History_of_American

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SUMMARY
American fiction had for the most part been romantic from its beginning until the last part of the nineteenth
century. Charles Brockden Brown, Irving, Cooper, Hawthorne, Poe, Bret Harte, and Mark Twain were all
tinged with romanticism. In the latter part of the last century, there arose a school of realists who insisted that
life should be painted as it is, without any addition to or subtraction from reality. This school did not ask, "Is
the matter interesting or exciting?" but, "Is it true to life?"
Howells and James were the leaders of the realists. Howells uses everyday incidents and conversations. James
not infrequently takes unusual situations, so long as they conform to reality, and subjects them to the most
searching psychological analysis. Mary Wilkins Freeman, a pupil of Howells, shows exceptional skill in
depicting with realistic interest the humble life of provincial New England. While this school did not turn all
writers into extreme realists, its influence was felt on the mass of contemporary fiction.
Walt Whitman brings excessive realism into the form and matter of verse. For fear of using stock poetic
ornaments, he sometimes introduces mere catalogues of names, uninvested with a single poetic touch. He is
America's greatest poet of democracy. His work is characterized by altruism, by all-embracing sympathy, by
emphasis on the social side of democracy, and by love of nature and the sea.
REFERENCES
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Stanton's _A Manual of American Literature._
Alden's _Magazine Writing and the New Literature._
Perry's A Study of Prose Fiction, Chap. IX., Realism.
Howells's Criticism and Fiction.
Burt and Howells's The Howells Story Book. (Contains biographical matter.)
Henry James's The Art of Fiction.
Phelps's William Dean Howells, in Essays on Modern Novelists.
Brownell's Henry James, in American Prose Masters.
Canby's The Short Story in English. (James.)
Whitman's Leaves of Grass (1897), 446 pp. (Contains all of his poems, the publication of which was
authorized by himself.)
Triggs's Selections from the Prose and Poetry of Walt Whitman. (The best for general readers.)
Perry's _Walt Whitman, his Life, and Work_. (Excellent.)
G. R. Carpenter's Walt Whitman.
Platt's Walt Whitman. (_Beacon Biographies_)
Noyes's An Approach to Walt Whitman. (Excellent.)
Bucke's Walt Whitman. (A biography by one of his executors.)
In Re Walt Whitman, edited by his literary executors. (Supplements Bucke.)
Burroughs's _Whitman: A Study_.
Symonds's _Walt Whitman: A Study_.
Dowden's The Poetry of Democracy, in Studies in Literature.
Stevenson's Familiar Studies of Men and Books. (Whitman.)
Whitman's Works, edited by Triggs. (Putnam Subscription Edition.) Vol. X. contains a bibliography and
reference list of 98 pp.
SUGGESTED READINGS
THE PROSE REALISTS.--Sections II., XV., and XXVIII., from Howells's Criticism and Fiction. Silas
Lapham is the best of his novels. Those who desire to read more should consult the list on p. 373 of this book.
In Henry James, read either The Portrait of a Lady or Roderick Hudson. A Passionate Pilgrim, and The
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Madonna of the Future are two of his best short stories.
Read any or all of these short stories by Mary Wilkins Freeman: _A New England Nun,_ A Gala Dress, in the
volume, A New England Nun and Other Stories, _Evelina's Garden_, in the volume, Silence and Other
Stories. Her best long novel is Pembroke.
WALT WHITMAN.--While the majority of his poems should be left for mature years, the following,
carefully edited by Triggs in his volume of Selections, need not be deferred:--
Song of Myself, Triggs, pp. 105-120. (Begin with the line on p. 105, "A child said, _What is the Grass?_"),
Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, pp. 154-160, I Hear America Singing, p. 100, Reconciliation p. 175, _O
Captain! My Captain_, p. 184, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed, pp. 176-184, Patrolling
Barnegat, p. 163, _With Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea!_ p. 232.
Selections from his prose, including Specimen Days, Memoranda of the War, and his theories of art and
poetry, may be found in Triggs, pp. 3-95.
QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
THE PROSE REALISTS.--To what school did the best writers in American fiction belong, prior to the last
quarter of the nineteenth century? What was the subject of each? What is the realistic theory advanced by
Howells? In what respects does this differ from the practice of the romantic school?
Take any chapter of Silas Lapham and of either The Portrait of a Lady, or of Roderick Hudson, and show how
Howells and James differ from the romanticists. What difference do you notice in the realistic method and in
the style of Howells and of James?
What special qualities characterize the work of Mary Wilkins Freeman? What is the secret of her success in so
employing a little realistic incident as to hold the reader's attention? Compare the two short stories, The
Madonna of the Future (James) and A New England Nun (Wilkins Freeman) and show how James's interest
lies in the subtle psychological problem, while Mrs. Freeman's depends on the unfolding of simple emotions.
It will also be found interesting to compare the method of that early English realist Jane Austen, _e.g._ in her
novel Emma, with the work of the American realists.
In general, do you think that the romantic or the realistic school has the truer conception of the mission and art
of fiction? Why is it desirable that each school should hold the other in check?
WALT WHITMAN.--How did his early life prepare him to be the poet of democracy? To what voices does
he specially listen in his poem, _I Hear America Singing_? In his Song of Myself, point out some passages that
show the modern spirit of altruism. In Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, what lines best show his lyric
gift? What individual objects stand out most strongly and poetically? Could this poem have been written by
one reared in the middle West? Why does he select the lilacs, evening star, and hermit thrush, as the motifs of
the poem, _When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd?_ In Patrolling Barnegat, do you notice any
resemblance to Anglo-Saxon poetry of the sea, _e.g._ to Beowulf or _The Seafarer?_ In _With
Husky-Haughty Lips, O Sea!_ what touches are unlike those of Anglo-Saxon poets? (See the author's
History of English Literature, pp. 21, 25, 33, 35, 37.) Which of Whitman's references to nature do you
consider the most poetic? How does _O Captain! My Captain!_ differ in form from the other poems indicated
for reading? What qualities in his verse impress you most?
A GLANCE BACKWARD
Lack of originality is a frequent charge against young literatures, but the best foreign critics have testified to
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the originality of the Knickerbocker Legend, of Leatherstocking, of the great Puritan romances, in which the
Ten Commandments are the supreme law, of the work of that southern wizard who has taught a great part of
the world the art of the modern short story and who has charmed the ear of death with his melodies, of
America's unique humor, so conspicuous in the service of reform and in rendering the New World philosophy
doubly impressive.
American literature has not only produced original work, but it has also delivered a worthy message to
humanity. Franklin has voiced an unsurpassed philosophy of the practical. Emerson is a great apostle of the
ideal, an unexcelled preacher of New World self-reliance. His teachings, which have become almost as
widely diffused as the air we breathe, have added a cubit to the stature of unnumbered pupils. We still respond
to the half Celtic, half Saxon, song of one of these:--
"Luck hates the slow and loves the bold, Soon come the darkness and the cold." [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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