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US LITERATURE - Coggle Diagram
US LITERATURE
- FROM INDEPENDENCE TO CIVIL WAR
- THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
a) Colonial America
b) The Declaration of Independence
c) The making of a nation
- THE CIVIL WAR
a) From 1820 to 1860
b) The war
c) Consequences of the war
- REFLECTION OF THE TIMES IN LITERATURE
a) The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
b) The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
1.THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE
a) COLONIAL AMERICA:
- the Seven Years' War
- the Sugar Act (West Indies)
- the Stamp Act, the Declaratory Act & the Townshend Acts
- the Boston Massacre
- the Tea Act & the Boston Tea Party (East India Company)
- the Intolelarble Acts (King George III) & the First Continental Congress (in Philadelphia)
b) THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
- the Declaration of Independence (by Jefferson) & the Articles of the Confederation (1st constitution)
- Battles of Lexington & Concord, Battle of Saratoga, Surrender at Yorktown & Treaty of Paris
c) THE MAKING OF A NATION
- the Constitution (3-branch Gov. & 2-branch Congress) & the Bill of Rights (Ten Amendments)
- the Founding Fathers: George Washington (Continental Army), John Adams (Treaty of Paris), Thomas Jerfferson (Declaration of Independence), James Madison (Constitution) & Alexander Hamilton (Treasury)
2.THE CIVIL WAR
a) FROM 1820 TO 1860
- Prosperity & nationalism
- Increasing Population & Immigrants
- Westward expansion & new States: free vs. slave
b) THE WAR
- Abraham Lincoln, the Confederate States & Fort Sumter
- North vs South (First Battle of Bull Run, Battle of Antietam, Battle of Gettysburg, Siege of Vicksburg, Surrender at Appomattox Court House)
- Grant vs Lee
c) CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR
- Emancipation proclamation (13th Amendment)
- Abraham Lincoln's speech, re-election & assassination
3.REFLECTION OF THE TIMES IN LITERATURE
a) NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
- Puritan origins & Salem Witch Trials (family history of guilt & persecution)
- Father loss (at 4) & self-imposed isolation
- Unwanted fame, financial struggles & poor health
- Influential friendships: Melville, Emerson, Thoreau & Poe
THE SCARLET LETTER
- Summary (Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, Pearl)
- Preface: The Custom House
- Instant success, 1st mass-produced book & pioneering psychological depth
- Symbolism of the letter "A" (shame vs. identity & female independence)
- Critical of Puritanism (but sympathetic to Hester)
- Ambiguity
b) STEPHEN CRANE
- Prodigy of literature
- Instant international fame
- War correspondence & near-death experience
- Bohemiam lifestyle & Cora Taylor (a former prostitute & his muse)
- Financial struggles, poor health & early death
THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE
- Summary (Henry Fleming/the youth)
- Written with no war experience
- 1st non-romantized Civil War story: no heroic feats > internal struggle
- Innovative psychological Realism
- Symbolism: the psychological "badge"
- Naturalism/determinism: no free will
- Impact on War literature (& Hemingway)
- A parody of the "Romantic hero": a coward, liar & deserter
- FROM LINCOLN TO ROOSEVELT
- THE CIVIL WAR
a) From 1820 to 1860
b) The war
c) Consequences of the war
- THE AMERICAN EXPANSION
a) Industrialization
b) Westward expansion
c) the Progressive Era
d) American Imperialism
- THE FIRST & SECOND WORLD WARS
a) WWI
b) The interwar period
c) WWII
1.THE CIVIL WAR
a) FROM 1820 TO 1860
- Prosperity & nationalism
b) THE WAR
- Abraham Lincoln, the Confederate States & Fort Sumter
- North vs South (First Battle of Bull Run, Battle of Antietam, Battle of Gettysburg, Siege of Vicksburg)
- Grant vs Lee
c) CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR
- Emancipation proclamation (13th Amendment)
- Abraham Lincoln's speech, re-election & assassination
2.THE AMERICAN EXPANSION
a) INDUSTRIALIZATION
- Hand labor > machines
- Railroads > big business
- Urbanization: farms > cities
- Division of labor: new factory system
- New division of the Social classes
- the 1st Industrial War: the richest country
b) WESTWARD EXPANSION
- California Gold Rush: San Francisco
- Homestead Act & end of native Indians
- the Melting Pot: assimilation & integration
c) PROGRESSIVE ERA
- Progressists: Gov. should take action to improve the living conditions
- Social & Political reforms
d) AMERICAN IMPERIALISM
The Caribbean domination policy
- Economic & strategic interests, Political & military intervention
- the Monroe doctrine: an "act of aggression" /"America for the Americans"
- the Roosevelt Corollary: the right to intervene
- the Panama Canal: de-facto US territory
The Spanish-American War
- Explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor
- Spain lost Cuba, Puerto Rico & the Philippines
- Involverment in the Mexican Revolution
3.THE FIRST & SECOND WORLD WARS
a) WWI
- 1914: Diplomatic conflict btw UK & Germany > neutral
- 1917: Entered the war: Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare on Atlantic shipping
- Military superiority: American Expeditionary Force
- Key role in post-war negotiations: the Paris Peace Conference & Wilson's Fourteen Points
- League of Nations: to prevent future conflict through diplomacy & cooperation > the UN
- Treaty of Versailles: the seed of WWII
b) THE INTERWAR PERIOD
Prohibition Era & Great Depression
- Rise of Mass law-breaking & Organized crime
- Volstead Act: manufacture, sale or transport
- 1929 Stock Market Crass: speculation & colapse
- Great Depression: Failed banks, businesses & factories, 25% Unemployment, Dust Bowl, Gov. intervention, Global crisis, WWII ended it
F.D.Roosevelt & the New Deal
- New Deal: Relieve the unemployed, Recover business/agriculte & Reform the economy
- Wagner Act: workers' Labor Union rights
- Social Security Act: for retirement, unemployment & disabled
c) WWII
- 1939: Hitler's invasion of Poland > Europe
- 1941: Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor
- Roosevelt: Re-elections, United Nations (w/Churchill & Stalin) & Commander of the Armed Forces
- 1944: Invasion of Normandy on D-Day
- Truman's atomic bombs on Hiroshima & Nagasaki
- THE NOVEL, THE SHORT STORY & POETRY
- THE NOVEL, THE SHORT STORY & POETRY
- HERMAN MELVILLE: THE NOVEL
- EDGAR ALLAN POE: THE SHORT STORY
- WALT WHITMAN: POETRY
1.THE NOVEL, THE SHORT STORY & POETRY
The new spiritual era (1820- 1860):
- Prosperity & Nationalism
- Population & Immigration growth
Transcendentalism:
- Christian theology: Innate goodness of humanity & Unity of all creation
- Anti- Science, Materialism & Rationalism: trust their own judgement, feelings, sense of right & wrong
- Individualism: Self-sufficiency & Non-conformity > Social reform: abolitionism & women's rights
American Romanticism:
- Reaction against European ~/Enlightment/Trascendentalism
- American concerns: democracy & individual freedom
- Dark Romanticism: Dark side of nature, Psychological horror, the Supernatural, Guilt & Obsession (Melville, Hawthorne, Poe)
2.HERMAN MELVILLE
- Early father loss & struggles
- Maritime life & inspiration
- From fame to obscurity
- Friendship with Hawthorne
- Deteriorating health & death
MOBY-DICK
- Inspired by real events
- Ahab: a complex anti-hero
- Ishmael: an unreliable narrator
- Ambiguity of the whale
- Innovative style
3.EDGAR ALLAN POE
- Early family loss & struggles with his foster father
- Married his young cousin
- Financial instability
- Father of detective fiction
- Mysterious death
GOTHIC HORROR STORIES
- Madness & obsession
- Unreliable narrators
- Gothic settings
- the Supernatural
- Inspired by personal loss
AUGUSTINE DUPIN & DETECTIVE STORIES
4.WALT WHITMAN
- Modest upbringing & varied jobs: printer, teacher, journalist & editor
- Self-published Leaves of Grass
- Outspoken & controversial beliefs
- Civil War service
- Parcial fame & final years
LEAVES OF GRASS
- Continuous evolution
- Pioneered "free verse"
- Explicit sexual content
- Song of Myself (about self-exploration)
- Children of Adam & Calamus
(about homosexuality)
- HUMORISM & COSMOPOLITANISM
- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
a) Consequences of The Civil War
b) The Turn of the Century
- LITERARY BACKGROUND
- MARK TWAIN & HUMORISM
- HENRY JAMES & COSMOPOLITANISM
1.HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
a) CONSEQUENCES OF
THE CIVIL WAR
- Westward expansion
- The question of slavery
- Industrialization
b) THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
- The Progressive Era
- WWI
- The Prohibition Era &
the Great Depression
2.LITERARY BACKGROUND
American vs British literature
- From imitation of British Victorian lit. to Cultural independence: the 1st generation of American writers
American Realism
- Portrayal of American life: its Social problems & changes
- Contrast with American Romanticism: focus on the ordinary (everyday lives of the working class)
The American novel
- American Realism challenged the traditional Victorian novel
a) HUMORISM
- "Frontier Humor"
- "Local Color" regionalism
- Children as characters
- Critique of slavery
b) COSMOPOLITANISM
- Citizen of the world
- Contrast btw the Old & New Worlds
3.MARK TWAIN
- Family slave
- Riverboat pilot & other jobs
- Worldwide traveler
- Family losses
- Financial struggles
~ TOM SAWYER
- Semi-autobiographical elements
- Both for adults & children
- Use of regional dialect
~ HUCKLEBERRY FINN
- A sequel to ~ Tom Sawyer
- Use of vernacular language
- Exploration of Racism & Slavery
- Satire of society
4.HENRY JAMES
- Dual national identity &
the "international theme"
- Literary family background
- Travels around Europe &
journalist > writer
- Pioneer of psychological realism
- Prolific writer & modernist legacy
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY
- The international theme
- Strong female protagonist
- Theme of freedom
THE TURN OF THE SCREW (story)
- Ambiguity & psychological tension
- Unreliable narrator
- Children's innocence & corruption
- THE LOST GENERATION
- F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
- JOHN STEINBECK
- ERNEST HEMINGWAY
- WILLIAM FAULKNER
1.THE LOST GENERATION
a) HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
THE TURN OF THE CENTURY
- Industrialization
- the Melting Pot
- the Progressive Era
- WWI, the Interwar Period & WWI
b) LITERARY BACKGROUND:
THE POST-WAR GENERATION
- WWI trauma
- the Roaring Twenties/Jazz Age
- Gertrude Stein's circle
- Modernism
2.F. SCOTT FITZGERALD
- Early fascination with money
- Turbulent relationship with Zelda: his muse
- Struggles with alchoholism & depression
- Financial hardship despite fame & early death
THE GREAT GATSBY
- Critique of the American Dream
- Portrayal of the Jazz Age & critique of the Upper class
- Inherited vs self-made wealth
- The illusion of class mobility
3.JOHN STEINBECK
- Salinas Valley & early interest in writing
- Odd jobs > famous writer
THE GRAPES OF WRATH- Regionalism & rural California
- Social injustice & inequality
- Exploration of human condition: suffering, survival & violence
- Friendship & loneliness
4.ERNEST HEMINGWAY
- Outdoor enthusiast & young writer
- WWI experience & nurse love
- Extensive travels & adventures
- Marriages, accidents, war trauma, depressions, drinking & suicide
MAIN THEMES
- Physical & psychological effects of war
- the "Hemingway code" hero
- Nature & the outdoors
- Portrayal of "The Lost Generation"
5.WILLIAM FAULKNER
- Southern roots/heritage & Regionalism
- Early interest in poetry
- Post-WWI early writing career
- Hollywood screenwriting
- Struggles with alcoholism
THE SOUND AND THE FURY
- Decline of the South
- Racism
- Obsession with time, the past & memories