1、Basic Qualities of American Literature(1) Independent.(2) Individualistic.(3) Critical.(4) Innovative.(5)Humorous.The Literary Scene in Colonial AmericaThe first American literature was neither American nor really literature.John SmithThe 1st American Writer CaptainHis most important work is The Gen
2、eral History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624)Anne Bradstreet(16121672) Tenth MuseA Puritan poet, her poems mainly about religious experience, family life and early settlers livesContemplations沉思录The Literature of Reason and RevolutionJonathan Edwards(1703-1758)l Sinners in the H
3、ands of an Angry Godl Personal NarrativeBenjamin Franklin (1706-1790) n Poor Richards Almanackn The Way to Wealthn The AutobiographyPhilip Freneau“Father of American Poetry”“Poet of the American Revolution”l The Wild Honey SuckleWashington Irving : the Father of American Short Storiesn Rip Van Winkl
4、en The Legend of Sleepy HollowRomantic Individualism : James Fenimore CooperThe Leatherstocking Tales The Last of the MohicansSpokesman of Transcendentalism: Ralph Waldo Emerson Nature(l836) Essays (1841 ). Essays: Second Series (1844)Henry David Thoreaun Walden, 1854n A Week on the Concord And Merr
5、imac Rivers, 1849n “Civil Disobedience”, 1849 WaldenNathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter (1850) “Young Goodman Brown”, Herman Melville Master of Philosophical AllegoryHis early works: sea adventures - Typee(1846), Omoo(1847), Redburn(1849), Mardi(1849), White Jacket(1850), Moby-Dick (1851). His la
6、ter works: Pierre (1852), Bartleby, the Scrivener (1853), Billy Budd (1924)Walt WhitmanWhitman is a father figure in American poetic history.Leaves of Grass the first collection of truly modern poetry （Pre-modern）A forerunner in the history of American poetry: use of free verse.the poet of America a
7、nd American democracy. /representation of national spirit.Realistic in Details but Idealistic and Romantic in Spiritstrong tendency to use oral EnglishEmily Dickinson: the Recluse of AmherstHer poetry usually concerns her meditation on love, religion, death, immortality, and nature.Abundance of them
8、es 1. Religion 2. Love 3. Death and Immortality 4. NatureDickinson was terse, suggestive, and indirect. In general she used the language freely as she liked it to be an instrument to indicate her own sense of the complexity of matter, spirit, and consciousness.迪金森简洁，暗示，间接。总的来说，她是自由地使用这种语言的，因为她喜欢这种语言
9、，这是一种表达她自己对物质、精神和意识的复杂性的感觉的工具。 Dickinson VS Whitman1. Whitman seems to keep his eye on society at large; Dickinson explores the inner life of the individual. 2. Whereas Whitman is “national” in his outlook, Dickinson is “regional” (“because I see New-Englandly”). 3. In formal terms the two poets are
10、 vastly different: Whitmans endless, all-inclusive catalogs contrast with the concise, direct, and simple diction and syntax which characterize Dickinsons poetry.The Age of American Realism: 1865-1914Realism is the theory of writing in which familiar aspects of contemporary life and everyday scenes
11、are represented in a straightforward or matter-of-fact manner. James wrote mostly of the upper reaches of American society, and Howells concerned himself chiefly with middle class life, whereas Mark Twain dealt largely with the lower strata of society. Henry James and Psychological RealismUnlike Mar
12、k Twain whose characters are mainly from the lower middle-class, Henry James is seen as a spokesman for the wealthy, leisured class.The Portrait of a LadyMark TwainLocal Colorism (Regionalism)Twain became nationally famous after the publication of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country”(1
13、865). Life on the Mississippi The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Gilded Age, his social satire written in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg (l900) and The Mysterious Stranger (1916)Style: 1. Comic narrator. 2. Colloquial Language.
14、 3. Humor. 4. Mark Twain as a local colorist.Themes of Huckleberry Finn 1. Theme of Escape 2. Individual versus Society and celebration of humanism 3.Freedom and Bondage 4.Initiation fictionAmerican Naturalisma more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories and plays, usually involving a view of
15、 human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment.在小说、故事和戏剧中，一种更为深思熟虑的现实主义，通常是把人看作是自然力量和社会环境的被动受害者。Naturalist fiction aspired to a sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society Theodore Dreiser and Fr
16、ank Norris in the U.S;自然主义的小说渴望一种社会学的客观性，为现代社会的未探索的角落提供详细的、全面的调查。Theodore Dreiser和弗兰克诺里斯在美国;Frank Norris (1870-1902): Mcteague (1899), The Octopus (1901),The Pit (1903)Stephen Crane Maggie: a Girl of the Street (1893), The Red Badge of Courage (1895)Jack London The Call of the Wild, 1903; People of
17、the Abyss, 1903; The Sea-Wolf, 1904; The War of the Classes, 1905; White Fang, 1905; The Iron Heel, 1908; Martin Eden, 1909commonly categorized as a literary naturalist (although his writings suggest a complexity of ideas.)Thematic Concerns：1. Superman Philosophy 2. Disillusionment of American Dream
18、Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) Sister Carrie、An American Tragedy、Jennie Gerhardt、The Genius 、Trilogy of Desire: The Financier, The Titan, and The Stoic the leader of American literary naturalismalso remembered for his stinging criticism of the genteel tradition and of what Howellsdescribed as the “smi
19、ling aspects of life” typifying AmericaPessimistic Determinism 1) Naturalistic view 2) As a naturalist, he developed the capacity for photographic and relentless observation, thereby truthfully reflecting the society and people of his time. 作为一名自然主义者，他发展了摄影和无情观察的能力，从而如实地反映了当时的社会和人们的生活3）left-oriented
20、 4）The illusion of American Dream 5）rudeness in style.Modern EruptionsEzra Pound (1885-1972) the father of modern American poetry.a leading spokesman of the “Imagist Movement”Profound Influence upon Modern LettersRobert Frost (1874-1963)Mending the Wall、Home Buria1、The Road Not Taken、Stopping by Woo
21、ds on a Snowy Evening、After Apple-PickingThemes1. Nature: duality of nature2. Human being: 1oneliness, perplexity and poverty3. (first and foremost theme) his love of life and his belief in a serenityT. S. Eliot (1888-1965)1. “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” 2. The Waste Land (1922)3. Ash Wedne
22、sday (1930)4. Four Quartets (1942)Stylistic Features 1. Original and Complex Symbolism 2. Aesthetic principle (*) Objective Correlative 3. Rich Allusiveness or Literary Reference 4. Innovation of conventional cadence, metrical meter; Musical Effects 5. Use of common speechErnest Hemingway （1899-1961
23、) 1. the spokesman of the “Lost Generation”; 2. “the mastery of art of modern narration”. 1. War 2. the bullfight 3. The hunt 4. Fishing (*) His view of DeathThe Sun Also Rises (1926) A Farewell to Arms (1929)For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)The Old Man and the Sea (1952)F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)
24、The literary spokesman of “the Jazz Age”This Side of Paradise, 1921 The Beautiful and Damned The Great Gatsby (1925) Tender is the Night (l934) The Last Tycoon (unfinished) Fitzgeralds fiction reveals the hollowness of the American worship of riches and the unending American dreams of love, splendor
25、 and gratified desires and shows what America meant in terms of the reckless 1920s: Prohibition, speakeasies, new cars, victory abroad, popular fads, and new wealth. 菲茨杰拉德的小说揭示了美国人对财富的崇拜，以及美国人对爱情、辉煌和满足欲望的无休止的追求，并展示了美国在20世纪20年代的鲁莽:禁止、地下说、新汽车、海外胜利、流行时尚和新财富。the bankruptcy of the American DreamA great s
26、tylist in American literature:(1) explicit and chilly style;(2) Accurate dialogues and details, careful observation of mannerism; original diction and metaphors, the bold impressionistic and colorful quality. (3) the Jamesian tradition: “central consciousness”The Southern Renaissance and William Fau
27、lkner (1897-1962)the most powerful and eloquent representative of American Southern writers“the most radical innovator in the annals of American fiction,” and “a writer to whom the avant-garde of Europe and Latin America would go to school.” ( stream-of-consciousness)the problems of the human heart
28、in conflict with itselfStylistic Features/ narrative technique n 1. Stream of Consciousnessn 2. Multiple Viewpointsn 3. Complex syntaxn 4. symbolism and mythological and biblical a11usionsn 5. language: dialects; a master of his own particular style of writing n 6. protagonists: tragic“A Rose for Emily”
