Survey on British and American Literature Notes The Beginning of American Literature American literature began with the legends, myths, and poetry of the American Indians, the first people to live in what is now the United States. With rare exceptions, this oral literature was not written down until the 1800s. In the 1600s, the colonies in Virginia and New England produced the most important writings consisting of journals and reports of European explorers. Captain John Smith wrote what is regarded as the first American book, A True Relation of Such Occurrences and Accidents of Note as Hath Happened in Virginia. After its publication, histories, religious writings, and poetry started to flourish, a great number of people learned to read. New literary taste emerged. The interests of literature included politics and science. The essay, satire, and novel became important literary forms. During the 1770s, much of the literature were addressed to issues relating to American independence. Thomas Paine, in The American Crisis, encouraged the rebels to persist during the darkest days of the American Revolution. In early years of American Independence, American literature gradually separated from the shadows of Europe’s literary forms and styles. The most successful wrier of this period was Washington Irving. The poet William Cullen Bryant was also distinguished in his poems such as “Thanatopsis” and “To a Waterfowl.” Toward the middle of the 1800s, other writers focused on the country’s problems, such as slavery, others, on the beauty of nature. Two main forms of fiction were practice by American writers in this period: the sentimental novel, an example of which is Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin; and the romance, examples of which are James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans and The Deerslayer. Period of American Literature and Prominent Writers 1.The Colonial and Early National Period The first European settlers of North America wrote about their experiences starting in the 1600s. This was the earliest American literature: practical, straightforward, often derivative of literature in Great Britain, and focused on the future. TheColonial Period of American Literaturespans the time between the founding of the first settlement at Jamestown to the outbreak of the Revolution. The writings of this time centered on religious, practical, or historical themes. The most influential writers of the Colonial Period include John Winthrop,Cotton Mather,Benjamin Franklin, andAnne Bradstreet.
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