Occupying the northern part of the

large supercontinent known as

Americas or New World, North
America is surrounded by the Arctic
Ocean from the north and by the
Atlantic Ocean from the east, by the
Pacific Ocean from the west and
south. It has an overland border with
South America continent, which runs
along the state boundary between
Panama and Columbia.
 Totally in North America, there
are 23 officially recognized
independent states. The largest
of them is Canada, followed by
also rather big the United States,
these two giants together occupy
more than 79% of the whole
continent area.
 Dominican Nicaragua
Antigua and Panama
Republic
Barbuda Saint Kitts and
El Salvador
Bahamas Nevis
Grenada Saint Lucia
Barbados
Guatemala Saint Vincent
Belize
Haiti and the
Canada Grenadines
Honduras
Costa Rica Trinidad and
Jamaica Tobago
Cuba
Mexico United States of
Dominica
America (USA)
 North American Literature
-Colonial Time
a
-although similarities exist
between English and American
literary styles, there are also great
divergences.
 After having been politically and culturally
dominated by England, it became necessary for
Americans to develop a means of expression
which could reflect American habits, thoughts
and ambitious. American society demanded a
literature expressed in a new style.
 American culture offered characteristics
which generally differed from those of the old
cultures of Europe: democracy, the frontier,
and a new concept of humanity. By its very
nature, American society lacked a definite
structure about which to write. Search for
identify has always been an outstanding trait in
the American literature.
 It is necessity to remember that the
American population has never been
homogeneous, since it is comprised of
people of European, African, and Asian
ancestry. America has always been a land
and in which one looked to the future for
fulfillment of his expectations.
 The emphasis has been upon
individualism, dynamism and
innovation, rather than upon
moderation or respect for an
established social hierarchy.
 American literature has always
reflected the double consciousness of
its parent cultures and its own youthful
ambition. Up to the first part of the
twentieth century, there had been a
trend to avoid topic such as the
imperfection of humanity or the nation.
 The sentiments of optimism and
pessimism mix when America ideals find
themselves contradicted by the reality.
* Gay Literature
* Survival Literature
* Jewish Literature
EARLY COLONIAL LITERATURE

The early colonial literature was

produced by a God centered world. Literary
Englishmen believed that was first among
thee disciplines of learning and all events
were ruled by Divine Providence. Thus, the
writings produced in the early colonial
period were fundamentally religious.
 American culture and literature were
derived from western European culture,
literature and civilization. The first English
settlement in America was fortunate.
Thirteen colonies were spread along the
Atlantic coast of the continent and this
caused great influence on the American
language, ways of thought and
civilization.
 The first literary manifestations in
America tell us the story of New
England and Virginia. Two main
things forced the English towards
America: material improvement and
religious freedom.
 THE PLANTERS
The first writings about America came
from the colony of the Virginia which the
British had established around 1584.
These writings were mostly advertising to
attract more English people to Virginia to
establish to invest and explore the new
colonies.
 These first writings portrayed
exactly what they saw in the new
continent – descriptions of geographic
and economic conditions, the climate
of the new land and some aspects of
Indian life. Sometimes, their works
exaggerated the remarkable wealth
of the land.
 THE PURITANS
At the beginning of the 17th century,
different king od settler came to New
England attempting to escape from the
religious persecutions in England. They,
the Separatists, now called Pilgrims,
wished to purify the forms and rituals of
the established Anglican Church.
 In 1620, the first group of Protestants
arrived in America where the established
Plymouth Colony. Ten years later, a
second group settled down in
Massachusetts Bay Colony. These two
colonies accepted religion as law, custom
and daily care. In 1691, they were joined
to form a single colony.
Religious movement
- Prime mover: God all powerful
- Universe: God’s creation, handled by God
- Man: God’s creature a source of temptation
-Attitude towards life: deterministic, everything
was predetermined by God
- Man’s duty: faith, the glorification of God and
Preparation for after life, to read the Bible
- Social attitude: obedience to authority
- Man’s destiny: election or reprobation
*SOME WRITERS OF THE PERIOD

WILLIAM BRADFORD
Like all puritans historians, wrote with several
guiding principles in mind. No ‘one’ thing could be
more important than the other because all things
were under Divine control. He was to tell every fact
never
stressing one fact or minimizing the other
works:
“History of the Plymouth Plantation’ and
“The Mayflower Compact”
ROGER WILLIAMS
He was considered dangerous for those who
thought that uniform beliefs were essential to an
effective government. Because of his departure from
traditional Puritan beliefs he has a
special place in early American literature.

Work: “The Bloody Tenant of

Persecution”
PURITAN LITERATURE
Puritan Literature was a
reflection of Puritan life; therefore
it was connected with religious
matters. The Puritans literary
writers produced mostly
sermons, religious poems,
biographies, diaries and essays.
PURITAN LITERATURE
They expressed the experience of
building a new land and the emotional
and spiritual life of the individual. Their
works were sober and realistic and were
written in plain style. These writers
produced a more refined type of
literature. They made use of biblical
analogies and allusions and of homely
expressions.
 ANNE BRADSTREET
She wrote poetry and prose, but it
was in poetry that she could show her
best style with simplicity and erudition.
Works: “Contemplations”, “The
Prologue”, ‘Meditations – For My Dear
Son Simon Bradstreet” and others.
COTTON MATHER
He is often blamed for causing
the fury if the witchcraft scare
which led to the trial and
execution of nineteen citizens of
Salem in 1692. he wanted to
prove with his work the
existence of devils and witches
in New England.
JONATHAN EDWARDS
In the middle of the eighteenth century, when rigid
religious doctrines of the Puritans were beginning to give way
to a practical idealism, Jonathan Edwards attempted to bring
back early American theology Edwards’ religious beliefs were
deep-rooted in the idea of John Calvin, who stressed the
unquestionable majesty of God over all things. It is a
Jonathan Edwards’ concept of a ‘Divine Light” flowing from
God through various aspects of nature that built the
foundation for the
philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Native American Languages
In 1500 AD, people living in North America
 spoke many different languages. None of them
were written down. Many of these languages
died out in the 1500s and 1600s AD, because
so many people had died of smallpox and
measles that hardly anyone was left to speak
those languages anymore.
Christian missionaries bring writing to
America
In the course of the 1700s and 1800s, Christian
 missionaries came to North America from Europe.
They tried to get people in North America to become
Christians. Some of these missionaries taught people
to learn English or French so that they could read the
Bible. Other missionaries thought it was better to learn
the local language and translate the Bible into that
language.
 American literature: Sequoyah, who
wrote the Cherokee language down
But to translate the Bible, you had to be
able to write in that language. So some
missionaries designed alphabets for the North
American literature: Sequoyah, who wrote the Cherokee language down
American languages. Some of these alphabets
became very popular. Now people could write
down their own stories and write letters to each
other. One example is the Cherokeesyllabary.
A Cherokee man named Sequoyah probably
invented that way of writing (though some
people disagree).
 A lot of new languages
Most people in America spoke a Native
language, but there were a lot of different
Native languages. And all these new
people were coming from all over the
world. Many people in the southern part of
North America spoke Spanish, and along
the Mississippi valley and in Canada many
people spoke French.
Then enslaved African people in the South
spoke a variety of African languages. In the
center of the continent, many Germans and
Scandinavians had settled. So, in some
towns, most people spoke German or
Swedish or Norwegian. On the East Coast,
most people spoke English, though by the
1750s enough of them spoke German
The United States has no official
language
When men like Thomas Jefferson and 
Benjamin Franklin were writing the Constitution
 of the United States in the late 1700s AD, they
did not include any rules about an official
language. They decided to leave that freedom,
like many others, open for people to decide for
themselves.
 Cotton Mather
Nevertheless, most of the literature written
in North America has been in English.
English has been the language of most
people living in North America since at
least 1800. The earliest North American
literature was mainly sermons by men like
Cotton Mather, written in the 1600s and
1700s.
African-American writers
African-American people who had come over
from Africa as slaves met local Cherokee
 people and translated traditional African and
Cherokee stories into English as the Br’er
Rabbit stories. Both African-Americans like 
Phillis Wheatley and white people like 
Anne Bradstreet wrote poetry.
Novels and stories of the 1800s
By the 1800s, people were beginning to write
novels, or fictional stories, like those of James
Fenimore Cooper (The Last of the Mohicans,
1826). A lot of people thought it was wrong to
read novels. They thought novels would rot your
brain and teach you bad things. (It was like what
people say about television or the Internet
today.)
Novels and stories of the 1800s
Novels began to take more serious themes, like
Melville’s Moby Dick (1851) and 
Harriet Beecher Stowe‘s Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
about slavery. Soon people were also writing books
especially for kids, like the Horatio Alger stories
(1867), or Mark Twain‘s Tom Sawyer (1876), L. Frank
Baum’s The Wizard of Oz (1900), Lucy
Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (1906), or
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret
Garden (1909).
 American literature in the 1900s
Then in the 1900s, the use of oil in all aspects of 
farm work meant that most people didn’t have to
work on farms. For the first time in history, most
kids had time to go to school. To have enough
books to sell these new readers, many more
people in North America wrote English novels. A
lot of writers lived in the South, like Eudora Welty,
Thomas Wolfe, or William Faulkner.
 American literature in the
1900s
The end of slavery after the Civil War and
the civil rights movement meant that people
who were not white could write more books,
like
Richard Wright’s Native Son (1940),
Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987), and
Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (1989).
 North American languages today
By the end of the 1900s, the Internet meant that writing
was beginning to take many new forms (blogs, for
instance). Many more people were able to participate in
writing, as well as reading, literature. Most of these
writings is being done in English, but Spanish is
commonly spoken in the United States. A lot of people
speak and write in French in Canada and in Louisiana.
And people across North America are working to make
sure their children speak and write Native languages
like Cree and Cherokee.
After a successful rebellion against the
motherland, America became the United
States, a nation. By the end of the 19th
century this nation extended southward
to the Gulf of Mexico, northward to the
49th parallel, and westward to the
Pacific.
 By the end of the 19th century, too, it had taken
its place among the powers of the world—its
fortunes so interrelated with those of other nations
that inevitably it became involved in two world
wars. Meanwhile, the rise of science and industry,
as well as changes in ways of thinking and
feeling, wrought many modifications in people’s
lives. All these factors in the development of the
United States molded the literature of the country.
Native American literature
Native American literature, the traditional oral
and written literatures of the indigenous people of
the Americas. These include ancient hieroglyphic
and pictographic writings of Middle America as
well as an extensive set of folktales, myths, and
oral histories.
African American literature
African American literature, body
of literature written by Americans of
African descent. Beginning in the Pre-
Revolutionary War period, African
American writers have engaged in a
creative, if often contentious, dialogue
with American letters. The result is a
literature rich in expressive subtlety and
social insight, offering illuminating
assessments of American
TRADITION OF
NORTH
AMERICA
FESTIVALS OF NORTH AMERICA
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival, USA

Top bands play year round in the clubs of New

Orleans but it’s hard to beat those of the New Orleans
Jazz and Heritage Festival, held April/May. Any time
of year you’re guaranteed easy-going rhythms and the
colorful culture of the Deep South.
Calgary Stampede, Canada

Pack your hat and boots for the “Greatest Outdoor

Show on Earth” that takes place every year in July.
This 10 da event is a feast of rodeo, concerts, chuck
wagon races, pancake breakfast and many other
events that transform Calgary into a cowboy heaven.
Burning man, Nevada, USA

Breathe in art at this annual event that attracts

thousands of participants to the wastes of the Black
Rock Desert. This event is all about participation
where any form of self-expression is valued and
appreciated. There are no vendors out here so self-
reliance is encouraged for the week long sojourn and
to finally leave the area without a trace.
DANCES IN NORTH
AMERICA
Ballroom Dances
These dances started appearing first in
Italy, during the early years of Renaissance.
Popularity of this kind of entertainment
quickly swept over the Europe, United States
and the World. Although many other simpler
and more easily preformed types of dances
caused the ballroom dances to lose some of
their influence, modern worldwide dancing
audience started resurrecting these immortal
dances in ever increasing pace.
Waltz
This graceful and slow two person
dance was first introduced in mid-19th
century and was greatly popularized by
the music of the famous composer
Johann Strauss. Today this dance
represents gold standard and the most
famous dance of the ballrooms around
the world.
Viennese Waltz
Original form of waltz, first
performed at the Italian courts is today
remembered as Viennese Waltz. It differs
from the much more famous "English
Slow Waltz" by having much faster 180
beats per minute and was the first who
introduced "closed hold" between
performers.
Tango
Originally created in the Argentinean
region of Rio de la Plata, this dance is
today known by many of its variations
(Argentine tango, Uruguayan tango,
Finish Tango and two types of Ballroom
tangos - standard and American) and the
fascinating sensual and energetic style.
Quickstep
Light-hearted and fast movement, powerful forms
and syncopations, represent the core style
characteristics of the Quickstep, one of the most
popular ballroom dances today in the world.
Originally developed in the 1920s dance scene of New
York and the Caribbean, as the combination of the
dances such as Charleston, a slow variation of
Foxtrot, Peabody, shag, and one-step. The smooth and
glamorous version of quickstep that is danced today
across the world to 4/4 music beat of 48-52 measures
per minute was standardized in 1927.
1. The first writings about
America came from the colony
of the ____________ which the
British had established around
1584.
2. Fill in the blank: The writings produced in the
early colonial period were fundamentally
________________.
3. True or False. American population has
never been homogeneous.
4. The author of the first
literary work “The
Mayflower Compact”
5. She wrote poetry and prose, but it
was in poetry that she could show her
best style with simplicity and erudition.
Her Works: “Contemplations”, “The
Prologue”
6. He wrote “The Last of
the Mohicans, 1826”
7. This event is all about participation
where any form of self-expression is
valued and appreciated. There are no
vendors out here so self-reliance is
encouraged for the week long sojourn
and to finally leave the area without a
trace.
8. Ballroom Dances started
appearing first in
____________, during the
early years of Renaissance.
 9. A Cherokee man named
__________ probably
invented that way of writing.
10. Originally created in the
Argentinean region of Rio de
la Plata, this dance is today
known by many of its
variations.
 Bonus Question: This graceful
and slow two person dance was
first introduced in mid-19th
century and was greatly
popularized by the music of the
famous composer Johann
Strauss.