The American Enlightenment

The Enlightenment took root in Europe in the 1600’s and 1700’s. It influenced governments, economies and entire cultures. With the increasing use of the printing press, the ideas of John Locke and Baron de Montesquieu, as well as others, traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and into the hands of men such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The Enlightenment shaped the justification for independence as set down in the famous “Declaration of Independence”.

Thomas Jefferson (1743 –1826) believed in the Enlightenment idea of natural rights, and we can see their influence in Declaration of Independence.

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE (ДЕКЛАРАЦИИ
НЕЗАВИСИМОСТИ АМЕРИКИ) (1776)

STATUTE OF VIRGINIA (ЗАКОНА ШТАТА ВИРДЖИНИЯ)

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM (СВОБОДЕ ВЕРОИСПОВЕДАНИЯ)

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA (УНИВЕРСИТЕТА ВИРДЖИНИИ)

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Autobiography

Poor Richard's Almanack (Альманах простака Ричарда)

In the Autobiography, we get a full picture of Franklin as the Renaissance scholar, fascinated by all types of learning and interested in doing whatever he could to make life a little bit better for mankind, based on the notion that the way to please God was by doing good to other men. This interest manifested itself in public service and scientific progress. The Autobiography remains an important look into the history and sociology of 18th century America.

Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack, begun in 1732 and published for many years, made Franklin prosperous and well-known throughout the colonies. In this annual book of useful encouragement, advice, and factual information. The Almanack contained the calendar, weather, poems, sayings and astronomical and astrological information that a typical almanac of the period would contain.Franklin also included the occasional mathematical exercise, and the Almanack from 1750 features an early example of demographics.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was another colonial American who believed in the Enlightenment philosophy. His famous pamphlet, Common Sense, reasoned that by natural rights the American colonies should be free from England.

Common Sense - призывал американцев на войну за независимость, на революцию

The Age of Reason (1793–94)

16.Литература США первой половины XIX века. Американский романтизм.

Romanticism is European and American movement extending from 1814 to 1870.

Romanticism emphasized love of nature, emotional expression, individual experi- ence, and the importance of ordinary people and folk traditions. Often, romantics longed for a simpler, gentler past—a time when noble people lived in harmony with unspoiled nature—a past that did not in fact exist. Romanticism developed in the early 1800s and became widely popular. In some ways, Romanticism reflected the spirit and concerns of its time.

Characteristics of Romanticism:

- Interest in the common man and childhood

- Strong senses, emotions, and feelings

- A connection with nature

- Celebration of the individual (romantic hero)

- Importance of imagination

William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

John Keats (1795-1821)

Transcendentalism was an American literary and philosophical movement of the nineteenth century.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

- Relationship between man and nature. Heightened awareness of this relationship would cause a “reformation” of society away from materialism and corruption

- Nature held the truths of life

- Fulfillment comes from knowing one’s self, not wealth, gender or education

Washington Irving – “The Devil and Tom Walker”

James Finimore Cooper – from The Deerslayer

Edgar Allan Poe – “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “The Raven”

Emily Dickinson

Walt Whitman

ИНТРОСПЕКЦИЯ - метод психологического исследования, который заключается в наблюдении собственных психических процессов без использования каких-либо инструментов или эталонов.

17.Творчество Э. По и особенности его эстетической концепции.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809 –1849)

Aesthetic theory: the search for beauty and the search for order

Poe is the founding father of Symbolism, Aestheticismand Decadentism. He is responsible for the birth of the short story as a literary form, which is arguably America’s characteristic literary genre. As a short story writer he invented the short story and the detective, mystery and horror story, the Gothic.

aesthetics of “art for art’s sake”

Aesthetic fiction paints a picture for the reader instead of merely tells the story. Anyone can tell a story, it takes remarkable talent to aesthetically illustrate the story to the imagination of millions of readers using limited tools-- tools like plot, setting, theme, characters and conflicts. Poe aesthetically shows many readers why they should be afraid rather than merely telling them to be afraid.

Many of his works are generally considered part of the dark romanticism genre, a literary reaction to transcendentalism, which Poe strongly disliked.

Dark Romanticism presents individuals as prone to sin and self-destruction. Works of Dark Romanticism frequently show individuals failing in their attempts to make changes for the better.

According to hiw work "Philosophy of Composition", Poe believes the author must decide the purpose of the work, and the desired reaction from the reader. Secondly, Poe asserts the author can find ways to achieve this result by considering the theme, the plot, the setting, and the characters as well as the central conflicts within the story.

Careful examination of word choice, theme, setting and character conflicts will reveal the ways in which Poe attains his literary goals.

18.Разработка жанра исторического и приключенческого романа: Д.Ф.Купер

FRONTIER

Much of the nation was expanding, the population rapidly increasing. Wider rifts between the abolitionist North and the pro-slavery South seemed inevitable. During these two decades, slave rebellions, Indian Wars, Removals, emigration and expansion, as well as technological advances in transportation, agriculture and communications all created a society of rapid change. Perhaps it was so rapid that the country could not adjust peaceably and remain intact.

PEEONIRING

NOVEL (ROMAN)

HISTORICAL NOVEL - a novel that has as its setting a usually significant period of history and that attempts to convey the spirit, manners, and social conditions of a past age with realistic details and fidelity (which is in some cases only apparent fidelity) to historical fact. The work may deal with actual historical characters...or it may contain a mixture of fictional and historical characters.

ADVENTEROUS NOVEL is a genre of fiction in which an adventure, an exciting undertaking involving risk and physical danger, forms the main storyline.

James Cooper (1789 - 1851) was one of America’s first great novelists because he helped to create a sense of American history through his writings. Cooper was influenced greatly by nature and wrote about it frequently in his novels. Cooper was also influenced by and wrote about places in the Hudson River Valley, such as the Van Wyck House.

Cooper wrote a five-novel series called the “Leatherstocking Tales”:

The Pioneers (1823)

The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

The Prairie (1827)

The Pathfinder (1840)

The Deerslayer (1841)

Series is about an 18th Century frontiersman – Natty Bumppo – who lives free and “close to nature, while the settlers bring ‘civilization’ that destroys the wilderness”. The novels tell of the clash that occurred “between the frontier wilderness and the encroaching civilization”

The Pioneers (historical novel)

Naturalist Ideas: Although not classified as a naturalist novel, Cooper depicts many naturalist based ideas in the Pioneers. His use of language, dialogue and description help to convey this movement within this novel.

Landscape: In The Pioneers, Cooper thematically debates the complexity of landscape within a new American frontier. The battle between nature and civilization is a constant and competing force within the minds of the characters and in the general surroundings. Cooper evaluates his landscape as one that will be established by a civilization unable to escape its own traits of wastefulness and arrogance.

Tone: Cooper’s tone in The Pioneers is one of criticism and mock towards Puritan society, “established society”. The dialogue of the settlers displays the carelessness of their society towards the wilderness. Through this Cooper mocks and belittles their society because of their attitudes. The whole scene in Chapter II (The Judge’s History of Settlement) is an over exaggerated depiction of the reactions of the settler’s to a falling tree and storm. The naivety of the settler’s is portrayed in their responses to their journey into the wilderness. Cooper’s mocking and critical tone is seen throughout the novel, and the natural wilderness versus a civilized society furthers this tone.

The Last of the Mohicans (historical novel)takes place in 1757 during the French and Indian War, when France and England battled for control of the American and Canadian colonies. During this war, the French often allied themselves with Native American tribes in order to gain an advantage over the English, with unpredictable and often tragic results. Descriptions of certain incidents in the novel, such as the massacre of the English soldiers by Huron Indians, embellish accounts of real historical events. Additionally, certain characters in the novel, General Montcalm in particular, are based on real individuals.

19.Творчество Г. Мелвилла.

transcendentalism vs. romanticism

Herman Melville (1819 –1891)

Moby Dick is a story told on three levels:

1. a magnificient adventure novel of the sea and whaling;

2. a novel of fantasy and symbolysm;

3. and a psychological novel, about man’s relationship to the universe.

Romanticism is a type of writing in which the author describes nature. The author uses nature as a tool to express his thoughts, and make the story movement. Other aspects of romanticism are individuality, separating one from the rest of the civilization in order to increase emotional growth. There is an important focus in emotions, independence, and spirituality. It is believed that these aspects of life are natural, bringing out the creative and undistracted sides of humans. The visual arts are an important factor of romanticism as well, the authors making the reading as graphic as possible, leaving the reader to make his own imaginations of the environment described. Transcendentalism is a literary movement of the nineteenth century as well. The transcendentalists were based in New England, inspired by the romanticism movement. The believers thought that the intuition, emotion, individual conscience are more valid and believable then the left brain. An example of both of these terms, romanticism and transcendentalism, of Herman Melville’ writing is “Moby Dick”. The romantic side of the story is the nature. The man is out in the ocean, interacting with an animal, there are no distractions, and he is just out on his own. The main character learns information about himself. There is also the simplicity of the mind, which fits in categories, romanticism and transcendentalism. The man is away from rural and social distractions; he is simply using a piece of wood to live on as a boat. He is out in the nature, and any distractions that he will use are simple spiritual distractions. There is also a proof of simple transcendentalism in the book, regarding the intuitions. The main character is following his intuitions in the fight against nature: the whale. This action is the basis of transcendentalism.

20.Творчество У.Уитмена.

Walter Whitman (1819 – 1892) was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works.

Leaves of Grass (romantism)

Free verse is a form of poetry free of distinct rules that first originated in France and was coined 'vers libre' or free verse.

This is a form that has few rules: it does not have to rhyme, stanzas may be different lengths, lines are usually different lengths, there is no metrical pattern (i.e. iambic pentameter) and the first word of the line is often not capitalized. The purpose of free verse is not to disregard all traditional rules of poetry; instead, free verse is based on a poet's own rules of personal thought patterns and breath, patterns. Rather than fitting content to form, the poet has the freedom to create the form accordingly, to emphasize specific words and sounds.

The American Romantics used symbols of the external world ("nature") as representative of of an invisible inner reality. Whitman's work has been grouped with these earlier Romantics since he sought to use natural imagery such as the sea, the road, or personified animals to signify spiritual dimensions of the self and of the world. Whitman's "Song of Myself" is the best example of this element of the work, as the poet attempts to relate the body to the soul, and the physical world to the spiritual.

Whitman's poetry idealized traveling, searching, and exploring. This mirrored the American landscape of the nineteenth century. During Whitman's lifetime, the United State grew from 22 states to 44 and acquired most of the territories that would later become the remaining six states. America was a wilderness, and Whitman sought to celebrate what was wild and what was natural about the land and the people that inhabited it. As the country traveled West, so did Whitman's poetry. It was an attempt to encapsulate an American spirit that crossed a vast landscape and was common to all people in the nation.

Leaves of Grass became as famous for its style as for its content when it was first published in the second half of the nineteenth century. Whitman sought to combine the lyric and the epic. Lyric poetry is traditionally a short poem of reflection. It expresses the thoughts, beliefs, or actions of the writers. The epic, on the other hand, is a celebration of the deeds and adventures of a hero. It often focuses on the physical and real as opposed to the internal.

To combine these two poetic forms, Whitman cast himself as the poem's epic hero. His journey became both a physical journey across the American landscape, and a spiritual journey through his own soul and through nature. As opposed to the epic tradition, Whitman cast himself as a commoner. His epic deeds, as well as the epic deeds of the American people, were not great displays of heroism but simple, common work which extolled the democratic virtue of the new nation.

Его главную книгу «Листья травы» пронизала идея демократии. В XX веке «Листья травы» признаны одним из важнейших литературных событий, знаменовавших собой революцию в поэзии, связанную с появлением свободного стиха (верлибра), новаторской стиховой системы, пионером которой выступил Уитмен.

Когда большая часть поэзии того времени была сфокусирована на символизме и аллегориях на духовные и религиозные темы, в «Листьях травы» (в особенности первое издание) восхвалялся телесный и материальный мир. Однако Уитман, по примеру Эмерсона, который в значительной степени повлиял на его поэзию, не преуменьшает значение разума и духа, а, скорее, возвышает человеческий разум и форму, считая и то, и другое достойным поэтического восхваления.

21.Критический реализм второй половины XIX века: Э.Диккенсон, Г.Б. Стоу.

Critical Realism (1865-1915) is the presentation in art of the details of actual life. The Realists tried to write truthfully and objectively about ordinary characters in ordinary situations. They reacted against Romanticism, rejecting heroic, adventurous, unusual, or unfamiliar subjects.

The highly critical realistic literature that came into being differed greatly from that of the previous generation represented by Irving, Cooper and Longfellow.
Critical Realism embraced all aspects of American life. Many of the old themes were the same but they were treated in a new light including that of love, and of the role of art and the artist in society. The romantic school had treated love as a refuge from the commonplace in practical life; the realists used the theme to show up the immorality of bourgeois society which made love and marriage a matter of business. The American realists rejected sentimentality and the "genteel tradition” in the style of writing. Their portrayal of life, as they found it, may sometimes have been rude and unpolished but it was always original and truthful.
American realism enriched world realism by advancing the problems of social injustice, the Negro and Indian questions, the fate of the young generation and the problem of emancipation of women.
American authors armed with the methods of Critical Realism created great works of art which served to unmask the truth about the reactionary foundations of modern imperialism, and served to greatly influence the struggle for social justice.

Писатели-реалисты отказывались принимать действительность как закономерный результат развития. Критика складывавшегося империалистического общества, изображение его отрицательных сторон становится отличительными признаками американского критического реализма. Появляются новые темы, выдвинутые на первый план изменившимися условиями жизни (разорение и обнищание фермерства; капиталистический город и маленький человек в нем; обличение монополистического капитала).

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

introspection

Since most of her writing falls in-between defined literary movements, Realism and Modernism, there has been much confusion on which period Emily Dickinson fits into. It is difficult to tell which movement she fits into, because she has qualities from both literary movements. Her unconventional methods could place her with the Modernists, though, because Modernism was basically a rebellion against traditional writing. The most common characteristic of Modernism writing was an unpredictable style, which Emily Dickinson definitely has.

Even though her writing does have a few traits of the literary movement that would take place after her, Modernism, she has more features of Realism. Dickinson uses imagery in many of her poems, as well as personification. Realists highlighted morality, as Dickinson did. In fact, one of her most popular themes was death. Realists often focused on things familiar to them, which was, for Dickinson, loneliness and religion. Like Realists, Dickinson develops her characters fully, even if her character is something nontraditional, like the sun or death. For example, in "The Sun Just Touched the Morning," she describes the sun in detail, saying that it is a happy thing, and if it stayed out all the time, more people would be happy. Emily Dickinson could be a Realist because of her development of characters and themes, but could also be a Modernist because of her nontraditional style.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 – 1896)

Harriet Beecher Stowe’s book, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), not only raised a nation’s consciousness about the wrongs and harms of slavery, but it actually helped evoke the necessary change. President Lincoln was so impressed with the power of her words that he asked to meet her. Those who supported reform and abolition were thrilled with the attention their cause received because of the book. They praised the sympathetic way she presented her slave characters. But critics felt that she had exaggerated the plight of the slaves and had created an unrealistic picture of slavery. Uncle Tom’s Cabin accomplished what nothing else was able to do at the time: it provided a compelling story of the effects slavery has on individuals and on families. President Lincoln, when she met him in 1862, said she “made” the war. It brought slavery down to the most basic human level and forced readers to identify with its characters as human beings rather than slaves.

Stowe was an early realist, describing her scenes with accuracy and great detail. She brought even her minor characters to life with care, showing them in their native setting and culture in such a way that we understand their time better. She was among the first to use native dialect, doing so some 30 years before her more famous Hartford neighbor, Mark Twain.

22.Значение творчества М.Твена для развития американской литературы.

REALISM

Samuel Clemens (1835-1910), known by the pen name Mark Twain, has been called “the father of American literature. ” In his day he was America’s most famous literary icon.

A humorist, satirist, lecturer and novelist, Twain combined narrative wit and a strong sense of irony to create distinctive masterpieces based on American culture and language. His works drew upon his extensive travels and show a remarkable depth of human character and perception of individual experience. Twain’s writing provides a unique reflection of the American way of life in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

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