Mark Twain "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"

AGENDA:

Handout: American Literature Realism, Naturalism, and Romanticism

ROMANTICISM vs. REALISM

Romanticism 1820-1865	Realism 1865 - 1914
Characters may be “larger than life” -- e.g. Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, Brom Bones, Natty Bumppo, Ralph Hepdurn, Bartleby	Characters resemble ordinary people -- e.g. Huck Finn, Editha, Frederick Winterbourne, Daisy Miller, Sylvia, Louisa, Edna Pontellier
Plot contains unusual events, mystery, or high adventure -- e.g. Poe's stories, Melville’s Typee	Plot is developed with ordinary events and circumstances
Ending is often happy	Ending might be unhappy
The language is often “literary” (inflated, formal, etc.)	Writer uses ordinary speech and dialect -- common vernacular (the everyday language spoken by a people)
Settings often made up; if actual settings are used, the focus is on the exotic, strange, mysterious -- e.g. Melville’s Marquesas islands (S. Pacific), Cooper’s woods and frontier, Poe's gothic chambers	Settings actually exist or have actual prototypes
Writer is interested in history or legend -- e.g. Irving, Poe	Writer is interested in recent or contemporary life

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Handout: Annotate and write essay for homework:
"Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"


Is Google Making Us Stupid?


http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/