancy of the popular reading public, but he earned his           national reputation through a large number of critical essays and sketches. With the publication       of The Raven (1845), Poe's fame was ensured. He also produced some of the most influential    literary criticism of his time -- important theoretical statements on poetry and the short story --    and has had a worldwide influence on literature.

Harriet Beecher Stowe:

            (1811-1896) American author. Stowe attended Sarah Pierce's girls' academy, one of the first    institutions to educate young women. She became a supporter of abolition in response to her brothers’ sermons against slavery.  Understanding that forging emotional links between people        is an effective strategy for achieving social change, in Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) Stowe      attempted to engage her readers' hearts by depicting the suffering and oppression slaves             endured. The novel was enormously popular. Stowe also wrote A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853), which provided case histories to document the novel.

Henry David Thoreau:

            (1817-1862) American naturalist and author. Thoreau was an outspoken abolitionist, and          during his lifetime his most widely read works were such antislavery tracts as Slavery in                    Massachusetts and A Plea for Captain John Brown. Most readers, though, remember Thoreau            as a naturalist. His most famous book, Walden (1854), records the two years he spent living in a           self-crafted cabin beside Emerson's Walden Pond. The Walden experiment reflected the greater      philosophy of Thoreau's life: he believed that people should not be driven by materialistic             desires but should live according to their needs, simplifying their life-styles rather than earning     money to support lavish and ostentatious show.  To this day, Thoreau remains among the most      important and challenging of American nature writers, philosophers, and social critics.

Walt Whitman:

            (1819-1892) American poet and writer. Whitman started his own newspaper when he was       nineteen and subsequently went on to edit and contribute to several prominent New York      periodicals. In 1855, Whitman published his first book, Leaves of Grass. All told, Whitman             published six editions of this book, which eventually contained some 389 poems, including    Song of Myself, the Calamus poems, Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, and When Lilacs             Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd.

1. The Jeffersonian Era

          * Jefferson becomes President in 1801, with a Republican platform. Initially, this concerned       American citizens, who feared it would be too radical.

            * Between 1800 and 1815, the Jeffersonian Republicans nearly doubled the size of the country by purchasing Louisiana Territory from France. They also defeated powerful Indian     confederations in the Northwest and South, opening the area north of the Ohio River as well as         southern and western Alabama to white settlement cleared much of the westerns lands of          Indians.

            *He once again waged war with Britain, fighting the world's strongest power to a stalemate.

2. The Expansion West

          * West seen as the last frontier (something Europe didn’t have much left of at this time), but for the first time, conquerable by man.

          *West was touted as the Eden of America—an unspoiled, unclaimed land of natural wealth and             beauty. Western movement was highly encouraged by all, from the common man who dreamed           of changing his fortune, to the President of the United States.

          *The West became the embodiment of the American way of life…a national identity that set      the country apart from Europe.

          *The gold rush promised wealth to any man willing to work hard and travel to a new land.         Now, the West equaled instant monetary riches, rather than just unspoiled beauty and productive farmland. The gold rush also brought increased crime, poverty (those who didn’t      strike it rich), disease from overcrowding, and an abundance of immigrants.

          *Writers and journalists relished this new land of possibility, as they had new subject matter for their books and newspapers. Dime novels focused on the mythical qualities of the West, instead           of using ancient Rome and Greece as a pattern.

3. Native Americans

      *During this time, Native Americans were viewed in two ways: noble, strong, and savage, or     just strong and savage (a menace to expansion west).

      *Authors took both stances. Native American legends and ways of life were romanticized by     such writers as James Fenimore Cooper, while Robert Montgomery Bird depicted Native   Americans as dangerous and violent.

      *Many laws were passed to remove Indians from their native lands. They were placed on          reservations, where disease and starvation greatly reduced their number. (Trail of Tears)

      *Numerous attempts were made on both sides to establish rights and freedoms for Native         Americans, but most treaties were broken.

4. The Jacksonian Era

      * Jackson was elected President of the United States in 1828: his slogan: “the rise of the            common man,” Jacksonian Democracy was supported by western farmers and eastern laborers.

            * Between 1820 and 1840, states reduced residency requirements for voting, opened polling     places in more convenient locations, and eliminated the practice of voting by voice. In addition,             direct methods of selecting presidential electors, county officials, state judges, and governors           replaced indirect methods. But while white manhood suffrage was becoming a reality, women            and most African Americans were denied the right to vote.

            * Two new national political parties arose. Unlike America’s first parties, the Federalists and      the Democratic-Republicans, the Jacksonian Democrats and the Whigs were parties with           grassroots organization and support in all parts of the nation.

            *  Jackson helped opened millions of acres of Indian lands to white settlement. He also vetoed   the re-charter of the second Bank of the United States (banks were seen as corrupt). 

            * When South Carolina asserted the right of a state to nullify the federal tariff, Jackson made it   clear that he would not tolerate any attempt to resist federal authority.

5. The American Renaissance & Transcendentalism

      The Transcendentalists stood at the heart of The American Renaissance-- the flowering of our    nation's thought in literature, poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, and music in the period    roughly designated from 1835-1880. During this time, the American short story was invented      by Hawthorne and Poe, and lyric poets such as Bryant, Whittier, Longfellow, Emerson, and   Whitman achieved voices and forms expressive of a vast landscape and a diverse people.

      Transcendentalists:

            The Transcendentalists can be understood in one sense by their context -- by what they were     rebelling against, what they saw as the current situation and therefore as what they were trying      to be different from. One way to look at the Transcendentalists is to see them as a generation of        well educated people who lived in the decades before the American Civil War and the national         division that it both reflected and helped to create. These people, mostly New Englanders,             mostly around Boston, were attempting to create a uniquely American body of literature. It was             already decades since the Americans had won independence from England. Now, these people             believed, it was time for literary independence. And so they deliberately went about creating       literature, essays, novels, philosophy, poetry, and other writing that were clearly different from      anything from England, France, Germany, or any other European nation. Another way to look     at the Transcendentalists is to see them as a generation of people struggling to define      spirituality and religion in a way that took into account the new understandings their age made         available.

 

            Romanticism: (tough to define!)

 A movement in art and literature in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in revolt against the Neoclassicism of the previous centuries...The German poet Friedrich Schlegel, who is given credit for first using the term romantic to describe literature, defined it as "literature depicting emotional matter in an imaginative form." This is as accurate a general definition as can be accomplished, although Victor Hugo's phrase "liberalism in literature" is also apt. Imagination, emotion, and freedom are certainly the focal points of romanticism. Any list of particular characteristics of the literature of romanticism includes subjectivity and an emphasis on individualism; spontaneity; freedom from rules; solitary life rather than life in society; the beliefs that imagination is superior to reason and devotion to beauty; love of and worship of nature; and fascination with the past, especially the myths and mysticism of the middle ages.

English poets: William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats

American poets: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allen Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman

 Neoclassicism:

The dominant literary movement in England during the late seventeenth century and the eighteenth century, which sought to revive the artistic ideals of classical Greece and Rome. Neoclassicism was characterized by emotional restraint, order, logic, technical precision, balance, elegance of diction, an emphasis of form over content, clarity, dignity, and decorum. Its appeals were to the intellect rather than to the emotions, and it prized wit over imagination. As a result, satire and didactic literature flourished, as did the essay, the parody, and the burlesque. In poetry, the heroic couplet was the most popular verse form. Writers: John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Joseph Addison, and Samuel Johnson.

 (Morner, Kathleen and Ralph Rausch. NTC's Dictionary of Literary Terms. Chicago: NTC Publishing Group, 1997.)

6. Slavery

      * The Fugitive Slave Act (1850) demanded that if an escaped slave was sighted, he or she      should be apprehended and turned in to the authorities for deportation back to the "rightful"     owner down south. It was thought that the Fugitive Slave Act would diminish the incentive for   slaves to attempt escape. The rationale behind this was the slaves' realization that even if they    managed to escape from their plantation, they could still be caught and returned by any citizen   in the United States. In fact, the Fugitive Slave Act was so severe that at the behest of Senator   Henry Clay, it was legislated that any United States Marshall who refused to return a runaway     slave would pay a hefty penalty of $1,000

      * Underground Railroad in full force: abolitionists assisted escaped slaves regardless of the         consequences. These abolitionists were primarily composed of Quakers, ex-slaves and other          liberal thinking citizens (Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe were such      individuals).

      * During this time, numerous abolitionist newspapers were circulated in the North to oppose      slavery. William Cullen Bryan was an editor of an abolitionist newspaper.

7. Technological and social changes

      *Inventions and leaps in technology: telegraph, photography, powered presses, railroad         expansion and travel

      * Increased availability of inexpensive books (novels), newspapers, and journals, with an        increase in literacy and published authors.

      Social changes:

                  * Political and moral crisis: culminated in the Civil War

                  * New ways of thinking: scientists were venturing to distant areas of the world to                             conduct research, Darwin’s Origin of Species is published in 1859, discoveries in                                 geology is contradicting religious beliefs, while Europe and the US were battling on a                ferocious quest for overseas colonies.

                  * “National sins:” anti-immigrant violence, slavery of African American, near-                             elimination of Native Americans, staged “Executive War” against Mexico, American                 Revolution had inspired the French Revolution

8. The American Civil War

            *1861 – The South secedes and creates a separate government, and Lincoln is inaugurated as                 President of the United States.

            *1863 – Emancipation Proclamation is signed, battle of Gettysburg occurs, Gettysburg address

            *1864 – Lincoln is reelected to the Presidency

            *1865 – the Confederacy falls, Lincoln is assassinated

            *Influence on Literature: common topics are slavery, morality, politics, religion (and the abandonment of religion), and scientific discoveries.

 American Literary Realism (by Univ. of Ill. Press, quarterly)

 ATQ : 19^th C. American Literature and Culture (quarterly, encompasses all 19^th cent. U.S. literature)

 Civil War History (quarterly, discusses the Civil War and current literature in the field)

 ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance (quarterly, focuses on Romantic transcendentalists)

 Early American Literature (3 each year, focuses on American Lit. through 1830)

 Studies in Romanticism (quarterly, focuses an Romanticism in Europe and the US)

 

Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. 3 vols. New York: Scribner's, 2001.(Ref E 169.1 .E626 2001)
Covers major ideas and issues in American social, political, and military history.

Encyclopedia of Transcendentalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1996. (Ref PS 217 .T7 E53 1996)
Offers short essays on the major philosophical concepts, antecedents, genres, institutions, movements, periodicals, events, and places associated with Transcendentalism.

The American Renaissance in New England. Dictionary of Literary Biography, vols. 1, 223, and 235. Detroit: Gale, 1978, 2000, 2001
These three volumes of the DLB series focus on primarily New England writers, offering biographical sketches and bibliographies for further reading. Great resource!

American Writers. New York: Scribner's, 1979.
This series gives lengthy analyses of the life and work of major American writers, arranged chronologically and with an alphabetical index. Kept up-to-date with supplements, and very user-friendly.

Norton Anthology online: http://www.wwnorton.com/naal/vol_B/welcome.htm

American Literature Resources online from Nagasaki College of Foreign Studies:

                    http://www.nagasaki-gaigo.ac.jp/ishikawa/amlit/19ro/overview_19ro.htm

History Guide on Transcendentalism: http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/romanticism.html

Historical Links for 1820-1865: http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu

  Marsha Johansen
28 September 2004

American Literature 1865-1914

          Mark Twain wrote "The Gilded Age" in 1873 as a sarcastic expose of the new America.  The great postwar boom in industrialization and technology led to a new class of wealthy Americans.  These Americans were more than thrilled to spend this newly-created wealth.  New inventions were created almost on a daily basis.  Wealthy Americans became obsessed with new leisure time activities including baseball, football, golf, tennis, and bowling.  Social status was directly associated with the creation of wealth. 

The bright side...

          •Wealthy aristocrats began to see themselves as American royalty and              created homes that copied the French Chateau and English castle.  These                    homes frequently were furnished with artwork and furniture worth                        hundreds of thousands of dollars.

          •The World's Columbian Exposition showcased the best and the brightest of                    the new technology to the delight of Americans

          •Literature followed the trend of excessiveness.  Books were now printed in                    the tens of thousands.  Literary magazines such as Harper's Monthly and            Atlantic Monthly were read by men eager to impress at cocktail and dinner       

          parties.  Many prominent author's careers were advanced by these                             periodicals.

Official Catalog of Exhibits from the World's                 Glensheen Mansion in                 Colombian Exposition                                                        Duluth                         

 

         

The dark side...

          •The wealth gained by aristocrats came at the expense of the American                    worker.  Workers and materials alike were exploited for financial gain.  The             gap between the wealthy class and the working class was the largest the             nation had ever seen. 

          •Five days after the World's Exposition opened, the stock market crashed                    leading into the worst four-year depression the nation had ever experienced.

          •Illiteracy in the lower classes began climbing at alarming rates.  Despite             many legislative attempts to stop child labor, a great percentage of children                    were used to bring in wages, causing them to quit school at very early ages.

                            

                             The golf links lie so near the mill

                                      That almost every day

                             The laboring children can look out

                                      And see the men at play.

                                                          Sarah N. Cleghorn

 

          •The discovery of gold pushed expansion to the West to its limit, creating             anarchical chaos, death, and destruction of the natural environment.                         Buffalos nearly became extinct.

         

Women and writing

          •Women writers became more outspoken and less fearful of reprimand.              Authors such as Gilman and Chopin wrote about the female experience in a                    man's world.  Females creating their own identity instead of following the             male ideal dominated literature.

          •Women became activists in large numbers both through actions and                         authorship.  The traditional female role was questioned and explored.                     Females were entering the work force creating a new class of female citizens      who were not judged solely on their marriage status.

          •Male authors also paid attention to this change.  Henry James created "The                    American Girl."  Although charming, witty, and headstrong, this new female       unfortunately met the same fate as those who went before her; marriage or                 death.

 

Minority Writing

          •Although the fourteenth amendment abolished slavery, the true extent of                    the sufferings of slaves was not widely known, especially in the North.                     Many authors such as Washington wrote narratives detailing slave life.                     Foote wrote on being a Christian and the challenges faced by black females               with Christian ideals. With growing numbers of African Americans                              becoming literate, many authors such as Harris began writing down the           traditional folk tales of the culture. 

          •Native American literature slowly evolves during this time period.  Most              stories focus on traditions and the effects of the white man on that tradition.                     Helen Hunt Jackson's A Century of Dishonor described the plight of the                    Native American who had lost over 95 percent of their land

          •Spanish speaking people began to populate California creating a new form           of literature.  Flowing, musical prose and poetry was new and vibrant.

 

Literary Themes

Realism--"Generally, accuracy in the portrayal of life or reality, or verisimilitude; a recurring goal of Literature, often seen in contrast to the aims of Romanticism, Impressionism, and Expressionism." (NTC Dictionary of Literary Terms)

          •Realism was the most predominant theme throughout this era.  Novels             sought to show Americans the harsh realities of life for the factory worker.                     Upton Sinclair's The Jungle single-handedly revolutionized the meat                       industry.  Frank Norris exposed the railroad industry in The Octopus.  These                   types of novels were also known as social reconstruction novels.  Through              exposure, the author tried to change the path of the nation.

Naturalism--"A literature movement . . . that emphasizes biological and socioeconomic Determinism in Fiction and Drama." (NTC Dictionary of Literary Terms)       

          •Naturalism is another theme found in the literature of this time.  Jack                  London and his tales of the harshness of nature in The Call of the Wild and                    White Fang exemplify this theme.

          •Religion continues in importance as authors sought to explore the greater                    role of the church in society.  The Social Gospel movement progressed                    despite Darwin's The Origin of the Species printed in 1859.

 

Language

          Postwar America saw a huge influx of immigrants.  The traditionally Latin- based language now was showing influences of German, Dutch, Norwegian,   Czech, Chinese, and dozens of other countries eager to hang on to a part of  their culture.  Although immigrants strove to quickly learn English,   Americans were willing to assimilate other languages as part of a new standard of English.

 Timeline

American Literature 1865-1914

 

1865-- Thirteenth amendment abolishes slavery

            Mark Twain: "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"

1866-- "Black Friday" on the New York Stock Exchange

1867-- Nebraska gains statehood

            United States purchases Alaska from Russia

            Gold discovered in Wyoming

1868-- Fourteenth Amendment protects individual rights against infringement by state governments         

            Ulysses S. Grant elected U. S. President

            Louisa May Alcott: "Little Women"

            Armour Meats packing plant opens in Chicago

            First professional U.S. baseball team The Cincinnati Red Stockings, founded

1869-- U. S. National Prohibition Party formed in Chicago

            First collegiate football game between Rutgers and Princeton

1870-- John D. Rockefeller founds Standard Oil Company

1871-- Treaty of Washington settles existing difficulties between United States and Britain

            P.T. Barnum opens his circus "The Greatest Show on Earth" in Brooklyn, N.Y.

            The Great Chicago Fire

1872-- Grant reelected

            First U.S. Ski club founded in Berlin N.H.

1873-- American Football clubs adopt uniform rules

            Mark Twain: "The Gilded Age"

1874-- Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children founded in New York

            First American zoo established in Philadelphia

1875-- Mark Twain: "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"

1876-- Colorado gains statehood

            Hayes elected president despite vote dispute

            First tennis tournament in America

            National Baseball League established

            First juvenile reformatory established

1877-- Hayes inaugurated president

            First public telephones

            Henry James: "The American"

1878-- Christian Revival Association becomes the Salvation Army

1879-- Edison invents the light bulb

            Henry James: "Daisy Miller"

            Julia A.J. Foote: A Brand Plucked from the Fire

1880-- Garfield elected president

            Canned fruits and meats first appear in stores

            J. C. Harris: "Uncle Remus"

1881-- Garfield inaugurated and killed; succeeded by V.P. Chester Arthur

            First U.S. Lawn Tennis Championship

1882-- American Baseball League founded

1883-- Northern Pacific Railroad completed

            Emma Lazarus: "The New Colossus"

1884-- Grover Cleveland elected president

            Mark Twain: "Huckleberry Finn"

1885-- Golf introduced to the U. S. by John M. Fox of Philadelphia

            Helen Hunt Jackson: Ramona

1886-- American Federation of Labor founded

            Canadian Pacific Railroad completed

            Sarah Orne Jewett: "A White Heron"

            W.D. Howells: The Rise of Silas Lapham

1887-- H. W. Goodwin invents film

1888-- Benjamin Harrison elected President

            Eastman perfects the "Kodak" camera

            Football league established

            Kate Chopin: The Awakening

1889-- North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington all become states

            Harrison inaugurated

1890-- Daughters of the American Revolution founded in Washington

            First entirely steel-framed building erected in Chicago

1891-- W. L. Judson invents the zipper

1892-- Grover Cleveland elected President

            Iron and steel workers strike

            Charlotte Perkins Gilman: "The Yellow Wallpaper"

1893-- World Exhibition in Chicago

1894-- New York Jockey Club founded

            Pullman strike in Chicago

1895-- King Gillette invents the safety razor

            Babe Ruth born

            American Bowling Congress formed to govern the game

            First professional football game played at Latrobe, P.A.

            First U.S. Open Golf Championship

            Stephan Crane : The Red Badge of Courage

1896-- Utah gains statehood

            William McKinley elected President

1897-- McKinley inaugurated

1898-- U. S. declares war on Spain over Cuba--Treaty of Paris

            First flash photographs taken

1899-- Philippines demand independence from United States

1900-- McKinley reelected

            Ray C. Ewry earns eight Olympic gold medals

1901-- McKinley assassinated by anarchist-succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt

            J.P. Morgan organizes U. S. Steel

            First American Bowling Club tournament held in Chicago

            Booker T. Washington: Up from Slavery

            Frank Norris: The Octopus

1902-- Coal strike

1903-- Alaskan frontier is settled

            Henry Ford founds the Ford Motor Company

            Richard Steiff designs first teddy bears named after Teddy Roosevelt

            Wright brothers first flight

            Jack London: The Call of the Wild

1904-- Roosevelt wins election

            First official World Series between Giants and Boston called off in a dispute

            World Exhibition and first American Olympics in St. Louis

            Helen Keller graduates from Radcliffe

            New York police arrest a woman for smoking in public

1905--Roosevelt inaugurated

            First neon lights appear

            Edith Wharton: The House of Mirth

1906-- Roosevelt takes first U.S. president trip outside of the U.S. to Canal Zone

            San Francisco earthquake kills 700

            Upton Sinclair: The Jungle

1907-- Oklahoma gains statehood

            Panic of 1907 causes run on banks--J.P. Morgan stops the run by importing $100 million in gold

            First daily comic strip "Mutt and Jeff" begins in the San Francisco Chronicle

1908-- William Howard Taft elected President

            Fountain pens become popular

1909-- Taft inaugurated

1910-- U.S. passes Mann Act making it illegal to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes

            W.E.B. DuBois founds the NAACP

            The "week-end" is inducted into popular culture

            Mark Twain dies

1911-- Robert T. Jones wins his first golf championship at the age of nine

            Edith Wharton: Ethan Frome

1912-- Arizona and New Mexico become states

            Textile workers in Lawrence, Mass. go on strike

            Woodrow Wilson wins presidential election

            Titanic sinks on her maiden voyage

            F.W. Woolworth Company founded

            Jim Thorpe has his Olympic medals stripped when it is discovered he played semi-    professional baseball

1913-- Wilson inaugerated as president

            U.S Federal Reserve established

            Richard Nixon born

            Henry Ford pioneers the assemblyline

            Willa Cather: O Pioneers!

1914-- Panama Canal opens

            U.S. Federal Trade Commission established

            80,000 seat Yale Bowl opens

AND  World War One begins when Archduke Ferdinand and his wife are assassinated

  

Works Consulted

Baym, Nina, ed. Et. al. The Norton Anthology of American Literature Fifth                       Edition Volume 2.  New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc.  1998.

Grun, Bernard.  The Timetables of History.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.

Lauter, Paul ed.Et. al.  The Heath Anthology of American Literature.  Lexington,                    Massachusetts: D. C. Heath and Company, 1990.

Morner, Kathy, and Rausch, Ralph.  NTC's Dictionary of Literary Terms.                             Lincolnwood, Illinois:  National Textbook Publishing Company, 1991.

 

 

Literary Journals

 

        • African American Review

        • American Literature          

        • American Quarterly  

        • Black American Literature Forum    

        • ELH: English Literary History

        • MLN: Modern Language Notes

        • Modern Fiction Studies

        • New Literary History

        • Nineteenth Century Fiction     

        • Nineteenth Century Literature

        • Philosophy and Literature          

        •Yale Journal of Criticism

 

Web Resources

A Celebration of Women Authors:  http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/

American Authors on the Web:  http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/AmeLit.html

Chicago World's Fair Of 1893,  the Colombian Exposition: http://fly.hiwaay.net/~shancock/fair/1893.html

Glensheen Historic Mansion:  http://www.d.umn.edu/glen/glenda.htm

The West: http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/

 

Melissa Vosen

21 September 2004

Themes in 20^th Century American Art

1.      After World War I, many writers wrote about their loss of faith and alienation from civilization.  American dramatists emerged and wrote about “tragedy, stark realism, and social protest” (McMichael 984). 

2.      In the 1920s, the term “modernism” became widely known. Modernism is defined by the Norton Anthology as “the breakdown of traditional society under the forces of modernity.” Modern literature (Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Steinbeck) typically begins arbitrarily.  Other characteristics of modern literature are shifts in perspective, voice, and tone. Symbols and images are common as well. Urbanization, industrialization, and immigration were all a focus of modern art as well as a continuation of the pastoral and rural spirit.  It was during this time that writers linked politics and art. The Harlem Literary Renaissance was also in full swing; African American writers wrote and celebrated black culture.

3.      It was also during this time many read the writings of Karl Marx.  The work of Sigmund Freud was also well known at this time; writers began to focus on desire, the psyche, and trauma. After the stock market crashed in 1929, all types of artists began to produce political and social criticism. 

4.      Literature and art produced after World War II is referred to as “postmodern.”  (Baldwin, Bellow, Ginsberg, Irving, Miller, Morrison, Salinger, and Updike) Postmodern texts are also a continuation of counter traditional style and form.  There is, however, less of an emphasis on unity. During this time, a few new writing styles emerged—new journalism, metafiction, and minimalism. 

5.      Between 1945 and 1960, literature reflected the “common national essence.”  Regional literature became very popular as did the adventures of misfit heroes. “K-Mart realism” also became popular—literature that focused on everyday Americans.  At this time, a new black literary renaissance was also emerging.  These authors often focused on the African American struggling in postmodern America.  Since World War II, more poetry has been read and published than any other time. 

6.      In the 1960s, many writers turned to humor and the mocking of the irrational and absurd.  Drama, however, began to decline.  The few dramatists focused on the struggle of individuals—both their successes and failures.

7.      Since the 1960s, writers focused on the changing world—both celebrating and questioning technology.  Writers, during this time, also focused on celebrating diversity and the individual.

20^th Century American History Timeline

1914-1918—World War I. 

1917—US declares war on Germany. First US troops land in France.

1919—US Senate fails to approve the Treaty of Versailles. 

1920—Warren Harding elected president.

            1923—Harding dies.  Calvin Coolidge becomes president. 

1920—The 18^th Amendment—Prohibition—is passed and upheld until 1933.

1920—The 19^th Amendment—Women’s right to vote—is passed.   

1922—Reader's Digest is founded. 

1927—Charles Lindbergh flies across the Atlantic Ocean alone.  

1928—Herbert Hoover becomes president. 

1928—First Mickey Mouse cartoon.

1929—The Great Depression begins with the 1929 stock market crash.   

1930—Sinclair Lewis wins the Nobel Prize for literature. 

1932—FDR elected president; reelected in 1936, 1940, and 1944. 

            1945—FDR dies.  Harry Truman becomes president. 

1933-1936—The Dust Bowl.

1936—Eugene O'Neill receives the Nobel Prize for literature.    

1939-1945—World War II and an economic boom in the US. 

            1941—Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.  US declares war. 

            1944—In June, allies storm beaches of France.  D-Day. 

            1945—Germany surrenders.  Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

1940—Color television debuts. 

1948—T.S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize for literature.

1949—William Faulkner wins the Nobel Prize for literature. 

1950-1953—Korean War. 

1952—Dwight Eisenhower elected president.  Reelected in 1956. 

1954—US Supreme Court rules that segregation in schools is unconstitutional.

1954—Elvis Presley releases first record on Sun label. 

1954—Ernest Hemingway wins Nobel Prize for literature.

1957—Civil Rights Act.

1960—John Kennedy elected president.

            1963—JFK assassinated; Lyndon Johnson becomes president. 

1962—John Steinbeck wins Nobel Prize for literature. 

1964—Beatles and Rolling Stones release their first albums. 

1968—Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated. 

1968—Richard Nixon becomes president; reelected in 1972. 

            1972—Watergate scandal emerges.

            1974—Nixon resigns as President.

1969—First US troops withdrawn from Vietnam.

            1975—Last US forces withdraw from Vietnam. 

1969—US astronauts land on the moon. 

1969—Woodstock festival in New York. 

1971—The 26^th Amendment—giving 18-year-olds the right to vote—is passed.

1976—Jimmy Carter elected president. 

1976—Saul Bellow wins Nobel Prize for literature. 

1978—Isaac Bashevi Singer wins Nobel Prize for literature. 

1979—OPEC continues to raise oil prices; the US experiences a gas shortage.

1979—Mob seizes US Embassy in Iran.

1980—Ronald Regan elected president; reelected in 1984. 

1980—Mt. St. Helens erupts. 

1982—Melissa's birthday year.  Michael Jackson's Thriller becomes best-selling music album in history. 

1983—US Supreme Court declares anti-abortion laws illegal.

1985—US becomes a debtor nation.

1988—George Bush elected president. 

1990—US Supreme Court upholds right to burn the US flag. 

1991—UN forces invade Iraq; liberate Kuwait. 

1992—Bill Clinton becomes president. 

1992—Riots in Los Angeles; the damage exceeds one billion. 

1993—Toni Morrison wins Nobel Prize for literature. 

1995—Terrorists blow up building in Oklahoma City. 

1995—Federal budget fails to pass—the result: a temporary government shutdown.

1998—President Clinton impeachment process. 

2000—George W. Bush becomes president amongst election controversy.

2001—World Trade Center—Twin Towers—attacked. 

2004—War with Iraq. 

Influential Writers 

Playwrights 

Albee, Edward.  The Zoo Story. 

Hansberry, Lorraine.  A Raisin in the Sun. 

Miller, Arthur.  Death of a Salesman. 

O'Neill, Eugene.  The Hairy Ape. 

Williams, Tennessee. A Street Car Named Desire.

-- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 

-- The Glass Menagerie. 

Male Writers

Anderson, Sherwood.  Winesberg, Ohio. 

Bellow, Saul. Dangling Man. 

-- More Die of Heartbreak. 

Faulkner, William.  As I Lay Dying. 

-- The Sound and the Fury. 

Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. 

Hemingway, Ernest. A Farewell to Arms. 

--The Sun Also Rises. 

Irving, John.  The World According to Garp.  

Roth, Philip.  Goodbye, Columbus. 

Salinger, J.D.  Catcher in the Rye. 

Steinbeck, John.  The Grapes of Wrath. 

-- Of Mice and Men. 

Updike, John.  Rabbit Run. 

-- Rabbit Redux.

-- Rabbit Is Rich.

-- Rabbit at Rest. 

Male Poets

cummings, e.e. "[anyone lived in a pretty how town]." 

Frost, Robert. "Mending Wall."

-- "The Road Not Taken." 

Ginsberg, Allen. "A Supermarket in California." 

-- "America." 

Lowell, Robert.  "For the Union Dead." 

Pound, Ezra.  Pisan Cantos. 

Stevens, Wallace. "Sunday Morning." 

Williams, William Carlos.  "The Red Wheelbarrow."

-- "This is Just to Say." 

Women Writers

Beattie, Ann. "The Lawn Party." 

Cisneros, Sandra.  The House on Mango Street.

--Women Hollering Creek and Other Stories. 

Cather, Willa "Neighbor Rosicky." 

O'Connor, Flannery.  A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories. 

Welty, Eudora.  "Why I Live at the PO." 

Women Poets

Brooks, Gwendolyn.  "Sadie and Maud."

--"We Real Cool." 

Bishop, Elizabeth.  "The Fish." 

Plath, Sylvia. "Ariel." 

Rich, Adrienne.  "Diving into the Wreck." 

Sexton, Ann. "The Farmer's Wife." 

 

African American Writers—1920s Harlem Literary Renaissance

Cullen, Countee.  "Heritage." 

Hughes, Langston. "I, Too"

-- "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." 

Hurston, Zora Neale. "The Gilded Six Bits." 

Toomer, Jean.  Cane. 

African American Writers—New Black Literary Renaissance

Baldwin, James. "Sonny's Blues." 

Ellison, Ralph.  Invisible Man. 

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. 

-- Jazz. 

--Song of Solomon. 

Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. 

Wright, Richard.  Native Son. 

Asian Writers

Kingston, Maxine Hong.  The Woman Warrior. 

Tan, Amy.  The Joy Luck Club. 

Native American Writers

Alexie, Sherman.  The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. 

Erdrich, Louise.  Love Medicine. 

Momaday, N. Scott.  House Made of Dawn. 

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. 

 

Journals 

American Imago (1995-)
American Literary History (2000-)
American Literary Scholarship (1998-)
American Literature (Sept. 1999-)
American Periodicals: A Journal of History, Criticism, and Bibliography (2003-)
Contemporary Literature (2004-) NEW
Criticism (2001-)
The Hemingway Review (2003-) NEW
Journal of Modern Literature (win 1998/99-)
Journal of Narrative Theory (2004-) NEW
Literature and Medicine (1995-)
MFS Modern Fiction Studies (fall 1994-)
Modernism/modernity (1994-)
Narrative (2002-)
Philosophy and Literature (1995-)
Poetics Today (fall 1999-)
Research in African Literatures (fall 1999; 2000-)
Resources for American Literary Study (n.2 1999-2001; archive only)
Steinbeck Studies (2004-) NEW
Studies in American Indian Literatures (2004-) NEW
Texas Studies in Literature and Language (2001-)
The Yale Journal of Criticism (1996-)

 

Bibliography

 Lauter, Paul and Richard Yarborough.   The Heath Anthology of American Literature Volume 2.  4^th ed.  Boston: Houghton Miffin Company, 2001. 

 McMichael, George et al, eds.  Anthology of American Literature.  7^th ed.  New Jersey:  Prentice Hall, 2000.

 The Norton Anthology of American Literature.  Volume D:  American Literature between the Wars 1914-1945.  26 September 2004. http://www.wwnorton.com/naal/vol_D.htm

 The Norton Anthology of American Literature.  Volume E:  American Literature since 1945.  26 September 2004.  http://www.wwnorton.com/naal/vol_E.htm

 Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 7: Early Twentieth Century: American Modernism - An Introduction." 25 June 2004.  PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide.  27 September 2004.  http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/7intro.html

 Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 10: Late Twenthith Century - An Introduction." 23 January 2003.   PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide.  27 September 2004.  http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap10/10intro.htm

VanSpankeren, Kathyrn.  “American Prose Since 1945: Realism and Experimentation.”  November 1998.  U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs.  27 September 2004. http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oal/lit8.htm

 VanSpankeren, Kathyrn.  “Modernism and Experimentation 1914-1945.”  November 1998.  U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs. 27 September 2004.  http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/oal/lit6.htm

 “Voice of the Shuttle.”  24 September 2004.  U. of California Santa Barbara English Department.  26 September 2004.  http://vos.ucsb.edu/

Darren Buttke

09/28/04

 African American Literature

 The Vernacular Tradition:

refers to church songs, blues, ballads, sermons, stories, and rap that are a part of the oral, rather than the written down, tradition of black expression. Distinguished by its in-group and at times, secretive, defensive, and aggressive character.

1. Spirituals:

religious songs sung by African Americans since earliest days of slavery. Not confined to churches but sung during work and play. Provided necessary psychic escape for slaves; most were about Old Testament God and His prophets (Moses, Job, Ezekiel, etc.) Employed a call/response pattern and varied in rhythm.

2. Gospel:

emerged in first decades of 20^th c. Highly percussive, polyrhythmically syncopated and bluesy. First claimed a wide audience in Chicago.

3. The Blues:

borrowed harmonic and structural devices and vocal technique from work songs and spirituals; usually sung not by a chorus but by a single voice accompanied by one or more instruments. Rely on patterns of call/response between singer and audience. Involve improvisation and particular sounds (whistles, groans, stories, etc.) Has inspired writing and artists through out the 20^th c.

4. Secular Rhymes and Songs, Ballads, and Work Songs:

includes praise songs dedicated to heroic figures such as Travelin’ Man, Po’ Lazarus, and John Henry; also, in the 20^th c., songs dedicated to Badman figure. One also finds children’s game songs and pieces of rhyming advice, as well as songs that helped workers to pass the time, synchronize the work pace, and to reflect on the scene the workers witnessed.

 

5. Jazz:

emerged in the first decades of the 20^th c. from the artistic meeting of ragtime, marching band music, opera and other European classical music, Native American music, spirituals, work songs, and the blues. Came out of New Orleans and developed primarily as a city phenomenon and was tremendously influenced by the train. From the beginning jazz was primarily instrumental music. Although heavily influenced by the blues, contains an impulse to celebrate human experience 

  

6. Rap:

emerged from black urban centers of 1970’s and 80’s. Draws from varied sources: jump rope rhymes and other game chants/songs; competitive trickster toasts and badman boasts; chanted sermons; scatt singing of jazz musicians; “vocalese” jazz singing; radio disc jockeys patter; popular Black Arts Movement poetry. Characterized by deft rhymes and highly percussive stylized verse performed against sampled sounds of previously recorded music.

 

7. Sermons:

has developed from Africa, through slavery, to freedom. Is a rigid structure but requires preacher to find own voice and style. Involves not only call/response but call/recall; heavily influenced by jazz and blues.

 

8. Folktales:

have been a key part of African American’s survival and sustenance; helped arriving Africans in their new world to maintain the broad outlines of their original life and culture. Includes animal trickster, slave trickster, tales explaining how things came to be, and tales about other life lessons. Originally invented for spoken performance and not the printed page.

 

 

Literature of Slavery and Freedom (1746-1865)

-         writing appealed to the traditional Christian gospel of the universal

      brotherhood of humanity.                                                                            

-         writing contradicted the widespread European prejudice that black people were incapable of literary expression.

-         challenged the dominant cultures attempt to segregate the religious from the political, the spirit from the flesh.

-         explored the chasm between white America’s words and its deeds, between words of freedom and practice of slavery.

-         from 1830 to the end of slavery, the fugitive slave narrative dominated the literary landscape of black America.

-         writing influenced by folk traditions: work songs that combined the spiritual and political; animal tales which celebrated the “trickster” (i.e. Brer Rabbit) who overcame the stronger animal antagonist (i.e. the white master)

 

Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797)

The Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself

 

Phyllis Wheatley (1753?-1784)

Poems on Various Subjects, Religious, and Moral

 

George Moses Horton (1797?-1883?)

The Lovers Farewell

The Creditor to His Proud Debtor

George Moses Horton, Myself

 

Sojourner Truth (1797-1883)

Ar’n’t I a Woman? Speech to the Women’s Right Convention In Akron Ohio, 1851

 

Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897)

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

 

William Wells Brown (1814?-1884)

Narrative of William W. Brown, a Fugitive Slave

Clotel; or, The President’s Daughter

 

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself

 

Frances E. W. Harper (1825-1911)

Ethiopia

The Slave Mother

Vashti

An Appeal to My Country Women

Our Greatest Want

 

Literature of the Reconstruction to the New Negro Renaissance (1865-1919)

            -    completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, ushered in western expansion.

the Freedman’s Bureau was set up in 1867 to protect the rights and lives of  black people in the south.

-         literacy among African Americans increased

-         the black middle class and wealthy social elite grew in number and influence.

-    towards the end of the 19^th c. lynchings increased dramatically.

-         first wave of mass migration from south to north by African Americans

-         within black literature there was a heavy reliance on personal testimony

-         narrators put slavery within the context of a trial and tribulation in which they     

      emerged stronger and wiser; championed rugged individualism and successful   

      transcendence.

-         emergence of “progress report autobiographies”---personal accounts by individuals who not claim true success but whose achievements so far were deemed sufficient to instruct and inspire others.

-         emergence of African American Press which was a group of individuals and institutions that encouraged black Americans to write

-         between 1890-1910, a time known as “the women’s era” in which African American women were voicing their perspectives and recording their activities.

 Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

Up From Slavery

 Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1862-1931)

A Red Record

 W.E.B. DuBois (1868-1963)

The Souls of Black Folk

The Damnation of Women

 James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)

Lift Ev’ry Voice

Brothers

The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man

 Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

Worn Out

A Negro Love Song

Sympathy

The Fourth of July and Race Outrages

 Pauline E. Hopkins (1859-1930)

Contending Forces

 Fenton Johnson (1888-1958)

Singing Hallelujia

My God in Heaven Said to Me

The Lonely Mother

Tired

 

Harlem Renaissance (1919-1940)

-         African Americans worked with a new sense of confidence , purpose, and

      achievement within poetry, fiction, drama, the essay, music, dance, painting,

      and sculpture.

-         creativity came from a irresistible impulse of blacks to create boldly

      expressive art of high quality as a primary response to their social conditions,

      as an affirmation of their dignity and humanity in the face of poverty and

      racism.

-         renaissance represented freedom in terms of creativity without regard to

      politics.

-         drama was weakest area of Harlem Renaissance.

-         Great Depression brought about end of Renaissance.

 

Alain Locke (1886-1954)

The New Negro 

 Claude McKay (1889-1948)

Harlem Shadows

America

Enslaved

The White House

 Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960)

Mules and Men

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Dust Tracks on the Road

 Nella Larsen (1893-1964)

Quicksand

 Jean Toomer (1894-1967)

Cane

 Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

The Weary Blues

Homesick Blues

Po’ Boy Blues

Song For a Dark Girl

The Blues I’m Playing

 Countee Cullen (1903-1946)

The Shroud of Color

Yet Do I Marvel

Heritage

 

Realism, Naturalism, Modernism (1940-1960)

-         a new black urban aesthetic which saw an explosion of black urban street culture that combined elements of “bop” and “hip talk”.

-         Richard Wright’s Native Son; seen as ushering in the decades of new realism and paving the road of success for other African American writers of this time.

-         writing of this time defied the bourgeois flair of the Harlem Renaissance in favor of gritty urban realism and naturalism.

-         although some writers adopted Wright’s realism, others found this realism to be philosophically limited and aesthetically restrictive.

-         certain writers turned away from urban realism in favor of  “non-negro” or nonracial subject matter; a turn towards integrationist writing as seen in Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man.

-         black women prose writers were largely ignored during this time.

-         apocalyptic imagery emerges in the writing of James Baldwin, Amiri Baraka, and Gwendolyn Brooks.

 

Dorothy West (1907)

The Living is Easy

 Richard Wright (1908-1960)

The Ethics of Living Jim Crow, an Autobiographical Sketch

Black Boy

 Ralph Ellison (1914-1994)

Invisible Man

 Margaret Walker (1915)

For My People

For Malcolm X

 Gwendolyn Brooks (1917)

the mother

We Real Cool

Riot

Maud Martha

 James Baldwin (1924-1987)

Notes of a Native Son

Go Tell It on the Mountain

The Fire Next Time

Sonny’s Blues

 Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965)

A Raisin in the Sun

 

The Black Arts Movement (1960-1970)

-         a black nationalistic fervor, promoted by Malcolm X and The Nation of

      Islam.

-         black pride and black power promoted in The Black Panther Party.

-         emergence of the New Left which sought to establish communication with international peace movement, Third World revolutionary leaders, and working class organizations.

-         from the New Left emerged the second wave women’s liberation movement.

-         BAM aimed to create a politically engaged expression resulting from the empowered black spirit; wanted to create a black mass communication.

-         poetry was the genre that saw the most accomplishment during this time; suited the immediacy of struggle characterized by Black Arts and Black Power movements.

-         BAM turned to Africa for inspiration, wisdom, and sense of black origins; an emergence of Afrocentrism which saw Africa as foundation of the West.

-         black drama embraced and promoted black mass liberation; it celebrated the “ordinary” black self presented in the form of empathetic, memorable, speaking characters.

-         BAM accused of Anti-Semitism, misogyny, and homophobia.

-         responsible for emergence of other minority voices: Native American, Chicano and Chicana, gay and lesbian.

 

Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) (1925-1965)

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

 Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

Letter From Birmingham Jail

 Amiri Baraka (1934)

A Poem for Black Hearts

Black Art

The Revolutionary Theatre

 Sonia Sanchez (1934)

homecoming

Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict

 Eldridge Cleaver (1935)

Soul on Ice

 Nikki Giovanni (1943)

For Saundra

Beautiful Black Men

 

Literature Since 1970

-         no sharp delineation between the 1960’s and 1970’s.

-         an increasing separation between middle-class and working-class blacks.

-         more African Studies programs were being developed in universities.

-         within writing there was focus on slave era as a means to understanding the present; slave era no longer seen with shame and kept in silence.

-         writers begin paying more attention to language (“black English”) and social identity

-         African American musical forms continue to influence writing.

-         a dramatic increase in the works by African American women writers which was a result of the relationship between black movement and women’s movement.

-         black women writers also help to focus attention on black lesbian writing.

-         an increased focus on African American scholarship and scholars

-         an emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of African American Studies aided in the development of Cultural Studies.

 

Maya Angelou (1928)

Still I Rise

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

 Toni Morrison (1931)

Sula

Beloved

 Audre Lorde (1934-1992)

Father Son and Holy Ghost

Now That I Am Forever with Child

A Litany for Survival

 Lucille Clifton (1936)

[the bodies broken on]

the lost baby poem

homage to my hips

[a woman who loves]

 June Jordan (1936)

I Must Become a Menace to My Enemies

Poem about My Rights

A New Politics of Sexuality

 Michael S. Harper (1938)

Dear John, Dear Coltrane

The Ghost of Soul-Making

  Ishmael Reed (1938)

Chattanooga

Mumbo Jumbo

Alice Walker (1944)

In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens

The Color Purple

 August Wilson (1945)

Fences

The Piano Lesson

 Gloria Naylor (1950)

The Women of Brewster Place

Bailey’s Café

Mama Day

 Terry McMillan (1951)

Waiting to Exhale

How Stella Got Her Groove Back

 Rita Dove (1952)

Receiving the Stigmata

Mother Love

 Walter Mosley (1952)

Devil in a Blue Dress

 

Timeline:

1526: first African slaves brought to what is now the United States by the Spanish.

1641: Massachusetts becomes first colony to legally recognize slavery.

1652: Rhode Island passes first North American law against slavery.

1712: Pennsylvania becomes first colony to outlaw slave trade.

1734: “Great Awakening” religious revival begins; Methodist and Baptist churches  attract blacks by offering “Christianity for all.” 

1773: Phyllis Wheatley’s Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral published in London making it the first book published by an African American and second book published by an American woman.

1774: Constitutional Congress prohibits importation of slaves after December 1, 1774

1775-83: Revolutionary War

1775: First antislavery society organized by Philadelphia Quakers

1776: Declaration of Independence adopted without antislavery statement

1777: Vermont is one of the first states to abolish slavery in state constitution.

1780: Pennsylvania becomes first state to allow interracial marriage.

1787: Constitution ratified, classifying one slave as three-fifths of one person

1793: U.S. Congress passes first fugitive slave law.

          Invention of cotton gin increases demand for slaves in south.

1815: Quaker Levi Coffin establishes Underground Railroad to help slaves escape to Canada.

1820: Missouri Compromise reached allowing Maine into union as free state, Missouri as  slave state in 1821, and outlawing slavery in all Northern Plains States.

1821: African Grove Theatre, first all-black U.S. acting troupe, begins performances in  New York City.

1831: Nat Turner leads slave uprising in Southampton County, Virginia.

1833: Oberlin College is founded as first coeducational U.S. college and is integrated at its inception.

1834: British Parliament abolishes slavery in British Empire.

1838: Frederick Douglass escapes from slavery.

1849: Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery and begins work with Underground Railroad.

1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

1854: Republican Party founded to oppose extension of slavery.

1857: Supreme Court declares African Americans are not citizens in Dred Scott decision.

1859: John Brown leads abolitionist raid in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

1861-65: American Civil War

1862: Congress bans slavery in District of Columbia and U.S. Territories.

          President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation, effective January 1, 1863, freeing slaves in rebel states.

1864: Fugitive Slave Laws repealed.

1865: Slavery outlawed by 13^th Amendment

         General Sherman orders up to 40 acres to each black family.

          President Lincoln assassinated.

          Ku Klux Klan formed in Tennessee.

1866: Congress passes first Civil Rights Act declaring freed blacks U.S. citizens.

1868: Congress passes 14^th Amendment granting blacks equal citizenship and civil rights.

1869: Wyoming Territory grants women first suffrage in the United States.

1870: Congress passes 15^th Amendment guaranteeing suffrage to all male U.S. citizens.

1877: Federal troops withdraw from the South, officially ending Reconstruction.

1881: Booker T. Washington founds Tuskegee Institute.

1896: Supreme Court approves segregation with “separate but equal” ruling in Plessy v.  Ferguson.

1909: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded  by W.E.B. DuBois.

1910-30: Great Migration of over 1 million southern blacks to northern cities.

1914-18: WWI

1919: 83 lynchings recorded during “Red Summer of Hate”.

1920: Ratification of 19^th Amendment, granting suffrage to women.

1922-33: Harlem Renaissance

1929: Stock Market Crash ushers in Great Depression.

1930: W.D. Fard founds Nation of Islam.

1939-45: WWII

1941: President Roosevelt issues executive order forbidding racial and religious discrimination in government training programs and defense industries.

1948: President Truman approves desegregation of the military and creates Fair  Employment Board.

1950-53: Korean War

1950: Gwendolyn Brooks becomes first African American to win Pulitzer Prize in any category.

1954: In Brown v. Board of Education, Supreme Court declares segregated schools unconstitutional thus overturning Plessy v. Ferguson (1896).

1955: Rosa Parks arrested for refusing to give seat on bus to white man.

          14 year old Emmett Till lynched in Mississippi.

          Interstate Commerce Commission orders integration of buses, trains, and waiting rooms for interstate travel.

1960: Sit-in staged by 4 black students at Woolworth’s lunch counter in North Carolina.

          Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) founded.

1963: Civil Rights “March on Washington” attracts 20,000 demonstrators.

          King delivers “I Have A Dream” speech.

President Kennedy assassinated.

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan is published.

1964: 3 Civil Rights workers murdered in Mississippi by white segregationists, setting  off Mississippi “Freedom Summer”.

          King wins Nobel Peace Prize.

1965-73: Vietnam War

1965: Malcolm X assassinated.

          Black Arts Movement started by Amiri Baraka.

1966: Black Panther Party founded.

          National Organization for Women (NOW) founded.

1967: Worst race riot in U.S. history in Detroit kills 43; major riots in Newark and  Chicago.

           Thurgood Marshall becomes first black U.S. Supreme Court justice.

           Supreme Court overturns law against interracial marriage.

1968: King assassinated in Memphis.

          Senator Robert F. Kennedy assassinated in Los Angeles.

1969: Stonewall Riots; sets off gay liberation movement.

1971: Supreme Court approves busing as method of desegregation.

1972: Congress passes Equal Rights Amendment (ERA); sent for ratification.

          Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman elected to U.S. Congress in 1968,

          becomes the first black woman to run for U.S. president.

1973: Supreme Court passes Roe v. Wade, which prohibits state restrictions on

          abortions.

1977: T.V. miniseries based on Alex Haley’s Roots attracts more viewers than any

           television program in history.

1982: ERA fails after 10 years, 3 states short of ratification.

1986: Martin Luther King’s birthday officially celebrated as federal holiday.

1989: General Colin Powell becomes first black Chief of Staff for U.S. Armed Forces.

1991: Clarence Thomas confirmed to Supreme Court justice, despite Anita Hill’s sexual

          harassment testimony.

1992: Police acquitted of beating Rodney King, setting off riots in L.A.

1993: Toni Morrison is first African American to win Nobel Prize for Literature.

1994: O.J. Simpson accused of murdering ex-wife and her friend.

1995: Million Man March in Washington D.C. organized by Nation of Islam minister

          Louis Farrakhan.

          O.J. Simpson acquitted of murder charges.        

 

 

Bibliography

 Gates Jr., Henry Louis, and McKay, Nellie Y., eds. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature.  New York; W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1987.

 Caballero, Mariana. “African American Literature Field Report.” North Dakota State University. Autumn Term 2003.

 Muzzy, Kelli. “Early American Literature 1585-1820 Field Report” North Dakota State University. Autumn Term 2004

 

Online Journals:

 Jstor:

            Negro American Literature Forum

            American Literature

 Project Muse:

            American Literature

 ELH:

            Early American Literature

            Black American Literature Forum

 Other Journals:

            American Literary History

            African American Review

 

Websites:

http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/ethnicstudies/africanamerican/black_lit_main

African American Literature

 http://www.lang.osaka-u.ac.jp/~krkvis/afrolit.html

African American Literature

 http://www.lib.memphis.edu/instr/afrolit.htm

African American Literature

 http://www.si.edu/resource/faq/nmah/afroam.htm

Encyclopedia Smithsonian: African American History and Culture

 http://www.blackquest.com

African American Resources

 http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/history/tm/black.html

African American History

 Literary Handbooks, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias

 Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History. Ed. Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith, and Cornel West, 5 vols. New York: Mcmillan Library Refernce; London:          Simon, 1996.

 The Oxford Companion of African American Literature, ed. William L. Andrews, Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier Harris (New York: Oxford UP, 1997, 866p.)

 Primary Works

 Dictionary Catalog of the Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and History.  9 vols. Boston: Hall, 1962.

 Jordan, Casper LeRoy, Comp. A Biographical Guide to African-American Women Writers. Bibliographies and Indexes in Afro-American and African Studies 31. Westport: Greenwood, 1993.

 Kallenback, Jessamine S., Comp. Index to Black American Literary Anthologies. Boston: Hall, 1979.

 Schatz, Walter, ed. Directory of Afro-American Resources. New York: Bowker, 1970.

 Turner, Darwin T. comp. African American Writers. Goldentree Bibliographies in Language and Literature. New York: Appleton, 1970.  

American Studies

 What is American Studies? Georgetown University listed these categories as headings for their first ever American Studies Encyclopedia:

Class Culture  (i.e. the cultures of distinct classes and groups in America); Communication and Culture; Crime and Deviance; Economics and Culture; Education; Ethnicity, Race, and Culture  (including related topics in the broad areas of: African American Cultures; Asian American Cultures; Hispanic American Cultures; Jewish American Cultures; European American Cultures; Native American Cultures); Everyday Life (e.g. Clothing, Coca Cola; Soul Food) ; Expressive Culture (which included  the broad subtopics, Architecture and Design; Art; Film;  Literature; Media; Music; Performing Arts; Photography; Theatre);  Family and Kinship; Folk Culture; Gender and Culture;  Government and Politics; Land Use; Law and Culture;  Life Course (by which we meant Childhood, Adolescence, Youth Culture, etc.); National Identity; Nature and the Environment;  Periods and Periodization; Philosophy; Political and Military Cultures; Popular Culture; Recreation and Leisure; Regions and Regionalism; Religious Culture; Reproducing Culture (including Libraries and Museums); Social Reform and Social Movements; Science, Technology, and Medicine; the United States and Global Culture; Violence; Volunteerism.

“In short, we were committed to a view of American culture that held in suspension the tension between centrifugal and centripetal forces: respecting the enormous diversity and contradictions of the United States, contradictions that at times threaten to explode and fragment the whole, we yet also acknowledged the many national institutions, from the federal government to the internet, that are at the same time pulling the U.S. together.”

Journals:

American Quarterly

The Journal of American Studies

Midcontinent American Studies Journal

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CLASS/am484_96/484bibl.html

Theory:

Kwiat, J.J. and Mary C. Turpie. American Culture: Dominant Ideas and Images

Meredith, Robert ed. American Studies: Essays on Theory and Method

Nye, David E., and Christen Kold Thomsen. American Studies in Transition.

Classic Studies:

Bewley, Marius. The Eccentric Design

Boorstin, Daniel. The Americans

Hoffman, Daniel. Form and Fable in American Fiction

Jones, Howard Mumford. O Strange New World

Kouwenhoven, John A. Made in America.

Lawrence, D.H. Studies in Classic American Literature

Lewis, R.W.B. American Adam

Marx, Leo. The Machine in the Garden:Techonology and the Pastoral Ideal in America

Matthiesson, F. O. American Renaissance 

McKinsey, Beth. Niagara Falls

Miller, Perry. The New England Mind

Orvell, Miles. The Real Thing

Pearce, Roy Harvey. The Savages of America

Reynolds, David S. Beneath the American Renaissance

Rourke, Constance. American Humor

Smith, H.N. The Virgin Land

Trachtenberg, Allen. Brooklyn Bridge : The Incorporation of America

Williams, William Carlos. In the American Grain

The Civil War

Basler, Roy F. A Short History of the American Civil War.

Billington, M.L. The American South: A Brief History.

Cash, W.J. The Mind of the South.

DuBois, W.E.B. Black Reconstruction.

Elkins, Stanley M. Slavery.

Grantham, Dewey W. The Regional Imagination: The South and Recent American History.

Osterweis, R.G. Romanticism and Nationalism in the Old South.

Peterson, Merrill D. The Jeffersonian Image in the American Imagination.

Pressly, Thomas. Americans Interpret their Civil War.

Simkins, F.B. A History of the South.

Stammp, Kenneth M.. The Peculiar Institution.

Tindall, George B. The Emergance of the New South, 1913-1945.

Woodward, C. Vann. The Burden of Southern History.

Wyatt-Brown, William. Honor and Violence in the Old South.

Wilson, Charles Reagan and William Ferris, eds. Encyclopedia of

Southern Culture.

http://www.salzburgseminar.org/ASC/csacl/resc/BIBLIO.HTM      This is by far the largest and most comprehensive bibliography on the net.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/

Multimedia government site, it not only has literature but photos, scans, and many other things covering the cultural history of America.

www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/asainfo.html        This site contains information and various links concerning American Studies.

Carly Hearn

English 760

Dr. Aune

October 12, 2004

 

Filed Report on Film and Media Studies

 

Film Studies: Important Definitions

“Film Criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films.  In general, this can be divided into academic criticism by film scholars and journalistic film criticism that appears regularly in newspapers and other media” (Film Studies 1).

 “Film theory seeks to develop concise, systematic concepts that apply to the study of cinema.  Classical film study provides a structural framework to address classical issues of technique, narrativity, diegesis, cinematic codes, the image, genre, subjectivity, and authorship.  More recent analysis has given rise to psychoanalytic film theory, structuralist film theory, feminist film theory, and theories of documentary, new media, third cinema, and a new queer cinema, to name just a few”(Film Studies 1).

 Yet another part of Film Studies is the study of Film production.  This consists of studying such things as camera movement, editing, screenwriting, directing, and participating in hands on work with producing films.

 The persistence of vision

“According to the theory of persistence of vision, the perceptual processes of the brain or the retina of the human eye retains an image for a split second. This theory supposedly accounts for the fact that when a motion picture flashes a series of progressive images, instead of the mind seeing the flashing of a series of images, it sees the illusion of motion.

In actuality, psychologists and physiologists have long ago abandoned this theory's applicability to film viewership, though film textbooks, film professors, and film theorists have largely not.

Persistence of vision should be compared with the related phenomena of beta movement and phi movement. A critical part of understanding these visual perception phenomena is that the eye is not a video camera: there is no "frame rate" or "scan rate" in the eye: instead, the eye/brain system has a combination of motion detectors, detail detectors and pattern detectors, the outputs of all of which are combined to create the visual experience.

The frequency at which flicker becomes invisible is called the flicker fusion threshold, and is dependent on the level of illumination.

Through experience in the early days of film innovation, it was determined that a frame rate of less than 16 frames per second caused the mind to see flashing images. Audiences still interpret motion at rates as low as ten frames per second or slower (as in a flipbook), but the flicker caused by the shutter of a motion picture projector is distracting below the 16-frame threshold” (Persistence of Vision 1).

 

Important pioneers and relationships in early film

 Lumiere Brothers

Auguste and Louis Lumiere are credited with the world’s first public film screening on December, 28 1895.  The screening was held in the basement of the Grand Café in Paris and showed ten short films lasting around 25 minutes total.  It was the public’s introduction to the cinematograph which functioned as printer, projector and camera all in one.  Most of their movies were scenes from everyday life, and the brothers thought there was no future in film because people could see these images in everyday life.  In one short film however, audiences were stunned to see a train pulling into a station and thought it would plow right into the theater.  The brothers have been credited with over 1,425 different films(Early Cinema).

Thomas Edison and William Dickson

Edison and Dickson created probably the most successful relationship in film development.  Edison, an inventor, hired Dickson to help him in experimenting with cylinders in the phonograph. In late 1890 this ceased and the men began working on a moving picture Kinetoscope. In 1891 they filed patent specifications, and perfected the device in 1892.  They then set out building a studio.  They produced several short films and there is still controversy today about which team of men created the first films.  Dickson would not have had access to the technology without Edison, but Dickson was vital to the advancement of the Kinetoscope.  Differences between the two men sent them in separate directions and some critics speculate this is why they are not credited with the first film screenings.  In fact, the Cinematographe invented by the Lumiere brothers was actually inspired by the Kinetoscope (Early Cinema).

Other Pioneers

Photographer Eaedward Muybridge and Etienne Marey formed a team to expand the developments of Edison and Dickson, and techniques they developed can still be seen in film today.  With technology advancing, filmmakers emerged such as Cecil Hepworth and Edwin Porter, most famous for The Great Train Robbery.  Finally George Melies stepped onto the scene combing film and theater techniques which led to the creation of special effects.  An early example of this is Melies A Voyage to the Moon (Early Cinema).

Technology

Important technology in film includes the early experiments with optical devices such as the Phenakistoscope and the Zoetrope.  After this Reynaud patented the Praxinoscope in 1877.  Continuing the advancements were Edison and Dickson with the Kinetoscope, the Lumiere brothers and the Cinematographe.  Eventually other devices such as the Mutoscope, and Vitascope helped the advancement of film technology (Early Cinema).

 Media Studies

Definitions

“Media Literacy is the ability to decode, analyze, evaluate and produce communication in a variety of forms” (Digital 1).

 “Media Literacy is concerned with the process of understanding and using mass media.  It is also concerned with helping students and children develop an informed understanding of the nature of mass media, the techniques used by them and the impact of these techniques.  More specifically, it is education that aims to increase students’ understanding and enjoyment of how media work, how they produce meaning, how they are organized, and how they construct reality.  Media Literacy also aims to provide ability and skills to create media products”(Center for…1-2).

 

3 Important concepts about media studies are audience, texts and production

Media forms include electronic media, print media and popular culture

Electronic Culture: radio, television, film, CD’s, videos, telephones, computers, photography, cameras

Print Media: Newspapers, magazines, books, comics, advertising, junk mail, travel brochures, fanzines, electroniczines

Popular Culture: stardom, celebrity-making, shopping malls, toys, clothing trends, fashion fads, fast food, theme parks, slang

 

“A way to approach media literacy is to take materials directed at the senses and reposition them within the framework of critical reasoning and thought”(Digital 1).

 “Media Literacy is a 21^st Century approach to education.  It provides framework to access, analyze, evaluate, and create messages in a variety of forms-from print to video to the internet.  Media Literacy builds understanding of the role of media in society as well as essential inquiry and self-expression necessary for citizens of democracy” (Center for…1).

 

Film and Media Studies in the English Department: Questions for discussion

 How does Film fit into the English Department?

• As production, does it fit under creative writing?
• Screenplays

 

How does film compare with the novel?

• Can one be compared with the other, or should they be looked at as completely different medium?

Some examples to consider

• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Animal farm
• To Kill A Mockingbird
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• A Clockwork Orange

 What are some problems with film in the English department?  How does a class on film fit in?

 What problems arise with the notion of the director as an author?  How does this perception affect authors of novels?

 With the domination of a visual society ad visual texts, where is English headed in this Century?

 

Important Dates in Film History

17^th Century Use of Magic Lanterns

1827 First still photograph taken, using a glass plate technique

1832 Phenakistoscope is introduced by Joseph Plateau

1834 Zoetrope introduced by William George Horner

1839 Negatives on paper, as opposed to glass introduced by Henry Fox Talbot. First viable photography is developed

1877 Praxinoscope introduced by Emile Reynaud

1872-78 Muybridge produces multiple image sequences.  He adapts Zoetrope to produce his own Zoopraxinoscope

1882 Marey produces a photographic gun which exposed 12 images on the edge of a circular plate

1888 George Eastman devises a still camera/produces photographs he sells using the name Kodak

Edison and Dickson began experimenting with technology, and develop several impractical motion picture processes

1891 Kinetograph and Kinetoscope are ready for patening and demonstration

1892 Reynaud holds first public exhibitions of motion pictures which are jerky and slow

1894 Lumiere brothers design the Cinematographe.  Camera shot films at 16 frames per second that became the standard rate for 25 years

1895 Probably the most famous film screening in history took place at the Grand Café in Paris on December 28^th put on by the Lumiere brothers screening ten films

1896 Edison markets the Vitascope

1902 George Melies produces Voyage to the Moon which used special effects techniques and introduced color through hand painting and tinting

1903 Porter’s Life of an American Fireman introduces new visual storytelling techniques and acts as a major help for The Great Train Robbery

1904 Narrative film begins to be the dominant form

1906 Nickelodeons spread through the US

1909 Mass Production techniques are firmly put into place

1910 Titles begin to appear, film companies begin to move to the area later known as Hollywood, and the first international film star, Asta Neilson, appears

1914 WWI interrupts European filmmaking, and it never fully recovers

1915 D.W. Griffith produces Birth of a Nation, which popularizes cross cutting, expressive close ups and naturalistic acting

1919 German Expressionism explodes Wiene’s Cabinet of Dr. Calagari popularizing bizarre sets and make-up

1922 Popularity of gothic tales of horror created through F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu

1923 The iconoscope is patented

1925 New concepts in editing are portrayed in Battleship Potemkin

1927 The sound era is marked by Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer

1928 Dali and Bunuel create the surrealist film Un chien andalou

1932 Standard 8mm film is introduced for amateur use

1936Alfred Hitchock’s Sabotage makes advances with sound in film

1937 Jean Renoir shows the power of camera movement

1938 George Valensi conceives of color TV

1939 First standard commercial television broadcast

1941 Citizen Cane test the limits of cinematography and film narrative

1946 Frank Black develops modern zoom lens and Open City defines Italian neo-realism

1950 To compete with television, Hollywood introduces wide screen and 3D

1951 Cachiers du cinema is founded

1953 Acaemay Awards appear on TV for the first time

1956 Japan reinvents the western genre with Seven Samurai and Godzilla

1958 Hitchcock define the dark story obsession with Vertigo, Swedish film reemerges in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal

1959 Ben-Hur sets standard for action sequences

1960 The French new wave hits the scene, while Italian neo-realism declines, and Hitchcock’s Psycho redefines the suspense/thriller

1963 Home video of JFK’s assassination by Abe Zapruder becomes most famous in history

1965 Super 8 film is introduced

1970 IMAX process introduced in Japan

1971 Super 16mm film is introduced

1975 Summer “blockbuster” invented through Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, HBO starts cable revolution, Sony introduces Beta Video

1976 Steadicam introduced by Garrett Brown, VHS in introduced, Dolby stereo appears in movies

1979 George Lucas forms Lucasfilm for exploring computer based imagery

1984 Hi-fi VCRs appear

1986 Disney uses computer graphics, Pixar is formed

1994 HDTV standards are produced

1999 HDTV broadcasts appear in North American market

 

A Short Guide to Film research

Indexes and research links
Film Scouts
Cinema Sites
The Time Machine:  TVLINK  a film and television index
American Communication Association Center for Communication Studies
Jeeem's CinePad "No ads, no frames, no Java, no Shockwave, no cookies, no hassle"
Yahoo: movies and films
Sarah Zupko's Movie House
American Film Institute
ScreenSite
Senses of Cinema: Links to international journals and archives
Inkpot Movie Links: Journals, Theory, Criticism

Electronic journals in Film Studies

Animation Journal
L'art du cinema
The MacGuffin  a journal for Hitchcock Scholars
Canadian Journal of Film Studies Online
CinemaSpace
Cinetext: Film and Philosophy
CTHEORY
Hollywood Reporter
Hors Champ
Images: A Journal of Film and Popular Culture
Kinema: A Journal for Film and Audiovisual Media
Kulture Void: Independent Film Web Journal
Laser Scans
ScreenSite: Journals - excellent list of European film journals and databases, feminist film and American film journals
Screening the Past
The Silents Majority: On-Line Journal of Silent Film
Strobe: Journal of Film, Television, and New Media
Wide Angle  (Note: full text available only to Project Muse subscribers.  Indiana University is a subscriber.)

Searchable film and video databases

The Internet Movie Database  the mother of all movie databases, includes many obscure feature films and short films
All-Movie Guide
Movie Database at TV Guide
CineFiles:  World Cinema Archive
Hollywood Online
Moviefinder from E! Online

Reviews of films made in recent decades
Movie Review Query Engine
Ebert & Roeper
Chicago Sun Times Online --Roger Ebert
filmcritic.com
Rotten Tomatoes

Film and media sources and directories 
Reel   an excellent source for hard-to-find films on VHS (some PAL), Laserdisc, or DVD
Facets Multimedia  the online catalog is an excellent source for world cinema and historically important American films on VHS (some PAL), DVD, and Laserdisc
CINEMAWEB  independent film and video sources

Special topics
Web-Streamed and Downloadable Videos or Short Films

The New Venue
Film Scouts

Directors
Director's Guild of America
Woody Allen: woodyallen.com | another site | another site
Mel Brooks: Brookslyn: The Mel Brooks Internet Town | The Mel Brooks Webring
Sergio Leone
Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro
Spike Lee
Robert Altman
Akira Kurosawa
John Cassavetes
David Lynch
Satyajit Ray
Alfred Hitchcock
John Woo
Ridley Scott

Writers
Writers Guild of America
David Mamet
Tom Stoppard
Melissa Mathison
Truman Capote
Billy Wilder
Script Fly.com
Screenwriters' and Playwrights' Page
Internet Screenwriters' Network
Screenwriters' Homepage

Film history 
Association Française de Recherche sur l'Histoire du Cinéma
American Memory @ the Library of Congress. Motion Picture Collection 1894-present
Cinema History Site at the University of Minnesota
The Film 100   the 100 most influential people in the history of film
Film History Index: Journals

African-Americans and Film
Black Film Center / Archive at Indiana University, resources page
EverythingBlack.com: Black Films
Yahoo:   Movies and Film:  African-American

Women and Film 
Women's Studies: Film Reviews   at the University of Maryland
Women and Film in Europe
Women in the Director's Chair
New York Women in Film and Television
Women in Cinema: A Reference Guide

Film festivals, awards, and "best of "  lists
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences   view the Oscar winners, both past and present
National Film Preservation Board  maintains the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress
25 best films selected anually for inclusion in the National Film Registry
American Film Institute
AFI's 100 greatest movies
The BFI 100: A selection of the favorite British films of the 20th Century from British Film International
IMDB's top 250 movies  as nominated by Internet Movie Database's "regular voters"
Film Festivals on the WWW   by Mark Litwak
The Great Movies Selected by Roger Ebert

 

Bibliography/Additional Websites

 American Communication Association

http://www.uark.edu/~aca/studies/film.html

 Center for Media Literacy

http://www.medialit.org/reading_room/rr2def.php

 Early Cinema.Com

http://www.earlycinema.com/

 Edison: The marriage of sight and sound

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edmrrg.html

 Film and Movies History

http://www.earlycinema.com/

 Film History

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/5341/history.html

 Film Studies

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Film%20Studies

 History of Film Sound

http://www.filmsound.org/film-sound-history/

 Word IQ

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Persistence_of_vision

 

Kelli Muzzy

4 October 2004

English 760

Dr. Aune

Poetry Field Report

 Poetry

 What is Poetry?

“A poem is a composition written for performance by the human voice” (Norton lxi).

Most definitions surrounding poetry are either extremely vague or claim that one cannot define poetry.  There is an undercurrent that poetry is a medium that is first written down, then performed aloud.

Classifications of poetry:

Epic Poetry:

A long narrative poem, frequently extending several books, on a great and serious subject. 

Examples: Spencer’s The Fairy Queen, Milton’s Paradise Lost

Dramatic Poetry:

Monologue or dialogue, written in the voice of a character assumed by the poet. 

Examples: Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” Browning’s “My Last Duchess”

Lyrical Poetry:

A song performed in ancient Greece accompanied by a small harplike instrument called a lyre.  The term is now used for any fairly short poem in the voice of a single speaker, although that speaker may be quoted by others. 

 

Rhythm:

the way words in a poem move.

Syllables:

The basic units of pronunciation.  They can consist of a vowel sound alone or counted as vowel sounds (ex: riddle- rid and dle).  In words that have more than one syllable, we place emphasis, or stress, on one syllable more than the others (ex: poem- poem, written- written). 

Scansion and the act of scanning:

Scansion is the analysis of stressed and unstressed syllables, or the art of scanning a poem to determine the poem’s division into metrical feet. 

Meter:

When a poem has a rhythmic structure that reoccurs regularly in the poetic units, we call this meter (from the Greek word “to measure”).  There are four metrical systems in English poetry: accentual, accentual-syllabic, syllabic, and quantitative.  Accentual-syllabic is the most common in the English language.

Accentual meter:

Sometimes called “strong-stress meter,” is the oldest of the metrical forms.  A line divided in to by heavy caesura each dominated by the two strongly stressed syllables

Syllabic:

Measure only the number of syllables in a line, without regard to stress.

Quantitative:

Verse whose meter is based on the length of syllables. 

Accentual-syllabic meter:

For the new poetry emerging in the fourth century,  the basic unit is the foot, a combination of two or three stressed and/or unstressed syllables.  The four most common feet in English poetry are: Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic, and Dactyllic.

1.  Iambic: an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. 

2. Trochaic: a stressed followed by an unstressed syllable.

3. Anapestic: two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable.

elision: omission of a sound or syllable when speaking.

4. Dactylic: a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables.  Often used for         vigorous subjects.

5. Spondaic: two successive syllables with approximately equal stresses.

6. Pyrrhic: two successive unstressed or lightly stressed syllables.

Rising and falling meter:

Rising meter: a strong stress on the last syllable

Falling meter: an unstressed last syllable

Line Lengths:

A variety of lengths that poets use in their poetry.

1. Monometer: one foot.

2. Dimeter: two feet.

Catalectic: a line lacking a final unstressed syllable.

            3. Trimeter: three feet.

4. Tetrameter: four feet.           

            5. Pentameter: five feet and the most popular metrical line in English poetry.

6. Hexameter: six feet.

Alexandrine: iambic hexameter is sometimes referred to as Alexandrine.  A

single alexandrine is often used to resonant termination to a stanza of short lines. 

Ex: the Spenserian stanza.

7. Heptameter: seven feet.  Also known as fourteeners when written in iambic

    heptameter.

8. Octameter: eight feet.

Variations:

Caesura: the pause that tends to fall near the middle of most lines

                            Initial caesura: pause falling at the start of a line.

                            Medial caesura: pause occurring in the middle of a line.

                            Terminal caesura: pause falling near or at the end of a line.

Endstopped:

            Ex: The deed of gift was many deeds of war

Run-on lines: the thrust of the of incomplete sentences carries on over the end of the verse line.

Enjambment: French term for run-on lines.

Sprung rhythm: the blending of Old English accentual and more modern accentual-syllabic metrical systems, conceived by Hopkins.

First paeon: stressed syllable followed by three unstressed syllables.

Syllabic meter: measures only the number of syllables in a line, without regard to their stress.

Quantitative meter: based on notions of a syllable’s duration in time or its length.

Repetition:

The use or continuous usage of a word or phrase already located in the poem.

Rhyme:

Closely associated with rhythm in English poetry. 

End Rhyme: rhymes appearing at the end of a line.

Internal Rhyme: rhymes appearing at the end of a line.

            ex: then/men

 

Assonance: repetition of identical or similar vowel sounds.

Consonance: words that have the same consonant sounds, but different vowel sounds.

Onomatopoeia: sometimes called echoism, a combination of two words whose sound seems to resemble the sound it denotes.

            ex: ooze of oil

Masculine rhymes: rhymes with a single stressed syllable.

Feminine rhymes: rhymes with a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable.

Perfect rhyme: when the rhyming sound is exact.

 Poetic license: violation of the rules such as:

Eye rhyme: words whose endings are spelled alike and may have been, at one time,

            pronounced alike, but, over time, have come to have different pronunciations.

            ex: prove/love

Imperfect rhyme:

            Off-rhyme: (half rhyme, near rhyme, or slant rhyme) different from perfect rhyme in changing the vowel sound and/or the concluding

                               consonants.

            Vowel rhyme: beyond off-rhyme to the point where he rhyme word have onlytheir vowel sound in common.

            Pararhyme: when the stressed vowel sounds differ but are flanked by identical or similar consonants.

 

Alliteration:

The repetition of speech sounds (vowels or consonants) in a sequence of nearby words. 

Forms:

Stanzas:

Group of lines forming the basic recurring metrical unit of a poem.

Basic forms:

1. Blank verse: consists of unrhymed iambic pentameter.

2. Couplets: two lines of verse, usually coupled by a rhyme.

            Heroic couplets: closed couplets in sustained usage.

3. Tercet: a stanza of three lies usually linked with a single rhyme.

            Terza rime: linked tercet in which the second line of each

                               stanza rhymes with the first and third lines of the next.

4. Quatrain: a stanza of four lines, rhymed or unrhymed.  The most common of

                    stanza forms.

            Ballad stanza: iambic tetrameter alternates with iambic trimester, rhyming

                                   abcb or abab.

            Heroic quatrains: Stanzas of iambic pentameter rhyming abab.

            Monorhyme: two couplets or rhymed abba.

5. Rhyme royal: seven-line iambic-pentameter stanza rhyming ababbcc

6. Ottava rima: eight-line stanza that rhymes abababcc.

7. Spenserian stanza: nine lines, first eight in iambic pentameter and the last

            an iambic hexameter (alexandrine), rhyming ababbcbcc.

8. Sonnet: fourteen iambic pentameter linked by intricate rhyme scheme

            Italian or Petrarchan sonnet: division into octave (eight-line unit), turn (change

                        in the direction of the argument or narrative), and sestet (six-line unit).

            English or Shakespearean sonnet: three quatrains with a turn at the end of line

                        twelve and concluding with a couplet.

            Spencerian sonnet: first quatrain, couplet link, second quatrain, couplet link,

                        third quatrain, couplet.

9. Villanelle: five tercets rhyming aba followed by a quatrain rhyming abaa, with the first

            line of the initial tercet recurring in the last line of the second and fourth tercets

            and the third line of the initial tercet recurring in the last line of the third and fifth

            tercets, these two refrains (lines of regular occurrence) being repeated in the last

            two lines of the poem.

10. Sestina: composed of six stanzas of six lines, followed by an envoy (concluding

            stanza that incorporates lines or words used before).

11. Limerick: five-line stanza where the first and fifth lines end with the same word.

12. Burn’s/Scottish stanza: six line stanzas of aaabab, a’s are tetrameter and b’s are

            dimeter.

 

Composite forms:

Skeltonic form: short lines of anything from three to seven syllables containing two or three stresses and exploits a single rhyme until the inspiration runs out.

Poulter’s measure: iambic hexameter (twelve syllables) alternating with iambic heptameter (fourteen syllables).

Irregular forms: Rhyme and meter, but with no fixed pattern.

Pindaric ode: sections of varying length, line length, and rhyme scheme.

Irregular Pindaric ode: sections of varying length, varying line length, varying rhyme scheme.

Horatian ode: written in repeated stanza form in quatrains.

 

Open or Free Verse:

Poetry that makes little or no use of traditional rhyme and meter.

Prose poems:

A piece of writing in prose that has poetic qualities including intensity, compactness, rhythms, and imagery.

 

Other types of poetry (just to name a few):

Ballad: a quatrain of alternating four- and three-stress lines, usually rhyming on the second and fourth lines.

Ballade: A poem composed of three stanzas and an envoy.  The last line is used as a refrain, and the same rhyme, restricted in limited numbers, recur throughout.

Double Dactyl:

Haiku: Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.

Epic: a long narrative poem written in an elevated style. It is usually based on the exploits

            of legendary or divine characters, and deals with events significant to an entire society.

Ghazal: Middle Eastern or Indian lyrical poem with a fixed number of verses and

 repeated rhyme, typically on the theme of love and set to music.

Octet: first eight lines of a sonnet.

Pantoum: Malay verse form, imitated by the French and English, consisting of quotations

            with an abab rhyme scheme lined by repeated lines.

Renga: Japanese linked poetry in the form of  a tanka (or series of tankas), with the first

            three lines composed by one person and the second two by another.  They are

            typically comprised of 100 stanzas with three poets in a single sitting.

Roundel: short poem consisting of three stanzas of three lines each, rhyming alternately,

            with the opening words repeated as a refrain after the first and third stanzas. 

Roundelay: a short, simple song with refrain.

Tanka: A Japanese poem consisting of five lines, the first and third of which have five

            syllables and the other seven, making 31 syllables in all and giving a complete

            picture or mood.

Triolet: poem of eight lines, typically of eight syllables each, rhyming abaaabab and

            structured so that the first line recurs as the fourth and seventh line and the second

            as in the eighth line.

 

Modern Poetry:

Imagism: a movement in poetry, originating in 1912 and

   represented by Ezra Pound, Amy Lowell, and others, aiming at clarity

   of expression through the use of precise visual images.

Vorticism: derives its significance from cubism, but leans more toward futurism in its

            attempt to capture in movement and its thematic links to the machine age and

            all things modern.

Anti-literary poetry:

Harlem Renaissance: period in the 1920s when African American poetry and art   flourished.

 

Post Modern Poetry:

Meditative: Randall Jarrel, Richard Eberhard, Karl Shapiro

Metaphysical: poetry, which investigates the world by rational discussion of its

            phenomena rather than by intuition or mysticism.

University poets: Elizabeth Bishop, Richard Wilbur, Josephine Miles, John Hollander

Black Mountain Poets: Projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American

            avant-garde or postmodern poets centered around Black Mountain College.

Beats: Poetic movement, beginning in the early 1950's, that demonstrated a care-free,

often wreckless and unquestionably fresh approach to literature.  They often

challenged  “The Establishment.”

New York School: a loose group of collective poets writing in and living in New York

            in the 1950’s that stressed poetry as a continuous process.

Surrealism: often characterized only by its use of unusual juxtapositions.  Poetry of this

nature often sought to transcend logic and reveal deeper levels of meaning and

unconscious associations.

Confessional: confessional poems often relayed the private lives of the poets via their

            poetry instead of retaining a distance between author and poetry.

African American: poetry written by African Americans, often dealing with their

            situation in American society.

Regionalism: poetry that embraces and contains elements of a given region.

 

Contemporary Poetry:

Nuyorican: poetry from the Puerto Rican communities living in or around New York

            that emphasizes heritage or ethnicity rather than traditional racial

            categories. 

Poetry Slams: poetry that is performed as part of a competitive act where the poets

performs their own poetry and is judged or ranked against other poets.

New Formalist: the return to the use of traditional metrical forms and rhyme.

Spoken word movement: the return of poetry as an oral medium in the 1990’s

            inspired by The Beats that emphasized bringing poetry back to its oral

            roots.

Bibliography

Ciardi, John, and Miller Williams.  How Does a Poem Mean? Second Edition.  HoughtonMifflin: Boston, 1975.

Ellmann, Richard and Robert O’Clair, eds.  The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, third edition.  New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2004.

Ferguson, Margart, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy, eds.  The Norton Anthology of   Poetry, Fourth Edition.  New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1996.

Hoover, Paul ed.  Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology.  New York:  W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1994.

Hunter, J. Paul, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays.  The Norton Introduction to Poetry,   eighth  edition.  New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 2002.

Knorr, Jeff.  An Introduction to Poetry: The River Sings, First Edition.  ____: Prentice Hall, 2004.

Websites:

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/

http://www.poets.org/

Poets.org

http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/

The Poetry Society

http://www.pw.org/

Poets and Writers, Inc.

http://www.evanston.lib.il.us/library/bibliographies/verse.html

Evanston Library: Diverse Verse Selected Poetry Anthologies

New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics.  Ed. Alex Preminger and

            t.V.F. Brogan.  Princeton: Princeton, 1993.

Journals:

Milton Review

American Poetry Review

American Poetry Journal

Parnassus Poetry in Review

Poetry

Victorian Poetry

Contemporary Poetry Review

Emily Dickinson Journal

Jeffers Studies

Keats-Shelley Journal

 

Project Muse

JSTOR

  

Works Consulted:

Ferguson, Margart, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy, eds.  The Norton Anthology of

            Poetry, Fourth Edition.  New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1996.

Hoover, Paul ed.  Postmodern American Poetry, A Norton Anthology.  New York:

            W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1994.

Ellmann, Richard and Robert O’Clair, eds.  The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.

            New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc., 1973.

Hernandez, Joshua.  “Poetry Field Report.”  North Dakota State University.  Autumn

            Term 2003.

 Poetry and the English Department:

I. Teaching Poetry

            a. Poetry as a course of its own?  For creative writing majors?  For lit majors? 

                For all majors?

            b. Poetic or non-poetic teachers?

            c. Teaching poetry: chronologically?  Type?  Movement?  Poets?

                        - Anthologies

                        - Individual poets

                        - Poetic movements

II. Poetry: The elevated literary form?

- Poetry, prose, and drama

- Poetry as an “elite” form

III. Poetry and society

            a. Poetry as elevated form

            b. Difficulty surrounding poetry

                        - form and structure difficult?

                        - the “hidden meaning” in poetry

                        - poetry as subversive

                        - the defense of poetry

                        - T. S. Eliot: poetry is "not the assertion that something is true, but the making of that truth more fully real to us."