1、American Literature1 What is literature?Literature as language artistically used to achieve identifiable literary qualities,to convey meaningful messages.Literature is characterized by beauty of expression(diction&syntax,etc)and form and by universality of intellectual and emotional appeal.2 What is
2、 American Literature?American literature is the literature written or produced in the area of the United States and its preceding colonies,including African American Literature,Chinese American Literature3 How do we learn American Literature?Literary periods:The English Colonial Years(early 17th C.-
3、the end of the 18th C.)Chapters 1-2;The Age of Romanticism(the first half of the 19th C.)Chapters 3-7;The Age of Realism&Naturalism(1865-the WWI)Chapters 8-10;The Age of Modernism(WWI-WWII)Chapters 11-18;The Contemporary Period(WWII-)Chapters 19-26.Great and major writers and their masterworks;Liter
4、ary terms,i.e.major literary trends and currents of thoughts.4 Reading List for American Literature 李宜燮，常耀信.美国文学选读(上,下册).天津：南开大学出版社，1997 吴定柏.美国文学大纲.上海：上海外语教育出版社，2004 吴伟仁.美国文学史及选读1,2.北京：外语教学与研究出版社,1990The English Colonial Years1 A Historical Survey 1492 Christopher Columbus/the New World;1607 The fir
5、st British colony in Jamestown in Virginia;1620 101/Mayflower/Cape Cod/the beginning of American colonial literature;1776 The Declaration of Independence;1789 George Washington/the first president;1791 Washington D.C.2 The Puritans and Puritanism 2.1 The Puritans The Puritans/a group of English Prot
6、estants/in the 16th and 17th centuries,including,but not limited to,English Calvinists.2.2 Purpose of American Puritans Reestablish a commonwealth based on the teachings of the Bible;Restore the lost paradise,and build the wilderness into a new Garden of Eden.2.3 Doctrines of American Puritans Prede
7、stination;Original sin;Total depravity;Limited atonement(or the salvation of a selected few).2.4 Features of American Puritanism Religious:a highly strict religious doctrine/the new continent/where they can worship God in the way they thought true Christians should.Practical:moved further and furthe
8、r westward/more occupied with business and profits;Tougher:the severity of the frontier/be ready for any misfortunes and tragic failures.2.5 The impact of Puritanism Social influence:Help build a new nation and a new culture out of the wilderness.Literary influence:A literary expression of the pious
9、 idealism of the American Puritan bequest;Optimistic/in the early days,A mood of frustration or despair/in the later periods;American literary symbolism;Writing style:simple,fresh and direct;Rhetoric:plain/honest,not without a touch of nobility often traceable to the direct influence of the Bible3 M
10、ajor writers and their representative works Humble origins:diaries/histories/journals/letters/commonplacebooks/travel books/sermons(personal literature)In content:early writings/served either God or colonial expansion or both;E.g.John Smith,John Winthrop,William Bradford,Anne Bradstreet,etc.later wr
11、itings/wrote for civil and religious freedom/wrote for America shaking for the fetters of the savage and rapacious British colonial rule.E.g.,Thomas Paine,Philip Freneau.In form/English literary traditions/imitated/transplanted.John Smith(1580-1631)/One of the founders of the colony of Jamestown,Vir
12、ginia;Pocahontas/American legend;The first Disney animated film/based on a real historic character,the known history,and the folklore and legend that surrounds the Native American woman Pocahontas;features a fictionalized account of her encounter with Englishman John Smith and the settlers that arri
13、ved from the Virginia Company.A Description of New England/offered the early settlers vision of the new land as sth.capable of being built into a new Garden of Eden.Philip Freneau(1752-1832)/a most notable representative of dawning nationalism/the most important poet of 18th-century America.The Wild
14、 Honey Suckle,The Indian Burying GroundThe Wild Honey-Suckle Philip Freneau Fair flower,that dost so comely grow,Hid in this silent,dull retreat,Untouched thy honied blossoms blow,Unseen thy little branches greet;No roving foot shall crush thee here,No busy hand provoke a tear.By Natures self in whi
15、te arrayed,She bade thee shun the vulgar eye,And planted here the guardian shade,And sent soft waters murmuring by;Thus quietly thy summer goes,Thy days declining to repose.Smit with those charms,that must decay,I grieve to see your future doom;They died-nor were those flowers more gay,The flowers t
16、hat did in Eden bloom;Unpitying frosts,and Autumns power Shall leave no vestige of this flower.From morning suns and evening dews At first thy little being came:If nothing once,you nothing lose,For when you die you are the same;.The space between,is but an hour,.The frail duration of a flower.Philos
17、ophy?Poetic devices?Rhyming scheme?Significance:1 A new way to create art;2 A vision of an abundant America with the potential for providing a good life for all.野金银花 美丽的金银花，你粲然绽放于幽静一角。芳菲满枝，无人垂顾，迎风起舞，无人注目。游子从不践踏你的玉体，过客从不催落你的泪滴。造化令你素裹银妆，你得以远离庸人的目光。她赐予你一片绿阴葱葱，她带给你一泓流水淙淙。恬静的夏日倏然流淌，你终于红衰翠减，玉陨香消。妩媚动人，你却无法
18、盛颜久长，落红满地，你令我黯然神伤。纵然在伊甸乐园，人间天堂，也难免一日凋零，满目凄凉。萧瑟秋风，凄白秋霜，你终于消失得无影无踪。朝霞暮露，孕育了你娇小的身躯。你从尘土来，又归尘土去，来时一无所有，去时化作尘土，可叹生命苦短，你终究红消香断。Historic background 18th C./Newton/Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica/the laws of motion and the idea of universal gravitation;predominant/deism;Voltaire,Rousseau in Fra
19、nce/Alexander Pope,Daniel Defoe,Samuel Johnson in England/The Age of Enlightenment;enlightenment,reason and order/Benjamin Franklin.Benjamin Franklin(1706-1790)Life simple Calvinist background/early days/made a fortune/as a printer and publisher/later days/make scientific experiments/do good to his
20、fellowmen.1750s/public career began/The Declaration of Independence.Evaluation Versatile:a printer,essayist,scientist,orator,statesman,philosopher,ambassador,etc.Jack of all trades,master of each and mastered by none-the type and genius of his land.-Herman Melville.An exemplary self-made man.Literar
21、y Achievements The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin General introduction Four parts/written at four different times:1st part:the long letter to his son,1771;2nd part:1784;3rd part:1788;4th part:some month before his death.13 virtues Temperance,silence,order,resolution,frugality,industry,humility,s
22、incerity,justice,moderation,cleanliness,tranquility,chastity.Puritan influence Puritan:a record of self-examination and self-improvement/the illustration of Puritan ethic:industrious,frugal and prudent.E.g.God help those who help themselves.Every calling is a service to God.spokesman for the new ord
23、er of 18th-century enlightenment;Man is basically good and free by nature,endowed by God with certain inalienable rights of liberty and the pursuit of happiness.the fulfillment of the American Dream.Writing style:simple,direct and concise.Significance of the literature of settlement:Strove for a higher degree of excellence and evolved slowly but steadily toward an indigenous American literature.Certain figures/exercised sth.Like a seminal influence on the subsequent development of American literature.
