Oldest literature

  • mainly indian literature in spoken form, fairy tales, legends, myths, songs
(all origin people- 500 languages) „tobacco, tomato, canoe, tomahawk, totem…“

  • they called their land a truth island
  • Vikings camje from North, than continued ti Bahamas- 1. lit. work:
The Old Nothern Viking Saga

  • 1492 Columbus (settlement of Europeans) recorded everything detaily in Columbus Diary
  • the first notices of literature were often sent to Europe from Americans to inform in forms of diaries, charts, maps, letters
  • 1. colony – Jamestown, 17. cent.
Diaries of Captain John Smith (story about the indian girlm Pocahontas) Anne Bradstreet (2. half of 17. cent., first published book)- poems

  • 18. century
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

  • writer, painter, editor, scientist, inventor..
  • owned his own printing shop, said to had invented the lightning rod
  • Own Biography
  • Poor Richard’s Almanach (way to wealthy, american dream)

Thomas Paine

  • Common Sense (supports fight for independence)- filosofical, political

Noah Webster

  • American Dictionary of English Language (big tradition)

Washington Irving

  • wrote about history of settlement of the USA
  • The Sketch Book (uses traditional indian stories, against white people)
  • History of New York

James Cooper

  • wrote about conversion- differeces between waste and civilised land
  • The Pioneers (life in the USA, Indians against white people)
  • Leather Stocking Tales (settling Wild West)

  • 19. century

ROMANCE

• poetry:

Wault Whitman Tha Leaves of Grass Henry Longefellow

  • high educated, became a proffesor of Harward
Evangeline (tradition of original indian people)

Emily Dickenson

  • loved nature, tried to find harmony between people and nature, wrote about animals, seasons…, was not very well educated, knew Bible well, also know much about Shakespeare’s work, ancient Greek myth…, wrote 1775 poems, but noone had a name, only numbers

• prose Edgar Allan Poe , Herman Melville 

Harriet Stove Uncle Tom’s Cabin

  • representativ of an old puritan family, speaks about slavery in the USA, not from the political view, but only as a family, she was critizied by Nothern people

REALISM

Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) 

Stephen Crane

  • wrote about the society and its problems
Maggie The Girl of Street (about poor girl, who meets man, because of who she becomes a prostitute, finaly she comitted a suicide..)

Jack London  The Call of Wind The Sound of Wolf Martin Eden Sea Wolf

Theodor Dreiser Sister Carrie (about young pretty girl from a poor family, she moves to the city to her sister, finds a job- not wellpaid, than she meets a man, whom she falls in love with, but he’s from better society- a married banker, so she becomes his lover; they decided to rob a bank to have a better life, she becomes an actress, they lead o good wealthy life, but the girl was never rally happy, so finally she comitted a suicide)

Benjamin Franklin  Poor Richard´s Almanach

  • 20. century

DRAMA

Eugene O’Neil

  • first american dramatic, who has been gotten a Nobel price
Morning Becomes Electra Long Day´s Journey Into The Night

Arthur Miller The Death of a Salesman All My Sons

Tenesee Williams The Glas Managerie (Skleněný zvěřinec) A Streetcar Named Desire (Tramvaj do stanice touha)

William Styron

  • belongs to a group of writters, which is interested in south problematic
Sophia´s Choice

Isaac Singer

  • problems with jewish people

Bernard Malamud

  • also problems with jewish people
Tenats

Joseph Heller Catch 22

Mario Puzo

  • deal with italian people

Ginsberg – Howl ; Ferlinghgett ; Corso

  • they all belong to Beak Generation