《英国文学》读后感

Puritanism Features: 1.Predestination: God decided everything before things occurred.

2. Original sin: Human beings were born to be evil, and this original sin can be passed down from generation to generation.

3. Total depravity

4. Limited atonement: Only the “elect” can be saved. Influence 1. A group of good qualities –hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (serious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.2. It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth – garden of Eden. 3. Sym bolism: the American puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly American. 4.With regard to their writing, the style is fresh, simple and direct; the rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible.

General features of Romanticism

A. Stressing emotion rather than reason

B. Stressing freedom and individuality

C. Idealism rather than materialism

D. Writing about nature, medieval legends and with supernatural elements

Features of American Romanticism

A. Imitative

B. Independent

a. peculiar American experience (landscape, pioneering to the West, Indian civilization, new nation\'s democracy and dreams)

b. Puritan heritage (more moralizing, edifying more than mere entertainment) (careful about love and sex. example: Scarlet Letter)

“Father of American literature”“Father of the American short story”

The first American writher of imaginative literature to gain international fame.

The short story as a genre in American literature began with Irving’s The Sketch Book. The Sketch Book also marked the beginning of American Romanticism.

超越主义features:

A. Emphasis on Spirit (Oversoul) (超灵) against “world is made of matter”; against “neglecting of spiritual life in capitalist world”

B. Emphasis on individuals Old Puritan views: self-reliance and self-improvement Through communication with Oversoul, human being can be divine.

against “total depravity” in Old Puritan doctrines against dehumanization of capitalist world C. Taking nature as the symbol of the Spirit (Oversoul)

encouraging people to find goodness and beauty from nature

against materialism in the society and the actions which broke the harmony between human and nature only for profits

D. Brotherhood of man (equal and liberty) interested in social reforms; endeavor to create an ideal society; against “everything for money” in the capitalist world

Significance:A. influenced a large group of writers B. summit of American Romanticism C. marked the independence of American literature

Emerson’s aesthetics brought about a revolution in American literature in general and in American poetry in particular. It marked the birth of true American poetry and true American poets.