1、- 1 -A Concise History of American LiteratureChapter 1 Colonial PeriodI. Jonathan Edwards1. life2. works(1) The Freedom of the Will(2) The Great Doctrine of Original Sin Defended(3) The Nature of True Virtue3. ideas pioneer of transcendentalism(1) The spirit of revivalism(2) Regeneration of man(3) G
2、ods presence(4) Puritan idealismII. Benjamin Franklin1. works(1) Poor Richards Almanac(2) Autobiography2. contribution(1) He helped found the Pennsylvania Hospital and the American Philosophical Society.(2) He was called “the new Prometheus who had stolen fire (electricity in this case) from heaven”
3、.(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 Romantic PeriodI. Washington Irving1. several names attached to Irving(1) first American writer(2) the messenger
4、sent from the new world to the old world(3) father of American literature2. 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
5、 History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus(4) A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada(5) The Alhambra3. Literary career: two parts(1) 18091832a. Subjects are either English or Europeanb. Conservative love for the antique(2) 18321859: back to US4. style beautiful(1) gentility, urbanity,
6、pleasantness(2) avoiding moralizing amusing and entertaining(3) enveloping stories in an atmosphere- 2 -(4) vivid and true characters(5) humour smiling while reading(6) musical languageII. James Fenimore Cooper1. works(1) Precaution (1820, his first novel, imitating Austens Pride and Prejudice)(2) T
7、he 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 Prairie2. point of viewthe theme of wilderness vs. civilization, freedom vs. law, order vs. change, aristocrat vs.
8、 democrat, natural rights vs. legal rights3. 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 authentic4. literary achievementsHe created a myth about the f
9、ormative 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 adventure int
10、o 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. Appearance1836, “Nature” by EmersonII. Features1. spirit/oversoul2. importance of individualism3. nature symb
11、ol of spirit/Godgarment of the oversoul4. focus in intuition (irrationalism and subconsciousness)III. Influence1. It served as an ethical guide to life for a young nation and brought about the idea that human can be perfected by nature. It stressed religious tolerance, called to throw off shackles o
12、f 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 expanded economy where opportunity often became opportunism, and the desire to “get on” obscured the moral necessity for rising to spiritual
13、 height.3. It helped to create the first American renaissance one of the most prolific period in American literature.IV. Ralph Waldo Emerson1. works- 3 -(1) Nature(2) Two essays: The American Scholar, The Poet2. point of view(1) One major element of his philosophy is his firm belief in the transcend
14、ence 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 immanent God in nature.(3) If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become bett
15、er 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 makes the world by making himself.3. aesthetic ideas(1) He is a complete man, an eternal man.(2) True poetry and true art should ennoble.(3
16、) 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.4. his influenceV. Henry David Thoreau1. works(1) A Week on the Concord and Merrimack River(2) Walden(3) A Plea for John Brown (an essay)
17、2. 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 injustice as represented by the slavery system.(3) Like Emerson, but more than him, Thoreau saw nature as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on ma
18、ns 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) “Simplicitysimplify!”(7) He was sorely disgusted with “the inundations of the dirty institutions of mens odd-fellow society”.(8) He has calm trust in th
19、e future and his ardent belief in a new generation of men.Section 3 Late RomanticismI. Nathaniel Hawthorne1. works(1) Two collections of short stories: Twice-told Tales, Mosses from and Old Manse(2) The Scarlet Letter(3) The House of the Seven Gables(4) The Marble Faun2. point of view(1) Evil is at
20、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 to generation (causality).(3) He is of the opinion that evil educates.(4) He has disgust in science.3. aesthetic ideas- 4 -(1) He took a great interest in hi
21、story 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 American narrative. To tell the truth and satirize and yet not to offend: That was what Hawthorne had in mind to achieve.4. style typical romantic writ
22、er(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 inform) to teach a lesson(5) use of ambiguity to keep the reader in the world of uncertainty multiple point of viewII. Herman Melville1. works(1) Typee
23、(2) Omio(3) Mardi(4) Redburn(5) White Jacket(6) Moby Dick(7) Pierre(8) Billy Budd2. point of view(1) He never seems able to say an affirmative 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 o
24、ther).Other themes: loneliness, suicidal individualism (individualism causing disaster and death), rejection and quest, confrontation of innocence and evil, doubts over the comforting 19c idea of progress3. style(1) Like Hawthorne, Melville manages to achieve the effect of ambiguity through employin
25、g the technique of multiple view of his narratives.(2) He tends to write periodic chapters.(3) His rich rhythmical prose and his poetic 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 o
26、r description of what goes on board the ship or on the route (Moby Dick)Romantic PoetsI. Walt Whitman1. work: Leaves of Grass (9 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 Rocking2. th
27、emes “Catalogue of American and European thought”He had been influenced by many American and European thoughts: enlightenment, idealism, transcendentalism, science, evolution ideas, western frontier spirits, Jeffersons individualism, Civil War Unionism, - 5 -Orientalism.Major themes in his poems (al
28、most everything): equality of things and beings divinity of everything immanence of God democracy evolution of cosmos multiplicity of 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 happiness
29、3. style: “free verse”(1) no fixed rhyme or scheme(2) parallelism, a rhythm of thought(3) phonetic recurrence(4) the habit of using snapshots(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)
30、 vocabulary powerful, colourful, rarely used words of foreign origins, some even wrong(10) sentences catalogue technique: long list of names, long poem lines4. 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 an
31、d poet-teacher and recast it in a more sophisticated and Europeanized mood.(3) He has been compared to a mountain in American literary history.(4) Contemporary American poetry, whatever school or form, bears witness to his great influence.II. Emily Dickenson1. works(1) My Life Closed Twice before It
32、s 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) Wild Nights Wild Nights2. themes: based on her own experiences/joys/sorrows(1) religion doubt and belief about religious subjects(2) death and immortality(3) love suffering and fr
33、ustration caused by love(4) physical aspect of desire(5) nature kind and cruel(6) free will and human responsibility3. style(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
34、two stanzas(7) rhetoric techniques: personification make some of abstract ideas - 6 -vividIII. Comparison: Whitman vs. Dickinson1. Similarities:(1) Thematically, they both extolled, in their different ways, an emergent America, its expansion, its individualism and its Americanness, their poetry bein
35、g part of “American Renaissance”.(2) Technically, they both added to the literary independence of the new nation by breaking free 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
36、 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”.(3) Dickinson has the “catalogue technique” (direct, simple style) which Whitman doesnt have.Edgar Allen PoeI. Works1. short stories(1) ratiocin
37、ative storiesa. Ms Found in a Bottleb. The Murders in the Rue Morguec. The Purloined Letter(2) Revenge, death and rebirtha. The Fall of the House of Usherb. Ligeiac. The Masque of the Red Death(3) Literary theorya. The Philosophy of Compositionb. The Poetic Principlec. Review of Hawthornes Twice-tol
38、d TalesII. Themes1. death predominant theme in Poes writing“Poe is not interested in anything alive. Everything in Poes writings is dead.”2. disintegration (separation) of life3. horror4. negative thoughts of scienceIII. Aesthetic ideas1. The short stories should be of brevity, totality, single effe
39、ct, 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.IV. Style traditional, but not easy to readV. Reputation: “the jingle man” (Emerson)VI. His influencesChapter
40、3 The Age of RealismI. Three Giants in Realistic Period1. William Dean Howells “Dean of American Realism”(1) Worksa. The Rise of Silas Lapham- 7 -b. A Chance Acquaintancec. A Modern Instance(2) Features of His Worksa. Optimistic toneb. Moral development/ethicsc. Lacking of psychological depth2. Henr
41、y James(1) Literary career: three stagesa. 18651882: international theme The American Daisy Miller The Portrait of a Ladyb. 18821895: inter-personal relationships and some plays Daisy Miller (play)c. 18951900: novellas and tales dealing with childhood and adolescence, then back to international them
42、e The Turn of the Screw When Maisie Knew The Ambassadors The Wings of the Dove The Golden Bowl(2) Aesthetic ideasa. The aim of novel: represent lifeb. Common, even ugly side of lifec. Social function of artd. Avoiding omniscient point of view(3) Point of viewa. Psychological analysis, forefather of
43、stream of consciousnessb. Psychological realismc. Highly-refined language(4) Style “stylist”a. Language: highly-refined, polished, insightful, accurateb. Vocabulary: largec. Construction: complicated, intricate3. Mark Twain (see next section)Local Colorism1860s, 1870s1890sI. Appearance1. uneven deve
44、lopment in economy in America2. culture: flourishing of frontier literature, humourists3. magazines appeared to let writer publish their worksII. Mark Twain Mississippi1. works(1) The Gilded Age(2) “the two advantages”(3) Life on the Mississippi(4) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court(5) The M
45、an That Corrupted Hardleybug2. style(1) colloquial language, vernacular language, dialects(2) local colour(3) syntactic feature: sentences are simple, brief, sometimes ungrammatical(4) humour(5) tall tales (highly exaggerated)(6) social criticism (satire on the different ugly things in society)- 8 -
46、III. Comparison of the three “giants” of American Realism1. ThemeHowells middle classJames upper classTwain lower class2. TechniqueHowells smiling/genteel realismJames psychological realismTwain local colourism and colloquialismChapter 4 American NaturalismI. Theodore Dreiser1. works(1) Sister Carri
47、e(2) The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic(3) Jennie Gerhardt(4) American Tragedy(5) The Genius2. point of view(1) He embraced social Darwinism survival of the fittest. He learned to regard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the “fittest
48、”, the most ruthless, survive.(2) Life is predatory, a “game” of the lecherous and heartless, a jungle struggle in which man, being “a waif and an interloper in Nature”, a “wisp in the wind of social forces”, is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.(3) No one is ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.3. Sister Carrie(1) Plot(2) Analysis4. Style(1) Without good structure(2) Deficient characterization(3) Lack in imagination(4) Journalistic method(5) Techniques in painting
