History of American Literature – Handout 1: Puritanism (17th c.) and Enlightenment (18th c.)
1) America – the "New World"
2) First settlements: a) Jamestown, Virginia (1607) – Captain John Smith: A True Realtion of... Virginia (London, 1608); A Description of New England (1616)/ b) Plymouth Plantation – the "Pilgrim Fathers" (1620); c) Massachusetts Bay colony in 1630 with its centre in Boston/. John Winthrop: a "citty upon a hill".
3)Puritans: Religious separatists/ The Mayflower Compact/Church membership:a covenant of church: a personal agreement with God/conversion
4) Calvinist dogmas: the doctrine of predestination:
1 – Total depravity of human nature/2 – Unconditional election - predestination /3 – Limited atonement - the dogma of limited salvation/4 – Irresistible Grace - the dogma of God's mercy/blessing: regenerating power, you can't reject it or gain it/5 – Perseverance of the Saints - all those elect who were endowed with God's blessing/mercy are to realize God's will and to subject their lives to this aim
5) Puritan historiography: the Bible (Genesis and Exodus) shaped their imagination/a millenarian history- typological reading of the Bible/History seen as cyclical/ History seen as providential – three types of providence:a) reflecting God's wrath and punishment /b) warnings and premonitions /c) rewards and mercy.
a) William Bradford: Of Plymouth Plantation (1630) – to record the pilgrims' story and to show the working of Providence – allegorical and transcendental meaning of all events (e.g. saving John Howland)./Puritans: the chosen people in the world full of Satanic deception/The latter part of the account: jeremiad: a tale of woe and failure, a call for the return to the lost purity of earlier times/Plain Style: biblical/focus on the everyday/state only facts/ornaments are deceptive/
b) Other historical accounts:
- Edward Johnson A History of New England (1653) known as The Wonder-Working Providence of Scion's Savior in New England/- Cotton Mather Magnalia Christi Americana – The Great Deeds of Christ in America (1702): religious/allegorical interpretation of facts, divine meaning, instances of wonder-working providence. Unreliable historical sources.
6) Journals –the relation of private destiny to predestined purpose/ focus on the private, spiritual, domestic: a) Cotton Mather – a seven volume diary/b) Samuel Sewall Diary c) John Winthrop Journal
7) Poetry: sense of allegory, typology, the Bible, transcendental and providential/didactic and pious literature./a) Michael Wigglesworth The Day of Doom (1662)/b) Anne Bradstreet – first major woman poet in English/ Her poetry – domestic sphere, the everyday life/Published first in England The Tenth Muse, Lately Sprung Up in America (1650)/She expressed the problems of being a woman poet/ Influenced by the Renaissance poets Sidney and Spenser: "Upon the Burning" – like a diary entry, but emotional complexity/"To my dear and loving husband" – no physical love./c) Edward Taylor Preparatory Meditations – private manuscript discovered in 1937/Influenced by Metaphysical poetry/conceit and complex rhythm/"Huswifery"- baroque sensibility: domestic activity turned into symbolic exploration of the soul's dependence on God for the grace to deserve redemption.
8) Indian-captivity narratives – imaginative prose fiction: Mary Rowlandson A Narrative of the Caprtivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682)/provides parallels with captivities from the Bible/precursor of later sensationalist fiction and gothic tale.
Puritan literature: religious, didactic, utilitarian, reflexive, realistic, symbolic (providence), simple (plain style).
9) Sermons and spiritual biographies – Jonathan Edwards.
The Puritan Legacy: 1)self- scrutiny – shaped later secular statements of individualism and conscience (Franklin). 2) symbolism, transcendentalism (from Emerson to Faulkner).
The Awakening and Enlightenment (18th century)
1) The age of science and philosophy/Sir Isaac Newton /John Locke/ Deists/The interest now shifts to man – task of science and philosophy – to discover the laws and then live according to them./ tabula rasa – the mind is a blank chart on which experiences are inscribed/naturally good humankind.
2) The Great Awakening – a religious revival in America (and England) – a conservative reaction against the secularized world view/ 1622: Half-Way Covenant: descendants of former church members became also church members (no communion and no right to vote in church matters), without undergoing conversion/a more rationalistic view on religion/ the Salem witchhunt in 1692. /Two waves: in 1730s and 1740s. Its aim – to revive the religious spirit in people, to bring back a "personal experience of regeneration": George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)/Intention: to personalize religion.
3) The sermon: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: Structure: Biblical quotation/Explanation of the quotation – implications/ Application/ an exhortation to fly away from this Sodom to God/ metaphors, similes, vivid imagery and emotional language/Vision of man/God is angry – men are sinners/The only hope – to open themselves for regeneration now, because God only promised to save the ones who are true believers – covenant of Grace (Redemption).
4) The regeneration – similar to the one that Edwards experienced himself: Personal Narrative – a spiritual biography – a narrative of conversion./to accept Calvinist doctrine of predestination/The moment of conversion is described in emotional terms/Elizabeth Ashbridge – Some Account...
5) Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) – a truly enlightenment man;self-made man/publisher of the Pennsylvania Gazette, wrote Poor Richard's Almanac/inventor/ scientist/ Franklin: Autobiography: from rags to riches/Self-made man – the project drawing on Puritan self-discipline and scrutiny (schedule for the day) and Enlightenment scientific method/added the secular side to the American Dream/Pragmatist.
6) 18th century American literature did not promote fiction writing:1790 – Copyright Law was introduced /1776 – the Second Continental Congress gathered- political writing important/Thomas Paine's Common Sense (1776) – political pamphlet.
7) Poetry: Philip Freneau – first a satirist of the British, later "the poet of the American Revolution" – Poems Written Chiefly during the Late War – cried for truly American literature / Freneau and Brackenridge: ode on The Raising Glory of America: a vision of a glorious future in which America would fulfill the collective hope of humankind.
8) major shifts: from the spiritual to the secular/from the supernatural to the rational/religious concerns replaced by scientific interests/theocracy replaced by humanistic concerns
katopia