CHARACTERISTICS

WRITERS

HISTORICAL EVENTS

Ÿ   Oral literature relaying on performance

Ÿ   Most texts collected and written down in the end of 19th and beginning of 20th century

Ÿ   Distinguishable by form, content, and style - thus correspond to the most fundamental features of literature

Ÿ   Types of oral narratives: 

¨ Origin and Emergence Stories,  

¨ Historical Narratives,  

¨ Culture Hero Stories,  

¨ Trickster Tales

anonymous

1452 - Gutenberg invents a printing press

1492, 12 Oct. - Columbus discovers America, landing on an island in the Bahamas

1507 - Martin Waldseemuller, geographer, names the new land "America" for Vespucci

1603 - Elizabeth I dies; James I becomes king of England

1607 -  Capt. John Smith founds Jamestown in Virginia

1584 - Walter Ralegh lands on "island" of Roanoke; names it "Virginia" for Queen Elizabeth

CHARACTERISTICS

WRITERS

HISTORICAL EVENTS

v      Forms of writing:

            -  histories

            -  diaries

            -  chronicles

            -  poetry

            - sermons:

                    1. explanation of biblical quotation

                    2. interpretation

                    3. application to the life of the colony

v      Role of sermons:

            > new argument in the ongoing theological debates

            > a part of the political process (“Election Day’s.”)

            > scaring the congregation back into religious life (“jeremiads”)

v      Chronicles - describe the earthly in terms of the eternal

v      Literal truth substituted with potential symbolic lesson

v      No novels – they divert people’s attention from work

v      Writing should have a practical purpose

v      Belief in America being the “promised land” and Americans being the “chosen people”

v      Frequent religious references

v      Often plain style so that common people can understand

Poetry:

Anne Bradstreet   (1612 – 1672)

Michael Wigglesworth   (1631 – 1705)

Edward Taylor   (1645 – 1729)  

Diaries/Chronicles/Histories:

William Bradford   (1590 – 1657)

John Winthrop   (1588 – 1649)

Cotton Mather    (1663 – 1728)

Edward Johnson   (1598 – 1672)

Mary Rowlandson   (c.1636 – c.1678)

Sermons:

Jonathan Edwards   (1703 – 1758)

1620 -  Mayflower, Puritans found Plymouth Plantation

1630 -  arrival of Arbella

            Massachusetts Bay Colony founded

1636 -  Harvard University founded near Boston

1650 -  Bradstreet, Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America

1662 -  Wigglesworth,  The Day of Doom

1704 -   first newspaper ~> in Boston

1741 -  Johnson, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

1741-61 – The Great Awakening

Puritan influence on American Values:

·   Urge to succeed and exceed

·    Belief that hard work necessary for happiness

·    Cult of money -> money indicator

·     Conviction that Americans are the chosen people

CHARACTERISTICS

WRITERS

HISTORICAL EVENTS

v   Rational approach to the world, belief in progress

v   Pragmatism – truth measured by practical experience, law of nature

v   Deism – God created the world but has no influence on human lives

v   Idealism – conviction of the universal sense of right and wrong; belief in essential goodness of man

v   Interest in human nature

Political Pamphlets

Philosophical / Religious Tracts:

Benjamin Franklin   (1706 – 1790)

Thomas Paine   (1737 – 1809)

Thomas Jefferson   (1743 – 1826)

Alexander Hamilton  (1757 – 1804)

1773 -  Boston Tea Party

1775-83 –  American Revolution

1776, 4 July – Declaration of Independence

1783 -  Treaty of Paris

1787-88 -   Federalist Papers: Alex. Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison

1789 -   American Constitution   

1789-1799 - French Revolution