美国文学简史-期末复习资料

i.The Colonial Period

1.关键词: America Puritanism

2.Calvinism特点: total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement,

Irresistible grace, Perseverance of the saints

3.Anne Bradstreet( P17 ): a Puritan poet be known as “The Muse”

4.Thomas Paine: one of continual, unswerving fight for the rights of man.

works: “Common Sense” “American Crisis” “The Rights of Man” “The Age of

Reason”理性时代

5.Phillip Freneau(P22): 美国文学史上的重要人物

dawning nationalism 代表人物

Poems: The Wild Honeysuckle野生的金银花

first modern American & the last medieval man

6.Jonathan Edwards( Calvinism )

a critical role in shaping the First Great Awakening

works: “The Freedom of the Will”《自由意志论》“The Great Doctrine of

Original Sin Defended”《伟哉原罪论辩》“The Nature of True Virtue”

“American Dream” “Self-made”

7.Benjamin Franklin(puritanism)

“Poor Richard’s Almance” “autobiography”新文学形式

“18th century enlightenment”

ii.Romanticism

1.Washington Irving（1783-1859）

①titles: “the father of American literature”

“the American Goldsmith”

②works: The Sketch Book (marked the beginning of American

Romanticism and the beginning of short stories as a genre in American

literature)

Rip Van Winkle (P47—P48)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

2.James Fenimore Cooper（1789-1851）

①One of the first writer to write American Westward movement

②“The Leatherstocking Tales” (novel)

first is “The Pioneers”

---Plot:

---theme conflict between Natty Bumppo and Judge Temple-

---character:

Natty Bumppo---innocent, simple, honest and generous, for freedom,

against civilization, wilderness is good

Judge Temple---just, reasonable, for civilization and law

③Writing style:

intriguing plot

majestic landscape descriptions

rich imagination

wooden characterization

not authentic dialect

iii.New England Transcendentalism---the culmination of American Romanticism Beginning of the Transcendentalism---1836, Nature, Emerson (1830s –the Civil War)

Features：a:emphasizing on spirit or the Over-soul；b:stressing the importance of the individual；c:offering a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God.

1.Ralph Waldo Emerson：The founder of the Transcendentalist club and the

editor for a time of the journal the Dial

Works:

Nature ---“the Manifesto of American Transcendentalism” “the Bible of

New England”:

The Poet (from Nature)

The American Scholar --- “Intellectual Declaration of Independence”

2.Henry David Thoreau

Masterpiece: Walden (Failure first, success in the 20th century)

Content---a faithful record of his reflection in communicating with nature

3.Nathaniel Hawthorne

“The Scarlet Letter”

Plot(P74)

Theme:

---(general theme) evil and sin exist in human heart and will be punished

one day

moral, emotional and psychological effect of the sin on the people in general

---(specific theme) a hymn on the moral growth of the woman Hester when

sinned against

symbolism象征主义: “A”—Adultery—able—angel

“pearl”—treasure

4.Herman Melville

works: Moby Dick (1851)---little response, famous until the 20th century

Content:

---(general content) an encyclopedia of everything

---(specific content) a tragedy of man fighting against overwhelming

power in an indifferent even hostile world

5.Edgar Allan Poe

Theme: The death of beauty

Sense of loss

Works:

Poem--- “The Raven” “To Helen” “Annabel Lee”

Writing style:

Musical

Repetition of words

Paralleled structure

Melancholy atmosphere(tone)