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LITR 4326 Early American Literature Model Assignments |
Final Exam Essays 2017 Sample answers for 2b. Review & compare 3-4 periods of study (Renaissance, Seventeenth Century, Enlightenment, Romanticism) |
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Cynthia Cleveland
Gateway to Romanticism
Early American literature is a unique subject of study, since it has such
a rather limited background. American literature developed much along the same
course as its contemporaries in Europe, in that it reacted accordingly to the
influences of the Renaissance, Age of Enlightenment, the Baroque and
Romanticism. However, we can see that although the definitions of the era remain
the same, there is certainly a great deal of difference between these influences
of style and their execution.
During the period of the Renaissance, American literature was fairly
scarce. The period of the Renaissance was inspired by a “re-birth” or a return
back towards the classical elements of literature. However, the majority of the
literature of the Renaissance period in America consisted of narratives of the
early discoveries and settlements of America. Such narratives included John
Smith’s “A General History of Virginina”
and Cabeza de Vaca’s
“La
Relacion”,
in which we are given accounts of settler’s interactions with the Native
Americans. This differs drastically from the Renaissance in England, where we
can see there is more production of fiction; Shakespeare for example is probably
one of the most well-known Renaissance writers of England. This difference in
subject matter of the period is surprising, but also makes a great deal of
sense. Since, during the American period of the Renaissance, the early settlers
were not living in the established comforts of their contemporaries, but living
in a wild, unsettled land.
During the Seventeenth Century, the literature of the period is marked by
extreme religious fervor in America; this is the period in which the Puritans
established their presence in North America. This 17th century fervor
is greatly attributed to the Reformation in England, which prompted the
immigration of the Puritans. Anne Bradstreet’s poems are a good example of this
devotion to womanly duties, but above all, the Puritan fervor that suggestively
relies upon the mercy of God to see them through their trials in the wild
America. Her poems and John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity”, give us
an idea of the values of the time period of the 17th century as it
relates to literature; here, the idea of a utopia is the goal, which they
believed could only be accomplished through their devotion to God.
Moving into the Age of Reason, we see that these narratives continue, but
the subject matter of such narratives have taken a new direction. The Age of
Reason began to apply more “common sense” to our everyday concerns, rather than
the Puritan didactic of “trusting in God” alone. This deviation from a strong
religious morality seems to have invoked a noted change in the ways that writers
began to reflect upon society as a whole, more towards the object of humanism.
Strangely enough, this Age of Reason ushered in the Romantic era. This
particular era was really where American literature began to flourish into the
literature we know today. One of the first American novels is Susanna Rowson’s “Charlotte
Temple”,
and though the Age of Reason greatly affected the reflection of American values,
they change the landscape for such novels towards Romantic notions that find a
balance between reason and religious fervor.
Rowson’s novel is great example of this balance, since it invokes
religion as a basis for human morality, but still engages in “common sense”
reasoning. Particularly illuminating is the struggle with which Rowson imbues on
our character of Charlotte, in which she is a “fallen
woman”,
but that we should take pity on the fallen because we are all human and subject
to our own personal faults. Where the Romantic seems to balance this Reason and
religious fervor is in her narrative concerning Charlotte’s character; Charlotte
is portrayed as a young lady possessing all of the values of a gentlewoman.
However, her character is compromised by the guile of a seductive man, which
then prompts Rowson’s narrator to request we give Charlotte our sympathies. Her
reasoning is that we are all human and make mistakes and through that reason, we
should invoke our Christian sympathies of forgiveness.
In contrast to Rowson’s
novel is Charles Brockden Brown’s
“Edgar Huntly”, which responds to the Romantic era in a much different way.
Rather than engaging in the balance of reason, Brown’s novel seems to subvert
these notions of reason in favor of the sublime. While there is still a balance
of reason to the novel, it plays on the reasoning that everything is not always
as it seems. Brown’s gothic prose is what separates his style of Romanticism
from Rowson’s, in which human fallacy is subject to forgiveness. Brown’s novel
deals in the mystery of murder, and the sublime element engages the Romantic
prose, where the subject of murder contrasts that prose.
The development of American literature from the subject of narratives to
that of the Romantic Novel is certainly an interesting subject. We can see that
the influences of the period greatly differ from the contemporary writers of the
period abroad. It also shows us the parallels between a lifestyle of harsh
conditions has a distinct effect on
the content of the literature; since the early settlers experienced so much
hardship, it would stand to reason that their narratives would consist of
factual events rather than creative narratives that can be seen in England. Even
through the transition between these periods, we still see that narratives are
the primary form of literature in early America; and that we only really begin
to see fictional narratives arise once early settlers have become more
established and begin to thrive in the New World. Looking at the history of
America it hen becomes relevant that the historical events and sociopolitical
climate greatly affected the content of the literature.
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