American romantic prose: James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville.

This period of literature occurred around 1850 to 1865. This period of literature represented the optimism of the American Frontier. It dealt with the idea of the individual and the freedom that people had to become a successful individual self; it dealt with manifest destiny. Most Americans during this time period believed that America was open for endless growth.

James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century.

The set of five historical novels (“The Deerslayer”, “The Last of The Mohicans”, “The Pathfinder”, “The Prairie”, “The Pioneers”) known as “The Leatherstocking Tales” is a complex and adventure-packed trip into the lush and unpredictable wilderness of 18th Century America. The thread which ties the five books together is the life story of a rugged and untamable hunter, Indian fighter and American scout for the British military. Each book of “The Leatherstocking Tales” showcases a different phase of the myriad struggles to settle and control this vast and resource-rich land.

Natty Bumppo is a fictional character, a mythic frontiersman and guide who is the protagonist of James Fenimore Cooper’s five novels of frontier life. The character is known by various names throughout the series, including Leather-Stocking, Hawkeye, Pathfinder, and Deerslayer. Natty Bumppo is a brave and honourable woodsman, hunter, and interpreter. In the course of the series, Natty Bumppo allies himself with various European pioneer and military factions as well as with his Indian brothers. Throughout the series he is associated with the vanishing wilderness as an idealized figure, wifeless and childless, hauntingly loyal to a doomed way of life.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) was an American novelist and short story writer.

“The Scarlet Letter” is a romantic work of fiction in a historical setting, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. It is considered to be his magnum opus. Set in 17th-century Puritan Boston during the years 1642 to 1649, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter through an adulterous affair and struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Throughout the book, Hawthorne explores themes of legalism, sin, and guilt. Letter ‘A’ stands for adultery with a local minister.

Herman Melville (1819–1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel “Moby-Dick”.

“Moby-Dick” is widely considered to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab.

In Moby-Dick, Melville employs stylized language, symbolism, and metaphor to explore numerous complex themes. Moby-Dick is a symbolic work. Major themes include obsession, religion, idealism, courage versus pragmatism, revenge, racism, sanity, hierarchical relationships, and politics. All of the members of the crew have biblical-sounding, improbable, or descriptive names, and the narrator deliberately avoids specifying the exact time of the events and some other similar details. These together suggest that the narrator — and not just Melville — is deliberately casting his tale in an epic and allegorical mode. The white whale has also been seen as a symbol for many things, including nature and those elements of life that are out of human control.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16