American Short Story Test #1
Romanticism
- A reaction against Romanticism - rejected heroic, adventurous, or unfamiliar subjects - the harsh reality of frontier life and the Civil War shattered the nation's idealism
Feminism
- Feminism grew/grows out of a demand for equality between gender/sex - as a result, women are oppressed by patriarchy until they recognize their domination; men benefit from a patriarchy - rights, healthcare, voice, jobs...
Naturalism Themes
- Survival: man abasing nature, man abasing himself - Determinism: nature as an indifferent force on the lives of human beings - violence
"A White Heron" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"An Occurrence at Owl Creek" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"Impressions of an Indian Childhood" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"The Basket Maker" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"The Black Cat" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"The Damned Thing" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"The Open Boat" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"The Story of an Hour" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"The Tell-Tale Heart" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"What Was It? A Mystery? Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"Young Goodman Brown" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"The Yellow Wallpaper" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: About a mother decline into madness after childbirth and being placed on the "rest cure." During her stay, she becomes obsessed about the Wallpaper. Sees woman trying to escape from wallpaper only to find out that woman is herself. Satire against medical practices and conventions of marriage and gender roles. - Symbolism: - Antagonist: - Protagonist:
"The Goophered Grapevine" Literary Terms
- Theme: - Setting: - Plot: a man a witch was hired to "goophered" the grapevine bc the slaves were eating the grapes. This spell cause the slaves who ate the grapes would die. - Symbolism: he hired someone to protect the environment also Julius relationship with the grapevine - Antagonist: john(man trying to buy the grapevine), john was racist - Protagonist:
"To Build A Fire" Literary Terms
- Theme: 1) Humans versus nature: The man's attempts to survive in the bitter cold and his dog's easy abandonment of him illustrate nature's apathy in response to human suffering 2) The man's hubris drives him into conditions that someone with less pride may have avoided, highlighting the foolishness of overconfidence. - Setting: Yukon Wilderness - Plot: Man is trapped in the wilderness with his dog, after being told that he would not be able to survive the extreme weather conditions - Symbolism: don't try to defy nature - Antagonist: nature - Protagonist: the man
"The Scavengers" Literary Terms
- Theme: the balance (or economy, as she calls it) of nature but she concludes on another idea, and that is the role of mankind. Nature, she says, cannot account for the works of man: There is no scavenger that eats tin cans, and no wild thing leaves a like disfigurement on the forest floor - Setting: the deserts of California - Plot: Austin is describing the interactions between cavengers, i.e. animals that feed upon carrion, such as the buzzards, vultures, and carrion crows. criticism of the negative influences of modern civilization become more prominent. She condemns shepherds and Indians who exploit the land and damage the beauty of nature. Moreover, due to people living in modern houses and using advanced technology she claims that humans have become out of touch with nature and unable to appreciate its gifts. - Symbolism: humans needs to appreciate nature more - Antagonist: humans - Protagonist: nature/animals
Literature of Discontent
- along the lines of naturalism, the social problems of this period were seen as a force to deal with - many groups, from women to freed slaves, started expressing their discontent with the way things were - they started addressing these issues in their writing
Ecofeminism
- arguably a patriarchal fiction meant to divide and conquer women - the goal is to overcome social fragmentation and alienation by developing a new myth that is compatible with reason - EX: Moana - women. are somehow imagined closer to nature(home) given their connection to motherhood and nurturing - defining plain is that the destruction of the environment and the historical oppression of women are deeply linked - original dualism makes man/women = culture/nature
American Romanticism
- art celebrated nature as beautiful, strange, and mysterious - valued imagination/emotion/creativity over rationality and reason - new spiritual and national pride, anti-British with British influence - Irrational depths of human nature explored, intuition, the mind - human potential for social growth, relationships with nature
Romance
- aspired to the ideal - thought to be more genteel since it did not show the vulgar details of life
Cultural Feminism
- determines that women have the right to self-define, assert their own values APART from men - when we read a text with a feminist lens we are EVALUATING EQUALITY, IDENTITY, & NORMS
Realism
- literary movement that developed towards the end of the Civil War and stressed the actual (reality) as opposed to the imagined or fanciful life of Romanticism - the Industrial Revolution: economic, social, and political changes that took place in post-war life allowed American Realism to succeed
Naturalism
- not "hippie-fiction" - more pessimistic then Realism - Naturalist writes believes that larger forces were at work: nature, fate, and heredity- shaped individual destiny - writings inspired by hardships, whether it was war, the frontier or the urbanization - literal moment that was an extension of realism
Realism Characteristics
- objective writing about ordinary characters in ordinary situations; "Real Life" - chatter is more important than action and plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject - characters appear in their in their real complexity of temperament and motive; they are in reasonable relation to nature, to each other, to their social class, to their own past - class is important; the novel has traditionally seven the interest and aspirations of an insurgent middle class - diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact
Young Goodman Brown
- reinforces and creates wildness/human binaries based on religion, biography, and 1800s culture
Realism cont.
- thought to be more democratic - critics stressed the potential for vulgarity and its emphasis on the commonplace - potential "poison" for the pure of mind
Wilderness
- unknown - unseen/ covered - wild - unpredictable - outlaw/lawless - circular time(seasonal)
Naturalism Characters
- usually ill-educated or lower class - lives governed by the forces of heredity, instinct, passion, or the environment - the criminal, the fallen, the down-and-out
Anthropocentrism
A human-centered view of our relationship with the environment.
"The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
Ambrose Bierce, 1890 - realism
"The Damned Thing"
Ambrose Bierce, 1893 - realism
"The Goophered Grapevine"
Charles Chesnutt, 1887 - realism
"The Yellow Wallpaper"
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1892 - ecofeminism
"The Black Cat" & "The Tell-Tale Heart"
Edgar Allen Poe, 1843 - romanticism
"What Was it? A Mystery"
Fitz James O'Brien, 1859 - realism
"The Build a Fire"
Jack Landon, 1902 - Naturalism
"The Story of an Hour"
Kate Chopin, 1894 - ecofeminism
"The Scavengers" & "The Basket Maker"
Mary Austin, 1903 - native ecology
"Young Goodman Brown"
Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1835 - romanticism
"A White Heron"
Sarah Orne Jewett, 1886 - ecofeminism
"The Open Boat"
Stephen Crane, 1897 - naturalism
Biocentrism
The belief that all creatures have rights and values; being centered on nature rather than humans.
"Impressions of an Indian Childhood"
Zitkala-sa, 1900 - native ecology
Sublime
a quality of aesthetic greatness that is awe-inspiring
Radical Feminism
determines that Western thought/culture is male-dominated and male-centered
Allegory
interpreted to reveal hidden meaning, usually moral or political - character analysis aren't as effective because they are representative -
Ecocriticism
study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment
