American Literature

  Harlem Renaissance by Domenica Pacheco- American Literature 🕮 At the end of the war in 1865, thousands of enslaved people were freed, and they were filled with hope for economic, social, and political equality, as well as greater participation. However, in 1870, white supremacy was restructured, and that hope disappeared. Discriminatory and segregationist laws were enforced, and everything possible was done to prevent Black people from exercising their right to vote. Over time, African Americans realized that better opportunities could be found outside the South, so many moved to cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and Detroit. The growth of Harlem came to host up to 175,000 African Americans. A growing Black creativity began to emerge in Harlem. Writers, artists, musicians, and theater professionals inspired one another and often worked across disciplines, seeking an art that challenged stereotypes and fought against injustice and discrimination. The person who provided most ...

  A Brief Summary of the Era   The American Renaissance refers to a period roughly between 1830 and 1865 , marked by a flourishing of American literature and culture. This was a time when the United States, still a young nation, began to find its own artistic voice, distinct from European traditions. Writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson , Henry David Thoreau , Nathaniel Hawthorne , Herman Melville , Walt Whitman , and Emily Dickinson emerged, exploring themes of individualism, nature, democracy , and the human condition . This literary explosion was closely linked to Transcendentalism , a philosophical movement that emphasized self-reliance, the spiritual connection to nature, and the inherent goodness of people. At the same time, dark romanticists like Poe and Hawthorne delved into the complexities of sin, guilt, and the human psyche. Personal/Critical Analysis What makes the American Renaissance fascinating is its dual nature . On one hand, it celebrates idealism , self-disc...

Transcendentalism🕮 Transcendentalism is an American literary, philosophical, religious, and political movement of the early nineteenth century, centered around Ralph Waldo Emerson." What w e now know as transcendentalism first arose among the liberal New England Congregationalists, who departed from orthodox Calvinism in two respects: they believed in the importance and efficacy of human striving, as opposed to the bleaker Puritan picture of complete and inescapable human depravity; and they emphasized the unity rather than the “Trinity” of God (hence the term “Unitarian,” originally a term of abuse that they came to adopt.)  The transcendentalists operated from the start with the sense that the society around them was seriously deficient: a “mass” of “bugs or spawn” as Emerson put it in “The American Scholar”; slavedrivers of themselves, as Thoreau says in  Walden . Thus the attraction of alternative life-styles: Alcott’s ill-fated Fruitlands; Brook Farm, planned and organiz...