Good Essay About Such Is A Great PRécis Of The Impact Poe’s Work Had On The American Literature.

Humanism can be defined as the view of life that correspond human nature. Humanist had a significant effect on literature and education at large. Burton and Dennis (98) note the humanists believed that education stimulated creative powers in a person. Humanist supported studying literature, grammar, history, poetry, music, astronomy, and mathematics. They also promoted the concept of a renaissance man who was gifted both physically and intellectually. Early humanists espoused a return to study on the original texts and did not rely on the commentaries that were produced by scholasticists. The essay therefore seeks to analyze humanism as the most modern idea that has been exposed in the class so far.
Edgar Poe, as discussed by Perry (201) is an significant figure and a humanist of the American literature. In his writing, Poe has influenced other authors like Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Arguably, the subject matter of Poe’s writing was controversial and new to the culture of the time. The literature of Edgar Poe included Physiology and a new style of writing. Poe’s life presents an insight to the reason he has been considered significant in the American literature. In briefing to his background, Poe was underprivileged and his parents passed on when he was still young. Even with such misfortune, Poe made aggressive strides in the progress of literature in America. He pioneered in being the first author who wholly depended on the career though he was faced with a lot of problems due to the nature of the subject matter. Poe’s success inspired many other authors in to the modern literature.
Before Poe, the world of literature was dominated by Gothic literature, even though much of his work contains gothic styles. His work paved way to evolution of the American literature and his writing was meant to entertain those people who read his books and narratives for leisure. Arguably, leisure reading was the crest of literature revolution in America. The work of Poe mainly concentrated on suspense and fiction.
“his legacy of forty-eight poems, his philosophy of composition, his Gothic short stories, and his detective stories gave rise to a new type of fiction emphasizing psychological introspection and symbolism” (Perry 209)

Humanism has ideologies is that they are all academic disciplines. According to Burton and Dennis (98) humanism undermines the reality due to natural laws and a lot of theory in a socially constructed society. Arguably, medieval age has been characterized by lack of humanism. Nonetheless, the emergence of humanism brought to an end the Middle Ages. Burton and Dennis (98) note that the long stretched span of the middle age was completely engrossed with divine matters. Humanism has tackled the human nature issue and opened enlightenment to the modern man. Literature hence has a great contribution to modernization and integration of civilizations and modern cultural practices.
With the affect of humanization there has been readings covering traditional topics from the history of science and the idea of nationalism in the meaning of race and life in the postmodern world. Other vastly established modern contribution of humanization is globalization and its effects. The European empires, peoples involvement in slave trade and migration is a major concern. Intellectuals such as Frantz Fanon, Mohandas Gandhi, Jamaica Kincaid, and Ignatius Sancho, from European colonies, Trinidad and West Africa, Jamaica have made their contributions. Humanism provides students with the basic grounding in the Western experience that is the foundation of a sound liberal arts education.
Humanism in the America literature came with the civilizing wave that started in Europe, later stretching to America in the 20th century. Humanism had an impact on literature, art and music despising the traditional norms and giving rise to a modern life with severe civilization. The traditional rigidness was then done away with, and people had to embrace the modern stylistic, formal and thematic ideas.
The literature books produced in America have discussed the thematic issues. The traditions soon collapsed, and the western civilization was embraced. The writers who were in support of humanism had a lot to celebrate after the disintegration of the traditional norms of gender discrimination, racial and ethnic intolerance. Language was destroyed in the sense that the rules that guided grammar and formation were broken. Faulkner comes up with innovative words, further advances and adopts a first-person method in narrative and interior monolog
Fragmentation is a theme that is related to the destruction. Humanism literature focuses on the disintegration as a form of literature because it brings up the disintegration of actuality and challenge Hegelian notions of entirety and wholeness. The cycle; loss and exile and social authority are also humanistic issues. In history, modernity has been marked by the prioritization of freedom, individualism, and equality. Tradition is highly rejected. In science, technological progress is being praised and the ability for people to be perfect in their undertakings. Authors have suggested that there are numerous modernities in nature as history goes.
The Italian Renaissance, for instance, which began in the late 14th century. Developments in art and thought emerged then and have seen the Italian culture progress due to Western Civilization (Burton, 65). In the entire development of humanism, art has demonstrated the value placed on human life. Many authors have concentrated heavily on human emotions. For instance Shakespeare’s work can be characterized by humanistic values and reveal growth in humanism through culture.
The Renaissance brought back classical learning that went against the traditional Christian outlook. They were not against Christianity though, but people in Italy at this period began to focus on their life rather than in the future. Instead of dwelling so much on God they began to look at themselves in a deeper way, recognizing their achievements and exploring their potential.
Cynicism and alienation of the budding of humanism literature did not stop. After the Second World War, the progress in civilization continued to take charge in the mid century. Authors of this period dealt with democratic issues in their poetry and novels. There was hope for progress that never existed traditionally. Commercialism, publicity, and the popular audience were the topics of the day and Alienation topics began to cease. Modern literature influence has continued to be astonishing. People have changed their way of thinking and have become more creative. They have become more realistic and can perceive truthful ideas. These changes are indeed many, and cannot easily be replaced by new schemas.
The individualism enabled them to be creative and was mastered in a classic way. Nevertheless, the authors in the classical period dug deep into classical books and appreciated their ideas. Classical authors were believed to have to taught people life issues, civic duty, and the importance of assertiveness.
At the start of the 15th century, humanism was started in Florence. It became an essential vehicle of the classical revival. The objective of their civic humanism was to train aristocratic men for public affairs. (Perry 13), People were forced to learn the study of classical languages, grammar, religion, moral philosophy, history, and poetry by both men and women. But the subjects such as mathematics and science were only to be taken by males.
Historically there are many cultures that are diversified. It is always believed that culture is what people take from their ancestors and hand it to the coming generations. That is their way of dressing, transport, food, traditions and beliefs among others. The merit to this is that people were themselves and had rules governing their living and their behavior in general in high degrees. A strong bond existed among people. Youngsters were brought up knowing exactly what to do and were taught the formal education.
Later modernism was realized with a lot of scientific innovations and technology such as radio and television that made life easier changing the outlook of things by individuals. The cultural ideas changed from vertical to horizontal. People came to a sudden realization that they should embrace the modernized culture. Modernism offers the advantage to learn about innovations coming up, what should be upgraded and what should remain intact to have peaceful coexistence and be productive as well.
However, the cultural shift as at now despises traditions terming them primitive and barbaric. Our cultural diversity is unappreciated and is going down with time in the favor of modern civilization. The greatest demerit of modernism is that it has created a world where everybody is talking but nobody is thinking (Burton, 42). The challenge is to find the right balance between using the advantages technology offers without mankind being dumped down to shallow clones who know more about what's on TV than what's going on in their community or the rest of the world.

Works Cited

Burton, Stacy, and Dennis L. Dworkin. Trials of Modernity: Europe in the World. Boston: Pearson, 2007. Print.
Perry, Marvin. Humanities in the Western Tradition: Vol. 2. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print.