Contemporary Period

Hello guys! This is the last week and we are talking about the contemporary period. I found out these readings very interesting due to the fact that I knew that there are a lot of immigrants in the USA and that every year arrive more and more. However, I could not imagine that they were so many as VanSpanckeren (2001) points out “Some one million new immigrants arrive each year, many from Asia and Latin America” (p. 136). It was surprising for me to realize this because it is amazing to see how this country has influence on different people from different parts of the world. I consider that thanks to many of those immigrants the US literature was developed due to there are many non-native American writers that are important figures because their works have made amazing contributions to the American literature, and nowadays they are recognized over the world even if they are not natives. Thus, it is said, “Literature in the United States today is likewise dazzlingly diverse, exciting, and evolving” (p. 136).

I found out several new things that I did not know. For example, I did not know that postmodernism was another important period for the American literature, and that as the other periods that we have studied, it also has important and significative figures that were a key for the genres and styles that were created during this period due to in that time appeared new and great genres or styles such as: creative nonfiction, short stories, and dramas. In every genre, there were different and successful writers such as: the Irish American Frank McCourt who wrote Angela's Ashes (1996) in which he recalls his childhood of poverty, family alcoholism, and intolerance in Ireland with a surprising warmth and humor (VanSpanckeren, 2001, p. 138). Raymond Carver who absorbed John Gardner's passion, rose above alcoholism and harsh poverty to become the most influential story writer in the United States. Some of his works are: Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? (l976), What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (l981), Cathedral (l983), and Where I'm Calling From (l988) (p.138). And also, the younger dramatist Suzan-Lori Parks, an African-American writer that build on the successes of earlier women. She deals with political issues in experimental works, and her best known work is The American Play (1991) (p. 140). As these figures, there were several writers that not only contributed to the American literature but also made it flourished with their works by empowering every genre or style.

Now, I know that not only there were figures that contributed with the genres and styles but also that there were writers who set in specific parts or regions of the USA in order to develop a literary life as they were inspired by some region. Those regions were classified as: the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, the south, the Midwest, among other regions of the USA. In these regions settled a lot of important figures of the American literature and among those figures is Don DeLillo who set in the Mid-Atlantic. This region is dominated by New York City. He set up in this region because he began as an advertising writer, and his novels explored consumerism among their many themes, and this place was perfectly for him due to that city “is the home of the publishing industry, as well as prestigious art galleries and museums” (VanSpanckeren, 2001, p. 141). Don DeLillo is a very important figure of the American literature because of his works had a big impact in literature’s development due to his works are so impressive. For example, his most popular success is Libra (1988), which is “a novel about John F. Kennedy assassination that indiscriminately mixes fact with wild conspiracy speculation, brought widespread attention to a writer who had already won a devoted readership for eight previous novels” (Perkins and Perkins, 2002, p.2011). Don DeLillo wrote more works like: his first novel Americana (1971), White Noise (1958), among others. However, his work Libra is a great piece of writing that enriched the American literary tradition.

I would like to know if those regions in which American writers set up are still divided in the same way as it used to be in the contemporary period.

Realism and Experimentation

Hello all!! Talking about the Realism and Experimentation period, there are a lot of things which are new for me, so I would like to share with you some of them. For example, I did not know that this period was an era of many and different writers due to in this era flourished a new contingent of writers that included poet-novelist-essayist Robert Penn Warren, dramatists Arthur Miller, Lillian Hellman, and Tennessee Williams, and short story writers Katherine Anne Porter and Eudora Welty (VanSpanckeren, 97).  Also, many of these writers were from the South and others were not, but their vision and works were focused on people from the South. As these writers, there were many others who also made great contributions to the American literature because they even though at that time there were wars and they were immigrants from different countries, they made an effort which nowadays is recognized in the American literature and around the world because of their great literary works. One of those figures was Saul Bellow, who studied anthropology and sociology which influenced his writings. His works were well done, so he received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1976. Some of his works are: Dangling Man (1944), The Victim (1947), The Adventures of Augie March (1953), Henderson the Rain King (1959), etc. (104). As this guy, there were so many important writers whose works are famous and well known over the world.

Now, I know that Ralph Ellison was a very important figure at that time because of his novel “Invisible Man” was selected as the most distinguished work of fiction to appear in the post-world war II period (Perkins and Perkins, 1804). Ellison’s interest in writing started because of the influence of music, especially jazz and blues. His first works were short stories and essays, but then, he wrote this novel by which he got success because it helped him to continue his literary reputation. It was diverse in its structure due to it was a folk novel, strong in the rhythm of jazz and blues, powerful in its protection of the dual consciousness of the American black, it is highly literary, literate, novel, and a lot of things that are very appealing for a very good literary work (1805).  

I would like to know why the works of so many non-native American writers belong to the American literature even though their authors are not native Americans??

The Modern Period

Hi everyone!! This week we are talking about the modern period and there are a lot of things that are new for me. For example, I did not know that the modern period was a time that not only helped to develop the US but also it helped to the whole world due to at that time many new technological things were created, so that helped every country because since then we can have benefits of the things that were created during that period. Also, we were benefited with the US literature because there were many writers that not only write their works in their native American language but also they made their works universal because their works were translated in different languages in order that people from other cultures could read them. For example, Ernest Hemingway was one of those figures who made his works universal. I have already heard about this man and even I have heard his novel “The Old Man and the Sea”, but I did not know that he belonged to this modern period and least that he was the most popular novelist of this period.

Now, I know that the modern period happened between the two world wars and that this period have been characterized by many historians as the US’ traumatic “coming of age” (VanSpanckeren, 60). This period brought a lot of success to the Americans because it not only there were technological advancement but also American people started to enjoy the world’s highest national average income, so people get prosperity in different areas of their life thanks to modernism. Moreover, now, I know that in this period there were some authors that, as in the other periods that we have studied, made a great contribution to the American literature. For example, one of those authors was Thomas Eliot because he was one of the most well know writers of the poetry in that time; it is because he received the best education of any major American writer of his generation, and also because he studied Sanskrit and Oriental philosophy that influenced in his poetry. Also, Eliot’s works have influenced generations, so without any doubt this was a great figure in that period because his poetry helped to the American literature development.

I would like to know if throughout the history and periods of the American literature American writers have always had to emigrate to England or another country in order to flourish the liiterauture of their country because through these readings I could realize that most of the writers had to do it in order to have success in their works, so is it still happening or was it just in the past??

:D

The Romantic Period

Hello everyone!! Talking about the Romantic period, there are many new things for me. For example, I did know that Edgar Allan Poe was an important and best known writer of the Romantic period because I have already heard about him and about his works; however, I did not know and I have never imagined that he was the one who invented the genre of science fiction due to some of his works were based on mystery. So, through his amazing works, Poe influenced literature not only in the United States but also around the world. In addition, I did not know that Nathaniel Hawthorne was another important figure who helped to the development of the American literature in its beginnings, it is due to many of his stories are set in Puritan New England, and his greatest novel, The Scarlet Letter has become the classic portrayal of Puritan America (VanSpanckeren, 37). So, without any doubt these writers’ works contributed a lot to the Romantic period development.

Now, I know that as in the colonial period, the romantic period also has its own figures or authors that gave a great contribution to the American literature due to during this period we can not only find writers that had a good life as Americans but also people who were slaves, such as:  Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Wilson. For example, Harriet Jacobs was a great example of the slaves because even being a slave, she was able to escape and hide of slavery. Then, she was encouraged by Amy Post to write her autobiography “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” (VanSpanckeren, 45) and through this writing, she contributed to the literature because it was a serious problen that the US was facing at that time, and these knid of writings helped a lot to the discrimination of black people because with them, they were creating new movements that helped to reach equality betwen white and black American people. Alike, Frederick Douglass, he also escaped of slavery, and he lecture for anti-slavery societies. He is well-known in this period because he published the best and most popular of many slave narratives “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave” (46). According to VanSpanckeren, Douglass’s narrative is vivid and highly literate, and gives unique insights into the mentality of slavery and the agony that institution caused among blacks, and also these authors are important to the American literature because the slave narrative was the first black literary prose genre in the United States.

According to these readings I have understood that fiction was a genre that was created by Edgar Allan Poe during the romantic period, so I would like to know if the other authors or writers that appeared in these readings or some others that do not, but belonged to this period, created or invented another genres…   

The Colonial Period to 1700

Hello everyone!! I think that most of this information is new for me because I have never read too much about other cultures. However, while studying this major I have read and learned many things about English culture, so now, I am learning about American literature, and I consider that this information is very appealing in order to increase my knowledge on it.

Well, I did not know much about American literature, I mean how it began in the US, but now I know that American literature began with historical records, letters of love and friendship, diaries or journals of exploration, poems, chronicles of human experience, etc. because when I was reading I could realize that it is true because as VanSpanckeren pointed out American culture started with the orally transmitted myths, legends, tales, and lyrics (always songs) of Indian cultures (3). Therefore, it did not start just because of one thing, but because of many things together that were influenced by the Indians. Indeed, the Indian gave a name to America, which was “Turtle Island”. This name was according to a well-known creation stories in which only a humble Grandmother turtle was the right shape to support the mud world Maheo shapes on her shell (VanSpanckeren, 3). So, because of that only turtle, Indians named America like that.

Moreover, now, I know that American literature is related with Indian oral tradition not only because of their transmitted cultural things but also because of many American words like: “tobacco”, “potato”, “moose”, “raccoon”, etc. (VanSpanckeren, 4)that were taken from Indian words, and nowadays, we can listen to those words in every day American English. 

Also, I know that American literature has a period, which is: the colonial period. This period is called so because it covers the history of European settlement from the beginning of the colonization of America until it was incorporated into the United States. During this period there were different writers, such as: William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor, Michael Wigglesworth, Samuel Sewall, Mary Rowlandson, Cotton Mather, Roger Williams, and John Woolman. For example, William Bradford was a deeply godly, self-educated man who had learned several languages, including Hebrew, in order to “see with his own eyes the ancient oracles of God in their native beauty” (VanSpanckeren, 6). Bradford was a noble and learned man, governor of the Plymouth Colony, and in collaboration with Winslow he wrote a Journal of the Mayflower’s voyage (long known as Mourt’s Relation), and he continued this work independently by writing Of Plimouth Plantation, a strongly sincere history of the trials and triumph of the Pilgrim Fathers. Anne Bradstreet was not only the first American woman who wrote a book of poems but also the first woman who wrote the first American book. She was inspired by English metaphysical poetry, and her warm and loving poems were dedicated to her husband and children.

On the other hand, another writer of this period was Samuel Sewall who wrote his Diary recording the years 1674 to 1729. Sewall was a great example of the American aristocrats because he regards public service as his natural expression due to he managed the colony’s printing press, he became a member of the council, he also was appointed as justice of the superior court (it was his professional objective), and he rose in the judiciary until he was head justice of Massachusetts. He was well-known as responsible, honest, ambitious for good things, and intelligent. He was the author of the first tract published against slavery, which was “The Selling of Joseph”. As this writing, Sewall wrote some other writings which have little merits. However, he wrote some others with the collaboration of other writers as “The Revolution in New England Justified” in collaboration with Edward Rawson. As these writers there were many others who were very important to the American literature because of their amazing works which contributed a lot to its history.

I would like to know about how this literature was spread in the US or if there were some other periods and writers that helped to its development because I think that knowing about all the process of how American literature was carried to the US is really important in my major due to I am going to teach the English language, so I, as a teacher, should know too much about it.

Have a nice day! :D

Wellcome!!

Hello teacher and classmates!! Wellcome to my blog... I hope to have a nice time with all of you... :)