We started with the transitional poets:

Whitman:
First authentic American poet since he wasn’t born in Britian but in America itself.

Was Romantic because he talked about connecting with nature and the universe and the
importance of the self. Praised the individual.

Was a bit Transcendentalist because he believed in focusing on the here and now not
tomorrow.

Pioneer of free verse

Talked about America as a democratic country

The body anf the soul

Image of leaves: America is a unified whole, made of many individuals who are unique just like
leaves are each unique.

Other transitional poet:

Emily dickinson:

Romantic poet but had a unique style because she used dashes and expressed so much with
such little words.

She talked about the workings of the mind.

Her poetry showed very early Modernism in how she would bring up existential question (though
she wasn’t an “existentialist” necessarily).

Her poems were meditations on death, the self, identity.

She talked about abstract concepts in concrete ways.

Captures beauty of nature and human mind

Finding meaning in chaotic world and how the inevitaltbity of death doesnt mean we’re lost
forever.

Autonomy of the soul, the soul is like a divine queen and even an emperor would bow to her but
she would still choose her own company.

Important event: Civil War from 1861 to 65:

It’s a turning point in American hsitory and American literature.

America was divided into the north and south. A huge amount of people died. How it started
was that people in the south (confederates) got worried that their economy would be in danger
after Lincoln the republican (republicans were against slavery) became president. The south
was dependent on slaves to work the land for them and their economy was based on agriculture
and slavery. The economy of the north was depending on factories and manufacture and didn’t
need slavery. Licoln wanted to keep everybody unified.
1863 = Emancipation Proclamation: abolished slavery in many states.

The war resulted in lots of death and food shortages and the south had to give up and America
became one again.

13th Amendment: slaves are free. But of course they were still treated like servants everywhere
and werent fully free. They would go to the south to search for their loved ones.

Everybody wanted to rebuild the country = Reconstruction Era.

More amendments: 14th amendment = granted citizenship to all who are born in America. Then
there was another amendment four years later that allowed all Americans to vote though of
course it wasn’t truly implemented

Some black voices started to get recognition nationally. Like A True Story where Twain gives
voice to Aunt Rachel tells her story in her own language and challenges the master/dominant
narrative and challenges preconceived ideas about black people. She is a mom telling a story
that has to do with her mom too. She has known heartbreak and tragedy and subtly tells her
story about slavery and the complexity of joy.

After that people weren’t gonna want Romantic stories anymore. So the next literary movement
was:
Realism.

This is shown in stories like Editha. It’s got to do with the Spanish American war and Editha
romanticizes war whereas George and his mom have a realistic view and know that it results in
death (Geroge dies in the end which is realistic as most people would die when sent to war and
he is just one of many). War is about more than just a war between two nations, it involves
civilians too and it’s about killing the sons of other mothers.

Pioneer of psychological realism: Henry James.

He is interested in human behavior and how our society affects us mentally. We’re taking The
Middle Years by him. Effects of social problems on individual consciousness. Realism is
concerned with verisimiltude, showing real life with its social problems. He wants to depict
human thoughts and reactions to what happens in their lives. Our thoughts are of great value,
not just the things that happen to us externally.

He used stream of consciousness, which shows the inner thoughts of characters and is not in
chronological order. Like an internal monolgue. Look into the inner mind which is chaotic and
realistic. That’s Modernist (stream of consciousness) and so he shows the transition from
Romanticism to Modernism. He attempts to depict the complexity of emotions cannot be easily
understood even by the person who’s feeling the emotion. Read the story and figure out why did
the doctor choose that guy over the countess and why did the guy find his writing style but only
when he’s about to die.