Semester 1 Am Lit 2 Early American Literature (17th - 18th centuries) A Historical Survey It is generally held that Christopher Columbus discovered the American continent in 1492. However, the first settling of the English people in Jamestown, Virginia happened more than 100 years later in 1607, and in 1620, the second group came, with Mayflower dropping anchor at Plymouth harbor. It was not until 1760s, another 100 years later, when these people began to call themselves Americans, distinguishing their identity from their European ancestors. In 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed, together with three other documents, the treaty of alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris and the Constitution, which legally marked the United States as an independent nation. However, conflicts still occurred in the following years between the Americans and the British and French people occupying territories on the continent. In 1789 George Washington was elected the first president, and two years later, Washington D. C. was established as the nations capital. The United States of America grew out of religious controversy; out of the desire of monarchs to expand their empires; out of the human longing for land, adventure. The growth of colonial America into the United States is recorded in a literature that began as reports of exploration and colonization. European explorers, traders, and settlers wrote of their hopes, rare triumphs, and frequent disasters and thereby created a literature that is large, various, and amazingly rich. Captain John Smith, for example, who established Jamestown in 1607, wrote in his Description of New England (1616). The early settlers on the American continent later became the founding fathers of the American nation. So, who were these people? What were they and why did they come? Most of the immigrants came because they were hungry and America offered them good and extensive land. They then described their good fortune in their letters home, attracting more to come. The Puritans and Puritanism Most of the early settlers were Puritans, a group of serious, religious people who advocated strict religious and moral principles. • They wanted to purify the English Church and to restore church worship to the pure and unspotted condition of its earlier days. • They opposed the elaborate rituals of the English Church. • They believed that the Bible was the revealed word of God, therefore, people should guide their daily behavior with the Bible. The Puritans brought with them a philosophy of life, which is popularly known as American Puritanism. A dominant factor in American life, Puritanism was one of the most enduring and shaping influences in American thought and American literature. Without true understanding of Puritanism, there would be no real understanding of American literature and American culture. Some important writers in this period include: Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), the first notable poet in America whose lyrics remained unsurpassed by any American women writers for 200 years until the appearance of Emily Dickinson. Her The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650) was the first published book of poetry written by a settler in the English colonies. Most of her poems were imitative in form. Edward Taylor (c. 1642-1729), a conservative Puritan minister. He wrote in the tradition of metaphysical poets, expressing divine and elevated ideas in unrelated, homely terms. His poems revealed his efforts to obtain union with God. His manuscripts were discovered in 1930s. Cotton Mather (1663-1728), the author of over 400 works. His works were filled with classical allusions and aimed at reinvigorating the waning Puritanism of his day. He was the symbol of Puritan decline, an emblem of an orthodox doomed to fail. His representative work was Wonders of the Invisible World. Michael-Guillaume-Jean de Crèvecœur (1735-1813), also known as J. Hector St. John. His Letters from an American Farmer (1782) and Journey Into Northern Pennsylvania and the State of New York (1801) served as major contribution to the European interpretation of American society. His essay What is an American became one of the most influential single reports on America ever written. Phillis Wheatley (1754-1784), the first important Afro-American poet. Born in Africa, sold as a slave, she was luckily well-treated by her masters and later set free. Her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773), a collection of 39 poems, was concerned with abstract liberty. Philip Freneau (1752-1832), the father of American poetry. His poetry was a fusion of neoclassicism and romanticism. He was famous for his poem, The Rising Glory of America, collaborated with Brackenridge. He also founded the National Gazette, a semi-weekly newspaper that became the voice of liberal democracy in American politics. Jonathan Edwards Benjamin Franklin
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 17:13:53 +0000
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