American Literature Summary

AMERICAN LITERATURE

SUMMARY



Reading about the American literature we can learn about Early America and the Colonial period. This chapter in the literature history tells us how Americanliterature began. First all was orally, all the stories, songs, poems, tales, myths and lyrics were passed through generations. This kind of literature was started by the Indian cultures. The NativeAmerican oral literature appeared and was diverse. The oral traditions were maintained by the tribes through the years. All Indian stories talks about nature as something alive and like a deity. This kindof literature developed a huge imagination combined with magic. Also the Indian contribution to America was the legacy of some words like canoe, tobacco, potato, moose, raccoon, and many more that areused until these days.

After this period started a kind of literature exploration with the use of the Scandinavian language that came from the Norsemen settled probably in Canada. This firstcontact started with the voyage of Christopher Columbus and was compiled in his journal “Epistola” printed in 1493. Later Colonization starts with the two first colonies at Roanoke, in North Carolina andJamestown. The literature of this period showed America as the land of riches and opportunities. Jamestown recorded the writings of Cap. John Smith, he wrote “Pocahontas”.

Also through this chapterwe can find important characters that contribute with their creations as William Bradford and his “History of Plymouth Plantation”. Anne Bradstreet is another writer who published the first book ofpoems “The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America”. Like these examples there were many more.

After the Britain colonization happened there was a war and Americans realise that they didn’t havetheir own literature and that they depended on English literary models. It took 50 years of history to earn its cultural independence. At this time appeared writers like Washington Irving, James...