Literatura amerykańska, opis w języku angielskim część 1, Egzaminy z Kultura amerykańska i angloamerykańska

Pobierz Literatura amerykańska, opis w języku angielskim część 1 i więcej Egzaminy w PDF z Kultura amerykańska i angloamerykańska tylko na Docsity! AMERICAN LITERATURE • American literature is a modern, recent and internatonal literature, we cannot follow it from oral to written or from manuscripcts to the book. America possessed a deep heritage of culture, mythology, ritual, poetry. • America existed in Europe long before the continent was discovered, in speculative writings, • A wide and faithful audience (Oprah's Book Club – the most influential institution on the book market), • Firm foundations in philosophy (Pragmatism as answer to European neurotic modernism), • For a long time American literature has been overshadowed by Europe, cause American literature wasn't developed yet, • only after modernism it began to be truly present on the world's literary stage, „Modernism really began in America but went to Paris to happen” → Getrude Stein, 1991 • American literature is full of paradoxes, repetition, and innovation, • In criticism, for many years American literature was a branch of British literature (America didn't have indepencdence, no identity), • Due to significant innovations it made its name in the world (i.e. Stream of conciousness), • American literature it is literature of paradoxes: a) new/ old (Puritans with old traditions), b) empty/full (empty: no nation, no indentity; full: of land, natives), c) innovative/ derivative, American literature is a literature that had to invent it's own past. Many writers and critics undertook the task of creating American literary tradition, usable literaly past.(American literature without a past / British – there is framework) • American literature preoccupied with its own sense of identity, • A shifting sense of canon: a) the once appreciated „The Genteel tradition” (Ferimore Cooper, Washington, Irving, William Cullen Bryant) replaced by the disregarded tradition (Poe, Hawthorne, Melville) • The dervivative replaced by the innovtive, • American literary tradition is hugely shaped by the economy, finance, different ways of paying for things (aristocracy payed for literature in Europe, American Literature has to be payed itself, so very commercial), • Promotes the need to understand American values world- wide, • American literature of the fringes in the spotlight (yet another paradox), • Americans, perhaps more than any other nation in the world has been aware of the fictional quality of their own history (Hayden White comes as no surprise), • Fact/ Fiction => journalistic tradition (Hemingway, Steinback) => advertising tradition (DeLillo), History lessons ( a story = narrative= history = fiction) we tell history like we tell stories, history is sometimes tragic or grotesque, • American literature is inherently modern and interrational (as opposed to the European literary tradition) => Europe different stories, many places, America => huge place • The American antiquity ( indigenous civilizations) played no role in the creation of the American literary tradition, (no significant works, it means no popular) => they don't shape American literature as it is today), • American literature stands on European letters => language(s) English, but also French and Spanish => The Bible – every modern story is a biblical story, Puritans settlement was religious, EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE = myth making time • Combination of European Renaissance and American landscapes Renaissance in Europe: sonnets, theatre, Shakespeare, influence of Italian literature, open – mindeness, discoveries, • the early settlers came to America with their preconceptions of the land, many of which proved to be misconceptions, • America existed in the European imagination long before the settlement: - Atlantis, - Avalon, - Utopia, - Paradise, • America should be special, the early myth needed to be tested, great landscpaes and natural wonders vs. Great dangers (disease and starvation), There were strange civilizations, unusual savages, but also danger, death, disease, cruelty and starvation. Those myths were mixed with acuality and promise with disappoitment.It is impossible to say when American literature began: letters, logs, reports, • First book written about America by Capitan John Smith „A description of New England” London, 1616 for people who want to invest, for politicians. PURITANISM • Much of the settlement in America was Puritan, and therefore inherently separatist (they were banned, without land, cause they were religious fanatics), • The Puritans were leaving Europe running away from religious persecution, • Unlike Smith, they wanted independence, • The Pilgrim Fathers produced significant amounts of written records – much of this writing was about the religious mission they considered themselves to be on, • Providential meanings, hidden messages from God, a lasting impact on American literature, God speaking to them through events, science= kalwinists (science need to be interpreted), • They also produced the first book printed on American soil (The Bay Psalme Book – 1640), WILLIAM BRADFORD „ OF THE PLYMOUTH PLANTATION” • Leader of the Plymouth separatists, who kept his journal for 20 years, • Governor of the plantation for 30 years, • Author of the most vivd account of the departure, voyage, settlement, development of the plantation, with its dedication to God, • simplicity – it pleases God, • truthfulness, • an interpretation of God's signs (The Puritans believed themselves to have been chosen by God ), • all event seen as signs from God that needed to be interpreted, • History of interpretation, JOHN WINTHROP „ THE HISTORY OF NEW ENGLAND FROM 1630 TO 1649” • governor of a larger plantation to the north of Plymouth, • likr Bradford, he structured his narrative Biblically,