EARLY AMERICAN

LITERATURE
The First Settlers.
The early settlers in America came from
England at two distinct periods in her history, which
were characterized by different intellectual and social
conditions. Naturally, therefore, they established in the
new world two distinct types of civilization. The
settlers who came to Virginia in 1607 were Elizabethan
Englishmen, contemporaries of Shakespeare. They
were bold, daring men with a certain flavor of
romance about them. Some were moved by the spirit
of adventure merely. Some were gentlemen of broken
fortune in search of easily acquired wealth. A few were
idlers and criminals.
The First Settlers.
They did not expect to make their homes in the
new world, but hoped soon to return to England rich
and influential. The Pilgrims, on the other hand, who
settled in Plymouth in 1620, and the Puritans, who
established the Massachusetts Bay Colony a few years
later, came from an England which had already been
largely transformed by the new religious influences of
Puritanism. They were stern men of strong religious
principles, lovers of freedom, exiles, seeking in an
unknown and inhospitable land a place where they
could establish permanent homes, live independent
lives, and worship God in their own way. They were
inspired not by dreams of wealth but by dreams of
freedom.
Conditions Unfavorable for
Literature
In neither case were conditions favorable
for the development of literature. The New
Englanders were too busy cutting down forests,
building houses, clearing the fields of stumps and
rocks, planting and cultivating crops, and
defending their lives against wild beasts and
Indians, to spend much time in writing books.
Among the Virginians the conditions of life were
easier, but the population did not settle in village
communities favorable to the intellectual contact
and extended education which develop a literary
class.
Conditions Unfavorable for
Literature
Nor did they live under the primitive
conditions which develop such popular
traditional literature as the old English ballads
and romances. After exploring the country and
finding that wealth could not be gained in a day,
they took up large landed estates, and cultivated
vast tobacco plantations. They lived the active life
of the open air in close contact with nature, given
to free and open hospitality when opportunity
served, but little inclined to study and reflection.
They developed a literature even less rapidly than
the Pilgrims and Puritans.
Historical and Biographical
Writing
John Smith (1579-1631)

The earliest writing was historical and biographical. The

colonists sent back to England descriptions of the country
and accounts of their frontier life. Captain John Smith, for
example, wrote for the purpose of advertising Virginia. In
1608 he sent to a friend in London A True Relation of such
Occurrences and Accidents of Noate as Happened in Virginia
since the first Planting of that Colony, and later, in 1624,
published his General History of Virginia. Smith was a typical
Elizabethan Englishman. His account, therefore, is
enthusiastic and often exaggerated. Sometimes, also, he
enlivens it with the interest of romance
Historical and Biographical
Writing
John Smith (1579-1631)

The History of Virginia contains, for example, the famous story of

how, when Smith was about to be killed by the Indians, his life was
saved by the Indian Princess, Pocahontas. "

“Having feasted him after their best barbarous manner, a long

consultation was held; but the conclusion was, two great stones were
brought before Powhattan. Then as many as could laid hands upon
him, dragged him to the stones and thereon laid his head. and being
ready with their clubs to beate out his braines, Pocahontas the King's
dearest daughter, when no entreaty could prevaile, got his head in
her armes, and laid her owne upon his to save him from death;
whereat the Emperor was contented he should”
New England Chroniclers
The early chroniclers of New England were of
a different temper. They wrote not for entertainment
nor to advertise the country. They told the plain
facts without any of the glamour of romance. The
most important accounts are William Bradford’s of
Plymouth Plantation and John Winthrop's History of
New England. Bradford was governor of Plymouth
Colony; Winthrop was governor of the neighboring
colony of Massachusetts Bay, and later of the United
Colonies of Massachusetts. Both histories are
straightforward and matter of-fact accounts of the
hardships and heroism of the earliest settlers. Some
of the descriptions — The first Encounter with the
Indians, for example — are vigorous and spirited
Overview of
American
Literature

The Colonial Period

Pre-1620 through 1750
Native American Period
(pre-1620)
Oral tradition of song and stories

• Original authors unknown

• Written accounts come after colonization
• Include creation stories, myths, totems
• Symbolic narrative – how the world began, how people came to inhabit the
world
• archetypes of trickster and conjurer

Focuses on

• the natural world as sacred

• Importance of land and place
Colonial Period
(1620-1750)
Newly arrived colonists create villages and towns and establish new governments while
protesting the old ways in Europe

Did not consider themselves “Americans” until mid-18C

Enormous displacement of Native-American civilizations

• French—St Lawrence River

• Swedes—Delaware River
• Dutch—Hudson River
• German and Scots-Irish—New York and Pennsylvania
• Spanish—Florida
• Africans (mostly slaves) were throughout the colonies
Colonial Period
(1607-1750)
Characteristics
• The Colonial Period was dominated by Puritan beliefs; literature of this
period is usually historical, religious, or didactic

• The most common genres were tracts, polemics, journals, narratives,

sermons, and some poetry.

• The first slave narratives were written at this time.

• Imaginative literature rare; in some colonies, banned for being immoral.

Colonial Period
(1620-1750)
Literature of the period dominated by the
Puritans and their religious influence
• emphasis is on faith in one’s daily life
• a person’s fate is determined by God
• all are corrupt and need a Savior
• theocracy--civil authority in Bible and church
• nature is revelation of God’s providence and
power
• Puritan work ethic—belief in hard work and
simple, no-frills living
Colonial Period
(1620-1750)
Representative authors:
• Wiliam Bradford (journal)
• Anne Bradstreet (poetry)
• Jonathan Edwards (sermon)
• Mary Rowlandson (captivity narrative)
• Phillis Wheatley (poetry)
• Olaudah Equiano (slave narrative)
ROLES OF WRITERS

1. POET
–oral poetry-Native Americans passed down stories
& histories orally
-devotional poetry written by colonists to worship
2. HISTORIANS-journals tell us about life in young
America
3. PREACHER- hymns, songs of praise
- sermons-speeches given as instruction in religion &
morals
ROLES OF WRITERS

4. Lawmaker
-speeches-helped shape American ideas &
government
-tracts – pamphlets; argumentative – about a
religious or political topics
5. Autobiographer
-diaries
Revolutionary Period
(1750-1815)
Writers focused on explaining and justifying
the American Revolution
After the Revolution, this period becomes
known as Early Nationalism. Writers begin to
ponder what it really means to be an
American.
After the War of 1812, which removed the
last British troops from North America, there
was an even greater focus on nationalism,
patriotism, and American identity
Revolutionary Period
(1750-1815)

Emphasis on reason as opposed to faith alone; rise

of empirical science, philosophy, theology
Shift to a more print-based culture; literacy seen as
sign of status
Instructive in values, highly ornate writing style;
highly political and patriotic
 Revolutionary Period
(1750-1815)
Representative authors:
• Benjamin Franklin (biography, common sense
aphorisms)
• Patrick Henry (speech)
• Thomas Paine (pamphlet)
• Thomas Jefferson (political documents)
• Abigail Adams (letters)
Romanticism
(1800-1865)
Romanticism is a philosophical reaction to the previous
decades in which reason and rational thought
dominated
• Emphasis on universal human experience
• Valuing feeling and intuition over reason
Optimistic period of invention, Manifest Destiny,
abolition movement, and the “birth” of truly American
literature
Growth of urban population in the Northeast with
growth of newspapers, lectures, debates (especially
over slavery and women’s roles)
Revolution in transportation, science,
Industrial revolution made “old ways” of doing things
are now irrelevant
Romanticism
(1800-1865)
Writers celebrated individualism, nature,
imagination, creativity, and emotions.
• Interest in fantasy and supernatural
• Writing can usually be interpreted two ways—
surface and in depth
• Writing is didactic—attempting to shape
readers
• Good will triumph over evil.
• Strong focus on inner feelings
• Imagination prized over reason; intuition over
fact
Blossoming of short stories, novels, and poetry
Romanticism
(1800-1865)
Early Romantic authors began the
tradition of creating imaginative
literature that was distinctly
American
• Washington Irving (folktales)
• William Cullen Bryant (poetry)
• James Fenimore Cooper (novels)
Romanticism
(1800-1865)
Fireside Poets, the most popular Romantic
poets of the time, were read in the home by
the fireside because their poetry contained
strong family values, patriotism, etc. It has
remained popular in elementary schools for
memorization.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• Oliver Wendell Holmes
• James Russell Lowell
• John Greenleaf Whittier
Romanticism
(1800-1865)
Transcendentalism came to America from Europe
Belief that man’s nature is inherently good; “divine
spark” or “inner-light”
Belief that man and society are perfectible (utopia)
Stress individualism, self-reliance, intuition
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (essays, poetry)
• Henry David Thoreau (essays)
Romanticism
(1800-1865)
Dark Romanticism (also known as Gothic or Anti-
Transcendentalism)
Belief that man’s nature is inherently evil
Belief that whatever is wrong with society—sin, pain, evil—has to
be fixed by fixing the individual man first.
Use of supernatural
Strong use of symbolism
Dark landscapes, depressed characters
• Nathaniel Hawthorne (novels, short stories)
• Herman Melville (novels, short stories, poetry)
• Edgar Allan Poe (short stories, poetry, literary criticism
Realism
(1850-1900)
The Realistic Period, which includes the Civil War,
significant industrial inventions, and extensive
westward expansion, is one of the most turbulent
and creative in American history.
Rejection of Romantic view of life as too idealistic
Writers turn to real life to articulate the tensions and
complex events of the time, rather than idealized
people or places.
Seek “verisimilitude” by portraying “a slice of life” as
it really is usually objective narrator
Realism
(1850-1900)
Realistic authors made it their mission to convey
the reality of life, however harsh. Characters
reflect ordinary people in everyday life,
determined yet flawed, struggling to overcome
the difficulties of war, family, natural disasters,
and human weaknesses.
While good will always triumph over evil, it may
not happen in every case in this lifetime
Nature is a powerful force beyond man’s control.
Racism persisted beyond slavery—Reconstruction,
Jim Crow, KKK, etc.
Realism
(1800-1855)
Transitional writers which span the Romantic
and Realistic Periods express Transcendental
ideas in poetry with realistic detail.
Experimented with new poetic techniques such
as free verse and slant rhyme.
• Walt Whitman (poetry)
• Emily Dickinson (poetry)
Realism
(1850-1900)
Civil War writers are primarily concerned with
the war, slavery, and to a lesser extent,
women’s suffrage.
• Abraham Lincoln
• Robert E. Lee
• Mary Chesnut
• Sojourner Truth
• Harriet Beecher Stowe
• John Parker
• Frederick Douglass
Realism
(1850-1900)
Local color writers (also known as Regionalists)
focused on a particular region of the country,
seeking to represent accurately the culture and
beliefs of that area.
Emphasized accurate portrayals of the physical
landscape as well as the habits, occupations, and
speech (dialect) of the area’s people
Realism
(1850-1900)
Local color writers include, among others:
• Mark Twain (the Mississippi River valley)
• Bret Harte (the West, particularly the mining
camps of California)
• Kate Chopin (the South, particularly
Louisiana)
• Willa Cather (the Midwest, particularly
Nebraska)
• Mary Wilkins Freeman (the New England
area)
Realism
(1850-1900)
Mainline realistic authors include
several well-known poets
• Paul Laurence Dunbar
• Edgar Lee Masters
 Naturalism
(1880-1940)
Realism took a cynical turn to Naturalism when
literary writers were exposed to the views of three
authors whose scientific or political works
appeared near the end of the century.
• Charles Darwin—biological determinism
• Sigmund Freud—psychological determinism
• Karl Marx—socio-economic determinism
Naturalism
(1880-1940)
Naturalistic writers focused on
grim reality, observed characters much
as scientists might observe laboratory
animals, and sought to discover the
natural laws which govern human lives.
Naturalists viewed nature and the
universe as indifferent, even hostile, to
man.
Naturalism
(1880-1940)
The universe of the naturalists is godless, cold, and
indifferent.
Life often seems meaningless.
Fate = chance (no free will)
The characters in these works are often helpless victims—
trapped by nature, the environment, or their own heritage.
• Jack London (novels, short stories)
• Stephen Crane (novels, short stories, poetry)
• Edwin Arlington Robinson (poetry)
• Ambrose Bierce (short stories)
Modernism
(1900-1950)
Modern Period writers were affected by
• World War I, World War II, fear of communism, and
the beginning of the Cold War
• Roaring 20’s, the Great Depression, commercialism
• increased population
• lingering racial tensions after slavery and
Reconstruction
• technological changes
• rise of the youth culture
• fear over eroding traditions
Modernism
(1900-1950)
Modern writers are known for
• themes of alienation and disconnectedness
• frequent use of irony and understatement
• experimentation with new literary techniques
in fiction and poetry:
• stream of consciousness
• interior dialogue
• fragments
• trying to create a unique style
• rise of ethnic and women writers
Modernism
(1900-1950)
The Lost Generation writers were a group of
Americans who chose to live in Paris after
WWI.
Their writing explored themes of alienation
and change and confronted people’s fears,
despair, and disillusionment.
• T. S. Eliot (poetry)
• F. Scott Fitzgerald (fiction)
• Ernest Hemingway (fiction)
Modernism
(1900-1950)
Imagists were a subgroup of the Lost
Generation that created a new kind of poetry.
Imagist poetry, which highly resembles
Japanese haiku, concentrates on creating a
word picture, a snapshot of a moment in time
• Ezra Pound
• William Carlos Williams
• Wallace Stevens
Modernism
(1900-1950)
Writers in the Harlem Renaissance represent a
flourishing of African-American authors in a
cultural movement that also included music
and art
These writers had two goals
• to write about the African-American
experience
• to create a body of literature by African-
American authors that could rival anything
written by anyone else
Modernism
(1900-1950)
Harlem Renaissance writers included, among
others:
• Langston Hughes (poetry)
• Zora Neale Hurston (fiction)
• Claude McKay (poetry)
• Countee Cullen (poetry)
• Arna Bontemps (poetry)
• Helene Johnson (poetry)
• James Weldon Johnson (poetry)
Modernism
(1900-1950)
Southern Renaissance writers follow in
the footsteps of the earlier local color
writers in their focus on the South.
• Katherine Ann Porter
• William Faulkner
• Flannery O’Connor
Modernism
(1900-1950)
Traditional poets in the Modern Period
include such writers as
• Carl Sandburg
• Robert Frost
Experimental poets in the Modern
Period include such writers as
• e. e. cummings
Modernism
(1900-1950)
Modern dramatists:
• Arthur Miller
• Tennessee Williams
 Postmodernism
(1950-present)
The Postmodern Period includes
• unprecedented prosperity
• global conflict--Korean War, Vietnam War, the end
of the Cold War, the rise of terrorism, Gulf War, 9/11,
Iraqi War. War in Afghanistan
• social protest—the civil rights movement, the
women’s rights movement, the gay rights movement
• mass culture and consumerism; media saturation
• rise of technology and space exploration
• the digital revolution
Postmodernism
(1950-present)
The best adjective for this literary period is
eclectic—a collection of a little bit of
everything.
Postmodernists create traditional works
without traditional structure or narrative.
The writings have increasingly addressed
social issues related to gender and race
and youthful rebellion.
Postmodernism
(1950-present)
Questioning of “traditional values”—insistence
that values are not permanent but only “local” or
“historical”; media culture interprets values
The writings are often critical and ironic,
concentrating on surface realities and the
absurdity of daily life.
There are no heroes; anti-heroes are common
Often detached, unemotional
Individuals often seem isolated.
Postmodernism
(1950-present)
Representative authors:
• The Beat Poets (pre-hippies, highly intellectual,
countered the hidden despair of the 1950s with
wildly exuberant language and behavior)—Jack
Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg
• Confessional Poets (used anguish of their own
lives to reveal hidden despair)—Sylvia Plath,
Anne Sexton, Robert Lowell
Postmodernism
1950-present
Representative authors
• J. D. Salinger
• James Thurber
• Multicultural literature
• Jewish—Bernard Malamud, Elie Wiesel
• African American—Ralph Ellison, Gwendolyn Brooks,
Maya Angelou, Alice Walker
• Native American—N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich
• Latino-American—Julia Alvarez, Sandra Cisneros
• Asian-American—Maxine Hong Kingston, Amy Tan
Postmodernism
(1950-present)
Other representative authors:
• John Updike
• Truman Capote
• Stephen King
• Joyce Carol Oates
Major themes
in American Literature
American individualism
• Also known as the self-made man
• Celebration of ambition and achievement
• Original colonists came for religious freedom
• Later colonists came looking to make their fortune with
opportunities not available in class-based European societies.
Major themes
in American Literature
The American Dream
• Closely linked to American individualism
• The idea that anyone can become whatever he or she wants to
become through hard work, determination, and perseverance
Major themes
in American Literature
Cultural diversity
• A society that welcomes legal immigrants of diverse
backgrounds
• The melting pot theory—Immigrants assimilate into our
culture and become Americans
• The salad bowl theory—immigrants retain their separate
identities while making up part of the whole and adopt a
hyphenated American name (Chinese-Americans, for
example)
Major themes
in American Literature
Tolerance
• Religious tolerance was one of the first principles in American
life.
• More recent issues have included race, gender, sexual
orientation, etc.