The History of

American
Language and
Literature
Muhammad Andre Sahay
135 110 100 111 012

The Mingling of
Tongues
American Literature is rich
and diverse
Difficult to generalizie about
the pattern
The departure from the old
country to the new country
ignite the series of diaries and
letters
The reading class of each
national group soon had its
own monthly, weekly, or daily
paper

Cont.
Early attempts at
journalism is Clumsy
and Crude
Literary pattern
changed after 1870
The new immigrant
writers began to critize
their environment
through their novel'
Immigrant Act of 1924

The Reading Class

of National Group
German
American

Italian

French

Jewish
American

Scandanavian

German
American
The Most Considerable
body of non-English
writing
The line of the patterns
are clearly and easily
discernible
Stream of travel
literature began in the
second and third decade
of the 19th Century.

Cont
Charles Sealsfield
Devote himself to
fiction
He has a high degree
of patriotism
Cloaked his trye
identity
Claimed to be
"America's Most
Famous Author"

Cont.
Friedrich Arman
Strubberg
He was a Hunter,
Soldier, Rancher,
Merchant, Physician
and Enterpreneur
Produced some
hundreds and fifty
books of travel and
adventure after he
across the America

Cont.
After 1870, the use of
german in speech and
writing declined
By 1900 the german
theater had almost
dissapeared
Lyric Poetry grew
weak thin.

French
Literature
French Literature blossom
in Louisiana
After 1829 the number of
French Writers in
Louisiana is large
The ability to write Prose
or verse was a necessary
accomplishment for a
creole gentlement
From 1840, the most
significant French works
appeared

Cont.
Charles Etienne Arthur
Gayarre
Educated in New
Orleans and educated at
law in Philadelphia
has ambition to become
Louisiana's Walter
Scott

Italian
Literature
The Number of Italian
immigrants was small
The literary men of
Italian use other
language rather than
Italian for their works
After 1800 there was a
huge number of Italian
Immigrants

Scandanavian
Literature
The earliest writer were
either journalists or
ministers
At the end of 19th
century, professional
literary class developed
They were using English
in their works

Jewish-American
Literature
One of the richest product
of the mingling tongues
In 1825, Jews immigrants
were 16.000, a Century later
that number were grow to
more than 4.000.000
The literature of Jews began
with Hebrew writings of a
religious nature

Cont.
Yiddish writer found that
in America they can
develop their talent
- The early desire to cast
the old world into a
mythical melting pot has
given place to convict the
immigrant

American
Language
The Great movement to the
west that fixed the American
language
American preserved the
elizabethan era of boldness of
speech
At later stages American
English recieved many loans
from the languages of nonenglish Immigrants

Cont.
American spelling and
pronounciation have
departed from English
Standards
The simplified spelling
movement was launched
by Francis A. March, W.
D. Whitney, F.J. Child and
other

Puritanism as A
Literary Force
Most of "Puritanism as a
Literary Force" interprets
American literature in
relation to the new england
puritans of old.

Colonial
Literary Culture
Benjamin Franklin once noted that
the business of making a nation
restricted literary activity in
Colonial America. Franklin
seemed to think that people needed
a stable government and economy
before they could make great
advances in cultural pursuits such
as literature, music, and painting.

Cont.
Some central themes emerge from this
literature. Because of the nature of their
endeavor, for example, Captain John
Smith and other chroniclers of
settlement in the 17th century often
addressed the subjects of will and
work, the relationship between humans
and nature, and the differences between
European and Native American
cultures.