Handout 2
The Literary Awakening (Benjamin Franklin, Michel-Guillaume John Hector St
John de Crèvecoeur, Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper)
18th century : social, political, geographical, literary changes, the influence of Enlightenment multiplicity of religion: Calvinism (Puritans), Quakerism, Deism, Unitarianism.
Major texts of the 18th century : autobiographies, journals, essays, articles, political documents, sermons. Fiction appears towards the end of the century.
Four classics : B. Franklin: The Autobiography ; Thomas Jefferson: Notes on the State of
Virginia ; John Woolman: The Journal ; J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur: Letters from an
American Farmer
Bestsellers : B. Franklin’s Poor Richard's Almanack (“The Way to Wealth” )
, Thomas Paine’s
Common Sense ;
Political texts : B. Franklin: “Rules by which a Great Empire May be Reduced to a Smaller
One” (1774) ; Thomas Paine: Common Sense (1776); Thomas Jefferson: “Summary View of the Rights of British America”; The Declaration of Independence (1776).
Drama : Royall Tyler’s The Contrast (1787);
Poets of transition: Philip Freneau, William Cullen Bryant, Joel Barlow;
Fiction : Hugh Henry Brackenridge: Modern Chivalry (published in parts: 1792-1815)
Charles Brockden Brown: Alcuin: A Dialogue (1798); Wieland; or the Transformation
(1798); Ormond (1799); Edgar Huntly, or Memoirs of a Sleepwalker (1799)
Washington Irving (1783 - 1859):
“The Father of American Literature”. Used pseudonyms,
Diedrich Knickerbocker, Geoffrey Crayon. Felt out of place in America as an author. Spent
17 years in Europe.
The History of New York (1809) –turning fact into fiction.
The Sketch Book - includes the famous stories “Rip van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow”. Peacefulness of Dutch communities contrasted with the noisy bustle of American towns. It is not possible to write in a country where there are no legends or superstitions. Used
European sources for tales.
James Fenimore Cooper (1789 – 1851) tried to use American sources (esp. history) although there was a “poverty” of materials. Turned to nature and pioneers as a subject. The
Leatherstocking Tales fill the role of a national epic. Major themes: conquest of the wilderness, the destruction of the native population, the formation of a new type of white population. Natty Bumppo is the new type of American hero, a scout and hunter, the gentleman of the forest.
The Deerslayer (1841)
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
The Pathfinder (1840)
The Pioneers (1823)
The Prairie (1827)
The American Renaissance – the classical literary period in American literature between
1845-1855, when many notable poets, writers appeared on the literary scene (Poe, Hawthorne,
Melville, the Transcendentalists, etc.)
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J. Hector St. J. de Crèvecoeur (from Letters from an American Farmer )
“What attachment can a poor European emigrant have for a country where he had nothing? The knowledge of the language, the love of a few kindred as poor as himself, were the only cords that tied him: his country is now that which gives him land, bread,

Handout 2 protection, and consequence: Ubi panis ibi patria , is the motto of all emigrants. What then is the American, this new man? He is either an European, or the descendant of an
European, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a French woman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater .
Here individuals of all nations are melted into a new race of men, whose labours and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. Americans are the western pilgrims, who are carrying along with them that great mass of arts, sciences, vigour, and industry which began long since in the east; they will finish the great circle. The
Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit. The American ought therefore to love this country much better than that wherein either he or his forefathers were born. Here the rewards of his industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labour; his labour is founded on the basis of nature, self-interest ; can it want a stronger allurement? Wives and children, who before in vain demanded of him a morsel of bread, now, fat and frolicsome, gladly help their father to clear those fields whence exuberant crops are to arise to feed and to clothe them all; without any part being claimed, either by a despotic prince, a rich abbot, or a mighty lord.”
Washington Irving (from the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”)
“The neighbourhood is rich in legendary treasures of the kind. Local tales and superstitions thrive best in these sheltered, long settled retreats; but are trampled underfoot, by the shifting throng that forms the population of most of our country places. Besides, there is no encouragement for ghosts in most of our villages, for they have scarce had time to finish their first nap, and turn themselves in their graves, before their surviving friends have travelled away from the neighbourhood, so that when they turn out of a night to walk the rounds, they have no acquaintance left to call upon. This is perhaps the reason why we so seldom hear of ghosts except in our long established Dutch communitites.”
J.F. Cooper ( from Notions of the Americans)
“The second obstacle against which American literature has to contend is in the poverty of materials. There is scarcely an one which contributes to the wealth of the author, that is found, here in veins as rich as in Europe. There are no annals for the historian; no follies (beyond the most vulgar and common place) for the satirist; no manners for the dramatist; no obscure fictions for the writers of romance; no gross and hardy offences against decorum for the moralist; nor any of the rich artificial auxiliaries of poetry….I have never seen a nation so much alike in my life as the people of the United States, and what is more, they are not only like each other, but they are remarkably like that which common sense tells them that they ought to resemble. In short, it is not possible to conceive a state of society in which more of the attitudes of plain good sense, or fewer of the artificial absurdities of life are to be found than here.”