Literary Movement: Puritan/Colonial Literature 1620-1750

1
Literary MovementPuritan/Colonial
Literature1620-1750
2
Historical Context

• 1620 Mayflower lands at Plymouth
• 1630 Great Migration of Puritans to New
  England
• 1690 Slavery exists in all English Colonies in
  North America
• 1721 Smallpox epidemic hits Boston
• 1740-45 Great Awakening

3
Worldview

• Age of Faith (to be followed by Age of
  Reason)
• Religious authority and tradition as means of
  knowing truth
• Puritanism was the dominant shaping force of the
  early American worldview. Puritans believed
• Humans are inherently sinful.
• Salvation belongs to Gods elect, who are saved
  by grace.
• A person should be hardworking, modest, and
  simple.
• Puritan Work Ethic
• Society should be modeled after the Bible.

4
Common Elements of the Literature

• Characteristics of Puritan literature
• Authors modeled their writings after the Bible.
• They used their writings to explore Gods
  workings in their inner and outer lives.
• Diaries and histories were the most common forms
  of expression.
• Puritans favored a plain style of writing.

5
Common Elements of the Literature

• Narratives (both Puritan and non-Puritan)
  recorded a variety of individuals experiences in
  the New World
• Travel Narratives (Cabeza de Vaca)
• Tales of Life in North America (John Smith)
• Captivity Stories (Mary Rowlandson)
• Slave Narratives (Olaudah Equiano)
• See Elements of Literature p. 43

6
Famous Authors

• William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation
  (1620-47)
• Mary Rowlandson, A Narrative of Captivity (1682)
• William Byrd, The History of the Dividing Line
  (1728)
• Jonathan Edwards, Sinners in the Hands of an
  Angry God (1741)
• Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the
  Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789)

7
from Of Plymouth Plantation

• About the Author William Bradford
• Came to the New World aboard the Mayflower in
  1620 with a group of Separatists
• Wife Dorothy either fell or jumped overboard
• Was elected governor of the Plymouth Colony
  thirty times
• Literary Concept Plain style is a way of
  writing that stresses simplicity and clarity of
  expression.

8
From The History of the Dividing Line

• About the Author William Byrd
• Born in Virginia in 1674 to a wealthy landowner
  and merchant
• Educated in England and preferred London (lavish,
  intellectual community, gambling)
• Shared the Cavalier perspective
• Unlike the Puritans, the Cavaliers
• enjoyed British intellectual and
• social trends
• Renaissance Man translator, poet,
  mathematician, farmer

9
From The History of the Dividing Line

• Literary Concepts
• Satire is a type of writing that ridicules the
  shortcomings of people or institutions in an
  attempt to bring about a change
• Tone is the writers attitude toward the subject
  of the work, the characters, or the audience

10
From The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano

• About the Author Olaudah Equiano
• Born in West Africa (Nigeria)
• Kidnapped by slave traders at
• 11 years old and sent on a slave
• ship to Barbados
• Soon transferred to Virginia
• Bought his freedom in 1766 after 10 years of
  slavery
• Worked in England as a servant, musician, and
  barber
• Involved in the abolition movement
• Published his autobiography in 1789
• Recent Debate Did Equiano truly experience the
  Middle Passage?

11
From The Interesting Narrative of the Life of
Olaudah Equiano

• Literary Focus A historical narrative is an
  account of a significant event in history.
• Characterization is the process by which a writer
  reveals a characters personality.

12
From A Narrative of the Captivity

• About the Author Mary Rowlandson (1636-1711)
• Born in England, sailed for Salem in 1639
• Wife of Joseph Rowlandson, a Congregational
  minister in Lancaster, a frontier town thirty
  miles west of Boston
• Taken captive by the Wampanoag after they raided
  her town, along with her three children
• Literary Terms
• Captivity narratives related the experiences of
  colonists who were kidnapped by Native Americans.
• An allusion is a reference to someone or
  something well known from literature, religion,
  politics, sports, science, or some other aspect
  of culture.
• Chronological order presents events in the order
  in which they occurred.

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From A Narrative of the Captivity

• Historical Context
• An estimated 7-18 million Native Americans north
  of the Rio Grande pre-1600
• Scholars have recently estimated a North American
  Indian population of 2-5 million pre-1600
• By 1890, an estimated 228,000 North American
  Indians
• Following the arrival of European explorers and
  colonists, native populations dramatically
  decreased due to disease, starvation, and
  warfare.
• King Phillips War (1675-76) was the most
  devastating war between the Native Americans and
  the colonists in New England. Named after King
  Philip, the sachem (chief) of the Wampanoag, who
  was Massasoits son.
• Source of population statistics A Population
  History of North America by Michael R. Haines and
  Richard H. Steckel

14
From A Narrative of the Captivity

• Review Questions
• What happens to each of Rowlandsons children?
• What details reveal that Rowlandsons captors are
  themselves desperate for food?
• What item does an Indian give Rowlandson that is
  a source of comfort to her?
• What useful skill does Rowlandson use to please
  the Indians?
• How does Rowlandsons relationship with her
  captors change over time?
• What role does Rowlandsons faith play during her
  experience of captivity?
• Why do you think this narrative was so popular at
  the time it was published?

15
From A Narrative of the Captivity

• Literary Skills Review
• Explain the three allusions to biblical stories
  that are identified in your footnotes. In what
  specific ways do Rowlandsons experiences
  resemble these biblical stories?
• Rowlandson presents events in chronological
  order. Make a bulleted list of the storys main
  events.

16

• http//www.wsu.edu/campbelld/amlit/rowland.htm
• http//books.google.com/books?idBPdgiysIVcgCpgP
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• http//www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0827703.htm
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17
Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of Our
House, July 10, 1666

• About the Author Anne Bradstreet
• An immigrant, teenage bride
• Married to Simon Bradstreet, a zealous
• Puritan who became governor of the Massachusetts
  Bay colony
• Exemplary Puritan wife and mother
• Reputedly the first American poet
• Battled with illness repeatedly maintained
  steadfast faith

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Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of Our
House, July 10, 1666

• Literary Concept An allusion is a reference to
  someone or something that is known from history,
  literature, religion, politics, sports, science,
  or some other branch of culture.
• Literary Concept In an inversion, the words of
  a sentence or phrase are wrenched out of our
  normal English syntax, or word order.
• Example
• When my friends face I see, happy I will be
  (inverted)
• When I see my friends face, I will be happy
  (normal word order)

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Practice with Inverted Sentences

• Rearrange the following opening lines to
  Bradstreets poem, Here Follow Some Verses . .
  .
• In silent night when rest I took
• For sorrow near I did not look
• I wakened was with thundring noise
• And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice.
• That fearful sound of Fire! and Fire!
• Let no man know is my desire.
• I, starting up, the light did spy,
• And to my God my heart did cry . . .

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Here Follow Some Verses . . .Assignment

• 1. Using Bradstreets own words, rewrite lines
  1-10 and 27-30 without any inversions.
• 2. Use your footnotes to identify and explain
  the allusion in the first half of the poem.
• 3. Write a line-by-line paraphrase of the poem.

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Here Follow Some Verses . . .Discussion
Questions

• 1. Look at number 6 on p. 71are you convinced
  that Bradstreet means what she says?
• 2. What is Bradstreets attitude toward earthly
  suffering and the providence of God?
• 3. How does Bradstreets poem reflect the
  Puritan worldview, as discussed in your textbook
  and in our background lecture?

22
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

• About the Author Jonathan Edwards
• A fire-and-brimstone Puritan preacher, known
  for his extremism
• Involved in starting the Great Awakening in the
  1730s
• The Last PuritanStood
• between Puritan America and
• modern America

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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

• This is a sermon that Edwards delivered at a
  church service in Connecticut in 1741.
• Edwards audience was members of his congregation
  who had not been born again, or who had not
  accepted Christ as their Savior.
• Literary Concepts
• Imagery is language that appeals to the senses.
• Figures of speech are words or phrases that
  compare one thing to another, unlike thing. The
  most common figures of speech are metaphors,
  similes, and personification.

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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

• Discussion and Review
• According to Edwards, what keeps sinners out of
  hell?
• According to Edwards, how can sinners obtain
  salvation?
• What is the overall tone of the sermon? How do
  the images of Jesus Christ opening the doors and
  the sinners flocking to him for mercy (second to
  the last paragraph on p. 111) affect the mood of
  the sermon?
• Why do you think Edwards uses the image of Gods
  hands to describe Gods power? What makes this
  an effective image?
• Judging from his sermon, what underlying
  philosophical beliefs does Edwards hold? What
  underlying assumptions does he have about the
  nature of both humans and Gods?
• Edwards uses fear to motivate his congregation.
  In your opinion, is this an appropriate tactic?
  Can you think of situations in which fear has
  been or could be used in a positive way to
  motivate a person? Negative?