1、- 1 -A Concise History of American LiteratureWhat is literature?Literature is language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities and to convey meaningful messages.Chapter 1 Colonial PeriodI. Background: Puritanism1. features of Puritanism(1) Predestination: God decided everything
2、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.2. Influence(1) A group of good qualities hard work, thrift, piety, sobriety (ser
3、ious and thoughtful) influenced American literature.(2) It led to the everlasting myth. All literature is based on a myth garden of Eden.(3) Symbolism: the American puritans metaphorical mode of perception was chiefly instrumental in calling into being a literary symbolism which is distinctly Americ
4、an.(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.II. Overview of the literature1. types of writingdiaries, histories, journals, letters, travel books, aut
5、obiographies/biographies, sermons2. writers of colonial period(1) Anne Bradstreet(2) Edward Taylor(3) Roger Williams(4) John Woolman(5) Thomas Paine(6) Philip FreneauIII. Jonathan Edwards1. life2. works(1) The Freedom of the Will(2) The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3) The Nature of True V
6、irtue3. ideas pioneer of transcendentalism(1) The spirit of revivalism(2) Regeneration of man(3) Gods presence(4) Puritan idealismIV. Benjamin Franklin1. life2. works(1) Poor Richards Almanac(2) Autobiography3. contribution(1) He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical
7、Society.(2) He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) - 2 -from heaven”.(3) Everything seems to meet in this one man “Jack of all trades”. Herman Melville thus described him “master of each and mastered by none”.Chapter 2 American RomanticismSection 1 Early Rom
8、antic PeriodWhat is Romanticism? An approach from ancient Greek: Plato A literary trend: 18c in Britain (17981832) Schlegel Bros.I. Preview: Characteristics of romanticism1. subjectivity(1) feeling and emotions, finding truth(2) emphasis on imagination(3) emphasis on individualism personal freedom,
9、no hero worship, natural goodness of human beings2. back to medieval, esp medieval folk literature(1) unrestrained by classical rules(2) full of imagination(3) colloquial language(4) freedom of imagination(5) genuine in feelings: answer their call for classics3. back to naturenature is “breathing li
10、ving thing” (Rousseau)II. American Romanticism1. Background(1) Political background and economic development(2) Romantic movement in European countriesDerivative foreign influence2. features(1) American romanticism was in essence the expression of “a real new experience and contained “an alien quali
11、ty” for the simple reason that “the spirit of the place” was radically new and alien.(2) There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider. American romantic authors tended more to moralize. Many American romantic writings intended to edify more than they entertained.(3) The “newness”
12、of Americans as a nation is in connection with American Romanticism.(4) As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work, American romanticism was both imitative and independent.III. Washington Irving1. several names attached to Irving(1) first American writer(2) the messenger sent from
13、 the new world to the old world(3) father of American literature2. life3. works(1) A History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty(2) The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. (He won a measure of international recognition with the publication of this.)(3) The H
14、istory of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus(4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada- 3 -(5) The Alhambra4. Literary career: two parts(1) 18091832a. Subjects are either English or Europeanb. Conservative love for the antique(2) 18321859: back to US5. style beautiful(1) gentility, urbanit
15、y, pleasantness(2) avoiding moralizing amusing and entertaining(3) enveloping stories in an atmosphere(4) vivid and true characters(5) humour smiling while reading(6) musical languageIV. James Fenimore Cooper1. life2. works(1) Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austens Pride and Prejudice)
16、(2) The Spy (his second novel and great success)(3) Leatherstocking Tales (his masterpiece, a series of five novels)The Deerslayer, The Last of the Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneer, The Prairie3. point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocra
17、t vs. democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights4. style(1) highly imaginative(2) good at inventing tales(3) good at landscape description(4) conservative(5) characterization wooden and lacking in probability(6) language and use of dialect not authentic5. literary achievementsHe created a myth about
18、the formative period of the American nation. If the history of the United States is, in a sense, the process of the American settlers exploring and pushing the American frontier forever westward, then Coopers Leatherstocking Tales effectively approximates the American national experience of adventur
19、e into the West. He turned the west and frontier as a useable past and he helped to introduce western tradition to American literature.Section 2 Summit of Romanticism American TranscendentalismI. Background: four sources1. Unitarianism(1) Fatherhood of God(2) Brotherhood of men(3) Leadership of Jesu
20、s(4) Salvation by character (perfection of ones character)(5) Continued progress of mankind(6) Divinity of mankind(7) Depravity of mankind2. Romantic IdealismCenter of the world is spirit, absolute spirit (Kant)3. Oriental mysticismCenter of the world is “oversoul”- 4 -4. PuritanismEloquent expressi
21、on in transcendentalismII. Appearance1836, “Nature” by EmersonIII. Features1. spirit/oversoul2. importance of individualism3. nature symbol of spirit/Godgarment of the oversoul4. focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)IV. Influence1. It served as an ethical guide to life for a young
22、nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles of customs and traditions and go forward to the development of a new and distinctly American culture.2. It advocated idealism that was great needed in a rapidly expa
23、nded economy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual height.3. It helped to create the first American renaissance one of the most prolific period in American literature.V. Ralph Waldo Emerson1. life2. works(1) Nature
24、(2) Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet3. point of view(1) One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcendence of the “oversoul”.(2) He regards nature as the purest, and the most sanctifying moral influence on man, and advocated a direct intuition of a spiritual and im
25、manent God in nature.(3) If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. This is what Emerson means by “the infinitude of man”.(4) Everyone should understand that he makes himself by making his world, and that he ma
26、kes the world by making himself.4. aesthetic ideas(1) He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2) True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3) The poet should express his thought in symbols.(4) As to theme, Emerson called upon American authors to celebrate America which was to him a lone poem in itself.
27、5. his influenceVI. Henry David Thoreau1. life2. works(1) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2) Walden(3) A Plea for John Brown (an essay)3. point of view(1) He did not like the way a materialistic America was developing and was vehemently outspoken on the point.(2) He hated the human injusti
28、ce as represented by the slavery system.- 5 -(3) Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on mans spiritual well-being.(4) He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man.(5) He was very critical of modern civilization.(6) “S
29、implicitysimplify!”(7) He was sorely disgusted with “the inundations of the dirty institutions of mens odd-fellow society”.(8) He has calm trust in the future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.Section 3 Late RomanticismI. Nathaniel Hawthorne1. life2. works(1) Two collections of short
30、stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse(2) The Scarlet Letter(3) The House of the Seven Gables(4) The Marble Faun3. point of view(1) Evil is at the core of human life, “that blackness in Hawthorne”(2) Whenever there is sin, there is punishment. Sin or evil can be passed from generation
31、to generation (causality).(3) He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4) He has disgust in science.4. aesthetic ideas(1) He took a great interest in history and antiquity. To him these furnish the soil on which his mind grows to fruition.(2) He was convinced that romance was the predestined form of
32、 American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.5. style typical romantic writer(1) the use of symbols(2) revelation of characters psychology(3) the use of supernatural mixed with the actual(4) his stories are parable (parable
33、 inform) to teach a lesson(5) use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty multiple point of viewII. Herman Melville1. life2. works(1) Typee(2) Omio(3) Mardi(4) Redburn(5) White Jacket(6) Moby Dick(7) Pierre(8) Billy Budd3. point of view(1) He never seems able to say an affirmativ
34、e yes to life: His is the attitude of “Everlasting Nay” (negative attitude towards life).(2) One of the major themes of his is alienation (far away from each other).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of inno
35、cence and evil, doubts over - 6 -the comforting 19c idea of progress4. style(1) Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employing the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2) He tends to write periodic chapters.(3) His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic
36、power have been profusely commented upon and praised.(4) His works are symbolic and metaphorical.(5) He includes many non-narrative chapters of factual background or description of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)Romantic PoetsI. Walt Whitman1. life2. work: Leaves of Grass (9
37、editions)(1) Song of Myself(2) There Was a Child Went Forth(3) Crossing Brooklyn Ferry(4) Democratic Vistas(5) Passage to India(6) Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking3. themes “Catalogue of American and European thought”He had been influenced by many American and European thoughts: enlightenment, id
38、ealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jeffersons individualism, Civil War Unionism, Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (almost everything): equality of things and beings divinity of everything immanence of God democracy evolution of cosmos multiplicity of
39、nature self-reliant spirit death, beauty of death expansion of America brotherhood and social solidarity (unity of nations in the world) pursuit of love and happiness4. style: “free verse”(1) no fixed rhyme or scheme(2) parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3) phonetic recurrence(4) the habit of using sn
40、apshots(5) the use of a certain pronoun “I”(6) a looser and more open-ended syntactic structure(7) use of conventional image(8) strong tendency to use oral English(9) vocabulary powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong(10) sentences catalogue technique: long list of
41、 names, long poem lines5. influence(1) His best work has become part of the common property of Western culture.(2) He took over Whitmans vision of the poet-prophet and poet-teacher and recast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.- 7 -(3) He has been compared to a mountain in American lit
42、erary history.(4) Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence.II. Emily Dickenson1. life2. works(1) My Life Closed Twice before Its Close(2) Because I Cant Stop for Death(3) I Heard a Fly Buzz When I died(4) Mine by the Right of the White Election(5) W
43、ild Nights Wild Nights3. themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1) religion doubt and belief about religious subjects(2) death and immortality(3) love suffering and frustration caused by love(4) physical aspect of desire(5) nature kind and cruel(6) free will and human responsibility4. sty
44、le(1) poems without titles(2) severe economy of expression(3) directness, brevity(4) musical device to create cadence (rhythm)(5) capital letters emphasis(6) short poems, mainly two stanzas(7) rhetoric techniques: personification make some of abstract ideas vividIII. Comparison: Whitman vs. Dickinso
45、n1. Similarities:(1) Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry being part of “American Renaissance”.(2) Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking fr
46、ee of the convention of the iambic pentameter and exhibiting a freedom in form unknown before: they were pioneers in American poetry.2. differences:(1) 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 outl
47、ook, Dickinson is “regional”.(3) Dickinson has the “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) which Whitman doesnt have.Edgar Allen PoeI. LifeII. Works1. short stories(1) ratiocinative storiesa. Ms Found in a Bottleb. The Murders in the Rue Morguec. The Purloined Letter(2) Revenge, death and rebir
48、tha. The Fall of the House of Usherb. Ligeiac. The Masque of the Red Death- 8 -(3) Literary theorya. The Philosophy of Compositionb. The Poetic Principlec. Review of Hawthornes Twice-told TalesIII. Themes1. death predominant theme in Poes writing“Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything i
49、n Poes writings is dead.”2. disintegration (separation) of life3. horror4. negative thoughts of scienceIV. Aesthetic ideas1. The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effect, compression and finality.2. The poems should be short, and the aim should be beauty, the tone melancholy. Poems should not be of moralizing. He calls for pure poetry and stresses rhythm.V. Style traditional, but not easy to readVI. Reputation: “the jingle man” (Emerson)VII. His influencesChapter 3 The Age of RealismI.
