American Literature

1620 – Puritans as beginning of American literature

TULIP (the core of Puritan faith):

T = Total Depravity

U = Unconditional Election

L = Limited Atonement

I = Irresistible Grace

P = Perseverance of the Saints

Harvard University - 1636

Yale – 1700

It was unbelievable for Puritans that someone did not believe in God. Religion was the most
important part of their life.

Black dye – the most expensive of all dyes – Puritans could not afford it.

Cider – alcoholic beverage of Puritans

50% of children – born less than 9 months after the wedding. Puritans having sex before
marriage – they were expected to get married after that.

What comes after life – salvation or damnation

World fell of providences

Sense of mission (Winthrop)

1667 – Rev. Samuel Danforth during a synod, another significant sermon – “New England’s
Errand into the Wilderness”

40 years after Arabella landed in America – some people went back to England.

“We came here for the glory of God” – their mission was to expand the Christian zone (Christian
people – Puritans)
Winthrop wanted them to stay inside, Danforth – the other way round (he wanted the colonies
to expand).

Indians weren’t perceived as human beings (Puritans weren’t interested in baptizing Indians).

Rev. John Elliot – translated into Algonquian New Testament

There were 7 towns of baptized Indians (towns of so-called “praying Indians”)

1675-76 – the uprising of Metacom, the only Indian uprising that almost succeeded (also called
King Philip’s War).

Danforth’s “New England’s Errand into the Wilderness” – driving force for Puritans

Roman Catholics were not welcomed in Massachusetts Bay.

Saints – in charge

How to became a saint? – stand up and declare yourself a saint (in a meeting house)

Max Weber – capitalism has religious roots – The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism

Puritans were expected to work (for the glory of God ) – there were callings. They were not
expected to use their profits for their own benefits. They were saving money for poor and
investing.

1661 –The Hallway Covenant (alliance between God and people)

Children of saints did not have to go under the conversion. They were allowed to participate in
services, they did not enjoy all the privileges though – still it was a sign of the decline of the
Puritan orthodoxy

1702 – Cotton Mather (named after John Cotton) – great preacher, historian, ethnologist, judge
in Winthrop’s trials. Spectral evidence (a form of evidence based upon dreams and visions).

Magnalia Christi Americana – great deeds of Christ in America. The Ecclesiastical History of New
England – history of Puritan settlement in North America (by Cotton Mather).

Typology – long established method of reading the Bible in Greek.

“Song of Songs” – literally about erotic relation between man and woman, and nakedness. It is
also the allegory of the relationship between Christ and Church.

OT (Old Testament) – types

NT (New Testament) – antitypes

Radical concept of how to combine OT and NT, and effectively incorporate the history of New
England into the Bible – a part of NT

Magnalia Christi Americana – before the revelation of St. John’s “Apocalypse,” Mather provided
his fellows Puritans with the sense of achievement. Mather wrote a scholar about North
American Indians – in his opinion Indians were Jews

Puritans did not produce any drama or theater – banned by Cromwell (therefore by Puritans). In
Massachusetts theater was banned up until 1820.

There were no novels

1719 – first English novels (Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe)

Puritans wrote religious literature: sermons

The art of peaching was a very important element of culture.

Middle of the 17th century – Boston – huge printing industry (second only to London)

Poetry – Michael Wigglesworth “The Day of Doom,” Edward Taylor – a minister, his works were
discovered at Yale University in 1939. He wrote about the relationship between God and men.
An example of poem by Taylor: “Upon a spider catching a Fly.”

There were a lot of metaphysical poets

Anne Bradstreet – a poet who wrote about her own experiences (“The Author to Her Book,”
“Verses upon Burning of our House”).

At those times, most poetry was anonymous.

There was also another genre – captivity narratives – about Indians taking white prisoners (Mary
Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson)

Theocracy – the role of men and God

Ann Hutchison – she preached (self-appointed) – directly inspired by the Holy Ghost (she
claimed so). She accused the clergy of violating one of the fundamental symbols of Puritan
doctrine (covenant/ work v. covenant of grace). She was summoned to the court – charged with
violating the social order. She compared herself to Abraham. John Winthrop kindly asked her to
leave the colony. She actually won – they couldn’t prove anything to her.

Conscience
Antinomian – accused of ignoring the letter and the spirit of the law.

There was a tension between the individual and the community.

Roger Williams – seeker minister in Salem. In his opinion Puritans were wrong – first 4
commandments should not be introduced into common law. He also believed that Indians are
human beings, and Puritans had no rights to disown Indians. He was also kindly asked to leave
the colony. He settled in (and founded) the colony of Rhode Island. This colony was opened for
everybody, apart from Catholics.

Economic prosperity resulted in people becoming less and less religious.

1738 – visit of Rev. George Whitfield – Methodism – a kind of religion – follow the footsteps of
Christ and believe in possibility of salvation. It was for all people. Warning people they were
sinners

The Great Awakening – the first religious revival. 1730’s – 1750’s.

Johnathan Edwards

Gilbert Tennant

Johnathan Edwards – deeply convinced Calvinist. “Sinners in the hands of angry God” – his
sermon

John Lock – empiricism (experience) – human beings get the knowledge through senses.

Johnathan Edwards Personal Narrative – his short autobiography – a single moment of Edwards’
life – a moment of conversion

St. Augustine – first autobiography in European culture – Confessions.

1758 – Edwards dies. He was the first president of Princeton. His last manuscript was discovered
in 1945 – text about nature. Silkworms like Jesus Christ, who gave himself to be crucified
(silkworms give us silk). Edwards was the last Puritan, and also the first American thinker, who
realized the beauty of nature as such.

Benjamin Franklin – American Dream

Harvard and University of Pennsylvania (Medical School)

Remotest terms of literature:

 Native peculiarities of the country in which it is too spring-climate

 Social institutions
 Moral, religious, political state
 Strong attachment to language
 Preserves the intellectual labors of men
 English language – corrupted England
 America not like England
 Own language – feelings
 New country may excel the old
 Language that all nations understand
 Science, fine arts – America has done its part
 Literature – no pride
 “new words to use, give the old sentiment a new form and spirit”
 Everybody slighted
 Possesses and cherishes peculiarities
 Founding fathers – biased
 English language – lost in a servile dependence on foreign politicians for political creeds
and liberty
 Native scenery – unnoticed something peculiarly opposed to literary originality in the
colonial existence which was unfortunately so long the condition of America
 English – not willing to look at American literary achievements
 Poets have shrunk from American publication and sought in another region for the
patrons
 Oral literate of its aboriginals – ridiculous for English, made for expression
 Their objects – elements of poetry
 Language and manners of Indians – peculiar – expressing emotions (observance of
nature, taught at school, unshackled conceptions, very rich. Indian literature –
originality, peculiarities, beauties, independent, not competitive
 Lancastrian school – to improve the intellectual condition of Indians – debilitating
effects of an English education on Indians national literature (and overall) REMEMBER
Indians had oral tradition, so when referring to their literature, we are referring to their
stories told orally

1822 – Catherine Maria Sedgewick – A New England Tale

Adalbert von Chamisso – A Strange Story of Peter Schlemihl
Burlesque – kind of comic which is a little vulgar and simple
Clergy was against novels
  Novels were fiction
 Novels were dangerous in a moral sense (novel were about love)
 1789 – The Power of Sympathy – William Hill Brown – sentimental novel, epistolary
novel (pretend to be a collection of authentic letters). Brown added a very brief
introduction, where he stated that novels indeed are dangerous, but not his. His is anti-
seduction.

Richard Lovelace– it is where a word “lowelas” comes from (he was an English poet in the
seventeenth century. He was a cavalier poet who fought on behalf of the king during the
Civil War. His best known works are "To Althea, from Prison", and "To Lucasta, Going to the
Warres".)

 1793 (London), 1794 (New York) – Susanne Haswell Rawson – Charlotte Temple
- Anti-seduction novel
- First sentimental movement in the novel
- First bestseller
- Fist popular American writer
 1797 - Hannah Webster Foster The Coquette
- Anti-seduction novel
- Brilliant woman
- General situation of women in USA
- Epistolary novel
- Feminine point of view
 1801 – Tabitha Gilman Tenney - Female Quixotism
- Spinster
- Parody of the sentimental novel

Women to women

Charles Brockden Brown

1788 – Wieland – first US gothic novel: first serial killer in the history of American culture,
epistolary novel (one letter), source of horror: human madness

Duty to became an American writer

1799 – Edgar Huntly (also Charles Brockden Brown): sleepwalker, in Edgar Huntly Brown
distances himself from British gothic genre, human transformation – Huntly transforms into
monster

Brown’s language was too demanding for ordinary readers.

Adventure novel

Gilbert Imlay – The Emigrants

Royall Tyler – The Algerine Captive: first thriller, first description of American slavery, first
American anti-slavery novel

Hugh Henry Brockenridge - Modern Chivalry

Michel Guillaume Jean de Crèvecœur (John Hector St. John) – 1812 (published in London)
Letters From an American Farmer – letters by a guy named James, who is writing to his friend in
England. It is a testimony of enthusiasm. In America everything depended on individual.
Happiness until Revolutionary War.

Alexis de Tocqueville: young aristocrat, sent to USA to take a look at prisons, Democracy in
America, life in democracy has its advantages, he was the first sociologist, readiness of all
people to take part in public life, sense of responsibility. Function of religion – Americans were
religious. Tocqueville failed on recognizing literature: “At present Americans have no literature.”

Washington Irving: New Yorker, knickerbockers - refers to people or objects from Manhattan
(New York City, before 1898), 1808 – History of New York - started with the beginning of the
Planet Earth. Irving would often put emphasis on Dutch heritage (Legend of Sleepy Hollow). A
collection of sketches and tales – A Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gentleman, Brackenridge
Hall, Tales of a Traveller, Sketches. Tales-USA: United States, sense of continuity. Tales – they
were more for Europeans than for Americans. The Alhambra, A History of the Life and Voyages
of Christopher Columbus, A Tour of the Prairies – first account of the interior, Irving realized
Indians were human beings. Irving was recognized as a US writer both in US and Europe.

James Fenimore Cooper – New Yorker (born in Cooper’s Town – coincidence? I don’t think so
XD). Precaution. 1821 – The Spy – about the American war of independence, based on two
historical and historic events: Puritan times, period of Indian wars, the War of Independence. He
belonged to so-called Bread and Cheese Club. 1823 – The Pioneers. The Leatherstockings Tales
(saga) – about Hawk-eye (Natty Bumppo). 1825 – The Last of the Mohicans. Scottish model of
historical novel – reality mixed with fiction. Cooper invented the noble savage – good Indian. 1.
The Prairie 2. The Pathfinder 3. The Deer slayer (Leatherstockings Tales). Cooper succeeded in
imposing the readers of Native Americans. Picturesque. Indians divided into two groups: noble
savages and ignoble savages. Cooper created a myth of wilderness and its inhabitants.
Originated in the American legend of the sea. The Red Rover.

Lydia Maria Child: 1827 – Hobomok – set in the 19th century in Massachusetts Bay – about a
white Puritan girl who marries an Indian chief.

Catherine Maria Sedgewick: 1822 – A New England’s Tale, 1828 – Hope Leslie – 1. originated a
particular variety of American novel in the 19 th century – fist domestic novel, addressed
primarily to women, family life, relations between family members, unhappy family life. 2.
Historical narrative – Indian frontier. Main character is a servant, an Indian girl, becomes friend,
sacrifices her health and life (she loses her arm and become a disabled person) for white friends

John Neal: 1828 – Rachel Dyer – witchcraft trial

William Gilmore Simms – The Yemassee – like Cooper he combined historical events and
fictitious characters.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864, born in Massachusetts, studied at Bowdoin College). 1830’s –

literary debut, number of tales, they refer to American history. American nationalism. 100 years
of colony cannot be forgotten. Hawthorne loved allegory. (John Bunyan – Pilgrim’s Progress –
the most allegoric story ever written. He was an English writer of the 17 th century). (“The
Demographic Review” – John O’Sullivan – manifest destiny – “Young America” – group of young
people). Coming back to Hawthorn – he was a candidate for a genius. Legends of the Province
House. Province House – main public building in Boston. Old Esther Dudley – colonial times, War
of Independence – she was asked to keep the keys to the Province House by the last governor.
She had (supposedly) a magic mirror, children liked he, she would tell them stories of the
colonial past. Cultural transfer, story of continuity. Hawthorne believed that novel was realistic
and referred to a fairly complexed issues. America was too simple for novels. Hawthorn would
rather say he was an author of romances:

“When a writer calls his work a Romance, it need hardly be observed that he wishes to claim a
certain latitude, both as to its fashion and material, which he would not have felt himself
entitled to assume, had he professed to be writing a novel. The latter form of composition is
presumed to aim at a very minute fidelity, not merely to the possible, but to the probable and
ordinary course of man’s experience. The former - while, as a work of art, it must rigidly subject
itself to laws, and while it sins unpardonably so far as it may swerve aside from the truth of the
human heart - has fairly a right to present that truth under circumstances, to a great extent of
the writers own choosing or creation. If he thinks fit, also, he may so manage his atmospherical
medium as to bring out or mellow the lights, and deepen and enrich the shadows of the picture,
he will be wise, no doubt, to make a very moderate use of the privilege here stated, and
especially to mingle the marvellous rather as a slight, delicate and evanescent flavour, than as
any portion of the actual substance of the dish offered to the public. He can hardly be said,
however, to commit a literary crime, even if he disregarded this caution.

(Preface to The House of Seven Gables, 1851; quoted in Patrick Sheeran, “The Novels of Liam
O’Flaherty: A Study in Romantic Realism” [ Ph.D. Diss.] UCG 1972, p.160-69.)”

American novel=romance. In this case, romance is not a love story. It is a narrative that is
fantastic. Number of characters is usually small.

1850 – The Scarlet Letter. Romance – between the actual and the imaginary. Criticism of
Calvinism – people can change by themselves, unlike Puritans thought.

Maria Susanna Cummins: 1854 - The Lamplighter – about an orphan of whom the Boston
lamplighter took care of. 1851 – The House of the Seven Gobles, The Blithedale Romance
(contemporary romance, utopian community), The Marble Fomn

Caroline Kirkland: A New Home – who’ll follow? – based on own experience, moved from New
England to Michigan – how difficult it was to start a new life in such difficult conditions.
Cooperation was important.

Susanne Warner: A Wide Wide World – a model of female piety

E.D.E.N Southworth: The Hidden Land – femme fatale, important fashion figure

George Lippard: 1844 The Quaker City (or The Monks of Monk Hall) – gentlemen’s club, Devil
Buy, not so gentlemen – raping young women, blown up.

Timothy Shays Arthur: Ten Nights in Ballroom and what I saw there – anti-alcoholic propaganda

Edgar Allan Poe: HE IS A LEGEND. King of paradoxes. (1809-1849, like Słowacki). Poe considered
himself a southerner, and he was born in Boston (a tragedy for someone who thinks of himself a
southerner). He was adopted by a wealthy merchant form Virginia. Poe was both an elitist and
popular writer. 1827 – small collection of poems Tamerlane and Other Poems (debut). There
was nothing recognizably American – imaginary landscapes, like Mount Yaanek (imaginary
place). 1830’s: tales – tales of horror, tales of rationalization (ratio – reason, reasoning). Edgar
Allan Poe invented detective fiction, he invented the character of private detective (Auguste
Dupin). He was writing about the horror of madness/soul. Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
– 1840 – 20 stories and one page of introduction – it was an answer to his critics who accused
him of epigamy (German writers). Poe was also a literary critic and he had a nickname
“Tomahawk Man.” He claimed that there always is a well-hidden potential for evil in people. He
loved playing games. “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” M. Valdemar was a Pole. People
believed it was a true story (it was a hawk). Edgar Allan Poe was not interested in self-
expression at all, the effect was the most important for him. He was manipulating the reader,
creating suspense directed as the suspect of horror. Popular literature was predictable. Poe did
not believe in the transcendence, spirit. He was very much afraid of death (fact which is very
visible in his stories and poems). He would often depict beautiful, dying women. It was Charles
Baudelaire who brought Poe back to America – he believed Poe was a genius writer. Baudelaire
created a legend of Poe. His translations of Poe are brilliant. Poe was also an editor-in-chief.
William Carlos Williams – he wrote In the American Grain, where he was describing American
literature, and he also wrote about Poe. Williams wrote about expanding space – Poe’s writings
were also about space. Edgar Allan Poe wrote one novel (novella actually) – Arthur Gordon Pym
– it is about an American boy who runs away from home, and ends up in the south pole (tropical
water, white like milk, and a big hole). Williams: claimed it is about an inner space of the mind.
Until 1860’s – not a single ghost appeared in American literature.

Harriet Beecher Stowe: her father was kind of the last of the Puritans – he still believed in their
values. Her sister, Catherine was a feminist, and an activist. Uncle Tom’s Cabin. American
Woman’s Home (1840’s, 1860’s) – she wrote that together with her sister – doctrine of
separated spheres, response to the fact that married women had no property, description of a
house, healthcare, decent games, cooking, not a single word about sex. It is a domestic novel.
Stowe was interested in a history of a region. Oldtown Folks, The Minister’s Wooing – rural past,
idyllic places. Uncle Tom’s Cabin – fugitive slave law, greatest bestseller. She lost a lot of money.
President Lincoln: “Oh, so you are the little woman who started the war.” Uncle Tom – black
slave, middle-aged. He can do everything, and he is universally liked by everybody. His
proprietor Mr. Shelby is also a nice man. Shelby’s daughter is uncle Tom’s favorite,
unfortunately she dies. Mr. Shelby – forced to sell all his slaves. At the end uncle Tom is beaten
to death. Uncle Tom- inner power, deeply believing Christian. The book was very well received
in the North, it woke the abolition ideas up. In the South it was the other way round. The
counterattack – Caroline Lee Hentz The Planter’s Northern Bride. Without Uncle Tom’s Cabin the
declaration of emancipation would come later.

Transcendentalism (professor’s fave XD)

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Lawrence Bewell “Emerson”

Ivory Tower

Doubts about ritual as religious

Unitarianism – not believing in the Holy Trinity, believing only in the Father. Christ – greatest of
human beings, the son of God, but not God.

TULIP – rejected by Unitarians, human beings helped themselves, it is up to human beings to

improve, thanks to reason. September 1832 – a sermon – a Lord’s Supper sermon – Emerson did
not believe in the consequences of Last Supper. Emerson went to Europe. Paris – visited the
local museum of natural history. He felt that he was one with those animals (da ya feel like
being one with a centipede???) – he decided to become a naturalist.

Secular preaching – lecturing. Topics of lectures – natural history, English literature, history as
such.

1836 – Nature – essay

George Ripley – Unitarian minister – 7 men met at his place and they decided to start a club –
members interested in knowledge – mostly in humanities, decided that women could also
attend. Emerson suggested the name “symposium” – one of Plato’s dialogues. Amos Bronson
Alcott (a farmer, not educated, but very ambitious) – he suggested the “Transcendental Club.” It
lasted for about 4 years.

Nature – philosophical essay

Important: Problems with the greenery of nature – only was there or did it mean anything

American Inferiority Complex

Introduction to Nature – Emerson claimed that the history was not important, neither is
tradition. “The Sun shines today also”

His own idea of nature – very people can actually see nature. Children of philosophers could see
the landscape. The beauty of nature as material and something intellectual.

“Language” – the most important chapter of Nature. The most systematic. 3 numbers points at
the beginning: 1. Words are signs of natural facts 2. Natural facts are signs of spiritual facts 3.
Nature is a symbol of spirit

Natural obligation to call a piece of furniture on which I’m sitting a chair. There must be some
natural connection between words and objects. Behind every single natural fact there is a
spiritual fact.

Emmanuel Swedenborg believed that each mineral, each rock has a spiritual manner. He
believed that he talked with angels and that he visited Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath playing
in the background XD)
God was actually one with nature. God is present in every single part of the world – pantheism
(pan – everything; theo – God)

God identical with creation

No footnotes – Emerson wanted to be original. God is present in every human being – Emerson
got an idea for Self-Reliance. Intuition much more important than intellect. .

Kant – distinction between intellect and reason.

Instrument of reason – intuition, we may reach the idea of God. By intuition you ca find God in
nature and in thy own self.

God=Nature=Men

Natural world is good – it’s equal with God – no place for evil.

1849 – Oberlin College – university that started program for women

Phi Beta Kappa Society (ΦΒΚ) – started a custom that a start of academic year should include a
lecture. 1837 – Emerson invited to do this lecture (31 st of August) – one of the most important
lectures of the US history – “The American Scholar”

3 sources to imply knowledge:

1. Nature
2. Books
3. Social life

Declaration of intellectual independence

1838 – Emerson invited again. Speech without a title.

Not so much representing Church as an institution – they should be like bards of Jesus Christ,
they should not feel superior than members of the congregation teaching people how to be
good in every life situations.

Andreas Norton – was outraged – the Unitarian people. He accused Emerson of being an
atheist. Negative reaction of the public. Emerson withdrawn from the public life for a while.

First big book: Essays – 1841 (I series), 1844 (II series). Made him well-known all over the United
States. I series – more important – “Self-Reliance” was there, “History” as well – history not
important unless human beings can learn from it something applicable. Referring historical facts
to the present. II series – optimistic – “The poet.” He claimed that poems written up until these
times were not exactly what America needed. American poet should speak and write the speech
of common people . American poet should be a transcendentalist, who would transfer the ideas
of transcendentalism into poetry. And then Walt Whitman fell from heaven and in 1855 the first
edition of his Leaves of Grass (a collection of poems) was published. In letter to Whitman
Emerson praised him, and also asked Whitman not to publish this letter. But Whitman, this little
scum, did exactly the opposite.

“Experience” – here Emerson suffers after the death of his son, Waldo. Nature turns out not to
be so good. Maybe it is not what it seems to be – deceptive. We, the people (Lech Wałęsa says
“hi”) do not understand the nature. Emerson’s disillusionment – why did nature take his
beloved child. After “Experience, “ Emerson lost interest in nature, got more interested in
people. Another visit in Europe “English Traits” – last chapter – a transcript of speech. If
England, anywhere in the future lost its power – America shall be ready to take it over.

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) – most outstanding female intellectual from the US. She moved in
with Emerson (was fascinated by him). He asked her to be the first-editor-in-chief of the
transcendental dial.

1839 – seminar addressed to women.

Elizabeth Peebody – she opened a bookstore – mainly academic books. Fuller organized
“conversation” addressed to women upstairs.

I series of conversations: Greek mythology.

Following Emerson’s footsteps – her conversations correlated with Emerson’s lectures.

Conversations became an important public event.

1843 – Summer on the Lakes – trip to the Great Lake – she published her diary.

1844 – “Women in the 19th century” – manifest of intellectual feminist. Higher education for
women. Emilia Plater was Fuller’s heroine. New York – tribune.

Fuller started signing her essays, her literary criticism, her reviews. First female American
correspondent

Spring of the Nations (Italy) - Fuller was writing reports.

Memories of Margaret Fuller

She proved that a woman could be a professor, literary critic, and a journalist. She was also the
first woman to get access to the university’s library.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

He attended Harvard. He also became a teacher and opened a school with his brother John.
Sadly, John died.

A trip on a boat - A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers – 14 days condensed into one
week

Walden, or Life in the Woods – 1854

F.O Matthiesseu – “American Renaissance” – 5 essays about 5 American writers.

1845 – Thoreau asked Emerson (his good pal), if he could build a house on Emerson’s land.
Emerson agreed and so Thoreau build a house – all by himself. He lived in a woods for 2 years, 2
months, and 2 days. Walden is a masterpiece of spontaneous writing: 1. Chapter: “Economy” 2.
Chapter: “How I lived and why I lived there.” Ants were his greatest object of observation – ants
representing Roman and Greek warriors, a conflict between black and red ants – compared to
Iliad. Thoreau was also interested in the traces of local Indian tribes.

Aspect focusing on American society – “Most people today live I quiet desperation.” People
were inheriting farms, but did not like farming. Do you really do what you want to do? Thoreau
wanted to figure out what the essence of life really was. He was the only transcendentalist that
actually lived within nature.

“Ktaadn” – a mountain in the state of Maine – mount Kataldin – phonetic record of a name of
the mountain. A trip to Ktaadn is a tough one. There was an area that was burnt as a result of a
thunderstorm. The area did not belong to anyone. Did not have any name knows by Thoreau –
nature was not made for us, and if we do use it, we do it for our own risk. There is no good
divinity out there – nature does not care about us at all. Thoreau was in awe (a mixture of
admiration and fear). He felt like an alien – a stranger in the nature.

Emerson and Thoreau had different views, but both were close to nature.

“Walking” – Thoreau’s essay – philosophizing about walking. Wildness – the quality of being
wild.

Wilderness – much better than civilization. Find the wildest place located in nature – the holiest
place – Sanctum Sanctorum – Dismal Swamp

Emerson was thinking about a nature from a perspective of an ex-minister

Aspects of human beings/experience: men, women, sleep, language, sex

A sum up of transcendentalism: In the beginning it was a rather formless doctrine.
Transcendentalism, early Emerson - it allowed American intellectuals to get rid of inferiority
complex. It also produced quite a lot of important American literature, left behind private
journals. Transcendental club was the first American intellectual club. George Ripley founded
Brookfarm.

Walt Whitman

1855 – first edition of Leaves of Grass. He included there both political and social reasons. He
was opposing slavery, he recognized Native Americans as human beings. He incorporated
transcendental ideas into his poems.

Herman Melville – he was a New Yorker, born in a wealthy family.

1846 – Typee – literary debut. Adventure novel, based on Melville’s own experience (he worked
as a merchant for some time). Two American merchants had to spend a few days among Native
Americans, who were cannibals – but nice cannibals.

1847/8 – Omoo – another adventure novel. Melville was mainly writing adventure novels set on
sea, and was really good at it.

1849 – Meroli (Tuesday) – a group of islands. It resembles an adventure novel set on sea – it is a
philosophical novel. There is a boat with four individuals with a mission – they are supposed to
find a mysterious woman.

1851 – Moby Dick, also called “The White Whale.” – a mix of two tendencies – adventure story
and philosophical novel. The book is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorn. It begins like this: “Call
me Ishmael” – it does not mean that his name is Ishmael. There is series of mottos. “Whale” in
many languages. Classification of whales – not based on cetology (science of whales). It is based
upon library science. Sizes of books (volume, folio, quarto, octavo). Classifying whales like books
– you don’t kill books – like if Melville wanted to say he is against killing whales – it’s better to
try to understand the whale. Ishmael wants to find out about “the meaning of it all” – he is not a
whaler, he is more of a philosopher. He compares himself to Narcisse. Double meaning – the
knowledge about whaling, terminology. 3 protagonists – Moby Dick (the narrator calls it a fish,
even though whales are mammals – a reference to Biblical meaning of fish). Pequod – a name of
the ship. Piquet tribe was almost totally exterminated, so the name of the ship implies it’s
future catastrophe. Cpt. Ahab – he wants a revenge, Moby Dick took his leg. Before they go to
the sea, they go to church – the sermon is a kind of warning for Cpt. Ahab . Ahab is an allegorist
– he believes that Moby Dick is an incarnation of evil. The other great interpreter – Ishmael.
Moby Dick is white – not visible, absence of color. Coin – whoever spots Moby Dick first, gets a
coin. Coffin made by Quick-quack - saves Ishmaels life (a coffin saving a life – ironic). There is a
message in the book – “Better sleep with the sober heathen, than a drunk Christian.” Fedala –
sinister figure.

Edward Mendelson called Moby Dick an “encyclopedic novel” for American culture of the 19 th
century. “Intellectual chandler”

1852 – Pierre – it was a bomb and it ruined Melville’s literary career. It begins like a sentimental
novel. Pierre learns that his dead father had a daughter. He finds this daughter, leaves home
and starts to live with his sister in New York, in something like an artistic house (resembles
Chelsea Hotel in New York a bit – ya’ know, Andy Warhol, his Factory etc.). In the end, Lucy,
Pierre’s fiancée moves in, and then her cousin comes and kills the siblings. Lucy commits a
suicide. The critics absolutely smashed the book, poor Melville did not understand why.

“The Pianza Tale,” “Israel Potter,” “Confidence Man” – short stories, the last one – about a
cheater, Devil shows up, taking forms of different people, symbolic end of the world.

Richard Chase – 1950 – Herman Melville

Melville knew all about transcendentalism

The Man of the Novel

Poetry

Poetry had bad times – it requires sophistication.

Domination of the British novels – the pressure of the British culture made it difficult for
American poets.

William Cullen Bryant – debuted in 1816, he was the first American romantic poet. He thought
that American poetry had to accept nature as the main topic. Importance/presence of the spirit.
Bryant read William Wordsworth’s poetic diction. He was the first American poet to realize that
North American continent will sooner or later belong to the US. He represented global point of
view, he recognized the prairie – it represented the limitless of the American land. In 1840’s
Bryant got bored of writing poetry, and he became a journalist in New York.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – he graduated from the Bowdoin College, he started writing
poetry without publishing it. After graduation he became the professor, first at Bowdoin, then at
Harvard. He was sent to Europe, he specialized in romance languages. Became the professor of
romance languages at Harvard.
1839 – Poems. His poetry was similar to the British one. Emerson was critical about Longfellow.
Longfellow translated Dante – first English translation.

“Evangeline” – based on the colonial history of America, connected with rivalry between France
and Great Britain. Acadia – Cajun (Southeastern Canada). 20 000 people transferred from Acadia
to Louisiana. The poem focuses on a young couple, Evangeline and Gabriel. On the way to
Louisiana they lost each other. Evangeline is desperate to find Gabriel. It takes her the whole
life. She gave up, when she got pretty old. She became a nurse. One of the dying patients turned
out to be Gabriel. They recognized each other, said farewell and then Gabriel died.

Longfellow became the informal leader of three Boston poets. Two other were also Harvard
professors – James Russell Lowell and Oliver Wendell Holmes – they were called the “Boston
Brahmins,” “Schoolroom poets,” (all kiddos had to read them at school) or “Fireside poets.”

1855 – Song of Hiawatha (oki, tu macie fragment mojego eseju na Indian - In 1855 Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow, another American poet, and a Harvard University professor (he was a
professor of Bowdoin College before) decided to pay a tribute to Native Americans. He wrote
what is now considered one of his greatest achievements – Song of Hiawatha. Hiawatha was a
legendary, Algonquian chief, and a co-founder of the Iroquois Confederacy. The poetry of Native
Americans in the second half of the 19 th century was non-existent, as American Indians had the
oral tradition, and they did not write down any of their, what would be now called, literary
pieces. Therefore, Longfellow had no basis upon which he could build an Indian-like sound
pattern. What he did, was a rather strange move – he decided to use the sound pattern of
Kalevala – a Finnish epic. While reading the Song of Hiawatha, one can indeed have an
impression of Indian drums. Anyway, in Longfellow’s epic, Hiawatha is not only an Indian
leader, he is also a demi-god, a son of the West Wind (Mudjekeewis), and Wenonah, a beautiful
young lady, who, as one can conclude by reading verses: “Wooed her with his words of
sweetness,/Wooed her with his soft caresses,/Till she bore a son in sorrow,/Bore a son of love
and sorrow,” is actually raped by the West Wind. Wenonah dies after giving birth to Hiawatha.
Wenonah was a daughter of Nokomis, a woman who fell from the Moon. Hiawatha grows-up
just like all normal Native American boys do, learning how to be a good hunter and warrior.
When he is old enough, his grandmother, by whom he is being raised tells him who his father is.
Hiawatha encounters the West Wind, and after the fight his father proposes Hiawatha to join
him, and rule the land of the West Wind. But for now Hiawatha comes back to his people.
However, he does join his father at the end of the epic – and here the strangest, and most
terrifying thing occurs. What at first glimpse looks like Longfellow’s tribute to American Indians,
in the end turns out to be something completely else. White people arrive on lands of Hiawatha.
They are Christians. Strangely enough, they worship Holy Mary – and Puritans, who indeed
arrived on American lands in 1620 did not worship Holy Mary, so white people from the Song of
Hiawatha definitely weren’t Puritans. What did Longfellow intend to stress by such description
of the new-comers that is unknown. Then, leaving this Christians under the custody of Nokomis,
Hiawatha leaves his people to join his father. First of all, Hiawatha, the great Native American
chief tells his people that now the time of Native Americans has come to an end. Now it is the
time of whites. Second of all, he leaves his own people. He leaves them with the message that
they actually should now let the whites take control – because they are wiser. His departure
resembles the ascension of Jesus Christ, who left the Earth, and went to the home of His Father
in Heaven. Hiawatha departs on a boat – he goes to the kingdom of his father, the West Wind,
he leaves the Earth, in order to start an afterlife by the side of Mudjekeewis.

Through the Song of Hiawatha, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow tells his readers that white people
are now the proper owners of American land, they are now the leading race – after all, it was
Hiawatha himself who left the once Indian lands to be ruled by whites. This is Longfellow’s
message. His epic about Native Americans is very detrimental towards them, and instead of
making white readers aware of the beauty and values of Indigenous culture, and also of the fact
that they are also humans who deserve all rights that a human being ought to have, Longfellow
just strengthens the belief that indeed white race is better than Indian one, and now the white
race is the rightful ruler on territories that have once belonged to Native Americans.

Longfellow was a first poet to earn money by writing and publishing poetry.

Lowell – “The Biglow Papers,” “A Fable for Critics” - the first one is a first case of the spoken
American language of an uneducated person – a farmer (prejudices and stereotypes). Biglow
believes in freedom, but not for Blacks – he is intelligent in his own way, he minds his own
business. A Fable for Critics – it is a poem that includes characteristics of all the mayor figures
(like George Washington). 1857 – editor-in-chief of the “Atlantic Monthly”.

Holmes – rather simple poetry “The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table”

Emerson did not like these guys. In 1844 Emerson described the poet of his dream in “The Poet”
– this poet should speak a language of common American people. He should be a
transcendentalist. And dang, then came a journalist from New York named Walt Whitman -
father of free verse, it corresponded well with Whitman’s message – I’m going to write about
everything (he even expressed his enthusiasm about the developing urban areas. His poems had
no rhythm - he claimed his poems had the rhythm of breath. “I am the poet of the body, I am
the poet of the soul”). 1855 – first edition of Leaves of Grass, 1891 –“The deathbed edition,” the
last one. Whitman expressed views similar to transcendental ones. Surprisingly sensual (armpit
is holly). He wrote about human body and sex. Gay poetry. Whitman pretty much influenced the
poetry of the 20th century.

Emily Dickinson – did not publish her poetry during her life, therefore she did not influence
anyone. 1955 – the discovery of Dickinson’s poetry. She did not practice free verse in Whitman’s
way. She revolutionized the syntax of the poem. She did not use punctuation, nor capital letters.
She made nouns having the function of verbs, and the other way round. It is easy to say what
her poems are about.

Dates to remember:

1. 1789 – The Power of Sympathy

2. 1840 – Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque
3. 1836 – Nature, Transcendental Club
4. 1854 – Walden
5. 1855 – Leaves of Grass

Outbreak of the Civil War. Influence on American literature. Certain important writers died
during the Civil War. Whitman became a nurse, he wrote and published numbers of poems
(Drum Taps collection – relations of soldiers who fought in the Civil War). Emily Dickinson also
wrote poems about Civil War – not directly, but she hid some messaged concerning the Civil
War.

Before the Civil War – symbolic mode was very characteristic. After the Civil War – there was a
new mode of representation – literary realism practiced both by men and women. Red Badge of
Courage by Stephen Crane (taking place during the American Civil War, the story is about a
young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, who flees from the field of battle. Overcome
with shame, he longs for a wound, a "red badge of courage," to counteract his cowardice. When
his regiment once again faces the enemy, Henry acts as standard-bearer, who carries a flag).
Crane, born in 1871 , wrote his novel on the basis of interviews with veterans.

Edmund Wilson – Patriotic Gore

Daniel Fearon – The Unwritten War

Only Red Badge of Honor was studied by not only specialists.

After the Civil War, the “Atlantic Monthly” received a new editor-in-chief – William Dean
Howells, literary critic, and a fiction writer. He thought that realism should be incorporated into
the American literature. He moved “Atlantic Monthly” from Boston to New York. The literature
of the United States had a more comprehensive – many places. The writers appeared.

Hamlin Gorland – Main – Traveler Road – about feminist who did everything to survive at the
prairie, in the difficult circumstances. Suddenly money turned out to be an important part of the
post-Civil War literature.
Mark Twain – introduced a new mode of writing - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Substandard
of English language, used many different dialects.

George Washington Cable – wrote short stories and novels, in which he portrayed cultures that
were not presented before - Louisiana – a rather French state - he wrote about races there, free
Blacks.

Kate Chopin – The Awakening – 1900

Mary Austin – from California

Mary E. Wilkins Freedman, Rose Terry Cooke, Alice Brown, Sarah Orne Jewett – they wrote and
published regional literature. They published in “Atlantic Monthly” – mainly short stories. They
were writing about New England, which became the museum of its own glory.

Post-Civil War – world of women, not many men left. The death toll was very long – many men
died during the Civil War. Whitman continued writing – when he died he was considered the
most important American poet.

Emerson’s post-Civil War stuff – not as important as the pre- one

Edgar Lee Masters – Spoon River Anthology – volume of poetry. A collection of epitaphs from
the local cemetery.

Henry James – great writer of the “international theme” – differences between US and Europe.
The Portrait of a Lady, The Golden Bowel, The Ambassadors – upper-middle class and middle
class. He introduced what we call the point of view.