Literatura Norteamericana I

American Literature I
Ricardo Menéndez
10 ECTS Credits 2020-2021
Authors & Contents 1st Term
Study Block I
 Early American Literature
 Captain John Smith – Oct 7th
 William Bradford – Oct 14th
 Anne Bradstreet – Oct 21st
 Mary Rowlandson – Oct 28th
 The American Enlightment
 Jonathan Edwards – Nov 4th
 Benjamin Franklin – Nov 11th
 Olaudah Equiano – Nov 18th
 Phillis Wheatley – Nov 25th
Ricardo Menéndez
 Romanticism (part I)
 Washington Irving – Dec 2nd
 James Fenimore Cooper – Dec 9th
 Ralph Waldo Emerson – Dec 16th
 Henry David Thoroeau – Jan 13th
 REVIEW
 Units 1-12 – Jan 20th
UNED 2020-2021 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
“ History, like love, is so apt to
surround her heroes with an
atmosphere of imaginary brightness
”
James Fenimore Cooper(1789 - 1851)
 Biography
 Works by author
 Online resources
 Q&A
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2020-2021 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 10 – James Fenimore Cooper

Objectives of the Unit

 Examine the development of some basic features of American Romanticism through
the works of the young nation’s first major novelist
 Learn how Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales exalted the character of Natty Bumppo
as a typical American hero, and helped shape the concept of the American Frontier,
based on the myth of westward advancement
 Recognize how Cooper articulated in literary terms his ambivalence regarding
settlers
 Assess Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans by the standards of American romance, an
internationally famous literary genre.
 Identify elements of romance:
 Adventure  Improbability  Myth
 Fantasy Treatment of Social Issues through allegorical mode
 Extravagance 

 Analyze the dichotomies in the Last of the Mohicans, supportive of the Indian
Removal policy
 Interpret Cooper’s most popular work as an extremely influential exponent of the
“ideology of savagism” and the “theory of racial difference”
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2020-2021 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 10 – James Fenimore Cooper

Biography (I)
 Born James Cooper in 1789 in Burlington (New Jersey), he changed his last name to
his mother’s in 1826. He was the 12th of 13 children (only seven survived childhood)
 His parents were Quakers but drifted towards Puritanism
 He was expelled from Yale in 1805 for a prank. He tried to run away to the sea but
his father managed to enroll him in the U.S. Navy
 He sailed to England twice and served at a frontier outpost in Lake Ontario
 He fell into early heavy debt as soon as 1812 due to inherited family problems
 His career as a writer started coincidentally due to family traditions of reading aloud.
His daughter Susan explained how chance led to writing The Precaution (1820):
A new novel had been brought from England in the last monthly packet; it was, I think,
one of Mr. Opie's, or one of that school. My mother was not well; she was lying on the
sofa, and he was reading this newly imported novel to her; it must have been very
trashy; after a chapter or two he threw it aside, exclaiming, "I could write you a better
book than that myself!" Our mother laughed at the idea, as the height of absurdity-he
who disliked writing eve a letter, that he should write a book! He persisted in his
declaration, however, and almost immediately wrote the first pages of a tale, not yet
named, the scene laid in England as a matter of course.
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2020-2021 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 10 – James Fenimore Cooper

Biography (&II)
 He took his family to Europe at the height of his popularity on a seven year stay
 Cooper acknowledged that his fiction aimed at fostering America’s “mental
independence”
 He is considered to have created a whole folk epic, as in Cooper’s mind
American nationhood was intimately connected to the Westward Movement 
The Myth of the American West
 Although he was much more popular at home than his contemporary Washington
Irving, due to his preference for American settings and characters his life did not
lack controversy
 He achieved international reputation as America's "national novelist" and was
probably more successful and respected abroad than at home as happened to
Washington Irving as well
 He received a great deal of criticism (by Mark Twain among others) due to the
weaknesses of his fiction, mainly on two aspects:
 Undemocratic class consciousness
 The limitations of his female characters
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2020-2021 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 10 – James Fenimore Cooper

Work of James Fenimore Cooper

 His first and second novels imitate works by Jane Austen and Sir Walter Scott
with a growing level of critical appraisal and literary merit
 His third novel, The Pioneers (1823) is one of the most influential portraits of
frontier life in American Literature
 Formulates “theory of racial difference” in his works based on the “ideology of
savagism” giving importance to “racial purity”/“purity of blood”
 Frontier Narrative Inner Conflict: Cooper had mixed feelings over the Westward
Movement. On one hand he sees the settlers’ legal right to claim their
properties lawfully yet on the other hand he deplores the irreparable damage
caused to the natural resources
 The Pioneers would begin a series called The Leatherstocking Tales which
extended over five novels in 18 years. The Last of the Mohicans belongs the
Leatherstocking Saga
 He went on to write eleven maritime novels, being The Pilot (1824) the first
American sea romance.
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2020-2021 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 10 – James Fenimore Cooper

James Fenimore Cooper’s frenetic creativity

 Precaution (1820)
 The Spy (1821)
 The Pioneers (1823)
 The Pilot (1823)
 Lionel Lincoln (1824)
 The Last of the Mohicans  Mercedes of Castile (1840)
(1826)
 The Prairie (1827)
 The Red Rover (1827)
 The Wept of Wish-Ton-Wish
(1829)
 The Water Witch (1830)
 The Bravo (1831)
 The Heidenmauer (1832)
 The Headsman (1833)  Afloat and Ashore (1844)
 The Monikins (1835)  Miles Wallingford : A Sequel
to Afloat and Ashore (1844)
 Homeward Bound (1838)
 Satanstoe (1845)
 Home as Found (1838)
 The Chain Bearer (1845)
 The Pathfinder (1840)
 The Redskins (1846)
 The Crater (1847)
 The Deerslayer (1841)
 Jack Tier (1848)
 The Two Admirals (1842)
 The Oak Openings (1848)
 The Wing-and-Wing (1842)
 The Sea Lions (1849)
 Wyandotte (1843)
 The Ways of the Hour
 Le Mouchoir; an
(1850)
Autobiographical Romance
(1843)
 Ned Myers (1843)

Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2020-2021 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

Unit 10 – James Fenimore Cooper

The Last of the Mohicans

 Example of a romance, even though the author wanted it to be read as a historical
narrative, as its subtitle indicates (A Narrative of 1757)
 The setting is the French-Indian War (1756-63) where the French and the English
allied with different Native American tribes in a struggle to control the northern
part of the continent.
 The story is a curious blend of factual history with romantic fiction
 Cooper’s plot includes certain real events often freely adapted to suit his narrative
needs
 There is an unmistakable indebtedness to the conventions of several literary
genres such as captivity narrative, historical romance and epic history.
 Inclusion of two heroines with divergent endings
 He received criticism for his literary treatment of Native Americans
 Idealized dichotomy between the Indians allied of the French “The Bad Indians”
and the Indians allied of the English “The Good Indians”, though both deemed
unable to become “civilized”  The Ideology of Savagism
 There are deep racial facts that might explain narrative decisions in the story
(possible /fate Cora & Uncas vs Alice & Capt. Duncan Heyward)
Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2020-2021 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es
Unit 10 – James Fenimore Cooper

Online Resources for James Fenimore Cooper

 James Fenimore Cooper Wikipedia entry
 Wikipedia entry for The Last of the Mohicans
 James Fenimore Cooper on LION (Proquest Literature Online)
 Resources and Links suggested in the Curso Vitual
 Gutenberg.org eBook The Last of the Mohicans http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/940
 Audiobook of The Last of the Mohicans:
https://archive.org/details/mohicans_gs_librivox
 More audiobooks from James Fenimore Cooper
 Online text on Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Last_of_the_Mohicans
 Encyclopedia Britannica entry:
http://global.britannica.com/biography/James-Fenimore-Cooper

Ricardo Menéndez UNED 2020-2021 ricmenendez@madrid.uned.es

 Remember to complete
Self-Evaluation &
Exploratory Questions
from the Book
Online Self Evaluation Quiz

Questions?
Thank you