exam lit

What forms of literature were practiced in colonial America?

religious tracts, sermons, diaries, personal narratives, political pamphlets, and poetry.

What did the Puritans do for American culture? Think of positive and negative examples (your perspective).

emphasizing education, hard work, and moral discipline. Positively, they contributed to the founding of institutions like Harvard and promoted literacy. Negatively, their rigid moral codes and intolerance contributed to social and religious repression.

what forms of English literature were practiced in colonial America

travel writing, plantation literature, captivity, narrative, epic poems, and allegorical tales

What did the Puritans do for American culture positively and negatively?

positive education, work ethic and civic engagement negative religious intolerance, authoritarian tendencies and rigid moral code

Benjamin Franklin a typical man of enlightenment and the true American comment

Benjamin Franklin embodied enlightenment ideals of reason and progress while his self made success and contributions to democracy made him a true American icon

talk about the beginnings of prose different types in the United States

17th and 18th centuries, religious writings (Cotton Mather), political essays and pamphlets (Thomas Paine) travel narrative and exploration accounts (William Bradford), autobiography (Benjamin Franklin), and early fiction (Hugh Henry Brackenridge)

Who do you consider the most important American representatives of romanticism?

Edgar Allan Poe (dark themes, human emotions), Nathaniel Hawthorne (human nature, sin, morality), Walt Whitman (beauty of nature, individualism, human spirit) - The raven, The Scarlett letter, Leaves of Grass

Talk about New England glory days in the 19th century, famous writer, progressive ideas, etc.

Herman Melville (moby dick) and Emily Dickinson with ideas such as abolitionism and woman’s rights

talk about sentimental domestic woman’s fiction of the 19th century

it focuses on the domestic lives of young, typically middle class women learning to make thier way in the world. The plot and conflict of these books often center around courtship, family life, marriage, and childbearing (Uncle Tom’s Cabin)

transcendentalism and the transcendentalists

transcendentalism is a 19 century school of American theological and philosophical thought that combined respect for nature and self sufficiency with elements of Unitarianism and German romanticism (Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau) (Self Relianc

compare and contrast Poe and Hawthorne why is Poe so controversial even today?

both of them explore themes of human nature and morality, but Poe’s works often delve into the macabre and psychological horror while Hawthorne focuses on the moral complexities and consequences of sin

talk about interpretations of Hawthorne’s texts

The message about society in the scarlet letter is that evil lives in the house of sinners as much as in the house of those who consider themselves to be free of sin

What’s so great about Melville’s Moby Dick

It’s virtuosic bravura writing is a pleasure to read, and it’s near mythical characters and plot, have proved accommodating to interpretations by successive generations which have found in the novel representations of

why Dickinson and Whitman exceptional among 19 century poets, compare and contrast their poetry?

Whitman poetry is long flowing and grant while Dickinson’s is tightly structured and sharp. Whitman is sometimes credited as being the father of free verse us as most other poetry in his time employed traditional meter and rhyme schemes

dickinson exceptionality

she often punctuated her poems with dashes rather than the more expected array of periods, commas, and other punctuation marks she also capitalized interior words not just at the beginning of a line. Her reasons are not entirely clear.

what did 19th century American read for entertainment?

It was diverse, for example, novels, magazines, poetry, educational, and moral literature, historical, and biographical works popular fiction, religious, and inspirational literature, children’s literature

talk about various images of Indians in American literature

In Moby Dick, for example queequeg for example was portrayed initially as hostile and almost as a savage but quickly grew to become a ‘usual man’ but with his own habits, but for example in one flew over the cuckoos nest chief was an intelligent person

talk about literature written by African-Americans in the 18th and 19th centuries

It included many issues. African-Americans were facing during that time, such as realities of slavery, woman, rights, seek for liberty and religion.

talk about the approach of some white authors to slavery

Many outers such as William Lloyd Garrison, James Fenimore Cooper or Lydia Maria child where against slavery and openly criticizing it in their works

what is the literary canon

it is a term used to describe a set of texts that serve as a recognized standard off stylistic, quality, cultural, or social significance and intellectual value

who belonged to the traditional american canon?

Washington Irving Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau Mark Twain, Theodore Dreiser

How the literary canon has been changing?

Inclusion of marginalized, voices, woman, writers, contemporary, and diverse perspectives

How did realist writing differ from romantic what aspects of adventures of Huckleberry Finn make it a realist novel?

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn exemplifies realism through its accurate depiction of every day, life complex characters, social critique, and use of authentic dialect contrasting with the idealized and emotional focus, typical of romantic literature

present three American women authors of the 19th century, whose writing can be considered feminist

Louisa May Alcott little women Emily Dickinson, im nobody who are you? Sojourner Truth ain’t I a woman.

talk about the examples of literature for children in the 19th century

Mother Goose rhymes included simple memorable versus designed to entertain young children. Little woman focused on complex, relatable, characters and realistic experiences, the new england primer combined moral instruction with basic literacy skills

what does local color mean in the context of 19 century American literature, present its characteristics in general terms and speak about one region in more detail

it is early to run technique that emphasizes the unique characteristics of a specific region. It’s characteristics are regional setting dialect and language, customs and traditions, character types, and cultural identity. For example, rural south

what did Kate Chopin do for American literature? Why was she forgotten writer for much of the 20th century?

she was pioneer in exploration of independence, her use of realism and her portrayal of regional life were significant to American literature. She was forgotten because of the controversy and marginalization of women writers.

natural realism in American literature it’s characteristics and representative

It focuses on setting objectivism and detachment pessimism and the determinism example William Faulkner, John Steinbeck

what are the major differences and similarities between Ed Wharton and Henry James

Similarities were focus on the upper class psychological depth and social critique and differences where characterization and plot writing style narrative, focus, and themes

what is Edith Wartons approach to Victorianism?

She critics Victorianism dissects the restrictive social codes, repressive, gender roles, and moral hypocrisy of Victorian Society

what makes William Dean Howell an important persona in American literature?

He promoted writer like Mark Twain, Henry James and Edith Wharton by his emphasis on realism and social issues

explain the terms international novel and psychological realism

International novel refers to a literary genre that explorers the interactions between different cultures and psychological realism is a literary technique, emphasizing the inner workings of characters minds

three major novels of realism epoch

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the portrait of a lady and the house of mirth

The adventures of Huckleberry film

It’s open, regarded as one of the greatest American novels is a example of realism due to use of vernacular speech, the depiction of life along the Mississippi River, and it’s focused on moral and social dilemmas face by its characters

The portrait of a lady

It explores the complex in our lives of characters, dealing with the consequences of their choices and moral decisions and social influences

The house of mirth

It critics the social structures of the American elite in the late 19th and early 20th century it focuses on themes of class marriage, and the role of women

List characteristic features of modern writing in what way did modernists react against the previous epochs

characteristics are stream of consciousness, fragmentation nonlinear time experimentation with foreman style multiple perspectives symbolism

Modernists reaction

they rejected Victorian morality and conventions departure from realism critiqued of industrialization and modernity challenged traditional narrative forms

how important for modernism is Ezra, pound

His techniques such as imagism and the use of sparse precise language help to define poetic form and expression

how important for modernism was TS Elliott?

He used fragmented structure, complex, illusions, and exploration of alienation and disillusionment of the modern world

how important for modernism worth Gertrude Stein

She used stream consciousness and experimental narrative techniques that challenged literary forms

Who were the new critics?

New critics were a group of literary critics who emerged in the 1930s and 40s, emphasizing clothes, reading and formal analysis of texts. They focused on the text rather than its historical context or authors biography.

what were the characteristic themes of Sinclair Lewis Sherwood Anderson, and Willa Cather? What do these writers have in the common?

Lewis social critic and satire confirm versus individualism corruption and inequality Anderson Emotional depth, small town, life loneliness, Cather connection to the lens immigrant independence similarities focus on American life realism, alienation

what was high modernism give example of characteristic writers?

Was characterized by radical experimentation in the native form break from traditional literary structures and focus on fragmented subjective experience in 1910 and 30s with writers such as James Joyce, Virginia Wolf or William Faulkner

what is so great about the great Gatsby or about Fitzgerald in general?

The great gatsby is crazy because of its artistic mystery complex characters and timeless themes Fitzgerald’s ability to blend lyrical prose with biting social critique makes him great writer

discuss the influence of World War I on the writers known as the lost generation given example of a typical text

Lost generation were writers who were this illusion by the devastation and senselessness of the war for example, Ernest Hemingway with his novel sun also rise

Discuss the southern Legacy in the works of William Faulkner

He exploration is both critical and compassionate he mentions its flaws such as racism obsession with the past or decaying aristocracy, but also notices complexity and richness of its history and culture

Harlem renaissance why it started and discuss its writers themes and concernes

Reason for it starts both great migration World War I, cultural shifts with themes such as racial pride, or double consciousness was connected to African heritage we’ve writers such as Langston, Hughes or Claude McKay

what are the main differences between political stance of Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston?

Recharge focused on racial oppression and injustice, used literature of the political weapon while Zora focused on celebrating black culture, believing that it can lead to exploring identity and culture beyond being victimized

American novels of social protest in the 20th century

The grapes of rough highlights, the poor migrant workers labor exploitation in the division between the rich and the working class and Ralph Ellisons

Who is the father of American Theatre? Discuss a few of his plays

Eugene O’Neill Greek tragedy in American settings. Desire under the elmes different objects of desire, catharsis psychoanalytical, mourning becomes Electra southern settings romantic love with family, no blacks in play, not racist

talk about the grapes of rough as an ideological and didactic novel

Was protesting against the bourgeois class reference to Bible respect to women, portraying, American landscape, realistic, showing of the bad conditions faced by migrant workers

what makes the novels of Djuna Barnes and Nathanael West disturbing to read?

West American dream corrupt and Hollywood as its cemetery Barnes challenged what is normal embarrassed herself in risky situations to get a full perspective of woman struggles