1. Genres in American Literature
Romance
Sentimentalism
Realism
Naturalism
Modernism
Postmodernism
1980-present

2. Romance Sentimentalism Appeal to the emotions
Tales of ideal and truth rather than reality
Emphasis on redemption, of individuals or of society
Melville

3. Gothic
“a tendency to plunge into the underside of consciousness”
Poe, Brown

4. Realism Verisimilitude The here and now as subject
Vernacular rather than elevated speech
Reliance on the scientific method
Detailed descriptions
Events are plausible
Gilman, Twain

5. Naturalism Reliance on scientific principles
Attempt objectivity and detachment
Nature is indifferent
Focus on “the brute within”
Determinism
Norris

6. Modernism Fragmentation and alienation Pessimistic, subjective
World is not ordered and stable but rather futile and chaotic
Self-conscious and self-reflexive

7. Modernism Impressionism Collage, pastiche
Minimalist designs, no elaborate ornament
Dos Passos, Eliot

8. Postmodernism
Parody
Blurring of distinctions between genres and high/low art
De-centered
Celebrates, rather than mourns, the fragmentation and meaninglessness of life

9. Three Phases of Capitalism
1st: market capitalism s
Associated with particular technological developments, namely, the steam-driven motor
realism.

10. Monopoly capitalism 2nd: monopoly capitalism: 1890s-1950 (WWII);
Electric and internal combustion motors
modernism.

11. Consumer capitalism
3rd: multinational or consumer capitalism (with the emphasis placed on marketing, selling, and consuming commodities, not on producing them)
nuclear and electronic technologies
postmodernism.

12. To review: Social control
Punish (up to 1800)
Discipline ( )
Control ( s)
Option (1990-present)
Levers, pulleys
Engines
Computers
Internet, credit cards

14. J. Alfred Prufrock Written in 1919 Mood of Modernism
Society in Prufrock
Deodorant
Grades
Peer pressure
The door
The Oscars
American Idol
“If the most idiotic television game shows are so successful, it’s because they express the corporate situation with great precision”