Transcript A Gathering of Voices - Licking Heights School District

A Gathering of Voices
Literature of Early America
The Beginning to 1800
The First Americans
 No one knows when Native Americans first came to the U.S.
 Spanish first settled St. Augustine, FL in 1565
 British and other European settlers arrived in Jamestown, VA
in 1607
Puritans
 Religious reformers known as Pilgrims landed in Plymouth,
MA in 1620
 Try to create a “city on a hill” – a perfect new community
 Puritanism declined, but in 1720 there was a spiritual revival
called The Great Awakening
South vs. New England
 Differences in climate
 Large farms in the south – small farms in New England
 Different crops
 Social organization
The Age of Reason and Birth of a Nation
 Began in Europe in the mid 1700s
 Focus was to reform society using reason, challenge ideas
grounded in tradition and faith, and advance knowledge
through the scientific method
 Influenced the Founding Fathers
 The colonists rebellion led to the American Revolution 17751781
 We Won – The world was changed forever!
What is the relationship between place
and literature?
 Nature was wild, vast, and different than Europe
 It was awe inspiring
 Natives believed the people belonged to the land
 Colonists believed the land belonged to the people
 Colonists dreamed of a perfect country; the reality was that it
was hard to stay alive.
 Taming the wilderness left Americans with the idea of
independence and self-reliance
Attitude Toward Nature in Literature
 Natives revered it; saw it as the source of life
 Colonists saw the wilderness as wild, dark, scary and evil
 2nd generation immigrants saw it as a land of plenty.
 Different and better than Europe
What makes American Lit. American?
 Early American themes
 Wilderness
 Community
 Individualism
 What makes these themes uniquely American?
 Place – a new wonderful, horrible continent
 Past – New country with only a short history of sermons,
pamphlets, and newspapers
 Vision – Americans were a new breed of people
self-reliant, youthful, optimistic
Social and Political Influences
 Puritanism - Importance of family, religion, education, and
the idea that America was special
 The Enlightenment – The power of reason
 Treatment of Native Americans and Africans