American Literature

Beginnings-1750

What is Literature?

Literature

                   Helps us grow personally and intellectually Opens doors for us Stretches our minds Develops our imagination Increases our understanding Enlarges our power of sympathy Helps us to see beauty in the world around us Links us with the cultural, philosophical, and religious world we are a part of Enables us to recognize human dreams and struggles in different places and times Helps us develop mature sensibility and compassion for all living things Nurtures our ability to appreciate the beauty of order and arrangement Enables us to see worthiness in the aims of all people Exercises our emotions through interest, concern, sympathy, tension, excitement, regret, fear, laughter, and hope Encourages us to assist creative and talented people who need recognition and support Shapes our goals and values by clarifying our own identities—both positively through acceptance of the admirable in humans, and negatively, through rejection of the sinister Enables us to develop perspectives on events occurring locally and globally Gives us understanding and control Is one of the shaping influences of life 

Literature makes us human

Enough of the flowery stuff

It is generally accepted in the academic world that “literature” is something that has all or most of the following components:  Universal message—messages that transcend time and place   It transforms and intensifies everyday language It is open to interpretation   It expresses emotion and analyzes and advocates ideas Literature Makes Us Human

Why is American Literature studied separately?

 We are students in an American education system  American Literature is tightly woven into the fabric of our nation  It helps us understand who we are and where we’ve been—gives us identity

They were here first…

Native American Origin Myths

   

Oral Tradition Explain how life began Used personified animals or elements of the natural world Have supernatural element

The Earliest European Explorers

(nice alliteration, Whisler!)     Christopher Columbus John Smith Native Americans usually treated most early explorers as friends Pilgrims & Puritans-left to escape religious persecution

Colonists

You will learn all about the various colonies in your history class. For this class we will focus on  John Smith and the Jamestown colonists  William Bradford and the Puritans of Plymouth, MA

Puritan Plain Style Bible provided model individual life is a “journey to salvation.” Connections between Biblical events and own lives.

Used writing to explore their inner and outer lives for signs of God’s work.

Diaries and histories most common.

Plain style stressed clear expression and avoided complicated figures of speech

Summary

“We shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us; so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a by-word through the world.” --John Winthrop, Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony