English Literature Summary
Puritans (1533-1630) Engalnd/America
– Religious organization/sect in the 17th century as a reaction on the
Anglican church
– Went from the UK to the US
– Great influence on American society
– Roman catholic church (everything is about wealth and power)
before 1500
o Too much power and no separation church and state
– Henry the 8th wanted to divorce his wife, but pope Clement would
not let him
o He separated the Anglican church/ church of England from the
pope and the church of Rome because it was too strict
(reformation)
o The king was the leader of the church of England/Anglican
church
o The people were unhappy because of its similarity with the
catholic church
o More people immigrated to the US
o More different types of churches and religions emerged.
– Puritans were to purify the Anglican church, separation church and
state
o Education was for everyone (woman and man) to be able to
read the Bible
o Not tolerant of other religions
o Natural events: God would be pleased or angry with humanity
and God intervenes in the lives of every individual (deciding
about heaven and hell)
o Eternal fate is predestined, God comes before everything.
o Public punishments to enforce the law, fear tactics, scarlet
letter, humiliation, witch trials, whipping, hanging, burning
alive.
o Church leaders and government leaders were very close.
o Against slavery, idleness, excessive celebration
o Separatists (pure Cristian and extremely puritan)
– Mob: group of people that get together
o Panic, fear, anger, hysteria (by accident or on purpose)
o Rational people end up doing irrational things
o Mob mentality; sinners and pitchforks
o Salem witch trials (women were persecuted because of their
knowledge)
Burning and hanging in Massachusetts)
Colonial period (1607-1776) England/America
– The British Empire
– To make use of all different natural resources around the world such
as ivory and gold in Afrika or oil and tropical fruits.
Revolutionary Age (1754-1783) England/America
, English Literature Summary
– Change in government (absolutist monarchies to constitutionalist
states and republics)
– Industrial revolution
Romanticism (1800-1855) America
– Amazing development in literature and industry, America seemed
limitless
– Democracy was flourishing
– Slavery, women’s disenfranchisement, mistreatment of workers
– Writers were optimistic, but some explored the dark side of
humanity
– Possibilities of the imagination, glories of the individual and beaty of
nature
– The spirit of exploration (doubled the country’s size westward)
o Indian Removal Act in 1830, whites invaded the natives in
their homeland
– Industrial Revolution (writers avoided commercialism, hectic pace
and lack of conscience and explored simplicity, beauty and truth
– The Tragedy of Slavery (North against and South pro slavery)
o Return to nature
o Importance of feeling and imagination
o Renewed interest in the past
o Escapism from reality
o Social engagement
o Nationalism
o Interest in countryside, common people, folk literature
o Interest in distant civilizations, gloomy places
o Reaction to neoclassicists
– Poetry
o Ode; a song in honor of a god or hero, lofty sentiments and
thoughts
o Sonnet; fourteen lines with a turning point (volta)/conclusion
o Ballad: Tragic story about love, death, betrayal, simple
language, does not contain opinions from the author, dialogue,
repetition, 4-line stanzas (abcd)
o Piet Paaltjens, Heinrich Heine, Percy Bysshe Shelley
– Fairytales, Prose; the historical/gothic novel
– Gothic elements (fear, creepy locations, good vs evil, the sublime)
– Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) is a frame story (story within a story
within a story enz)
– Edgar Allan Poe (explored the dark side, The Mask of the Red Death,
allegory where characters abstract ideas of life such as good and
evil)
– Black room with red windows and paint. 7 windows (heavenly
influenced by shakespeare) birth, growth, spring and youth green,
orange fall, white purity, violet the end, black dead)
– Stephen King (Carrie, classic horror movie, gothic novel)
– Henry David Thoreau (wrote about Mexican American War)
