2010 AMERICAN LITERATURE TIME PERIOD REVIEW:

Division, Reconciliation & Expansion (1850 – 1914)

How did social and political issues lead to
REALISM AND NATURALISM ?
·  The Civil War crushed optimism & led to REALISM
·  Common Life: Writers focused on “real life of ordinary people”
·  Naturalists focuses on “real life” BUT believed that forces more powerful than any individual shaped human destinies – Indifferent Nature, Heredity, Pure Chance / How did expressions of place show up in literature?
·  Local Color (characters & details unique to particular area)
·  Dialect (character’s used words and phrases of their area)
·  Urban Sophistication – not all realism was set on farms, riverboats & small towns; high society of Eastern lives show, along with culture of Europe
What literary forms did writers use to discuss social and political issues during this period?
·  Spirituals
·  Life Stories
·  Fiction and Journalism / How did popular literature reflect the
era’s social and political issues?
·  “Rags to Riches” inspirational novels
·  Twists & Turns of fate/ironic endings in novels
·  West (closing of west caused romantic view of it)
·  Wizard(escapism from industrial-age)=Wizard of Oz
What elements of the physical environment
affected Northern writers’ attitudes?
·  Industry
·  Urban Life / What element of the physical environment
affected Southern writers’ attitudes?
·  Regionalism (using features & color of southern
landscapes to tell stories that grew from southern land)
What literary elements contributed
to an American style?
·  setting and plots
·  dialogue and style
·  humor (ex: Mark Twain) / What roles did writers play in shaping American identity?
·  Writer as Realist
·  Writer as Naturalist / What did Literature reveal about American attitudes?
·  Hard-edged Pragmatism, tragic figures
·  Loss of Idealism
·  Democracy; realism emphasized common person
·  Science & technology took on greater importance
Life Stories
Types of Narrative Accounts:
1.  Journal- records daily events & personal observations
2.  Historical Narratives- records historical events
3.  Slave Narratives- records writer’s experience as a slave
4.  Autobiography- tells author’s life story
5.  Memoirs – 1st person accounts of events
6.  Exploration Narratives – records info of writer’s travels
*Ambrose Bierce: “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” (481)
Stream of Consciousness style of writing and omniscient
point of view (narrator is observer of all that happens)
Examples:
1.) Frederick Douglass –“My Bondage and My Freedom”(519)
2.) Lincoln – “The Gettysburg Address” (539)
3.) Robert E. Lee – “Letter to His Son” (541)
4.) Sojurner Truth “Account of an Experience with
Discrimination”(553)
5.) Chief Joseph – “I Will Fight No More Forever” (622)
6.) Miriam Davis Colt – “Heading West” (617)
7.) Willa Cather – wrote of difficulties of life on expanding
Frontier; My Antonia, O Pioneers!, A Wagner Matinee / REALISM WRITERS:
Samuel Clemens/ Mark Twain
* Targets of Twain’s jokes were technology, he railed against political
figures. Used American English that people actually spoke; heroes were
hardworking, poor Americans. Public LOVED Twain; made a fortune.
* His most famous work: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
*His writings show increasing pessimistic view of society
*His writings use:
·  Hyperbole (exaggeration of details or embellishment of events)
·  Regionalism (language/behavior specific to certain area)
·  Social Commentary (critiques society by telling stories)
·  Dialect (ways of speaking specific to particular area/people)
·  Incongruity(uses serious tone to describe ridiculous events)
·  Comic language (often funny names and places)
·  Foibles (a focus on human flaws)
Also Wrote: 1.) Life on Mississippi (571)
2.) Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County(576)
Kate Chopin
*Wrote “Story of an Hour”- psychological account of woman’s search
for independence & fulfillment; book was banned
*Used IRONY
NATURALISM WRITERS
Jack London
* To Build a Fire – man & dog are out in the wild of
Alaska; main element is conflict(man Vs nature); also irony
*London wrote stories about what he had personally seen/done
*Highest-paid & most industrious writer in country of time
*Also wrote: White Fang, Call of Wild, The Sea-Wolf – again,
Man is in conflict with nature.
Stephen Crane: “An Episode of War”(508)
*Never was in a Civil War battle, but wrote “The Red Badge
of Courage” about young soldier’s mental/emotional
reaction under enemy fire.
* 2 types of Conflict: Internal (occurring within character’s
mind); External (occurring between a character & society,
nature, another person, God, or fate) / POETS OF THE TIME PERIOD
Paul Laurence Dunbar- 1st African Am. to attain national recognition
* Wrote poetry & Novels; often focused on daily life on plantations
*Wrote of African Am’s social problems in urban ghettoes, farms, all over
*Wrote: We Wear the Mask and Douglass
Edwin Arlington Robinson – stories of the lost and the sorrowful; themes of personal defeat & unfulfilled longing; desperate characters who see their lives as trivial & meaningless or who live to live in another place or time
*Wrote: Luke Havergal and Richard Cory
Edgar Lee Masters – wrote Spoon River Anthology, 244 epitaphs
for people buried in mythical Spoon River Cemetery; paints vivid picture
of loneliness isolation confronting people in small Midwestern towns
*Wrote: Lucinda Matlock and Richard Bone
Copyright © jac2010