2 8 A m e r i c a n P u r i t a n i s m a n d C o l o n i a l L i t e r a t u r e
(T. Morton, J. Winthrop, W. Bradford, A. Bradstreet, and J. Edwards)
+ E x c u r su s : E x p l o r a t i o n W r i t i n g s
-Bjarni: (a Norseman) blown off course (985)
-Leif Ericsson: establ. a settlement ‘Vinland’[= ‘Newfoundland’ > New En.] (1000)
-Christopher Columbus: not recognised (1492)
-Amerigo Vespucci: landed in Brasil (1501), wrote Mundus Novus [= The New World] (1503)
-Martin Waldseemueller: incl. ‘America’ in his world map (1507)
-Richard Grenville: planted a colony at Roanoke(NC) (1585)
-John White: illustr. the 2nd ed. of Thomas Harriot’s A Brief and True Report of Virginia (1580), incl. an account of the Lost Colony
-genres: travel reports, business letters, and descriptions
+ R i c h a r d H a k l u y t ( c a 1 5 5 2 – 1 6 1 6 )
L i f e :
-an E geographer, scholar, lecturer of geography and cosmography at Christ Church College (Oxford), and promoter of the exploration of the New World
-an unofficial publicist for early Br. navigation
W o r k :
Divers Voyages Touching the Discovery of America (1582):
-his 1st work, a result of his research
-dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney
The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589):
-his major work, a widely-read coll. of travel writing showing the heroic spirit of colonisation
- ‘the prose epic of the modern English nation’
-an account of the circumnavigation of Sir Francis Drake [= an E navigator, arrived on the Golden Hinde at today’s Drake's Bay, explored CA, and called it ‘Nova Albion’]
-uses eye-witnesses as far as possible
+ C a p t a i n J o h n S m i t h ( 1 5 8 0 – 1 6 3 1 )
L i f e :
-typified the new Am. hero = tough, self-reliant, experienced, and struggling for the survival in the wilderness
-sailed London > Jamestown (VA): explored the surrounding territory, establ. trade relations with the natives., and drew up a map of VA
W o r k :
-created the 1st genuine legend of Princess Pocahontas, now it has a statue of a myth [S. captured by the Chesapeake Ind., brought to their chieftain Powhattan, and was about to be killed x but: Pocahontas persuaded her father Powhattan to spare him]
The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captain John Smith:
-a brief autobig. account of his adventurous military career
A True Relation of Virginia:
-his major work, the 1st text in E written in the New World
A Description of New England (1616):
-his another major work, full of practical information on travel, settlement, farming, costs, etc.
-promoted the colonisation: stressed the ‘incredible abundance’ of the New World
-the land = a means to individual well-being, liberty, and improved social status
Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England, or Anywhere:
-practical advice and theoretical suggestions on colonisation
-addressed to the Puritan leaders of the MA Bay Colony
C o l o n i a l A m e r i c a
-hardly any lit. for entertainment
-prose genres: Puritan histories, autobiog., biography, journals, diaries, sermons, and pamphlets, later Ind. captivity narratives [= women captured by Ind. (J. F. Cooper) the Jews]
-poetry genres: earliest Puritan poems on relig. themes and extremely pop. didactic poems
(1) T h e S o u t h - V i r g i n i a :
(a)the rich and plentiful virgin land, the ‘vale of plenty’ – J. Smith and T. Morton
‘This country is only as God made it when he created the world. With diligent cultivation it might equalise any of those famous kingdoms, in all commodities, pleasures.’ (J. Smith)
(b)the pastoral garden of Eden, ‘a paradise improved’ – R. Beverley and W. Byrd
(2) N e w E n g l a n d - t h e P u r i t a n s :
(a)‘a howling wilderness’ encountered from the board of the Mayflower (Sep., 1620)
(b)‘a Citty upon the Hill’: the Puritans felt privileged and believed ‘eyes of all people are upon them’ – W. Bradford, C. Mather, and J. Winthrop
T h o m a s M o r t o n ( c a 1 5 9 0 – 1 6 4 7 )
L i f e :
-> MA [ad (2) New En.]
-a counterpart of the pious Plymouth Protestants: establ. trade relations with the natives, exchanged furs for liquor and guns, etc.
-the Puritans sent Captain Miles Standish & co. to arrest him and deport to En.: 2 x deported, eventually imprisoned in Boston for 2 y.
W o r k :
-an adventurous businessman and author of travel writings and satires
The New English Canaan (1637):
-mingles prose x verse
-combines a serious-minded description of the colonised country and the natives x an irreverent satire on the New Plymouth Puritans’ piety and holiness
J o h n W i n t h r o p ( 1 5 8 8 – 1 6 4 9 )
L i f e :
-[ad (1) New En., the MA Bay Colony]
-leader in the Puritan colonial life, the 1st governor of the MA Bay Colony
-author of the now-classic sermon delivered on the board of the Arbella twd New En.:
‘For we must consider that we shall be a citty upon the hill. The eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken, and so cause Him to withdraw His present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world.’
W o r k :
“Model of Christian Charity”:
-sets the standards of life
The History of New England [= Journal] (1649):
-accounts the achievements and failures of the ‘citty upon the hill’
-mentions Mistress Anne Hutchinson as the centre of a theological controversy
-> H. = the major source for N. Hawthorne’s Hester in The Scarlet Letter
-> H.’s intellectual power anticipates that of M. Fuller
W i l l i a m B r a d f o r d ( 1 5 9 0 – 1 6 5 7 )
L i f e :
- [ad (1) New En., the Plymouth colony]
-sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
-the Church of En. too thoroughly corrupted to make its purification accord. to the Puritans possible > joined the Scrooby group to establ. a new ‘particular’ church
-the ‘Scooby Church’: their covenant modelled on the one made with Adam and then Abraham, the Scriptures = the highest authority
W o r k :
-author of prose and more than 1,000 lines of verse
Of Plymouth Plantation (1646):
-his major work, an account of the New En. Mayflower pilgrims
-incl. the famous “Mayflower Compact” = an agreement among the 41 adult M who pledged themselves to enact, constitute, and frame laws with reference to the general good of the proposed colony
-emphasised the spiritual life intended to remind the readers to keep the track of their relig. mission
-< the Biblical style
+ C o t t o n M a t h e r ( 1 6 6 3 – 1 7 2 8 )
L i f e :
-[ad (1) New En., the MA Bay Colony]
-grandson of the MA Bay Colony founders Richard Mather and John Cotton
-received uni education, studied medicine at Harvard
-became a clergymen and scholar
-realised the political, social, and economic realities of New En. life at the turn of c. were at odds with the orig. Puritan vision aimed to revitalise the orig. relig. mission
W o r k :
-a versatile author
Magnalia Christi Americana [= The Great Works of Christ in Am.]:
-his major work, a climax of the historical prose in the genre of church history
-loosely constructed, mingles history and biography
-praises godly men and provides models of spirituality
-attempts to reveal aspects of personality (William Phips)
-imprecise in chronology and dating, trims the facts to suit his purpose (Governor Phips)
-laden with learned allusions
-the most sustained jeremiad of the 17th c. New En. [jeremiad = idealises the fathers and immediately punishes failures under the impending ultimate Judgement]
-unfolds and asserts the meaning of the Am. nation > anticipates W. Whitman, and W. C. Williams
Bonifacus, an Essay upon the Good:
-a manual for self-improvement
Theopolis Americana:
-a rhapsodic prose hoping Am. to become the millennial city
+ W i l l i a m B y r d ( 1 6 7 4 – 1 7 4 4 )
L i f e :
-[ad (2) South, VA]
-a witty, wealthy, and well-read writer, planter, and government official
-moved btw London and Virginia: a gentleman and gallant in sophisticated London society x but: readily adapted to Virginia plantation life
-inherited a great estate from his father, laid out the today’s city of Richmond on one of the estates
W o r k :
Diary:
-a miscellany of dietary practices, relig. devotions, business matters, social intercourse, and sexual escapades
History of the Dividing Line:
-< his own experience of one of the commissioners surveying the disputed boundary btw VA and NC
-anecdotal, ironic, and sardonic
-intended for the London audience
A n n e B r a d s t r e e t ( 1 6 1 2 – 7 2 )
L i f e :
-[> ad (1) New En., MA]
-daughter of Thomas Dudley, wife of Simon B.
-thoroughly educated by her father and by diligent reading: Scriptures, Sir Walter Raleigh’s History of the World, poetry of Sir Philip Sidney, etc.
-< relig. controversy: her non-conformist Cambridge educated husband
-< her tenuous health, as a child prey to rheumatic fever > dominant images in her poems conc. the human body, illness, and mortality
-her husband’s often absence on business increased her burdens x but: astonishingly found time to write as long as to her death
W o r k :
-as a young girl began writing poetry to please her father x later called poetry a ‘room of my own’
-captured the essence of life as a Puritan and as a woman under tough colonial conditions
Sc h o l a r l y P o e m s :
-< the Gr. concept of the 4 elements and the 4 humours: the world composed of earth, air, fire, and water; and the human temperament of warmth, cold, wet, and dry
-long meditative poems on the ages of man and the seasons
The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America (1650):
-publ. without her knowledge in London
-despite the printer’s errors the 1st publ. vol. of poetry written by a New En. colonist
P e r s o n a l P o e m s :
-took greatest pride in the former x but: her lit. achievement both the latter
Contemplations:
-on the tension btw the individual’s wishes and desires x the need to submit to God’s will
D o m e st i c P o e m s :
-intimate poems from the POV of a mother and wife conc. for family and home
-poems on the pleasure in everyday life x elegies on the death of her grandchildren
-> “As Weary Pilgrim”, “Before the Birth of One of Her Children”, “The Flesh and the Spirit”, “To Her Father with Some Verses”, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”
J o n a t h a n E d w a r d s ( 1 7 0 3 – 5 8 )
L i f e :
-b. in CT x but: > MA
-received uni education (Yale)
-became a preacher and tutor
-determined to improve himself, began writing a didactic-like diary on the college B. Franklin
-championed the orthodox Puritanism = the concept of total depravity, futility of human efforts to achieve salvation, and God as the omnipotent judge
-his Northampton congregation anticipated the New En. ‘Great Awakening’ (1740s) [= wandering priests toured the country to convince people to save themselves]
W o r k :
-< the philos. of John Locke and Berkley
R e l i g i o u s W r i t i n g :
Personal Narrative:
-describes the mystical conversion in his youth to infl. his philos.
A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections:
-seeks to reconcile Puritanism with new theories
-intellectual comprehension of relig. doctrines insufficient, personal experience of the doctrinal truths necessary
-‘affections’ = not only emotions x but: the force moving an individual twd affirmative possession or repudiation
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”:
-a sulphurous sermon to induce a personal experience of depravity as the necessary 1st step to conversion
P h i l o so p h i c a l W r i t i n g :
-wrote when he served as a frontier minister
-seeks to build up a philos. based on the Puritan faith
-examine the nature and place of free will in a predetermined universe
-creates a bridge btw the old Puritan world and the new world of scientific studies
Freedom of the Will:
-his philos.-theological masterpiece
The Doctrine of Original Sin Defended
The Nature of True Virtue
+ E d w a r d T a y l o r ( c a . 1 6 4 2 – 1 7 2 9 )
L i f e :
-[> New En., MA]
-received uni education (Harvard), studied ministry
-as a minister provided leadership during the crises of King Philip’s War [= Ind. attacks]
-served as a community physician > images of medical plants and herbs in poems
-fathered 14 children, buried 5 of them in infancy > poems on this theme
W o r k :
-requested his work not to be publ. after his death
-his manuscripts found in the Yale Uni Library
R e l i g i o u s P o e t r y :
Preparatory Meditations:
-a series of intensely private poems
-rich profusions of metaphors and images, playful language, puns and paradoxes
-< the Metaphysical tradition
-images from the Bible: esp. from the sensuous “Song of Songs”
-images from the activities of everyday life: uses the dialect of farming
-God’s message can be divined in a wordplay
Gods Determination:
-a long moral poem opposing good x evil in military terms
-< the Bible and the experience of the E Civil War
O c c a si o n a l P o e t r y :
-author of miscellaneous poems, distinctive for his apprehension of detail
-the poet of ‘wilderness baroque’
“Huswifery”, “Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold”, “Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children”
+ E x c u r su s : A P u r i t a n H e r i t a g e
-the Am. political rhetoric and symbolic mode of perception:
(a)the sense of mission and being the elect nation
(b)the sense of community in crises brought together and drawing strength from adversity
(c)the Alternative Am. = ‘the only true America’ (H. D. Thoreau), alternative to the dominant Am. way
M y t h s :
-myth of Arcadia = a pastoral landscape of natural beauty, simplicity, and harmony of life as an ideal space in contrast to the city of ambition and corruption
-myth of the Fall
-Atlantis or the Garden of Hesperides, Avalon
T y p e s - B i b l i c a l A n a l o g i e s :
-Exodus = Israelites wandering in the wilderness and settling in the Promised Land to build the New Jerusalem Manifest Destiny, new frontiers – Samuel Danforth’s Errand into the Wilderness (1670)
-the Elect nation = in the ‘last days’ would defeat the Antichrist and prepare the way for the 2nd coming
-conversion – St Paul and St Augustine’s Confession
2 9 G e n r e s i n t h e L i t e r a t u r e o f t h e A m e r i c a n R e v o l u t i o n ,
t h e i r B a s i c F e a t u r e s , t h e D e c l a r a t i o n o f I n d e p e n d e n c e
(B. Franklin, T. Paine, T. Jefferson, J. Adams, and St J. De Crevecoeur)
+ E x c u r su s : I d e o l o g i c a l B a c k g r o u n d
-the 18th c. = the age of reason and enlightenment
-development of natural sciences
T h e C o n c e p t o f G o d :
(a)17th c., Puritan: God = an interfering force
(b)18th c.: God = a passive force, a personalised image of God comparable to the clockmaker
-man should be active, should understand the nature mechanism
-the idea of progress, man capable of moral improvement
T h e C o n c e p t o f H u m a n N a t u r e :
-Thomas Hobbes: man as an animal
-J. Locke: human mind as ‘tabula rasa’ [= ‘a blank sheet of paper’], can be inscribed positively or negatively
T h e C o n c e p t o f S t a t e :
-important for the Am. democracy
-John Lock: state = a contract guaranteeing the protection of human rights and responsible to its citizens who can anytime create a new government
-T. Jefferson [see his “The Declaration of Independence”]
+ T h e W a r o f I n d e p e n d e n c e ( 1 7 7 5 – 8 3 )
-Boston Tea Party (1773): the Br. government rose taxes to cover the costs of the war against Fr., the Am. refuses the taxes, so Br. soldiers were sent to Boston; the Am. patriots threw a cargo of Br. tea into the Boston Harbour, and started the boycott of the Br. trade
-George Washington: commander of the Continental Army
-T. Jefferson: author of the “Declaration of Independence” (July 4th, 1776)
-G. Washington, B. Franklin, J. Madison: authors of the “Constitution” (1789)
T h e F o u n d i n g F a t h e r s
-authors of the most memorable writings of the 18th c., esp. political pamphlets
-practical philos.: aimed to create a happy society based on justice and freedom
-admirers of the Eur. Enlightenment: believed in human intelligence, understanding of both nature and man, and man’s ability to improve himself
-leaders of the Rev. and writers of the Constitution
B e n j a m i n F r a n k l i n ( 1 7 0 6 – 9 0 )
-a printer, publ., journalist, essayist, philos., merchant, scientist, educator, inventor (Franklin stove, lighting rod, & oth.), politician, and diplomat
-rose from ‘poverty & obscurity’ to ‘a state of affluence & some degree of celebrity in the world’ = a distinctively Am. quality
-b. in Boston, son of a soap and candle maker
-educated at Boston Grammar School
-apprenticed to his half-brother James in his Boston printing shop: appreciated the access to books
-wrote some poems ridiculed by his father began systematically develop his prose style
-publ. a series of humorous essays in his brother’s New England Courant under the pseudonym ‘Mrs Silence Dogood’ [ C. Mather’s Bonifacus, an Essay upon the Good] x but: his identity revealed, resulted in a quarrel with James
-> Philadelphia: worked in Samuel Keimer’s small and ill-equipped printing shop
-> London: promoted by the governor of PA Sir William Keith x but: disappointed, resulted in his employment in a famous London printing house
“A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain”: a metaphysical treatise x but: no J. Edwards dismissed as one of the ‘errata’ of his life
-> Philadelphia: worked as a merchant’s clerk and in the Keimer’s printing shop
-developed a systematic schedule of work and self-improvement: his 13 virtues more secular than the 10 Commandments
-purchased a newsp, opened a stationer’s shop, and establ. the 1st circulating public library
-became the deputy postmaster general, organised the American Philosophical Society, and initiated the establ. of the Uni of PA
-establ. a magazine
Poor Richard's Almanach (1732): a mixture of poetic snippets, weather predictions, recipes, medical advice, proverbs, folk wisdom, and moral anecdotes; extremely pop. for the advice it gave
-establ. the ‘Junto’ = a club for mutual improvement to ‘be serviceable to mankind’
-promoted the colonial independence, helped General Braddock during the Fr. & Ind. War, and co-authored T. Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence” (1776)
-> London: elected to the Royal Society of London, became an agent for the Province of PA, and repres. the colonies before the House of Commons
-> Fr.: received a diplomatic post
-began writing his series of amusing ‘bagatelles’: invented the short prose > anticipated M. Twain’s tall tale and hoax
-also conc. with electricity, magnetism, & oth.: famous for the theatrical public performance of his scientific experiments
Experiments and Observations on Electricity
Maritime Observations
On the Causes and Cure of Smokey Chimneys
-> Philadelphia: president of the Pennsylvanian Society for the Abolition of Slavery, delegate to the Constitutional Convention (1788)
The Way to Wealth (1757): a best-selling essay transl. in many languages (incl. Czech), the way to getting and keeping money = frugality and industry
-retired from public life, began writing his autobiog.
The Autobiography (1771 – 59):
-Part 1 (in En.), ends with his marriage to Deborah Read; addressed to his son William
-Part 2 (Paris), concentrated on his public career and the devices to ensure success & happiness
-Part 3 (Philadelphia)
-Part 4, brief and unfinished due to his death
-< the self-made Am. man of C. Mather’s “Life of Sir William Phips” on the progress of the ‘enlightenment’ < John Bunyan’s Pilgrim's Progress > a kind of secular and less allegorical Pilgrim’s Progress: both pursue the moral purport
-incl. the 50 most important y. of his life
-neither a chronological nor a strictly accurate report, calls it ‘rambling digressions’ himself x but: a conduct book
-opening: an ordinary autobiog., amiable and unserious in tone, as if amused in retrospect x concl.: a story of success, a model tale for oth. people to serve as a manual of a successful man
-phases: an adolescent testing his powers > an entrepreneur learning how to get ahead > a promoter of public projects