American travel literature

Учебное пособие

Для студентов III курса ОЗО

по дисциплине «Литература США»

Ростов-на-Дону

ББК 81.2 Англ. – 923

УДК 811.111:82 (075.4)

Г – 98

Печатается по решению редакционно-издательского совета ЮФУ

Научный редактор:

Агапова С.Г., доктор филологических наук, профессор

Рецензент:

Черкасс И.А., кандидат филологических наук, доцент

Автор-составитель:

Гущина Л.В., кандидат филологических наук, доцент

Гущина Л.В.

Г Учебное пособие «An outline of American literature: from early Amerindians to Enlightenment thinkers» предназначено для студентов III курса ОЗО по дисциплине «Литература США». – Ростов-на-Дону: ЮФУ, 2013. – 98 с.

Аннотация: Учебное пособие «An outline of American literature: from early Amerinidians to the Enlightenment thinkers» предназначено для студентов 3 курса заочного отделения факультета Лингвистики и словесности Южного федерального университета, содержит программные требования к уровню знаний студентов, авторское изложение основных учебных модулей 1-4 по дисциплине «Литература США», отражающее содержание Государственного образовательного стандарта.

УДК 811.111:82 (075.4)

ББК 81.2 Англ. – 923

© ЮФУ, 2013

© Гущина Л.В., 2013

CONTENTS

Аннотация………………………………………………………………
Введение…………………………………………………………………
Общие положения……………………………………………………...
Preface……………………………………………………………………
Module 1. PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE: AMERINDIAN LITERATURE……………………………..
Module 2. AMERICAN TRAVEL LITERATURE OF PRE-COLUMBIAN AND COLUMBIAN PERIODS ……………
Module 3. AMERICAN LITERATURE OF THE COLONIAL PERIOD………………………………………………………….
Module 4. REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD, ENLIGHTENMENT …….
Bibliography………………………………………………………………

ВВЕДЕНИЕ

Учебный курс «Литература США» согласно учебному плану является специализированным курсом. Он адресован студентам 3го курса английского языка (факультета лингвистики и словесности) заочной формы обучения в V-VI семестрах. Предметом курса является изучение теоретических аспектов литературных явлений и оригинальной художественной литературы.

В ходе дисциплины «Литература США» студенты знакомятся с теоретическими аспектами изучаемых литературных явлений и изучении оригинальной художественной литературы. Курс направлен на расширение и совершенствование умений и навыков понимания и анализа художественных произведений, выявления особенностей композиций, стилей, эстетики авторов, определение места и значения произведений и творчества писателей для национальной и мировой литературы. В процессе изучения курса студенты расширят свой общий культурный кругозор, реализуют социокультурный, лингвострановедческий компоненты обучения.

Преподавание дисциплины «Литература США» осуществляется в тесной связи с такими теоретическими и практическими дисциплинами, как история литературы Великобритании, история и культура страны изучаемого языка, история зарубежной литературы, история русской литературы, культурология, стилистика английского языка, практика устной и письменной речи английского языка.

Цели и задачи неразрывно связаны с развитием общей, лингвистической, прагматической и межкультурной компетенциями, которые совместно с другими дисциплинами способствуют прочному формированию профессиональных знаний, умений и навыков студентов.

ОБЩИЕ ПОЛОЖЕНИЯ

Предложенные в настоящем учебном пособии модули соответствуют содержанию учебных модулей 1-4, описанных в УМК «Литература США» для 3-го курса ОЗО факультета Лингвистики и словесности Южного федерального университета:

Учебный модуль 1. Литература доколумбовой Америки знакомит студентов с истоками американской литературы: устной литературой американских индейцев и ее жанрами.

Учебный модуль 2. Литература периода открытия Америки знакомит студентов с литературой периода открытия Америки, жанром литературы путешествий, рассматривая литературу Викингов: жанр «сага»; европейских первооткрывателей: Колумб, Де Лас Касас и др.; основные характеристики жанра литературы путешествий (travel literature) и ее разновидности.

Учебный модуль 3. Литература Америки колониального периода знакомит студентов с истоками американской литературы, определяя место и значение писателей Новой Англии, детально изучая первых летописцов колоний: У. Брэдфорд, А. Брэдстрит, Э. Тейлор и др.

Учебный модуль 4. Просвещение: литература периода революции и войны за независимость знакомит студентов с работами американских просветителей революционного периода – Б. Франклин, Т. Джефферсон, Г. Пейн. Поэзия революционного периода. Ф. Френо, Э. Барло и др.; возникновением американского романа – Ч. Браун.

PREFACE

What is literature?

Since the dawn of civilization people have felt a vital need to communicate their thoughts and feelings beyond their immediate circle of family, friends and acquaintances to a wider world. Thanks to the invention of writing and printing they have been able to hand down to successive generations a priceless treasury of manuscripts and books.

Literature is generally taken to mean those pieces of writing which, despite the passing of the years and even of the centuries, still inspire admiration, reflection and emotion in readers. Poems, plays, novels and short stories in a certain language that have stood the test of time collectively make up a national literature.

This does not mean, however, that only older works can be called literature. Today, million of books are produced every year but only some of them find their way into literary magazines or onto the literary pages of newspapers. In these cases it is the critics and not time that decide what is and what is not to be regarded as literature. Whether their choices are appropriate or not will be a matter for future generations to decide.

It is impossible to formulate a totally comprehensive and all-encompassing definition of literature because literature is never static. Writers, genres and styles of writing have fallen in and out of favor throughout history and even today arguments rage about whether more popular forms of fiction such as detective stories should be considered literature. These disputes can be left to the critics because for the reader literature is simply beautiful, meaningful writing.

Why read literature?

The most obvious answer to this question is because it is enjoyable. Everybody loves a good story, and many great works of literature tell memorable stories. These stories provide an escape from our daily lives by transporting us to different times and places. We can travel back to the depression era in the United States with John Steinbeck, or we cab be projected into the future by science fiction writers like H.G. Wells.

Escapism is only one reason for reading literature. Literature can also be viewed as a source of knowledge and information. If we read one of W. Irving’s short stories, a poem by W. Whitman and a novel by E.M. Hemingway, we learn about a range of subjects from life in the United States, to the problems of slavery, to conditions at the battle front in the World War I. Almost every poem, play or novel we read gives us more information about the world we live in. perhaps the most important reason for reading literature is because it breaks down our personal barriers. Literature invites us to share in a range of human experiences that we otherwise would be denied. It allows us to leave behind our age, sex, family background and economic conditions so that we can see the world from the perspective of people who are completely different from us. Great writers make us understand how other people think and feel.

Literature stirs up our emotions. It amuses, frightens, intrigues, shocks, consoles, frustrates and challengers us. It helps us to understand ourselves and others. Literature widens our field of vision.

MODULE 1

PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE:

AMERINDIAN LITERATURE

MODULE 1

PRE-COLUMBIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE:

AMERINDIAN LITERATURE

The overall goal is to study the first period of American literature, i.e. Amerindian period, within the frame of the Amerindian history, economic and political traditions, and religious beliefs.

Native Americans in the United Statesare the indigenous peoples from the regions of North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as intact political communities. There has been a wide range of terms used to describe them and no consensus has been reached among indigenous members as to what they prefer to be called collectively. They have been known as American Indians, Amerindians, Amerinds, Aboriginal, Indians, Indigenous, Original Americans, Red Indians, or Red Men.

It is believed that the distant ancestors of Amerindians (or “native Americans”) had come to America from Asia during the earth’s last ice age. At that time a bridge of ice joined Asia to America across what is now the Bering Strait. Hunters from Siberia crossed this bridge into Alaska, and then moved south and east across America. About 12,000 years ago, descendants of these first Amerindians were crossing the isthmus of Panama into South America. About 5,000 years later their camps fires were burning on the frozen southern tip of the continent, now called Tierra del Fuego – the Land of Fire.

There were many different groups of Amerindians. Those north of Mexico, in what is now the United States and Canada, were scattered across the grasslands and forests in separate groups called “tribes”. These tribes followed very different ways of life. Some were hunters, some were farmers. Some were peaceful, others warlike.

Amerindians spoke hundreds of languages (about 500), belonging to entirely different linguistic families (e.g., Athapascan, Uto-Aztecan, Chinookan, Siouan, and Algonquian) and structured their cultures in extraordinary diverse economic and political forms.

For many centuries early Amerindians lived as wandering hunters and gatherers of food. Then a more settled way of life began. People living in highland areas of what is now Mexico found a wild grass with tiny seeds that were good to eat. These people became America’s first farmers. They cultivated the wild grass with great care to make its seeds larger. Eventually it became Indian corn, or maize. Other cultivated plant foods were developed. By 5000 BC Amerindians in Mexico were growing and eating beans, squash and peppers.

The Pueblo people of the Southwest (of present day Arizona and New Mexico) were the best organized of the Amerindian farming peoples. They lived in groups of villages, or in towns which were built for safety on the sides and tops of cliffs. They shared terraced buildings made of adobe (mud and straw) bricks, dried in the sun. some of these buildings contained as many as 800 rooms, crowded together on top of one another. The Pueblo made clothing and blankets from cotton which grew wild in the surrounding deserts. For food they grew crops of maize and beans. Irrigation made them successful as farmers. Long before Europeans came to America the Pueblo were building networks of canals across the deserts to bring water to their fields. In one desert valley modern archeologists have traced canals and ditches which enabled the Pueblo to irrigate 250,000 acres of farmland.

In the Great Basin of the West, small, loosely organized bands of Utes eked out a bare subsistence by hunting and gathering as well as the Apache that also obtained food by raiding their neighbors and stealing it. A people called the Apache were the neighbors of the Pueblo. The Apache never became settled farmers. They wandered the deserts and mountains in small bands, hunting deer and gathering wild plants, nuts and roots. They also obtained food by raiding their Pueblo neighbors and stealing it. The Apache were fierce and warlike, and they were much feared by the Pueblo.

The Iroquois of the Northeast were a group of tribes – a “nation” – who lived far away from the Pueblo and the Apache in the thick woods of northeastern North America. Like the Pueblo, the Iroquois were skilled farmers. In fields cleared from the forest they worked together growing beans, squash and twelve different varieties of maize. They were also hunters and fishermen. They used birch bark canoes to carry them swiftly along the rivers and lakes of their forest homeland. The Iroquois lived in permanent villages, in long wooden huts with barrel-shaped roofs. These huts were made from a framework of saplings covered by sheets of elm bark. Each was home to as many as twenty families. Each family had its own apartment on either side of a central hall.

The Iroquois were fierce warriors. They were as feared by their neighbors as the Apache of the western deserts were feared by theirs. Around their huts they built strong wooden stockades to protect their villages from enemies. Eager to win glory for their tribe and fame and honor for themselves, they often fought one another. From boyhood on, male Iroquois were taught to fear neither pain nor death. bravery in battle was the surest way for a warrior to win respect and a high position in his tribe.

Many miles to the west, on the vast plains of grass that stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains, there was another warrior nation. This group called themselves Dakota, which means “allies”. But they were better known by the name which other Amerindians gave to them – Sioux, which means “enemies”.

The Sioux grew no crops and built no houses. For food, for shelter and for clothing they depended upon the buffalo. Millions of these large, slow-moving animals wandered across the western grasslands in vast herds. When the buffalo moved, the Sioux moved. The buffalo never remained on one pasture for long, so everything the Sioux owned was designed to be carried easily. Within hours they could take down the tepees, the conical buffalo-skin tents that were their homes, pack their belongings in lightweight leather bags – “parfleches” – and move off after the buffalo. They even carried fire from one camp to the next. A hot ember would be sealed inside a buffalo horn filled with rotted wood. There it would smolder for days, ready to bring warmth from the old village to the new.

The lifestyle of the people of North America’s northwest coast was different. They gathered nuts and berries from the forests, but their main food was fish, especially the salmon of the rivers and the ocean. Each spring hundreds of thousands of salmon swam in from the Pacific and fought their way up the fast-flowing rivers to spawn. A few months’ work during this season provided the people of the Pacific coast with enough food to last a whole year.

This abundance of food gave the tribes of the Pacific coast time for feasting, carving and building. Tribes like the Haida lived in large houses built of wooden planks with elaborately carved gables and doorposts. The most important carvings were on totem poles. There were specially decorated tree trunks which some tribes placed in front of their houses, but which the Haida made part of the house itself. The carvings on the totem pole were a record of the history of the family that lived in the house.

So, we can see the difference in the tribes’ economies and political organization: for example, the Utes eked out a bare subsistence by hunting and gathering as well as the Apache, while the sedentary Pueblo peoples of the Southwest and the Iroquoians of the Northeast had both highly developed agricultural economies and complex modes of political organization. Systems of government ranged from democracies to councils of elders to theocracies.

The Amerindian peoples of North America developed widely varied ways of life. All suited the natural environments in which the tribes lived, and they lasted for many centuries until the arrival of Europeans.

In spite of some common features, religious and mythological beliefs of the aboriginal inhabitants of North America displayed a vast variety of forms. These ranged from simple hunting rituals^[1], through more elaborate calendric rites based upon settled agricultural economies, through the hunting and war-related cults of the nomadic tribes of the plains to more recent manifestations including the Ghost dance, Peyotism, syncretistic forms bearing Christian influence, the Revitalization movement, pan-Indianism and the Red Power movement. The great diversity of belief and practice, the relative scarcity of archaeological data, the near-absence of historical records, the virtual extinction of many tribes, the influence of missionary efforts and the general tendency towards acculturation present the scholar with a near-impossible task of reconstruction and generalization. Most Amerindian religions, however, affirm the existence of a supreme power (personal or impersonal), as well as the divine origin of the cosmos. The ontological good of this world, the possibility of direct human contact with the supernaturals through visions and rituals, and humans’ ability to acquire and direct supernatural power (Hinnels, www).

All in all, it should me admitted that Native Americans were generally a very Spiritual people, deeply tied to the earth. The religious beliefs of Native Americans varied by tribe but the concept of a "Great Spirit" was a pretty universal one. Navajos believed in "Mother Earth" and "Father Sky" (What was the religion..., www).

Like other religions, Native American belief systems include many sacred narratives. Such spiritual stories are deeply based in Nature and are rich with the symbolism of seasons, weather, plants, animals, earth, water, sky and fire. The idea of an all powerful Great Spirit, a connection to the Earth, diverse creation narratives and collective memories of ancient ancestors are common. Traditional worship practices are often a part of tribal gatherings with dance, rhythm, songs and trance. Actual practices vary.

The Fifth World is either the present world, or the next world, in several Native American beliefs which centre around a cyclical understanding of time. According to both Native American Hopi mythology and Maya mythology, the current world we inhabit is the "Fourth World." In both belief systems, time is cyclical, and the end of one world is the beginning of the next. For the Hopi, the end of the fourth world is marked by the arrival of Pahana, or the lost "White Brother." The Maya calendar charts out this progression through astrology, concluding that the current, fourth world will end sometime near the December solstice in 2012 (dates vary based on interpretation).

The Aztecs held similar beliefs, but they believed we are currently in the fifth world, and that it is the sixth world that is to arrive next. The coming Fifth World (where our present World is presented as the Fourth) is said to arrive following a cycle in Nature affecting our entire Solar System, where our Earth births an Egg (Mystery Egg, Hidden Egg) and then moves "up" within our system to reach its crowning place. All of the Earth's life is then said to be "raised" to its perfected-eternal form. Some tribes refer to this period of change as "Purification Time." During this period of Purification, Time is said to change where we must choose between the natural Time we have now upon our Earth (meant for us) and an unnatural Time structure which removes us from Nature and our opportunity to reach the Fifth World. It is told that everyone will have to choose between the two Time frames – one leading to the Fifth World with our Earth, and the other (which will be very alluring, deceiving many) which will remove us from our Earth, taking us to oblivion.

Crow mythology is the belief system of the Crow tribe, Native Americans of the Great Plains area of the United States. The medicine people of the tribe are known as Akbaalia ("healer").

The Mannegishi, also called little people, are bald humanoids with large eyes and tiny bodies. They were tricksters and may be similar to fairies. They have supposedly been sighted in Massachusetts and are known there as Dover Demons.Baaxpee is a spiritual power that can cause a person to mature, as well as unusual events or circumstances that force maturation. After transformation, the changed are known as Xapaaliia. Andiciopec is a warrior hero who is invincible to bullets (Faiths & Beliefs of the native Americans, www).

So, it is stated that among North American peoples alone, eight different types of creation stories have been documented, with wide variations among them. All of these differ substantially from the creation stories of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In other words tribes maintained their own religions – worshipping gods, animals, plants, or sacred persons.

All the abovementioned tribal variations enter into Amerindian literature^[2]. The current consensus in determining what qualifies as Amerindian literature includes both works by Amerindians and about Amerindians.

One of the most popular areas, and that which is most often found in print, is that of Amerindian oral tradition. Indeed, it should be mentioned that unlike European cultures, North American peoples did not use a written alphabet, so there was no written literature among different Indian languages and tribal cultures that existed in North America before the first Europeans arrived. Theirs were oral cultures, relying on the spoken word – whether chanted, sung, or presented in lengthy narratives – and the memory of those words to preserve important cultural information.

The term literature comes from the Latin littera, “letter”. Native American literatures were not, until long after the arrival of the Europeans, written “littera-tures”. Indeed, as the phrase oral literature might appear to be a contradiction in terms, some have chosen to call the expressions of the oral tradition orature^[3]. These expressions were, like the languages, political economies, and religious beliefs of Amerindians, extremely various.

It should be noted that Amerindian literature can be subdivided into two categories: 1) fictional oral tradition (comprising folklore, mythology, contextual legends and complete fiction) and 2) historical oral tradition.

Amerindian folklore. Narratives^[4] from quasi-nomadic hunting cultures like the Navaho are different from stories of settled agricultural tribes such as the pueblo dwelling Acoma; the stories of northern lakeside dwellers such as the Ojibwa often differ radically from stories of desert tribes like the Hopi. So, one can distinguish some types of native Amerindian expressions (literature) as follows: Kwakiutl winter ceremonies^[5], Winnebago trickster tale^[6] cycles, Apache jokes^[7], Hopi personal naming and grievance chants^[8], Yaqui deer songs^[9], Yuman dream songs, Piman shamantic chants, Iroquois condolence rituals, Navajo curing and blessing chants, and Chippewa songs of the Great Medicine Society, to name only some of the types of Native American verbal expression.

The songs or poetry, like the narratives, range from the sacred to the light and humorous: There are lullabies, war chants, love songs, and special songs for children’s games, gambling, various chores, magic, or dance ceremonials. Generally the songs are repetitive. Short poem songs given in dreams sometimes have the clear imagery and subtle mood associated with Japanese haiku or Eastern-influenced imagistic poetry. A Chippewa song runs:

A loon I thought it was

But it was

My love’s

splashing oar.

Vision songs, often very short, are another distinctive form. Appearing in dreams or visions, sometimes with no warning, they may be healing, hunting, or love songs. Often they are personal, as in this Modoc song:

I

the song

I walk here.

Examples of almost every oral genre can be found in American Indian literature: lyrics^[10], chants, fairy tales^[11], humorous anecdotes^[12], incantations^[13], riddles^[14], proverbs^[15], epics^[16], and legendary histories^[17], accounts of migrations and ancestors abound, as do vision or healing songs and tricksters’ tales.

All the given genres are included into Amerindian folklore^[18], which being the category of cultural forms, usually embraces folk songs, folktales, legends^[19], riddles, jokes, proverbs, games, charms, omens, spells, and rituals, especially those of pre-literate societies or social classes.

Thus, you can see the variety of Amerindian folkloristic genres in the following scheme:

Amerindian mythology. Certain creation stories are particularly popular. In one well-known creation story, told with variations among many tribes, a turtle holds up the world. In a Cheyenne version, the creator, Maheo, has four chances to fashion the world from a watery universe. He sends four water birds diving to try to bring up earth from the bottom. The snow goose, loon, and mallard soar high into the sky and sweep down in a dive, but cannot reach bottom; but the little coot, who cannot fly, succeeds in bringing up some mud in his bill. Only one creature, humble Grandmother Turtle, is the right shape to support the mud world Maheo shapes on her shell – hence the Indian name for America, “Turtle Island”.

Contextual legends. These stories are often considered fictitious and of little or no historical value. This is because Western academia values empirical history whereas Amerindians value the context and meaning of the history over chronological and empirical accuracy. This fact is proven beyond doubt in the work itself. As an example, consider the book Black Elk Speaks which relates a cursory story of how the Sioux received the gift of the sacred pipe. If this story were printed separate it would fall under the auspices of fiction, or at best, folklore. At the end he comments, “This they tell, and whether it happened so or not I do not know; but if you think about it, you can see that it is true” (Neihardt, 5). It is clear that to Black Elk, as to many Amerindians, the actual event is not as important as what was gained by the teaching of the story. Thus, this type of literature should be moved from the category of fiction and the sub-category of mythology to a new category of contextual legend. This indicating that the story probably has some relation to an actual event, but has been fantasized based on the Amerindian values afore mentioned.

Complete fiction. Another type of story that would fit into this category is that of complete fiction. This kind of story is represented by L. Erdrich’s Tracks. This story is completely fiction, but the characters and character of the story have symbolic meaning that holds critical context for the Amerindian. For example; just prior to an encounter with a bear during the birth of a child the narrator says: “But it wasn’t until the afternoon of that second day that the stillness finally broke, and then, it was as if the Manitous all through the woods spoke through Fluer, loose, arguing. I recognized them. Turtle’s quavering scratch, the Eagle’s high shriek, Loon’s crazy bitterness, Otter, the howl of Wolf, Bear’s low rasp. Perhaps the bear heard Fluer calling and answered” (Erdrich, 59). Then, after the bear had been shot, the teller of the tale continues, “It barreled past me, crashed through the brush into the woods, and was not seen after. It left no trail either, so it could have been a spirit bear” (Erdrich, 60). It is significant that the bear is often associated with the guarding of spirits, and a birth is an appropriate setting for such an appearance. A comprehensive list of analogy is far beyond the scope of this paper. Suffice it to say that the book is replete with symbolism of this kind. In short, this story too meets the prescribed determinate in that it is the context and teaching that is the priority, the story serving as the conveyance.

The second form of Amerindian literature should be placed in a separate category of historical oral tradition. This is because there is little or no fantasy involved, but rather the account is considered a non-legendary account of the peoples past. Although symbolisms may be present in this type of account, they are limited to the same association as any descriptive name or term. Secondly, the emphasis is on the accounting of the event rather than context, much as Western history, but is a non-written record. A prime example of this form is demonstrated in the Lenape migration account^[20]. In this account the Lenape migrated South, along the Mississippi River until they came to the confluence of the Ohio River. There they ran into the fortified towns of a people, who through a series of events, became hostile toward the Lenape. In the mean time the Lenape say they became allied with the Iroquois, but that failed too. The Lenape wound up trapped on the Western bank of the Mississippi, but some managed to escape to the East where, after slipping between their two new foes, they established themselves along the Hudson River as the Alagonquin peoples. The remainders were likewise split into two groups who sired Western and Mid-Western groups (Hitakonanu’laxk, 4-10).

The above example is confirmed by the oral traditions of the Iroquois who also recount the coming of the Lenape and tell of their struggle with the Lenape. The only difference being that the confluence where the event took place was the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers (Rogers, 43). The settlements encountered were those of the Cherokee (Mooney, 14). Based on preliminary research, this would date the event between 1200 to 1400 AD and at the Cahokia site.

J. Hutchinson, an instructor at East Central College where he teaches Amerindian philosophy and history, mentions the following: "In my own experience I have heard a story told by Eastern Cherokee tribal elders of a time when “The People Who Sang Up the Sun” came to live with them. This story was also repeated by a Cherokee at the Koster site in Illinois in 1981 (Odyssey, 1981). Is it just coincidence that the Natchez refugees, who were of the Mississippian Platform Mound culture, had been living with the Cherokee in the latter quarter of the 18th century (Hudson, 122)? Without citing further evidence it is clear the Lenape account is an actual event and thus justifies it’s place as historical oral tradition" (Hutchinson, www).

Thus, the structure of Amerindian literature can be presented as follows:

As far as you can presume, there were some distinct literary variations in the Amerindian tribes. But still, despite some of them, it is possible to make a few generalizations.

1. Amerindian stories glow with reverence for nature as a spiritual as well as physical mother:

· nature is alive and endowed with spiritual forces;

· main characters may be animals or plants, often totems associated with a tribe, group, or individual.

The closest to the Indian sense of holiness in later American literature is Ralph Waldo Emerson’s transcendental “Over-Soul,” which pervades all of life.

2. The Mexican tribes revered the divine Quetzalcoatl, a god of the Toltecs and Aztecs, and some tales of a high god or culture were told elsewhere. However, there are no long, standardized religious cycles about one supreme divinity. The closest equivalents to Old World spiritual narratives are often accounts of shamans’ initiations and voyages.

3. There are stories about culture heroes such as the Ojibwa tribe’s Manabozho or the Navajo tribe’s Coyote. These tricksters are treated with varying degrees of respect. In one tale they may act like heroes, while in another they may seem selfish or foolish. Although past authorities, such as the Swiss psychologist C. Jung, have deprecated trickster tales as expressing the inferior, amoral side of the psyche, contemporary scholars – some of them Native Americans – point out that Odysseus and Prometheus, the revered Greek heroes, are essentially tricksters as well.

In conclusion, it should be mentioned that Amerindian oral tradition and its relation to American literature as a whole is one of the richest and least explored topics in American studies. Nevertheless, it is evident that the Amerindian contribution to America is greater than is often believed.

PROJECT TASKS

1. Answer the following questions:

· What is Amerindian background?

· What similarities and differences can we find in Amerindian tribes / nations’ economy and political organization?

· What is the essence of Amerindian religion?

· What is the general notion of oral tradition?

· What is the specifics of Amerindian orature and its variety of genres?

· What are the main themes, characters, and mythological figures?

2. Prepare the following topic, summarizing the given information:

· Amerindian literature: its peculiar features, genres.

Fulfill Test №1.

Test №1

The test consists of 8 tasks. It requires 3 minutes to solve it. Choose the right answer and tick it in the blank form.

1. Native Americans who were related to one another by a common ancestry formed:
a) nations	b) clans
c) cults	d) neighborhoods
2. Native American religious leaders were called:
a) chiefs	b) earth gods
c) priests	d) shamans
3. Buffalo were hunted by people who lived:
a) on the Plains	b) in the mountains
c) in the forests	d) in the Great Basin
4. The land bridge where historians think ancient people crossed from Asia to North America is located:
a) at the Bering Strait	b) in Siberia
c) in Alaska	d) near the Arctic Circle
5. These items, taken from birds, were usually accepted as marks of honor or sources of ideas. They were also symbols of the Creative Force.
a) beaks	b) feathers
c) claws	d) wings
6. This animal was considered an important spirit among most of the Northern tribes. It was responsible for sorrow and death, and was an omen of impending evil.
a) bear	b) raven
c) Eagle	d) coyote
7. According to the Iroquois, this woman fell from a hole in the sky and brought light to the world:
a) Sunwoman	b) Skywoman
c) Moonwoman	d) Cloudwoman
8. This bird is considered to be 'the master of the sky'. It is the carrier of prayers, venerated for its courage and wisdom.
a) condor	b) eagle
c) vulture	d) owl

Literature

1. Baldick C. Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

2. Catlin, George. North American Indians. Compiled by Peter Matthiessen. New York: Penguin Books, 1989.

3. Croft S., Cross H. Literature, Criticism, and Style. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

4. Eastman, Charles Alexander. The Soul of the Indian in Masterpieces of American Indian Literature. Willis G. Regier ed. New York: University of Nebraska, 1993.

5. Erdrich, Louise. Tracks. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1988.

6.Faiths & Beliefs of the native Americans // http://www.worldreligionday.org/faith/60-faiths-native-beliefs.

7. Hinnels J.R. A New Dictionary of Religions: Amerindian Religions // http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9780631181392_chunk_g97806311813922_ss1-59 (дата обращения 22.07.2011).

8. Hitakonanu’laxk. The Grandfathers Speak: Native American Folk Tales of the Lenape People. Brooklyn: Interlink Books, 1994.

9. Hudson, Charles. The Southeastern Indians. 7th ed. The University of Tennesser Press, 1994. First printing 1974.

10. McGee, Jon R. and Richard L. Warms. Anthropological Theory. London, Toronto, and Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1996.

11. Mooney, James. Myths of the Cherokee and Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees. 19th and 7th annual reports from the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institute, 1903. Nashville, Tenn.: Charles and Randy Elder-Booksellers Publishers, 1982.

12. Neihardt, John G. Black Elk Speaks. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1988. Reprint from 1932.

13. O’Connell, Barry. Forward in Song of the Sky. Brian Swann. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993.

14. Odyssey – The Mound Builders. Alton: VHS, Public Broadcasting Association, Cahokia Mounds Learning Center, 1981.

15. Ortner, Sherry B. “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?” 1974. In R. Jon McGee and Richard L. Warms, Anthropological Theory. London, Toronto, and Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1996.

16. Ried, John P. A Law of Blood: Primitive Law of the Cherokee Nation. New York: New York University Press, 1970.

17. Smith, John. History of Virginia. Date unknown. See March of America series.

18. Swann, Brian. Song of the Sky. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993.

19. Thomas Harriott: Amerindian Religion and Christianity // http://blogs.dickinson.edu/archive/?p=5084.

20. Thomas, Cyrus. Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology. Washington D. C.: Smithsonian Institute, 1894. Washington D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985.

21. VanSpanckeren K. Outline of American Literature. Revised Edition // http://usinfo.state.gov.

22. VanSpanckeren K. U.S.A. Literature in Brief // http://usinfo.state.gov/.

23. Vega, The Inca Garcilaso de la. The Florida of the Inca. Madrid, 1590. Translated by Varner, John Grier, and Jeanette Johnson Varner. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 1962.

24.Waugh P. Literary Theory and Criticism: An Oxford Guide. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

25. Westernizing Amerindians: Perpetuating the myth. A position by James Hutchison 12/98 // http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/memorial/68/nalit.html (дата обращения 22.07.2011).

26. What was the religion on the Amerindians // http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_was_the_religion_of_the_Amerindians#ixzz1Sor1zebb.

MODULE 2

AMERICAN TRAVEL LITERATURE

OF PRE-COLUMBIAN

AND COLUMBIAN PERIODS

MODULE 2