WELCOME

AMERICAN LITERATURE
Group of students:
Nguyễn Quỳnh Anh,
Nguyễn Đỗ Ngọc Ánh.
LOCAL COLOR
 LOCAL COLOR

Style of writing derived from the presentation of the features and peculiarities of a particular
locality and its inhabitants. Although the term local colour can be applied to any type of
writing, it is used almost exclusively to describe a kind of American literature that in its most-
characteristic form made its appearance in the late 1860s, just after the end of the Civil War.
For nearly three decades local colour was the single most-popular form of American literature-
It concerned itself mainly with depicting the character of a particular region, concentrating
especially upon the peculiarities of dialect, manners, folklore, and landscape that distinguish
the area.
THE FEATURES OF LOCAL COLOR

• Use of dialect to establish credibility and authenticity of regional characters . Dialect

is " a regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation , grammar , or
vocabulary "
• Use of detailed description Especially of small , seemingly insignificant details
central to an understanding of the region .
• Frequent use of a frame narrative ( a story within a story ) The narrator hears some
tale of the region and then tells the story he / she heard to the reader .
 5 authors of American
Realism and their famous
works
 Stephen Ambrose
Crane Bierce

Mark Twain

Kate Chopin Bret Harte

 Mark Twain (30/11/1835 – 21/4/1910)

 “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras

County” – 1865
 Tom Sawyer – 1876
 Huckleberry Finn – 1884
 “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”
– 1889
 “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg” -1900
Stephen Crane (5/1/1871- 5/6/1900)
 Maggie: A Girl of the Streets – 1893
– The story of an urban girl’s descent from the
slums to prostitution and her eventual death
 The Red Badge of Courage – 1895
 “The Open Boat” – 1898
– This short story was inspired directly by his
near-death experience in Cuba
 Bret Harte (25/8/1836- 5/5/1902)
 Harte often collaborated with Twain as an editor for the
Californian newspaper around 1864.
 Condensed Novels – approx. 1870
 The Luck of Roaring Camp, and Other Sketches –
1870
– This collection contains “Outcasts of Poker Flats,” one
of the selections we will be reading.
 Ah Sin – 1877 – Bret Harte collaborated with Mark
Twain to write this play
Kate Chopin (8/2/1851- 22/8/1904)

 At Fault – 1890 – Her first novel was met

with little revelry or success.
 “Desiree’s Baby” – 1897
 The Awakening - 1899
Ambrose Bierce (24/6/1842- 1914)
 “The Haunted Valley” – 1871 – His first story
to be published
 “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” – 1891
 The Devil’s Dictionary – 1906– A collection
of ironic and bitter definitions on common
words, as well as one of Bierce’s most famous
and enduring works.
Thank you!