美国文学简史常耀信版讲义2-1

Washington Irving (1783��1859)
Major work: The Sketch Book , including his best-known short stories The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle Like Cooper, Irving used English and European literary forms --- wit and satire, to convey what he sensed to be the uniqueness of the American scene.
Features
(1) American romanticism was in essence the expression of ��a real new experience�� and contained ��an alien quality�� for the simple reason that ��the spirit of the place�� was radically new and alien. (2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained. (3) The ��newness�� of Americans as a nation is in connection with American Romanticism. (4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent.
American Romanticism
Background (1) Political background a. economic boom b. calling for culture independence c. eagerness in literary expression (2) Romantic movement in European countries
Major Writers and Literary Works --- several names attached to Irving (1) the first American writer who gained international fame (2) started short story as a literary genre (3) father of American literature --- Irving encouraged American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edgar Allan Poe.
The Sketch Book (1819)
The Sketch Book (1819), ���������ǡ�, containing thirty-two stories, among which ��Rip Van Winkle�� and ��The Legend of Sleepy Hollow��, are the two most enduring stories. Combination of imitation and creativity Imitation --- the majority are on European subjects, mostly English as material and inspiration, which can find expression in his remarks:
---In 1823-1841 appeared his classics Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels about frontier adventures and pioneer life ) --- including: The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans(1826) The Prairie (1827). The Pathfinder(1840) The Deerslayer(1841)
Review of the previous lecture Puritanism (features) New England Almanacs Philip Freneau and his work Feature of Freneau��s poetry
American Romanticism
2. back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature (1) unrestrained by classical rules (2) freedom of imagination (3) colloquial language (4) genuine in feelings 3. back to nature nature is ��breathing living thing�� (Rousseau: French Philosopher)
James Fenimore Cooper (1789--1851)
Life --- born in Burlington, New Jersey, the son of Quakers, Judge William Cooper and Elisabeth Fenimore Cooper. --- James Fenimore spent his youth partly on the family estate on the shores of Otsego Lake. He roamed in the primeval forest and developed a love of nature which marked his books. --- sent to Yale, and in his junior year expelled from Yale because of a series of pranks, which included training a donkey to sit in a professor's chair.
Romantic Techniques 1. Remoteness of settings in time and space. 2. Improbable plots. 3. Inadequate or unlikely characterization. 4. Gothicism ---sense of terror, fear; use of the odd and queer.
--- ��We are a young people,�� he explains in the preface, ��and must take our examples and models from the existing nations of Europe��. Creativity --- blend of myth and history --- creating a local color
Works
---Cooper's first novel Precaution (1820) was an imitation of Jane Austin��s novels and did not meet with great success. --- His second, The Spy (1821), was based on Sir Walter Scott��s Waverly series, and told an adventure tale about the American Revolution. The book brought Cooper fame and wealth. Scott inspired Cooper to draw stereotypes of light and dark, good and evil, and dichotomize the female into the fair and pure and the dark and tainted.
Characteristics of Romanticism 1. subjectivity (1) feeling and emotions, finding truth (2) emphasis on imagination (3) emphasis on individualism �C personal freedom, no hero worship, natural goodness of human beings
Section 1 Early Romantic Period What is Romanticism? A literary trend: 18th in Britain (1798~1832) from the late 18th century to the Civil War
Style in language --- beautiful
(1) gentility, urbanity, pleasantness (2) avoiding moralizing �C amusing and entertaining (3) enveloping stories in an atmosphere (4) vivid and true characters (5) humour �C smiling while reading (6) musical language
A History of New York��by Diedrich Knickerbocker (1809)
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Washington Irving's A Knickerbocker's History of New York ��ŦԼ��ʷ�� is the single funniest book in American literature. It is the combination of humor, history and folklore that results is unique, sweeping, and highly entertaining.
--- Encouraged
by his father, Cooper joined the Navy. These experiences later inspired his sea stories. --- He was very fond of reading and one day when he had finished an English novel he said: "I could write a better story than that myself!" ---classical words marking the beginning of a prolific literary career.