1. This week IV. Literature of the American Renaissance (1837-1865)
Edgar Allan Poe
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Herman Melville

2. Edgar Allan Poe Born 1809 Raised by foster parents
Spent 5 years in school in England
Married cousin
Published poetry & criticism
Died 1849

3. E.A. Poe Belongs to no region of country
Doesn’t strictly fit into categories
None of his writings take place in U.S.
Suffered from real poverty, not genteel poverty

4. E.A. Poe - Achievements Reputation suffered at his death
Revered in Europe
Opinion split in U.S.
Psychological writer, or
”Jingle man”

5. Misinformation Some caused by friends Some caused by own writings
-artist or money-maker?
Not a drug addict

6. Literary work Detective story (”Murders in the Rue Morgue”)
Horror tales (Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque)
Handful of poems
Literary critic (”Philosophy of Composition”)

7. ”The Philosophy of Composition”
Written as explanation of ”The Raven” (1845)
Articulates theory of short story
Unity of effect
Read at one sitting

8. The Raven
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,    While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-                  Only this, and nothing more."

9. The Raven
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.    Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrow    From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore- For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-                  Nameless here for evermore.

10. The Raven
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain Thrilled me- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;    So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,    "'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door- Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-                  This it is, and nothing more."

11. Major themes Fear of death Death of young woman as beautiful
Doppelgänger
Collapse of personality
Perversity of human nature

12. Contradictions Chaotic personal life, but writing highly structured.
Romantic writer who helped developed the detective story
Used realism in gothic scenes (often accused of having horrible taste)

13. Baltimore Ravens

14. Nathaniel Hawthorne Born in Salem, MA (1804) Ancestors Puritans
Lived in Salem & Concord
Worked in Custom House in Boston & Salem
Scarlet Letter made him independent
Died 1864

15. Literary works Twice-told tales (1835) ”Young Goodman Brown”
”Ethan Brand”
”My Kinsman, Major Molineux”
Scarlet Letter (1850)

16. Major themes Nature of sin & guilt Puritan past Isolation & alienation
Human heart
Effects of a personal calamity
Self-trust vs. authority

17. Scarlet Letter Characters Hester Prynne Arthur Dimmesdale
Roger Chillingworth
Pearl

18. A Scarlet Letter Meaning of letter… Adultery Angel Able Pride
Community’s shame
Hidden shame A

19. But Hester Prynne, with a mind of native courage and activity, and for so long a period not merely estranged, but outlawed, from society, had habituated herself to such latitude of speculation as was altogether foreign to the clergyman. She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.

20. Symbols in Scarlet Letter
forest vs. town
rose vs. prison
Pearl

21. “Mother,” said [Pearl], “was that the same minister that kissed me by the brook?”
“Hold thy peace, dear little Pearl!” whispered her mother. “We must not always talk in the market-place of what happens to us in the forest.”

22. …the wearer of the scarlet letter was at length relieved, by discerning, on the outskirts of the crowd, a figure which irresistibly took possession of her thoughts. An Indian in his native garb was standing there; but the red men were not so infrequent visitors of the English settlements that one of them would have attracted any notice from Hester Prynne at such a time; much less would he have excluded all other objects and ideas from her mind. By the Indian's side, and evidently sustaining a companionship with him, stood a white man, clad in a strange disarray of civilized and savage costume.

23. Herman Melville Born 1819 in NYC
Sailed in whaling ship as young man (1840s)
Began writing upon return in 1845.
Most works focused on sea

24. Literary works- novels
Typee (1846)
Omoo (1847)
Mardi (1849)
White-Jacket (1850)
Moby Dick (1851)
Pierre (1852)
The Confidence Man
(1857)

25. Melville – short works ”Bartleby, the Scrivener” ”Benito Cereno”
”Billy Budd”

26. Melville - Themes sea & life on ship man & God native peoples
indeterminancy

27. Bartleby Industrialization & work world? Futility of man’s existence?
Individualism & free will (Thoreau)?
Plight of writer (autobiographical)?
Charity?
Bartleby as aspect of narrator?
???

28. Benito Cereno American ship & Spanish slave ship Characters:
American captain
Spanish captain
Babo, a slave
American captain’s inability to recognize mutiny on ship?

29. Hawthorne & Melville Admired & respected each other
Both probed metaphysical questions and dark side of human soul
Hawthorne recognized during lifetime
Melville rejected by public after Moby Dick
Neither in keeping with spirit of times

30. Next lecture IV. Literature of the American Renaissance Ralph Emerson
Henry David Thoreau
Read Walden extract!!