Realism - characteristics: Focusing on average, on the closest at hand, the contemporary real people, the most familiar. Meant interpretation of actualities of any aspect of life, free from subjective prejudice, idealism, romantic odor. Presenting man in his usual, not romantic context, average m...
Representatives of Modernism in American literature Henry James - he uses the “point of view” technique, which would culminate in the modernists' experimentation with “the stream of consciousness” narrative. The early American modernists from the beginning of the 20th century (mostly expatriates):...
Texts written by Puritans: Sermons-most of God, least of man. Most of them were printed and read at home. Diaries-aiming at self-improvement, self-examination chronicle of day to day records without adding any comments. Journals Histories Autobiographies-concentrating on problems of spiritual l...
The Great Awakening (1730s-1740s) Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” George Whitfield The Enlightenment the 18th century European influence Development of science (Scientific revolution) Political developments: Emphasis upon l...
The Lost Generation and the Jazz Age - American Literature in the Post-WWI decades Post World War I years in the United States: The end of the war The national per capita income increased by 30% Mass production - Ford Model T Easy credit and instalment buying Prohibition The radio Flappers, ...
Transcendentalism To define Transcendentalism would mean `to grasp the ungraspable'. `a movement of feelings and beliefs hard to define'. 1836 (publication of Emerson's “Nature”) - The Transcendental Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Inspiration ...
African American literature African American literature starts with the oral tradition of African ancestors and of slaves, who were not allowed to write and read. Philis Wheatley (1753-1784) Slave narratives - Frideric Douglas (1818-1895) W.E.B. DuBois - double consciousness - to assimilate with ...
American Renaissance American Renaissance (1850-1855) = American Romanticism (1836-1861) “American Renaissance” - the term is applied in 1941 by F. O. Matthiessen in “American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman”. (He saw the period as the American equivalent of Eliza...
Arthur Miller (1915-2005) - American play writer He continued the realistic tradition adding some expressionistic elements Presented ordinary characters under extraordinary pressure, Combined in his works social awareness with deep insights into personal weakness of his characters. “Death of a Sa...
Stephen Crane (1871-1900) “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” (1893) “The Red Badge of Courage” (1895) “The Open Boat” Theodor Dreiser (1871-1945) “Sister Carrie” (1900) - a story of social transgressions by the character who feels no remorse and e...
