Early 19th Century Literature Unit II Early 19th Century Literature

The Rise of American Writing By the 1850s compulsory school laws were in place Levels of education and literacy had risen significantly Magazines were highly popular Most books were almanacs, school-books, self-help manuals, and works on religion, medicine, or law American writers won increasing national and international fame.

Key Authors Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin Emily Dickinson’s poetry later achieved international fame Frederick Douglass’s Slave Narrative Edgar Allen Poe and his gothic stories Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau and transcendentalism

Cultural Nationalism Patriotic songs Paint vast panoramas of American scenes Monumental buildings to represent the American people Hudson River School of landscape painters: America’s mountains, valleys, forest, and rivers

Literary Changes Novels, short stories, and poems replaced sermons Literature sought to glorify the land Emphasis on free expression of emotion The novel of terror became profitable, just as it remains today There was a greater interest in America’s language and its people Authors wrote about they saw, what they feared, what they hoped for, and what they imagined.