美国文学史-考试资料(全)

An Overview of American Literature

1.Colonial period (early 17th—late 18th)

2. Romantic period (first half of 19th)

3. Realism (after 1865)

4. Naturalism (last decade of the 19th )

5. Modernism (the first half of the 20th)

American Literature The Literature of the Colonial Period

The first view of America

Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles

--from William Bradford’s History of Plimmoth Plantation A Wealth of Natural Resources

He is a bad fisher who cannot kill on one day with his hooke and line, one, two, or three hundred Cods.

--John Smith, A Description of New England A sup of New England’s air is better than a whole draft of old England’s ale.

--Francis Higginson, New-England’s Planatation The Colonies

Jamestown, Virginia 1607 New England 1620 Massachusetts Bay 1630 American Puritanism

‚Puritans‛

American Puritanism

American Puritanism stressed predestination, original sin, total depravity, and limited atonement from God’s grace.

A way of life that stressed hard work, thrift, piety and sobriety.

‚He was a visionary who never forget that two plus two equals four; he was a soldier of Jehovah who never came out on the losing side of a bargain< He was a practical idealist

Literature of Early Settlements

A literary expression of the Puritan idealism.

Types of writing: histories, travel accounts, biographies, diaries, letters, autobiographies, sermons, and poems<

Usefulness and Plainness:

Utilitarian, polemical, or didactic.

Style: fresh, simple, direct and with a touch of nobility.

The first published book of poems by an Americanwas also the first American book to be published by a woman—Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

Her ability to capture the colonial experience in poetry established her place as one of America’s most notable early writers.

*Background/early life/education

*Born and educated in England

*Admired and imitated several English poets

*At 18, she went to America in 1630.

*Father and husband served as governors.

*The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America (1650)

Stylistic characteristics:

Bradstreet’s p oems usually employ iambic pentameter with key variations in rhythm and syntax for special rhetorical effect or emphasis.

Her poems are also filled with imagery, followed with sustained parallels. Metaphysical conceits could also be found in her poems.

Her poems are also filled with self-effacing "apology" (art claiming artlessness), which gradually becomes more authoritative poetic persona(questioning God)

(persona: A voice or character representing the speaker in a literary work)

Language and imagery are often direct, and relatively simple.

The Author To Her Book

Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,

Who after birth did'st by my side remain,

Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than true,

Who thee abroad exposed to public view,

Made thee in rags, halting to th' press to trudge,

Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).

At thy return my blushing was not small,

My rambling brat (in print) should mother call.

I cast thee by as one unfit for light,

The visage was so irksome in my sight,

Yet being mine own, at length affection would

Thy blemishes amend, if so I could.

I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,

And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.

I stretcht thy joints to make thee even feet,

Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet.

In better dress to trim thee was my mind,

But nought save home-spun cloth, i' th' house I find.

In this array, 'mongst vulgars may'st thou roam.

In critic's hands, beware thou dost not come,

And take thy way where yet thou art not known.