1、Introduction to American literature,1.The Colonial Period 2.The Romantic Period (the first half of 19th century) 3.The Age of Realism and Naturalism 4.The Period around WWI 5.The Modern Period,I. The Colonial Period (the early 17th and 18th century),1. Puritanism: idealism and opportunism 2. Benjami
2、n Franklin本杰明富兰克林 : “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”自传 Poor Richards Almanac穷查理历书 (containing witty maxims for achieving wealth as a result of hard work and thrift)3.Philip Freneau (poem)菲利普弗伦诺 The Rising Glory of America蒸蒸日上的美洲,American Puritanism Puritans The early settlers founding father
3、s of the America nation To purify the rituals and lessen the authority of bishops escaped to the new world, create a new paradise advocate highly religious and moral principles. American Puritanism was one of the most enduring shaping influences in American thought and American literature.,Chapter T
4、wo American Romanticism and New England Literature,Logic Thread,Representative figures of the time:,Pre-romanticism:Washington Irving, James Fenimore Cooper库珀,Post-romanticism:Novelists: Nathaniel Hawthorne, HermanMelvillePoets: Henry Wadesworth Longfellow, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt WhitmanEmily Dickins
5、onEssayists: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau,American Romanticism,The romantic period stretches from the end of the eighteenth century through the outbreak of the Civil War (1790-1865). 1. Background (1) Political background and economic development Territorial Expansion Industrial GrowthTh
6、e Civil WarThe “newness” of Americans as a nation is in connection with American Romanticism. optimism and hope among the people There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. (2) foreign influence Romantic movement in European countries,American Romanticism,Romanticism was a rebel
7、lion against the objectivity of rationalism. For romantics, the feelings, intuitions and emotions were more important than reason and common sense. They stressed the close relationship between man and nature; They emphasized individualism and affirmed the inner life of the self.,Washington Irving (1
8、783-1859) 华盛顿欧文,早期浪漫主义小说家 A History of New York纽约的历史-美国人写的第一部诙谐文学杰作；The Sketch Book见闻札记The Legend of Sleepy Hollow睡谷的传说-使之成为美国第一个获得国际声誉的作家 Rip Van Winkle,James Fenimore Cooper 1789-1851 詹姆斯费尼莫尔库珀,早期浪漫主义小说家“Leatherstocking Tales”皮裹腿故事集 a series of five novels, that is the Pioneers拓荒者(I823)the Last of
9、 the Mohicans(1826)最后的莫希干人The Prairie(1827)大草原The Pathfinder(1840)探路者The Deerslayer(1841)杀鹿者 adventure into the wilderness of the West/,2.The summit of Romanticism-New England Transcendentalism / 1. Emerson / “Nature” 2. Henry David Thoreau / “ Walden” 3.Whitman / “Leaves of Grass” 4. Hawthorn / “ T
10、he Scarlet Letter” 5.Herman Meville “Moby Dick”,Post-romanticism (New England Transcendentalism),What is Transcendentalism? 1.Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)爱默生 The leading New England Transcendentalist “Nature”论自然-新英格兰超验主义者的宣言书 ;The American Scholar论美国学者2.Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862) Transcendenta
11、list Emersons friend Walden,The major features of Transcendentalism,1.The Transcendentalists placed emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. 2. The Transcendentalists stressed the importance of the individual. To them the individual was the most important ele
12、ment of society. 3. The Transcendentalists offered a fresh perception of nature as symbolic of the Spirit or God. Nature was, to them, not purely matter. It was alive, filled with Gods overwhelming presence.,The Development of Transcendentalism, Nature (in 1836) by Ralph Waldo Emerson Natures voice
13、pushed American Romanticism into a new phase, the phase of New England Transcendentalism, the summit of American Romanticism. Transcendentalist ClubTranscendentalism was indebted to the dual heritage of American Puritanism, the religious idealism of their Puritan past.Transcendentalists emphasis on
14、the individual was directly traceable to the Puritan principle of self-culture and self-improvement. Thus there is good reason to state that New England Transcendentalism was Romanticism on the Puritan soil. New England Transcendentalism was important to American literature. It inspired a whole new
15、generation of famous authors such as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Melville, Whitman and Dickinson.,Nathaniel Hawthorne(1804-1864), Novels:Scarlet Letter红字 Hester Prynne; The House of Seven Gables七个尖角阁的房子; The Blithedale Romance福谷传奇;The Marble Faun大理石神像Short story collections: Twice-Told Tales 故事新编Mo
16、ses from an Old Manse古屋青苔,Herman Melville赫尔曼梅尔维尔1819-1891,Moby Dick/The White Whale 莫比迪克/白鲸,Edgar Allan Poe埃德加爱伦坡1809-1849,The first professional writer in America The first writer of detective story in the world -歌特风格；首开近代侦探小说先河，又是法国象征主义运动的源头 The Fall of the House of Usher厄舍古屋的倒塌(novel); The Raven乌
17、鸦(poem) Tamerlane and Other Poems帖木儿和其他诗; To Hellen致海伦 （以诗为诗；永为世人共赏的伟大抒情诗人-叶芝）,Walt Whitman(1819-1892) 沃尔特惠特曼,One of the great innovators in American Poetry Free verse Growing up in a working-class background, having little education Leaves of Grass草叶集 Song of Myself”自我之歌 reveals a world of equality
18、, without rank and hierarchy.,poets,Emily Dickinson(1830-1886) The Poems of Emily Dickinson埃米莉迪金森诗集(love, death,nature,friendship, and immortality) Henry Wadsworth Longfellow亨利沃兹沃思朗费罗1807-1882 A Psalm of Life生命礼赞（short poem） The Song of Hiawatha海华沙之歌-美国人写的第一部印第安人史诗; William Cullen Bryant 1794-1878柯伦
19、布莱恩特 To a Waterfowl致水鸟-英语中最完美的短诗,Harriet Beecher Stowe哈丽特比彻斯托1811-1896,Uncle Toms Cabin汤姆叔叔的小屋,Chapter 3,The Age of Realism and Naturalism,The three strong advocates of 19th century American realism William Dean Howells (critic)豪威尔斯 Henry James威廉詹姆斯 Mark Twain马克吐温,Henry James 1842-1910, James novels
20、 “international situation” are set against a background between America and Europe James contribution to literary criticism is immense. To him, “art without life is a poor affair”. “the aim of the novel is to represent life”. His realism was called as Psychological realism. He was esp. an observer o
21、f the mind rather than a recorder of the times. The American, Daisy Miller The Portrait of a Lady贵妇人画像 The Wings of the Dove鸽翼 The Ambassadors大使,Mark Twain马克吐温 1. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”汤姆索耶历险记 2. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”-his masterpiece/哈克贝利费恩历险记 The Gilded Age镀金时代 3. Famous for
22、his localism, colloquial style,humor and bitter attacks,American Naturalism : pessimistic realism,1. Naturalism came from France. 2. Reasons: civil war, social upheavals Darwins theory of evolution : the survival of the fittest” Men were conditioned dominated by social and economic forces, by heredi
23、ty and environment. 3. Features of naturalist writing:A. naturalist writers turned literary creation into a mechanical record of society, in a way of attempting to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness. They never made comments on the characters and their behaviors. B. The characters were often
24、figures of low social and economic classes C. They stressed men had no free will, their lives were controlled by heredity and environment.,American Naturalism,4. American Naturalist writers: Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Jack London, Henry Adams, Theodore Dreiser.,Stephen Crane(1871-1900) 斯蒂芬克莱恩,Magg
25、ie: A Girl of the Streets街头女郎梅姬（美国文学史上首次站在同情立场上描写受辱妇女的悲惨命运） The Red Badge of Courage红色英勇勋章 The Black Riders (his first book of poems),Theodore Dreiser(1871-1945),Dreisers works Sister Carrie 1900 (A feather in wind, she is totally at the mercy of forces she cannot comprehend and control. She does no
26、t seem to possess what may be called a moral fibre in her.) Jennie Gerhardt 1911 Trilogy of Desire欲望三部曲(Financer金融家1912,The Titan巨人1914,The Stoic斯多葛1915) An American Tragedy美国的悲剧1925 （被称为美国最伟大的小说）,Frank Norris (1870-1902) 弗兰克诺里斯,The Octopus 1901 章鱼,Jack London(1876 - 1916) 杰克伦敦,Martin Edenmasterwork
27、马丁伊登 The Call of the Wild野性的呼唤 The Sea-Wolf海狼 White Fang白獠牙,O Henry (1862-1910)欧享利,1. “The Gift of Magi” 2. “The Cop and the Anthem” 3. Famous for his fascinating plot, humorous touch, interesting puns, localism, and unexpected endings.,American literature in the 1920s and 1930s,1. Poets: T. S. Elio
28、t / “the Waste Land” Robert Frost 2. Novelists: Fitzgerald / “the Great Gatsby”Hemingway / “Farewell to Arms”Faulkner / wrote about the South,American literature in the 1920s,Poetry: T. S. Eliot The Wasteland. Novel: Sinclair Lewis Main Street 1920 Theodore Dreiser An American Tragedy 1925, sister c
29、arrie F. S. Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby 1926, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises 1926, A Farewell to Arms, 1929, William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury, 1929, Drama: Eurgene ONeill, The Emperor Jones, 1920, Anna Christie, 1921, The Hairy Ape 1922, Harlem Renaissance.,Jazz Age,Historical Backgroun
30、d: WWI, peace-making period/boom time. After WWI, people found that the war which cost millions of lives failed to provide an abiding solutions to the worlds problems, that the war was just the traps of political leaders. Such a disillusionment about the value of war, accompanied by the booming of A
31、merican economy drove people to cynical hedonism. People experiment with new amusements. They restlessly pursued stimulus and pleasures, wallow in heavy drinking, fast driving and casual sex. By these, they hoped to seek relief from serious problems.,The Lost Generation迷惘的一代,a disillusionment about
32、the value of war disgusted by the new frivolous, greedy way of life in America When the First World War broke out, many idealistic young Americans volunteered to take part in the war and test their own bravery. They discovered that modern warfare was not glorious or heroic. Disillusioned by slogans
33、of patriotism and glory, disgusted by the new frivolous, greedy way of life in America, many of these young Americas began to write. Some writers left America and formed a community of writers and artists in Paris. They stood aside, as onlookers, and wrote about they saw. They wrote from their own e
34、xperiences in the war, and their own observations.他们不再相信虚伪的道德说教，而以玩世不恭的生活态度来表示自己的消极抗议。“迷惘的一代”的代表作是海明威的太阳照样升起（1926）。,The Lost Generation迷惘的一代,An American woman writer named Gertrude Stein(1874-1946), who had lived in Paris since 1903, welcomed the young American writers to her apartment which was alr
35、eady famous as a literary salon. Gertrude Stein was the advisor, friend of some of the American artists and writers of the time. Ezra Pound joined her group for a few years in the early 1920s. Together, they encouraged and helped such young writers as the novelist Ernest Hemingway and E.E.Cummings,
36、and F.Scott Fitzgerald. Many other writers were drawn to Gertrude Steins home. She called them “The Lost Generation”, a name which stuck to them, because they had cut themselves off from their past in America in order to create new types of writing which had never been tried before.,Ernest Hemingway
37、(1899-1961),his stories of courage in the face of tragedy Iceberg Theory The Sun Also Rises 1926 A Farewell to Arms 1929永别了，武器 For Whom the Bell Tolls 1940 以西班牙内战为背景的反法西斯主义的长篇小说丧钟为谁而鸣 The Old Man and the Sea 1952 老人与海塑造了以桑提亚哥为代表的“可以把他消灭，但就是打不败他”的“硬汉形象” 一个人并不是生来要被打败的，你尽可以把他消灭掉，可就是打不败他。,Hemingway hero
38、,He is sensitive, intelligent. He is a man of action and of few words. He is alone even when with other people. He is somewhat an outsider, keeping emotion under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place when one can not get happiness. In a world which is essentially chaotic and meanin
39、gless, a Hemingway hero fights a solitary struggle against a force he does not even understand. The awareness that it must end in defeat, no matter how hard he strives, engenders a sense of despair, but Hemingway hero possesses a kind of despairing courage. It is this courage that enables a man to b
40、ehave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. This is the essence of a code of honor in which all of Hemingways heroes believe.,F.Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940),The literary spokesman of Jazz Age This Side of Paradise 1920 人间天堂 The Beautiful and Damned 1921 漂亮冤家 The Great Gatsby 1925 了
41、不起的盖茨比(The American Dream is dead) Tender Is The Night 1934 夜色温柔 The Last Tycoon 1941最后的巨头,William Faulkner(1897-1962),get Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930 stream-of-consciousness and multiple point of view. 约克纳帕塔法世系小说 （Yoknapatawpha County） The Sound and the Fury 喧嚣与骚动As I Lay Dying 我弥留之际 Sanctua
42、ry圣堂 Light in August八月之光 Absalom, Absalom! 押沙龙，押沙龙 Go Down, Moses去吧，摩西,Sherwood Anderson(1876-1941) 舍伍德安德森,Winesburg, Ohio 1919 俄亥俄州的温斯堡 Poor White 1920穷白人 Death in the Woods 1933 最后一本重要短篇集林中之死及其它 （海明威和菲茨杰拉德都受过他很大影响，海明威曾说：“他是我们所有人的老师”。,Sinclair Lewis辛刘易斯 (1885-1951),Main Street 1920 Babbitt 1922 The
43、 first American writer to get Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930(美国第一个获诺贝尔奖) Babbitt: presents a documentary picture of the narrow and limited middle-class mind 辛刘易斯的大街（1920）粉碎了“村镇是美好的世外桃源”的神话。他后来的作品对商业、科技、宗教界的问题都作了揭露，他所塑造的巴比特成了庸俗、浮夸、讲求实利的中产阶级的典型人物,Imagism意像派,Background： Imagism came as a reaction t
44、o the traditional English poetics to meet the need of expressing the temper of the age. (the rapid change of society) the leader: Ezra Pound (1) “Direct treatment“ Direct treatment of the “thing”, whether subjective or objective (2) “Economy of Expression“ To use absolutely no word that does not con
45、tribute to the presentation:(3) “ Rhythm“ As regarding rhythm, to compose in the sequence of the musical phrase, not in the sequence of a metronome.,Ezra Pound (1885-1972) 艾兹拉庞德,Cantos 诗章 In a Station of the Metro在巴黎地铁站,Robert Frost(1874-1963),The most popular American poet of the 20th century The R
46、oad Not Taken没有走过的道路 雪夜林畔小驻 Mending Wall修墙,20th century Little Theatre movement and George Pierce Baker (47 Workshop at Harvard) experimental plays by such students as Eugene ONeill and Sidney Howard the Theatre of the Absurd(荒诞派戏剧),Eugene ONeill(1888-1953) 尤金奥尼尔,The Americas greatest playwright, an
47、d the only one to receive the Nobel Prize The Emperor Jones琼斯皇 The Hairy Ape 1922毛猿 Beyond the Horizon天边外 Desire under the elms(1923) The iceman cometh(1946) Long Days Journey into night(1955);送冰的人来了;,Arthur Miller (1915-),Playwright Death Of A Salesman 1949,American literature in the 1930s,Backgrou
48、nd: a dark decadeThe Great Depression Left-wing writing become the main stream of 1930s American literature John Dos Passos John Steibeck,John Steinbeck(1902-1968),Awarded Nobel Prize in 1962 The Grape of Wrath 1939 Of Mice and Men(1937) Tortilla Flat煎饼坪1935 In Dubious Battle 1936胜负未决,John Dos Passo
49、s1896-1970,Manhattan Transfer (1925). His USA trilogy: The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1932) The Big Money (1936).（The USA trilogy also included what became known as newsreels ） The big Time最好的岁月 The Grand Design伟大的设想,VI. Modern times,1. A great variety of literary trends 2. Black literature / Alex Haley / “Roots” 3. Jewish writer / Saul Bellow,American literature after World War II,
