I. What is Literature?

1
Introduction
I. What is Literature?
II. Why do we read literature?
III. Why is literature important?
IV. What are we to learn from the book?
V. The outline of American Literature.
2

• What is literature?

3

• Literature is a term used to describe written or
  spoken material. Broadly speaking, "literature"
  is used to describe anything from creative
  writing to more technical or scientific works,
  but the term is most commonly used to refer to
  works of the creative imagination, including
  works of poetry, drama, fiction, and nonfiction.

4

• Why do we read literature?

5

• 1. Literature represents a language or a people
  culture
• and tradition.
• 2. Literature is more important than just a
  historical or
• cultural artifact.
• 3. Literature introduces us to new worlds of
  experience.
• 4. We learn about books and literature we enjoy
  the
• comedies and the tragedies of poems,
  stories, and
• plays and we may even grow and evolve
  through our
• literary journey with books.
• 5. Ultimately, we may discover meaning in
  literature by
• looking at what the author says and how
  he/she says
• it. We may interpret the author's
  message.
• 6. In academic circles, this decoding of the text
  is often
• carried out through the use of literary
  theory, using a
• mythological, sociological,
  psychological, historical, or
• other approach.

6

• Why is literature important ?

7

• Literature is important to us because it speaks
  to us, it is universal, it affects us and it is
  beautiful

8

• Why are we to learn from the book ?

9

• The book A Survey of American Literature
  intends to cover the whole range of the literary
  history of the United States of America from the
  early Colonial Period through the present.
• We need to learn
• 1. A brief account of the major authors and their
  masterworks.
• 2. The major literary trends and currents of
  thought that have dominated the American literary
  scene at one time or another

10

• 1. A brief account of the major authors and their
  masterworks.
• 2. The major literary trends and currents of
  thought that have dominated the American literary
  
• scene at one time or another.

11

• The outline of American Literature

12

• Colonial period (from the early 17th century to
  the end of 18th century)
• Major Writers Benjamin Franklin
• Jonathan Edwards
• Romanticism the first half of 19th century
• Major Writers Washington Irving
• J.M. Cooper
• Edgar Allan Poe
• Hawthorne
• Whitman
• Transcendentalism (New England Renaissance)
• Emerson
• Thoreau
• ( Civil War)
• Realism
• Major Writers W.D. Howells
• Mark Twain
• Henry James

continue
13

• Naturalism (from the last decade of 19th century
  to the early 20th century)
• Major Writers Stephen Crane
• Frank Norris
• Dreiser
• The 1920s
• Major Writers T.S Eliot
• William Faulkner
• Hemingway (Lost
  Generation)
• Imagism
• Major Writer Ezra Pound
• The 1930s
• Major Writer Steinbeck
• American Drama Eugene ONeill
• The Post-war Poetry Confessional Poetry
• Black
  Mountain Poets
• San
  Francisco Renaissance
• The
  Beat Generation
• The
  New York Poets
• The
  Post-war novel