美国文学复习资料

Chapter 1

1.American literature in the colonial periods (殖民地时期的文学，1607-1765):

①1942 Christopher Columbus(哥伦布) discovery of America

②17th century English began their settlement of the North American continent (北美拓殖开始)

③1606 the frist English settlement James Town, Virginia

④1620 the ship Mayflower arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts

⑤1629 the Puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony

2.Puritanism(清教主义) and writers, early poetries

1) the spirit and ideal of puritans who settled in the North American continent in the early part of the seventeenth century because of religious persecutions. The doctrines of predestination(宿命), original sin(原罪), total depravity(完全的堕落) and limited atonement(有限的救赎) were all that they believed in.

2)writers: William Bradford(1590-1702 Of Plymouth Plantation普利茅斯开发历史), Anne Bradstreet(1617-1672 The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up in America在美洲诞生的第十个谬斯), Jonathan Edwards(1702-1758), Edward

Taylor(1642-1729).

3)Early poetries: The Bay Psalm Book(1640, 1st book written and printed) , The Day of Doom(1662), New England Primer(1638, the 1st and most successful educational textbook)

3.The Main Features of this period

1)American literature grew out of humble origins. Diaries, histories, journals, letters, commonplace books, travel books, sermons, in short, personal literature in its various forms, occupy a major position in the literature of the early colonial period; 2) In content these early writings served either God or colonial expansion or both. In form, if there was any form at all, English literary traditions were faithfully imitated and transplanted;3) The Puritanism formed in this period was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature.

4.American literature in the revolutionary periods( Enlightenment启蒙运动, 1765 -1800)

1)revolutionary ended in 1763 2)1772 Patriot groups began to form committees 3)1774 Frist Continental Congress 4)1775 fighting broke out

5)1776 the Declaration of Independence in Second Continental Congress

6)1783 The Treaty of Paris(巴黎和约) → real independence 7)1776- 1783 Independence War

5.Famous literary figures

Roger Williams(罗杰·威廉斯1603-1683): The Bloody Tenet of Persecution for the Cause of Conscience, Discussed in a Conference between Truth and Peace （1644）

Philip Freneau(菲利普·弗伦诺1752-1832): "the poet of the American Revolution". His major themes are death, nature, transition, and the human in nature

John Woolman(约翰·伍尔1702-1772), Tomas Paine(托马斯·潘恩1737-1809)，Benjamin Franklin本杰明·富兰克林

6.Benjamin Franklin(1706 - 1790) and works