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Spring 2015

Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to
American Literature 1865 to Present

Amy Berke

Middle Georgia State University, [email protected]

Robert Bleil

College of Coastal Georgia, [email protected]

Jordan Cofer

Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, [email protected]

Doug Davis

Gordon State College, [email protected]

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Writing the Nation

A Concise Introduction to American Literature

1865 to Present

Amy Berke, PhD Robert R. Bleil, PhD Jordan Cofer, PhD Doug Davis, PhD

Writing the Nation

A Concise Introduction to American Literature

1865 to Present

Amy Berke, PhD Robert R. Bleil, PhD Jordan Cofer, PhD Doug Davis, PhD

Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature—1865 to Present is
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ISBN: 978-1-940771-34-2

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Table of C ontents

Chapter 1: Late Romanticism (1855-1870) 1

1.1 Learning Outcomes 1

1.2 Introduction 2

1.3 Walt Whitman 4

1.3.1 Song of Myself 5
1.3.2 “Oh Captain! My Captain!” 42
1.3.3 “CROSSING BROOKLYN FERRY” 43
1.3.4 Reading and Review Questions 47

1.4 Emily Dickinson 48

1.4.1 “I TASTE A LIQUOR NEVER BREWED” 49
1.4.2 “THE SOUL SELECTS HER OWN SOCIETY” 49
1.4.3 “BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH” 50
1.4.4 “MY LIFE HAD STOOD—A LOADED GUN” 50
1.4.4 Reading and Review Questions 51

1.5 Key Terms 51

Chapter 2: Realism (1865-1890) 52

2.1 Learning Outcomes 52

2.2 Introduction 53

2.2.1 Local Color (1865-1885) 54
2.2.2 Regionalism (1875-1895) 55

2.3 Mark Twain 56

2.3.1 “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” 57
2.3.2 Selections From Roughing It 61
2.3.3 “The War Prayer” 67
2.3.4 Reading and Review Questions 70

2.4 William Dean Howells 70

2.4.1 “Editha” 71
2.4.2 Reading and Review Questions 81

2.5 Ambrose Bierce 81

2.5.1 “Chickamauga” 82
2.5.2 “Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge” 87
2.5.3 Reading and Review Questions 93

2.6 Henry James 94

2.6.1 Daisy Miller: A Study 95
2.6.2 Reading and Review Questions 135

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2.7 Sarah Orne Jewett 136

2.7.1 “A White Heron” 137
2.7.2 Reading and Review Questions 144

2.8 Kate Chopin 145

2.8.1 “At The ‘Cadian Ball” 146
2.8.2 ”The Storm” 153
2.8.3 Reading and Review Questions 157

2.9 Mary E. Wilkins Freeman 157

2.9.1 “A New England Nun” 158
2.9.2 “The Revolt of ‘Mother’” 167
2.9.3 Reading and Review Questions 178

2.10 Charles Waddell Chesnutt 179

2.10.1 “The Passing of Grandison” 180
2.10.2 Reading and Review Questions 192

2.11 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 192

2.11.1 “The Yellow Wall-Paper” 193
2.11.2 Reading and Review Questions 205

2.12 Key Terms 205

Chapter 3: Naturalism (1890-1914) 206

3.1 Learning Outcomes 206

3.2 Introduction 207

3.3 Frank Norris 208

3.3.1 “A Plea For Romantic Fiction” 209
3.3.2 Selections from McTeague 212
3.3.3 Reading and Review Questions 297

3.4 Stephen Crane 298

3.4.1 “The Open Boat” 299
3.4.2 Reading and Review Questions 316

3.5 Jack London 317

3.5.1 “To Build a Fire” 318
3.5.2 Reading and Review Questions 329

3.6 Key Terms 329

Chapter 4: Turn of the Twentieth Century 330
and the Growth of Modernism (1893 - 1914)
330
4.1 Learning Outcomes 331

4.2 Introduction

4.3 Booker T. Washington 332

4.3.1 Selections from Up From Slavery 333

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4.3.2 Reading and Review Questions 350

4.4 W. E. B. Du Bois 350

4.4.1 Selections from The Souls of Black Folk 351
4.4.2 Reading and Review Questions 367

4.5 Zane Grey 367

4.5.1 Riders of the Purple Sage 368
4.5.2 Reading and Review Questions 559

4.6 Key Terms 559

Chapter 5: Modernism (1914 - 1945) 560

5.1 Learning Outcomes 560

5.2 Introduction 561

5.2.1 The Great War 561
5.2.2 Une Generation Perdue…(A Lost Generation) 562
5.2.3 A Modern Nation 562
5.2.3 Technology 563
5.2.4 Modernist Literature 563
5.2.5 Further Reading: Additional Secondary Sources 565

5.3 Robert Frost 566

5.3.1 “Mending Wall” 567
5.3.2 “Home Burial” 568
5.3.3 Reading and Review Questions 571

5.4 Wallace Stevens 572

5.4.1 “The Emperor of Ice Cream” 573
5.4.2 “Of Modern Poetry” 573
5.4.3 Reading and Review Questions 573

5.5 William Carlos Williams 574

5.5.1 “The Red Wheelbarrow” 575
5.5.2 “This Is Just To Say” 575
5.5.3 “The Dead Baby” 575
5.5.4 Reading and Review Questions 575

5.6 Ezra Pound 575

5.6.1 “In a Station of the Metro” 576
5.6.2 Reading and Review Questions 576

5.7 Marianne Moore 577

5.7.1 “Poetry” 578
5.7.2 Reading and Review Questions 579

5.8 T. S. Eliot 579

5.8.1 “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” 580
5.8.2 Reading and Review Questions 584

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5.9 Edna St. Vincent Millay 584

5.9.1 “First Fig” 585
5.9.2 “I Think I Should Have Loved You Presently” 585
5.9.3 Reading and Review Questions 586

5.10 e. e. cummings 586

5.10.1 “in Just-” 587
5.10.2 Reading and Review Questions 588

5.11 F. Scott Fitzgerald 589

5.11.1 “Winter Dreams” 590
5.11.2 “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” 606
5.11.3 “Bernice Bobs Her Hair” 635
5.11.4 Reading and Review Questions 653

5.12 Ernest Hemingway 653

5.12.1 “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” 654
5.12.2 “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” 654
5.12.3 Reading and Review Questions 654

5.13 Arthur Miller 655

5.13.1 Death of a Salesman 656
5.13.2 Reading and Review Questions 656

5.11 Southern Renaissance – First Wave 656
5.14 Ellen Glasgow 658

5.14.1 “Dare’s Gift” 659
5.14.2 Reading and Review Questions 682

5.15 William Faulkner 683

5.15.1 “A Rose For Emily” 684
5.15.2 “Barn Burning” 684
5.15.3 Reading and Review Questions 684

5.16 Eudora Alice Welty 685

5.16.1 “A Worn Path” 686
5.16.2 Reading and Review Questions 686

5.17 The Harlem Renaissance 686
5.17 Jessie Redmon Fauset 687

5.17.1 “The Sleeper Wakes” 688
5.17.2 Reading and Review Questions 707

5.18 Zora Neale Hurston 708

5.18.1 “Sweat” 709
5.18.2 Reading and Review Questions 709

5.19 Nella Larsen 709

5.19.1 “Sanctuary” 710
5.19.2 Reading and Review Questions 710

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5.20 Langston Hughes 711

5.20.1 “Christ in Alabama” 712
5.20.2 “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” 712
5.20.3 “Theme for English B” 713
5.20.4 Reading and Review Questions 713

5.21 Countee Cullen 713

5.21.1 “Heritage” 714
5.21.2 “Yet Do I Marvel” 715
5.21.3 Reading and Review Questions 715

5.22 Jean Toomer 715

5.22.1 Selections from Cane 716
5.22.2 Reading and Review Questions 716

5.23 Key Terms 717

Chapter 6: American Literature Since 1945 (1945 - Present) 718

6.1 Learning Outcomes 718

6.2 Introduction 719

6.3 Southern Literary Renaissance - Second Wave (1945-1965) 723

6.3.1 The Cold War and the Southern Literary Renaissance 723

6.3.2 Economic Prosperity 723

6.3.3 The Civil Rights Movement in the South 724

6.3.4 New Criticism and the Rise of the MFA program 724

6.3.5 Innovation 725

6.4 Tennessee Williams 725

6.4.1 A Street Car Named Desire 726
6.4.2 Reading and Review Questions 726

6.5 James Dickey 727

6.5.1 “Cherrylog Road” 728
6.5.2 Reading and Review Questions 728

6.6 Flannery O’Connor 729

6.6.1 “A Good Man is Hard to Find” 730
6.6.2 “Good Country People” 730
6.6.3 Reading and Review Questions 730

6.7 Postmodernism 730

6.8 Theodore Roethke 733

6.8.1 “My Papa’s Waltz” 734
6.8.2 Reading and Review Questions 734

6.9 Ralph Ellison 734

6.9.1 Selection from Invisible Man 735
6.9.2 Reading and Review Questions 735

Page | vii

6.10 James Baldwin 736

6.10.1 “Sonny’s Blues” 737
6.10.2 Reading and Review Questions 737

6.11 Allen Ginsberg 737

6.10.2 “Supermarket in California” 738
6.10.3 Reading and Review Questions 738

6.11 Adrienne Rich 739

6.11.1 “Diving into the Wreck” 740
6.11.2 Reading and Review Questions 740

6.12 Toni Morrison 741

6.12.1 “Recitatif” 742
6.12.2 Reading and Review Questions 742
6.13 Donald Barthelme 742
6.13.1 “The School” 743
6.13.2 Reading and Review Questions 743

6.14 Sylvia Plath 744

6.14.1 “Daddy” 745
6.14.2 “Fever 103” 745
6.14.3 Reading and Review Questions 745

6.15 Don DeLillo 746

6.15.1 “The Most Photographed Barn in America” (excerpt from White Noise) 747
6.15.2 Reading and Review Questions 747

6.16 Alice Walker 748

6.16.1 “Everyday Use” 749
6.16.2 Reading and Review Questions 749

6.17 Leslie Marmon Silko 749

6.17.1 “The Yellow Woman” 750
6.17.2 Reading and Review Questions 750

6.18 David Foster Wallace 751

6.18.1 “This is Water” 752
6.18.2 “Consider the Lobster” 752
6.18.3 Reading and Review Questions 752

6.19 Key Terms 752

Glossary 754

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LATE ROMANTICISM (1855-1870)

1Robert R. Bleil
1.1 Learning Outcomes
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
• Describe the key features of Romanticism.
• Analyze the ways in which the works of Emily Dickinson and Walt
Whitman broke from the American literary tradition of Emerson,
Hawthorne, and Melville.
• Analyze the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the Civil War on
American literature.
• Compare the ways in which Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman
established new voices in American literature.

Page | 1

Writing the Nation L ate Romanticism (1855-1870)

1.2 Introduction

Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, the authors whose works appear in this
chapter, are unlikely protagonists—or leading characters—for a literary movement.
Each was an outsider: Dickinson, an unmarried woman who lived a life of quiet
seclusion in western Massachusetts, and Whitman, a vagabond who lived a life in
search of community. Dickinson and Whitman promoted a spirit of exploration
and inventiveness that matched the geographical, industrial, political, and social
growth of the United States. From their works, we gain not so much a literary
renaissance as we do a sense of artistic innovation that developed alongside these
other areas of American life and commerce.

As literary historians like William Charvat have noted, the development of
an American literary tradition owes as much to the development of the American
publishing industry in the middle decades of the nineteenth century as it does to
the prominence of individual authors like Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Washington
Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Sales of these authors’
works were dwarfed by the sales of pirated editions of novels by British authors like
Walter Scott and Charles Dickens. Nonetheless, the success of these British imports
convinced American publishers that the American market was sufficiently robust to
demand new works; this demand created an opportunity for American writers to
expand their audience, and a flourishing literary culture began to prosper.

American authors still faced steep odds in seeing their works into print, and
American literary publishing did not flourish until the completion of the First
Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 allowed the reliably consistent shipment of
individuals and goods across the country. Additional technological improvements,
including the widespread adoption of steam-powered machinery and gas-fueled
lights, also provide the necessary conditions for the rapid production of printed
materials and the means by which these materials could be enjoyed at the
conclusion of a day of laboring. Thus, only when the Industrial Age expands the
definition of leisure do Americans begin to embrace the culture of print and expand
the boundaries of American literature.

The first attempts to define the literary culture of the mid-nineteenth century
began in the 1930s and early 1940s as the United States took on a larger role
in global politics, and the need for definition gained sharper focus with the
publication of F. O. Matthiessen’s The American Renaissance in 1941. Matthiessen
argued that writers like Hawthorne, Melville, Emerson, and Thoreau represented
the expansion of a uniquely American style of writing that interacted with, and
embraced, the North American landscape in new ways. What Matthiessen called
a renaissance, however, was less of a cultural flourishing than the limited success
of a few male authors from New England. Despite the real impact of Matthiessen’s
work in recognizing the presence of significant male American writers, his catalogue
still neglected writing of women, African-Americans, and Native Americans whose
works would not be widely recognized until the 1970s.

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