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Literature of the Civil War

Literature of the Civil War. The War’s Impact on Literature. Up to and during the Civil War, writers shifted from Romanticism to Realism in response to the cultural and social forces affecting the nation. Depictions of slavery—slave narratives—became a popular form (Frederick Douglass)

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Literature of the Civil War

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  1. Literature of the Civil War

  2. The War’s Impact on Literature • Up to and during the Civil War, writers shifted from Romanticism to Realism in response to the cultural and social forces affecting the nation. • Depictions of slavery—slave narratives—became a popular form (Frederick Douglass) • Stirred Northern sympathies • Infuriated Southern planters • Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell: one of the most famous novels in American history; about the war and set during Reconstruction

  3. Realism (1865-1915) • Civil War brings demand for a "truer" type of literature that doesn't idealize people or places • People in society defined by "class"; materialism • Reflect ideas of Darwin (survival of the fittest) and Marx (how money and class structure control a nation) • Style • Realism • a reaction against romanticism; told it like it was • focus on lives of ordinary people; rejected heroic and adventurous • anti-materialism; rejected the new "class" system • view of nature as a powerful and indifferent force beyond man's control

  4. Realism: Major Writers • The Civil War (1855-1865) • Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) • The most famous woman of her day • Uncle Tom's Cabin: most influential book of the 19th Century; 1st to sell 1 mil. copies • one of the most effective documents of propaganda; helped fuel the Civil War Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) • an escaped slave; one of the most effective orators of his day • influential newspaper writer; militant abolitionist; diplomat • autobiography an instant and enduring classic of courage

  5. Other Works influenced by War The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain Drum-Taps, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d, Walt Whitman The Red Badge of Courage, Stephen Crane

  6. Spirituals Also called “sorrow songs” Rooted in traditional African music Often referred to stories from the Bible about captivity (Israelites in Egypt) Sometimes contained “codes” so that slaves could communicate escape plans Influenced blues and jazz music

  7. Spirituals “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” “Go Down, Moses” “Keep Your Hand on the Plow”

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