The Consolidation of American Literature

1. The Consolidation of American Literature 1780-1861

2. General characteristics of the period • During this period we have the coming of age of American literature. • The period is marked by the consolidation of United States as an independent country. • American authors were, in general, questioning whether it was their task to develop an entirely new and original kind of literature. • There were voices saying that American Literature should be considered a part of its British counterpart. Others said that authors should aim at producing works of universal appeal. • In the end, works produced during this period show traces of the three concerns mentioned above. • During this period, the novel becomes the most popular literary genre in America.

3. Washington Irving1783–1859 Irving was one of the first Americans to be recognized abroad as a man of letters, and he was a literary idol at home. Under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickerbocker, he published A History of New York (1809), a satire that has been called the first great book of comic literature written by an American. In 1819–20 The stories The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.; including “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, found an enthusiastic reception and made Irving the best-known figure in American literature both at home and abroad.

4. James Fennimore Cooper1789–1851 • American novelist. He was the first important American writer to use the subjects and landscape of his native land to create a picture of frontier life. • Cooper's career, began in 1820 with the appearance of Precaution. His next work, The Spy (1821), was a success. • In his most important novels, the Leatherstocking Tales including The Deerslayer (1841), The Last of the Mohicans (1826), The Pathfinder (1840), The Pioneers (1823), and The Prairie (1827), Cooper dramatized the conflict between the frontier wilderness and the inexorable advance of civilization. • Cooper's later works include the novels Afloat and Ashore and its sequel, Miles Wallingford, and the Littlepage trilogy—Satanstoe, The Chainbearer, and The Redskins.

5. William Cullen Bryant1794 - 1878 • American poet and newspaper editor. • In his early poems such as “Thanatopsis,” and “The Yellow Violet”, he celebrated the majesty of nature in a style that was influenced by the English romantics. • He became associate editor of the New York Evening Post in 1826 • He was a defender of human rights and an advocate of free trade, abolition of slavery, and other reforms.

6. Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–82 • American poet and essayist. • Through his essays, poems, and lectures, he established himself as a leading spokesman of transcendentalism and as a major figure in American literature. • His most famous essay, Nature, was published in 1836. In this work he laid the foundations for the transcendentalist movement. • Among his best-known poems are “Threnody,” “Brahma,” “The Problem,” “The Rhodora,” and “The Concord Hymn.”

7. Henry David Thoreau 1817 - 62 • American author and naturalist. • Thoreau is considered one of the most influential figures in American thought and literature. • His most famous book, Walden (1854), is an account of his experiment in near-solitary living in close harmony with nature; it is also an expression of his transcendentalist philosophy. • Other works include the important essay “Civil Disobedience”, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Excursions, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, and A Yankee in Canada.

8. Nathaniel Hawthorne1804–64 • American novelist and short-story writer, b. Salem, Mass., one of the great masters of American fiction. His novels and tales are penetrating explorations of moral and spiritual conflicts. • His most famous novel is The Scarlett Letter, a study of hypocricy in the puritan society of the early settlers. • In the House of the Seven Gables, he explores the same topics but in a contemporary setting. • He is also considered the father of the american short story, a genre fully developed by Edgar Allan Poe.

9. Emily Dickinson1830 - 1886 • She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, where she lived until her death. • During her life she only published 7 of a total of 1800 poems. • On her death, her poems were published and became widely popular. She became especially appreciatted during the second part of the 20th century, attitude that continues until today. • She is considered one of the most innovative poets of the 19th century,epecially due to her use of unconventional rhyme, structure and vocabulary.

10. Transcendentalism • In literature, philosophical and literary movement that flourished in New England from about 1836 to 1860. • Transcendentalism derived some of its basic idealistic concepts from romantic German philosophy, notably that of Immanuel Kant, and from such English authors as Coleridgeand Wordsworth. • Its mystical aspects were partly influenced by Indian and Chinese religious teachings. • The beliefs that God is immanent in each person and in nature and that individual intuition is the highest source of knowledge led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism, self-reliance, and rejection of traditional authority. • Source: The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2003, Columbia University Press.