美国文学史复习资料内江师范学院.docx

1、美国文学史复习资料内江师范学院History And Anthology Of American LiteraturePart I The Literature of Colonial AmericaThe earliest settlers included Dutch, Swedes, Germans, French, Spaniards, Italians, and Portuguese, The first permanent English settlement in North America was established at Jamestown, Virginia in 16

2、07. At last early in the 17th century, the English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts began the main stream of what we recognize as the American history.Two Important New England Settlements：The Plymouth Colony(The Mayflower Compact); The Massachusetts Bay Colony(The Arbella covenant）The firs

3、t American writings：The first writings that we call American were the narratives and journals of these settlements. (wrote in diaries and in journals)Captain John Smith (1580-1631) was the first American writer and he published eight in all. His works always has long titles.Early New England Literat

4、ure1) A literature of ideas: New England had from the beginning a literature of ideas: theological, moral, historical, political. 2) Theocracy: The first intention in Massachusetts was to found a theocracya society in which God would govern through the church. The church thus became the supreme poli

5、tical body. 3) The Puritan values that dominated much of the earliest American writing: Over the years the puritans built a way of life that was in harmony with their somber religion, one that stressed hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety. These were the Puritan values that dominated much of the e

6、arliest American writing, including the sermons, books, and letters of such noted Puritan clergyman as John Cotton and Cotton Mather.4) The American poets: The American poets who emerged in the 17th century adapted the style of established European poets to the subject matter confronted in a strange

7、, new environment. Anne Bradstreet was one such poet.William Bradford(威廉布拉德福德): first governor of Plymouth. He wrote The History of Plymouth Plantation. The Pilgrim Fathers: English Puritans who went to America in 1620 and founded the colony of Plymouth, MassachusettsJohn Winthrop(约翰温思罗普): first gov

8、ernor at Boston. He wrote The History of New England.Puritan Thoughts:1. What was a Puritan? The “Puritan” was “a would-be purifier”. Puritans wanted to make pure their religious beliefs and practices. 2. What did the Puritans want to do?The Puritans wished to restore simplicity to church services a

9、nd the authority of the Bible to theology. They felt that the Church of England was too close to the Church of Rome in doctrine, form of worship, and organization of authority. Another point of controversy was that the Church of England was the established church, that is, the official church of the

10、 state, and the most extreme Puritans, among them the Plymouth Plantation group, felt the influences of politics and the court had led to corruption within the church. 3. What kind of people were the Puritans?Puritans include people from the humblest to the loftiest ranks of English society, both ed

11、ucated and uneducated, poor and rich. Puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts has sometimes been exaggerated, but it is true that their lives were disciplined and hard. Puritans tended to suspect joy and laughter as symptoms of sin. Puritan religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a w

12、rathful God and to forget his mercy. Puritanism (the practices and doctrines of the Puritans) was the strongest in the New England region and had great influence upon its history, its people and its literature.John Cotton and Roger Williams:contradictory examples of PuritansJohn Cotton 约翰科登The first

13、 major intellectual spokesman of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, sometimes called “the Patriarch of New England”.Roger Williams 罗杰威廉姆斯With Williams begins the history of religious toleration in America, and with him, too, the history of the separation of church and state. Williams advocated the freedo

14、m of belief. In him we have a balance to John Cotton. Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor安妮布莱德斯特和爱德华泰勒Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor, rose to the level of real poetry.Anne Dudley Bradstreet is one of the most interesting of the early poets.Bradstreets first published work appeared in London: The Te

15、nth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America. Edward Taylor: Puritan Preacher and Poet The best of the Puritan poets was Edward Taylor. His work followed the style and forms of the leading English poets of the mid-seventeenth century. Part II The Literature of Reason and Revolution (18th)Two historical even

16、t:I. The American War for Independence 1775-1783II. EnlightenmentTheology dominated the Puritan phase of American writing. Politics was now the great subject to command the attention of the best minds. Benjamin Franklin (本杰明富兰克1706-1790) Representative works: 1. Poor Richards Almanac; 2. The Autobio

17、graphy:An introduction of his life to his own son, including four parts written in different times. The first success story of self-made Americans;Thomas Paine（托马斯佩因1737-1809）: Revolutionary War patriot and pamphleteer.Major works:1.The Case of the Officers of the Excise (1772);2. Common Sense (1776

18、);3. The American Crisis (1776-1783);4. The Rights of Man (1791 - 92).Thomas Jefferson(托马斯杰弗逊1743-1826): Author of the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was an act of the Second Continental Congress, adopted on July 4, 1776, which declared that the Thirteen Colonies in Nor

19、th America were Free and Independent States. Philip Freneau (菲利浦弗瑞诺1752 - 1832)Philip Morin Freneau was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. Remembered as the poet of the American Revolution and the father of American poetry, he was a transitional figure in American literature.“The Wild Honey

20、 Suckle” His nature poem, “The Wild Honey Suckle” , is considered an early seed to the later Transcendentalist movement taken up by William Cullen Bryant, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau. Inthispoemthepoetexpressedakeenaware-ness ofthelovelinessandtransience of nature. Henotonlymeditate

21、donMortality butalsocelebratednature. The poemimplies that life anddeath areinevitablelawofnature.“Thewildhoneysuckle” isPhilip Freneaus most widelyreadnaturallyricwiththe themeoftransience.Thecentral imageisa native wildflower, whichmakesadrasticdifferencefromeliteflower imagestypicalof traditional

22、 Englishpoems.Thepoemshowedstrongfeelingsfor thenaturalbeauty, which wasthe characteristicof romanticpoets.Thepoemwaswritteninregular6-linetetrameterstanzas, rhyming: ababcc. Thestructure ofthe poemisregular, soithastheneoclassicqualityofproportion andbalance. Theline“ thespaceisbutanhour“ containsa

23、hyperbolestressingthetransience of life. Thetoneofthepoemisbothsentimentaland optimistic.Part III The Literature of RomanticismLiterary Characteristics: Romanticism; Transcendentalism.1. RomanticismThe attitudes of Americas writers were shaped by their New World environment and an array of ideas inh

24、erited from the romantic traditions of Europe. A new romanticism had appeared in England in the last years of the 18th century. It spread to continental Europe and then came to America early in the 19th century.Romantics frequently shared certain general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in t

25、he value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and mans societies a source of corruption.Romantic values were prominent in American politics, art, and philosophy until the Civil War. 2. Transcendentalism (超验主义)The phase of New En

26、gland Transcendentalism is the summit of American Romanticism.It is a philosophical view, a notion, a concept, an idea, a way of looking at things, a set of attitudes about man, God, and the universe, a way of how to get to the basic truth of the universe. Transcendentalism has been defined philosop

27、hically as the recognition in man of the capacity of knowing truth intuitively, or of attaining knowledge transcending the reach of the senses. The representative writers of Transcendentalism are Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau.3.The growth of cultural nationalism aroused American artist

28、s to write patriotic songs, to paint vast panorama of American scenes, and to design monumental buildings that would register the grandeur of the American people and their land.A.Art-music: most American music remained derivative; Francis Scott Keys “Star Spangled Banner”-painting: the Hudson River

29、School-architecture: Gothic buildingsB. Literature:1)Literature ceased to be primarily didactic, a servant of politics and religion.2) Imaginative literature became intense, personal, and symbolic as more writers came to perceive themselves as prophets and seers. Moved by a call for a national liter

30、ature, writers celebrated Americas meadows, groves, and streams, its endless prairies, dense forests, and vast oceans. 3) The desire for an escape from society, and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature4) Romantic writers displayed increasing attention to the psychi

31、c states of their characters. 5) Nationalism stimulated a greater literary interest in Americas language and its common people. Noah Webster: An American Dictionary of the English Language. 6) New England literary renaissance (“flowering of New England”) Washington Irving (华盛顿欧文1783-1859) .1) Irving

32、 is the first belletrist in American literature, writing for pleasure at a time when writing was practical and for useful purposes. 2) He is the first American literary humorist. 3) He has written the first modern short stories. The short story as a genre in American literature probably began with IrvingsThe Sketch Book.4) He is the first to write history and bi