American Society and Literature

Immigration 1820-1978

Irish Immigration to the United States. 1717 – XX century.
1846 – 1855: 1,442,000
1856 – 1865: 582,400
1866 – 1875: 645,700
Literature of Irish Immigration:
- Pre-famine generation (1780-1845)
- Famine generation (1845-1875)
- Third generation (1875- 1925)

XX century Irish Literature
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) - This Side of Paradise; The Great Gatsby; The Beautiful and Damned
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (1888 – 1953) - Anna Christie; The Hairy Ape; Beyond the Horizon; The Iceman Cometh; A Long Day's Journey into Night
Flannery O'Connor (1925 - 1964) - Wise Blood; The Violent Bear It Away; short stories

Contemporary Irish-American Literature
James T. Farrell (1904-1979): Studs Lonigan trilogy (1932 – 1935), Chicago Stories
Edwin O’Connor: The Last Hurrah (1948)
William Kennedy (1928 - ): Ironweed (1983), Cotton Club (1986), Quinn’s Book (1988)

Literature at the turn of the century
Late 19th century – romanticism and new realism (Mark Twain, Frank Norris, Stephen Crane, Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, Bret Harte)
Early 20th century
Roaring 20s, Jazz Age
Great Depression, 30s

African Americans Today.
The making of African Americans in a white America
African American Literature:
Native Son, Richard Wright;
The Street, Ann Petry;
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Another Country, James Baldwin
White “African” Literature – To Kill a Mocking Bird, Harper Lee

American 50-60s
Civil Rights Act; Black Freedom
Vietnam?
The Rise and Fall of the Great Society
The Making of a Youth Culture
No Cease-Fire: 1969-1974
60s literature

Asian Americans
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Chinatowns Today
Chinese American Literature (Amy Tan, Collection of Chinese American Short Stories)
The Wartime Japanese Evacuation
Japanese American Short Stories

American Society
What is it that holds a nation together?
“Two elements that define a nation are the desire on the part of the inhabitants to be governed together and the “common sympathy” installed by shared history, values and language”. (John Stuart Mill )

1500

1790

1880

1940

2000

Minority Group with highest percent of county population

2050(projected)

Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America (1835-1840)
A systematic study of the links between democracy and civil society
democracy could exist only by seeking a moral support in religion, and that religion could only prosper by accommodating itself to democracy
the Americans' inclination for civic association impressed as the key to their unprecedented ability to make democracy work.

Effectiveness of the regional governments
Voter turnout; newspaper readership; membership in choral societies and football clubs, etc.
"social capital" refers to features of social organization such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit

Society
Church-related groups - the most common type of organization joined by Americans, especially popular with women.
Women: school-service groups (mostly parent-teacher associations), sports groups, professional societies, and literary societies.
Men: sports clubs, labor unions, professional societies, fraternal groups, veterans' groups, and service clubs.

Religion
Religious affiliation - the most common associational membership among Americans. America continues to be a "churched" society: the U.S. - more houses of worship per capita than any other nation on Earth. Religious sentiment seems to be less tied to institutions and more self-defined.

Dominant and minority groups
Dominant groups use their power to manipulate minority groups using better organization, equipment, access to superior technologies.
Authority is the power that becomes legitimated.
Dominant groups dominate the institutional structure of the society (political system, economic system and cultural values of the society).
Dominant groups control access to the opportunity structure of the society.

Minority group
Numbers: they are fewer in the society. Sometimes they are majority in population (Afro-Americans, women).
They are held up in power – relative powerlessness. Black movements resulted ultimately in success, Hispanics movements now have a different character.
Lack of access to the institutional structure of the society.

Minority Group
Lack of access to money, high-status position and reward system.
African-Americans earn 60% of what Whites earn; women earn 75% of what men can earn.
Women neuro-surgeons earn 55% of men in the same position. Black physician earns 60% of white physician.

Minority Group
Cultural values. Minority culture is seen as inferior, but in many cases white majority tries to acquire music, fashion, eating habits, etc. from minorities. Cultural theft. The only unique musical contribution of America – jazz – started from black music. But dominant group determines the reality.

Prejudice and discrimination
Racism – is institutionalized discrimination based on physical differences between minority and dominant groups.
Racist ideologies provide a moral justification for maintaining the society that routinely deprives a group of its rights and privileges.
Racist beliefs relieve the dominant group of responsibility to address the economic and educational problems faced by subordinate groups.

Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice – a negative attitude toward an entire category of people. Prejudice involves attitudes, thoughts, beliefs, not actions.
Prejudice categorical rejection.
Discrimination involves behavior that excludes all members of a group from certain rights, opportunities, or privileges. It is categorical. It is action.

Prejudice and Stereotypes
Prejudice is learned. Awareness begins at an early age.
The content of prejudice: stereotypes.
Stereotypes are unreliable generalizations about all members of a group that do not take individual differences into account.
Trends in stereotypes – labeling of individuals