Unit 2: Literary Nationalism
1800-1840
Emerging Literary Voices
Material growth fostered cultural expansion, creating a climate in which writers could forge a new literature - a literature typically American in theme and setting and often characterized by the nation's mod of youthful optimism. It was time for a literary declaration of independence - for the emergence of imaginative literature that no longer imitated European models but blazed its own trail.
As late as 1819 an English critic wrote: "In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? Or looks a an American picture?" This question stung national pride. Ironically, within two years of this challenge, three distinctly American works appeared: The Sketch Book by Washington Irving, The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper, and the Poems of William Cullen Bryant. These works won high esteem and a large readership among Europeans, and a Golden Age of literature was launched in America.
Washington Irving, the first professional American writer, eventually gained the respect of the English who were at first reluctant to recognize his literary genius. Although he was never totally free of European influences, much of his writing is uniquely American in its themes, good-humored presentation of American eccentricity, and special feeling for setting and local custom. He wrote highly complimentary biographies of Christopher Columbus and George Washington, but his greatest contributions were his fanciful creations of Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and a host of other figures that soon became art of American folklore.
After The Spy, a novel of American Revolution, James Fenimore Cooper wrote The Leatherstocking Tales (The Deerslayer is one of these novels), which depict his romanticized vision of the "noble savage," the heroic frontiersman, and the unsurpassed beauty of the American wilderness. Thought authors have delighted in poking fun at Cooper (Mark Twain called his characters "corpses," his Indians "cigar-store," and his dialogue "book talk"), he is still among the most widely translated and most popular of American authors.
Poems by William Cullen Bryant included "Thanatopsis," written when Bryant was only seventeen, and "To a Waterfowl." The volume marked the first published verse of stature by an American. Bryant's skillful lyrics and his abiding theme of nature in New England settings have earned for him the reputation of one of American's greatest nature Poets.
As late as 1819 an English critic wrote: "In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? Or looks a an American picture?" This question stung national pride. Ironically, within two years of this challenge, three distinctly American works appeared: The Sketch Book by Washington Irving, The Spy by James Fenimore Cooper, and the Poems of William Cullen Bryant. These works won high esteem and a large readership among Europeans, and a Golden Age of literature was launched in America.
Washington Irving, the first professional American writer, eventually gained the respect of the English who were at first reluctant to recognize his literary genius. Although he was never totally free of European influences, much of his writing is uniquely American in its themes, good-humored presentation of American eccentricity, and special feeling for setting and local custom. He wrote highly complimentary biographies of Christopher Columbus and George Washington, but his greatest contributions were his fanciful creations of Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, and a host of other figures that soon became art of American folklore.
After The Spy, a novel of American Revolution, James Fenimore Cooper wrote The Leatherstocking Tales (The Deerslayer is one of these novels), which depict his romanticized vision of the "noble savage," the heroic frontiersman, and the unsurpassed beauty of the American wilderness. Thought authors have delighted in poking fun at Cooper (Mark Twain called his characters "corpses," his Indians "cigar-store," and his dialogue "book talk"), he is still among the most widely translated and most popular of American authors.
Poems by William Cullen Bryant included "Thanatopsis," written when Bryant was only seventeen, and "To a Waterfowl." The volume marked the first published verse of stature by an American. Bryant's skillful lyrics and his abiding theme of nature in New England settings have earned for him the reputation of one of American's greatest nature Poets.
The Fireside Poets
Some of the best-known poets of this period have been classed he "Fireseide Poets," so named probably because of the congeniality and gentle persuasiveness of their finest verse.
These poets: Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, and Holmes
All from New England, they celebrated the virtues of home, family, and democracy. In their best verse, they display a simple diction, a courageous love of freedom, and a keen eye for natural beauties of heir eastern locale. Writings of the long-lived Fireside Poets, like these poets own lives, spanned the century. Works such as Snowbound and "The Chambered Nautilus," which were written after the National Period, have been included in this unit since they reflect the spirit of the era.
These poets: Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, and Holmes
All from New England, they celebrated the virtues of home, family, and democracy. In their best verse, they display a simple diction, a courageous love of freedom, and a keen eye for natural beauties of heir eastern locale. Writings of the long-lived Fireside Poets, like these poets own lives, spanned the century. Works such as Snowbound and "The Chambered Nautilus," which were written after the National Period, have been included in this unit since they reflect the spirit of the era.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow immortalized historical figures such as Miles Standish and Paul Revere and made the fictional characters Hiawatha and Minnehaha part of the American heritage. His poem "A Psalm of Life," is an optimistic and quotable acknowledgment of the immortality of the soul.
James Russel Lowell, a man of wit and indignation, championed in essays, speeches, and poems (such as "Stanzas on Freedom") humanitarian causes, especially the abolition of slavery. His poetry, like that of is Puritan predecessors, was often moralistic.
John Greenleaf Whittier, like so many of the poets of his time, was primarily a public rather than a private poet - an orator for the people's interest not a quiet voice speaking to the private self. Like Lowell, he wrote poems in support of the abolition movement, but his most enduring contribution to American letters is Snowbound, a reminiscence that captures the people and the and the rural New England setting of his youth.
In both verse and prose, Oliver Wendell Holmes was often informal. He wrote numerous verses like "The Ballad of the Oysterman," in which he employed a mock-epic tone, ballad stanzas, and heroic couplets. "I hold it to be a gift of a certain value," he wrote to Lowell, "to give that slight passing spasm of pleasure which a few ringing couplets often cause, read at the moment." Yet he abandoned his light tone in "The Chambered Nautilus" as he pondered the soul's immortality.