美國浪漫主義

AmericanRomanticism

TheoriginofAmericanRomanticism

one

of

the

most

important

periods

in

thehistory

of

American

literaturestretches

from

the

end

of

the

18th

century

to

the

outbreak

of

the

Civil

War.

It

started

with

the

publication

of

Washington

Irving's

The

Sketch

Book

and

ended

with

Whitman's

Leaves

of

Grass.

HistoricalBackground

The

development

of

the

American

society

nurtured

"the

literature

of

a

great

nation."

America

was

flourishing

into

a

politically,

economically

and

culturally

independent

country.

Historically,itwasthetimeofwestwardexpansioninAmericaEconomically,

the

whole

nation

was

experiencing

an

industrial

transformation.

Politically,

democracy

and

equa1ity

became

the

ideal

of

the

new

nation,

and

the

two-party

system

came

into

being.With

the

founding

of

the

American

Independent

Government,

the

nation

felt

an

urge

to

have

its

own

literary

expression,

to

make

known

its

new

experience

that

other

nations

did

not

haveTheimpactofEuropeanRomanticismonAmericanRomanticismForeign

literary

masters,

especially

the

English

counterparts

exerted

a

stimulating

impact

on

the

writers

of

the

new

world.

Born

of

one

common

cultural

heritage,

the

American

writers

shared

some

common

features

with

the

English

Romanticists.

They

revolted

against

the

literary

forms

and

ideas

of

the

period

of

classicism

by

developing

some

relatively

new

forms

of

fiction

or

poetry.

They

put

emphasis

upon

the

imaginative

and

emotional

qualities

of

literature,

which

included

a

liking

for

the

picturesque,

the

exotic,

the

sensuous,

the

sensational,

and

the

supernatural.The

Americans

also

placed

an

increasing

emphasis

on

the

free

expression

of

emotions

and

disp1ayed

an

increasing

attention

to

the

psychic

states

of

their

characters.

Heroes

and

heroines

exhibited

extremes

of

sensitivity

and

excitement.The

strong

tendency

to

exalt

the

individual

and

the

common

man

was

almost

a

national

religionin

America.Writers

like

Freneau,

Bryant,

and

Cooper

showed

a

great

interest

in

external

nature

in

their

respective

works.The

literary

use

of

the

more

colorful

aspects

of

the

past

was

also

to

be

found

in

Irving's

effort

to

exploit

the

legends

of

the

Hudson

River

region,

and

in

Cooper's

long

series

of

historical

tales.In

short,

American

Romanticism

is,

in

a

certain

way,

derivative.

TheuniquecharacteristicsofAmericanRomanticismAlthough

greatly

influenced

by

their

English

counterpart-s,

theAmerican

romantic

writersrevealed

unique

characteristics

of

their

own

in

Theirworks

and

they

grew

on

the

nativelands.

For

example:

theAmericannationalexperienceof"pioneeringintothewest"provedtobearichsourceofmaterialforAmericanwriterstodrawupon.TheycelebratedAmerica'slandscapewithitsvirginforests,meadows,groves,endlessprairies,streams,andvastoceans.Thewildernesscametofunctionalmostasadramaticcharacterthatsymbolizedmorallaw.ThedesireforanescapefromsocietyandareturntonaturebecameapermanentconventionofAmericanliterature.SuchadesireisparticularlyevidentinCooper'sLeatherStockingTales,inThoreau'sWaldenand,later,inMarkTwain'sAdventuresofHuckleberryFinn.With

the

growth

of

American

national

consciousness,

American

character

types

speaking

local

dialects

appeared

in

poetry

and

fiction

with

increasing

frequency.

Then

the

American

Puritanism

as

a

cultural

heritage

exerted

great

influences

over

American

moral

values

and

American

Romanticism.

One

of

the

manifestations

is

the

fact

that

American

romantic

writers

tended

more

to

moralize

than

their

English

and

European

counterparts.Besides,

a

preoccupation

with

the

Calvinistic

view

of

origina1

sin

and

the

mystery

of

evil

marked

the

works

of

Hawthorne,

Melville

and

a

host

of

lesser

writers.Majorwritersofthisperiod

Poets:Philip

Freneau,

William

Cullen

Bryant,

Henry

WordsworthLongFellow,James

Russel

Lowell,

John

Greenleaf

Whitter,

Edgar

Ellen

Poe,

and,

especially,

Walt

Whitman,

whose

Leaves

Of

Grass

established

him

as

the

most

popular

Am