...What makes American literature American? America has long been fans of the superior writers, such as Hemingway and Fitzgerald for their various works including “The Great Gatsby” and “The Old Man in the Sea”, America has been known for its fondness of short stories. American literature aims to embody the values and morals of the American culture. The foundation of American values include the rights to liberty, justice, freedom, equality, love, and family, American literature usually will be centered in one or more of these ideals. American literature incorporates the story of an American character and their encounters with the land and the people, exemplifying the human need to control and understand their environment. “Whitman emerges here both as an exemplar of the dominant literary theory and as a precursor of our contemporary value schema, with its enshrinement of the "me" (San Francisco Chronicle (Pre-1997 Fulltext)). Whitman was known for his fresh perspectives of the past and domination of literary theories. What is literary canon? How does literary canon relate to what is going on in society? Literary canons are the classifications of books and their influence upon the culture and society of a specific region or country. Literary canons outline the influential literature of a culture, society, country, or secular community. Society looks to literary canons to understand cultural influence and to research the issues that are most important to the people of the country...
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...American Ethnic Literature ENG/301 April M Lee October 15, 2012 Dr .Greg Beatty Literature came about many decays ago we use Literature to define the genre: humor, poetry, drama, plays, science- fiction and more. You also can use literature for was the ethnicity reason such as; French literature, and English literature and many more other ethnicity. In this paper I am going to talk about the American ethnic literature, American literature American, literary canon and many more different topics. American ethnic literature is a difficult subject to define because there is no single ethnic type of American when it comes to talking about the American ethic literature in this world. Americans are all made up from the people, who came to the United States. We as American makes the ethnicity part of literature by combine the different culture from all over the states. During the found of the nations there were a lot of groups of immigrants that had come to add their talent to our country. (Ethnic American Literature, 2000) The Irish was the largest group that had came in the early part of the 1800s. The Asia brought the culture over around the 1960s to share their talent and beliefs. All of them came together by bring their different skills, way they be thinking and beliefs to show everyone how they was different from the mainstream of the Americans, and by challenging different...
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...NORTH AMERICAN FICTION BRIEF INTRODUCTION: Before starting our study of American Fiction we must understand what American Literature is in itself and which pieces of writing we can include within this label. It is believed that when a piece is written in North America, more precisely in the USA, it would automatically be given this epithet. But it should be taken into account that this idea is quite broad and doesn’t reflect the real essence of the term. However, there is also another definition that gathers this essence: American Literature is the one that represents the Americanism, the singularity of the USA philosophy and culture. This way, instead of focusing on who the author is, it is focused on the content of the writing. In that which concerns Fiction, the following documents are the ones considered as narrative: Speeches Letters Short Stories Essays Political Documents Sermons Novels Diaries 1 FIRST LITERARY EXPRESSIONS The first documents in which the idea of Americanism is very present are the Sermons. They respond to the strict Protestantism settled in the New Continent after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritans in the Mayflower (1620) and the Arabella (1630). They established a theocratic community whose main and only point of reference was the Bible. That is why the idea of the ‘city upon a hill’ is still very present in American mentality. As we all know...
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...BA English Literature and Community Engagement About your application For entry in October 2013, there will be two deadlines for applications. The initial deadline will be Monday 26 November 2012. Interviews for those who apply by this date will be held in December 2012. Assuming there are still places available after this date, we expect to have a second deadline for applications of Monday 1 July 2013, with interviews to be held later that month. These dates are designed to acknowledge that some applicants are also pursuing other options for further study, and may need to make decisions early in the academic cycle, while other mature students may prefer to complete a prior course of study in 2012/13, such as the English Department’s Reading English Literature course, before applying to the degree. You are advised to read the information in this pack carefully before completing your application. Please address any questions about the application process or the degree to Gareth Griffith on gareth.griffith@bristol.ac.uk Aims of the course: The undergraduate degree in English Literature and Community Engagement is offered part-time over six years and is taught one evening per week plus occasional Saturdays. It aims to develop a student’s interest in, and knowledge and understanding of, a full range of literature in English. The programme reflects the English Department’s wider commitment to maintaining a balance between established traditions of literary study and...
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...Essay One: What is an American? Gregory Coryell American Literature I Dr. Joseph Walker January 19, 2011 What is an American? America has always been based on the precept that it was formed as a melting pot. This term means that different religions, cultures, traditions and countries were blended together to create the “New America.” Europeans from various areas have fled their countries for many reasons and settled on American soil, “the land of the free.” Religious persecution, war, famine, and the hope for economic prosperity have enticed individuals to pull up their tent poles in their native lands and move to a bold new world, known as America. This new world, America would be a starting point and a birth of a new civilization and a new breed of people who all share one common goal. What does it actually mean to be an American? There are many definitions that have existed and that have helped us understand and shape our interpretation of this term. This paper will compare and contrast two separate views of what the new American is and what it means to be called an American citizen. In William Bradford’s, “Of Plymouth Plantation,” he accounts for his journey to the new world by describing the intent of his voyage, his first impression of his surroundings, and the things and people he encounters. Our text verifies Bradford’s hopeful spirit and passion for his beliefs when Bradford uses the term, “Pilgrims” to describe the “community of believers who...
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...Ernest Miller Hemingway was born at 8 o'clock in the morning on July 21st 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. In nearly 62 years of his lifetime, his literary reputation was unsurpassed. The Characters that he created were not only captive the literary critics but also the average men as well. It can be said that Ernest Hemingway was a greatest American Writer in the twentieth century. His experience as a soldier in Italy during World War 1 inspired him to write many of his later masterpieces. One of which is the story “In Another Country” in the book “Men Without Women”. “In Another Country” is a short story about wounded soldiers who are recuperating after being injured on the front line. The main theme of the story is about the isolation feeling that the American soldier, or the narrator, has to confront. The first thing I would like to mention is the isolation of the narrator in his emotion. The setting of the story is in a military hospital in Milan, Italy during World War 1. As an American soldier, the narrator always feels homesick at a certain when being out of his homeland. Moreover, at the first glance, the title of the story, In Another Country”, Ernest Hemingway implies that the narrator himself is just a tourist in a foreign country rather than a real soldier who really fights for justice. This is the reason why he feels that he is undeserved for the medals. By describing his visiting to The Cova Café, the narrator lets the reader capture his tourist characterization...
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...train station in Spain, somewhere between Madrid and Barcelona by the Ebro River. It is during the Summer, since it is described as being unbearably hot. The American man and a younger female he calls Jig, are sitting at a bar by the station, waiting for the next train to Madrid drinking beer and talking. It is a very simple plot, it all takes place on one day at one location. The famous American writer Ernest Hemingway wrote the short story in 1927. Hemingway’s writing is very simple, as he doesn’t use many descriptive words and the sentences are very short. He has written this short story in the 3rd person, and so he doesn’t express thoughts nor feelings. Since his style is so easy and simple, he usually complicates his stories by keeping the reader guessing and not giving many clues to what the theme could be. I believe that the couple in the short story are discussing, whether Jig should have an abortion or not. The American is 100 procent up for it, but she doesn’t seem so keen on the idea, and she finds it difficult to say it directly to him. She keeps changing the subject, and she is possibly hiding hints in the things she says. After changing the subject, they keep jumping in and out of the conversation. There are clues earlier in the text, which confirm that she has a hard time doing things without the American man’s permission “Could we have another beer?” (p.4, l.10) ‘Could we try it?’ (p.1, l.26) He seems to be in control of her and her actions, but this time she...
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...Slavery in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Metaphor Over the past three centuries, only a handful of American authors have achieved such success that their work continues to be read and studied decades, even hundreds of years after their deaths. Mark Twain achieved this success by writing some of the greatest novels American literature has ever seen. Arguably his most famous work, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn essentially revolutionized American literature. One might say that Twain initiated the transition from romantic epics to more realistic-based tales. A second profound American author, Ernest Hemingway, even said, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” (Hemingway). Within this work, Twain uses some topics that were very controversial at the time to present an even more insightful idea. While one of the main issues in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is slavery, Twain uses it as an allegory for the struggle, that still exists today, between an individual’s conscience and society’s norms and ideals. In this novel, the setting and time period during which it takes place plays a significant part in the overall plot. Though Twain wrote this novel in the 1880s, several years after the Emancipation Proclamation, he chose to set the novel a few decades before the Emancipation Proclamation. In choosing this, he enabled himself to highlight slavery as one of the main issues of the novel. During the time when the...
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...Ernest Hemingway vs. William Faulkner Unlike any other author the style of writing Ernest Hemingway uses in his stories are short and long sentences, but when a sentence is long it is joined with conjunctions such as and’s, but’s, and because. For example, “In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference.” (Hemingway, pg 165) Hemingway’s stories are like reading a speech. In addition, Hemingway does not use any emotions into his writing; his stories are simply and have little meaning to it. His writing is similar to life because in life, you often find yourself given little information and must read between the lines to understand something to figure out what to do next. William Faulkner writing is very different from Hemingway’s way of writing; he uses longer complex sentences in his stories. For example, He could not see the table where the justice sat and before which his father and his father’s enemy (our enemy he thought in that despair: ourn! mine and hisn both! He’s my father) stood, but he could not hear them, the two of them that is, because his father had said no word yet.” (Faulkner, pg 169) Additionally, Faulkner’s sentences interrupts with parenthesis. Unlike Hemingway, Faulkner uses emotions in his writing. A writer might learn from Faulkner’s writing because it has sentence...
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...Mark Twain: Writer of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn There are many great authors in the world, and the United States of America has certainly produced its fair share. American literature has had a lasting impact on the world. One great American writer that many readers admire and respect is Mark Twain. Mark twain is one of the most famous american authors. He wrote at least 30 books in his lifetime and a lot of them were very inspirational. Of his most famous books was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain was born november 30, 1835. He lived for 74 years and spent most of his life writing books. He was born in florida missouri and died in redding connecticut. First of all, Mark twain spent his childhood in his birthplace...
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...Jake Barnes of “The Sun Also Rises” is the protagonist of the book, known precisely for his wound from WWI that proves to leave him impotent in his experiences throughout the course of novel. The setting of the novel takes place in Paris,France during the exposition.Jake is young and from America but now lives in Paris working in a newspaper office. Barnes leads an almost simple life, doesn’t find interest in traveling. He has a small group of friends he normally hangs out with as well as always drunk with. He plays tennis with one of his closest friend Robert Cohn. He finds his life empty after World War I, in which he was injured in the state of losing his genitals. Lady Brett, a woman he met during the war, is the love of his life though he’ll never be able to fulfill his desires with her because of his injury.Barnes is somewhat selfless, especially when it comes to Lady Brett.He is constantly running away from his problems or drinking them away. He has a strong passion for bullfighting and he is considered a true aficionado of the sport. As the novel goes on it reveals his love for and relationship with Lady Brett, his involvement with excessive amounts of alcohol and using it to solve all of his problems, and the effect of being in WWI. Lady Brett was introduced into the book during chapter three, he arrives in the bar Jake was at with a prostitute that tagged along with him.Brett is known for her dangerous seductive looks and personality. She’s practically irresistible...
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...In The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway makes an attempt to shed light upon the issue of manhood. More specifically, he calls into question what masculinity truly is. Hemingway challenges stereotypical preconceptions of what it means to be a man through the character juxtaposition of Jake Barnes with Robert Cohn. Cohn is emblematic of the general view of masculinity, but Jake turns these notions on their head and gives a much different picture of what it means to be a man. Robert Cohn’s character is that of the prototypical “manly man.” He is truly an “alpha male” by the standards of the public eye, especially of his generation. He possesses all of the qualities that a truly masculine character should have. He is physically strong and an excellent athlete, as evidenced by his middleweight boxing championship at Princeton. He has lots of money and prestige, as he was “a member, through his father, of one of the richest Jewish families of New York, and through his mother of one of the oldest” (Hemingway 12). Cohn is most concerned with the needs of the most important person in his life – himself. He is so convinced of his own greatness that he is blind to his faults. When his relationship with his first wife begins to become rocky, Cohn contemplates leaving her, but does not do it because “it would be too cruel to deprive her of himself” (12). Ironically, his wife ends up leaving him to run off with a painter. Cohn is also quick to fight and exert his strength upon those who challenge...
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...The novel The Sun Also Rises is a novel about a man's life in Paris. The Sun Also Rises is a novel written by Ernest Hemingway. The book is written in the time period around the 1920s. The protagonists are Jake Barnes and Brett Ashley. Brett and Jake’s relationship is tragic even though fate is what brought them together. Fate is a predetermined course of events. In the novel Brett and Jake are trapped by their fate. At one part Jake takes Brett to her hotel and they kiss but Brett won’t let him in the hotel room and pushes him away. In another area of the novel Jake gets unhappy with Brett because he is tired of her going out with other guys. Their fate says they should be together because they can’t stay off the each other. Some...
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...Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is a story that follows a boy and his journey away from home, set in the 1800s. The boy, named Huckleberry, frames his own death and runs away from his home. He is then joined by a runaway slave named Jim, who was owned by a lady that used to take care of Huckleberry. This book should be taught in schools because it can teach students what innovations were previously used, how people of color were treated, and what was going on in history at the time. In the book, characters mainly use letters to communicate. In one of the last chapters of the book, Aunt Polly reveals that Huckleberry was pretending to be Tom, and Tom was pretending to be Sid. Aunt Polly then says “I wrote you twice to ask you what...
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...For my Lit Bit paper, this semester I have chosen to read A Farewell to Arms, a novel published in 1929 by legendary American author Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway, who is arguably one of the most famous authors in history, lived from July 21st, 1899 to July 2nd, 1961, and published many novels, short story collections, and nonfiction books during his lifetime. Along with A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway is most well-known for his works For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man and the Sea, and The Sun also Rises. He got inspiration to write A Farewell to Arms after he served in the Italian Army in World War 1, and many of the things experienced by Frederic Henry, the main character, are taken straight from Hemingway’s past. It is written in a first person “stream of consciousness” style, along with Hemingway’s classic brief and journalistic approach to writing. The story itself takes place in the early 1900’s during World War 1, and centers around Frederic Henry, an American ambulance driver enlisted in the Italian Army. After he is injured by a mortar bomb, he begins a relationship with his nurse Catherine Barkley, and they (eventually) fall in love. Just before Henry must go back to front, Catherine reveals she is pregnant: Unfortunately, tragedy ensues. Henry is believed to be a traitor, and to avoid certain death, he must flee the military and head...
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