Early American Literature 1607 - 1848

1
Early American Literature1607 - 1848

• Characteristics

2
Puritan beliefs displayed

• Example poetry by Edward Taylor or Anne
  Bradstreet
• writer examines relationship with God
• OR writers ideas reflect Puritan values, like
  love being more important than wealth
• OR work is a sermon or religious tract explaining
  a belief

3
Typical early genres

• sermon, religious poem, religious tract, diaries
  or journals
• Example Taylors or Bradstreets religious
  poems Mathers sermons Bradfords history.
• By end of 1700s, short fiction also became
  popular (add this to the options on your
  worksheet)

4
Settings firmly grounded in the new world

• Story is located in America.
• Place names and other details make this clear.

5
Focus on issues unique to the new world

• Revolutionary War creation of new government
• Encounters with Native Americans
• Forming new social norms people dont have to
  behave just like they did in Europe
• Surviving in a wilder environment
• etc.

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Concerns about Native Americans

• Settlers relationship with Native Americans
• How should Native Americans be treated?
• What are Native Americans like?

7
Concerns about slavery

• Is it acceptable?
• What are its consequences?

8
Developing new social codes and/or a national
identity

• How should people behave, e.g.
• romantic relationships
• marriage
• status
• treatment of Native Americans/slaves
• What should the government be like?

9
Fictional plots are simple stories are more like
sketches

• Sketch
• prose that describes a scene or character
• not much plot, no conflict, no resolution

10
Use of realistic dialects

• Characters sound like regular people, not
  aristocrats
• How do we identify realistic?
• Shortened words show natural pronunciation
• chargd, wont, havin, whipt
• Look for flavoring particles
• today you use like and ya know what might
  be the equivalent in the stories you read?
• Phonetic spelling of accented English
• de the ting thing