美国文学 literature

Q2: What is the influence of pluralism on American literature?
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
1.1 The Colonial Period (1607-1775)(cont.)
Character of Writings—religious, practical, or historical. American Puritanism—major topic stresses
predestination (预言) original sin total depravity (堕落) limited atonement (赎罪) or the salvation (拯救)
of a selected few who would receive God’s grace.
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
1.3.2 Benjamin Franklin
levelheaded (头脑冷静的) common sense a completely worldly man; a statesman, ambassador, scientist, essayist as well. Poor Richard’s Almanac— both a literary achievement and a profitable business.
2.2.6
2.2.1 Washington Irving (1783-1859)
“the father of American literature” the first to write using the local color and the details in his works. symbolism to the themes. Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow—most famous stories.
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
II The Romantic Period (1790-1865)
2.1 Feature
2.2 Writers of Fiction
2.3 Writers of Poetry
2.4 Questions
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
1.3 Representative Figures
1.3.1 Jonathan Edwards
1.3.2 Benjamin Franklin
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
Best Representives
Washington Irving & James Fennimore Cooper Walt Whiteman & Emily Dickinson
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
2.2 Writers of Fiction
2.2.1
Washington Irving
2.2.2
James Fennimore Cooper
Ralph Waldo Emerson Nathaniel Hawthorne
2.2.3
2.2.4
2.2.5
Edgar Allan Poe
Herman Melville
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
2.2.2 James Fennimore Cooper (1789-1851)
two great figures of American mythology: the brave frontiersman and the bold Indian. author of the “Leather Stocking Tales”—a series of five novels The Pioneers (1823) The Last of the Mohicans (1826) The Prairie (1827) The Pathfinder (1840) The Deerslayer (1841) frontiersman hero—Natty Bumppo representing the ideal American.
1.3.1 Jonathan Edwards
religious idealism powerful sermons (布道)— preaching the puritan ideas and condemning people’s depravity. best-known work— “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741). initiating thewenku.baidu.comGreat Awakening Movement to revive Puritanism.
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
2.2.6 Herman Melville (1819-1891)
fame—established on Moby Dick. acknowledged as one of the world’s great masterpieces. theme—too far advanced for his contemporaries presenting a bleak view of the world: • the universe is Godless and purposeless; • human life is also meaningless and futile.
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
2.2.4 Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) a descendant of Puritan immigrants. a pioneer in psychological description. wrote as a moralist; tried to find out how men reacted in their mind when they found they had done something wrong; exposed the evils of the society by describing the psychological activities of human beings. most famous novel—The Scarlet Letter other works The House of Seven Gables (1851) The Blithedale Romance (1852) The Marble Faun (1860)
2.1 Feature American Renaissance. Character of American writings
free expression of emotions, attention to the
psychic (精神的) states of their character. exalted (赞美) the individual and the common man. revealed unique characteristics of their own and grew on the native lands.
The United States of America
Chapter 13 Literature
英 语 国 家 概 况
CONTENT
I II III IV V The Colonial and Revolutionary Periods The Romantic Period The Realistic Period The Naturalistic Period The Modern Period
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
2.2.5 Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
a lonely writer both in life and literature history. literary output: poetry, short stories, and reviews for literary works. strange theme and style make him an outsider of the main current of American literature. foreigners acclaimed him as genius masterpieces The Raven (1845) The Fall of the House of Usher (1839)
VI
The Contemporary Period
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
1.1 The Colonial Period (1607-1775)
Q1: Who were the first Americans? How did they come to America?
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
1.3.2 Benjamin Franklin (cont.) Autobiography—most famous work. “the faithful account of the colorful career of America’s first self-made man”—rising from poverty and obscurity (身份低微) to wealth and fame. Autobiography—a record of spiritual growth in addition to self-examination and selfimprovement.
Discussion: Compare the American Puritanism with Chinese Confucianism.
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
1.2 The Revolutionary Period representative work—Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. Character of Declaration of Independence rhetorical (带修辞色彩的) vigor refined diction (措辞) polished style ardent longing for freedom Q: How was American literature forwarded in the Revolutionary Period?
Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
2.2.3 Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
chief spokesman of New England Transcendentalism—summit of American Romanticism. His essays have a casual style. The best—Nature and Essays