专八考试美国文学总复习1

American Romanticism
Romanticism was a rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism.
For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more
The Development of Transcendentalism
• ☆ Nature (in 1836) by Ralph Waldo Emerson • Nature’s voice pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism, the summit of American Romanticism. • Transcendentalist Club • ☆ Transcendentalism was indebted to the dual heritage of American Puritanism, the religious idealism of their Puritan past.Transcendentalists’ emphasis on the individual was directly traceable to the Puritan principle of self-culture and selfimprovement. Thus there is good reason to state that New England Transcendentalism was Romanticism on the Puritan soil. • ☆ New England Transcendentalism was important to American literature. It inspired a whole new generation of famous authors such as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman and Dickinson.
American Romanticism
The romantic period stretches from the end of the eighteenth century through the outbreak of the Civil War (1790-1865).
1. Background (1) Political background and economic development Territorial Expansion Industrial Growth The Civil War The “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with American Romanticism. → optimism and hope among the people There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. (2) foreign influence – Romantic movement in European countries
important than reason and common sense. They stressed the close relationship between man and nature; They emphasized individualism and affirmed the inner life of the self.
Representative figures of the time: Pre-romanticism:
Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper
Post-romanticism:
Novelists: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville Poets: Henry Wadesworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman Emily Dickinson Essayists: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau
• Thomas Jefferson 《独立宣言》的起草人，美国第三任总统。 他在《独立宣言》的基础上建立起来的民 主制度是美国思想的另一个伟大创举。
Part Two American Romanticism and New England Literature
Logic Thread
American Romanticism
Pre-romanticism 1770s-1830s
Post-romanticism (New England Transcendentalism)
Flowering time before American Civil War 1830-1860
Declining time after American Civil War 1865-1875
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I. The Colonial Period (the early 17th and 18th century)
Puritanism: idealism and opportunism
American Puritanism • Puritans → The early settlers ☆ founding fathers of the America nation ☆To purify the rituals and lessen the authority of bishops→ escaped to the new world, create a
new paradise → advocate highly religious and moral principles. → American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature.
Philip Freneau (poet)菲利普· 弗伦诺 Poet of American Revolution
The Rising Glory of America 蒸蒸日上的美洲 The British Prison Ship 英国囚船 To the Memory of the Brave Americans 纪念美国勇士
Introduction to American literature
1.The Colonial Period (early 17C – late 18C)
2.The Romantic Period (the first half of 19 C) 3.The Age of Realism and Naturalism
William Cullen Bryant 布莱恩特 美国最早期的自然主义诗人之一 • To a Waterfowl 致水鸟
2.The summit of Romanticism--New England Transcendentalism / 1. Emerson / “Nature” 2. Henry David Thoreau / “ Walden” 3.Whitman / “Leaves of Grass” 4. Hawthorn / “ The Scarlet Letter” 5.Herman Meville\ “Moby Dick”
Thomas Paine • Common Sense 常识 • American Crisis 美洲危机
殖民地时期的美国文学三巨匠 • Jonathan Edwards • Benjamin Franklin • Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin本杰明· 富兰克林 美国梦的真实体现 → “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”自传 → Poor Richard’s Almanac穷查理历书 (containing witty maxims for achieving wealth as a result of hard work and thrift)
→ ② Rip Van Winkle 瑞普· 温克尔 凡·
开创了美国本土文学的传统
James Fenimore Cooper 1789-1851 詹姆斯•费尼莫尔•库珀
早期浪漫主义小说家 ―Leatherstocking Tales‖皮裹腿故事集 →a series of five novels, that is ☆the Pioneers拓荒者(I823) ☆ the Last of the Mohicans(1826)最后的莫希干人 ☆ The Prairie(1827)大草原 ☆ The Pathfinder(1840)探路者 ☆ The Deerslayer(1841)杀鹿者 → adventure into the wilderness of the West/
Post-romanticism (New England Transcendentalism)
• • • • What is Transcendentalism? 1.Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)爱默生 →The leading New England Transcendentalist → ―Nature‖论自然-----新英格兰超验主义者的宣言 书 ;The American Scholar论美国学者