Early American Literature

Puritan Life

Indian trickster tales • god, goddess, spirit, man or woman who

plays tricks or disobeys normal rules• Can be foolish or wise; a villain or a heroCreation tales• Essential for creation and/or birth

Pre-Puritan Literature – Oral Tradition

Puritans began Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1620

Very small structures, usually 18’ squareBuilt with logs – chinks filled with clay2 rooms – living room and kitchenSleeping places in garret reached by a ladderHeated by fireplaces

Puritan Life

Plymouth Plantation

Larger structures built once sawmills and manufacturing of bricks established

Windows were small with diamond-shaped panes

House of Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Plymouth Plantation – Later Domiciles

Claflin-Richards’ House

Some brought from EnglandSome made at homeGenerally, few toys at first because children

were expected to learn their catechism and to read at 2 years old…

Dolls, carved whistles and dolls, corn husk dolls

Recreation - Toys

In England – had enjoyed instrumental, organ music

In New England – only slow, unison singing allowed (no organ accompaniment)

Tunes converted from Psalms in the Bible

Recreation - Music

The Bay Psalme Book

Supposed to be work-related yet gave them an opportunity to talk and enjoy each others’ company

Men: hunting parties & house raisings

Women: quilting bees

Youth: apple bees & corn husking

Recreation – Social Gatherings

Many laws to assure compliance with religious restrictions

1631 – no cards/dice1638 – no theater nor dancing

Restrictions

Almost anything enjoyable is a sinDrinking, dancing, tobacco, and idleness a sinStrict rulesChurch attendance importantStrict punishment of sinnersSerious meditation in reference to one’s sins

and soulBelieved it was God’s will that they separate

and establish a new communityKept personal diaries

Religious Beliefs

Stocks and Pillory

Early Literature – Non-FictionAccounts of travels – personal diary of Capt.

John SmithTo inform and convert English minds to the

Separatist thinking – William Bradford’s of Plimouth Plantation

The tale of God’s will revealing itself in history

Sermons – John Cotton ( style much changed from his sermons in England)

Personal journals aimed at serious introspection – Wigglesworth’s journals

Histories – Cotton Mather’s Magnalia Christi

Early Literature - FictionMyths – tales of “travail

and wandering, with the Lord’s guidance, in quest of a higher purpose”

Psalms turned into song or poetry and given meter

Poetry “rigorously defined place” – purpose to help them define and live a holy life – The New England Primer (1638?)

Fiction cont.Poems about daily living

– Anne Bradstreet (first published poet in America)

Poems about glory and goodness of God – Edward Taylor

Fiction cont.Some novels and plays

written later but set in Puritan New England

- The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

- The Crucible, Arthur Miller

Literary StyleNon-Fiction is serious and written in “the

plaine style” with “singular regard unto the simple truth in all things” – William Bradford and John Cotton (sermons)

But…all of their writing did contain imagery, rhythm, complex metaphor, allegory, scriptural analogy

Later style is called “jeremiad” – more than a tale of woe – interpretive account of the hardships and troubles with an anguished cry for the purity of earlier times – Later portions of of Plimouth Plantation

Literary Style cont.Sermons – purpose was

to inspire and to generate emotion and faith – Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

Puritan Literary Faces… John Winthrop

Increase Mather

John Cotton

William Bradford