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US Literature - Coggle Diagram
US Literature
Beat Generation:
post-war period (1950s) --> emerged in the CW (HUAC tracked down communists) bc they were pacifists --> rejected dehumanization (wars) --> embodied by Allan Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs ==> knew were isolated so only th left to do = search and exploration of the self --> intensity of the present and feel it at 100%
for JK BG = polysemic: beat = rhythm of jazz music + beaten gen° --> beaten down by society bc outcasts (did not offer them what they could be) + search for beatitude and for him BG poets = poet, hoodlum and junkie
AG wanted an uninhibited poetry, free from everyth so that could return to essential humanity and true heart of it
On the Road --> manifesto for the BG and compared to a Whitmanesque search for psychological and physical liberation + written in 3 weeks w/o being ever revised --> spontaneous or instantaneous writing = free writing; compare his prose to a jazz musician + true La (unfiltered by consciousness, spontaneous and continuous and undisturbed flow + writing needs to be felt in the body --> blissful experience
broken-up rhythm, verb less sentences, flashes of thoughts, mystical experiences ==> really being in the moment and experience it at its fullest
Howl = hysterical lament abt pol and cultural conservatism + tirade VS Moloch (avarice) + address to his friend locked in a mental institution ==> profane and sacred put at the same level + is a rage VS conformity and everyth that limits one's true self + is a howl of lament, of laughter (mocks and laughs at society) and addresses US failures that promised happiness and sense of belonging
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think abt WW bc written in free verse w/ long flowy sentences --> incantatory tone focused on the body w/ mvts downward and upward --> putting profane and sacred at an equal level --> antithetic images + depicts junkies and outcasts --> have suppower (see ths we don't) ==> poetry = vision w/ a 3rd eye (WW)
A superM in CA = references to WW again (free verse, incantatory tone, long flowy sentences, excessive and overwhelming presence of the I = US voice + reunite sacred and profane and hint at idea that poet is VS society and conformity ==> poetry = vision and companionship
poem = hallucinatory walk into superM --> hallucinated poetic stroll into superM (narrator is not lucid, association and meeting point of the trivial and the poetic, stroll = aimless --> microcosm of society) + this transformation by poetry gives way to absurdism (consumer culture and abundant images which are absurd --> sense of absurdism emanates from the superM + rupture b/w 1st 2 stanzas (light-hearted and comical undertone) // last one (melancholic) --> death is reminiscent at the end + poetic filiation w/ WW --> overwhelming presence of him and is seen as a tutelary figure (father, teacher) --> way to AG to inscribe w/ same traditions as WW initiated (freed poetry) + also S° to not be alone (= companion) --> lonely together --> sense of community back (not in the US AG knows bc lost humanity and human connection + effect of transmission of heritage
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Harlem Renaissance:
mvt born out of emancipation and conquest in Harlem, NYC in the 1920s - 1930s
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elements of HR = violence over black USs (direct confrontation e.g. KKK, 1919) + white people are seen as people who know but do nothing to help them (devil) so they lost all humanity + black = center A + moral call out --> cry out for telling people abt the animalistic violence black people suffered from --> will not be forgiven for that
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many new authors in this mvt now visible (always there but overshadowed by white ones --> Renaissance w/ for instance poetry --> call out for resistance and dignity (black = noble and white = animals --> reversal); poetic heritage (Shakespearian sonnet) but appropriate it and depict the beauty as well as the ugly abt them --> not perfect but not ashamed + music --> jazz music ++++ pop among every community (black and white) --> radio and recording house dvpt
Langston Hughes --> 3 striking themes = oppression and submission + rebellion + inclusion and exclusion
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"too" = defiant assertion + references to segregation and slavery --> separate rooms; 2nd class citizens; take care of white children; ... + references to jazz music = jazz poetry --> mimics notion of Qs and answers; rhythm of fluidity and run-on-lines / end-stopped lines; alliteration in occlusive consonants + fights for inclusion --> conquest of space (I // they) --> resilient spirit + confidence in the future for future inclusion ==> poem of resistance (core HR)
Walt Whitman:
free verse = no regular rhythm and no rhymes; to mimic Na rhythm speech = Na poetry ==> freeing poetry; linked to his beliefs of demo ideals --> young nation
use of metaphors, symbolism and Na imagery = to associate and reunite traditional dichotomies (body and soul // Heaven and Hell) so could elevate what used to be considered as trivial and body = +++ imp for him = material for his poetry; views Na as a direct encounter w/ the world (not through institutions)
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extensive you of "I" and address to reader = I = poetic persona --> both intimate and universal; reader is challenged --> poem = place of transmission (exchange knowledge) w/ didactic tone --> self = unlimited
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poetry = malleable for him --> rewrote a lot of poem and views poetry as a representation of all Men w/ the universal self + intimate connection b/w indi and Na
Modernism:
transatlantic mvt shaped by WW1 (for US) --> unlimited freedom and sense of disillusionment ==> shattered sense of hope, purpose and mission
a in-b/w war mvt --> during the Roaring Twenties w/ great dvpts (car, consumerism, ...) --> great cultural dynamism ==> society of leisure (F obtained the franchise)
TGG --> no real human connection; society of leisure and just a façade (fake); lack agency and purpose; G only intro in the 3rd chap (not conventional intro) + know nothing of him (only smile and make assumptions) + internal focalizer --> only see what sees + eponymous character
20s --> not only beautiful and great period --> for black US -- > lim their rights + KKK = more powerful (1919) + Quota Laws (immigration --> xenophobia) + 18th Amendment --> Prohibition and bootlegging
G = in-b/w figure b/w the rich and the poor (G, among ash-heaps and millionaires) + embody US Dream (its dreamlike and its failure) --> self-reinvention for everyone = possible and his smile = optimism at roots of this Dream (believes in you at 1st sight) but identity = hidden bc US Dream not for everyone
US Dream = tension b/w form disillusionment and ultimate dream (dichotomy) + US Dream = just façade and impossible to reach and achieve it (always escaping us) even though still hope --> it disappears and is shattered (for a whole nation --> embody USA)
Edgar Allan Poe:
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Gothic author (belong to Rom, influenced transcendentalism) --> emphasize on strong emotions and awe of Na --> the sublime = when looking at gigantic Na landscapes overwhelms you w/ terror and awe bc you are tiny and Na terrifies you a bit --> leave it untouched + VS scientific advancements (dom Na)
transcendentalism = emancipate from EU authority --> mistrust all institutions + reject conformity to celebrate heterogeneity (several indis form unity) --> encourgare imagination and Men's mind ==> insight > logic (insight transcended logic) + focus on the place of Men in Na and in society --> how does he evolves in the organization of society and Na
Gothic novels = metaphors for current condition and reflect transformations of society and its threats + stereotypical narratives w/ superNa elements and unreliable and manipulative narrators (1st pers) --> punctuation betrays them + terror in the self = reflections of inside terrors + plays w/ the uncanny, the thin line b/w sanity and insanity (reason and madness + reality and unconsciousness)
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Nathaniel Hawthorne:
influenced by transcendentalism (= insights > logic and focus on the place of Men in Na + emphasize on self-reliance and independence VS laws) but he is not --> aware of the dark past of the country (not optimistic on this --> wants to denounce it)
comments on his time throughout his works and double setting (TSL) (sort of mirror through the 17th) w/ unreliable narrators --> double setting and superNa manifestations ==> do that bc feels guilty bc ancestor (trail of the Salem Witches) so denounce puritan era (rigidity and authority) --> criticize thx to hindsight
î in progressive ideas but not involved and disturbed buy them --> saw them as threat especially feminist ones
romances = blend b/w superNa and real phenomena + blend b/w historical and fictional events and / or characters + blend of realistic and "ideal" (w/ allegories) ==> influenced by Gothic mvt and folktale
Manifest destiny = mission of the US to become a model for everyone and spread it + is a destiny under God who elected them to accomplish this mission under His will