American Enlightenment Literature美国文学.ppt

Leading writers and their works
• Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826): The Declaration of Independence (1776)
• Thomas Paine(1737-1809): Common Sense (1776)
• Benjamin Franklin: Autobiography
• Philip Freneau: “The Wild Honey Suckle”
1. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
1. Works
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• The Autobiography • Poor Richard’s Almanack
《格言历书》
2. Life Benjamin Franklin came from a Calvinist background.
At 16, he began to publish essays under the pseudonym “Silence Do good” .
At 17, he ran away to Philadelphia to make his own fortune.
He set himself up as an independent printer and publisher. In 1727 he founded the Junto club.
Revolutionary Period (1775-1783)
“The Age of Reason” “American Enlightenment”
• In the 18th century, people believed in man’s own nature and the power of human reason. With Franklin as its spokesman, the 18th century America experienced an age of reason.
Franklin’s Contributions to Science
He was also remembered for volunteer fire departments, effective street lighting, the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and efficient heating devices. And for his lightning-rod, he was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire from heaven.” Franklin’s Contributions to the U.S.
• Enlightenment thinkers and writers were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty, and equality as the natural rights of man.
• The colonists who would form a new nation were firm believers in the power of reason; they were ambitious, inquisitive, optimistic, practical, politically astute, and self-reliant.
Franklin’s Contributions to Society He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital. He founded an academy which led to the University of Pennsylvania. And he helped found the American Philosophical Society.
He was born into a poor candle-maker’s family. He had very little education. He learned in school only for two years, but he was a voracious reader.
At 12, he was apprenticed to his elder half-brother, a printer.
• The 18th-century American Enlightenment was a movement marked by an emphasis on rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning religious dogma, and representative government in place of monarchy.
• Words had never been so useful and so important in human history. People wrote a lot of political writings. Numerous pamphlets and printings were published. These works agitated revolutionary people not only in America but also around the world.
He was the only American to sign the four documents that created the United States: The Declaration of Independence, The Treaty of Alliance with France, The Treaty of Peace with England, The Constitution