1、American Literature1ppt课件American literature The Literature of Colonial Period The Literature of Reason and Revolution The literature of Romanticism The Literature of Realism The Literature of The 20th century 2ppt课件The Literature of Colonial Period 3ppt课件Historical background The first permanent En
2、glish settlement in North America at James town,Virginia in 1607.In 1630 the puritans established the Massachusetts Bay Colony.Independent War(1776-1783);the foundation of a Federative bourgeois democratic republicthe United States of America.4ppt课件 Puritanism:American Puritans Puritans want to make
3、 up pure their religious beliefs and practices.Puritans wish to restore simplicity to church services and the authority of the Bible to theology.Puritans look upon themselves as a chosen people,and it follow logically that anyone who challenged their way of life is opposing Gods will and is not to b
4、e accepted.Puritan opposition to pleasure and the arts sometimes has been exaggerated.Religious teaching tended to emphasize the image of a wrathful God.5ppt课件Types of writing:Types of writing:histories,travel accounts,diaries,biographies,letters,autobiographies,sermons,and poems.6ppt课件Major writers
5、:Captain John Smith(约翰(约翰史密斯)史密斯)u the first American writeru A Description of New England 新英格兰叙事(1616)u General History of Virginia弗吉尼亚通史(1642)Pocahontas 7ppt课件William Bradford(1590-1657)One of the greatest of colonial American,wholly consecrated to a mission in which he regarded himself as an inst
6、rument of God.At the age of 18,he accompanied the group to Holland to escape persecution.13 years later he was one of those who,on December 11,took on the Mayflower and entered Plymouth Bay.From 1622 until his death,Bradford was reelected thirty timed as governor.Masterpiece:Of Plymouth Plantation8p
7、pt课件 Anne Bradstreet(安妮安妮布拉布拉德斯特里特德斯特里特)(1612-1672)uthe first American woman poetu ua Puritan poet,once called“Tenth Muse”umost famous poems“Contemplations”沉思录9ppt课件The Literature of Reason and Revolution“The Age of Reason”“American Enlightenment”10ppt课件Historical Background Politics dominated the r
8、evolutionary phase of American writing.The crisis in American life carried by the Revolution made artists self-conscious about American subjects.The spiritual life in the colonies during that period was molded by the bourgeois Enlightenment.11ppt课件2.Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790):The Autobiography Poo
9、r Richards Almanack12ppt课件Benjamin Franklin American politician,scientist,inventor,and educator.He was a typical example of the so-called American Dream.He helped draft the“Declaration of Independence”.He conducted the difficult negotiation with France that brought financial and military support for
10、 America in the war.He founded the college that was to become the University of Pennsylvania.13ppt课件3.Thomas Paine(1737-1809):Paine was“Great Commoner of Mankind”.He was born England.At the age of 37,Franklin met him in London and recognized his peculiar talents in their American perspective.He wrot
11、e many political pamphlets during the Revolutionary period.Common Sense The American Crisis The Rights of Man The Age of Reason 14ppt课件 Philip Freneau (1752-1832)“Poet of the American Revolution”“Father of American Poetry”“Pioneer of the New Romanticism”“A gifted and versatile lyric poet”“The Rising
12、 Glory of America”(1772)“The House of Night”(1779,1786)“The British Prison Ship”(1781)“To the Memory of the Brave Americans”(1781)“The Wild Honey Suckle”(1786)“The Indian Burying Ground”(1788)“The Dying Indian:Tomo Chequi”15ppt课件The literature of Romanticism(1820s-1860s)16ppt课件Historical Background
13、This is a period of rapid growth and rapid expansion This is a period of the discussion of social issues This is a period of the pursuit of new belief This is a period of the development of education This is a period of foreign influences 17ppt课件Characteristics of romanticism American romanticism wa
14、s in essence the expression of“a real new experience and contained“an alien quality”for the simple reason that“the spirit of the place”was radically new and alien.There is American Puritanism as a cultural heritage to consider.American romantic authors tended more to moralize.Many American romantic
15、writings intended to edify more than they entertained.The“newness”of Americans as a nation is in connection with American Romanticism.As a logical result of the foreign and native factors at work,American romanticism was both imitative and independent18ppt课件What does“transcendentalism”mean?The word
16、Transcendentalism,meaning that knowledge can be obtained through mental process apart from experiences,was a Kantian term,denoting,as Emerson put it,“whatever belongs to the class of intuitive thought.”Emerson also said,Transcendentalism means idealism.19ppt课件Importance:the summit of American Romant
17、icism.Representatives:A group of New Englanders,Ralph Waldo Emerson,Henry David Thoreau and Margaret Fuller,about 30 people,mostly teachers and clergymen,formed a Transcendentalist Club and met regularly to discuss matters of interest and published a journal,The Dial(日晷)to express their opinions.New
18、 England Transcendentalism20ppt课件Washington Irving (1783-1859)the first American writers to earn an international reputation Father of the American literature His The Sketch Book marked the beginning of American romanticism21ppt课件Major Works A History of New York A History of New York The Sketch Boo
19、k of Geoffrey The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon,Gent.(This gives him Crayon,Gent.(This gives him international recognition.)international recognition.)The History of the Life and The History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Voyages of Christopher Columbus Columbus Rip Van Winkle Rip Van Winkl
20、e 22ppt课件James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)Americas first successful popular novelist;the first border writer Created a myth aobut the formative period of American nation Helped introduce the“western”tradition into American literature23ppt课件 Masterpiece:The Leatherstocking TalesThe Pioneers(1823),The
21、 Last of Mohicans(1826),The Prairie(1827),The Pathfinder(1840),The Deerslayer(1841)Major works24ppt课件The Literature of Realism(1865-1918)25ppt课件Historical background1 The Civil War(1861-1865)a deterioration(恶化恶化)of American moral values2 Increasing industrialization and mechanization extremes of wea
22、lth and poverty3 The frontier was about to close.people began to feel a sense of suffering and unhappiness4 Influenced by European literature 26ppt课件 truthful description of life typical character under typical circumstance objective rather than idealized,close observation and investigation of life“
23、Realistic writers are like scientists.”open-ending:Life is complex and cannot be fully understood.It leaves much room for readers to think by themselves.concerned with social and psychological problems,revealing the frustrations of characters in an environment of sordidness and depravity The Charact
24、eristics of American Realism The Characteristics of American Realism27ppt课件Mark Twain(1835-1910)28ppt课件Mark Twains Main WorksInnocents Abroad(1869);Roughing it(1872);The Gilded Age(1873);The Adventures of Tom Sawyer(1876);The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1884);Life on the Mississippi(1883).29ppt课件
25、Stephen Crane(1871-1900)斯蒂芬克莱恩 Maggie:A Girl of the Streets街头女郎梅姬 The Red Badge of Courage红色英勇勋章 The Black Riders(his first book of poems)30ppt课件Frank Norris(1870-1902)Father of American Naturalism Works McTeague(1899)A trilogy(三部曲三部曲):comprising of The Octopus(1901)The Pit(1903)The Wolf(never writt
26、en)31ppt课件The 20th century American Literature(after 1914)-Now32ppt课件 Historical Background The Two World Wars economical prosperity The U.S.A made a lot of money,and there appeared an economic boom.the technological revolution had brought about great changes in the life of the American people.After
27、 the war,the U.S.A had become the most powerful industrialized nation in the world33ppt课件Imagism a poetic movement of England and the United States,flourished from 1909-1917.Its credo,expressed in Some Imagist Poets,included the use of the language of common speech,project matter,the evocation of im
28、ages in hard,clear poetry,and concentration.34ppt课件Ezra Pound Pound and Eliot became the early leaders in restoring to poetry the use of literary reference as an imaginative instrument major works:poetry-“The Cantos”35ppt课件The Lost Generation What are the main characteristics?Suffering from the war,
29、losing beliefs,being cut off from the past,disillusioned,strong sense of loss,puzzled,confused,unable or unwilling to settle back into the routines of peacetime life,indulged in drinking and partying,can not adjust themselves to the present life.What are the main subject matters?The lostness,nada an
30、d wound(Hemingway),the breaking up of the American dream(Fitzgerald),the sociological zero(Dos Passos),and nothing again nothing(Eliot)36ppt课件Ernest Hemingway(1899-1961)l The Sun Also Rises 1926l A Farewell to Arms 1929l For Whom the Bell Tolls 1940l The Old Man and the Sea 195237ppt课件William Faulkner(1897-1962)get Nobel Prize for Literature in 1930 stream-of-consciousness and multiple point of view.The Sound and the Fury 喧嚣与骚动 As I Lay Dying 我弥留之际 Sanctuary圣堂 Light in August八月之光 Absalom,Absalom!押沙龙,押沙龙 Go Down,Moses去吧,摩西 38ppt课件Thanks for your listening!39ppt课件