美国文学简史复习资料

美国文学简史

复习资料

2016年12月23日

目录

殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学

美国浪漫主义早期

新英格兰超验主义

美国浪漫主义后期

美国现实主义文学

美国乡土文学

美国现代诗歌

美国现代小说

美国南方文学

美国现代戏剧美国黑人文学美国华裔文学

殖民时期及十八世纪美国文学

New England:Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, named by Captain John Smith

➢Puritanism

Doctrines of Puritanism:predestination(命运神定), original sin, total depravity (彻底得堕落), and limited atonement (有限得赎罪)from God’s grace

Puritans left Europe for America in order to prove that they were God’s chosen people who would enjoy God’s blessings on earth and in Heaven、They felt that they were exiles under the special grace of God to establish a theocracy in the New World、

Style of writing:the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest;a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible

Puritans’way of Life:hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety、

In Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter there is a good description of the Puritans’life、

Main writers

William Bradford

Of Plymouth Plantation普利茅斯垦殖记

Thomas Paine

mon Sense 常识;American Crisis美国危机;The Rights of Man人权;The Age of Reason理性时代

Philip Freneau

The Rising Glory of America蒸蒸日上得美洲;The Wild Honeysuckle野金银花

Benjamin Franklin

Autobiography富兰克林自传

Thomas Jefferson

Draft the Declaration of Independence、

美国浪漫主义早期

Romanticism

Background of Romanticism:Economic boom and national optimism ;Favorable literary milieu: increasing number of magazines ;Foreign influences: the Romantic Movement in Europe、Characteristics of Romanticism:

A rebellion against the objectivity of rationalism、

Feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important for romantics than reason and mon sense、An emphasis on individualism; placing the individual against the group, against authority、Stress on the close relationship between man and nature、

Fascination with the wild, the irregular, the indefinite, the remote, the mysterious, and the strange Cherishing a strong interest in the past, especially the medieval、

Features of American Romanticism:

New experience in the American Romanticism、

The exotic landscape, the frontier life, the westward expansion, the myth of a New Garden of Eden in America, and the Puritan heritage, etc、, these were all materials for an indigenous literature、

A deep influence from the American Puritanism、

Different from their European counterparts, American romantics tended to moralize, to edify rather than to entertain、

The “newness”of the Americans as a nation、

The Americans are different from the Europeans、Their ideals of individualism and political equality, and their dream that America was to be a new Garden of eden for man were distinctly American、

The New England Poets:Henry W、LongfellowA Psalm of Life 人生礼赞

Main writers

Washington Irving

The Sketch Book (18191820)见闻札记;The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷得传说

James Fenimore Cooper

Leatherstocking Tales皮裹腿故事集;The Pioneers 拓荒者;The Last of the Mohicans 最后一个莫希干人;The Prairie 大草原;The Pathfinder探路人;The Deerslayer猎鹿人

新英格兰超验主义Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism

as a way of knowing, believes that individuals can intuitively receive higher truths otherwise unavailable through mon methods of knowing, thus transcending the limits of rationalism、Some of its major concepts are: