Question

What genres, subjects, themes, setting, and characters did these two writers develop that is uniquely American literature? What makes these two writers and these two works by them uniquely American?
Edgar Allen Poe- “The Masque of the Red Death”
Charles Waddell Chesnutt- “The wife of His Youth”

I really need help with this please!

Answer 1

Edgar Allan Poe developed the detective story ( facts, mystery and rational resolution). He may have been the pioneer of the gothic horror perspective in America. He used to write short works and he never wrote a full-length novel in comparison to the other horror and fantasy writers that preceded him.

The Masque of the Red Death is important in American culture because it is an excellent example of Poe's theory of the short story.

As regards Charles Chesnutt, he was an African-American writer, and advocate for politics and a lawyer. He is famous for developing complex issues of racial and social identity in the post- Civil War South. After the Civil Rights Movement, the interest of people in his work grew enormously.

"The wife of His Youth" is important in American culture because it refers to race relations between the black community, it explores its own color and class prejudices .