The universal themes of individualism, self-reliance, and slavery became the building blocks responsible for the creation of a uniquely American literary voice. ... Philip Freneau genuinely portrayed the American individual in his poetry and helped to develop themes that were uniquely American. ... James Fenimore Cooper, author of The Leather-Stocking Tales, embraced this new literary convention and created his own American voice through the character of Natty Bumpo. ... Emerson took up the cause with the theme of self-reliance, also a uniquely American voice. ... The universal themes of indi...

• Word Count: 1207
• Approx Pages: 5

Olaudah Equiano's Interesting Narrative is a wonderful piece of literary work. ... Throughout Equiano's story there many different "sub-themes" such as the reversal of fortunes and the obvious theme that slavery should be abolished. ... It is very interesting that the theme of fortune reversal appears in the story because Equiano says that his name, in his native tongue, means "fortunate"(44). ... The fact that slavery needs to be abolished and that Africans are capable of establishing civilized societies are the central themes in Equiano's narrative. These two themes...

• Word Count: 770
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

The book has to main themes, "Remembering the Past" and "Reinventing the Present.... In "Remembering the Past," Iyunolu Osagie studies the Amistad story as a literary trope in African American prose, poetry, and drama, and as an historical event that influenced the political and racial landscape of the United States. ... In "Reinventing the Present," Iyunolu Osagie connects the collective literary and cultural memory of Diaspora African in drama and art as an representation into the politics of identity and the reconstruction of black identity in the African Diaspora and Sierra ...

• Word Count: 725
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Wheatley is known for writing poetry with a dominant influence of religious and moral themes. ... Robert Hayden uses his extensive knowledge of literature to make a new genre of slave poetry, but all of them recognized the effectiveness of irony as a literary device. ...

• Word Count: 846
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

As do proverbs, African American folktales have origins rooted in West African literary and cultural forms of expression. ... Africa has a long literary tradition, although very little of this literature was written down until the 20th century. ...

• Word Count: 2075
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

Aphra Behn is a complicated figure within English theatrical history. As the first woman in England to classify herself as a professional writer and playwright, she wrote to support herself and to prove a point during a time when women were deemed subordinate to men. She was a commoner among royals, revolting against the societal norms of her time with her vulgar, yet ingeniously crafty works. Behn's influence extends far beyond being just a writer of her time period; rather, she left a mark as a pillar of English literature. She was an adventurist, an abolitionist, feminist, and civil r...

• Word Count: 2238
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Having been portrayed in literary criticism as a giant fish, a grotesque monster, an American Indian, an African slave, his incarnation changes from "a savage and a deformed slave" to the "quintessential colonial victim". ...

• Word Count: 2369
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The novel, Robinson Crusoe, written by Daniel Defoe and first published in 1719, is an important literary piece of the Enlightenment period, as it expresses the Enlightenment themes of individualism, exploration and the rejection of authority. ...

• Word Count: 2166
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Kabnis, the final section of Cane replicates all of the themes found in parts one and two, however, it manages to achieve a sense of symbolic unity despite the fragmentation of the main character Ralph Kabnis. ...

• Word Count: 3347
• Approx Pages: 13