American literature

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American literature
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Top ten books being discussed in U.S.
universities (1)

• R.W. Emerson, Self-Reliance (1841)
• Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850)
• Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Toms Cabin (1852)
• Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
• Henry James, Daisy Miller (1878)

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Top ten books being discussed in U.S.
universities (2)

• F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
• William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929) /
  Light in August (1932)
• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
  (1937)
• Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)
• Toni Morrison, Beloved (1987)

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Teaching American literature in the U.S.

1. What is American literature?
2. What is the status of literature in American
   education?
3. How is literature taught in American schools?

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What is American literature?

• Literature created by American citizens and
  written in English?
• Isaac Bashevis Singer writes in Yiddish?
• Literature in written form? American Indians?
• Literature most representing American national
  spirit by American citizens?
• womens domestic / private literature?
• Literature created by American citizens about the
  U.S. or about any country?
• Singer, Ha Jin?

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Change of the definition of American literature

• The literary canon
• Nationalism ? Multiculturalism

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Literary Canon

• We never read American literature directly or
  freely, but always through the perspective
  allowed by theories. Theories account for the
  inclusion and exclusion of texts in anthologies,
  and theories account for the way we read them.
• Nina Baym, Melodrama of Beset Manhood How
  Theories of American Fiction Exclude Women
  Authors (1981), rpt. Locating American Studies,
  ed. Lucy Maddox (Baltimore Johns Hopkins UP,
  1999), 215-31.

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Nationalism

• a movement, as in the arts, based upon the folk
  idioms, history, aspirations, etc., of a nation /
  the United States of America
• - literature for democracy (Emerson)

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Nationalistic Orientation (1)

1. Dominance of the classic literature of white,
   middle-class, male and of Anglo-Saxon derivation
   or at least from an ancestry which had settled in
   this country before the big waves of immigration
   (mid-19th-century)
2. Exclusion of the literature of women and colored
   people (American Indians, African-Americans,
   Asian Americans, etc)

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Nationalistic Orientation (2)

• 3. Good literature embodiment of American
  national spirit e.g. F. O. Matthiessen in
  American Renaissance (1941) enshrines five
  writers for their devotion to democracy,
  dismissing Mrs. Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin (1852)
  as second rate popular writing only.
• cf. The Scarlet Letter (1850)
• Moby Dick (1851)
• Walden (1854)
• Leaves of Grass (1855)
• Americanness vs Excellence

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Women novelists excluded before 1970

• Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Toms Cabin (1852)
• Kate Chopin The Awakening (1899)
• Edith Wharton The House of Mirth (1905), The Age
  of Innocence (1920)
• Willa Cather O. Pioneers! (1913), My Antonia
  (1918)
• Nora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God
  (1937)

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Hawthorne cultural production

1. Evert Duyckinck, who managed the magazine United
   States Magazine and Democratic Review , advocate
   of American literary nationalism, proponent of
   high culture
2. James T. Fields, classic publisher, creating
   hierarchical canon
3. Houghton Mifflin, promotion of American classics
   as school texts to be studied as national
   heritage elevate elite culture and eradicate
   cultural differences

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Herman Melville

• Moby-Dick (1851)
• Obscurity ? Greatest American novel since
  1920

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Mark Twain

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Greatest novel?
• vs.
• Racist trash ?
• Hypercanonized?

15
Redefinition of American literary past since the
1960s

• Cold War, Vietnam War, Civil Rights Movement,
  womens movement, minority groups struggles for
  equity
• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
  (1937) - Richard Wright, Native Son (1940) vs
  Alice Walker, Looking for Zora (1975)
• Anthologies of Women writers, Asian-American
  literature, American Indian literature
• Inclusion of women and ethnic writers in
  anthologies

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cultural pluralism vs. multiculturalism

• Value of a variety of cultural traditions, esp.
  those of American Indians (native Americans),
  Asian-Americans, African-Americans, and
  Latin-Americans (Hispanics).
• All cultural traditions are valuable and should
  also be treated equally.

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Will the high-culture system crumble? Is the
literary canon possible?

• Reassessment of authors of literary value the
  dominance of Euro-American high culture is made
  problematic
• Reallocation of funds to minority arts
  organizations
• Debates will be highly contentious since the
  cultural authority is challenged.

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Redefinition of American literature

• By the literature of the United States, we mean
  all written and oral literary works produced in
  that part of the world that has become the United
  States of America.
• See Emory Elliott, et al eds. Introduction.
  Columbia Literary History of the United States.
  NY Columbia UP, 1988. xix

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Traditional outline of American literary history

1. The Colonial Period 16091776
2. The Revolutionary Period 17761820
3. The Romantic Period 18201865
4. The Realism and Naturalism 18651920
5. The Modern Period 19201960
6. The Post-modern Period since 1960

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Nortons Outline of American Literature

• Beginnings to 1700
• From colonies to nation 1700-1820
• The Romantic period 18201865
• The Realism and Naturalism 18651914
• The Modern period 19141945
• Contemporary literature since 1945

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1 ??????
Norton Anthology of American Literature????????
???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ???? ????? ????? ???? ????
? ? ? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??
? ? ? 29 714 14 205 128 4899
? ? ? 22.7 14.6 10.9 4.2
? ? ? 80 1548 37 738 14 157 7 70 6 67 224 5426
? ? ? 35.7 29.2 16.5 13.6 6.3 4.6 3.1 1.3 2.7 1.2
? ? ? 14 5 5 5 (????) (????)
22
2 ????

• ???????????????29????????80?,????51?,??????4????
  ???????,?????55????1945???????20????46?,?????2?,??
  ?28?,????????????????,???????????,????????????,???
  1970??????????????

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?????(Hannah Webster Foster, 1758-1840)????(179
7) ??????(Tabitha Tenney, 1762-1834)
?????(1801) ???????(Catharine Maria Sedgwick,
1789-1867) ??????(Lydia H. H. Sigourney,
1791-1865) ??????(Charlotte Perkins Gilman,
1860-1935) ????(1892) ????(Mrs Stowe,
1811-1896) ???????(1852) ????(Willa Cather,
1873-1947) ??????(1918) ???(Emily Dickinson,
1830-1886)
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3 ?????

• ??????????????14????????34?,??1945?????1?,??10?,
  1945????10????21?,??11??
• ??????????????????,????????????,????????,?????????
  ?????

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???????(Zora Neale Hurston, 1891-1960)

??????(1937) ?????(Alice Walker, 1944-)
??(1982) ?????(Toni Morrison, 1931-)
??(1987) ?????????(Friderick Douglass,
1818-1895) ?????????(1845)
?????(1853) ????(Nella Larsen, 1891-1964)
??(Quicksand) (1928)
26
4 ????

• ??????????????,??????14?????,???????????,???????
  ???????????????63?,????????????????????????
• ?????????????????????????????????????????

27
??????(Leslie Marmon Silko, 1948-)??(1977) ???
???(N. Scott Momaday, 1934-)
????(House Made of Dawn)
(1968) ???????(Louise Erdrich, 1954-)
??(1984) ??????(Sherman Alexie, 1966-)
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5 ????

• ??????????????,??????7?????,??5?????,5?????,5??1
  945?????????
• 1865-1914?????1?????,?????????????????(???????)(S
  ui Sin Far or Edith M. Eaton, 1865-1914),?????????
  ????????

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???(Cathy Song, 1955-) ???(Li-Young Lee,
1957-) ???(Maxine Hong Kingston, 1940-)
???(Woman Warrior) (1976)
???(China Men) (1980) ???(Amy Tan, 1952-)
???(The Joy Luck Club) (1989)
????(The Kitchen God's Wife) (1991)
????(The Hundred Secret Senses) (1995)
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6 ?????

• ??????????????6?????????,??5??????,5??1945????????
  
• ???????? (Sandra Cisneros, 1954- )
• ??????(The House on Mango Street)
• (1983)

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????????????????????????????????????????,?????????
,????????????????????????????????,????????????????
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Literature in American schools (1)

• Before the 1870s
• - literature was subordinated to grammar,
  etymology, rhetoric, logic, elocution, theme
  writing, textbook literary history and biography.
• - boring teaching method recitation

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Literature in American schools (2)

• After the 1870s
• - There was a growing expectation of English
  as a potential cultural forces.
• - Teaching literature was professionalized.
• - There gradually appeared the department of
  English Literature in American Universities,
  established the literary canon when universities
  set a list of texts for college entrance
  examinations in English.

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Advocacy of literary nationalism

• A nation without a literature is a nation without
  true greatness and without true independence.
• The literature of a nation is the source of its
  chief glory.
• Teaching literature is a most effective way to
  acculturate the young and to incorporate them
  into the deep American ethos.

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Literature in American schools (3)

• Literature, language, and culture are mixed
  together in the English Department courses
• - Introductions to literature
• - Creative writing workshops
• - Studies of minority or ethnic literatures
• - Seminars of individual writers
• - Seminars of periods, genres, literary
  criticism
• Great books are taught for students of all
  majors, mostly required of students with
  Humanities major.

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Literature teaching methods in American schools

• Lectures
• Discussions
• Presentations
• Recitations
• Writing creative writing paper writing
• Students are strongly encouraged to read the
  original works (since elementary school) and to
  develop their independent thinking and original
  interpretation of literature.

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Assignments for Dickinson's Poems

• Read Dickinsons poems in Tradition
• Read Adrienne Richs Vesuvius at Home
• Think about the following and choose one topic
  to write a short paper
• - Dickinsons unique style and language
• - relationship between nature and humans
• - concept of love
• - concept of death
• - relation between Dickinsons life and her
  poetry