Week 4. Realism and Experimentation

Hello guys, in this period we will be talking about American realism in literature, period that gathers very good writers who tried to face the reality that people lived during and after the World War II. Here, we can see a variety of themes in people’s writings, such as experiences and horror of the wars, racism, poorness, etc. It was a multifaceted period which is something that characterizes the USA culture and literature since its beginning. However, it was captivating for me to realize of so many new things and also books that I have read that belong to this period and that have been crucial in the development of the American literature. One example is the book “The catcher in the Rye” written by J.D Salinger (1919- ). “This book is centered on a sensitive 16 years-old, Holden Caulfield who flees his elite boarding school for the outside world of adulthood, only to become disillusioned by its materialism and phoniness.” (VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. 2001. Outline of American Literature. US Department of State, page 106). I am pretty sure that all of you my fellows remember that we read this book when we were in the course “advance English”. Thus, like this book, there are many important facts that made of the realism period as mesmerizing as other periods in the American literature, and I want to share with you some of the events of this period that got my attention the most.

First at all, I did not know that realism was developed in different branches, being one of these “Fiction”. Fiction after World War II was affected by changes in human viewpoints. Here, we see so many social events such as: social protests, women’s right movements, more media impact, etc. This entire social context influenced in people’s point of view about life, and obviously in writers’ viewpoints to write about too, therefore, in this postwar fiction we do not have heroes, but on the contrary, anti heroes as in the case of “Holden Caulfield” in the book “The catcher in the Rye”. This postwar fiction is also full of cynicism about human value, humans who are always loners and isolated, and a defeated personality that is almost always present in people’s writings. Some authors of this moment are: Faulkner, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Dos passos, Porter, Farrell, among others.

Now I know that not only Native American writers were taken into account as good legends in literature, but also authors with different roots were involved in the beginning of multiculturalism in American literature. Even tough, we have all mentioned in our posts that the USA has been a country with settlements of people from all over the world; the literary world had been dominated by Anglo Saxon descents only, and people with different roots like African Americans, French, Canadians, and immigrants from many countries had been marginalized; nevertheless, all this inequality changed by the end of the nineteen century and the end of the world war II. This introduction or freedom for not native people to write gave to the USA literature a greater variety of literary context that until now we can still enjoy. 

Finally, I would like to know whether these literary approaches such as: Naturalism, Fiction, Meta fiction, etc, are still present in today's American literature or have these approaches changed within the time??? =)...

Week 3 The Modern Period

Talking about modernism and experimentation, there is a lot to say about this period that was developed between the two world wars. We find here Americans soldiers coming back from wars to their roots after experiencing the world, and as the name of the period emphasizes “Modernism” was the new life that every American wanted. Automobiles, machines to work, business trades, all this was part of the new experimentation that people were living in those years, and besides all these comforts to have an easier life, literature also found new ways to express itself. New techniques to write and analyze writings were developed such as “epiphany” which is a term in literary criticism for a sudden realization, a flash of recognition in which someone or something is seen in a new light (VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. 2001. Outline of American Literature. US Department of State, page 62.) So, in this sense, talking about new things in literature, I would like to mention some points that got my attention the most.

Firstly, I did not know about the existence of the “Harlem Renaissance” which was a black community situated uptown in New York City. This black community was very creativity and developed American jazz. However, not only music was involved in this renaissance, writings, poems, and a full concept of the complexity of the lives of black Americans was spread by the authors of this movement.  Many were the writers that made good contributions to this association, for example: the poet Countee Cullen (1903-1946) a native of Harlem who believed that a poet should not allow race to dictate the subject matter and style of a poem. Richard Wright (1908-1960) was another black writer who was the first African-American novelist to reach a white audience, and so many more authors who struggled for a position in a bigoted period.

Now I know that T.S ELIOT was a writer of the modern period that was born in ST- Louis Missouri, on September 1888. In contrast with most of the writers we have studied throughout this course, he was not poor; actually, he comes from a good and rich family who gave to Elliot the best education of all the writers of his era. Eliot has not written so many writings as other authors of his time but he is best known as a critic, and for his formulation of the “objective correlative” which he describes as a “mean of expressing emotions through a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events, that would be the formula of that particular formula” (VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. 2001. Outline of American Literature. US Department of State, page 67.)

Finally I would like to know whether this modern period was more concerned about techniques to write a good piece of writing or techniques on how to analyze other’s writings??

Week 2. The Romantic period.

     This week, analyzing the readings; I could realize that the 18^th and 19^th centuries are about a great period also called the “Romantic Period”. In this period, I have discovered many familiar books such as Moby Dick, the Scarlet Letter, and so many great stories that Edgar allan poe, who is a very famous author, has written. I do love Edgar alla poe’s work, I have enjoyed reading stories like: the black cat, the golden bug, william Wilson, the premature burial, among others. However, even though I might know about some authors and writings from this romantic period, there are several new things that I did not know, and that are very interesting, things that I will state in the next paragraphs.

     I did not know that the romantic period was not actually about love, but about “special techniques to communicate complex and subtle meanings” VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. 2001. Outline of American Literature. US Department of State, page 36. These techniques to communicate are the different genres that may come in horror tales, fiction detective, and fiction heroes, (who almost all of them die at the end of the stories). All these genres try to explain something, the reading calls it “subtle meanings” but what are these subtle meanings?. These subtle meanings are the feelings and thoughts that all these authors had in a time where their society was not steady. The US was full of immigrants, people from the entire world, speaking so many languages, and living a multicultural life. Thus, this country was just trying to arise as the new world that had just been discovered, and without and specific identity, people, and especially the great authors of this period felt alone in such a big diversity. All these conditions stirred up the romantic period.

     Now I know that Edgar Allan Poe’s life was full of misfortunes what could have been the inspiration for all his weird works. Everybody knows that Edgar Allan Poe is an eccentric writer whose poems and books are full of mysteries and death; however, few people know about his misadventure life which could have led him to write such horror tales and poems that are so appealing and interesting for the readers.  First, his father deserted his wife and disappeared. After this sad situation, Poe’s mother dies eighteen months after the dissertation of her husband, so Poe becomes an orphan. Thus, Poe is adopted by his uncle John Allan. Poe and John’s relationship was never good, and this triggers a lot of problems for Poe who later marries his own cousin Virginia Clemm. Nevertheless, not even married Poe could get a kindly life due to his wife dies of tuberculosis, so all these misfortunes  together with poverty increased Poe’s eccentricities. Now, it is comprehensible for me how Edgar Allan could write so many bizarre readings without being out his mind. His entire calamity together with alcohol granted him a great creativity that sadly even finished with his own life.

     Finally, I would like to know why these two authors Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne had financial problems and lived most of their lifetimes in poverty, being so skillful and great writers, and even when their writings became famous by the time they were still alive. I think that they could have been more successful if they had lived in this period. 

week one: the colonial period!!

    Talking about the United States literature and its beginning, it is impressing for me to realize of so many things that I did not know, some of them I assumed they may be true and some others in which I still have some doubts. American literature began as almost all the literature work in every continent or country, in an oral way since there were no possibilities to print any of the legends, tales, and lyrics that Indian cultures had, so, Indian stories were retold in an oral manner. These stories were about nature, spiritual beliefs, and totems related with different tribes or plants. Thus, there is a lot to tell about this week’s readings; however, I would like to focus on three things that got my attention the most. Firstly, I did not know, and I could have never thought that john smith, the character of the Pocahontas’s movie was real. Then, the fact that the New England’s puritans were the founders of the first college: Harvard in 1636, and finally, something that I would like to know which is if US culture and identity has been affected by all these adventurers, pirates and some other immigrants that settled in this country by the time of the colonial period.   

     I never thought that the Pocahontas movie was a real story. All my life I thought that the movie Pocahontas was just another story created by Walt Disney or someone else. Now that I have read about John Smith who was a real English explorer and soldier, I can realize that the so famous story about Pocahontas is true. John Smith was born in 1580, and his book “A true Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia since the First planting of that Colony (1608)" was the first book written in English in the new world, and according to the reading about The Colonies in the page ten, John describes in his book how he was captured by powhatan’s men and rescued by Pocahontas. In conclusion, the Walt Disney movie Pocahontas must have changed some things from the real story, but this does not change the fact that the main characters really existed.

     Something interesting, and that now I know due to the readings is the fact that the England’s puritans were the founders of the first college “Harvard”.  It is likely that no other colonist in the history of the world were as intellectual as the puritans, “VanSpanckeren, Kathryn. 2001. Outline of American Literature. US Department of State chapter 1, page 5”. Puritans were educated people who wanted education for everyone so that everybody could understand and accomplish God’s will, so they were the first colonist insisting in schooling, and they founded not only the first college Harvard, but also the first printing press in the colonies (Cambridge, 1638).

     It is known that the united states is a country with a variety of cultures, and that people from all parts of the world have settled in the US since the colonial period, so I would like to know how much the US culture and identity has been affected by all these adventurers, puritans, pirates and some other immigrants. American people have become very multicultural since long time ago, and even when this can mean no boundaries in mind, and a door for technology and globalization, how much culture and traditions is the US losing?, or has already lost? Taking into account, all the diversity they have. We will not know for sure, but what we know is that they got good stories and a great deal of literature that dates since the Indian times.

Introducing myself

hello classmates, I am just trying to see If I can use this stuff.. =)

well, it works, so I will take advantage of this opportunity to introduce myself. I am Gisselt Romero and most of you know me, but, for the ones who do not know me..nice to meet you!!! I think this class will be very constructive, starting from the point that we have to participate on it by creating a blog which is something new for me because I had never created one, so let's learn as much as we can. Bye =)