American Literature and British literature

American literature

Begins in the early 1600s and the earliest writers were Englishmen describing the English exploration and colonization of the New World (= America). F.e. Captain John Smith (1580 – 1631). Novels were the first popular literature of the newly independent United States. The writings of BENJAMINE FRANKLINE (1706-1790) show the Enlightenment spirit in America at its best. His style is quite modern, his works are a joy to read. F´s only real bokk was sayings called The Way to Wealth. The greatest pamphlet-writer of the American Revolution was THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809). He wrote Common Sense (the most historically important pamphlet in American history. About THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743 – 1826) we can say it is the chief author of the Declaration of Independence. Far more important is the work of:

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809 – 1849)

a poet and short story writer
he is a founder of science-fiction and detective stories
he was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1809. His patents, who were actors, died when he was only 2, he was brought up by a rich merchant, John Allan. His relationship with his foster father was not good and Poe left university because of bad debts. Allan refused to help him. Poe published his first volume of writing in 1827. He was in a bad condition by his heavy drinking and melancholy.
in 1835 he married his 13 years old cousin, Virginia Clemm who died in 1847
in 1845 Poe reached literary fame with his poem The Raven

His best known stories are: The Black Cat, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Fall of the House of Usher.

Typical for his literary work is his concentration on the inner self, the dual personality, mystery and supernatural, the horrors and nightmares of a hallucinatory world.

MARK TWAIN (1835 – 1910)

humorist; his work is filled with stories about how ordinary people trick experts
his real name was Samuel Clemens (M.T. was his pen-name)
he became famous humourist and story teller

His works: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The books are both set along the Mississippi River (worked as a steamboat pilot). He shows through humour the hypocrisy and inhumanity of that what is called civilization. The characters of his works use a local dialect.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY (1898 – 1961)

simple style, careful structuring, symbolic meaning
won the Nobel Prize in 1954 for literature
we can find 3 main topics in his literaly works: war, death and individual courage of a man

His works: A Farewell to Arms (1929) – his famous anti-war love story
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) – the novel is a psychological picture of the Spanish Civil War
The Old Man and the Sea (1952) – this story shows the fight between nature and a man. Santiago is his typical character. He knows that he will beaten in his battle against the nature and he fights on even when he knows that the fight is useless. It received the Pulitzer Prize in 1952.

By 1875 American writers were moving toward realism in literature.

JACK LONDON (1876 – 1916)

was born in San Francisco, CA (illegitimate son)

-       he did a variety of jobs, often working long hours for miserable wages (he started to work in his early teens). He used these his own experiences in a novel Martin Eden (1909)
-       then he became a sailor and in 1893 joined a sealing expedition bound for Japan. It was later used for his another novel The Sea Wolf
-       he joined the 1896 gold-rush to Klondike in the Yukon Territory in Northwestern Canada, but instead of finding his fortune, he met only hardship, disease and disappointment

the heroes of some of London´s best stories are animals. In his famous Call of the Wild it is the dog Buck. In The Sea-Wolf the hero is a „superman“

His books: The Call of the Wild
The White Fang

British literature
The British literature has a very long tradition. The oldest literary work is The Song of Beowulf from the Anglo-Saxon period, which was written in 8th century. It is an epic poem, which is set in southern Scandinavia in the 5th and the 6th centuries. The poem is about a hero Beowulf who killed a few monsters. As a ruler he fights a dragon and saves his people but dies.
An important period is the Renaissance period. The main representatives are:
SIR THOMAS MORE (1478 – 1535)
His famous book is called Utopia and it is written in Latin. He tried to describe an imaginary island with an ideal society, f.e.: the people are educated, they work only 6 hours a day, there is a religious tolerance and gold is used for children like their toys.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (23. 4. 1564 – 1616)
-       is the greatest personality of English Renaissance
-       he was born in Stratford upon Avon
-       he studied at the local grammar school
-       when he was 18 he got married – Anne Hathaway
-       in 1592 he came to London and joined The Kings´ Men – it was a group of actors under the patronage of James I
-       in 1599 he bought the Globe Theatre
-       at first he rewrote and later he began to write his own plays. He was very successful and Queen Elizabeth I and James I liked him very much
-       after death of his son, he returned back to Stratford and lived there with his family
-       he wrote 37 plays and we can divide them into 3 parts: comedies, tragedies and historical plays
-       his plays were collected and published in 1623 (7 years after his death)
Romantic comedies:          The Comedy of Errors                         The Merry Wives of Windsor
                                               A Midsummer Night´s Dream           Much Ado About Nothing
Historical plays:   Henry IV, Henry V, Richard II
Tragedies:             Hamlet, Othelo, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet

DANIEL DEFOE (1661 – 1731)
- he was a politician, journalist and traveller (he travelled in Europe doing a variety of jobs before settling in London as a journalist),
- he is considered one of the founders of modern journalism
- he was a master of the plain style in the Augustan´s Age
- he was also involved in politics but also was imprisoned more than once for political reasons
- in 1719 he retired from public life and began to write stories
Books: Robinson Crusoe – is about young man who shipwrecked on a lonely island.
A Journal of the Plague Year
Roxana

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American Literature and British literature

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