The document is an overview of American literature, covering different periods and literary movements. It includes American Romanticism, Gothic Fiction, Realism, Naturalism, and Modernism. It also focuses on influential authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Harriet ...
Lecture 2
American Romanticism (1820-1865)
- Nature, away from civilization
- Individualism
- Desire for “escape” -> read fantasy, spiritual escape, drinking
- Search for “hidden” meanings -> metaphors, allegory
- Use of intuition, emotion, and the imagination -> feelings over reason
- Use of symbolism
- Quest for beauty: aestheticism
Gothic Fiction/Dark Romanticism
(Dark Romanticism: made popular by Edgar Allan Poe)
- Desolate/remote settings
- Macabre, mysterious, or violent incidents
- Haunted physical and mental spaces
- Feverish introspection
- Usage of dark and light in both physical and moral terms
- Death, decay en ruin tragedy
- Sense of the past haunting the present
- Escapism
Edgar Allan Poe
- Part of “Poètes Maudits” (brilliant and genius but borderline incapable of living)
- Detective, SF and gothic stories
- Tales of the Grotesque and the Arabesque (1840)
- The raven (1845)
- The first person to write a detective
- Also social criticism
The Raven
1. What is the atmosphere in the opening of the poem? How is this created?
a. Creating a dark atmosphere. Midnight dreary, bleak December, ghosts
2. How does the narrator perceive the bird at first? How does this change why and in
what line?
a. It’s just a bird nothing more ->
3. what does the raven represent?
a. A mirror of his own feelings, he can’t ignore his own pain anymore
4. how do you read the ending?
a. The raven never leaves and the man will forever remember (the death of)
Lenore
5. Desolate setting:
Mysterious/Macarbre events: The bird
A troubled relationship with religion:
, Haunted physical/mental spaces:
Dark light contrast: Rare and radiant maiden VS. the dark atmosphere Poe created
Feverish introspection: The man begins the question himself
A focus on the exotic:
Madness:
Past haunts the present:
The purloined letter
unusual because you already know who did it, why it was done and that the case is solved
Where is the suspense?
It’s about a stolen (purloined) letter. The queen received a letter and the minister knows that
the letter contains damning information about the queen and the king isn’t supposed to see
it. The minister steals the letter and changes it for another. The queen knows this the King
doesn’t. The letter gives the minister the power to keep the queen in check. This bribing
happens for a year and a half. triangle (Queen, king, minister)
The people who need to solve this are stuck in a similar triangle (minister, police, Auguste
Dupin) The police are looking for the letter without success so he asks Dupin for help. Dupin
eventually finds the letter. how? by thinking like the minister.
Triangle:
Queen/minister: Sees nothing, thinks the secret is safe/ knows the secret is gone,
can’t take action
Police/king: know nothing
Minister/ Dupin: find out about the secret
Lecture 3
Nathaniel Hawthorne
- 1804-1864
- past repeating in the present: Twice-Told Tales
- Transcendental movement
- Themes: dark, nature of evil, sins, sorrow
- Very enthusiastic about symbolism -> Allegories
- Wants the reader to be involved, wants you to insert your own interpretations
Young Goodman Brown
Opening sentence questions
- Find 5 allegories in the opening paragraph
- Sunset
- Salem Village:
- Crossing the threshold: Crossing the barrier between good and evil
- pink ribbons
- Faith: The person but also the believe
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