The Age of Expansion (New
Voices in Poetry and Realists and Regionalists)
1) Realism----a movement away from Romanticism that emphasizes a presentation of the world as it is
2) Regionalism---- literature that depicts the culture and characters of very specific localities
3) Romantic idealism----a reaction against the order and restraint of neoclassicism which emphasizes inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of the individual
4) The Gilded Age---- that time when industrial production tripled, and poverty-stricken slums contrasted with wealth of industry, the West and the Native Americans and settlers and slaves, etc.
5) American Nationalism----an extreme feeling of superiority over other countries,
promoting independence and devotion to
6) American Naturalism---- an outgrowth of Realism, these writers depict humans as reacting to environmental forces, internal stresses, fears, and drives which the individual cannot control or understand
7) Individualism---- a movement in writing that emphasizes individual elevation above conformity to standard restraints
8) Walt Whitman--- In style, he wrote symphonically, associating themes and melodies with great freedom and suggestiveness; abandoning conventional and hackneyed poetic figures ad drew his symbolism freshly from experience
9) Emily Dickinson--- Her ideas were witty, rebellious, and original, yet she confined her materials to the world of her small village, her domestic circle, her garden and a few good books
10) Mark Twain--- Is the great realist and regionalist of his time, who expressed his love for humor through his works
11) William Dean
Howells--- Writes in a narrative voice, inserting quiet irony in his works,
while at the same time, showing an awareness of the subtle differences between
the sexes; and he does so in with Victorian decorum
12) Henry James--- Developed an increasingly complex style as his literary career developed---meaningful ambiguities ad ellipses in the dialogue together with convoluted and modifier-ridden exposition
13) Bret Hart--- His
stories center on the regional subject of gold camps and mining towns, and the
hilarious contrast of westerner and easterner dude to the fascinated attention
of the eastern states and
The Turn of the
Century
14) Naturalsim---writing which presents events and
characters as they are in their natural setting
15) Spiritual Unrest—moving away from a
belief in God to a belief in another force
16) Theistic Faith---the
belief that God created the world and interacts with His creation
17) Idealsim---writing that depicts its characters and
actions in a state of “perfection”
18) Laissez-faire---American
government’s hands-off attitude with foreign affairs
19) Rationalism---beliefs
and writings based on reason
20) Pragmatism---a
belief in the practicality of things, ideas, etc.
21) Dualism---the
religious belief that the universe contains opposed forces of good and evil,
and of mind and matter
22) Regionalism--- literature that depicts the culture and characters of very specific localities
23) Sarah Orne Jewett---one of the prolific “local colorists” who
sought to show the realities of her native region
24) Mary E. Wilkins Freeman--- Her best fiction focuses on the plight of women whose lives are bounded by poverty and the social constraints imposed on them by them by their strict religious beliefs and their position as women.
25) Edith Wharton---
Her short stories center upon the changing society of
26) Stephen Crane--- He was convinced that if a story is transcribed in its actuality, as it appear to occur in life, it will convey its own emotional weight without sentimental heightening, moralizing, or even interpretive comment.
27) Theodore
Dreiser---His themes deal mostly with the disparity between the rich and
the poor, the cultured sophisticate and the provincial, and the powerful and
the weak members of society; however, he also wrote of the effect of science
and religion, the emergence of new power groups and the development of new theories
in economics and political science
The Literary
Renaissance---New Directions: The First Wave
28) Alienation--- Feeling like outsiders within their own culture, these Modernists searched for their own forms rather than tap into the traditional literary form of their culture. Moreover, they believed their psychological states could not be adequately recorded in traditional forms
29) Control--- Poetry that is precise, carefully crafted and reworked, hardly spontaneous
outbursts of emotion and energy
30)
Disillusionment--- Tending to reject the social, economic and spiritual
values of Western culture, the modern writers no longer accept the claims of
the world; the usual immorality seem counterfeit; taste, a genteel indulgence;
tradition, a wearisome fetter. Additionally, the Red scare, race riots,
political and corporate corruption, and prohibition disillusioned many young
writers, leaving a great number to relocate to
31) Existentialism--- A rejection of traditional philosophical and religious systems of belief in
favor of a meaningless, chaotic, Godless world, where individuals may or may not give meaning to their life
32) Experimentation--- Daringly original, searching for new forms of expression to respond to new,
more technological age and recent revelations in human sexuality, these poets became more subtle and dense in their symbolism, more reliant upon allusions to earlier literary works so as to suggestions of mythological meaning, and more inclined toward intellectual depth and brilliance
33) Harlem
Renaissance--- A feeling of pride in African heritage and in
African-American culture blossomed between the World Wars in a number of
American cities; these artists often adapt musical structures to poetry, in that
their work tends to be more accessible, and often disillusioned with
34) Primitivism---. The term applied to the popularity of African art and American Indian art as motivated by Freudian and Jungian theories of human psychology and sexuality.
35) Edwin Arlington
Robinson--- The formula for his typical poem includes the elements of
characterization; indirect and allusive narration; contemporary setting and
recognition of the impingement of setting on individual lives; psychological
realism and interest in exploring the tangles of human feelings and
relationships
36) Willa Cather--- Her fiction is characterized by a strong
sense of place, the subtle presentation of human relationships, and often
conventional narrative structure, and a syle of
clarity ad beauty
37) Robert Frost---
His poetry is meditative, realistic and universally appealing
38) Carl Sandburg---
He saw and wrote first hand of the sharp contrast between the rich poor
39) T. S. Eliot---
His poetry embodies the rhythms and symbols of the American idiom while
embodying the common idealism of the people in form often of notable subtlety
40) William Carlos Williams--- His works show a special knowledge of humanity, a diagnostic reserve toward its frailty or strength, and enough humor to preserve his sanity
41) E. E. Cummings--- Though his greatest talent lies in his lyricism, he also is a master of satire, and wit, and at times ironic
42) Langston Hughes---His hunger for primitivism was a contributing factor to his great success
42) William Faulkner---.
He saw and wrote first hand of the sharp contrast between the rich poor
.
The Second World War
and Its Aftermath
43) Multiculturalism---a
post-war movement of literature from traditional Protestant, Anglo-Saxon,
male-dominant literature to a diverse infusion of literature from women,
Indians, African Americans, French-Canadians in New England, creoles and Cajuns
in Louisiana, Spaniards in California and New Mexico, and the masses of
immigrants already present from Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, Germany, China,
Russia, Poland, Italy and elsewhere.
44)
45) Gwendolyn
Brooks---her poetry focuses on the black urban poor of
46) Eudora Welty---born in Jackson, MS, her writing is art
informed by saturation; behind each finely wrought sentence there lies a sense
of absorption from depths that are not readily plumbed by writers less familiar
with their material
47) Sylvia Plath---her work concerns the struggle between self and
others and between death and birth
48) Joyce Carol
Oats---her fiction involves a world of violence, insanity, fractured love,
and hopeless loneliness
49) Saul Bellow---among
post-world War II American novels his are the ones that best present problems
of the modern urban dweller in the search for identity