The Civil War
The Civil War and the Reconstruction Periods not only signals massive political and social changes, it also alters American literature, seemingly forever. The Romantic Movement was wounded at the 1st Battle of Bull Run and killed at Shiloh. This period also marks a change of generations of poets and writers. No longer would we have the Brahmins, university educated poets linked like a fraternity brothers. These poets and writers were getting old, like Emerson for example. The Romantic ideals were shattered by the upheavels of the War. New writers emerged, most of whom were journalists. Examples of these writers include Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce and Louisa May Alcott. It also marks the beginning of memoirs and autobiographies as a major prose forms.
The thematic "push" of this period is more narrative than poetry. Although massive numbers of verses were composed, they became largely politicized and polemic. The works of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, however, did prove otherwise. The thematic development was to reduce the Romantic elements by stating events as they "actually happened" as Bierce explained. Despite this, the prose and poetry of the time is emotionally highly charged. As novelist and Pulitzer Prize winning historian Shelby Foote explains, people were not so afraid of expressing emotions -- strong emotions, but they avoided presenting emotions to an excess that we call emotionalism. In other words, there was PASSION but not MELODRAMA.
Lincoln's murder also tokens the end of political writing achieving literary quality until the Presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. Lincoln may have been the most literary-conscious President to date.
The history of the Civil War (make no mistake: it was Civil War not War Between the States like many of my Southron family maintain), the Civil War is divided into three periods. The literary periods, for this class, are also divided into two periods. This is a convenience, not an absolute.
The thematic "push" of this period is more narrative than poetry. Although massive numbers of verses were composed, they became largely politicized and polemic. The works of Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, however, did prove otherwise. The thematic development was to reduce the Romantic elements by stating events as they "actually happened" as Bierce explained. Despite this, the prose and poetry of the time is emotionally highly charged. As novelist and Pulitzer Prize winning historian Shelby Foote explains, people were not so afraid of expressing emotions -- strong emotions, but they avoided presenting emotions to an excess that we call emotionalism. In other words, there was PASSION but not MELODRAMA.
Lincoln's murder also tokens the end of political writing achieving literary quality until the Presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. Lincoln may have been the most literary-conscious President to date.
The history of the Civil War (make no mistake: it was Civil War not War Between the States like many of my Southron family maintain), the Civil War is divided into three periods. The literary periods, for this class, are also divided into two periods. This is a convenience, not an absolute.