Unit 1

Unit 1. Language and communication. Communicative and linguistic competence. Approaches that study communicative processes.

1.

INTRODUCTION.

While While ther theree has has alre alread ady y be been en much much deba debate te abou aboutt ling lingui uisti sticc comp compet eten ence ce and and communicative competence in the second and foreign language teaching literature, the result has always been the consideration of communicative competence as a superior model of  language following Hymes’ opposition to Chomsky’s linguistic competence. This opposition has been adopted by those who seek new directions toward a communicative era by taking for granted the basic motives and the appropriacy of this opposition behind the development of communicative competence. 2.

3.

THE THE AME AMERI RICA CAN N WAR WAR OF IN INDE DEPE PEND NDEN ENCE CE (177 (1775 5 – 178 1783) 3)

3.1. The Declaration Declaration of independence. . The declaration sets a list of grievances with George III that justified the breaking of  ties between the colonies and the mother country.

4.

THE BIRTH OF A NATION.

 When the war of Independence was over, individual states began to behave more and more like independent nations; tax barriers were often imposed between neighbouring states and there were frequent conflicts. The weakness of its government made it difficult for the new United States to win the respect or the help of foreign nations. So they needed to form a country with a common identity and policy  In view of the situation obvious changes were necessary in the  Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, Union, 1777. 1777 . These articles stated that each state could remain sovereign and independent retaining all the right not expressly granted to the federal government, each state having one vote in congress. These articles failed to link the states together to form a country. 1

Unit 46. The historical development of the United States of America: from the War of Independence to the Civil War. Main reference novels: The Scarlett Letter and The Red Badge of courage.

Finally, these articles were replaced in 1789 by the Constitution of the United States. Thomas Jefferson was responsible for this document, he was influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment. The application of the constitution brings about the formation of two political parties: Federalist, who believed in a strong federal government, and Republicans,  who wanted a strong local government. George Washington was elected the 1st president of the United States. Not only   was a new nation born, but also a new democratic ideal, the "American Dream": the dream of  a land in which life should be better, richer and fuller for every man with opportunities for each according to his abilities and achievements (amendments of the Bill of Rights).

4.1. American imperialism, Monroe Doctrine. In 1816 Monroe was elected president, this time is known as “the era of good feeling”. Monroe defended American neutrality, that is, the United States would not interfere in the internal affairs or the wars of European countries and in turn opposed European intervention in the American continent. Expansion westward increased at this time. In the 19th century eastern settlers kept pushing the frontier westward. So they stopped being thirteen colonies. Soon, Louisiana was purchased from the French; and Texas, New Mexico,  Arizona and California were obtained from war. 5.

CIVIL WAR (1861 – 1865)

The American civil war was fought between the northern and southern states from 1861 to 1865. 5.1. Causes. There are two main causes of the war. The first is the issue of states rights. That is whether the federal government should be more powerful than the individual states. The major functions of the government were performed on the state or local level. So, there were few  social institutions such as churches, political parties. Only a shared memory of the founding fathers tied the country together The other issue that divided American society was slavery. Although in 1808 Jefferson abolishes the foreign slave trade he did not interfere with the internal slave trade. The conflict grew with the condemnation of slavery of the president Abraham Lincoln in 1860,  who was rejected by the Southern states. The north and the south were very different in character. The economy of the south  was based on agriculture, especially in cotton, and they depended on slaves for this. However 2

Unit 46. The historical development of the United States of America: from the War of Independence to the Civil War. Main reference novels: The Scarlett Letter and The Red Badge of courage.

the north was more industrial, it had a larger population and a greater wealth. The abolitionists increased in number. The south’s attitude is that each state had the right to make any law it wanted. Many southerners became secessionists believing that southern states should secede from the Union, that is, become independent from the US In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president and as he was against slavery, southern states began to leave the union. In 1860 there were 34 states in the US, 11 of them left the union and formed the Confederate States of America. They adopted Richmond in  Virginia as capital and their president was Jefferson Davis. 5.2. Four years fighting. The North was commanded by General Grant and the South by General Lee. In 1865 Southern forces had surrendered. In a speech in 1863 Lincoln said that the North was fighting the war to keep the union together. In the same year he issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which made slavery  illegal. General Robert Lee surrendered in Virginia in 1865. Six days later, an actor who supported the south decided to kill President Lincoln and shot him. In 1870 the last three southern states were admitted to the union again. In 1877 northern army left the South. The  war lasted four years, but efforts to reunite the country took three times as long.

5.3. Consequences.  After the war the Union had been preserved and the slaves had been freed, but the economy of the south had been devastated. Plantations had been destroyed and fortunes lost, so, the bitterness and hatred lasted for many years. The difficult period that followed the war  was called Reconstruction. And the new unified nation with economic growth and widening opportunities was to attract millions of emigrants form all over Europe and led to a period of  prosperity. Again literature has also mirrored the civil war. A novel that was recognized as a very  important study of a soldier in the Civil War was The Red Badge of Courage written by  Stephen Crane. The book tells the story of Henry Fleming, a raw Union recruit in the  American Civil War.

6.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-64) was born in Salem, Massachussets, into a prominent Puritan family whose ancestors were among the earliest settlers of the colony. He grew up isolated, having lost his father at the age of four. After attending College he resolved to 3

Unit 46. The historical development of the United States of America: from the War of Independence to the Civil War. Main reference novels: The Scarlett Letter and The Red Badge of courage.

 become a writer. He was so ashamed of his gothic first novel, Fanshawe, that he destroyed the unsold copies. He was happier with his short stories, published first in an annual gift book and later collected in Twice-Told Tales, in 1837.  When he was 45, he produced his first significant long work of fiction, The Scarlet Letter (1850). The House of the Seven Gables (1851), and The Blithedale Romance (1852). He published his final novel, The Marble Faun in 1860. The biggest part of Hawthorne’s work takes America’s puritan past but “The Scarlet letter” uses the material to greatest effect. In “the Scarlet Letter” repressive an authoritarian Puritan society is an analogue for humankind in general

6.1. The Scarlet Letter. PLOT: This book opens with a long preamble about how the book came to be written. The nameless narrator discovered a manuscript that was bundled with a scarlet letter, a cloth in the shape of an “A”. This manuscript narrates events that happened two hundred years  before the narrator’s time. Boston in the 17th century, barricaded against the real threats, moral and social, latent in sea (Europe) and forest (the Western wilderness). Hester Prynne has been charged with adultery. She and her young baby stand exposed on the public scaffold and she must thereafter wear a scarlet letter 'A' (for 'adulterous') on her breast as a lifelong sign of her sin. Her husband, an elderly English scholar, had sent her ahead of him to prepare a home for them, but had been captured by Indians and in fact arrives just in time to see his wife publicly condemned. Hester's lover is Arthur Dimmesdale, a highly respected young minister. Hester will not reveal his identity, and he, although a highly conscientious man, does not dare admit his guilt and is inwardly tormented by sin. Hester remains in the community and proves to be a strong minded and capable woman who finds a place in Boston society by helping other unfortunates and outcasts. Pearl, Hester and Arthur's daughter, has developed into a mischievous child who reminds Hester of her guilt by asking questions about the minister and the letter. Hester's husband has settled in Boston as a doctor under the assumed name of Roger Chillingworth. He makes her swear to keep his identity secret and tries to find out the identity of her lover. He guesses correctly and, aware that Dimmesdale's failing health is related to his unconfessed sin, Chillingworth pretends to help him medically, while torturing him spiritually with veiled allusions to his crime. Hester begs Arthur Dimmesdale to escape with her to Europe, but he refuses, seeing flight as yielding to further temptation. Hester learns that Chillingworth has booked passage 4

Unit 46. The historical development of the United States of America: from the War of Independence to the Civil War. Main reference novels: The Scarlett Letter and The Red Badge of courage.

on the same ship, thus blocking her plan of escape. Eventually, Dimmesdale, tormented by  Chillingworth, publicly confesses his sin and dies. Hester and Pearl leave Boston.  After some time, Hester voluntary returns to Boston, still carrying the scarlet letter and carries a life of penance and victory over sin, while Pearl settles in Europe.  ANALYSIS: The narrator follows an old manuscript drawn up from the verbal testimony of individuals, some of whom had known Hester Prynne, while others had heard the tale from contemporary witnesses. The Scarlet Letter is set some two centuries before the time of its writing, in Boston of 

the 1640s. The background of the story is the theological and moral climate of the 1840s, an optimistic one, impatient of restraint and authority, expansive. It is the spirit of the gold rush, the Manifest Destiny, the call to "Go West, Young Man", and feminism. The writers of this time found their themes in the complex relationship between the  Americans and America; the old problems of nature and survival, wilderness and civilization. The strict Calvinism of the 18 th century which had seen the signs of God everywhere gave way  to Unitarianism, which believed in a benevolent God. From this doctrine sprang transcendentalism, which eliminated formal religion and allowed each person a higher sense of nature. Nathaniel Hawthorne was obsessed about the history of the past and his narrative investigated the repercussions of the harsh puritan treatment of sin, blame and condemnation. The complexity of The Scarlet Letter lies on its play upon the vast differences between the intellectual climates of 17th and 19th New England. Hester represents the 'natural liberty' in conflict with Puritan theocracy and its restrictive cruelty. Natural liberty had been condemned as incompatible with authority, truth and peace, and likened to 'a wild beast  which all the ordinances of God are bent against, to restrain and subdue it.' The literal and symbolic are intertwined and indivisible. The wilderness is a moral  wilderness, the setting for Hester's and Dimmesdale's adultery where they meet twice: the first time to commit adultery, the second one to plan their escape. The town is civilization, the province of God's law, where the scaffold dominates the scene, a pillory which presides the beginning of the narrative (Hester bearing the full force of her punishment), its exact middle (Dimmesdale speaking out in the secrecy of night), and its end (his final confession and death). To the extent that she is herself a Puritan, Hester regards her action as sinful, and  willingly atones and repents for it; but her adultery was also an expression of her longing for a freedom ultimately absolute. Unlike Hester, Dimmesdale is incapable of psychological survival outside the Puritan law. A man subject to passionate impulse, he needs for himself the rule of iron. He is unable to confess, owing to a mixture of plain cowardice and a rationalized loyalty to his ministry; his torture is the more painful because of the veneration in which he is held by his 5

Unit 46. The historical development of the United States of America: from the War of Independence to the Civil War. Main reference novels: The Scarlett Letter and The Red Badge of courage.

parishioners. His hypocrisy drives him to the brink of lunacy, beyond the will to live. Doomed on earth, he confesses, but not looking for redemption.  Yet, it is probably Chillingworth who should be more damned, since it is not passion  which glides him, but hatred. In his systematic destruction of Dimmesdale, hypocrisy and self-consuming revenge, Chillingworth epitomizes all that Hawthorne found most villainous. Pearl is an ambiguous figure, at times innocent or smiling with malice. She’s a child of sin, daughter of the devil for their contemporary Puritans, a child of nature for the 19 th century romanticism. She has an instinctive moral awareness. On leaving for Europe, marrying there and becoming a mother, she sends back a gleam of joy and hope amidst the gloom. “The Scarlet Letter” is a moral allegory, and thus falls within the Puritan tradition. The scarlet letter, for instance, appears in different places apart from Hester's breast: inscribed upon the expanse of the night sky, as seen by Dimmesdale, or on his breast.

7.

STEPHEN CRANE.

Stephen Crane (1871-1900) was the son of a Methodist minister. He belonged to a prosperous family. He worked as a journalist for the Tribune and the  Herald  in New York  City. His first novel was Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, a story of the slums of New York  City. But not until The Red Badge of Courage did he acquire international fame. His work  as a journalist took him to the Greece and Cuba as a war correspondent. When Crane wrote “The Red Badge of Courage / An Episode of the American Civil War”, he had had no experience of war. So Crane’s greatest work is a product of his imagination since he never fought in war not witnessed a battle. This novel shattered American preconceptions about what a war novel could be. Before Crane’s novel, war was an idealistic conflict, a clash of opposed ideals. However Crane didn’t give an epic view, he focused on the psychology of the individual. He presents Henry’s mind as a maze of illusions, vanity and romantic naïveté, challenged by the hard lessons of war Initially he was not well received in the United States, but he had a massive success in England. He published volumes of poetry as well as many works of fiction, including Open Boat.

7.1. The Red Badge of Courage. PLOT: During the civil war, a Union regiment. A tall soldier named Jim Conklin spreads a rumour that the army will soon march. Henry Fleming, a recent recruit, worries 6

Unit 46. The historical development of the United States of America: from the War of Independence to the Civil War. Main reference novels: The Scarlett Letter and The Red Badge of courage.

about his courage. Henry joined the army because he was drawn to the glory of military  conflict. At last the regiment is given orders to march; they approach a battlefield and begin to hear conflict. Henry fires mechanically. The blue (Union) regiment defeats the grey  (Confederate). But the enemy is again charging. Terror overtakes him this time and he flees from the line. Ashamed of his cowardice, Henry tries to convince himself that he was right to preserve his own life. He wanders through a forest in which he encounters the corpse of a soldier.  After a time, Henry joins a column of wounded soldiers. He is envious of these men, thinking that a wound is like “a red badge of courage”; visible proof of valorous behaviour. He meets a tattered man who has been shot twice and who repeatedly asks Henry where he is  wounded, which makes Henry deeply uncomfortable and compels him to hurry away. He meets a badly wounded Jim Conklin. Henry promises to take care of Jim, but Jim runs from the line into a small grove of bushes where Henry and the tattered man watch him die. The tattered soldier continues to ask Henry about his wound. At last, Henry abandons him to die in the forest. One fleeing men hits him on the head with a rifle, opening a bloody gash on Henry’s head. A soldier leads Henry to his regiment’s camp, where Henry is reunited with his companions. His friend  Wilson, believing that Henry has been shot, cares for him tenderly. Back with his regiment, in the heat of battle, he picks up the regiment's colours and leads the charge. He has become a hero. He feels ashamed of his behaviour the previous day, especially  his abandonment of the tattered man. But after a moment, he puts his guilt behind him and realizes that he has come through “the red sickness” of battle.  ANALYSIS: In “The Red Badge of Courage”·, a young man sets off to war not knowing what will happen to him in battle or how he will react. As the novel opens, Henry ’s understanding of  courage is traditional and romantic. Within the novel’s first chapter, Henry recalls his mother’s advice. She instructs him to meet his responsibilities, even if it means sacrificing his own life. As the mature Henry marches victoriously from battle, a more complex understanding of courage emerges: it is not simply other people’s opinions, but it does incorporate egocentric concerns. The opening of the novel records how Fleming joined the Union army in a spirit of  romantic exultation. He had always thrilled to the idea of war, but had come to believe that martial glory was a thing of the past. Now, with the coming of the Civil War, there is after all to be an opportunity for glory. Life in the Union army, however, quickly shatters such romantic illusions. At first all is monotony; then, when conflict seems near, there is only  rumour and counter-rumour. Henry's dreams of heroism quickly fade.   Another important topic is Self-Preservation. The traditional image of man converted by war into an animal fighting for its survival grows here out of a naturalistic  vision in which man's place in the universe is not different from that of the rest of the animal  world, and man too is engaged in a brutal Darwinian struggle for survival. An anxious desire 7

Unit 46. The historical development of the United States of America: from the War of Independence to the Civil War. Main reference novels: The Scarlett Letter and The Red Badge of courage.

for self-preservation influences Henry throughout the novel. When a pinecone makes a squirrel scurry, he believes that he has stumbled upon a universal truth: each being running from danger, in order to preserve itself. He uses it to justify his retreat from the battlefield. He not only runs from battle, but also abandons the tattered soldier. Later, Henry discovers the corpse of a soldier. This sets realization that the world is largely indifferent to his life and the questions that preoccupy him. So he realises that nature and the whole universe is indifferent to what happens to him. The squirrel and the dead soldier serve as powerful reminder of the universe’s indifference to human life. There’s a positive reading of the novel: a young man finds his youthful illusions shattered by contact with the harshness of reality; almost destroyed, he survives to acquire a new maturity of understanding and acceptance. However, the final images sound like tired clichés. Henry's redemption is wholly dependent on his wound, without which, he would have been branded a cowardly deserter. The wound is not received in circumstances of  courage, heroism, but in a moment of confusion and panic.   While Henry has come through in some sense, he has successfully reintegrated himself into the society of his regiment and army; he has learned to adjust to the reality that surrounds him. But the rage that makes Henry lead the successful charge, that makes him a hero, is no more or less a purely animal impulse than the panic and fear that had earlier driven him to ignominious flight. He is deceiving himself.

8.

CONCLUSION.

This unit covers one of the most important periods in the history of the USA, the period from the War of Independence to the American Civil War. It constitutes a period in which the foundations of the nation were laid, notably its constitution, and in which the USA expanded  westwards to the Pacific coast. It is also the period in which this particularly solid union of  states was most severely tested when the southern states, who favoured slavery, broke away  from the Union. This act led to the American Civil War, the 19th century's bloodiest war. It’s therefore a period which helps us to understand much about the present-day US, its federal government, its racial problems and the strong moral and liberal beliefs of its people. 9. • •

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BIBLIOGRAPHY.

CUNLIFFE, M. 1954. The Literature of the United States HIGH, P. B. 1986. An Outline of American Literature

Unit 46. The historical development of the United States of America: from the War of Independence to the Civil War. Main reference novels: The Scarlett Letter and The Red Badge of courage.

10.

Presidents of the United States.

1. George Washington, 1789-1797 2. John Adams, 1797-1801 3. Thomas Jefferson, 1801-1809 4. James Madison, 1809-1817 5. James Monroe, 1817-1825 6. John Quincy Adams, 1825-1829 7.  Andrew Jackson, 1829-1837 8. Martin Van Buren, 1837-1841 9.  William Henry Harrison, 1841 10. John Tyler, 1841-1845 11. James Knox Polk, 1845-1849 12. Zachary Taylor, 1849-1850 13. Millard Fillmore, 1850-1853 14. Franklin Pierce, 1853-1857 15. James Buchanan, 1857-1861 16. Abraham Lincoln, 1861-1865 17.  Andrew Johnson, 1865-1869 18. Ulysses Simpson Grant, 1869-1877 19. Rutherford Birchard Hayes, 1877-1881 20. James Abram Garfield, 1881 21. Chester Alan Arthur, 1881-1885 22. Grover Cleveland, 1885-1889 23. Benjamin Harrison, 1889-1893

24. Grover Cleveland, 1893-1897 25. William McKinley, 1897-1901 26. Theodore Roosevelt, 1901-1909 27. William Howard Taft, 1909-1913 28. Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921 29. Warren Gamaliel Harding, 1921-1923 30. Calvin Coolidge, 1923-1929 31. Herbert Clark Hoover, 1929-1933 32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933-1945 33. Harry S. Truman, 1945-1953 34. Dwight David Eisenhower 1953-1961 35. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 1961-1963 36. Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1963-1969 37. Richard Milhous Nixon, 1969-1974 38. Gerald Rudolph Ford, 1974-1977 39. James Earl Carter, Jr., 1977-1981 40. Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1981-1989 41. George Herbert Walker Bush, 19891993 42. William Jefferson Clinton, 1993-2001 43. George Walker Bush, 2001-2009 44. Barack Hussein Obama, 2009-

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