How the American Literary Tradition Influences Our AP Literature Essay Topics

How the American Literary Tradition Influences Our AP Literature Essay TopicsMany students find that as they move through their AP Literature essay that they begin to lose sight of the kinds of essay topics that they were learning in high school. They are, for the most part, no longer learning about American literature as they were in high school. Instead, they are learning about how their own generation lives their lives and the lives of their students' generation are discussed.As this is happening, we should consider what our teachers used to be teaching us about the American literary tradition. I would like to suggest three basic areas of literature that students should have a lot of exposure to in order to fully grasp the genre. At the very least, these should make for interesting topics for your AP Literature essays.We begin with one of the most famous works of literature, William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, as it was written around the time of the Great Depression and in cludes themes from the economic depression. Again, we should think about this type of writing as being representative of the period in which it was written and not too critical of anyone but a writer like Faulkner. And we should consider that even the poets of the period did not truly think that everything was fine all the time.Following the depression, there was a period of growth in the American literary community, especially during the period of the twentieth century. This includes works such as Joyce's Ulysses, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, and Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms. What makes this genre so fascinating is that the work of these great writers of the era can be easily forgotten if they are just one of those essays on American literature that we read from grade school to college. We should remember that even the great writers could be flawed human beings just like us.An important piece of literature is also a biography, especially if we consider that particular type of writing as being representative of the era. For example, Susan Sontag wrote a book about this topic and we should consider that she did not write this after the twentieth century. She probably had personal experience in the first half of the twentieth century and her personal experiences were a part of the writing of this particular book.We should also look at other genres of literature and find some key differences between these and the American literary tradition. For example, if we are talking about film or even television, we need to take into account the way they represent the past in a way that is also representative of the present. For instance, television shows such as Murder, She Wrote or Heroes often incorporate literary elements into their stories to represent how things were done at the time.Still, we need to remember that there is still a deep influence from the American literary tradition in the types of writings that we are reading and discussing in high school. For e xample, we often find references to American literature in writing such as The New Yorker where writing has many references to art and style in its articles. We also have MFA programs in America that are heavily influenced by American literature in their curriculum.These three areas of literature are the most important areas of the American literary tradition. By taking some time to remember these influences, we can use them to illustrate how important the great American writers of the past were to us today. We should remember that even these writers fell short of providing us with a complete picture of their era and we do not necessarily need to blame their generation for this fact.