1. American Literature
A literary introduction
Washington Irving
http://www.brianjayjones.com/images/portraits/irvingBrady.jpg

2. A literature of one’s own
 A distinct voice
 Cultural tradition
 Freedom from the influence of England
 The American Renaissance
 1820s – National literary tradition
 Against English cultural patterns
 Influence of early 19th century writers
(Scott, Byron, Coleridge)

3. A literature of one’s own
 The break away from
European tradition
 New England, a workshop for
a new literature
 Settings and subjects related
to America
 Washington Irving (The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow)
 James Fenimore Cooper
(The Last of the Mohicans)
 Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle
Tom’s Cabin)
 Americanness: rooted in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:James_Fenimore_Cooper_by_Jarvis.jpg
nature

4. A literature of one’s own
Two great masters
Herman Melville Nathaniel Hawthorne
Moby Dick The Scarlet
Letter