AMERICAN LITERATURE

OLDEST LITERATURE:
– mainly Indian literature in spoken form, fairy tales, legends, myths, songs
– Vikings came from North- 1. lit. work: The Old Northern Viking Saga
– the first notices of literature were often sent to Europe from Americans to inform in forms of diaries, charts, maps, letters

17th CENTURY:
– 1. colony – Jamestown
Diaries of Captain John Smith -story about the Indians Pocahontas
Anne Bradstreet -2. half of 17. cent., first published book – poems

18th CENTURY:
– War of Independence
Benjamin Franklin
– writer, painter, editor, scientist, inventor..
– owned his own printing shop, said to had invented the lightning rod
– Own Biography
– Poor Richard’s Almanac -way to wealthy, american dream

Thomas Paine
– Common Sense (supports fight for independence)- philosophical, political

19th CENTURY:
– Romanticism was connected with nationalism
– Americans were proud of the American intellectual tradition

Washington Irving
– wrote about history of settlement of the USA
– The Sketch Book -uses traditional Indian stories, against white people
– History of New York

James Cooper
– wrote about conversion- differences between waste and civilised land
– The Pioneers -life in the USA, Indians against white people
– Leather Stocking Tales -settling Wild West
–The Last of the Mohicans- Indian novels of adventure

Walt Whitman
-poet of democracy, freedom, sexual love
-Leaves of Grass

Edgar Allan Poe
– a poet and short stories writer, founder of psychological horror
– The Raven (the most famous poet), The Black Cat, The Hole and Pendulum

Herman Melville
-symbolist
– Moby-Dick

Mark Twain (realism)
– The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
(posilam referat)

20th CENTURY

-the quick development in America at the end of 19th century in industry, trade and manufacturing goods gave rise to many problems. Authors first try describe the ugliness of life, where moneymaking dominates, destroys human character and put aside all human values.
Realism and naturalism developed.

Theodore Dreiser
– Sister Carrie –naturalism novel, he showed the ugly sides of American life
– American Tragedy- …negative hero, he becomes a murderer, but it is not the hero who is to blame(vinny) but the society and the systém

Jack London
– descriptions of the adventurous life at the time of the gold rush
– The Call of the Wind

After the WW I. a group of writers known as the Lost Generation entered literature. They were writers who were influenced by the war. Their experience resulted in disillusionment.

Francis Scott Fitzgerald
– connected with Jazz Age of the 20s.
– many stories about wealthy people, for whom everything is so easy because of money
– The Great Gatsby

William Faulkner

John Steinbeck
– he tried to uncover the reasons of social injustice
– The Grapes of Wrath- about the fruit- growers in California

William Styron
– Sophie’s Choice –about problems of nazis concentration camps and conditions of human life in peace influenced by the biter war experience

William Saroyan
– short stories, novels, drama full of humanity, love of children, human relations
– Papa you are Crazy