文档介绍：American Literature
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Periods of Am. Lit.
Beginning of American Literature:
1607-1776 Colonial Period
year-old cousin
She died of TB ten years later – despair, grief was reflected in his works
1849 found delirious in a steet
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The Raven (poem) - a tired, unhappy student asks if he ever meets his love again
His doubts are underlined by the raven´s repetition „nevermore“,
symbol of doubts and longing
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The Golden Bug
The Pit and the Pendulum
The Black Cat
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Fall of the House of Usher
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His work:
1. realism: detective stories – logical, brilliant, rational
2. romanticism – irrationalism, mystery, violence, criminality, death, passion
Perverse, vulgar, grotesque style.
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Transcendentalism
American reflection of European romanticism
Philosophical movement
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The transcendal philosophy was based on:
Free will
Humanity
Intuition
Individual conscience
It glories nature
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All transcendentalists were isolated people
They lived in „Utopian Community“ – Brookfarm near Boston
The individual can transcend the world and discover union with God and Ideal
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Main representatives:
Ralph Waldo Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau
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Other Romantic Writers
Herman Melville – symbolist (Moby-Dick)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter)
the main theme –sin
Hester has te wear letter A – means adulteress
Walt Whitman (poet)
Emily Dickinson (poet)
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Realistic Period
After Civil War:
Social injustice – first millionaires appear (Rockefeller)
discoveries in science (railway, telegraph cable, telephone,…)
Growth of education
Twain called this period „gilded age“
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Realism
Action against romanticism
Main literary form – novel
Authors accuse romanticism of falsehood
They describe common things, common places, everyday life
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Mark Twain
His real name: Samuel Langorne Clemens
He spent his childhood on the Miss