The beginning of literature in America

 

The settlements of New England developed rapidly. Ten years after the landing of the "Mayflower" Pilgrims (more than twenty thousand people) lived in the colony and the majority were from England. And it was here in New England that the literature of the New American nation appeared. The Pilgrim Fathers played a historical role in this, although it was through no conscious desire of their own. Many of them were men of learning with a university education. They brought books on various subjects to America. They opened schools for the children and in 1636 founded Harvard College, the first American university. They also set up the first printing-press in the country and published the first books. But the American Puritans were not guided in this by any humanitarian desire to spread knowledge among the people. They were first and foremost religious fanatics, determined to subjugate everyone to their rigorous, dogmatic discipline: the school taught their religion to the children, the university trained clergymen for protestant churches in the colony which they hope would give them more power, and the books they published had the same purpose.

Although the only book they recommended for home reading was the Bible, they also printed various histories, journals, memoirs and theological tracts intended for the clergy who ruled the colony. The authors of these works were far from being professional writers but their writings tell the story of the colony and disclose the true nature of the puritanism of those days.

The power of Puritan theocracy lasted for three generations. The writers who fought for democracy in the colonies (Thomas Hooker, John Wise, Roger Williams) came into sharp controversy with the clergymen. [57]

Gradually, under the influence of French and German culture brought to America by new immigrants, theocracy was defeated and the number of secular poets and writers increased. Since the writers from the Northern colonies dealt with the life around them, of which they were an inseparable part, their works became a part of American national literature, while Virginia and other Southern colonies added but little to the creative literature of America. This is not surprising the planters lived in the colonies only with an eye to profit. They educated their sons in England. Intellectual life in the South was static. People lived in imitation of the old home, and there was very little contrast with theNorth.

American culture, however, cannot be really understood if we view it only in the light of European influence. American literature is now more than 300 years old. It is independent literature intimately connected with the history of the country and should not be considered as a branch of British literature because it is written in the English language. Literature not only reflects the particular period in which it is created, it always rests on the traditions of the country which reared it. Nor can the literature of the American nation be separated from Indian mythology and Negro folklore. Some of the Europeans who had come to America learned from their social laws and appreciated such human values as their love of freedom, their self-respect, their contempt for wealth. They compared these qualities with those of the white men who turned into beasts in their greed.

The Negroes contributed greatly to the development of the arts. Negro songs and acting have become part of American national music and drama. Negro folklore has given American literature a specific colouring: a mixture of jocularity and sadness.

American literature owes its revolutionary traditions, of course, to the War of Independence. And it owes much to the traditions of pioneering in the free lands of West. The people who grew up under the conditions of the frontier spirit handed down the traditions that produced such men as Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and such poets and writers as Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Jack London and Ernest Hemingway. To study their literature means to learn much about America's unrelenting fighters for justice and freedom. [58]

Check yourself

1. When ond where did the colonization of America really start?

2. Who was forced to leave their native countries end to search for the new ones across the Atlantic?

3. What was the main occupation of the population before the American Revolution?

4. How many people lived in the colony ten years after landing of the "Mayflower" Pilgrims?

5. Where did literature of the New American nation appear?

6. When and where was the first American University founded?

7. What were the first books of the colony about?

8. What influenced the development of American literature?

9. What kind of contribution did Negroes do to American literature?

10. Which traditions did American literature owe to the War of Indepen­dence? [59]

 

Lecture 2

WASHINGTON IRVING

1783-1859

 

Washington Irving was born in New York City into a wealthy merchant family. He was educated privately for the law. But after his return from his first journey abroad he abandoned his halfhearted study of the law and for almost a decade was variously engaged, in the family business, as staff officer in the War of 1812 (a war between the United States and Great Britain from 1812 to 1815), as a contributor to newspapers and magazines, and also tried himself as a writer. The first highly civilized satire in American literature, "Salmagundi", was written by Irving together with J.K. Paulding and several other young men. That series of essays appeared in print in 1807 and enjoyed a good deal of popularity. Next he threw himself into the completion of his History of New York, told under the name of Knickerbocker. Published in 1809 it gave him a reputation of a humourist.

When Irving sailed again in 1815 for England on business, he was to remain for seventeen years. After the family business failed, he devoted himself to writing, and the first result was "The Sketch Book of Geoffray Crayon, Gent." issued in seven parts between 1819 and 1820. Many of the sketches are impressions of English scenes, but six have an American setting, and of these the two best are "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

After the publication of "The Sketch Book" and "Bracebridge Hall", a continuation of "The Sketch Book" style Irving made friends with Walter Scott, Thomas Moore, and others in the English literary set. He then lived in different European countries, he learned and travelled much, observing characters and habits, and took part in public life. [60]

While serving as an American attache in Spain, Irving produced several works with a Spanish subject or background, for example "The Alhambra", his last volume of tales. After "The Alhambra" he turned to history, biography, and travel. In 1832 Irving went back to America where, apart from four years in Europe (1842-1846), he spent the rest of his life.

Although Irving wrote no fiction after 1832, his contributions to the development of the American short tale were of great importance; he lent it style, skill, and atmosphere, and both Рое and Hawthorne owed much to his beginnings. Irving is generally considered the "father of the American short story " and America's first internationally-acclaimed man of letters.

Answer the questions

1. When and where was Washington Irving born?

2. How was he engaged after his first journey abroad?

3. Who was the author of the first highly civilized satire in American literature?

4. What gave Irving a reputation of a humorist?

5. When did he devote himself to writing?

6. What was the first result of his writing?

7. When did Irving make friends with Walter Scott and other English writers?

8. When did Irving produce his works with a Spanish subject?

9. Did he go back to America in 1832?

10. Why is Irving generally considered the "father of the American short story"? [61]

 

 

Lecture 3

JAMES FENIMOR COOPER

1789-1851

 

James F. Cooper was born in New Jersey into the family of Judge William Cooper. When he was only a year old he was taken to what is now Cooperstown, New York State. Cooper was privately educated by an English tutor on the family estate, and grew up as a young aristocrat. He studied at Yale without much interest or distinction and left the University without taking a degree. In 1808 he entered the US Navy; three years later he married, left the Navy, and settled down in Cooper­stown to assume his inherited role as a cultivated country gentleman.

Cooper's first really noted novel was "The Spy"(1821), an absorbing tale of the American Revolution. The book met a long-felt desire of the American people to see their own heroic past, and had an immediate success. Its chief figure is the shrewd peddler, Harvey Birch, who played the role of American agent to perfection and "died as he had lived, devoted to his country, and a martyr to her liberties". Harvy Birch is one of the major character creations of early American fiction.

Thereafter Cooper devoted his life entirely to writing, producing thirty three novels in addition to numerous histories and other works.

Cooper moved the setting of his next novel "The Pioneers"(1823) to the life he knew as a boy in Cooperstown. The novel introduced Cooper's second and greatest character, Natty Bumpoo, the noble frontiersman. Such was the hold of the figure of the "white woodsman" on Cooper's imagination that he returned again and again to the character, presenting him successively in "The Last of the Mohicans", "ThePrairie", "The Pathfinder”. [62]

Immediately after "The Pioneers'" came "The Pilot" (1824), the first of Cooper's eleven sea novels, and the one which introduced his third major character. Long Tom Coffin, the prototype of tough, wise, salty Yankee sailor.

Within but three years Cooper opened three great literary themes based on native materials - the Revolution, the frontier, and the sea.

During the years 1826-1833 Cooper travelled in Europe, where he met W. Scott and other literary men. In 1828, he published his "Notions of the Americans", vindicating American society. Upon his return, however, he was dissatisfied with American democracy as being in contradiction with his aristocratic notions, and pursued his idea of agrarianism in pamphlet and novel. "Homeward Bound", "Home as Found" and "The American Democrat" were constructive critiques of the American way of life. All that brought Cooper into disfavour, but he persisted in his ideas to the very end of his life.

As well as Irving in short stories, Cooper in his novels began with transplantation of English models, their manner and style, at least. But the American subject, American history and geography he referred to, native habits and customs he described made his works the American product. Cooper was one of the first to prove that the world would read American authors.

Check yourself

1. What family and when was Fenimor Cooper born into?

2. What education did he get?

3. What was his first book? Who was its main character?

4. What novel introduced Cooper's second and greatest character?

5. When di d his first of eleven sea novels come?

6. What great literary themes did Cooper open within but three years?

7. How many novels did he produce?

8. When and where did Cooper meet W. Scott and other literary men?

9. What made Cooper's work American product? 10. What did Cooper prove with his writing? [63]

 

Lecture 4

EDGAR ALLAN POE

1809-1849

 

Edgar Allan Рое was born in Boston. His mother, itinerant actress, died in 1811, and the boy was adopted by John Allan, a wealthy merchant.

From 1815 to 1820 the Allans Jived in England, and the boy attended school there. When the family returned to Richmond, he went to the local academy.

By his seventeen Рое received the normal education of a young gentleman. In 1826 he went to the University of Virginia, but was removed from there in 1827.The same year he ran off to Boston where he published "Tamerlane and other poems". Then he enlisted in the army and in 1830 entered the Military Academy at West Point. In the meantime he had published his second volume of verse, "Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and MinorPoems"(l829).

After being discharged from West Point in 1831, he went to Baltimore and spent there four years. Рое began writing short stories. After the success of "Ms Found in a Bottle"' (1833) he had editorial jobs in Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia, and was successfully engaged in writing articles and short stories for periodicals. While living in Philadelphia from 1838 to 1844 Foe wrote his best stories which were collected as "Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque"(1840). Further editorial troubles caused him once again to move to New York, where he published "The Raven and Other Poems" and "Tales", both in 1845. By the middle ofthe forties Рое was a well-known member of the New York literary circle. The last of his works was "Eureka: A Prose Poem", published in 1848. [64]

Рое was, perhaps, the strangest and most extreme figure in romantic tradition of American literature. Brought in a society of merchants, lawyers and almost feudal landowners, Рое had to live and work among the inheritors ofthe northern bourgeoise conscience. And he never was under illusion that the northern progress would lead to the establishment of harmony. He disliked the general antipoetic quality of American life, the prevailing commercial values that had taken over America.

Рое is a great literary figure whose contribution is outstanding both in the field of short fiction and in the field of poetry. As a short story writer he is considered the inventor ofthe detective story, particularly that of "ratiocination" (like "The Purloined Letter"); and he is as attractive in his stories of "ratiocination" as in his stories of horror like "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Black Cat".

As a critic Рое laid down rules for creating a successful work of art. The most important aspects of his theory of poetry he developed in his Philosophy of Composition.

As a poet he showed American readers that "Beauty is the sole legitimate province of poem" that "Melancholy poetical tones". But for the years his poetry was considered meretricious by English-speaking readers.

Nevertheless by the end ofthe XIX century Рое became a poet of European merit due to Mallarme's translation into French and Brusov's and Balmont's translations into Russian.

 

Answer the questions

1. When and where was Edgar Рое born?

2. Why and when was he adopted by John Allan?

3. Where did he get his education?

4. What did he publish in 1827?

5. When and where did he begin writing short stories? What are the most famous of them?

6. What kind of figure was Рое in romantic tradition of American lite­rature?

7. Why is Poe's contribution to the field of short fiction and in the field of poetry outstanding?

8. What did Edgar Рое do as a critic and as a poet? [65]

 

 

Lecture 5

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

1807—1882

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Main, into the family of a judge. He attended Bowdoin College and was so exceptional a student that soon after graduation he was offered a professorship of modern languages at the college. From that time on his life was a record of success.

At twenty-seven Longfellow became professor of modern languages and literature at Harvard, which was the best and oldest university in the United States. By that time he had twice travelled to Europe and visited half a dozen countries. He had published several textbooks and magazine articles on European literature, and, in 1835, a collection of sketches and travel pieces.

Longfellow's first book of prose, "Hyperion", as well as his first volume of verse, "Voices of the Night" appeared in 1839. His success as a poet led him to produce a second book, "Ballads and Other Poems", two years later. His early prose was concerned with historical and moral themes. His poetry dealt with nature, except "Poems on Slavery", which he wrote in 1842 to support the antislavery struggle the most important social movement of the day. Though Longfellow lived in days of unrest, when revolutions exploded in Europe and Civil War (1861-64) rent America, there was scarcely a repercussion of these events in his poetry.

In 1843, "The Spanish Student", averse play, was published and in 1846, the highly popular "The Belfry Bruges".

At the age of forty-seven, Lonfellow resigned his professorship at Harvard in order to devote himself entirely to writing. [66]

Longfellow crossed the Atlantic several limes to visit the European countries and universities, to improve his knowledge of European languages and literature. He spent half a year in Heilderberg absorbed in German romanticism, which influenced the American poet very much. Studyingthe European epos as a professor of literature, Lonfellow could see that his native country had no epic poetry similar to that of European nations. This inspired him to gather and carefully examine Indian folklore, then having as a model Karelian-Finnish epos "Kalevala", he wrote "The Song of Hiawatha", a skilful and beautiful imitation of epic poetry.

After 1861 Longfellow turned to translation and published his version of Dante's "The Divine Comedy" between 1865 and 1867, he continued to be published throughout the seventies, but "The Song of Hiawatha" remained his best and greatest poetical work. The best Russian translation of the poem is that of Ivan Bunin.

In the XIX century Longfellow was probably the most widely known American author outside his own country.

 

Answer the questions

1. Where and when was Henry Longfellow born?

2. Why was he offered a professorship at the college?

3. When did Longfellow become professor of modern languages?

4. What had he done by that time?

5. When did Longfellow's first books appear?

6. What did his "Poem on Slavery" deal with?

7. When did Longfellow resign his professorship at Harvard? How old was he?

8. Why did he cross Atlantic several times?

9. What inspired Longfellow to gather and carefully examine Indian folklore? What was the result of it?

10. When did he turn to translation? [67]

 

Lecture 6

HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

1811-1896

 

H. B. Stowe was born in Lichfield Connecticut to the family of a pastor. In 1832, the family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where Harriet became interested in the abolitionist case. There she met and married in 1836 Calvin Ellis Stowe, a professor of theology. They lived for some time in the South where Mrs. Stowe carefully studied the life of Negro slaves and white plantators. Her best and most popular novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin", was the reflection of southern life. Her literary contemporaries spoke of the book as of the high-water mark, to which her genius never rose again. The novel made a great stir all over the world by its realistic descriptions of Negro slavery in the USA. Harriet Beecher Stowe was not an abolitionist herself but her book helped the abolitionist agitator to promote the antislavery movement.

To prove the truth of her descriptions in the novel H. B. Stowe published in 1853 a collection of documents on which her story in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was based. It was the book called "Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin". Another antislavery novel "Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp", appeared in 1865, the last year of the Civil War. The other novels written during the 60's and 70's dealt with everyday life of the "average" New Englanders. "The Minister's Wooling" (1859) or "My Wife and I" (1871) were not of great social importance, but one can easily notice their artistic merits-their quiet humor and pure style. Marked with sentimental, even melodramatic, touch, full of religious moralization, the novels of H. B. Stowe demonstrated, however, the mixture of romantic and realistic features, the transition from romanticism to realism and. thus, the beginning of social novel in American fiction. [68]

The process mentioned was closely connected with the "'local colour movement", a term, which simply meant writing about life in particular, usually provincial, locality. An "old town" of England was such "locality" for H. B. Stowe, and her "Old-Town Folks", a truthful, sympathetic and skilful record of a small-town life, may serve as an example of such literature.

Check yourself

1. When was H. B. Stowe born?

2. Where did Harriet become interested in the abolitionist case?

3. Where did H. B. Stowe study the life of Negro slaves and white plan­tators?

4. What reflected her best novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin"?

5. Why did H. B. Stowe publish a collection of documents?

6. What did the novels of H. B. Stowe demonstrate? [69]

 

Lecture 7

HERMAN MELVILLE

1819-1891

 

Herman Melville was born in New York city. In 1839 the family moved to Albany, where Herman went to the local academy. After his father's death in 1832, the family was left in poverty. Melville worked as a clerk in Albany, sailed to Liverpool, and worked as a schoolteacher. In 1841 he shipped on a whaling vessel bound for the South Pacific, but in 1842 he deserted and spent about a month among the cannibals of the Marquesses Islands. This experience became the substance of his first novel "Typee" (1846). Another whaling vessel carried him to the Hawaiian Islands, which provided the material for his second novel "Omoo"(1847).

The two novels were highly successful and made Melville a favourite of the New York literary circle. The novels that followed, however, apart from "Redburn" and "White Jacket", had comparatively few readers, and were received with mixed feelings. Yet it is the writings of this period, the 50's, that survive as great literature. They are "Moby Dick", the supreme work of Melville's life, "Israel Potter", one of his best books, "The Piazza Tales", which contains such masterpieces as "Benito Cereno and Bartleby the Scrivener".

Melville's first volume of poetry, "Battle Pieces and Aspects of War", was published in 1866. Ten years later he published his long poem "Clarel", based on a trip to Palestine. Melville continued to work and publish through all the eighties. He was still working on "Billy Budd", preparing it for the press, when he died, on September 28, 1891. In "Moby Dick" Melville managed to combine an exciting narrative about the whaling industry with the eternal questions of human being. His novel is not merely a story about the men who went down to sea for whale hunting, but about the men viewed under the aspect of the universe and eternity, for Melville was deeply concerned with problems of man's life and soul. [70]

Symbolical figures, details and atmosphere seemed suitable to transfer the ideas to make them grand. The White Whale represents all the world's evil. The strange crew of the "Pequod", being made up of different races, might symbolize the humanity itself. Through Captain Ahab, a Prometheus- figure or anti Christ, Melville tried to get to the heart of the life force. Was there a benign God, or was there merely a blind and inscrutable force.

For most of his life Melville quarrelled with God. The seeds of his quarrel with religion as well as with civilization may be found in his first novels "Typee" and "Omoo", in which he notes the contrast between the happiness of the benighted heathen and the corruption he found among his shipfriends, the Christians.

In a narrative heavily weighted with symbolism as well as with factual and mythological details, in a style at times overdramatized, Melville dares to ask what was the unaskable, for the mid-nineteenth century America at least. And all the asking personages are destroyed. Of all the crew of the "Pequod", only one is saved-but on a coffin.

An undercurrent of urgency, even of anguish, distinguishes Melville's writing for no positive answers to the eternal questions could he found in his self, in his experience and life, no positive means to change that "civilized world".

Herman Melville is a symbolical figure of the artist, the isolated man, the potential spiritual leader who sees and feels greatly but whose voice, while carrying across a hundred years is not heard by his own generation.

 

Check yourself

1. When and where was Melville born?

2. Why was his family left in poverty? Where did he have to work?

3. What became the substance of his first novel "Typee" in 1846?

4. What novels appeared in the 50's?

5. When was Melville's first volume of poetry published?

6. What is Melville's supreme work "Moby Dick" about?

7. What represents all the world's evil in this novel?

8. What might the crew of the "Pequod" symbolize?

9. Whom did Melville quarrel for most of his life with?

10. Why are all the asking personages in Melville's novels destroyed? [71]

 

Lecture 8

WALT WHITMAN

1819-1892

 

The poet Walt Whitman was born in a small country place called West Hills, on Long Island, not far from New York. His father was a poor farmer and a carpenter. All his life Walt Whitman was proud of being "one of the people".

When Walt was eleven years old, he had to leave a school and start working. He became an office boy at a lawyer's office. Later he worked for a small newspaper where he learned printing.

At seventeen Walt Whitman became unemployed and could not find a job in a town. He went to the country where for some time he worked as a school teacher. Some people said that he was unpractical, because he was not interested in making money or getting a place in the society.

Whitman understood very well that his education was very poor and when he had time he studied literature or history and tried to write. He wrote poems, short stories and newspaper articles. Bourgeois critics did not like his poems and they were very seldom published, because he wrote about the ordinary people of America and of their hard life. Whitman loved the ordinary people of America whose life he knew very well.

In 1848 he went to New Orleans, where he did some editorial work. Soon after his return, in 1849, he left journalism for studying and writing supporting himself by carpenting and house-building with his father.

By this time Whitman had become attached to the ideals of Transcendentalism. He came to those ideals himself by way of Hegel's and Carlyle's writings, but there of an immediate influence that of Emerson. [72]

Whitman, however, had his own idea of man and democracy, which was his personal expression of those hopes for a new man and new life which had always existed abroad since the founding of the American Republic. The feelings and ideas he developed were the expressions of all which was finest in American people.

Whitman's greatest book, "Leaves of Grass", was printed privately in 1855. That was ten years after the publication of Emerson's "Nature"' and six years before the outbreak of the Civil War. When the book, which Whitman had been preparing ever since his visit to New Orleans, finally came out, it was so fresh in style and so original in subject and technique that it aroused sharp discussion. Whitman didn't follow the fashion of the age — he wrote his poems in free verse: he destroyed rhythm, he neglected regular line length.

The first edition continued twelve poems and had a Preface - a virtual manifesto of Whitman's aims - which was not subsequently re­printed. Thirty-tree new poems were added into the second edition (1856), and a hundred and twenty-two more into the edition of 1860. It was with the publication of this third edition that Whitman began to see the true scope and place of his book, how it was in reality one long poem, with "I, Walt" who stood for all men.

During the Civil War Whitman worked as a volunteer nurse. He expressed his experience as a nurse in his book "Drum Taps" (1866). After the war he remained in Washington until 1873, when he went to live in Camden, New Jersey. In 1879, Whitman made a lecturing journey across the continent.

By that time Whitman had a considerable reputation abroad particularly in England, where an edition of his highly popular "Specimen Days" had been published as early as 1868.

For the last eight years of his life Whitman lived alone in a little house in Camden, to which many famous men made a pilgrimage. By the age of seventy-three, when he died, he had achieved greatness in the eyes of the world.

A poet of free rhythm, Whitman was a poet of free spirit. He believed in the ultimate goodness of man's nature and hoped that everything would be for the best in his native land. Alas, he lived to discard those illusions to some extent by his seventies. His essay "Democratic Vistas", first published in 1871, contains bitter criticism of American civilization. [73]

73Whitman diagnoses the "deep disease" of America as "hollowness of heart". And yet, the book is still marked by optimism. The poet has not lost his faith in man and brotherhood, in transforming power of love, in humanity and life, and in the great poetry to come, which is "the stock of all". Whitman has not lost his faith in the future, but the future is the only thing that gives him hope.

Answer the questions

1. Where and when was Walt Whitman born?

2. What was Whitman proud of?

3. When did he have to leave school?

4. Where did Whitman work in his youth? Why did some people say that he was unpractical?

5. How did he get his education?

6. Why did bourgeois critics not like Whitman's poems and seldom publish them?

7. When and why did he leave journalism?

8. How did he come to the ideals of Transcendentalism?

9. What was Whitman's greatest book?

10. When did he begin to see the true scope and place of his book?

11. When did Whitman work as a nurse? Where did he express this experience?

12. Why did Whitman have a considerable reputation abroad?

13. What kind of poet was Whitman?

14. When and why did he achieve greatness in the eyes of the world? [74]

Lecture 9

 

AMERICAN LITERATURE

OF THE END OF THE XIX^th С -

THE BEGINNING OF THE XX^th С

 

At the end of the century it is not quite easy to achieve a really deep understanding of works by the authors belonging to the dawn of the century.

Since we are concerned here with the history of American literature we might try to follow its course of development in connection with historical forces, economic background, the nature of society and the intellectual currents that prevailed. Art is closely connected with sociology, philosophy and politics for it is a sort of superstructure over the economic basis. But it is also a means of cognition, for it helps, in a very special way, to make a study of surrounding reality.

At the close of the XIX^th century philosophers and some New England writers were inclined to see man as weak and helpless in the face of indifferent and impersonal Nature. And this Nature could not be identified with the increasingly hostile and seemingly impersonal monster of mass production, machine technology and finance capitalism. The ordinary man found himself the victim of sweatshops, starvation wages, cut­throat competition. He found himself depended on the unprincipled, avaricious and dollar-crazy robber of an industrialist for his bread and butter, for his happiness, for his children's future while it was blissful freedom that he was supposed to enjoy in "the Land of the free and the Home of brave", the statue of Liberty promised, as the patriotic songs went.

As for economic development, by the end of the end of the XIX^th century the United States was already a highly developed industrial country and the dawn of the XX^th с found it in a state of capitalist prosperity. [75]

The rapid rise of the industrial order (based on the system of private ownership and individual enterprise) had resulted in many economic situations that were sure to lead the country into disaster. In fact this was proved by the financial panics of 1869 and 1873 and as time went on an increasing number of people found themselves victims of economic circumstances.

The growth of big business had created great numbers of proletarians. Those were people deprived of any chance of education, ignorant and often unskilled workers dependent for their livelihood on the fluctuations of industry. Clerks, office workers and even fanners depended on bank credit, transportation and machinery. So then, in the frequently depressed economic conditions of the period, the ordinary man began to feel the effects of the ups and downs of business.

The foreign policy of the United States was a policy of aggressive tactics of domination and annexation of lands to which the United States had no legal title and with which they had no cultural affinity. Mark Twain in his pamphlet "We are Americanizing Europe"(1906) wrote: "For good or for evil we continue to educate Europe. We have had the post of instructor for more than a century and a quarter now. We were not elected to it, we merely took it. We are of the Anglo-Saxon race. And when the Anglo-Saxon wants a thing he just takes it."

Check yourself

1. Why do we connect the development of American literature with development of America itself?

2. Who saw man as weak and helpless in the face of impersonal Nature?

3. How did the ordinary man find himself?

4. What kind of country was the United States by the end of the XIX^th century?

5. What results did the rapid rise of the industrial order have?

6. Why did a great number of people find themselves victims of economic circumstances?

7. What created vast number of proletarians? What kind of people were they?

8. What did people depend on?

9. What was the foreign policy of the United States like?

10. What did Mark Twain write about Americans in his pamphlet? [76]

 

Lecture 10

KARL SANDBURG

1878-1967

 

Carl Sandburg, in his own original way, continued the traditions of Walt Whitman. He was born in Galesburg, Illinois. His parents had come to the United States from Sweden. In Galesburg his father worked at the railroad shops as a blacksmith's helper.

He developed an interest in literature early and he avidly read whatever he could get his hands on. He had to start earning his living quite early. At eleven, he worked at such jobs as sweeping the floors in an office, delivering newspapers, etc. (Enumerating all his jobs would take up too much space). He came into contact with a lot of different people, and his active mind has been registering many impressions.

At nineteen he went "to see the world" in a box-car of Santa Fe railroad line bound for Kansas without any luggage but a toothbrush and a bar of soap, also needle and thread, and with 3 dollars and some change in his pocket. He was gone during 3 months. And again the jobs he did put him into contact with a lot of various types: he unloaded some cargo from a steamboat, washed dishes, worked as a labourer repairing roads. Back home again, he enlisted when the Spanish American war broke out, and was sent to Puerto-Rico. That helped him, on his return, to get a year free tuition and an easy job with the Galesburg Fire Department. At college he enrolled for classes in Latin, English, chemistry, elocution, drama and public speaking. His interests were wide, he got to be captain of a basketball team and a member of the college choir, and editor of the college newspaper. Later he came into contact with a progressive professor who actually printed some of his early poems. He left the College of Galesburg before graduation and went on the road again as a hobo: he probably wanted his real education to continue. [77] He returned to Galesburg from time to time and worked on several small periodicals. In 1907 he joined the Socialist Party. In 1912 some of his works were published in "Poetry: A Magazine of Verse" founded by Harriet Monroe in 1912. His poem, "Chicago" was published in "Poetry" in 1914 and in 1916 his first serious book of poetry "Chicago Poems" was.

Since then, the working people, creators of the country's wealth, were his heroes in all his books of poetry: "Smoke and Steel", 1920, "Good Morning, America", 1928, "The People, Yes", 1936, "Early Moon", 1930, "Complete Poems", 1950, "Honey and Salt", 1963. All of these are distinguished by their democratic ardour, attention to the toilers creating this world, and highly impressive mastery of the poetical word.

Many poems by Carl Sandburg were successfully translated into Russian and Ukrainian by I. Kashkin, M. Zenkevich, A. Ibragimov, I. Kulik and V. Korotich.

Check yourself

1. When and where was Carl Sandburg born?

2. Where did his parents come from? What was his father?

3. How did Carl get his education?

4. Why did he have to earn his living quite early?

5. How did Carl Sandburg go "to see the world"?

6. What kind of jobs did he do?

7. What classes did he enroll at college for?

8. When was his first serious book of poetry published?

9. Who was the hero of Sandburg's books?

10. What are the names of his most popular works? [78]

 

Lecture 11

JOHN REED

1887-1920

 

John Reed's background was bourgeois. He went to a privileged preparatory school and aristocratic Harvard University, where he studied history, languages and literature preparing himself for a journalistic career. After graduation he travelled, went to Europe and on returning to New York worked for the local magazines as a poet and an essayist. His youth was closely connected with Greenwich Village, the part of New York that is inhabited by artists, writers, "Boheme". On the eve of First World War it was the center of intellectual unrest.

John Reed's friends called him "A Lion Cub". Lincoln Stiffens, "American Journalist N°. 1", realised how great the "Lion Cub's" talent was; he sensed the nobility of his nature and treated him as his adopted son. He recommended John Reed for a job at "The American Magazine", where he stayed three years, reading manuscripts and writing stories and verses. His early stories were sketches of "the lower depths", they were about the people of the slums ("The Capitalist", "Where the Heart Is"). Reed's manner is that of a newspaper reporter, an interview, a fact, an episode "in a belles-lettres frame".

Reed's ideological education was continued by his four-month stay in Mexico. He went there as a correspondent representing "The New York World" and the "Metropolitan", a monthly magazine. He walked hundreds of kilometers with the peasant army headed by Pancho Villa. Reed observed the peasant Civil War from inside: he was a participator, he did not only see the peasant revolution but he sensed, with all his heart, the profound social significance of that revolution. He understood the peasants' motivation, their needs and their dreams, his respect and his sympathy were given to the people. [79] Sensational material did not interest this reporter; it was the people's dedication to the cause of freedom from feudal oppression, independence, human dignity that appealed to his heart.

He arrived in September 1917, about a month before the October Revolution, and he plunged into the stormy political life of Russia. He knew some of Bolsheviks, met Lenin, went to Smolny. He was in Winter Palace on the night November, 7. He saw everything with his own in his eyes, and he described all he saw in his epoch - making book "Ten Days that Shook the World".

In 1919 he took part in founding the Communist Party of the USA, and that was the beginning of his life as a professional revolutionary. A few months later he went to Russia again this time illegally, with the idea of writing a new book and working for the Comintern. Gathering material for the new book he travelled to the furthest corners of Russia; he showed true heroism and selflessness. He died of typhoid fever in 1920 and was buried in Moscow near the Kremlin Wall.

Answer the questions

1. Where did John Reed get his education? What occupation did he prepare himself for?

2. What was his youth closely connected with?

3. Why did Lincoln Stiffens recommended the "Lion Cub" for a job at "The American Magazine"?

4. What were his first stories about?

5. What was Reed's manner of writing?

6. Where did he continue his ideological education?

7. Why did John Reed understand the peasants' motivation, their needs and their dreams?

8. When did he arrive to Russia? What was the result of his visit?

9. What was the beginning of his life as a professional revolutionary?

10. Why was John Reed buried in Moscow near the Kremlin Wall? [80]

 

Lecture 12

MARK TWAIN

1835—1910

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known to the world as Mark Twain, was the son of a small-town lawyer in the State of Missouri. When the boy was five years old, he was sent to school. Little Samuel did not like school but he had many friends and was their leader. In summer when school was over, the boys spent many happy hours on the Missouri River.

As Mark Twain said later, many events in "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" really took place and the characters were from real life. Tom Sawyer was very often a portrait of the writer; Huckleberry Finn was his friend, Tom Blankcnship; Aunt Polly was his mother; Tom's brother Sid was like his own brother Henry. When Samuel was eleven years old, his father died leaving nothing to his wife and four children. Samuel had to leave school and look for work. His elder brother was working as a printer and he helped the boy to learn printing. For some years Samuel worked as a printer for the town newspaper and later for his brother, who at the time had started a small newspaper. The two young men published it themselves. Samuel wrote short humorous stories and printed them for their newspaper. In 1853 Samuel decided to leave home. He went first to St. Louis, then to New York, and to Philadelphia where he worked as a printer. When Samuel was a boy, he dreamed of becoming a sailor. At twenty he found a job on a boat travelling up and down the Mississippi, but he had to pay 100 dollars to get the job. On that boat he learned the work of a pilot. From this he got his pen-name "Mark Twain". The pilot had to know the river very well when he took a ship along it. The sailors watched the marks and shouted to the pilot "mark three", "mark twain", which means "mark two". [81] Later the young man worked with the gold miners in California for a year. Here he began to write short stories and humorous sketches about camp life. He sent them to the newspaper under the name of "Mark Twain". His publishers liked his stories and he was invited to work as a journalist for a newspaper. Many professions that he tried gave Mark Twain a knowledge of life and people and helped him to find his true profession - the profession of a writer. In 1870 he married, and a new and happy life began for him. He had one son and 3 daughters whom he loved very much and was the happiest man when they where with him. As a journalist Mark Twain travelled much over the country. He saw the corruption of the American press and of the American Govern­ment which he later attacked in many of his works("Running for Governor", "The Gilded Age", 1873).

In different stories Mark Twain showed race discrimination and false democracy("Goldsmith's Friend Abroad Again"). In the story "A Defence of General Funston" he criticized the imperialist policy of the American Government. Chernishevsky said that "American satirical and critical literature began with Mark Twain".

In 1876 the writer published "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer"and in 1884 "The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin"- the novels that are now known to children and grown ups all over the world. The writer showed boys and girls in the novels with such sympathy and understanding that readers always see themselves in these characters. Mark Twain protested there against slavery and one of the main characters in the novel "Hucklebery Fin" is a Negro, Jim, who is honest, brave and kind.

The bourgeois critics of that time did not like the books and said the novels gave a bad example for young people. After this kind of criticism the public libraries took "Tom" and "Huck" off their shelves.

The profession of a writer did not bring much money to Mark Twain and he had to give the lectures on literature and read his stories to the public. He visited many countries, and for a long time lived in England. In 1907 the Oxford University gave Mark Twain an honorary doctorate of letters.

Ernest Hemingway once wrote: "All modern American literature comes from book by Mark Twain called 'Huckleberry Fin'." [82]

Answer the questions

1. What was Mark Twain's real name?

2. How did he treat school?

3. Where did Mark Twain take his characters for "The Adventure of Tom Sawer" from?

4. Why did Samuel have to leave the school?

5. What job did he find when he was twenty?

6. Why was his pen-name "Mark Twain"? What does it mean?

7. When was he invited to work as a journalist?

8. What helped him to find his true profession of a writer?

9. When did he marry? Was he happy? Why?

10. What did Mark Twain show in different stories?

11. Why did the public libraries take "Tom" and "Huck" off their shelves?

12. Why did Mark Twain have to give lectures on literature?

Lecture 13

О.HENRY

1862-1910

 

The real name of the writer was William Sydney Porter. He was born in Greenboro, North Carolina, USA, in the family of a doctor. He was brought up by his aunt because his mother died when he was a small boy. After finishing school at the age of fifteen, Porter worked as a clerk for five years in his uncle's chemist shop in Greenboro. Then he went to Texas because he wanted to see new places. There he saw cowboys, prairies and mustangs, but it was not easy for him to find work. For two years he worked on a farm, then he became a clerk in an office and at last got a job in a small bank. During this period he studied languages and became interested in literature.

Soon he married and when a daughter was born to them, Porter was a happy husband and father, but his happiness did not last long.

One day a theft of a thousand dollars was discovered at the bank where he worked. Though it was not he who had taken the money, Porter left the town and went to Central America where he stayed for some time. But when he heard that his wife was very ill, he returned home and was put into prison for three years.

After his wife's death Porter very often thought about his little daughter. She was living with her relatives and was told that her father had gone very far away and would not return soon. The thought that she would not receive a Christmas present from him that year was a sad one. To get some money for a present, Porter decided to write a story and sent it to one of American magazines. The story "Whistling Dick's Christmas Present" was published in 1899, and Porter's daughter received a Christmas present. Porter has signed the story "O. Henry" - the first pen-name that came into his head. While still in prison, he published many other stories. [84]

In 1901, when he was released from prison, he settled in New York, and continued writing short stories for different magazines. Very soon he became one of the most popular short -story writers in America.

O. Henry's stories won great popularity and have been translated into many languages. Most of them have unexpected endings and the reader is always taken by surprise.

During the short period of his literary activity, O. Henry wrote 273 short stories and one novel, "Cabbages and Kings" (1904).

In his stories O. Henry describes amusing incidents of everyday life in large cities, on the farms and on the roads of America. In most of his stories he does not touch upon important social problems, but the author's sympathy is with the common people of America, whose life he knew very well, his greatest wish was that people should be happy.

Taken as a whole, the work of O. Henry is bourgeois in its spirit.

Check yourself

1. When and where was the writer born? What was his real name?

2. Whom was he brought up?

3. Where did William work at the age of fifteen?

4. In what period did Porter study languages and become interested in literature?

5. Why didn't his happiness of married man last long?

6. How did William Porter begin to write? When did he use his pen-name for the first time?

7. When did he become one of the most popular short-story writers in America?

8. What is the peculiarity of O. Henry's stories? Did they always have happy endings?

9. Did O. Henry touch upon social problems in his stories? [85]

 

Lecture 14

THEODORE DREISER

1872-1945

 

Theodore Dreiser was born in a small town in the State of Indiana, the USA, in a poor family. After his school years he had to support himself by doing different jobs. He worked at a laundry, then for several years he was a newspaper reporter in Chicago, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. Later he moved to New York, where he found work as a magazine editor.

From the very beginning of his literary career, he fought against the bourgeois writers who idealized capitalist America, and he wrote works of his own to tell the truth about it. But no publisher wanted to publish his books, and his democratic ideas were criticized. Dreiser's life was a long fight for realistic literature under bourgeois conditions.

In his first two novels, "Sister Carrie" (1900) and "Jennie Gerhardt" (1911), Dreiser described the life of two young women in the capitalist world.

Three of his other works, "The Financier" (1912), "The Titan" (1914) and "The Stoic" (which was published only after the writer's death in 1947), give the whole life story of an American capitalist, showing the ways in which the wealth of big capitalists is made.'The Genius" (1915) tells of the fate of an artist in the bourgeois world. "An American Tragedy" is Dreiser's masterpiece. It was published in 1925. It is the life story of a young American, Clyde Griffiths, from the days of his childhood till his tragic end on the electric chair. Clyde came of a poor family and his life's dream was to become a rich and important man in the capitalist society.

In 1927 Dreiser was a guest of the Soviet Government. He described his visit to the USSR in "Dreiser Looks at Russia" (1928). [86] He greeted the first proletarian state in the world with enthusiasm and expressed his love for the Soviet people.

The economic crisis of 1929-1933 brought great misery to the American working class. In "Tragic America" (1931) Dreiser says that in order to end misery and exploitation American workers must follow the example of the Soviet Union.

Dreiser began to take an active part in the struggle of the progressive people in America, and supported the working-class movement. He became a member of the Communist Party of the USA in August, 1945. This was the "logic of my life", as he expressed it in his letter to the leader of the Communist Party of the USA.

Besides the works mentioned above, Dreiser also published several collections of short stories.

Dreiser's literary work occupies an important place in American critical realism. His novels and short stories give a true picture of American bourgeois society and show its influence upon the life of the people.

 

Check yourself

1. When and where was Theodore Dreiser born?

2. Where did he wrok after school?

3. What did Dreiser fight against from the beginning of his literary career?

4. What were his first two novels about?

5. What novels gave the whole life story of American capitalism?

6. What is Dreiser's masterpiece? When was it published?

7. What was Dreiser's attitude to the working-class movement?

8. Why does Dreiser's literary work occupy an important place in Americancritical realism?

[87]

 

Lecture 15

JACK LONDON (1876-1916)

Jack London, a famous American novelist and a short- story writer, was born in San Francisco, California. The family was very poor, and speaking of his childhood, the writer said later that those were the hungriest years in his life. When the boy was eight, he learned to read, and read everything he could get. He borrowed books from the public library and spent all his free time with a book. He began to work very early, when he was a boy of nine. He got up at three in the morning and delivered newspapers, after that he went to school. After school he delivered evening papers. At week-ends he worked as a porter in a hotel.

On finishing a grammar school at the age of thirteen, he continued working as a newspaper boy and did other small jobs. His father was seriously ill at that time and Jack had to feed the family. He found work at a factory, but his wages were so low that he worked overtime, standing at his machine for eighteen hours a day. When Jack was a boy, he dreamed of being a sailor and now, when he had a little free time, he spent it near the sea. On one such a day he was offered work as a sailor aboard a ship going to Japan. Jack London worked on that ship for a year and in 1893 came back to San Francisco. His family was near starvation. Jack found a job at a factory where for ten hours of hard work he earned one dollar. After a day at the factory Jack could think of nothing but sleep. Yet, it was at that period that his first short story was published. A San Francisco newspaper offered a prize for a story, Jack sent his short story and was awarded the first prize. [88]

It was more and more difficult to get a job in San Francisco and Jack London marched with the army of unemployed to Washington to ask for bread and work. Then he tramped all over the United States and Canada and spent a month in prison for tramping. That month in prison helped him to understand the class struggle. He saw men go mad or beaten to death there. In prison he met a man who spoke to him of socialism and of the books by Karl Marx. When London returned home, he began to read books on socialism and in 1895 joined the Socialist Labour Party. He decided to continue his education and after three months of study entered the University of California. But he spent there only a semester because his family needed his help. London found a job at a laundry and at the same time decided to try his luck in literature.

Working day and night, he wrote poetry essays and stories. He sent them to magazines, but nothing was published. Gold was found in Alaska at that time, so London went there. He hoped to become rich enough to devote himself to literature. He worked there for a year, but didn't find any gold. He found the heroes of his stories: strong and brave people. In 1898 Jack London returned home and found his father dead. Again he had to take different jobs washing windows, cleaning carpets. At the same time he continued to write, and in 1898 his story "To the Man on Trail" was published and was a success.

In the next four years the writer published his northern stories "The Son of the Wolf, "Children of the Frost", "A Daughter of Snows" and others, which made Jack London famous and brought him enough money to devote himself to literature.

In 1902 London visited the capital of England. He bought some old clothes, took a small room in the East End and lived there as a poor American sailor. He spent much time in the slums of London and later wrote one of his best books, "The people of the Abyss" (1903), where he showed a horrible picture of the poverty of English working people at that time. [89]

The Russian Revolution of 1905 led London to better understanding of the class struggle. His works 'The War of the Classes" (1905). "Revolution" (1908), and "The Iron Heel" (1907) were written under the influence of the Russian Revolution. The bourgeois press criticized London's progressive political ideas and his support of the Russian Revolution.

The years 1905-1909 were most successful for the writer. He published "White Fang", "The South Sea Tales", "Martin Eden" and many other works which brought him great fame. In "Martin Eden" he used many facts from his own life. That was the time of London's greatest activity in the socialist movement too. But the writer did not agree with some of the leaders of the Socialist Labour Party who were against the revolutionary struggle. In the last years of his life Jack London moved away from the working class, and his ideas on the socialist movement were changed. His literary works of that period were less important. He did not touch upon any social problems in them but showed the success in life of some men ("The Little Lady of the Big House"). In 1916 Jack London left the Socialist Labour Party. The same year the writer died.

Answer the questions

1. In what family and when was Jack London born?

2. Why did the boy have to work from the early years? Where did he work?

3. When did Jack London write his first story?

4. Why did the writer have to spend a month in prison?

5. Did Jack London finish his education in the University of California?

6. Was his work for a year in Alaska successful?

7. What made Jack London famous and brought him enough money to devote himself to literature?

8. How did the writer study the life of the poor people of the English capital?

9. What did the bourgeois press criticize London for?

10. What years and why were the most successful for the writer?

11. Why did London leave the Socialist Labour Party? [90]

Lecture 16

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

1899-1961

 

Ernest Hemingway was one of the greatest American writers of his age. He was born in Oak Park, Illinois, in the family of a doctor. His father was fond of hunting and fishing and in his school days Ernest became an excellent sportsman. He played football, was a member of the swimming team and learned to box, as a result of which his nose was broken and an eye injured. At school he was a successful pupil. He wrote poetry and prose for the school literary magazine and edited the school newspaper.

In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Hemingway wanted to join the army but was refused because of his eye. Then he left home and went to Kansas City. He lived in his uncle's house and worked as a newspaper reporter. In 1918 he tried to join the army again and was given the job of driving American Red Cross ambulances on the Italian front. Two months later he was badly wounded in the leg. He was taken to a hospital in Milan where he had twelve operations. After a period of time he returned to the army. Hemingway was awarded a silver medal by the Italian Government. His war experience influenced the life and all the works of the writer.

In 1920 Hemingway returned to the United States and began to work as a foreign correspondent of a newspaper.

Now he was earning enough to support himself by his pen and he began writing stories. His dream was to become a novelist. To get the material for his future stories and novels Hemingway travelled all over the world. He visited Sp