美國文學(xué)史綜合

1、Part I The Literature of Colonial America 殖民主義時期的文學(xué)I . The Background Information.第一批美國永久居民：The first permanent English settlement in North America wasestablished at Jamestown, Virginia （北美弗吉尼亞詹姆斯頓 ）in 1607. At last early in the 17th century, the English settlements in Virginia and Massachusetts（弗吉尼

2、亞和馬薩諸塞 ） began the main stream of what we recognize as the American history.清教徒采用的文學(xué)體裁：a、narratives日記b、journals游記.清教徒在美國的寫作內(nèi)容：1） their voyage to the new land ； 2） Adapting themselves to unfamiliar climates and crops； 3） About dealing with Indians; 4） Guide to the new land, endless bounty, invitation

3、 to bold spirit. 美國第位作家 （The first American writer ） Captain John Smith. He published eight in all.1）. 1608 年 A True Relation of Virginia關(guān)于加吉尼亞的真實介紹.2） A Map of Virginia弗吉尼亞地圖3）. General History of Virginia弗吉啟加通史他的作品（reports of exploration）17th早期出版，被認(rèn)為是美向第一部真正意義上的文學(xué)作品in the early1600s,have been desc

4、ribed as the first distinctly American literature written in English.他 的作3 filled with themes, myths, images, scenes, character and events弓 I 了朝圣者和清 教徒前往 lure the Pilgrims and the Puritans. He saw from the beginning what was eventually to be a basic principle of American history, the need of“workerg

5、 instead of“gentlemen for the tough job of planting colonies and pushing the frontiers westward.美國清教主義（American Puritanism ） : Puritans purified their religious beliefs and practices, and believed that God decides everything and they are Gods chosen people. Hard work, thrift（節(jié)儉;節(jié)約），piety （虔誠；凄敬），and

6、 sobriety （節(jié)制；嚴(yán)肅）were thePuritan spirit that dominated much of the earliest American writing（including the sermons, books, and letters of such noted Puritan clergyman asohn Cotton and Cotton Mather ）.Cotton Mather: wrote more than 450 works, an example as well as an advocate of the Puritan ideal of

7、hard work. A literature of ideas: New England had from the beginning a literature of ideastheological, moral, historical, and political. The Pilgrim Fathers: English Puritans who went to America in 1620 and founded the colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts. Puritan ： The “Puhtan” was “a would-be purifie

8、r” . Puritans wanted to make pure their religious beliefs and practices. Their purposes are for religious freedom and political freedom. The major intellectual spokesmen of Puritanism are John Cotton, Roger Williams.II. Literature.W川iam Bradford（威廉 布拉德福德）：The first governor of Plymouth（普利茅斯第一任首 長），H

9、istory of Plymouth Plantation普利茅斯神植園史He was perhaps the greatest of the Pilgrim Fathers （美國歷史之父”）. John Winthrop（約翰溫斯羅普）：波斯頓第一任首長 The History of New England英 格蘭歷史.John Cotton（約翰科頓）：The Patriarch of New England （新英格蘭教父”）.Roger Williams （羅杰威廉斯）：1）.He begins the history of religious toleration and the

10、separation of church and state.2）. He is interested in the Indian language. eA: Key into the Language of America開啟美國語言的鑰匙.Anne Bradstreet（安妮 布萊德斯）:The first woman poet in the English language. one of the most interesting of the early poet s（最風(fēng)趣的詩人之）“The tenth muse lately sprung upin American最近出現(xiàn)點北美而

11、第十位繆矯.Edward Taylor (愛德華 泰勒)：The best of the Puritan poets清教徒詩人最杰出的一位)The work of two writers, Anne Bradstreet & Edward Taylor, rose to the level of realpoetry.Conclusion: The early American literature was European/English in style/form, but American in content/spirit.Part n The Literature of Reason

12、 And Revolution 理性和革命時期文學(xué)The Background InformationThe American War for Independence ( 1775-1783) :Strict rules made by English government hampered the economic development of the colonies. The British wanted the colonies to remain politically and economica ly dependent on the mother countryEnlighte

13、nment : 1).an intellectual movement 2)the power of human reason 3)the scientific idea;4)the idea of progress.Enlightenment and American Revolution: 1). all the leaders of the revolution were influenced by the Enlightenment, representatives: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, etc. 2).

14、 The new nation was set on the basic ideas and principles of the Enlightenment.Deism (自然神論,自然神教派)is a religious philosophy and movement that derives the existence and nature of God from reason and personal experience.The important literature topics of the revolutionary period: 1).theology, 2).politi

15、cs 3).enlightenmentLiteratureRepresentative works : Noah Webster諾亞 韋伯斯特：第一部美國英語字典 Thomas Jefferson: Declaration of Independence Thomas Paine:The American Crisis; Rights of Man; The Federalist; Benjamin Franklin: Poor Richard s Almanac; The Autobiography 18Benjamin Franklin 本杰明 富蘭克林The first major wr

16、iter in the colonial period, the only good American author before the Revolutionary War one of the Founding Fathers of the United States; a paradoxical combination of Puritanism and Enlightenmentan embodiment of the American Dream ”Representative works: (1) Poor Richard s Almanac 窮人查理德的年鑒 an annual

17、collocation of proverbs (It contains a large number of practice sayings about life , the common theme is that the industriousness and discretion are rewarded. (2) The Autobiography 自傳(a. The first success story of self-made Americans, it records the writers rising from poverty. b. Style: simple, cle

18、ar in order, direct, concise and humorous. c. First of its kind in literature and set the autobiography as a genre. d. The early example of the American dream.) In The Autobiography we will be able to notice: 1)Puritanism s influence, such as self-examination and self-improvement 2)Enlightenment spi

19、rits (man s nature is good, rights of liberty, virtues including “order )Thomas Paine 托加斯 佩因Great Commoner of Mankind ”(人類偉大的平民)；Pamphleteer俄國著名政治小冊子家)；Leading figure in American revolution.Representative works: 1) famous pamphlet Common Sense常識,it boldly advocated a Declaration for Independence, an

20、d brought the separatist agitation to a crisis.擁護獨 立宣言，是分裂活動發(fā)展成最后危機;Pain became the spokesman of the AmericanRevolution 2) American Crisis美國抬機American Crisis signed “Common Sense was a series of 16 pamphlets. 3)The Rights of Man人權(quán)-a defense of the French Revolution. 4) The Age of Reason理性的時代5).Analy

21、sis of The American CrisisThomas Jefferson 托馬斯 杰弗遜一an Enlightenment thinker and a leader of American revolution and; The third President of the United StatesThe aims of his life-pursuit: Freedom and DemocracyThe style of writings: clear; graceful; poetic.Representative work: drafted The Declaration

22、of Independence the Declaration is considered to be the founding document of the United States of America.All Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these arLife, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness.Philip Freneau 菲禾1J浦 弗瑞諾-the poet

23、of the American Revolution 美國革命詩 人 and the father of American poetry 美國詩歌之父”His poems are: neoclassical in form romantic in spirit; strongly lyrical; clear imageryPhilip Morin Freneau was a deistic (自然神論的)optimist.Representative work: The Wild Honey Suckle野忍冬花X. In this poem the poet expressed a kee

24、n awareness of the loveliness and transience of nature. He not only meditated on Mortality but also celebrated nature. The poem implies that life and death are inevitable law of nature. “The Wild Honey Suckle is Philip Freneaus most widely read natural lyric with the theme of transience. The central

25、 image is a native wild flower, which makes a drastic difference from eliteFlower images typical of traditional English poems. The poem showed strong feelings for the natural beauty, which was the characteristic of romantic poets. The poem was written in regular 6-line tetrameter stanzas, rhyming: a

26、babcc. The structure of the poem is regular, so it has the neoclassic quality of proportion and balance. The line “thspace is but an hour“containa hyperbole stressing the transience of life. The tone of the poem is both sentimental and optimistic. Theology dominated the Puritan phase of American wri

27、ting.Politics was the next great subject to command the attention of the best minds. Freneau wasneoclassical by training and taste ye romantic in essential spirit.Part m The Literature of Romanticism 浪漫主義文學(xué)I. The Background InformationRomanticism Characteristics: Romantics frequently shared certain

28、general characteristics: moral enthusiasm, faith in the value of individualism and intuitive perception, and a presumption that the natural world was a source of goodness and ma ns societies a source of corruption浪漫主義之間大多是相通的，都注重if德，強調(diào)個人主義價值觀和直覺 感受，并且認(rèn)為自然是美的源頭，人類社會是腐敗之源Literary forms 文學(xué)形式： Novels, s

29、hort stories, and poemsImaginative literature 想象類文學(xué)：became intense, personal, and symbolic as morewriters came to perceive themselves as prophets and seers.The wilderness came to function almost as a dramatic character that illustrated moral law.戲劇化特色的野性諷喻了時代的道德準(zhǔn)則。The desire for an escape from socie

30、ty and a return to nature became a permanent convention of American literature.逃離社會，向到自然成為了美國文學(xué)永恒的包作習(xí)慣。Transcendentalism (超驗主義):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

31、truth of the universe. Transcendentalism was neither logical norsystematized. It exalted feeling over reason, individual expression over the restraints of law and custom(不講邏輯，不講系統(tǒng)，只強調(diào)超越理性的感受，超越法律和世俗束縛的個 人表達)They believe in the transcendenceof over soul, an all-pervading power for goodness from which

32、 all things come and of which all things are a part. 相信精神上的超 施,私信無所示能而善而力量，強詞善為萬物之源。代羨貝物：Emerson愛默4, believed that man was a part of absolute good(人性本善) Thoreau 梭 羅,beheld divinity in the“unspotted innocence “ of natur然才是神圣的 潔白無瑕”)II. LiteratureWashington Irving 華盛頓 歐文-Father of American Literature;

33、 the first great belletrist.Irving was judged the nation s greatest writer, a loft position he later shared with James Fenimore Cooper and William Cullen Bryant. He was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. He has written the first modern short stories. He w

34、as the first great prose stylist of American romanticism familiar style. Literary style : ( 1) The style is the man； (2) neoclassical in form;. Representative work: The Sketch Book見聞札記 a collection of essays, sketches and talesIt marks the beginning of American romanticism; Satire is woven throughou

35、t the book The famous short stories in the collection:The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷傳奇 Ichabod Crane (a priggish 自負的 schoolmaster) Brom Van Brunt (鄉(xiāng)村/、伙 a tough man)Katrina Van Tassel (農(nóng)夫 18 女JL) . The Legend of Sleepy Hollow follows a tradition of folk tales and poems involving a supernatural wild c

36、haseJames Fennimore Cooper 詹姆斯.芬尼莫.庫珀-the first important American novelist. The Spy間諜 was successful; it was a rousing tale about espionage against the British during the Revolutionary War. 1839, he wrote the first official history of the U.S. Navy. He launched two kinds of immensely popular storie

37、s the sea adventure tale (The Pilot) and the frontier saga ( The Leatherstocking Tales).The Leatherstocking Tale : The Deerslayer殺鹿者The Last of the Mohicans最后的 莫希干人The Pathfinder探路人The Pioneers拓荒者The Prairie大草原 It was regard as “the nearest approach yet to an American eTice central figu re in the no

38、vels, Natty Bumppo.小說的中心人物，納蒂.班波，浪漫主義兩典范William Cullen Bryant威廉.卡倫.布萊恩特一the first American to gain the stature ofa major poet. Thanatopsis 死之,國考Theme: Nature is god, and everything is a cycle.2). To a Waterfowl致水鳥is perhaps the peak of his work,“Mostpeeectib巾helanguage ” “用美國英語寫作的最完美的短詩Theme: The po

39、em expresses the poess doubt and uncertainty, but relieved when the sight of a bird flying alone across the sky inspires him to believe in the guidance of a divine power.He realized that the waterfowl seemed alone also, but he too was being guided by some higher being and they both would find their

40、way. Bryant parallels the birds instinct to a Power. Even though humans have no real instinct to guide them to safety, there is a Power or God that will guide them to safety.Edgar Allan Poe 埃德力口 .阿倫.坡-American poet, short-story writer , and literary criticRepresentative works: To Helen給海倫The Raven烏鴉

41、Annabel Lee安娜貝爾 李 The Fall of the House of Usher鄂榭府崩潰記Annabel Lee: it tells of a man mourning a dead lover.musicality: the rhyme scheme; repetition; international rhyme(alliteration/assonance)Dmelancholy(death of the poet s beautiful and young lover; unusual diction Annabel Lee consists of six stanz

42、as, three with six lines, one with seven, and two with eight, with the rhyme pattern differing slightly in each one. The poem has got the elements of a fairy tale. It begins as if from a storytellers point of view, where Poe begins to explain the couples love, which originates from their childhood.

43、However, unlike The Raven, in which the narrator believes he will nevermore be reunited with his love, Annabel Lee says the two will be together again. The poem uses repetition and rhyme to create the qualities of unity and euphony (悅耳之 音 ),Repetition of key words within lines gives the poem its ple

44、asing sound while at the same time emphasizing main ideas In the poem, Poe examines a theme which he examines in many of his works: the death of a beautiful woman, which, according to him, is unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world. The poem is permeated with melancholy as he believes “

45、melancholy is the most legitimate of all the poetic tones.Ralph Waldo Emersion 拉爾夫.沃爾多.愛默生-founder of TranscendentalismBeliefs: individualism, independence of mind, and self-relianceRepresentative works: Nature論自然 (a book which declared the birth of Transcendentalism) The American Scholar美國學(xué)者(our in

46、tellectual Declaration of Independence.)ancThe Divinity School Address 神學(xué)院致辭 his most important works are Representative Men代表and English Traits英國人、Nature: The theme: It has its focus on the intuitive knowledge of human beings to grasp the absolute in the universe and the dignity of human. What is e

47、ssential is to be in harmony with nature. Our relation with nature is emotional and spiritual. We project our emotions into nature, and nature reflects them back to us. Nature is a mirror of the moral state of the soulHenry David Thoreau 亨禾戴維 梭羅- American author and naturalist. He was Emerson s true

48、st disciple, who put into practice many of Emerson s theorie. Walden沃爾登(the superb book came out of his two-year residenceat WaldenPond): It stresses the importance of thought over material circumstance. He believes that there is the possibility for and importance of change in ones spiritual life th

49、at is in harmony with nature. It is full of eco-wisdom.Nathaniel Hawthorne 納撒尼爾 霍桑-The Scarlet Letter紅字(Puritanism)Major characters: Hester Prynne: A young woman, an adulteress, the wearer of the scarlet letter that gives the book its title ; Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale: an eloquent minister, Hester

50、Prynne s partner in adultery; Roger Chillingworth: Hesters missing husband, who is now practicing medicine; Pearl: Hester Prynne s 川egitimate daughterPlot: Set in Puritan New England in the seventeenth century, it tells the story of Hester Prynne, who gives birth after committing adultery, refuses t

51、o name the father, and struggles to create a new life of repentance (S罪，悔改)and dignity. Throughout, Hawthorne explores the issues of grace寬恕;仁慈)，legalism (墨守法規(guī);信奉律法),and guilt.Major themes: 1) The theme of the story should be the moral, emotional and psychological effects of sin on people and its re

52、demption 贖回,拯救，救贖).2) The Scarlet Letter is a cultural allegory, in which the author indirectly tells the future of Puritanism. 3) The Scarlet Letter is an example in which American Romanticism adapted itself to American Puritanism.Symbolic meanings of the A” : 1) Pearl- Angel ;2) Chillingworth- Ave

53、nge 3) Prynne-a). Adultery b). Agony or Anguish c). Alone or Alienation d). Art e). Arrogance f). Admirable g). Affection h). Able i). Amazon (Greek Mythology: A member of a nation of women warriors reputed to have lived in Scythia.) j) Angel ; 4) Arthur Dimmesdale- a) AD -adultery. b) The inner A c

54、) AlienationCharacterization : Prynne - the visible A” ; Dimmesdale - the invisible A” ; Chillingworth - the maker of A” ; Pearl - the living A”XHerman Melville 赫爾曼.麥爾維爾一 Moby Dick”白鯨Moby Dick: a tremendous chronicle of a whaling voyage in pursuit of a seemingly supernatural white whale. The book is

55、 steeped in symbolism, another strong appeal to readers of his century.Major characters: Protagonist: Ahab (the way of Ahab, the way of death )- Captain of the Pequod. Antagonist: Moby-Dick - the Whale, symbolizing the forces working against Ahab. Ishmael (the way of Ishmael, the way of life) -seama

56、n and narrator of the actionSymbolism: Pequod - inevitable death; the voyage - the search for the ultimate truth;Moby Dick -Nature; evil / evil force ; human destiny; American capitalismMajor themes: one of the major themes in Melville is alienation, which he sensed existing in the life of his time

57、on different levels, between man and man, man and society, and man and nature. Ahab seems to be the best 川ustration of it all. The voyage itself is a metaphor for “search and discovery, the search for the ultimate truth of experience.topmost He had Ahalin his mind. In a sense Ahab embodies all of th

58、e evil he once consigned to Moby Dick. He uses a ship as symbol of society and searchingly examines the problems of good and evil.Ahab s ship was like a world in miniature with characters from all wks of life.Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 亨利.沃茲沃思.朗費羅-A Psalm of Life人生禮贊It was published in Voices of the

59、 Night The lyrical form of this poem is abab.This is a very inspirational poem. The concept of living only in the present is a very difficult thing for people, as the regrets of the past and hopes of the future can be very troublesome and misleading at times. This psalm brings out feelings of confid

60、ence - strength and belief in oneself.The message is very clear. Just live. The poet makes the reader focus on the here and now. Dont be hindered by the fear of oncoming, certain death, or whatever mistakes you may have made before, live by the second and only plan ahead that far. There is no concre