Ćwiczenia z historii lit.

Amerykańskiej

23.03
1. Literary periods:
a) 1607 – beginning of Colonial period, since the first colony was planted
1776 – the end of existence of colonies, the Declaration of Independence was signed
b) 1776 – Revolutionary and early national period (question of identity) – it begins with revolution when
the Declaration was signed, War for Independence
1830

c) 18th century – the Age of Reason, Enlightenment, more philosophical than literary, the representative
was Benjamin Franklin, famous in philosophy, politics, literature (its in both colonial and
revolutionary period)
d) 1830 – Romantic period, transcendentalism (philosophical, political and social movement, way of
thinking, life – Henry David Thorough, …), symbolists, romantic poetry, dark romanticism
1860

e) Naturalism
f) After the 1WW there are no clear-cut periods, there are rather group of writers, tendencies in literature
g) Literature after the 2WW
h) Southern Literature
2. There were different groups of people who came to America at the beginning of the 17 th century. Most
of them came for economic reasons, they were not writing literature (John Smith was writing texts -
exception).
In the beginning they were mostly writing letters, if there were some possibilities to deliver them to
Europe and families.
3. The only people who were creating were Puritans, they came to America in 1620. They wanted to
purify the church from all the obstacles that divided them from God - they wanted to read the Bible.
After establishing the first plantation, one of the first obligatory things were primary schools for
children where they could learn how to read and write. Everything was based on Bible, revolt around
religion.
On the Mayflower ship there were only 30 Puritans, the minority, the rest came for economic reasons.
Before arriving they signed the Mayflower Compact – they work for the good of a colony, work
together as one. It helped them survive, since there was nothing waiting for them, they were relatively
unprepared (no seeds, animals, medicine).
60 years after arrival they built the first printing press, two years later they built the first college –
Harvard.
4. Puritans convictions:
- Predestination – conviction that everything has already been decided by God; no matter what
happens in life, it had been designed and planned for them; there is nothing they can do in their life,
they are somehow deprived of their free will, including the fact if they will go to Heaven or Hell after
death -> their task was to try to fulfil the will of God and to find one if they were the elect ones
Elect/Condemned – the elect ones would go to Heaven and the condemned to Hell;
- Providences – (opatrzność) signs of God from which they could find out if they were elect or
condemned ones: they could see it in everyday lives, e.g., bad harvest, sick family/animals signed that
they would go to Hell; prosperity, healthy and beautiful families, good crops signed Heaven
- Diaries – in order to find out about their life after death, they were writing diaries; it’s the first literary
genre; writing events of everyday life -> by the end of the week they would examine it and look for
providences
 Ćwiczenia z historii lit. Amerykańskiej

- Apart from diaries they were writing journals, chronicles and histories – on a larger scale, concerned
the whole community
- Typology - All of the Puritans believed that they are the chosen nation - Israelites persecuted by
Egyptians, had to flee, plagues, led by Moses, crossed the dessert and see, eventually reached the
promised land – Puritans were persecuted in England, they had to flee through the ocean to America;
they believed that it was God’s plan to make their faith to that of Israelites; they saw in themselves
the reflection of biblical characters (foreshadowing the biblical characters, events)
- Sermons – (kazania) they participated in many religious ceremonies at the beginnings
- Captivity narratives – written by people kidnapped by the Indians, they either escaped or were
realised and wrote about their experiences – one of them was Mary Rowlandson
- Poetry – it was God oriented
- There was no: fiction – literature was didactic, it had to teach you a lesson, fiction was too
entertaining, plays – against drama and theatre because actors were pretending to be someone else,
deceiving people (sin), European theatre served as entertainment, there were also prostitutes
5. Verses upon the burning of our house July 10th, 1666 – Anne Bradstreet (Puritans)
- The poem tells the story of a woman whose house and all her material possessions burnt down; at first
she was surprised and devastated, very human reaction, remembers the past
- She argues that it was the lesson about faith, later she reflects and believes that it was God’s will, plan
- “My treasure lies above” – the didactic function, she is taught to rely on spiritual rather than material
things
- References to the Bible: vanity and dust – ashes, human life on earth is not as important as the life
after death, life after death is God’s gift (vanity refers to the Bible); Hiob – the Old Testament, a bet
between God and Satan, if Hiob is deprived of all his goods, luxury, he might remain God’s servant,
after everything was taken from him, he still believed in God, so he was rewarded and got even more
than before – the lady comperes herself to him, nothing is our own, everything we have belongs to
God (typology)
- God is an Architect, he has a plan for everything, including the fire, its God’s design to create and
destroy
Anne Bradstreet – born in Great Britain, moved to America with her husband and father. She was a
regular housewife; she wrote poetry, sometimes condemned about being a woman and a poet at the
same time. She was partly appreciated for her writing. She was basing her poems on basic life, daily
experience, and relating them to God, religion.

2.03
6. Edward Tylor – discovered in 20th century, a preacher, wrote hundreds of poems, all written while
preparing for the sermons, they are mostly called as meditation
Upon a Spider Catching a Fly - Edward Taylor
- The poem literary is about: spider made a web, wasp and fly get into it – wasp gets out, but the fly is
not strong enough and dies
- An allegory to sins and temptations, human’s inner strength
- Three characters – spider (as a devil), a wasp (can destroy the trap prepared by the spider), a fly (is too
weak and stupid, cannot defend itself)
- Some of us like the flies – sinners, who fall into Satan’s trap, are weak enough to sin / some of us are
like wasps
- Everything is in God’s hands, it is his will – whether you can escape the sin, end up in heaven or end
up in hell because of your sins
- Nightingale might embody God, since the nightingales eat the spiders
- He used events, basic objects as foundations for his poetry
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7. Colonial America
- Originally the colonies were small and next to each other, but later people dispersed all over the area
and were gradually getting secular; Puritans became scared of loosing their congregation
- Trials of witchcraft in Salem – a number of women were accused of serving Satan, tried and
eventually executed, to show people, to make them fear of punishment awaiting them if they turn
back from church
- Secularization spreading in America
- 18th century – new philosophical and religious ideas from Europe
- The Great Awakening – attempt to bring people back to the puritan church, puritans walking among
people, delivering sermons
- Puritans lost its importance, they were no longer strong community
8. William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, 1620-1647
 Not welcomed in America, many of the died during winter, they were not prepared for new
circumstances
 Found consolation in God, they would not survive if it was not for his help, it was God who helped
them, protected them
 Providences: a huge storm while they were on a ship, they were afraid that they won’t survive, some
of them were thrown aboard (one man caused some troubles, laughed at others – symbolic), those
who survived were perceived as the chosen ones – it was God who helped them; the God has
protected them through the journey from Europe to America
 Story of one community, there is always God among them, they praised the influence of the God and
neglected their individual desires
9. 18th century – the Age of Reason
 Deism – God existed and created the world, but once he created it, he no longer was interfering
 Puritans believed that God controls everything, but in the Enlightenment it has changed, God was no
longer deciding about people’s lives and their fate, not everything is determined – shift from Puritan
thinking to Enlightenment
 People had free will, they could create their lives
 Discovering the laws governing the world – it is possible to shape the world, know it and discover it
 There was focus on reason, knowledge
10. Benjamin Franklin – a philosopher, man of letter, self-made man
 Originally lived in Boston, moved to England and back to Philadelphia (modern, less conservative,
represents the new way of thinking)
 Founding father of the US, politician, assisted in writing a “Declaration of Independence”
 He worked as a printer, typesetter, invented lightning rod
 In 1727 established a group named Junto – included like-minded people who wanted to bring change
into the society and express their creativity
 Bought a newspaper “Pennsylvania Gazette” and published “Poor Richard’s Alamanack” in 1733 –
calendar with cooking recipes, predictions, weather reports; Richard Sounders as the first fictional
character in American literary history -> it appeared to common sense, it was clever, funny, gave
advices
 “The Way to Wealth” – popular book, important for American society
 The nation’s first volunteering firefighter organization – Union Fire Company 1736, American
Philosophical Society, the Pennsylvania Hospital 1751, Philadelphia Contribution
 He wrote “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin” 1771-1790 (published posthumously)
11. “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”
- Identified 13 virtues, he acted according to moral code
- Each person is capable of improving morally,
- Not far away from what Puritans thought, but BF focused on self-improvement
- Everything is possible if you are determined enough
 Ćwiczenia z historii lit. Amerykańskiej

- The idea of American Dream – the conviction that the man can achieve anything if he works hard
enough
- The charts were supposed to show his weaknesses and strengths, what he needs to improve
- Lived self-conscious life
- Asked himself two questions during the day: morning – What good shall I do this Day?; evening –
What good have I done today?
- Paid a lot of attention to knowledge and self-study
12. “Letters from an American Farmer”
- Shows the nature of Americans in the 18th century
- Her realizes how important process in American society are taking place, a new race of American race
is born – the new man, either European or descendant of them, individuals of all nations are melted
into one man
- Americans once scattered all over Europe are now creating one nation in America
- The European system is completely different from the one in America, no one takes away the crops,
goods people created, no feudal system
- In America the Church did decide about people’s lives