1. LITERARY HISTORY The 19th century Part 2

3. 19th century literature TIMELINE 19th CENTURY AUTHORS England Jane Austen: 1775-1817 Mary Shelley: 1797-1851 Charlotte Brontë: 1816-1855 Emily Brontë: 1818-1848 Anne Brontë: 1820-1849 USA Nathaniel Hawthorne: 1804-1864 Mark Twain: 1835-1910

4. 19th century literature TIMELINE 19th CENTURY (American Literature)  Transcendentalism: 1840-1860  Age of Realism: 1865-1900

5. 19th century literature American Literature in the 19th century It was in the late 18th and early 19th centuries that the nation’s first novels were published. With the Anglo-American War (1812-1815) and an increasing desire to produce uniquely American literature and culture, a number of key new literary figures emerged, perhaps most prominently Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper, and Edgar Allan Poe. In America there was NO Victorian Age. Check out this timelinetimeline

6. 19th century literature Nathaniel Hawthorne: 1804-1864  Born in Salem, Mass.  Family of Salem Witch trial judge: John Hathorne  Transcendentalist Transcendentalism was a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England area of the USA. Among the transcendentalists' core beliefs was the inherent goodness of both man and nature. Transcendentalists believed that society and its institutions - particularly organized religion and political parties - ultimately corrupted the purity of the individual.

7. 19th century literature

8. The SALEM witch trials: 1692  An episode in American history of mass hysteria, during which people were (unfairly) accused of witchcraft  An excess of 19 people were unjustly hanged for witchcraft, 5 more people died in prison (jail fees)  “Naming names” (also communist hunt, USA, 1950s)  Salem, Massachussetts – Puritan community – fire & brimstone, devil- obsessed

9. 19th century literature Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter  Published in 1850  Boston, 1640’s  Hester Prynne – an adulteress (hence the letter A )  Pearl – Hester’s illegitimate daughter  Arthur Dimmesdale - Hester’s lover, also the minister  Roger Chillingworth – Hester’s husband, believed dead

10. 19th century literature Nathaniel Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter Themes in The Scarlet Letter:  Open vs. Overt Guilt / Honesty  Hate  Jealousy  Loyalty  Religion  Nature vs. Man-made communities Watch the SparkNotes summarySparkNotes summary

11. 19th century literature Mark Twain: 1835-1910 Mark Twain (the pen name used by Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was the first major American writer to be born away from the East Coast – in Hannibal, in the border state of Missouri. His regional masterpieces were the memoir Life on the Mississippi and the novels Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (seen as the first “Great American Novel”). He was a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. ‘Mark Twain’ was the call made when a boat was in safe water (two fathoms = 3.7 m).

12. 19th century literature Mark Twain: 1835-1910 Twain's style – influenced by journalism, wedded to the vernacular, direct and unadorned but also highly evocative and irreverently humorous – changed the way Americans write their language. His characters speak like real people and sound distinctively American, using local dialects, newly invented words, and regional accents. Example: “Yo' ole father doan' know yit what he's a-gwyne to do. (from Huckleberry Finn)

13. 19th century literature Mark Twain – Huckleberry Finn  Published in 1884/5  Age of Realism: 1865-1900  Mark Twain believed that humanity's freedom of choice was limited by the power of outside forces. Realistic writers like Twain often set their stories in specific American regions, rushing to capture the “local colour” before it was lost.  Watch the SparkNotes summarySparkNotes summary

14. 19th century literature Mark Twain – Huckleberry Finn Themes in Huckleberry Finn:  Racism  Slavery  Loyalty/Friendship  Adventure  Religion  Regionality (Missisippi region)

15. 19th century literature Mark Twain – Huckleberry Finn Huck is an Unreliable Narrator. Because he is innocent (a child) it leads him to make overly charitable judgments about the characters in the novel. His credibility therefore is seriously compromised. Watch part 3 of the Huckleberry Finn film to see how Huck’s journey on the Mississippi begins.part 3