The war helped the first important American prose writers and poets grow up both culturally and artistically. Furthermore, the independence of nation led to the independence of national literature. From this moment on, American people began to understand of meaning of being a real ”American“.
3.
The flourishing of American literature in 19th century
From the 1820’s to the Civil War broke out, American literature entered a period of full blooming. Writings all characterized by a distinct national style and flavor. At the same time, the world as a whole was experiencing a change in ways of thinking: there was a move from classical ideas to romantic ones. This change was taking place in all areas of culture around the world. This was an exciting period in the history of American literature. Like the flowers of spring, there were suddenly many different kinds of writing at the same time. All the works have an optimistic spirit. They represented the various and quick development of American national literature.
(1) Early Romantics
In early 19th century, Washington Irving (1783-1859), the person born with the new nation, his The Sketch Book created a new style of American literature—short novel. James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) His "Leather-Stocking" novels told us a story about how the brave immigrants fight with savage using what they have learnt from nature.
Another famous writer of this time was William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878), he was regarded one of the earliest naturalist poets in American history. His greatest poem Thanatopsis was published in the North American Review in 1817. He appreciates normal birds and flowers, through
which appreciated harmonious relationship between human and nature. The Romantics emphasized individualism and they thought feelings and emotions were more important than reason and common sense.
(2) The Transcendentalism
“The New England Transcendentalism was romantic idealism on puritan soil” (Wu Dingbo: 28). It stressed the power of intuition placed spirit first, and it took nature as symbolic of spirit or God. There were three main features of Transcendentalism were Unitarianism, idealistic philosophy, and oriental mysticism.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), the leader of American Transcendentalism. “He captained a group of enthusiast and formed a transcendental club with them. He also helped to set up and edited the transcendentalist journal The Dial. ” He had written many famous essays. Among the best are Nature and The American Scholar,
which has been called “America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence”. Emerson wrote in The American Scholar (1837), a man must "learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within." The main key to this inner world is the imagination. Man's imagination leads to expression. Our expression makes each of us a unique human. Romanticism became the way of thinking for this generation of writers.
Henry David Thoreau was also one of the writers of Transcendentalism, and his famous essay was Walden, in
which he revealed the hidden spiritual possibilities in everyone’s life, and to considerate the pursuit of material things.
(3) High Romantics
Due to the great effort made by those geniuses such as Emerson and Thoreau, a wild-ranged national American literature had been laid a solid foundation by the mid-19th century.
There are four important names in American literature to remember from this period: Washington Irving (1783-1859), Walt Whitman (1819-1892), James Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851), and Edgar Allan Poe (1809-49).
Irving will long be remembered for his book of essays and stories,
The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon (1819),
which helping this new nation started its first step confidently. Cooper and Whitman described the character of the nation, which combined the courage and cleverness of expansion, the great sense of destination, and the optimistic spirit together. Hawthorne and Melville expressed the dark side of American dream though their profound and symbolized works.
Walt Whitman (1819-1892), father of free verse, “he threw aside the traditional ornaments and prettiness of verse, and created his own form” (Wu Dingbo, 44). His Leaves of Grass (1855), which contains such well-known poems as I Hear America Singing, and Song of Myself, was regarded America’s first genuine epic poem. He rejected regular meter and rhyme in favor of flowing free verse and celebrated patriotic love, ragged individualism, democracy and equality and stressed an almost mystical identification with America.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864), due to his family background, his works always concerned with sin, morality, romance, and had complex Puritanism. His masterpiece was the novel The Scarlet Letter, and his The House of Seven Gables was also well liked. In these works he presented material on the alienation between facts and fancy, by using many symbols and setting to reveal the psychology of the character.
Herman Melville was Hawthorne’s good friend, also an important novelist. Melville's greatest work, Moby Dick (1851) was based on Melville's adventures on the whaling ships. It is the deep "tragedies of human thought" that show his critical understanding of human nature. Today Melville is considered one of America's greatest writers today.
Romanism was extremely influenced in a rising America as America had always had a strong spiritual tradition and romanticism was very comfortable with American spiritual heritage and its ideals of democracy and equality. During this period, the American literature was so changeable that has never been before. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe, these four great writers had given depth and strength to American literature at that time.
4. Local Color And Realism: A New Flavor to American Literature
After the Civil War, the American society was in a turbulent situation through several economical crises. The writings about critical realism and unveiling the dark side of the society were increased. They were mainly focus on bankrupt in countries, difficult life or struggle of low-position people and so on. Thus Romanism was on the wane with passing days, while Realism rose and became more and more popular.
(1) Local Color Fiction and Mark Twain
Local Color Fiction first appeared in the early 19th century, and it had further developing after the Civil War. This kind of literature mainly describes the local life. Its keynote was optimistic, and the language was narrative and humorous. For example, the work of Bret Harte (1836-1902) told us the life of American western miners. Mark Twain was the main writer of this period. He wrote for nearly 50 years, and he had actually written many different types of stories. Nevertheless, Twain is remembered most for
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