bài giảng văn học mỹ

Challenges for early American Authors Lack of audience  American readers preferred well-known British authors  American literary output was inferior  American authors were not pai

 TÊN GIẢNG VIÊN

NGUYỄN THỊ THÚY HỒNG

BÔ MÔN BIÊN PHIÊN DỊCH

BÀI GIẢNG VĂN HỌC MỸ

10- 2014

Definition

Writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays

Literature Concepts

 A fable is another type of story, also passed down from generation to generation and told to teach a lesson about something

Literature Concepts

1.Myths

Myths are made up stories that try to explain how our

world works and how we should treat each other The stories are usually set in times long ago, before history

as we know it was written

Literature Concepts

2 Legends

Legends are about people and their actions or deeds

The people lived in more recent times and are

mentioned in history The stories are told for a purpose and are based on facts, but they are not completely

true

Literature Concepts

1 POETRY

Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and

rhythmic qualities of language—such as

phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to

evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the

prosaic ostensible meaning

POETRY, NOVELS, SHORT STORY

 A novel is a long narrative normally in prose, which describes fictional characters and events, usually in the form of a sequential story

NOVELS

A short story is a brief work of

literature , usually written in

Early American Literature,

1800-30

A new nation creates a literature of its own

Literature is important to national

identity

Written by Americans about

Challenges for early American

Authors

Lack of audience

 American readers preferred well-known British

authors

 American literary output was inferior

 American authors were not paid well

 American audiences wanted light verse and short topical essays, not serious fiction

Challenges cont’d

Absence of adequate copyright laws

 American copyright law of 1790 allowed book pirating

 American printers could make pirated copies of

What were early Americans reading?

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography

 A writer, printer, publisher,

scientist, and diplomat, a

“self-made man”

 Famous for Poor Richard’s

Almanack, begun in 1732—it

provided many useful words of

advice Example:

◦ Early to bed, and early to rise,

makes a man healthy, wealthy and

wise

◦ A penny saved is a penny earned

Alexis De Tocqueville (1805-1859)

 Aristocratic Frenchman

 Visited the U.S In 1831

 Wrote Democracy in America

An early travel narrative

It discusses: politics, religion, the

press, money, class structure,

racism, etc

Charles Brockden Brown

(1771-1810

 The first professional American writer (wrote for a living)

 Driven by poverty, wrote 4

gothic novels (Wieland, Arthur Mervyn, Ormond, Edgar Huntley), 1798-99

 Gothic novel = exotic setting and suspense

 Seen as a precursor to Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, and Nathaniel Hawthorne

Irving’s Rip Van Winkle (1819)

 Based on a German folk tale

 First book by an American writer

to achieve international success

 Rip falls asleep for 20 years, wakes to find the colonies independent, and makes observations about the impact

of American revolution

 Gave Americans an imagined history

 father of the American short story

 best known for 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ and for ‘Rip Van

Winkle,’ (both included in Sketch

Book)

James Fenimore Cooper

 Wrote The Pioneers, Last of the

Mohicans, and other novels of the

American frontier, between 1740 and1804

 Themes: individual & society, nature & culture

Early women writers

Judith Sargent Murray (1751-1820

 The oldest of 8 children born to a

wealthy family

 Very intelligent

 Published under a man’s name to

gain respect for her work

 Wrote on politics, religion, the

French Revolution, manners, the

role of women in society, etc

 Best known today for her short

essay "On the Equality of the

Sexes"

Mercy Otis Warren (1728-1814)

 Poet, historian, dramatist, patriot

 Born to a family of all boys

 Became a Patriot writer during the American Revolution

 Known for writing History of the

American Revolution

American literature in the

1820s

After American Independence and the War of 1812, American authors:

 Believed America had a distinctly different culture

than Europe

 Worked to promote American history and

traditions— “Literary Nationalism”

 Benefited from improved transportation and

copyright laws

 Could reach a larger and more educated audience

 Wanted to perfect society

limited flow of books

 National copyright law,

American Literature, 1830-65

Renaissance, Reform, and Conflict

National Expansion and Growth,

1830-65

 Cities grew in size

 Transportation:

canals and railroads

 Market for printed works grew

 Women became writers

American renaissance: writers

respond to pressing issues

Reform inspires American literature

 Emerson: Literature must realize its democratic

promise

 Examples of reforms: dress, anti-slavery, temperance (limit use of alcohol)

The Romantic Movement

 Originated in Germany, spread to England, France, and & the U.S by 1820

 Believed that art, rather than science, can best express universal truth

 Coincided with a period of national expansion

 Novels illustrate difficulty in creating an identity without

a stable society

Romantic novels

 Settings are dark and foreboding

 Instead of carefully defining realistic characters, figures are larger than life

 Characters are haunted, alienated, isolated

 Examples: Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne (The Scarlet Letter),

Melville’s Captain Ahab (Moby Dick)

 Most Romantic heroes die in the end Examples:

 Arthur Dimmesdale, The Scarlet Letter

British versus American romantic

 Geography: vast wilderness

 Relatively classless democratic society

 Wide range of readers

Key writers of the era, 1830-65

 Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Henry David Thoreau

 Edgar Allan Poe

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

 “The American Scholar,” 1837

 Declare cultural independence!

 Inspired the writings of Fuller, Thoreau, and Whitman

Ralph Waldo Emerson

“For all men live by truth, and stand in need of

expression In love, in art, in avarice, in politics,

in labor, in games, we study to utter our painful secret The man is only half himself, the other half is his expression

Key concepts: awareness and

self-expression, self-reliance

Known for Transcendentalism

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

 Walden, or Life in the Woods (1854)

 Observe the natural world around you

 Influenced people to contemplate obligations to society and nature

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

 Wrote tales of terror & the

supernatural, romantic poetry

 The Raven, 1845

Once upon a midnight dreary

While I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious

volume of forgotten Lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping,

Suddenly there came a tapping…

 Slave narrative—first black literary prose

 Inspired 20th century black American writers

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

 The Scarlet Letter, 1850

 Born in New England

 Set his stories in Puritan

America

 The Scarlet Letter

(1850)—his most famous

novel, a tale of a

forbidden love affair

between a minister and a

beautiful woman

 Themes: morality, sexual

repression, guilt, and

salvation

Herman Melville (1819-1891)

 Born to a wealthy family that sank into poverty

 Went to sea at age 19

 Hated tyranny & injusticeNovels include:

◦ Typee, 1846

◦ Moby Dick, 1851, his great whaling

novel Captain Ahab’s obsession with conquering a white whale leads the ship and its men to their destruction

Women writers &

reformers

American women in the 19 th century

 Many inequalities

 Denied the vote

 Barred from most colleges

 Forbidden to speak in public

 Unable to own property

 Therefore—they worked together to demand

fundamental reforms

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Sojourner Truth (c 1797-1883)

 Born a slave

 Escaped to freedom in 1827

 She was illiterate

 She told her story to a woman who published it as the

Narrative of Sojourner Truth

(1850)

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896)

 Influenced by Frederick Douglass

 Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) became best-selling book

of the 19th century

 Attacked slavery

Americans of this era also read

many other works

 Magazines: Godey’s Lady’s

Book (Monthly fashions for

women)

 Popular poets (Lydia

Sygourney, Henry

Wadsworth Longfellow)

 Novelist (Fanny Fern)

 Travel writing (Margaret

Fuller)

American Literature, 1865-1914

The American Civil War (1861-65)

A turning point in American history

After the war:

Problems of urbanization and

industrialization

 Overcrowded housing

 Unsanitary conditions

 Low pay for workers

 Dangerous working conditions

 Lack of regulations for businessmen

Therefore, American writers

explore new themes in literature

Realism—”truthful treatment of

material”

 Examples: Edith Wharton, Henry

James, Mark Twain

Naturalism show man’s limits

when facing nature Only the

fittest survive

 Examples of naturalist authors:

Stephen Crane, Theodore

Dreiser, Jack London

 Jack London

New, realistic characters appeared in

Women began to write for

publication

 Representing many different races,

also immigrant women

 Found a growing market for their work

 Confirmed authorship as a possible

career for women

Newspapers play an important role in

American cultural life

 Joseph Pulitzer established important national papers

 William Randolph Hearst competed with Pulitzer

 Many foreign language papers were started by

immigrants

 Many authors wrote for newspapers: Stephen Crane, Jack London, Mark Twain

Magazines became another

important feature of American life

 Often young writers supported

themselves by writing stories for

magazines

 Magazines created audiences for

American literature

 Women used magazines to voice

their ideas about women’s rights

Rapid changes from 1860-1914

The U.S changed:

 From a rural nation to an urban nation

 From a debtor nation to the world’s wealthiest

 From 31 million population to 76 million

By 1914, the U.S had become a major world power

Examples of REALIST authors, 1865-1914

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

1835-1910

 Grew up near the Mississippi River

 A realist—captured dialects

 Famous for Adventures of Huckleberry

Finn (1884), the story of a poor boy who

follows his conscience and helps a

Negro slave escape to freedom

 Mark Twain is his “pen” name

Bret Harte (1836-1902)

 Wrote adventurous stories about

the West like “The Luck of Roaring

Camp” and “The Outcasts of Poker

Flat”

 Wrote about the gun-slinging West

 Realistic—robbers, gamblers,

prostitutes

Kate Chopin (1851-1904)

 Novels set in Louisiana

 Treats racial injustice and

women’s rights

 The Awakening (1899)—a young

married woman with children

gives up family, money, and

respectability to search for

self-fulfillment

EXAMPLES OF URBAN AUTHORS, 1865-1914

Henry James (1843-1916)

 One of the greatest American novelists in late 19th century

 Wrote about complex relationships between Americans

 Example of Novels: The House of Mirth

(1905), The Age of Innocence (1920)

EXAMPLES OF NaturalisT

AUTHORS

Naturalists

 Use their writing to expose social problems

 Believe in fate individuals are helpless when confronted

by nature

 Tried to represent life scientifically

 Daringly explored divorce, adultery, poverty, and crime

“Muckraking”—when someone rakes through garbage and exposes bad or dangerous things

Stephen Crane (1871-1900)

 A journalist who wrote fiction,

essays, poetry, and plays

 Saw the raw side of life (slums,

battlefields)

 Famous for his Civil War novel, The

Red Badge of Courage (1895), and for

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets

(1893)—about a prostitute

 Neglected his health and died at 29

Jack London (1876-1916)

 Poor, self-educated

 Wrote about Alaska and the Canadian Yukon

 Known for literary naturalism

 Famous for The Call of the Wild (1903), became best-paid author

of his time

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)

 Born in Indiana to a poor family

 Known for literary naturalism—exposes real life subjects in harsh light

 Published Sister Carrie (1900)—the story of a young girl’s rise to success and slow decline

 Also known for An American Tragedy (1925)

EXAMPLES OF REGIONAL

NOVELISTS

Regional Writing

 Captured “local color”—regional

language & geography before

industrialization

 Examples of regions: the West, the

South, New England

 Each region had colorful characters, like Paul Bunyan, the giant logger, and his blue ox, or Kit Carson and Davy

Crockett

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849-1909)

 Wrote about the state of Maine

 Country of the Pointed Firs (1896)

 Popular among female readers

Ellen Glasgow (1873-1945)

 From the South (Richmond,

Virginia)

 Novels explore transformation

of the South and women’s

efforts to overcome the

southern belief that women

must be dependent, not

independent

 Known for Virginia (1912) and

Barren Ground (1925)

EXAMPLES OF BLACK AMERICAN authors &

LITERATURE

Booker T Washington (1856-1915)

 Born a slave to a white man and a slave

woman

 Told his story in Up from Slavery (1901)

 Believed in education and

accommodation with whites

W.E.B DuBois (1868-1963)

 Born in New England

 Educated in Harvard University and in

Germany

 Wrote The Souls of Black Folk (1903)

 Promoted rediscovery of black American

folk literature and music

American Literature, 1914-45

Historical Context, 1914-45

World War I (U.S involvement,

1917-1918)

 Turning point

 Returning soldiers from

rural America yearned for a

modern, urban life

The “Roaring” Twenties

 Americans fell in love with

 Young people of the 1920s

were known as “the lost

generation”

The Great Depression of the 1930s

 Worldwide

 Workers lost jobs, factories

shut down, businesses and

banks failed, drought

turned farmland into a

“Dust Bowl”

 Many farmers left the

Midwest for California in

Roosevelt, created jobs in

public works & other areas

 “Migrant Mother,” by Dorothea Lange

World War II

 Japan attacked the U.S at

Pearl Harbor in December

1941

 Industrial build-up for the

war effort restored

prosperity

 Men went to war, women

went to work in factories to

produce ships, airplanes,

jeeps, supplies

 War production led to new

technologies, including the

nuclear bomb

 Women war workers were known as “Rosie the

Riveter”

Modernism in American

Literature, 1914-45

Modernism in American Literature,

1914-45

 A sharp break from the traditions of the past

 A response to the contradictions and pressures of

contemporary life

 Worldview: more scientific, faster, technological,

mechanized, embraced change

 Authors:

 Questioned the “American Dream”

 Wrote about businessmen, liberated women (flappers),

disillusionment with old ideals

Modernist prose and poetry:

 Was short, precise & realistic, not exhaustively

detailed

 Was fragmented & disjointed, not cohesive or

coherent

 Asked questions rather than giving explanations

 Placed emphasis on individual experience

 Had a small readership, but was influential