PURITANS TIME
Literature of puritan`s time was: sermons, memories, diaries, historical chronicles, epitaphs and elegies
Sermon: the piece of text from religion text (ex. A piece of the Bible); analysis of the quotation; examples of application of that quotation is in everyday life.
Jeremiads:
in the Bible Jeremiads was a men who had some vision or information from God and was supposed to join it with other people;
was written to convert people to life in the doctrine of the church and help people to come back to God. In puritan`s time it was a special kind of sermon.
People are originally sinners, the God`s mercy is the only thing that keeps the God away from killing who don`t deserve good life.
All texts explain the goodness of the God and he is goodwill. People explained everything in their life through this perspective.
Anne Bradstreet `Upon The Burning Of Our House`
-Every woman of this time was housewife. They were raising children, working in the field growing plants, taking care of household; reading too much was bad for women because they stored to have their own opinion, which was unbelievable.
-Ann wrote a poetry about her life in the family.
-The poem is about burning of her house,
-Simple running couplets:AA-BB-CC,
- 1-10 reaction to the situation, emotions description, general over view of the situation
-10-20 reflection `what The God wanted to tell me`; intellectual occupation, is remains about Hiob`s life, when the God gave him a lot and took back everything; trying accept the situation without complaining.
-20-30 Ann is sad because of fire; she walks through the house and mention her lost things and loved places
-30-50 she is telling to the house, she mention the home which was created inside the house, the happy moments and the atmosphere; she regret the time which was gone;
-35-55 she tries to calm down with references to the Bible, uses strong negative words to talk about the material world (flesh, molding, dust); the price for the life is the house which is in God`s place, furnished in a glory, permanent (not material); You lost one house but you have another one in heaven.
In the end the author promises that she will be focus on the God and the religion, not on the things which are material.
Wiliam Bradford “of Plymouth Plantation”
-he was a governor for many years and wrote the historical overview for future generations to know their history and educate them.
- God watches over the Puritans (example of the man who wasn`t a Puritan but after an accident he converted)
- people commit the suicides because they have no hope for future and better life (author doesn`t mention it)
- W.B. describes only people who were tested by God (and hard climate) and manage to survive in order to glorify them.
- he mention illness and people who took care about sick people.
- good Christians were people who made their duty helping the others in a hard time.
- a position in a society was earned not given.
- God provides food for the people - mentioning vast forests, animals, fruits and veg.
America as the land of wealth (kind of propaganda for other people to come and join them)
AMERICAN`S LITERATURE OF EARLY 18TH CENTURY
One of the most important issues which influented the early 18th century American`s literature was creating independent country. The mentality of people changed and so did the literature.
Text were mostly about being American or habitant of America. This created patriotic feelings, and self-esteem as Americans (national identity).
In most cases text were didactic.
Wasington Irving
-was born and grown up in area of NY., this place had an influence on his writing because he often described the life in New York and its originality from Dutch.
- he was journalist and writer, he lived in poverty.
- publishing writings from British people was cheaper than publishing the stories originated in America. It was the reason for which the writers of that time had problems with publishing truly American literature.
-In the time of 18th/19th centuries there was a struggle if America had its own culture and language, and as a result its own literature or not.
-Writers of that time had to proved that Americans are able to create such pieces of writing which would fulfill the expectation of Americans society and create something new and fresh.
- Rip van Winkle and Sleepy hollow were rather comical pieces of writing, full of irony.
- Irving as an author put the very beginning of those stories as introduction which explained the using of nicknames of other authors who were supposed to wrote those stories.
- he used this old convention in order to add some credibility to his books.
- the stories were fantastic but the author wanted to make them more mysteries.
Rip Van Winkle
-people whom met Rip in the mountains were probably the people who were in the captain Hudson`s ship and now they protect people who live in the valley.
- mountains and its descriptions depict character of the story, which has an ability to change it.
- the village is peaceful and serene. Descriptions are full of laziness and sleepiness .People live slow and without hurry. There are some men who sit on the bench in front of the pub, they gossip and comment everything what is going on in the village.
- this fragment is full of irony.
ALLEGORICAL MEANING
Escapism - escaping from Britain (wife) to independence (America - Rip), sleep as a escape from the problem, the whole story is fantastical which means that it was an escape from didactic form of literature. Irving was the first writer of escaping literature.
Wife and Rip - Rip is like America, his wife is metaphor of the Great Britain. Rip tried to be independent from his wife and that is why he escaped.
Rip is somehow a passive character, he didn`t take part in the fight for independence but just felt asleep and the woke up.
The text has the folk-tale character with magical elements. The text is American in a sense of scenery (Hudson Mountains, New York, American`s independence) but in the other hand the story has an European names.
Irvin created a “new mythology” in America. The beginning of a new nation.
Edgar Allan Poe.
-His parents were an actors, his mother died when he was four, for tuberculosis,
-his father left family when he was 2 or 3 yo.
- he was adopted by a man whose name was Poe.
-he gambled and borrowed during his studies (and probably his whole life) and this problem influenced his whole life. His wife died very young at the age of 18th. This leaded him to alcoholism and depression.
-he died at age of fourty on a trip. He passed for a few days and no one knows where he had been during this time.
- there are many explanations of his death but the reason is unknown.
- he wrote the philosophy of composition an essay which explains how to write a good piece of writing. Length should be fitted to reader who was supposed to be able to read the whole text at one sit. The effect was stronger without interruption.
-his favourite topic of literature was death of young beautiful woman which he found such beautiful, poetic and melancholic as nothing else in the world.
The Raven
-In westerns countries raven is a symbol of wisdom
-there are rhymes in the middle of the line.
1._________a_________a
2. __________________b
3._________c_________c
4. ________c_________b
5.__________________b
6.__________________b
A and C rhymes change during the text B stays then same
A - trochaic octameter
B - “are” is onomantopeic
The action in the poem
-scenery is set in a chamber, at midnight (an hour of a ghosts), night and darkness,
-the man reads a book in his chamber and thinks about his dead lover.
-when he hears the tapping, he thinks that it`s his lover`s ghost who visits him.
-a man personify The Raven and think of it as if it was a person.
-“pallas” a god of wisdom (from mythology) it is a symbol of Greek philosophy which is logical and enlightening
-The Raven is a symbol of folklore. It “sits” on Great rational philosophy which means that dark magical knowledge dominate over the Great one.
-“Nevermore” is heard only by man who is in fact in depression and insane and it is his imagination who tells him what to hear.
-AE Poe was a father of detective story.
The Fall of the house of Usher
-the narrator goes to his friend`s house on his invitation ( Rodrique Usher)
-the scenery is autumn (which melancholic and depressional)
-the narrator identifies him with the weather - “pathetic fallacy”(błąd przypisywania życia przedmiotom nieożywionym)
- the weather expresses the feelings of the character which he doesn`t speak clearly about
-sublime: landscaping both beautiful and unpredictable weather. It helps to create scary but beautiful scenery/landscape.
- The house is gloomy, dark and unfriendly, the fungi on the walls symbolize illness; there is a scratch in the middle of the house, which can be useful for shadowing; it seems to look like a human face, it is a symbol o Usher family also; in the folklore a mirror used to be like a gate to the other world (that is way this is scary in a horror story)
-uncanny: a scary of the objects which are familiar at the same time ( it explains why the narrator is more scary while looking at the house`s reflections)
- people: main protagonist meets Rodrique and his sister (they are twins), the siblings are mentally ill (he feels everything more than the other people do and this is why he can`t hear loud music etc.); the sister has catalepsy illness which is like she looks as if she was dead but she is not in fact.
-Rodrique (mental illness) + Madlen (body illness) = incest
- the house and the Usher family is based on incest; reason for which Rodrique doesn`t leave her is because of her illness ( she might be not dead); the doctor want to do a section of her body,
- the story of the palace is a metaphor of human being and life of madness of a person.
EMILY DICKINSON
-she came from very religious family, but she stopped to coming to the church at age of 17; her poetry is deeply spiritual and transcendental; she got college education but she spent most of the time at home; she wore white most of the time, she didn`t publish her poems, her sister found them after her death;
- the poems hadn`t had titles; I was the first publisher who named them. Originally they were numbered.
This is my letter to the world
-introduction to the whole book; letter is her poem; the audience is the rest of the world; a description of the inner world, nature is the meaning of human being and humanity; she is talking about readers while mentioning `invisible hands`, she doesn`t know what the reader would be like; last two sentences are like explanation for not judging the piece of writing (popular literary convention of that time)
-imaginary can be: visual, auditory, gustatory, tactile, kinesthetic, alfactory
There`s a certain slant of light
-Cathedral tunes stands for funeral; oxymorons: heavenly hurt, imperial affliction,
-one has to experience the pain to understand it; air is given instead of `heaven` in order to avoid religion aspect and mark the atmosphere of a winter evening.
Because I could not stop for death
-the death goes with the speaker; death is a kind of man like family`s friend (partner,lover etc.); they go for a ride with immorality who is a chaperon.
2.: while death everything stops
3.: setting sun represents whole day which passed away
4.: time doesn`t exist anymore, people often surround of the body with the fabric.
5.: house seems to be like a coffin
6.: a century passed and the author feels like if it was just one day (the time plays no role after death)
-death is like a husband who takes his bride to a house (coffin) and eternity ( which is not sure to exist); death can be compared to a marriage
The bustle in the house
-the topic of the poem contrast with its short regular form; the contrast between the substance of death and a must to live normal life;
I heard a fly buzz when I died
-the King/death who is supposed to come to the room is not present, is no one there; atmosphere of anticipation of waiting; death is presented as a king because it rules the world; it a person of special character and presence; everything is prepared for death;
-`interposed fly` the fly interrupted the silence and waiting; fly is a symbol of devil in Christianity, it is not positive symbol, in a poem it is a symbol of death.
- it is an irony, people expect to death to be great, significant and glorious, whereas it comes as a fly, sacrum and profanum
- death is trivial and just usual part of life.
The adventures of Huckleberry Finn
-it is considered to be childish book but in fact is not. It touches an important issues like racism, slavery, family quarrel which leads to death of a man, the time of the civil war.
Picaresque novel (powieść łotrzykowska)
-southern states, Mississippi as a symbol of a freedom
-one hero usually travels with a company; he is amoral in a way; his journey is usually dangerous and full of adventures; the protagonist make an irony of a society
- through the trip they met people who want to hurt them
-Twain used language for particular person and social status (Jim`s accent)
- social problems, freedom of a person, moral choices are the others important issues
-dramatic irony, narrator knows more than character.