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
Hello Abigail, I like what you say about the colonial period. I also think it is crucial to talk about this period because is in here where the early American literature starts. This is because all these Europeans that arrived in the US brought with them not only material things but also culture, and as I have already mentioned in my post that the puritans were the ones who introduced the first printing press in the colonies (Cambridge, 1638) “VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. 2001. Outline of American Literature. US Department of State chapter 1, page 5”. It is because of these contributions that US literature can come to light in a written form; however, the fact that the Europeans and the Puritans contributed to have the first books written in English in the new world, it does not mean that US Indians did not have already a way to express their feelings, and stories through literature. Actually, Indians had different stories to tell, and they did shared their stories about their beliefs and religion (something that cannot be disregarded since we all know that literature is always related and extremely involved with religion) that were told and spread as we have already mentioned by orally methods.
ResponderEliminarAs Abigail points out in her post, there were many writers that emerged by the time of the colonial period; nevertheless, I am glad that Abigail mentions Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) “VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. 2001. Outline of American Literature. US Department of State chapter 1, page 7”. Because she is a woman, and we all know how difficult it was for women to be noticed or taken into account to do jobs that were supposedly or wrongly considered just for men; nonetheless, in this context, we have this woman whose book was the first published book of poems by an American, and not only by an American but, by a woman, and although it was not printed in the US due to the lack of printing presses in this country, it is still a poem book written in the US by an American woman.
Finally, I would like to say that Samuel Sewall, another author that Abigail describes in her text, is very impressing for me. Samuel Sewall was the first writer in protesting about slavery and he wrote a tract about this discrimination called “The selling of Joseph (1700)”. This was very brave since we all know that slavery was a serious tradition in old times, so whoever that decided to talk against this social problem, would have gotten into troubles.
Hello, Abi. I'm Andres Lopez. I was reading you post, and I consider you have done a good job since you have highlighted importants aspect about American Literature and Colonization. First at all, Alike you, I did not that United States was called "Turtle Island" it was called that way because as you said 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). It is interesting to know that Indians' cultures were like that, they used to put name to anything. Another aspect you have metioned regarding American Literature, it is the fact that nowadays English has indians' words like the ones you have mentioned above. And it is interesting to see that English native speakers use to use those Indian's early words. And it happen at any culture. Another point you have mentioned, and I would like to agree to you. It is when you talk about Samuel Sewall, he was a very important defender of Indians' rights, He wrote the first book which was about Slavery, in this book, Sewall was against the slavery. Also, He was in charged of the first printing press. Another important thing about Sewall, it is that he came from Puritans parents, which meant that he was not only flexible at the moment of working with Indians, but also becaus he was comprehensible with the Indians all. However, the reading mentions that there were sometimes in which Sewall was seen in battles with other tribes. To conclude, I just want to say that you Mercy have read the articles, and it is very important because the more you read, the more knowledge you acquire. Good job.
ResponderEliminarHello, Aby, I was reading your post ans let me tell you that I'm very excited to learn about American Literature as well, because we all know that all those kinds of readings have come from different backgrounds and have helped the American Literature to be enriched with a lot of good things. Moreover, I'm pretty sure we are going to be able to learn a lot from this culture because the majority of young people are interested in knowing love stories, war stories, politician stories or all kinds of stories that are interesting for us to lear about. We have now studied about all those writers that have done a great job in the Emerican culture and they have greatly contributed on the American culture and Literature. They have been able to write and made up many beautiful stories that really give us a great message. I guess, what is nice about the literature is thet it does not focus its attention on only one genre but it gives us a variety of options and we are going to decide what to read according to what we like the most. So, Aby, I strongly believe that all these writers have done an outstanding job by writing about the American culture. More importantly, the American Literature is not only for peopleto have fun with it but also it is for people to be more acknowledgable about the things that took place in past times and new generation may ignore about them. It is nice to know about other people cultures and traditions so we can talk about them and be aware of how other people from different backgrounds live.
Eliminar