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Unit 3
The
Literature of Reason and Revolution
(1700-1783)
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The
writer who really opens the story of American literature was, typically,
far more a Jack-of-all trades than a man of letters. Benjamin Franklin was
outstanding as a tradesman, citizen, scientist, statesman and political
revolutionary. His uncompleted autobiography is perhaps the first real
post revolutionary American writing as well as the first autobiography in
English. It stops at the years 1758 so that actually it describes only the
early less extraordinary part of his life. Nevertheless it gives us a
remarkably vivid picture of an active, self-reliant, confident, curious
and reasonable individual who took completely for granted the great value
of both useful productivity and personal prosperity. This model was so
unquestionably accepted by the vast majority of his countrymen that in his
last years and for a generation after his death, Franklin was probably
more often referred to as
¡°the father of his country¡±
than was George Washington himself. |
Born the
tenth of fifteen children in a poor candle and soap maker¡¯s
family, he had to leave school before he was eleven. At twelve he was
apprenticed to an older brother, a printer in
Boston.
He contributed secretly to his brother/s newspaper under the pseudonym
¡°Silent
Dogood.¡±
At 17 he ran away to Philadelphia, there he worked for a number of
printers, then increased his skills during 2 years in England and finally
set up his own printing press in Philadelphia, which became famous as the
publisher of the annual Poor Richard¡¯s
Almanac.
The emphasis
on commercial success in these almanacs explains why Franklin has come
down in American history as the perfect representative of the American
Dream of
¡°rags
to riches.¡± His sayings do stress the importance of working hard to make
money and saving to reinvest it to make more. He did accept the idea that
happiness depended in the first place on economic success and
optimistically believed that this was within the grasp of any normal
American who worked hard, lived modestly and remained alert to seize every
opportunity for practical advancement. He was also convinced that no man
could be virtuous or happy unless he did his best to improve the life of
his society as well as his own life.
Readings:
The Autobiography on pp.20-23.
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Thomas Paine(1737-1809), the Most Persuasive Rhetorician of the Cause for
Independence
Pain
was born in England, the son of a staymaker. In 1774, at the age of 37, he
was recognized by Franklin because of his peculiar talents, and made his
way to Philadelphia, where he edited the Pennsylvania Magazine owned and
published by Franklin. In 1776, his famous pamphlet Common Sense
came out, bringing the separatist agitation to a crisis. Thereafter he
became the most articulate spokesman of the American Revolution. His chief
contribution was a series of sixteen pamphlets entitled The American
Crisis. |
Other works
by Thomas Paine include Rights of Man, The Age of Reason,
and a tretise Agrarian Justice.
Readings:
The American Crisis (p.31)
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President
of the U.S., first Secretary of State, and Minister to France, Governor of
Virginia, and Congress, Thomas Jefferson once said that he wished to be
remembered for only three things: drafting the Declaration of
Independence, writing and supporting the Virginia Statute for Religious
Freedom, and founding the University of Virginia.
Readings: The
Declaration of Independence on p. 37.
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