美国文学选读总结陶洁版.doc

第一讲
Periods of American Literature
1607—1775 the Colonial Period
1765—1790 the Revolutionary Age
1775—1865 the early national period and the Romantic Period
1865—1914 the Realistic Period
1900—1914 the Naturalistic period
1914—1939 the Modern period
1939--- the contemporary period
The Colonial Period
From the founding of the first settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, to the outbreak of the American Revolution
Historical background
The Reformation in Europe→ most of the founding fathers were puritans → the American Puritanism became one of the most enduring shaping influences
what is American Puritanism?
How does it influence American literature?
American Puritanism
A code of values, a philosophy of life , or a set of tenets of The American puritans
They were idealists believing that their chief business to see that man lived and thought and acted in a way which tended to the glory of God. They accepted the doctrine of predestination, original sin and total depravity, and limited atonement (or the salvation of a selected few) through irresistible grace of God.
On the other hand, they were practical idealists, or doctrinaire opportunists. They felt they were exiles under the grace of God to establish a paradise in the new world, yet the harsh reality forced them to build a way of life that stressed hard work, thrift, piety, and sobriety.
The influences on American literature
Optimism: Anglo-American literature, based on the Biblical myth of the Garden of Eden, is a literary expression of the pious idealism of the Puritan bequest. Fired with a sense of mission, they dreamed of building a new Eden in America, which led to the emergence of American dream in literature.

Literary symbolism: Puritan’s metaphorical mode of perception helped to develop literary symbolism as they saw the physical, phenomenal world was nothing but a symbol of God. Hence symbolism as a technique was a common practice.
The literary scene in Colonial American
Humble origins: histories, travel accounts, diaries, letters, sermons, biographies, autobiographies, commonplace books, and poems to record their experiences and express their views and feelings.
Literature of discovery, of puritan expansion, and of God
William Bradford(1590-1657) Of Plymouth Plantation
John Smith(1580-1631) A Description of New England
Anne Bradstreet(1612-1672 “the Tenth Muse”)
Puritan Poet :Edward Taylor (1642-1729)
characteristics
Full of Symbolic meanings
Utilitarian, polemical, or didactic
The style: fresh, simple, and direct
The rhetoric is plain and honest, not without a touch of nobility traceable to the direct influence of the Bible
The 18th Century
“For three generations the prevailing American character was compact in one type, the man of action who was also the man of God. Not until the eighteenth century did the rift appear… it appeared in the two philosophers, Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin who fixed the poles of our national life…. Jonathan Edwards displayed the infinite inflexibility of the upper levels of the American mind… typically Franklin the finite flexibility of its lower levels”
Van Wyck Brooks: American’s Coming of Age 1915
American Puritanism is a two-faceted tradition of religious idealism and level common sense. Edwards represented the former aspect, while Franklin the latter
Two basic patterns of thought in American
The influence of the deism. (God as the maker of the clock) →The age of enlightenment, reason, order
the persistent Calvinist beliefs → the “Great Awakening ”
Edwards and Franklin represent the paradox of Puritan materialism and immateriality.
Benjamin Franklin and his Autobiography
Born in 1706 into a poor candle-maker’s family--- “poor and obscure”, little formal education.
Independent printer and publisher, essayist, scientist, orator, statesman, philosopher, political economist, ambassador, parlor man,---- “Jack of all trades”
Since early 1750s, public career began. The only American to sign the four documents that created the US----The Declaration of Independence, the treaty of alliance with France, the treaty of peace with England, and the constitution.
Master of each and mastered by none--- the type and genius of his land-------Herman Melville thus described him.
The Autobiography
the simple yet fascinating record of a man rising to wealth and fame from a state of poverty and obscurity, the faithful account of the career of American’s first self-made man.
a Puritan document, a record of self-examination and self-improvement. A convincing illustration of the puritan ethic that in order to get on in the world, one has to be industrious, frugal, and prudent.
An eloquent explanation of his philosophy: moderation, order, man’s basically good and free nature, man’s capability of improvement, man’s inalienable rights.
Celebrates the fulfillment of the American dream through the spirit of self-reliance.
The style
Pattern of puritan simplicity, directness, and concision.
Plainness of style
Homeliness of imagery
Simplicity of diction
Lucidity of the narrative
Washington Irving (1783-1859)
Born into a wealthy New York merchant family.
First book in 1809: A History of New York
With the publication The Sketch Book(1819-1820), a collection of essays, tales, and sketches, he won a measure of international recognition.
In 1826, sent to Spain as an American diplomatic attaché.
from 1829-1832, was a secretary of the united states Legation in London.
Up to 1832, he was drawn to the ruins and relics of Europe and writing about subjects either English or European. He found values in the past and in the traditions of the old world. Back in America, he found a whole new spirit of nationalism in American feeling and letters.
Irving was the first American writer of imaginative literature to gain international fame. The short story as a genre in American literature began with his The Sketch Book, of which the most famous are Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleep Hollow. It also marked the beginning of American Romanticism.
Irving’s style
1. Avoid moralizing as much as possible; wrote to amuse and entertain.
2. Despite the slim plot, he is good at enveloping his stories in an atmosphere
3. His language is finished and musical. The American Goldsmith

第二讲
The Romantic Period
Stretches from the end of 18th century through the outbreak of the civil war
Historical and cultural background
a. the buoyant mood of the nation bursting into new life
b. the flourishing romantic movement in Europe
c. the cultural heritage: American Puritanism
American romanticism was both imitative and independent
a. it was in essence the expression of a real new experience and contained an alien quality. It exhibited an apathy to American life like the westward expansions and democracy and equality.
b. in technique American romanticist loved traditional meters and stanza forms, used stereotyped metaphors and superficial and explicit symbolism
New England Transcendentalism
The summit of American romanticism, “American Renaissance”
The transcendental club with its journal Dial express their resentment to the materialistic-oriented life of the time and to the cold, rigid rationalism of unitarianism
The major features
Emphasis on spirit, or the Oversoul, as the most important thing in the universe. The oversoul was an all-pervading power for goodness, omnipresent and omnipotent, from which all things came and of which all were a part. It existed in nature and man alike. →a new way of looking at the world, reaction against the Newtonian concept of the universe and the mechanized capitalistic America.
Stressed the importance of individual which was the most important element of society. The individual soul communed with the oversoul and was therefore divine. The first concern of man was his perfection through self-culture, self-improvement, and self-reliance. →a new way of looking at man, reaction against the Calvinism and the dehumanization of capitalism
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 God’s overwhelming presence. It was the garment of the Oversoul. Therefore it could exercise a healthy and restorative influence on the human mind.
New England transcendentalism was the product of a combination of foreign romantic influences and the American Puritan idealism. Romanticism on the Puritan soil.
Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882)
Descendant of a long line of New England clergymen.
Went to Harvard, where he underwent a spiritual “odyssey”
Calvinist belief →Unitarian minister →European Romanticism
→the most eloquent spokesman of New England transcendentalism
His Nature(1836): the manifesto of American transcendentalism
The Divinity School Address (1838)
The American Scholar (1837): American’s declaration of Intellectual Independence
The Representative Men (1850): biographies of great men, reveal his ambivalence toward aggressiveness and self-seeking
The Conduct of Life (1860)
The Transcendentalist views of Emerson
The transcendence of the “Oversoul” and the divinity of man
The spiritual and immanent God is operative in the soul of man, and that man is divine.
The infinitude of the private man
If man depends upon himself, cultivates himself, and brings out the divine in himself, he can hope to become better and even perfect. the possibilities for man to develop and improve himself are infinite.
Man should and could be self-reliant. Trust thyself and make thyself
The sanctifying moral influence of nature as the symbol of spirit
The natural world is vitalistic and evolutionary. It mediates between man and god, and is a wholesome moral influence on man.
Aesthetics: romantic organic principle
true poetry and art should serve as a moral purification and a passage toward organic unity and higher reality.
Self-reliance is widely considered to be the definitive statement of Emerson’s philosophy of individualism and the finest example of his prose “trust thyself”.
Contents:
1.The confidence 2.The independence
3.Keep personality 4.Showing no sympathy to the poor
Analysis
Part Ⅰ(1-6): Trust thyself
P1:The importance of thinking for oneself
P2:“Trust thyself
P3:The force of infancy and youth
P4:The analogy between boys and the idealized individual
P5:The importance of an individual resisting the pressure to conform to the external norms
P6:The necessity to follow one’s inner voice, whatever it is. Be a nonconformist
Part Ⅱ(7-13): Consistency is the hobgoblin（妖怪） of little minds
P7: Society’s disapproval or scorn
P8: The individual’s own sense of consistency
P9: Consistency drains our creativity
P10: The condemnation of the society that demands conformity
P11: The ultimate consistency
P12: A true man is the center of things
P13: Humans determine the worth of an object not vice versa
第三讲
Henry David Thoreau(1817-1862)
A son of an unsuccessful storekeeper and a maker of lead pencils
Went of Harvard because of his aspiring mother
On graduation, helped to make pencils, then ran a private school.
Made friends with Emerson, used his library, and embraced his ideas
In 1845, went to build a cabin on a piece of Emerson’s property on Walden Pond, and moved in on July 4 to live there in a very simple manner for a while over two years to move away from the rush and bustle of American social life which was getting more and more sadly materialistic-oriented. There he was entirely in communion with nature.
Back to Concord, he wrote about his experience in “Walden”.
During his stay in Walden, he wrote “Civil Disobedience”, which, advocated passive resistance to unjust laws of society.
His Walden
A book on self-culture and human perfectibility. He has faith in the inner virtue and inward, spiritual grace of man. The most important thing for man to do with his life is to be self-sufficient and strive to achieve personal spiritual perfection.
Criticized modern civilization which in his opinion, was degrading and enslaving man. He said “civilized man is the slave of matter.” he urged man to leave the life of hurry and bustle of getting ahead in worldly affairs and sink oneself in the wholesome atmosphere of nature.
The book is full of ideas expressed to jostle his neighbors out of their smug complacency. He goes on to prescribe a panacea for the fatal modern craze for monetary success: simplicity! simplify! Spiritual richness is real wealth.
A book about regeneration of a better man, reborn and reinvigorated. Structurally, summer, autumn, death of winter, renascence of spring.
Comment on Thoreau
An active transcendentalist. Not an escapist or a recluse, nor the wicked anti-social or nullifier of civilization.
One of three great American authors of 19th Century who had no contemporary readers and yet became great in the 20th century.
He took a more than usual interest in natural world. More than Emerson, he saw nature as a genuine restorative, healthy influence on man’s spiritual well-being, and regarding it as a symbol of the spirit.
With solitary communion with nature, he went even further to illustrate the pantheistic quality of nature. His idea came close to being heathenism and nature-worship, a pantheism which tended to destroy the transcendence of God.
Novels and Romances of the era
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
Herman Melville (1819-1891)
James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
Born into a rich land-holding family of New Jersey.
Sent to Yale at 14 but was expelled in his junior year
Spent five years at sea. In early twenties, inherited vast fortune.
Began his career as an author by accident due to his wife’s challenge. He wrote thirty-odd novels in all since then.
One of the first authors to write about the American westward movement.
He created a myth about the formative period of the American nation, and was remembered as the author of the “Leatherstocking tales” a series of five novels about the frontier life of American settlers.
Leatherstocking tales
The Pioeers, the Last of the Mohicans, the Prairie, the Pathfinder, and The Deerslayer.
Depited Natty Bumppo or Leatherstocking (so named because of his wearing leather leggings in the American Indian fasion) as a pioneer, a real frontiersman, representing a nation struggling to be born, progressing from old age to rebirth and youth. It is a history of modern civilization advancing on the receding wilderness, and of the juxtaposition of “the works of man and the reign of nature.”
The theme of his stories: the antithesis between nature and civilization, between freedom and law, the morally right and the practically inevitable, or leatherstocking (man’s old forest freedom ) and Judge Temple (man as savage without law and order).
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
A son of a