Why study literature

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Why study literature?
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Why study literature?

• Become literary expert
• Develop critical thinking skills
• Better understand other people
• Improve language skills
• Because its required
• Win on legyen milliomos

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What this means for you

• Come to lecture prepared
• (check website and read works in advance)
• Read works in English
• Ask questions

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Purpose of lecture class

• Provide context for readings
  (history/background)
• NOT to force-feed interpretations
• Opportunity to discuss other works
• Prepare for kollokvium

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I. Literature of the New World (1492-1620)
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Lit of New World

• 1492
• Columbus
• 1620
• Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock

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Lit of New World

• Who came?
• Why?
• Where?
• What did they write?

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Spanish

• Ponce de Leon
• Hernando DeSoto
• Balboa

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Spanish

• Came for gold
• This led them to believe legends they heard
• Fountain of Youth
• Seven Cities of Gold

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French

• Samuel de Champlain

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French

• Came for furs (hunting and trading)
• Because of this, few came and mostly men
• Better relations with Indians
• Eventual loss of North America
• Restricted to Quebec

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Dutch

• Henry Hudson

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Dutch

• Came to settle, primarily for commericial
  reasons.
• Relationship to Indians bad
• Lost war in 1664 to England
• Names still in evidence

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English

• Pilgrims 1620 (Massachusetts)
• John Winthrop
• William Bradford
• Jamestown 1607
• (Virginia)
• John Smith

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English

• Came to settle for both religious commericial
  reasons
• This influenced
• What they wrote
• How they interpreted what they saw

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What did they write?
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What did they write?

• Diaries
• Travel journals

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New writings

• Change came when the Europeans settled and
  interacted with Indians.
• Then came. advertising.

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Jamestown -1607

• Colony nearly failed
• Disease
• Starvation
• Indians
• 80 died

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Jamestown - 1608

• Arrival of John Smith
• Autocratic rule ensures survival
• Propaganda developed later to encourage new
  settlers

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Pocohontas

• Who was she?
• What did she do?

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Pocohontas

• Saves John Smiths life
• Taken hostage by English
• Marries John Rolfe
• Dies in England

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Pocohontas John Smith

• Why the changes over the years?

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Pocohontas - 1616

• How the 17th century wanted to see her
• (adaptable)

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Pocohontas

• 19th century version
• (sexy, exotic)

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Pocohontas

• 21st century advertisement
• (child
• cute
• commodity)

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Myth of the Noble Savage

• Beginnings of idea that primitive peoples better
  than civilized people. They are closer to nature,
  hence innocent and unspoiled.
• Applies here only to females
• Takes hold once Indian culture defeated

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Review terms

• Travel journals diaries
• Henry Hudson
• Jamestown John Smith
• Pocohontas
• Myth of the Noble Savage

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Next week

• Read Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (short
  passage)
• Literature of Colonial America