ALH - Module 2: Revolution Through The American Renaissance PDF

Module 2: Revolution through the American Renaissance 1. Timeline and Contexts – Constructing the USA: From the Revolution to American Cultural Nationalism − selected timeline (1750s to 1865) o ‘British North America’ (around 1750, mainly territory of the 13 original colonies) grad...

Module 2: Revolution through the American Renaissance 1. Timeline and Contexts – Constructing the USA: From the Revolution to American Cultural Nationalism − selected timeline (1750s to 1865) o ‘British North America’ (around 1750, mainly territory of the 13 original colonies) gradually expanding westwards o 1760: George III becomes king of Great Britain (‘villain of Great Britain’) o 1764: Sugar Act (taxes, issues of taxation) o 1765: Stamp Act (repealed in 1766) o 1767: Townshend Act o 1768: British troops arrive in Boston ▪ troops in their own territory mark the point where America is seen as different from Great Britain ▪ colonisers see themselves as the true Americans and see troops as a turning against them o 1770: Boston Massacre o 1773: Boston Tea Party/Tea Act ▪ taxes on tea release a protest ▪ mass movement ▪ revolution o 1774: Coercive Acts/first continental congress in Philadelphia o 1775: Battles of Lexington and Concord, second continental congress, battle of Bunker Hill → beginning of actual war o 1775-1783: Revolutionary War/War of Independence ▪ war starts before the Declaration of Independence ▪ historical consciousness: colonisers see themselves as American not Europeans in America ▪ great awakening of the 1740s and 1750s → America is more than just New England ▪ religious movement turned into national movement ▪ increasing economic tensions: American colonies pay for Great Britain but want independence → creates world enemies ▪ colonies did not need Great Britain to defend themselves o 1776: Thomas Paine Common Sense/’Declaration of Independence’ o 1777: congress approves ‘Articles of Confederation’ o 1781: British troops surrender at Yorktown o 1783: Treaty of Paris → end of Revolutionary War o 1787: Philadelphia Constitutional Convention o 1789: first congress convenes in New York, George Washington as the first president, Northwest Ordinance, Louisiana Purchase ▪ America buys territory from the French ▪ British America becomes larger (westward expansion) → Manifest Destiny idea that settlers are destined to expand and grow openness/vastness: justification for expansion manipulated view of Europeans mid 40s-50s: climax of province theory o 1812-1815: British American War o 1823: Monroe Doctrine → declares America to Americans and rejects any outside influence o 1845-1848: conflict and war with Mexico o 1861-1865: Civil War − population o tremendous growth o 1700: ca. 300,000 people (in what would become the 13 colonies)  o 1860/61: ca. 31 million people o immigration ▪ 1700-1750: ca. 210,000 immigrants to British North America ▪ 1815-1860: ca. 5 million European immigrants ▪ 17th century: ca. 10,000 African American slaves (forcefully taken) ▪ 1861: ca. 4 million slaves o Native Americans ▪ 1492: 7-10 million ▪ 1820: 125,000 2. Reading and Writing the Revolution and its Impacts − American enlightenment and revolutionary writing o mindset of Americans during this time ▪ independence from Britain → self-determination as a basic human right ▪ right to rebel against an oppressive government (Britain) ▪ natural goodness of human beings ▪ possibility of improvement: not negative, not corrupted ▪ inalienable natural rights → need to be protected by community and government (life, liberty, property in ‘Declaration of Independence’) ▪ progress to perfection: individual and society should work towards perfection (society reaches perfection when they grant individual freedom, political rights, government that follows system of harmony and balance) ▪ Deism: God wants society to take care of the world − process of nation-building o American revolution ▪ Thomas Paine: Common Sense (1776) published few months before Declaration of Independence calls for open break with England (attack on the king) contains a way to a foundation of a nation establishment for a union of American colonies text breaks taboos foreshadows major points of Declaration of Independence influenced by John Locke ▪ Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence (1776) life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness first ideas of government sacred, holy document of and for Americans but actually nothing legal cultural influence and universal/emotional/moral appeal o establishment of the political system of the United States of America ▪ Constitution (1787) very short and open document → open to continued changes and improvement structures the new nation leaves room for new interpretation ▪ Federalist papers (1788, especially number 10) support Constitution o early interpretations of the early republic ▪ J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur: Letters from an American Farmer (especially number 3) moving from the idea of independence to ‘what are our common goals’ major differences between America and Europe provides ideologies for a collective identity  gives America image of the ‘most perfect society in the world’ (like Puritans) → city upon a hill (Winthrop) names it ‘great American Asylum’ as the places where races melt (early ideology of melting pot) notion of individualism ▪ Thomas Jefferson: Notes on the State of Virginia (especially query 19) basic document of American ideal defines America as agrarian nation people become virtuous when they are on American land ideal American has good character created by independent work on land glorious contrast to Europe ▪ John Locke and the theory of natural rights newness glorious contrast melting pot freedom individualism middle-class ideology agrarian ideal → textual power: America as a nation construct founded on texts and their interpretations − Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) – the representative American? o self-made and self-educated man → embodiment of independence and what it means to be an American o the many Ben Franklins: different assessments of his representative position ▪ universalist journalist, scientist, revolutionary, commercially, successful business man, transatlantic mediator, public figure, politician, naturalist enlightenment: idea of improving oneself was very influential to him, perfectibility, secular religion, doing good o from late Puritanism onwards to American enlightenment (he was around during the revolution) o Poor Richard’s Almanack (ca. 1732-1758) ▪ format that moved beyond a calendar with additional information (practical remarkable events, information, jokes, …) ▪ forerunner of magazines o The Way to Wealth ▪ preface to the 25th (1758) Poor Richard’s Almanack ▪ condensed version of Franklin’s ideology individual progress commercial success civic virtues: self-made man, work ethic, comfortable life being in the middle class ▪ personal vices prevent success idleness pride folly sloth debts o The Autobiography ▪ Benjamin Franklin is seen as homo americanus  ▪ first example of American literature/autobiography ▪ morally good citizen, notion of material success, based on self-improvement ▪ individualism, success, upward mobility, perfectibility ▪ individual life represents collective history → constructs himself as a prototypical (typical American story) ▪ part 1 (1771) written in England before independence and revolution ▪ part 2 (1784) written in Paris after independence and revolution ▪ part 3 (1788) begun in Pennsylvania and written in US ▪ part 4 (1790) written shortly before his death ▪ endpoint of the story: 1759 → didactic (conduct book): started off as a letter to his son (educating him on how to be American) but influenced people in terms of behaviour o parts of autobiography ▪ list of 13 virtues (silence, order, justice, moderation, …) ▪ chart (for self-control, to fill in the virtues you fulfilled on that day) ▪ schedule (planning and structuring the days wisely in order to become a self-made American) 3. Towards Cultural Nationalism − the ‘search for a common vision’ (1776/1783 to 1837) o ‘newly created’ nation is supposed to be a community → US is facing the need to establish themselves as a nation (through literature, culture, …) o ‘usable past’ ▪ creating a nation is easier to do if you search for past things that people share and have in common (collective national memory, common shared experiences, …) ▪ makes them feel united and as one nation ▪ past as self-identification: coined by Van Wyck Brooks (1918) o rhetoric and ‘glorious contrast’ ▪ the rhetoric continues to support a positive image of America (having one enemy like Britain connects the people) o American literature/culture ▪ felt like they needed their own literary and cultural traditions ▪ desire for programmatic statements prefaces articles and reviews speeches and addresses ▪ driven by nationalist endeavours and need for American made literature and culture − common positions, major ideas and programmatic aspects o early history is worthy to write about o arguments that Americans can have their own literature apart from Europe o rejection of writing about Europe because America offers enough to write about − Ralph Waldo Emerson: The American Scholar – central statement o original title: ‘An Oration Delivered before the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Cambridge, August 31st, 1837’ o declares cultural independence from England o call for a new type of American intellectual and writer ▪ someone who knows books ▪ someone with a shared and common past ▪ role model for people in their everyday life ▪ someone who enables Americans to look up to American scholars  o ‘American Man Thinking’ as a counter voice o tensions governing American society at that time − wave of historical literature in the US o popular topics ▪ Puritan New England history ▪ American Revolution ▪ history of the South/settlement history ▪ life on the frontier/intercultural encounters and conflicts (interesting for fiction) − the cultural work of American poetry in the revolutionary and early national periods o political: caused by revolution and nation building o didactic: to advocate and promote national character, to educate in notion of nation building o collective and public: collective interest is more important than public concern, it’s not about individual voices → the author represents the collective o content: American o form: remains European o aesthetics: weak and behind the British o functions ▪ popular voices of the Fireside Poets contribute to American exceptionalism → cultural dominance of New England (cultural centre, characteristics of New England seen as characteristics of America) popular acceptance of American literature used American materials (so called showroom poets: their books were in a lot of households, people knew them) followed traditional conventions and American culture (nationalism) in the interest of America BUT things can be improved major Fireside Poets: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Russell Lowell, John Greenleaf Whittier ▪ Philip Freneau/Henry H. Brackenridge: The Rising Glory of America (1771/72) expression of national consciousness and national identity before revolution already use of usable past, independence, exceptional status (place of universal peace) and contrasting (glorious contrast, English stand for aristocracy and everything bad but America stands for liberty and independence) ▪ American (Romantic) Nature Poetry of the late 18th and early 19th centuries Freneau, Bryant, Schoolcraft focus: emotions (individual reactions), subjectivity and nature → Romanticism − interlude: Romantic Mode o neoclassicist dominance in American cultural history towards the end of the 18th century delayed emergence of American Romanticism o ‘romantic’ and ‘neoclassicist’ movements not necessarily an opposition in American literature of the early 19th century → blending of strains o features ▪ focus on notion that art comes from imagination → innovative art ▪ spontaneity, emotions, individual reactions, subjectivity ▪ nature (untamed) ▪ man and woman in their natural state: good (human beings are morally good and not corrupted) ▪ infinity, unfinished states, disorder, extremes ▪ transitoriness of life  ▪ beauty and harmony of creation ▪ representation of Indians: as noble savages but still inferior ▪ relation between the individual/the subject and nature − W.C. Bryant: The Prairies (1832/33) o focus on specific landscape in the American Midwest ▪ landscape of beauty and vastness shows uniqueness of America → contrast to England ▪ whites are not part of that beauty ▪ beauty is represented by Native American past o makes the landscape into a poem o political dimension: America is superior to England because of the landscape − further platforms for the cultural work of American nationalism o Pierre L’Enfant: nationalist architecture in Washington D.C. (1791) ▪ National Mall ▪ city did not emerge naturally but was planned to be public, national and representative ▪ shortly after foundation of US ▪ capitol in the middle of two V-shaped streets → embracing the nation ▪ sacred place o Washington Monument: architecture of development o nature paintings, history paintings, portraits ▪ Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt ▪ paintings as expressions of national/patriotic sentiments and pride o nature paintings ▪ fusion of natural science, aesthetic sensibility, cultural nationalism natural and cultural elements as particular American elements belong to that particular nation → turned into national endeavour ▪ Hudson River School of nature painting 1st independent American painting school influential in the 1820s, 1830s and through the 19th century greatness and vastness of nature was taken as God’s sign o history paintings ▪ The Landing of Columbus shared past foundation of America BUT a European beginning, not for Native Americans → American identity is really European identity ▪ Currier and Ives: The Signing of the Declaration of Independence replications and production of lots of those even though this is a white point of view o portraits ▪ focus on historical figures (the Founding Fathers) and on common man (hard working American character) o festive culture ▪ two major festivities competed for the position of national holiday until the Civil War: both celebrate usable past and are a ritualistic celebration of a collective nationalism Fourth of July: Independence Day, celebrated beginning of America’s independence → is not equally happy day for all Americans Forefather’s Day: stayed alive during the revolution and Civil War but declined after that, celebration of 1620 landing of pilgrim fathers → time period between the 1780s and 1840s as a process of American nationalisation in all fields of cultural production (we have to be critical with that nonetheless) 4. The American Renaissance (1830s – Civil War) − between 1780 and 1840: period of American nationalism → formation of a traditional canon of classic American literature (American Renaissance) − F.O. Matthiessen: American Renaissance – Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman (1941) o about American literature during Renaissance o focuses on publications from 1850-1855 o argues that within 5 years main corpus of American literature was published o his claims ▪ American literature came to maturity ▪ affirmed rightful heritage of culture and literature ▪ listing the most important writers of all times exclusively white and male canon list was influential into the 1970s/80s list was accepted by a large group of people yet: five writers on that list were not only affirmative of America (rather critical) o his list of writers included: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman − new Americanist revisions/canon revision/opening the canon in the 1980s/90s o criticising Matthiessen o calling for more women writers and more ethnically diverse writers o more texts from outside traditional forms and genres → extension of the canon 5. American literature: novel, poetry and short story 5.1 State of the Art – The American Novel − the emergence/rise of the American novel through the early 19th century o many precursors and influences o novel gradually developed in the US but there was a presence of English novels as well o development of the novel is linked to the idea of representation of culture → nationalism o traced beginning: William Hill Brown (born American) wrote The Power of Sympathy or The Triumph of Nature in 1789 → shortly after revolution o 3 major types of novels ▪ sentimental (epistolary) novel Susanna Haswell Rowson (1762-1824): Charlotte Temple, A Tale of Truth Hannah Webster Foster (1759-1840): The Coquette ▪ gothic novel Charles Brockden Brown (1771-1840): Wieland ▪ gentry novel had been popular in Britain as well Henry Hugh Brackenridge (1748-1816): Modern Chivalry − the American novel – coming of age (classic): 1820s through 1850s o supportive factors/contexts ▪ technical innovations: printing got cheaper, communication, transportation → easier to distribute books over America and therefore production of more novels ▪ demography: development of a reading public, more time to read and write and more people who have the ability, women become audience → create market for literature ▪ attitude and cultural politics: fiction becomes accepted, cultural nationalism − example: James Fenimore Cooper’s Frontier novels o introduced and established Frontier and historical novels o gained a lot of popularity  o Leatherstocking novels ▪ The Pioneers (1823) ▪ The Last of the Mohicans (1826) ▪ The Prairie (1827) ▪ The Pathfinder (1840) ▪ The Deerslayer (1841) o Frontier novel popularised fiction and made the West into a topic → West therefore gained attractiveness in Europe o main topic: clash of civilisation and wilderness between east and west o gives historical panorama from pre-revolutionary times into 1800s o Cooper draws attention to ▪ various traditions and conventions ▪ stock character of the (noble) frontiersman Natty Bumppo (represents Native American older traditions) ▪ representation of Native Americans: distinction between good and bad Indians decided by the fact if they can be civilised ▪ American scenes and settings: explicitly American, stresses greatness and vastness of landscape → national significance of American nation ▪ civilisation and ecological perspective − a productive paradigm: romance VS. novel o major novels around 1850/51: during Romanticism o ‘romance’: quintessential form of American fiction → imaginary, more focus on the individual land (American Ideal) o distinction between romance and novel ▪ by William G. Simms and Nathaniel Hawthorne ▪ romance: what is possible, not necessarily true facts, imaginative exploration of the individual ▪ novel: more realistic in a general sense, fidelity, stresses imitation of reality, facts, real experiences o superiority of romance in ▪ The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Hawthorne → major influence in American literary history ▪ Moby Dick (1851) by Melville → core of American Renaissance and very influential 5.2 State of the Art – American Poetry: Whitman and Dickinson − innovative interpretations of poetry − major features of poetry before them o more conventional informed o restrains and patterns o interested collective ideas and written for community o sentimental, patriotic, representative − now o individual feelings and thoughts o stresses their poetic expression − contextualisation in terms of history of American poetry o Walt Whitman (1789-1851) ▪ well know poet, journalist, editor, writer ▪ meditative lyrics on the vastness of (hetero- and homosexual) love, nature, the city, technology and war ▪ sample text: Leaves of Grass (1855) new American poetry in content and form  twelve poems including ‘Song of Myself’ did not put his name on the books because he saw it as a medium of democracy was received positively in Europe and was very popular → therefore challenged the standard ▪ ‘Preface’ poetological statement literary and cultural nationalism → climax of national poetry poet as bard = poet as prophet of democracy (medium of divine energy) exceptionalism Americans cannot and should not be inferior to anything or anyone emphasises greatness of nature power vitality of America comes from diversity, space and dimensionalism democratic power ▪ major features of his poetry democracy: best political system for individual, represents individuality but also the community representation of America and of its diverse voices ▪ structural aspects and language/register free form/verse (vernacular) poems that sound like everyday speech → expresses democracy through this (no complicated patterns, for everyone to understand) political statements in poetry do not come from somewhere else but from America coordination instead of subordination Songs of Myself: autobiographical body (includes his experiences with being human, central symbol: grass for democratic spirit because it is everywhere and equal, one blade of grass represents the individual and grass altogether is the community) ▪ Whitman’s impact innovation: innovator of American poetry of the 19th century precursor: starts traditions in poetry (individuality, democracy, the body) influence valid until today o Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) ▪ strong influence on poetry until today ▪ from New England (prominent family) ▪ innovative poetry in form and content ▪ vernacular form: not bound to any patterns ▪ topics religion and science nature music death and love personal experiences like struggling, feelings of loss, not being successful ▪ difference Whitman and Dickinson: celebrating life VS. struggles of life (female, anxiety, reclusion) 5.3 State of the Art – American Short Story − very had to define but still found in dictionaries − coinage of the term: Brander Matthews with ‘The Philosophy of the Short-Story’ (1885) − before: short stories did exist but the authors did not refer to them as such (Poe) → term of short story was introduced later − role of magazines o easy publishing meant fast way to earn money o included pro series, continued the almanack tradition (forerunner of magazine in Puritan times) o magazines fostered production of short stories o major collection produced in the first half of the 19th century ▪ Washington Irving: The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon (1819-20), Tales of Traveller (1824) ▪ Nathaniel Hawthorne: Twice-Told Tales, Mosses from an Old Manse ▪ Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque (1840) ▪ Herman Melville: Piazza Tales (1856) − Edgar Allan Poe o competing assessments ▪ morbid in life and art ▪ characterised as problematic character: problems, poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, orphanage, dysfunctional family, preoccupied with death VS. precursor of modernist literature, brilliant artist, defended art for art’s sake ▪ master of poetry ▪ outsider position o sample text: Reflections on the ‘short prose narrative’ ▪ focus on the constructed effect: invented, carefully crafted, doesn’t come naturally ▪ no historical/political obligations: autonomy of art (art does not have to have a particular purpose, art for art’s sake) ▪ idea of the beautiful (does not have to be useful) ▪ anti-imitation/anti-mimesis: can be product of unlimited imagination and fantasy o ‘short prose narrative’ – form ▪ needs to be brief, you need to be able to read it all at once ▪ ‘totality of effect and impression’/‘unique and single effect’ → one general attitude/atmosphere (this can only be achieved if the text is short) ▪ functionality of elements: lots of adjectives, symbolic language, no subplots, no side-stories, no new ideas, no insertions, no other emotions ▪ plot: tightly structured ▪ characters: flat, not too complex, supposed to contribute to the whole ▪ suited for: extreme situations, (borderline) decisions, existential crises, defending important moments in life, epiphanic moments, clash between ideal and reality, life is bad o ‘short prose narrative’ – thematic concerns ▪ gothic horror ▪ ‘the imp of the perverse’: primitive human heart and psyche, a way of thinking that isn’t rational ▪ the grotesque: no way of telling what’s reality and what’s imagination ▪ world as enigma/tale of ratiocination: story needs to be solved, you have to decipher the story ▪ psychological dispositive ▪ urge to destroy oneself and to commit sins ▪ world gone absurd ▪ reality and illusion ▪ the mask: betrayal, deception ▪ doppelgänger, dead people returning, being buried alive, drawn into water, infinite holes o Poe’s attitude towards life is reflected in his literature o very influential