Causes of Scanty Output in Colonial Period in American English litearature

Scanty Output: Causes

During the colonial period, stretching over a period of one hundred and fifty years, the literary output was rather scanty. These early settlers had to wage a relentless war against Nature as well as against the red Indians. They were too busy to taming nature and dodging the arrow of the Indians to have much time for reading or writing of literature. Literature is a peace time activity, and the ‘founding fathers’ enjoyed little leisure or peace during those early in their new home. Moreover they had their cultural roots in Europe, they still regarded it as their home and turned for inspiration for their European men of letters.  America had no Folk-lore of its own; it had no epic, such as Iliad in Greece, or Bewoulf in England which related a heroic vanished in past. Also there was no wide American reading public; indeed, in the very early days, there were not even the means of printing books in the country.

Thus the earliest American writers really were really European writers living in America; and even though they might have left Europe a long time ago, their writing was clearly influenced by European writers , and for the most part, was merely in imitation of European and in particular English literature. The spirit of nationalism was totally lacking, but the literature of people springs from the feeling of nationalism. They did not feel the urge to create. This urge was felt only after the declaration of the independence, and the literature in America took rapid strides forward, and came to its own by the turn of the 18^th century. These early settlers were largely Puritans, who regarded imaginative literature- poetry, novel and drama as a lie and consequently it was discouraged and locked down upon. In these early reading was confined to the Bible and the prayer book and the few books that were brought from England. Facilities for printing were negligible and there were scant in document for the writers to write. Whenever he wrote he did so for the sake of the Englishmen and his writings were published in England. All these factor’s is account for the dearth of the literature in the colonial period.