Study Guide:
#1- Know the Early Periods in American Literature & Know Some of the Authors/Works that We Have Read or Mentioned in Class That Represent these Periods.
Influence of Colonialism
Values: Exploration of the New World (like America). Conquering/overtaking the land and the natives who live there often by imposing Eurocentric ideals.
EXAMPLE: The Tempest
Native American
Values: treating the earth with respect. Oral tradition (telling stories) to transmit values to the next generation.
EXAMPLE: Documentary- Standing Bear’s Trial.
Puritan
Values: Hard work, the community over the individual, obedience, prayer, bible reading, sermons, & fear of hell.
EXAMPLE: Sermons like “Sinners at the Hand of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards.
Revolutionary & Enlightenment/Age of Reason (1750-1800).
Values: The individual (freedom) over community, using scientific reasoning (instead of blind obedience), & questioning organized politics/religion. Belief in God but not through the Bible alone (also through general revelation like science that reveal physical laws e.g. gravity). Deism – God exists but does not always intervene (left man to himself).
EXAMPLE: Thomas Jefferson’s “The Declaration of Independence” & Ben Franklin’s 1st political cartoon.
Abolitionists
Values: Fighting to end slavery. Believed that people did not have the right to enslave others. Most cited moral reasons such as: All men were created and given certain rights by God which cannot be taken away.
PLEASE NOTE: Slavery was first abolished in ENGLAND in 1833 and later in AMERICA in 1865.
EXAMPLE: Olaudah Equiano’s 1st published Slave Narrative.
Transcendentalism (1840-1860).
Values: Individualism over community, intuition over reason, freedom, & questioning organized politics/religion. For instance: “People, men and women equally, have knowledge about themselves and the world around them that "transcends" or goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel. This knowledge comes through intuition and imagination not through logic or the senses [alone]. People can trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right” (USHistory.org).
EXAMPLE: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Nature” & “Self-Reliance” Essays.
Romanticism
Values: Feelings/intuition over reason, imagination, individual freedom, & wild natural settings.
EXAMPLE: Nathaniel Hawthorne (but we did not read this in class; instead, we focused more on Dark Romanticism).
Dark Romanticism/Gothic
Values: Shares interest in the supernatural & emotions; however, this subgenre explores the ideas of sin, suffering, evil & the darker side of human nature.
EXAMPLE: Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and “The Pit and the Pendulum.”
Realism
Values: Showing ordinary lives as they were- without romance or sentimentality- through a variety of genres and forms.
EXAMPLE: Documentary- 54 Massachusetts (the story of the first African American infantry/Civil War).
#2- Go Back and Study the Texts Below. You Must Be ABLE TO Provide a Written Response for Each.
#3- Be able to define and differentiate between what is a primary and what is a secondary source. Be able to tell the pros/cons of each.
#4-Be able to define and provide an example for each of the following types of figurative language:
#1- Know the Early Periods in American Literature & Know Some of the Authors/Works that We Have Read or Mentioned in Class That Represent these Periods.
Influence of Colonialism
Values: Exploration of the New World (like America). Conquering/overtaking the land and the natives who live there often by imposing Eurocentric ideals.
EXAMPLE: The Tempest
Native American
Values: treating the earth with respect. Oral tradition (telling stories) to transmit values to the next generation.
EXAMPLE: Documentary- Standing Bear’s Trial.
Puritan
Values: Hard work, the community over the individual, obedience, prayer, bible reading, sermons, & fear of hell.
EXAMPLE: Sermons like “Sinners at the Hand of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards.
Revolutionary & Enlightenment/Age of Reason (1750-1800).
Values: The individual (freedom) over community, using scientific reasoning (instead of blind obedience), & questioning organized politics/religion. Belief in God but not through the Bible alone (also through general revelation like science that reveal physical laws e.g. gravity). Deism – God exists but does not always intervene (left man to himself).
EXAMPLE: Thomas Jefferson’s “The Declaration of Independence” & Ben Franklin’s 1st political cartoon.
Abolitionists
Values: Fighting to end slavery. Believed that people did not have the right to enslave others. Most cited moral reasons such as: All men were created and given certain rights by God which cannot be taken away.
PLEASE NOTE: Slavery was first abolished in ENGLAND in 1833 and later in AMERICA in 1865.
EXAMPLE: Olaudah Equiano’s 1st published Slave Narrative.
Transcendentalism (1840-1860).
Values: Individualism over community, intuition over reason, freedom, & questioning organized politics/religion. For instance: “People, men and women equally, have knowledge about themselves and the world around them that "transcends" or goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel. This knowledge comes through intuition and imagination not through logic or the senses [alone]. People can trust themselves to be their own authority on what is right” (USHistory.org).
EXAMPLE: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Nature” & “Self-Reliance” Essays.
Romanticism
Values: Feelings/intuition over reason, imagination, individual freedom, & wild natural settings.
EXAMPLE: Nathaniel Hawthorne (but we did not read this in class; instead, we focused more on Dark Romanticism).
Dark Romanticism/Gothic
Values: Shares interest in the supernatural & emotions; however, this subgenre explores the ideas of sin, suffering, evil & the darker side of human nature.
EXAMPLE: Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” and “The Pit and the Pendulum.”
Realism
Values: Showing ordinary lives as they were- without romance or sentimentality- through a variety of genres and forms.
EXAMPLE: Documentary- 54 Massachusetts (the story of the first African American infantry/Civil War).
#2- Go Back and Study the Texts Below. You Must Be ABLE TO Provide a Written Response for Each.
- What was the Amistad Case (1841) and why was it so important?
- www.archives.gov/education/lessons/amistad &, please see previous resources.
- Who was the 54 Massachusetts and why were they so important? See previous resources.
- How does the author of “Camouflaging the Chimera” use nature to describe his perceptions of war? What happens in this poem?
- Paul Laurence Dunbar was one the first influential black poets in American literature. In his poem “Sympathy” (1899), he uses the imagery of a bird who is caged to make a comparison about slavery. Provide an analysis of the poem. Make sure to use lines from the poem as support. Reread the poem and use critical thinking. You have to cite lines from the text in order to get credit for your response.
- Identify and explain the following the passage: “We hold these truths to be self-evident:- That all mean are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” (Jefferson, July 4th, 1776). Make sure t you can tell where this passage originates (comes from). Make sure to explain the term "unalienable rights" and, be able to relate why/how this is so important! You can also discuss how/why this passage is still important to us today!
#3- Be able to define and differentiate between what is a primary and what is a secondary source. Be able to tell the pros/cons of each.
- Examples of primary sources: Autobiographies, journals, works of art, letters, historical documents, speeches, sermons, creative works (poems, novels, short stories), tweets, texts, etc.
- Examples of secondary sources: Biographies, commentary/criticism, reference works (dictionary, encyclopedia), etc.
#4-Be able to define and provide an example for each of the following types of figurative language:
- Imagery
- Alliteration
- Metaphor
- Allusion
- Simile
- Personification
- Hyperbole
- Idiom