American literature Summary

Race and Prejudice in American Literature Introduction Is literature a mirror held up to nature, which can render the fullness of life, in all its goodness and evil? Or is literature a lamp that shine... Read more

In the following essay, Pearce examines the evolution of the style and intent of captivity narratives, from religious confessional to pulp thriller, and argues that they provide a window into American... Read more

In the following essay, Minter considers changes in the purpose and tone of captivity narratives over time, particularly focusing on the narrative of Mary Rowlandson. The “Indian Captivities&#x... Read more

In the following essay, Vaughan and Clark expound on the uniquely religious characteristics and influences of the Puritan captivity narrative. “It is no new thing for Gods precious ones to drin... Read more

In the essay below, Ramsey links captivity narratives with the demonizing of Native Americans during the Puritan era. The Puritan phase of the Indian captivity narrative, both in its binary “go... Read more

In the essay below, Haberly outlines the influence of captivity narratives on James Fenimore Cooper's creation of The Last of the Mohicans. Despite considerable new interest in narratives of In... Read more

In the following essay, Kennedy examines the responses to death of various nineteenth-century American writers—including Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving, and Jam... Read more

Critical Essay by Laurence Lerner ”Sentimentality: For and Against” in Angels and Absences: Child Deaths in the Nineteenth Century, Vanderbilt University Press, 1997, 174-212. In the exc... Read more

Critical Essay by Frances Bzowski ”A Continuation of the Tradition of the Irony of Death,” Dickinson Studies, No. 54, Bonus 1984, pp. 33-37. In the following excerpt, Bzowski examines Di... Read more

Critical Essay by Katrina Bachinger ”Dickinson's ‘I heard a Fly buzz,’” The Explicator, Vol. 43. No. 3, Spring, 1985, pp. 12-15. In the excerpt below, Bachinger pres... Read more

Critical Essay by Janet W.Buell “‘A Slow Solace’: Emily Dickinson and Consolation,” The New England Quarterly, Vol. LXII, No. 3, September, 1989, pp. 323-45. In the followi... Read more

Critical Essay by Paula Hendrickson ”Dickinson and the Process of Death,” Dickinson Studies, No. 77, 1st Half, 1991, pp. 33-43. Below, Hendrickson explores Dickinson's curiosity a... Read more

Critical Essay by Elizabeth A. Petrino “‘Feet so precious charged’: Dickinson, Sigourney, and the Child Elegy,” Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, Vol. 13, No. 2, ... Read more

Below, Leonard examines Tommo's attitude toward the Typees in Melville's Typee, noting that his escape from Typee Valley signals his coming to terms with the reality of death. During the... Read more

In the excerpt below, Boker presents a psychoanalytic reading of Melville's motivation in Moby-Dick. She suggests that Melville felt abandoned by his mother and that his art was nourished by &#... Read more

In the following excerpt from an essay written in 1982, Bessein suggests that Poe's concentration on dead women in his works has negatively influenced later treatments of women in American lite... Read more

In the following excerpt, Cassuto suggests that Death himself is the narrator in Poe's “The Masque of the Red Death” and explores the thematic implications of this discovery. Much... Read more

In the following excerpt, Kennedy examines Poe's handling of putrefaction in The Narrative of A. Gordon Pym, suggesting that the use of this taboo subject “afforded him the perfect trope... Read more

Below, Marriage compares Whitman's treatment of the theme of putrefaction with that of Charles Beaudelaire, concluding that “by dealing with the horror of the images of decay, these poet... Read more

In the following excerpt, Vendler examines the various influences on Whitman's style in his “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” and stresses his “de-Christian... Read more

In the following excerpt, Pollak suggests that in his “Calamus Poems” “Whitman uses death tropes both to deny the fulfillment of his eroticism and to affirm its vitality in the fa... Read more

In the following excerpt, Simonds and Rothman explore the various ways in which mothers expressed their grief at the death of a child in the context of nineteenth-century American culture. The literar... Read more

In the following essay, Harris compares Dickinson's response to death with that of poet Sylvia Plath, finding that Plath tends to be more explicit and Dickinson more transcendent in their attit... Read more

In the following essay, Staub demonstrates some ways in which Dickinson exposes the sentimentality of mourning conventions in “Because I could not stop for Death.” In January 1863, short... Read more

In the following essay, Stambovsky offers a detailed reading of “The Last Night that She Lived,” asserting that Dickinson accepts the reality of death through her “intimate confro... Read more

In the following essay, St. Armand discusses Dickinson's stance toward death in her poetry as a mixture of the influences of her Puritan heritage and her Romantic historical context. Looking at... Read more

In the following essay, Winniford offers a detailed reading of “Because I could not stop for Death,” discussing Dickinson's handling of death and praising her intellectual accepta... Read more

In the following excerpt, Fiedler discusses the idea of despair in Melville's works, asserting that Melville's style changed from gothic to sentimental as his career progressed. Melville... Read more

In the following excerpt, Shneidman offers a psychological portrait of Ahab and characterizes his relationship to Moby-Dick as “a classical illustration of the traditional psychoanalytical posi... Read more

In the following excerpt, Baguley offers a reading of “The Raven” based on Michael Guiomar's Principes d'une esthétique de la mort. According to Baguley, the raven b... Read more

In the following essay, Kennedy discusses four conceptual models of death in Poe's fiction: physical annihilation, compulsion, separation, and transformation. The tales of Edgar Allan Poe displ... Read more

In the following essay, Foster analyzes several of Poe's fictions, and argues that for the characters in Poe's stories, “unpleasure is its own reward.” Ordinary fucking peo... Read more

In the following essay, Kennedy examines Poe's attitude toward women in his fiction; focusing on “Ligeia,” the critic asserts that like his male narrators who recognize their unwi... Read more

In the following essay, Cavitch discusses Whitman's attempt to come to terms with his father's death and with his mother's self-centeredness in his “Song of the Broad-Axe.&... Read more

In the following essay, Dean explores Whitman's difficulty in coming to a conclusion and facing temporality as evidenced in his poetry, noting that he does finally succeed in accepting endings ... Read more

In the following essay, Lane examines the history and diversity of literature written by authors who immigrated to the United States, focusing on the unique ethnic attributes and perspectives that the... Read more

From the Pre-Colonial period through the Civil War period, American literature has changed dramatically. Writers were able to greatly influence society through Puritan, revolutionary, transce... Read more

What is American Literature? American Literature is something that cannot be defined in a straightforward definition. It's based on religious, historical, and cultural traditions of American people.... Read more